Good evening, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Village Board of Trustees. I'm mayor Brian Pugh. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Our first item of business is the approval of Voucher's treasurer.
• The water fund is $46,184.40.
• It's
• And the capital fund is $238,694.40.
• And the trust fund is for $7,055.02
Okay, great. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Nachteller. All in favor? Aye. Okay.
• Now for our feature feature presentation,
• we'll be having the recognition of officer DiTomaso's
• ascension to the detective bureau.
• The chief will be making some remarks, and then I'll invite the board to join us down there at the podium.
• Nick, come on now. Listen.
• It's it's an honor to be here. It's an honor to represent all the men in the police department.
• The police department does
• I was going to say let's all come down for a group.
• So we proceed to our public hearings. The first one of the evening is on local law 14 of 2025 to amend chapter two thirty zoning of the village code to
• allow for alternate members planning and zoning board of appeals.
• Do you have motion?
• So moved.
• Motion by trustee Simon, second by
• trustee Slipham.
• Discussion? This is just to open the hearing. All in favor? Aye. The
• hearing is open. This is on local law 14 of 2025. Anyone wishing to speak on local law 14 of 20 five, this is your
• Regarding the proposed local law to
• have an alternate member of zoning
• zoning board
• and the the
• planning board and the zoning board of appeals.
• This is a unnecessary
• action
• based upon the attendance records.
• These boards that I've observed over the last two years,
• there's more of an attendance problem on the village board than Arizona, either one of these boards.
• As a matter of fact, one of the board members,
• chair of the ZBA, is stepping down. I believe she's on there for
• thirteen years. She has a phenomenal
• attendance record.
• The question were the duties of this
• additional member,
• the spare part,
• literally a spare part,
• remain in question
• with their ability to participate in meetings and so forth.
• And quite frankly, when these subjects were brought up to both these boards, I watched their reactions.
• It was really a surprise. You know, what's this about?
• When both these things appeared before the board, like,
• what's what are they up to now? What do they what do they have in mind now?
• My suggestion is just that
• you find good people.
• You put them on the board.
• If they find it difficult to attend, you replace them
• as opposed to having some spare part,
• like a spare trustee hanging around during their meetings,
• whether they step in or participate,
• which would be inappropriate.
• And then if they can't attend, that becomes a problem too. Why?
• As the board members and both boards pointed out, if that person doesn't have perfect attendance and it's a recurring item,
• say it's before them two or three times, sometimes four times. I've seen items there.
• They're not ready to go
• when somebody can't attend.
• And it's a crutch or an excuse
• for somebody not to show show up at a meeting. I think this is just another bad idea
• copied off other
• villages in our area,
• which tend to share their bad ideas.
• I think you should stick to basics,
• which always keeps things simple,
• appoint good people,
• expect and perform, which they generally
• always do.
• And you'll have the same, I think,
• good results that you've had with both these boards in the past. Thank you.
Seeing no one else wishing to comment, do I have a motion to close public hearing?
• Second. Motion by
• trustee Slobin, second by trustee Simon. In favor of closing the public hearing? Aye. And
• we proceed to
• local law 17 of 2025.
• Public hearing on that. Do I have a motion to open that public hearing? So moved.
• Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nochteller.
• All in favor?
• Aye. Aye.
• Okay. The floor is open. This is on local law 17.
And, Andrew, would you like to briefly summarize what's your 17? Thank thank you, mayor. So local law 17 is really a cleanup item that was put together by myself and the village attorney to address
• a change in the law that took place earlier this year. The village
• consolidated its assessment function with the town of Portland,
• and this chapter of the code still referenced the village assessor position, so that needed to be amended since we no longer have that position.
• And, additionally,
• something that we've been doing in recent years in the code is adding
• an appeals process
• for
• certain
• bills that are provided so that the residents know
• that they're entitled to appeal a bill that they received.
• So
• that was added to this section of the code just so that
• people are aware of that process.
• Okay.
• Seeing no one else, does anyone wish to comment on Local Law 17?
• Seeing no motion to comment, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved.
• Motion by Trustee Simon?
• Second by trustee Nochteller.
• All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Yes, please. Whereas the village of court of the Hudson no longer serves as an assessment unit following adoption of local law number five of 2025,
• and whereas chapter 90 buildings unsafe of the village code references the former village assessor position, whereas chapter 90 does not currently include an appeals process for property owners to follow if they wish to contest the establishment of a lien against their property, whereas local law introductory number 17 of 2025 has been drafted to update these provisions, and whereas public hearing was opened and closed on 12/17/2025,
• and whereas the village board has determined the adoption of local law introductory number 17 of 2025 to be a type two action under the state environmental quality review act requiring no environmental review, and therefore be it resolved that the village board of York
• twenty five. Do I have a motion?
• So moved.
• Do I have a second? Second.
• Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nachteller.
• Discussion?
I just want to make sure that we continue to remind people because it is a significant change to Yes.
• All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• Alright.
• Local waterfront revitalization plan or LWRP
• consistent re review consistency review and
• EAF part two review for local law intro 2025,
which is the first public hearing item. Yes. Thank you, mayor. So we'll start with the EAF.
• Last one. Okay.
Yep. Thank you. Okay. So we're undertaking the part two of the review this evening. And so this just as a reminder, this is
• on the local law itself.
• Right? So we're not looking at any particular
• planning project or any
• action. This is just on the legislative text itself.
• So
• for trustee, since this will be the first time that we've done this,
• what I normally do is I go through the questions, each one individually, and the board will provide an answer
• as to whether they believe there will be no or small impact
• or a moderate to large impact.
• The first question, will the proposed action create a material conflict with an adopted land use plan or zoning regulations?
• No.
• Yeah.
• That's fine. Thank you, Chad. Two, will the proposed action result in a change in the use or intensity of use of land?
• No. No. Okay. Three, will the proposed action impair the character or quality of the existing community?
• No. No.
