A regular meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on August 14, 2002. Supervisor Michael Flaherty called the meeting to order at 7 PM. Present were Board members Marilyn Haarklau, Thomas Hitchcock, Mark Middleton, and Superintendent of Highways Robert Mallory, Attorney for the Town Tal G. Rappleyea and some Town residents. Councilman Paul LaPierre and the town clerk were absent.

Minutes of the July 10, 2002 meeting were approved as presented on a motion by Hitchcock, seconded by Haarklau and carried.

The Supervisor's report was given out and bank statements were made available for review.

Referring back to the July 10, 2002 minutes Councilman Middleton asked Attorney Rappleyea to clarify the comment that he would "monitor the clean up of the Kilmer property."
Attorney Rappleyea explained that Mr. Kilmer has been out of work for the last three months and understands this is a problem and he wants to take care of it as soon as the Doctor says he can. Attorney Rappleyea recommend, at the July meeting, " that the Board allow him to monitor Mr. Kilmer and be sure he does the right thing."
Attorney Rappleyea talked with Mr. Kilmer today. Mr. Kilmer is going back to work on Monday and told Attorney Rappleyea he will contact the Building Inspector and take care of the situation.
Councilman Middleton: "I personally don't feel a broken bone excuses somebody from getting back to the several letters from the Building Inspector. As to the extent of his cleanup, what does that indicate? Is he going to level the site and remove it? Other than the little wooden structure, which may or may not be redeemable, I believe everything else has to go. I wouldn't like the monitoring to be an extended period of time and I would like to see nothing short of our decree which is removal of that site and a clean up."
Attorney Rappleyea said Mr. Kilmer would call the Building Inspector and make arrangement to clean up the site.
Councilman Middleton, "If we don't hear from him by the next meeting, which is an additional 30 days, we would be in a position to force our first clean-up."
Attorney Rappleyea will give a status report at the September 11th meeting.
A motion was made by Hitchcock, seconded by Haarklau and carried to give Mr. Kilmer until the September meeting to contact the Building Inspector and begin clean up and if nothing is done the Town will proceed on what is required by the law.

Under courtesy of the Floor:

Town resident Francis Benjamin addressed the Board. He said, "it was time someone came down and said something. A while back there was an article about people that heard loud motorcycles going through Town and saw maybe 50 to 100 bikes in Town. I went to three clubs and found out why they ride on weekends, they are benefit rides and they raise money for the cancer society."
Councilman Middleton asked where the complaints came from?
Mr. Benjamin, "that was in the paper when we did the survey."
Councilman Hitchcock, "I haven't heard anything recent as far as a complaint. I think someone did make a comment" on the survey.
Mr. Benjamin, "on the recent article in the paper on Colgate Lake. The Town Board put the cart before the horse. Someone came in and said I think there renting canoes at Colgate, I think they have tent city up there. Have any members of the Board gone up there to find out what is going on?"
Supervisor Flaherty, "yes, I have. The canoes were brought in one day for one weekend. The Bruderhauf had an occasion there and the canoes went right back."
Mr. Benjamin, "there was a comment in the paper about campfires. I talked with Dennis Martin and Jim Volker, anything unattended the people got tickets for. As far as parking goes, if they didn't move their vehicles they were towed away or ticketed. I really haven't seen the garbage up there that people were talking about. There was a Boy Scout troop up there with tents, campfires and canoes. On Sunday their community choir was to pick garbage up."
Councilman Middleton, " I went up there three times in the last ten days, on a motorcycle, and was pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the property. I did check the toilet facility, it was maintained, it was clean. The cars were all parked in a way that seemed safe and not haphazard."
Councilman Hitchcock, "We have had problems in the past. Last year we heard talk of buses coming in and it was overcrowded. What we heard is that they were a group from Hunter, the camp was full and they sent them over to Colgate Lake. We do have this facility and, yes, Dennis goes there and Volker may go there, but suppose we get 3 or 4 hundred people, there's no one there to say we can't handle anymore. It would be a nice summer job for some kid if he were there just to monitor."
Supervisor Flaherty, "I'm the one who wrote the letter. I was shown illegal fires and toilet paper hanging out of the trees and people were not using the privy. I was also told that Dennis Martin changed his tours so he can go there and do something with these illegal fires. That's no reflection on what they do, they're only human beings trying to do their job. A Town resident brought up the canoes but it was explained. When I went and interviewed the employee working there part time for the DEC, he showed me all the short falls and made some suggestions and from the day I saw him, it was remarkable how well it got cleaned up. So it was a problem."

A motion was made by Flaherty, seconded by Middleton and carried to close courtesy of the floor.