• Will the proposed action have an impact on the environmental characteristics that cause the establishment of a critical environmental area?
• No. No. Will the proposed action result in an adverse change in the existing level of traffic or affect existing infrastructure for mass transit, biking or walkway?
• No. No. Six, will the proposed action cause an increase in the use of energy and it fails to incorporate reasonably
• the
• No. Eight. Will the proposed action impair the character or quality of important historic archaeological,
• architectural, or aesthetic resources?
• Result in an adverse change to natural resources?
• No. 10. Will the proposed action result in an increase in the potential for erosion, flooding, or drainage problems?
• No.
• 11. Will the proposed action create a hazard to environmental resources or human health? No. No. Okay. So we will prepare the negative declaration for the board to
• consider at the next meeting.
• And then moving on to the LWRP
• review. The board did receive a memo from the Waterfront Advisory Committee.
• They reviewed the law,
• and they found,
• no policies to be applicable,
• and they gave,
• a statement of consistency
• with the plan. So
• unless there are any policies that the board would like to say are applicable, we will just
proceed with preparing the statement of consistency for the next meeting. Sounds good. Well, I think the the WAC worked very diligently on this effort. Thank them for their efforts.
• to questions submitted via email. No questions, mayor. Okay. Very good.
• Public comment on agenda items. Anyone wishing to comment on agenda items, this is your opportunity.
• This is a continuation of a previous meeting,
• but you're addressing it here in terms of the conduct of your committees.
• Perhaps that
• the village manager can address this.
• I've asked him to do so before.
• He's done everything except he avoided this one. You had a committee.
• It might have been a housing committee. It may have been another committee
• where
• all your committees required, basically. The people on those committees were village village residents.
• There was one
• specific committee which you addressed, not in the previous meeting, but two meetings ago,
• where the majority of people on that committee need not be.
• I can't imagine any committee
• of this village where that should be the case. Maybe you could identify that for us
• and continue to see if you continue to
• have that standard for that committee. Should it still exist? Item two,
• is your committees, and and I appreciate
• your professionalizing
• these committees and these subcommittees.
• Couple of them are still rogue, not too many.
• Gotta keep your eye on this DEI idea committee.
• They they're pretty rogue when they want to be.
• And they have some subcommittees, which,
• although, was indicated at the last meeting,
• the relationship
• is a Hansberry committee to the idea committee.
• In practice, I don't believe that to be the case.
• That it's directly responsible as a subcommittee,
• the idea of the committee.
• Also, was a question of whether there are web pages,
• any of these committees
• having web pages. Who's responsible for those web pages?
• And should the content of those web pages be directly submitted to the village office for approval before the.
• Otherwise,
• I think
• off the top of my head, I think you're liable for whatever they say. Some of these people are have very strong opinions,
• very strong opinions.
• That subject was not brought up. I hope you deal with that subject. Lastly, not lastly, you
• were a member of
• an African ICLI,
• an international
• housing sustainability
• society
• of a minority of villages throughout the world, but only 400 in The United States.
• Unfortunately,
• 30 of them are located in Westchester County.
• International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
• I assume it was a membership faith.
• I believe this village was a member for multiple years.
• It's headquartered in Bonn, Germany,
• and some of the crazy sustainability
• ideas came out of this organization
• promoted throughout The United Wondering if you're still a member of that committee. Somebody can address that and what the dues are for being a member of that committee.
• Maybe what ideas
• to still this they were came out of that.
• Also,
• agenda, it says something about a a master's fees
• for a rental registry registry.
• I don't know why.
• If
• our people who who have who have to register their item,
• their their rental property on a
• on a registry, they pay a fee. I don't know how that works. Maybe you can explain that.
• Also, you can if someone would explain the Van Cortland Manor Entrance Project. Last time we checked, there's a piece of private property on a
• nonprofit that used to be connected to one of the wealthiest families in The United States.
• I'm just wondering why they need
• what exactly we're do for them. Yes. They're a public asset.
• Not a public asset. They're a great asset, but
• why why are they using public funds?
• Item d in that item 10. Item d. I don't know what trade labor services means.
• And lastly,
• although $16
• an hour for
• seasonal part time employees doesn't feel like a lot anymore.
• And this sounds reasonable.
• I've been to so many meetings, public meetings, where
• labor unions come to public bodies
• to legislate
• or press or
• lobby
• for salary increases rather than going to negotiations
• in the picket line where they belong.
Word from the village manager. Yes. Thank you, mayor. So I will start with some of the questions that we just received.
• So
• the village has not been a member of ICLI for at least the
• eight years that I've been here. I think we were not a member even before that.
• So I I don't know what the dues were at the time that we were a member because that was like I said before, I was here, but we're no longer a member of that organization.
• The
• committee
• members,
• I believe that that was in reference to the resolution that established the
• the predecessor to the idea committee,
• which stated that the committee was supposed to be composed of no fewer than three resident members.
• When we established that committee, we the board at the time did not really know how
• many people were going to want to serve on that committee. It was a new thing. So we didn't really set any limits
• on
• what the members like, normally,
• when we create a committee, we say it's going to have nine members, and that's that. But we didn't know at that time how many people would actually actually be interested in participating in such a committee. So it wasn't when that resolution was adopted, it wasn't saying that
• the committee would have three resident members and six nonresident members. Right? It was just saying that at a as a at a minimum, it would have to have three members
• who were residents of the of the village.
• You know, we've now superseded that with the resolution that was adopted at the last meeting
• that said the committee is supposed to have between five
• and nine members.
• And it doesn't say anything about
• a minimum number of residents or nonresidents.
• It just sits between five and nine members.
• For advisory committees, there is
• requirement that they be residents of the village,
• but it's obviously up to the board. You know, you the board the mayor makes the appointments with the consent of the board. So
• if they're you know, if you have you make that ultimate decision as to who you want to serve on your boards.
• So
• the Historic Hudson Valley bid, the village is just a pass through for that.
• It's money that Historic Hudson Valley was awarded
• through the federal government.
• They received a grant through the federal government. The federal government passes the money down to New York State Department of Transportation.
• New York State Department of Transportation
• cannot contract with a private entity, so they have to give the money to us, and then we pass the money through to
• Historic Hudson Valley.
• So
• it's not costing the village anything.
• And so we like I said, we're just we put out the bid for it.
• Know, the legal fee for the bid,
• that truck that cost was paid for by Historic Hudson Valley. There's there's no village funds related to that project
• that are being spent.
• And let's see. Lastly, so the trade labor bid,
• trade the trade labor has to do with the plumber, electricians,
• HVAC workers.
• As
• the costs of these items increase,
• we are running up against the statutory
• bidding thresholds
• that are in state law.
• And so,
• you know, the village for example, you know, the village is only allowed to spend $35,000
• in any one year
• on
• plumbing
• a plumber before we have to put that out to bid. And, you know, with the different projects that we're doing and the regular
• service calls that we have at any of our different buildings, right, it's very easy to get to 35,000.
• So
• putting out these bids and having everybody on
• contract
• makes everything just a lot easier
• for us. And this is done
• you know, other municipalities have done this ossining,
• has done it. I'm sure the attorney could probably mention others, but
• this is not an unusual
• unusual practice. But, unfortunately, we're rejecting the bids that we received because
• this was a new thing for us, so we didn't exactly
• develop the bid in the way that made it easy to
• determine the low bidder. So in consultation with the New York Conference of Mayors, the I'd the recommendation was to just reject the bids,
• revise the bid package, re and then send it out again. So, hopefully,
• we will have
• an award for the board to make in
• either late January or early February.
• So so that was
• those are the answers to the questions and now my report.
• Okay. So just a couple of things to report on. So at the last meeting, was asked to give an update on the Barry Manor situation, so I wanted to do that tonight.
• So I received an update from our fire inspector, Jim Ferguson, on the outstanding violations at Barry Manor. Jim had worked with our former code enforcement officer to address the many violations that were found after the Memorial Day weekend fire.
• All missing damaged or expired smoke detectors carbon monoxide alarms have been replaced.
• All areas needing proper fire rated materials, such as near the boilers, have been addressed. All appliances with flues that needed maintenance have been addressed.
• All apartment numbers now meet the standards in the village code. All loose handrails and cracked sidewalks have been addressed.
• All outlets that needed to be upgraded to,
• GFCI
• have been addressed.
• All accumulated rubbish has been removed.
• The items which remain pending include testing of the fire hydrants in these are the private,
• what they call the yard hydrants there,
• raising the rear fire hydrant and fire lane
• line fire lane line painting.
• Jim continues to work with management on these issues.
• Regarding the fire damaged apartments, Apartment 45 And 46 should be ready for inspection by the engineering department in the coming weeks. Jim was advised that Apartments 49 And 50 are still in the process of being renovated with plumbers and electricians currently working.
• During a previous walk through, the village engineer and inspector Ferguson observed smoke damage to apartment air conditioners and HVAC ductwork,
• and they recommended
• cleaning and air quality tests be performed prior to the inspections to ensure the air quality is acceptable.
• Any questions on that before I move on?
• That was good progress. Yes. Thank you. Yes. You're welcome.
• Okay.
• So two,
• Harman Firehouse, Curtin EMS moved into their new headquarters this past weekend. That's very exciting.
• It's been very exciting watching the project near completion.
• DPW will continue to finalize the project, and I hope to be able to schedule a ribbon cutting in January
• 2026.
• So that is that.
• The police traffic car. As the board is aware, traffic concerns have consistently been reported as the top issue for residents in the police surveys conducted.
• Police department has put a special traffic detail on the road since June. Since that time, over 400 summonses have been issued just by the detail for speeding, cell phone usage, red light violations, and other moving summonses.
• And as of last week, we've begun to include this data in the the police blotter that gets published on Facebook at the website,
• so residents will be able to see the the progress that is being made in that regard.
• Snow. So we experienced our first snowstorm this past Sunday. DPW blind the roads on Saturday and was back early Sunday morning to clear the streets.
• The police issued almost 90 seasonal parking tickets for vehicles parked on our roads during the storm.
• Residents are reminded that parking on the street is prohibited once two inches of snow has fallen. We also had our contractor here yesterday to clear six sidewalks that were not shoveled. All sidewalks must be cleared twelve hours after the storm is finished.
• Half Moon Bay Bridge, a public information meeting on Zoom, has been scheduled for 01/05/2026
• at 6PM.
• The project engineer will discuss the progress on the project to date and what the next steps will be in the rehabilitation
• of the bridge.
• And finally,
• our holiday schedule, so all village offices are closed on January I'm sorry, are closed on December
• for Christmas,
• as well as January 1 for New Year's, and recycling will be picked up village wide on December
• 26 and January 2.
• I just wanna wish everyone a happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas, happy New Year,
• all of the above.
• Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.
• the January 5 public hearing Yes. For the Half Moon Bay Bridge, how will
• through the village email list and then also publicize it through our normal channels.
• And I've been in touch or I've been trying to get in touch with the
• property manager at Half Moon Bay. We've been planning a little bit of phone tag because I wanna get the information out to the homeowners down there since they're gonna be, you know, potentially the ones most impacted.
• Yeah. I I didn't realize that the property management company had changed
• recently down there. So I was contacting the old people, and then K. They let me know that they didn't represent them anymore. So
• Yeah. And and, actually, it's in today's edition of the community calendar. Yes. You can you can you can register for that as well. Yeah. Correct.
• So, I mean, if you if you would like to, you know, get the word out to people down there I will do that. That would great. Thank you. Thank you.