August 14, 2002 page 2 of 5

Under correspondence:

A) The court clerk has resigned for health reasons. The Justice's are currently interviewing to replace that position.
Councilman Middleton asked if this was the clerk that was perusing the back- log and if the Town was mandated to produce those records from 1975?
Supervisor Flaherty replied yes, these were records that were suppose to be done and for some reason didn't get sent in. As we understand it the courts are required to maintain certain records and without a clerk it was difficult. These are uncollected fines and follow-ups.

B) DOT has done the study requested and reduced the speed limit on Cramer Road to 40 M.P.H.

C) We have a receipt from DOT on a speed reduction request on Mill Hollow Road.
Councilman Hitchcock: "23C keeps changing the speed limit. Down by Rappleyea's it stayed down for a while, now its jumped back up, what's going on?"
Supervisor Flaherty, "I met with the State Engineer. As you recall, we did a TE9 ex-post facto because the County didn't follow proper procedure. The State engineering study indicated that we keep it at 45 M.P.H with an indicator at Cramer Road to slow down to 30 M.P.H. The State Engineer said they made a decision and that is what it's going to be."

D) A thank you letter was received from the Mountaintop Animal Friends for a donation from the Town.

E) The Town has received an invitation from the Town of Lexington to participate in a game of horse-shoes on Saturday, August 24th, 2002 at their annual festival.

F) The Town has been invited to the ground-breaking ceremony at the Irish Center in Durham on Saturday, September 7th, 2002.

Supervisor Flaherty informed the Board that DEP is looking to acquire some land on the Vitelli property on Goshen Street. Presently it consists of multiple buildings on a 12acre lot and the surrounding property is 62 acres. DEP wants to purchase the 62 acres. The septic system for the 12acre lot is part of the 62 acres. A boundary line adjustment will be done so the 12acre lot will remain 12 acres.
Councilman Middleton asked if Mr. Vitelli contacted DEP?
Supervisor Flaherty said the DEP was required to go through the five Counties and before the program is over to acquire some 80 thousand acres to protect the streams.
Supervisor Flaherty, "the reason I bring this to your attention is the rules allow a 120 day comment period. They don't notify us until they're in contract with the owner, but they give the Towns an option to make a comment. Property taxes will be exactly the same as they are presently."
Councilman Middleton, "my only comment is everyone knows it's been a problem property for the Town. There may be a blessing in disguise here by removing surrounding lands, which would prohibit further expansion. That may be something we can count as a plus."
Supervisor Flaherty, "this subdivision was done, I believe, before 1988. A lot of the buildings were put in before our zoning regulations. Mr. Vitelli has filed 6 to 8 building permits with us. I have to research and make sure each one did follow our laws. If the building permits went out for a total project and the law changes in the mean time, as the zoning did, is he grand-fathered in on what was existing at the time he did the permit?"
Attorney Rappleyea, "he is only grand-fathered to what he has substantially completed. You don't get an automatic grandfather. New York law is very clear. Unless you have some vested interest in what's there, you've spent some serious money and have substantially completed, the new law applies."
Supervisor Flaherty, "we still have time on the comment period. I'll table it for now and the next meeting we will come back with any comments."
Councilman Hitchcock, "He has 15 apartments which maybe can handle 60 people. Is that going to need a variance on the density?"
Supervisor Flaherty, "If the buildings were put up prior to the Town of Jewett's zoning he would be grand-fathered under what existed years ago."
Councilman Hitchcock, "But now we're doing something new to those tenants. We're restricting their space, right down to where there're renting, to a fraction of what they had before."
Councilman Middleton, "They are two separate parcels. They only had 12 acres from the beginning. Tom's thought is he believed the density was predicated on the additional 62 acres, it never was, it was predicated on the 12 acres right from the get go so that density has been there. We're not changing the picture only because it's two different lots."

The Board approved resolution #13 on a motion by Flaherty, seconded by Middleton and carried. This resolution is in support of Greene County's application designation of certain areas as an Empire Zone.
ROLL CALL: Ayes 4 Flaherty, Haarklau, Hitchcock, Middleton
Nays 0
Absent 1 LaPierre

August 14, 2002 page 3 0f 5

The Board finalized the town-wide pickup. The information will be placed on the Internet, in the post offices and advertised in full in the newspaper. Councilman Middleton also suggested it be advertised as a community service announcement at the local radio station.