Is that a public hearing that counts toward, like, one of the three, or there were a number of public hearings
• in the consultant
contract or is this So it's not it's not a public hearing. It's it's a public information meeting. So under the
• under the
• so this is funding that we that the village received through the federal government. Right? So the federal government gave it to the New York State Department of Transportation
• to administer. And then under the rules of the the project,
• we have to have a certain number. I I saw that. This counts towards one of those. That's right. Yes. It's like
• It should be.
• I I I think it was there.
• would get where
• people would get information. And when we put out the notice on the
• it is on the project page
• projects, then public works projects.
• the calendar.
• If you go to our like, that not not just the events calendar, but on the actual
• I'm having trouble finding it. So maybe we could if we could just make it because it's somebody who's coming up on January 5, could we just make it more prominent? I'm doing Yeah. Well, we're gonna I'm gonna send out a separate email on it, so it's going to be on the front page of the website.
I just don't I mean, I'm looking at the project's paper now and say it. I just want people to be able to get on it because if we
• I think what would make people attend it is if they can be able to see what it is other than Absolutely.
Yeah. We we haven't we really haven't started the publicity on it yet. It's only, you know, it's only come together in the past couple of days. So I know, unfortunately, it is kind of a bad time of the year to be getting something on people's radar.
• But,
• you know, based off of the
• project timeline, we kinda have to have the meeting
• in early January.
• So It's virtual. Right? It is. Yeah. I I thought that people would I thought we'd get a better attendance that way. Absolutely. And we and it will also be able to be recorded
• easier that way.
• So
• yes.
• Do I have a motion on the consent agenda?
• So moved.
• Motion by Trustee Simon. Do I have a second?
• Second. Second by Trustee Slipin.
• Discussion?
• reports for just a brief word or two on those.
Don't really need to pull them out. You can just I mean, unless you want to vote on them separately, you can just a have a discussion on it. You can also Sanchez can comment on it. So oh, I just wanted to commend
the departments for, you know, not only the the quarterly reports, but the work that they represent. And, you know, I always find it so informative to know that just in the last three months, our clerk did a 115
• foil requests, that we've had our first film permit request in a very long time. So I'm I'm pleased with that. I think, you know, part of that is the reduction
• in our fees from last year. That our DPW did eight seventy
• tons of refuse and 200 tons of organic waste.
• Our engineering department, which is ramping up our inspections, did two seventy inspections,
• 144
• fire
• related,
• and a 146
• non fire.
• That the if you add up all the subscriptions
• to various newsletters
• coming out of the manager's office, it's 19,618
• people are are receiving all
• of those.
• I think that's that's pretty amazing. 45,950
• daily parking transactions in that quarter.
• A 93
• calls
• to the police, more police calls that
• they dealt with. And recreation,
• 56.
• Recreation classes,
• ten minute capacity.
• So I just think they're so informative. I really urge anyone that's listening
• tonight to take a look at them. This is really the factory floor of government.
• This is where everything is actually happening
• on a day in, day out basis. There's the old phrase, you never want to look at sausage
• being made, but actually, if
• you go into the details of what's actually being done in the departments, I think it's
• very educational and I think also very satisfying in terms of the range of work that's done
• day in and day out. So I just want to make that point.
• Further
• All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• You proceed to proposed resolutions.
Whereas the village of court of the Hudson is legally required to follow the federally mandated minimum wage for its employees, which is currently set at $7.25
• per hour. And whereas New York State has adopted a minimum wage rate schedule for various parts of the state. Whereas, although the village is exempt from these schedules, it recognizes the need to set a higher minimum
• rate standard than the federal guidelines.
• And whereas the state minimum wage is scheduled to increase on 01/01/2026
• to $17 per hour for New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester,
• and to $16 per hour for the rest of the state. And whereas the village board of trustees has decided that it would follow the schedule set for the remainder of New York state. Whereas this minimum wage policy as adopted would apply to all seasonal part time employees of the village, including but not limited to camp counselors, lifeguards, gate attendants, and laborers. Now therefore, be it resolved that the manager is authorized to implement a minimum wage of $16 per hour as of 01/01/2026
• for all seasonal part time employees of the village.
• Do I have a second?
• Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Nachteller.
• I think this is traditionally how we've aligned our
• minimum wage, doing
• Correct. As the balance of the state rather than
• Correct. That's what we've done since
• this was And
• we've continued to raise it almost
• annually, as I recall. And we always look for a little bit
• of focus on the rest of the state rather than the metropolitan area. So this is a continuation.
• And this is the last year, barring any changes by the legislator
• legislature,
• that there's a set dollar amount. After this year, it's gonna be tied to the rate of inflation.
• So,
• you know, it may get a little may have some sense involved after
• this year, but we'll see.
• Okay.
• Alright. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• Whereas flooding issues along Brook Street have existed for many years in the village, and whereas in 2023, the village board of trustees adopted resolution one forty two of 2023 to accept the proposal from D and B engineers to conduct an updated drainage study along the Brook Street drainage basin.
• Whereas the study has been completed and a preferred alternate has been selected to improve drainage along Brook Street and Terrace Place. Whereas on 10/08/2025,
• village board determined that the project was consistent with the village's local waterfront revitalization
• program and issued a negative declaration under the state environmental quality review act. And whereas the village has received funding for this project from Westchester County in the amount of $701,000.
• And whereas an intramunicipal agreement has been draft to memorialize this funding. Now therefore be resolved, the village board hereby authorizes the village manager to execute the intramunicipal agreement with Westchester County for funding for the Brook Street drainage improvement
• project in the amount of $701,000
• Motion
• by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Slippin. Discussion?
• moving right along. Yeah. It's step by step. So when can residents look forward to construction beginning?
• budget. Right? So it won't
• that won't happen until June.
• And then we're going to have to go out to bid for it. So realistically,
• depending on
• how long it takes to get everything in order, maybe the fall of of next year, we would be able to see some work start.
• Okay. Yeah. So does that work stream when we close when that's happening? Do you I would I would imagine that it would be phased so that
• they would do the work on I'll just say they'll do the work on Terrace first, and Brook would stay open, and then they would do the work on Brook, and Terrace would stay open. Right? So either way, they would one one of those two roads would be open. I don't think we would close them at both at the same time. Now they also have work that needs to be done at the bottom of Brook Street, but that's I mean, that's relatively minor compared to the work that's needed needed on Upper Brook Street because they're just installing additional catch basins
• at the bottom.
• So that's and, you know, I I think we would just have to
• strategically decide when we would do that work to minimize
the impacts. And the neighbors are I mean, obviously, as it was supposed to be a lot more communication to them. But the neighbors who are impacted by this are have been aware throughout the process. They were the ones that came to us and, you know, wanted us to
• So that is what we did. Help. Yeah. That's basically yes. Yeah.
• Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• Whereas the village of has been acting as the municipal sponsor for the Van Cortland Manor entrance project to reconfigure the entrance, enhance site safety, and improve visitor experience at the National Historic Landmark.
• Whereas this project has undergone a public bidding process with the assistance of the village, which included an advertisement to bid on 09/11/2025.
• And whereas four bids were received on 10/09/2025.
• Whereas the bids received were reviewed and analyzed by the project engineer, and it was determined that Remus Industries of Ossining, New York provided the lowest responsive and complete bid. Whereas historic Hudson Valley has requested approval from the village to move forward with Remus Industries
• for the base bid amount of $1,707,521.40
• and total bid including alternates of $2,666,671.40.
• Whereas the approval of this contract is subject to the concurrence of the New York State Department of Transportation
• and whereas upon DOT concurrence, the village as the project sponsor will enter into a contract with Remus Industries.
• Now therefore be it resolved that the village board of trustees of the village of Kirtland Hudson hereby approves the award of the contract for the restoration of the Van Cortland Manor entrance project to Remus Industries,
• subject to the concurrence of the New York State DOT,
• and be it further resolved that the village manager has authorized to execute any necessary documents to enter into the contract with Remus Industries following DOT approval.
• Second.
• Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Noctowe. Discussion? Manager,
• eat my words on this, but I trust that this is the last time that I have to go through this process because this
• there there are two films that come to mind. One is Groundhog
• Day.
• The other one is Failure to Launch because this is at least the third time that we've had to go through this process. And not through no fault of our own. And and I and I think to some extent, our our
• and Portland Manor friends have have had difficulties
• with
• contractors selected. So, hopefully,
• this works and
• the paperwork can be finalized and the project commenced.
• Which, by the way,
• we discussed earlier,
• this is, of course, a private project. We're the pass through agent for it. We're not spending any money on this. But when the project is concluded, I think it will be a great benefit to as a community.
• Will be greater
• and easier access to that facility, and I think enhanced
• across the board.
• Yeah. And, you know, there are some incidental
• benefits. Right? Historic Hudson Valley is going to eventually be taking over the portion of the roadway that's south of the
• southern entrance to ShopRite.
• Right? The little portion of the roadway that's before their gate, so that will no longer be ours. We won't be required to maintain that section anymore.
• And
• they're also going to be upgrading their water meter infrastructure,
• which is
• integrated.
• That's we'll use that word. So that will be a benefit to us as well. So,
• you know, the project has lot of good things in it sometimes.
• All in favor? Aye.
Whereas the village of Cardinal Hudson issued an invitation to bid on 10/30/2025
• for various trade labor services,
• and whereas such a bid has been found to be necessary as the cost of labor increases and projects approach state bidding thresholds in General Municipal Law Section 103
• whereas eight bids were received at the time of the bid opening on 11/13/2025
• and whereas a review of the bids found that not all bidders responded to all categories and subcategories, which made determining the low bidders impossible
• and whereas in consultation with the New York Conference of Mayors, it has been decided to reject the bids received and rebid with clearer guidance to bidders. Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Courtland Hudson nearby rejects the bids received on 11/13/2025
• for trade labor services.
• Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Slipin.
• All in favor? Aye.
• Wait. Sorry. Discussion.
• Congrats
• in advance, everyone, on the last resolution of the year. All in favor? Aye.
• Enthusiastically
• aye. Let's
• hope, right? It should be. We actually We have another one. We hit 300. This was that was number $309.
• pretty impressive. Amazing.
• made a mistake because I I'm new, and I thought that
• under consent
• agenda, I thought nine b resolutions
• resolutions
• would have had
• discussion. I didn't know it was
• when we made a motion to
• approve the consent agenda, it included included B. So I just can I ask a question about this? Yep, sure. Okay. Yeah, thank you.
• Now I know. So this is under the tectonic agreement.
• I was just curious, and that's for the Half Moon Bay Bridge? Yes. I know we had
• chatted about
• the intent of having a right of way or a single lane so that,
• you know, when the bridge is getting reconstructed,
• under reconstruction, reconstruction, there could be one lane traffic coming in. But I saw in the contract,
• section five of the contract said no rights of way activities
• are anticipated.
So I didn't know if that's No. So that what that what that is referring to is that there's no
• there's no need to acquire
• right right of way for
• construction activities.
• So, like, sometimes when you're doing a construction project because you don't own the property immediately adjacent to the construction site,
• you need to obtain easements or some sort of access agreement to the to the adjacent property. Our plan is still to have one lane of travel across the bridge. Okay. Yeah.
All right. Public comment on non agenda items. Anyone wishing to comment on anything? This is your opportunity.
• Please state your name and address.
• It's a very sad day for the state of New York.
• Today, the governor of the state of New York
• signed an assisted suicide bill,
• which will condemn
• tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands
• of people
• to death
• by their own hand
• or unwillingly
• in spite of what the law says
• by the hands of those
• professionally or personally who surround them
• when they are in most need of help,
• when they're terminally ill,
• when they're in pain or deeply depressed.
• Every attempt in the past by every country that's ever done this has failed
• in terms of its so called guidelines.
• Every state has failed.
• And the common
• the common
• legal
• section
• of every one of these bills is
• you have to lie on the death certificate.
• You have to lie
• on the death certificate so
• that if
• a distant relative, child,
• whatever,
• wanted to make inquiry into the circumstances of the death
• of a dear one.
• Legally, they have no right to find out exactly what happened
• because the death certificate, the official document of the state of New York,
• is a lie.
• Unfortunately,
• the people who fought this, like myself and others, we are the worst people to defend
• human life, the absolute worst, have no power,
• influence, not articulate,
• not well spoken,
• without money.
• So that the very vulnerable people in this state, whether you be a child, they're killed by the millions,
• an unborn child or an old person, are totally vulnerable to the to the powerful people in the state. The perfect example of this is what the delay was.
• It was a mere five years ago, the state of New York condemned thirteen
• to fifteen thousand people to death in the nursing homes because of their COVID policies.
• And anybody that ever
• puts somebody in a nursing home goes to a nursing home themselves should look up whether that nursing home
• or their executives protested
• against those policies in the state of New York. So they've delayed that. That was such a horrible experience.
• They've delayed it till now.
• What was the total number of huge public hearings to discuss this?
• The last time they had major public hearings to discuss this was pre COVID.
• Probably 2018,
• now it's opposite city of all. I was there
• for the state health committee
• in Albany in 2017.
• I was there.
• Those were the last major hearings.
• The rest of this was engineered by
• our own Amy Paul, a sneaky little individual in Scarsdale with a network of friends, powerful network of friends.
• No freaking public hearings.
• No serious public hearings on this
• in the last eight years.
• And here we go.
• When she held a meeting back in 2016
• at the women's
• club of Scarsdale,
• she brought this big crowd in, probably about a 100 people,
• medical professionals, blah blah blah blah blah, and then turned the lights off.
• The only light that was there was a light right here
• in the speaker's podium.
• And the reason was she invited people to come up and tell me tell the audience how they disposed of, whether it be a doctor
• or a relative, how they killed their relative. That's why they turned the lights down.
• And then the subject was,
• well, this will all be voluntarily
• self administered,
• blah blah blah blah blah. And people immediately said, well, if I don't if I don't have the power or the strength to administer myself, I I need somebody else to do it for me.
• And she said
• about euthanasia
• and mercy killing.
• One step at a time.
• We take one step at a time.
• Now we have a great example of a neighbor
• in Canada.
• And
• that's where New York goes
• because that's the way New York always goes.
• Time's expired. Thank you.
• Reports from members of the village board.
You know, we just all got our new assignments to committees, so I don't have a whole lot of committee reporting to do
• at this time.
• But I did just wanna address something that
• mister Riley was saying just
• because he brought up the committees again. We're still doing
• a tremendous amount of work on the committees.
• We're still interviewing
• people we have to put their names in
• and trying to make the committees,
• you know, the right people
• to be giving feedback on that. I know that
• it
• does feel like it's going slowly because this has been going on for a month now, but I think that I appreciate the time and effort that's being put into it
• to do those interviews and sort of reconfigure the way the committees are gonna be
• set up. I the one thing that we did discuss a little bit was the resident
• you know? And I know there were reasons in the past specifically on the liaisons to the arts and human ities committee. There has definitely been compelling reason in the past to
• open up membership to people who live in the school district.
• But I I do think that especially because we have had a lot of people come forward
• giving preference
• when we have a lot of people applying to
• village
• residents. I don't know how I don't remember because we've discussed
• now. I don't remember if we really discussed that, but I do think that that should be a consideration.
• Obviously, some companies have more
• are more popular than others. But, you know, I do wanna make sure that village residents can,
• you know, be represented there.
• Just a few other things. The firehouse driveway looks so nice. I drove past it today. It looks I I had just sort of gotten used to seeing all the construction happening there, but I was had sort of to you know, was ignoring it. But today, everything was cleared up. It looks amazing.
• To get a Really amazing. So kudos to everybody on that. And then also just a thank you to DBW,
• not only for always keeping
• the streets so well pretreated and cleaned up afterwards so well, but also
• for the
• extra
• lawn waste pickup that came at the end
• that I requested
• up,
• you know, because I had heard from residents that those extra lawn bed
• those extra lawn beds hanging out at the end of the season,
• it is great to be able to have. And I know that it was because they were so efficient. In fact, they called the leaves, and they had the time. So thank you to the whole Yep. To all of them. I their work has just really begun
• for the winter season now, but thank you for, you know, closing up the fall
• so well.
• The other the only other thing I wanna say is, you know, earlier this week and we've had some discussion about this. Earlier this week, there was a traffic incident on
• 129
• that was kind of unexpected,
• and there was a little bit of back and forth about when the road was opened, if the road was closed.
• So I just would like to
• we spend a lot of time talking about communication now, which is annoying, but it's important.
• And I would just like to remain committed to
• I got stuck in it, so it was I was part and then when I was leaving the the next day,
• I was thinking about
• whether or not we can you know, you manager, you and I communicated about this. So I would just like to be committed to
• continuing to evolve the way we let residents know when things like that
• are happening. I know we don't wanna overburden people with text messages,
• but there might be I think this is an opportunity to have a continue having a discussion about what is some people wanna be pummeled. I would like to be pummeled with a text message telling me that 129 is closed. So if we could just keep that dialogue and I know that there is a plan to do so, but I just wanted to I because that was something that I did here. People were finding out what was going on from community Facebook pages, which is not our best way.
• Yeah. But I think there were a lot of there wasn't there were a lot of moving pieces in that. So I mean, that particular
• It's not I wasn't accusing you. No. I I know. I just I I I'm
• it it frustrates me too, and I you know, I'm not certainly not looking to put
• blame on anybody. It's
• it's a roadway that's out of the village that is not
• our under our jurisdiction, so we don't have necessarily the firsthand knowledge
• of what's going on there.
• You know, it we have we use Slack between
• the fire department, EMS,
• police,
• DPW,
• my office. Right? We're all on Slack to share information so that we can
• get it out there. This would have been a very good situation where since the fire department responded
• to the original accident, right, to
• say something like, hey. This road is gonna be closed for a very long time because of the damage. Right? Because we didn't we I wouldn't have known otherwise. Right? And so
• case in point, when the road reopened and we sent the message message out last night saying the road reopened,
• nobody told me the road reopened. I got a text message from trustee Nicholson who had screenshotted it on Facebook to send me. Right? So that's not a good way for us to be getting information.
• So
• Right. But I don't know
• because of the fact that it's not in our jurisdiction,
• and we know that the owner of the road,
• who is a state agency,
• is
• not good at communicating things. So I don't really know how we can necessarily improve that particular situation, but I'm certainly open to having further conversations about it.
Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it. That yeah. Mean, that's all I'm saying. I just want us to keep I think because I think there is an opportunity
For us there. I don't know what the solution is, but there is an opportunity. Okay.
• Then the only happy fourth night of Hanukkah to everyone
• who is celebrating and to everyone who is not celebrating and also
• and
• all those good things. The I just will close by saying that
• trustee Nicholson is I don't know if she's gonna make it here in time for her report, but she is at the PDC concert tonight. Yes.
• So
• she is was checking in to see how what how the meeting was progressing,
• and she was surprised that the meeting was going faster than the strings. But in case anyone was wondering where
• Trustee Nicholson is this evening, that's where she gets doing her duty at the PDC winter concert.
• Thank
• So
• it's day 17 for me on the job.
• And it's
• it's been great so far. I've
• you know, we've had several meetings and work sessions, and I've been
• nominated. Thank you. I've joined several boards, which I'm very excited about. I've already, you know, sat in as a liaison on BEV,
• on the planning board,
• and the zoning board of appeals.
• I'm also on the water control commission
• and
• WAC as well and senior citizens and
• finance and auditing. And and I
• look forward to to meeting all of those people.
• And
• I also
• in the start of the new year, I just want to set up time
• with the public for anybody that wants to connect with me.
• Might be, you know, twice a month. I'll just set out send out information where I'll be, just mingling with the public and
• share any thoughts or ideas that, you know, they may have.
• I wanna congratulate the fire department. I know that they had a
• they took a vote and chief Christopher Columbo
• won in first assistant chief Christopher sat Satarino,
• hope I'm saying that right.
• And second assistant chief Joseph Strini.
• So I want to congratulate them and thank them for, you know, all the work you do as as well as really
• all the departments in our rebuild. So
• that's it for me. Happy
• Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. Kwanzaa,
• just
• stay safe everybody. Have a great holiday season.
• They'll they'll keep piling up. But just a few things. You know, it's great to be a
• resident of Croton three hundred and sixty five days a year, but I think especially during
• our holiday season. So we we have wonderful
• tree lighting in Manorah
• Lighting on December 4. It was a cold night, but it was, you know, kind of warmed by everyone being together and the hard work of BBW and the recreation departments. And of course, Santa,
• that was a great night. And as well as the next day
• or two days later, I should say, we had the police toy drive in this building. It's a privilege to attend
• with
• our police department,
• sponsorship, and of course, Santa again. So it's been wonderful.
• And then on that same day, on the sixth, the fire department did have their holiday
• celebration. I was honored to be there with some of our
• colleagues here. It's a wonderful,
• wonderful evening.
• On December 7, we had our sustainability
• committee meeting. Got good briefings from
• our chairman and members who are involved on a variety of topics including EV chargers at the train station,
• TPW solar,
• canopy,
• train station solar array, and a few other things. We actually talked a lot about
• our food scrap recycling
• adjustments and enhancements.
• Shed is now bigger and also in a different location. It used to be in Lot A. Now it's at the Salt Shed at
• the other end of the train station parking lot. And we'll soon be, I think, sending out
• notices to our waiting list
• that we can we can expand the program.
• That leads also to a following meeting a meeting a following meeting I had a
• few days later with mothers
• out front who are very interested in progress
• that we're making on composting
• and want to talk,
• have continuing conversations
• with us on
• issues of
• possible other locations of the shed, and also getting some of our other institutions
• involved and accomplished the program, particularly
• our
• wonderful schools, which I think could make
• a real contribution there. So
• it's something that I think will be kind of an ongoing effort there.
• And then, of course, we have on December 7 a
• really moving Pearl Harbor ceremony.
• Also in this building, Croton was the host this year. Great turnout of
• Croton Buchanan,
• Peeksville,
• Cortland,
• Assemblywoman.
• Lievenberg was there. And it was so interesting just talking
• with all the people who attended. So many of them actually had roots and connections with family members that
• that went all the way back to Pearl Harbor. So it was a it was a moving Sunday afternoon.
• Couple other things. We we had last week the
• Wamoa monthly meeting,
• Westchester Municipal Officials Association,
• and our guest was captain Kyle Kilner,
• who is the battery
• commander of the New York State Citizens Preparedness Corps, basically doing a lot of the statewide emergency preparation
• for us. And we had a chance to talk to him about
• what the state is doing, but also some questions about changes that
• may be be occurring
• in FEMA,
• as we know.
• Then the next day, we were very pleased
• to be
• included
• as one of the top 10 model Westchester communities
• for housing
• efforts
• by the
• Welcome Home Westchester organization.
• I'll give this to the manager for safekeeping.
• That shows that we've done good efforts
• on the legislative front and other areas by adopting things like ADUs and transit oriented development and
• policies there. So it was very good to be there with the other nine communities.
• Assemblywoman Levenberg was there as well and gave us this commendation
• relative to that. So we thank the the Welcome Home Westchester
• organization.
• On December,
• it was the rotary doing
• Salvation Army bell ringing, and I was very pleased to be there. And manager who's one of our newest recruits. I finally worked up. Yeah. It was you know, I'll tell you, it was it's kind of like
• the
• holiday tree lighting. It was a cold night, but somehow you managed to get warm. There's something about doing the the the the bell ringing at Saint Martin, especially through the middle of the day. You've got the direct sunlight coming And out
• people were so kind. It really is is it is amazing to see folks just putting their money in there. Of course, all of that goes for a very good very good cause.
• Just a couple more things. Today
• is the December
• 17,
• and Friday is December 19, which begins the official hibernation of our bike share program. So bikes will be picked up that day and brought back nice and shiny first week in April. So we're
• looking forward to that and also
• continuing to work with our project group of friends on how the program will evolve
• in the coming months and years.
• A note that Friday
• night is December 19
• is the Welcome wagon cookie exchange
• from six to 8PM
• in our community room. It's always a fun thing to bring cookies and take cookies and all that. And, again,
• it's been mentioned before, but thank you to DPW
• and the whole team for getting us through that four inch storm, which is a pretty significant
• and
• then last but not least, happy Hanukkah.
• Merry Christmas and happy New Year's to everyone. This is our last
• There is a, obviously,
• for I think for everyone, a sadness when we see what what what occurs that what's occurred at Bondi Beach and what happened in in Providence, but
• we we have to have to go on and just hope for
• a better 2026.
Thank you, Tristan. Not much of a report. Just wanna wish everybody a happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy New Year, happy Hanukkah,
• and I hope everyone has a cheer and joy.
• All
• So I will keep my try to keep my report brief.
• On the point of village residents and appointments to boards and committees, that is something that we've prioritized. So in the case of IDEA, nonresidents
• have
• in the past, it as of last year was when it happened,
• not reappointed
• because of a surplus or an abundance of village residents applying.
• So that is something that we do prioritize
• even when it's not necessarily required under the organizing documents for a particular board or committee.
• And speaking of that, I will be making some reappointments.
• So Steve Kriski will be held over for the planning board. That continues.
• Carly Shanks
• will be reappointed
• to the water control commission.
• Jennifer
• De La Rosa Escar
• will be reappointed
• to the VEB as well as will Tatiana Pollak.
• Sherry Horowitz will be held over for the CAC.
• Eva Thaddeus will be held over for CAC.
• Rachel Bernstein will be appointed for CAC.
• Madeline Bozinski will be appointed for CAC.
• Peter Zettlemeyer will be held over for RAC.
• Debbie Braddock will be reappointed to RAC.
• Emily Baglioli will be held over for RAC.
• Sherry Horowitz will be held over for IDEA.
• Kyla Black will be reappointed
• for IDEA.
• Amy Melvin will be reappointed
• for IDEA.
• William Begney will be reappointed
• will be reappointed for IDEA. Carolyn Whiting will be held over for police advisory committee.
• Ian Martel will be reappointed police advisory committee.
• Steve Kriski will be
• held over for WAC.
• Stuart Greenbaum will be reappointed
• to WAC.
• Len Simon will be reappointed to WAC.
• Leo Wiegman will be reappointed to WAC.
• Sherry Horowitz will be held over for arts and humanities.
• Valerie Leece will be held over for arts and humanities.
• Marie Daley will be
• oh, sorry. No. Valerie Leece will be reappointed to arts and humanities.
• Marie Daley will be reappointed.
• Anthony Lopez will be reappointed. That's also for arts and humanities,
• and Caroline Whiting will be held over for heart.
• In addition, as was noted earlier,
• our longtime
• ZBA chair, Christine Wagner,
• after many, many, many years of
• And
• that's
• case.
• Decided to take some time off
• and
• hopefully some a brief break before returning to some other form of village service, but who knows?
• James Tooman will be appointed
• as chair pending
• completion of retired training.
• I will also be appointing Ethan Lewis pending completion of required training to see to the new on CBA.
• for the black, do you wanna appoint trustee
• Everyone who's being reappointed
• has
• completed the training. Yes. And everyone who's getting hold over is for the reason of the ongoing discussions of the committee. That's correct. I just wanted to clarify that to people who maybe aren't following along
• with all the committee conversations. No. Fair enough. The difference between those
Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion. Second. Motion by trustee Slipin, second by trustee Simon. All in favor? Aye. And,
• yes, I guess the most significant activity that been covered is
• I completed the first
• two nights or four nights of committee interviews. So one was with trustee Nicholson, the other was with trustee Nachteller,
• and
• we'll be doing the remainder with trustee Slipin and trustee Simon.
• Looking forward to well, this is the last meeting of the year. This is not
• the end of our village service. We'll be seeing each other, I hope. Yes. Alright.
• is the
• fire department doing something on sat is there a Saturday they're gonna they're driving around on the fire truck? I saw something on Facebook, but I haven't seen anywhere else, and they said they were gonna put out a schedule. But I do I do know that people really love. My kids look forward to it so much. Yeah. I just haven't seen anything else about it. So when we get morning, folks, we'll just get it out every time. I will check-in with the chief. Nobody has sent me anything. Okay. I it was posted on Facebook. They said that it was gonna be on Saturday, but it sounded like it was gonna be different. They called it, like, three or four, and not the I I saw the post on Facebook as well.
• between doing what what was called the candy cane run. Right? That during the day, they used to drive around and give out candy canes to the kids. Now in during the COVID years, they did this holiday light parade, and it seems that seems to be what they're Yeah. Proposing this year. As a fire council, it was actually uncertain.
I'll I'll try to get I'll try to get days ago, they said they were gonna be in, but that was that was the only place that I saw it. Yeah. No. It would be good to send that out so that people, you know, I assume that there will also be lots of sirens with the lights. So people will will appreciate knowing what's going on.
• So
• Do we have a motion to close? So moved. Motion by Trustee Simon, second by Trustee Slobin. All in favor? Aye. Thank you.