The Board worked on the finalization of the monument dedication. Town resident Tom Wilson offered some written suggestions to the Board.
Councilman Hitchcock, "We made several trips to New York Quarries. When we approved the purchase it was suppose to be field stone, 3 feet by 6 feet. He was having difficulty coming up with a single stone so we went for a base stone, which will fit flat on the ground, and then there will an upright stone with the engraving on it. Mark and I had to make that decision. We're pleased with the two stones. The Superintendent of Highways will put the base stone on some kind of a foundation. The upright stone will be flat on the bottom with two holes for pins placed in two holes in the base."
Councilman Middleton, "The two stones together will be about the same height. The base stone will be set into the dirt to a certain degree."
Councilman Hitchcock, " At some point we will have to transport the stones. It's a heavy stone and has to be handled carefully."
Councilman Hitchcock had a draft notice to go in the newspaper and on the Internet about the dedication. There was a second draft on the ceremony leading up to the dedication. This was discussed.
The ceremony will begin at 5:30 PM on September 11, 2002.
The monument will be placed in the grove of trees across from the Municipal Building. The Board agreed to meet on Tuesday, September 3rd at 7PM to finalize plans.
Councilwoman Haarklau complemented Councilman Hitchcock on the "wonderful job" he's done.
In case of bad weather the ceremony will take place in the Municipal Building.

A motion was made by Flaherty, seconded by Middleton and carried to elect T. Patrick Meehan and Richard Rem each to a two year term to the Coalition of Watershed Towns Executive Committee and write in Councilman Thomas Hitchcock as an alternate.

An update was given on Colgate Lake. Supervisor Flaherty, "A letter was sent, there is improvement going on there. The employees are working with their supervisors. Forest Ranger Dennis Martin has adjusted his hour's so he can check on illegal fires."

Supervisor Flaherty gave an update on Camp Harriman. "The construction of their waste water treatment plant is 99.9% completed, they have some landscaping to do. In phase two they will be doing some reconstruction on the dam." All the documentation is available from the Supervisor.

Supervisor Flaherty gave an update on the Hunter Landfill. "The bidding went out for the interceptor trench. In order to cut back our leachy cost the trench should catch a lot of the ground water. Eventually the artificial wetlands should be constructed. While this is going on we will parallel our obligation and will still be hauling leachy. The trench will only take three days to put in. If this does what it's suppose to do it could capture 50 to 75% of the ground water. Next spring the artificial wetlands will be addressed. The interceptor trench has been accepted by DEC and will be 90/10 funded. The wetlands will not be funded until after DEC sees it up and working."

Under other:

Councilman Middleton, "How are we making out on the letters to the fire departments? I believe we really need to have some communication on this before we go to budget. I want to know if they're responding to this letter so we're protecting everybody."
Supervisor Flaherty, "Yes, the letters went out and no I have not received a response."
Councilman Middleton, "I can't see this councilperson approving a budget with further monies. Not that it isn't deserving. I'm going to protest the fact that we have gotten no response as to where this money is or how this money could be audited according to the IRS. East Jewett Fire Department has already indicated to us that they have done it in the past and they were going to re-up the forms and we still haven't got it."
Supervisor Flaherty, "The information I received is they got everything they spoke about at the meeting. I only asked for a copy so we could be on board. That has not arrived yet."
Councilman Middleton, "I think the next letter should be strong and the fact the Jewett Fire Department has given us no indication that there willing to comply with this is problematic for me. We've taken the peoples money, it's not our money, and lord knows these departments deserve it, and whatever help we can them we should do so. At the same time we can't be giving the peoples money to an organization that refuses to tell us how they're dealing with the IRS. It's a simple form."
Supervisor Flaherty, "We've discussed this in the past. There's really no mandatory requirement. We did the paper trail. If something was to happen in the future at least we made the request."

August 14, 2002 page 4 of 5

Councilman Middleton, "Is that good enough? Can we in all good conscious continue to give monies when, at the very least, all they have to do is show us compliance? The reality of it is, the IRS doesn't go away. The volunteerism is a wonderful thing and we don't want to lose that, but at the same time how stupid would we look if the IRS came to look at auditing practices in the fire departments? You guys have known this, they did not respond, yet you budgeted for more money again. That's where my problem lies. It's one thing if we were deaf, dumb and happy and didn't know about it, but the reality is it's come to the forefront. For them not to give us the paper work and East Jewett probably has it and maybe it's simply vacation time but I'm more troubled with Jewett that their not even asking East Jewett what they did to do that or reach out to us, which is what we offered. I think we should re-up a letter."

Councilman Middleton, "I'm a little confused on this Ethan Tarnow thing. We issued a stop work and I'm not certain as to what he's doing, I can't make hide or hair out of Mr. Bosworth's letter. We've got a change of use in a barn for a business. What kind of business?"
Supervisor Flaherty, "The guy runs some kind of company, they cut CD's. That would at a minimum require an application for a special use."
Attorney Rappleyea, "There are two violations. One is that he made improvements to the barn without a permit. The second problem is that he is conducting a business out of that property where it is zoned only as a special use and he does not have a special use permit. He appeared in court and we adjourned it for two months because he was going to work with Bob and make sure he filed his application for the special use permit and make sure he does what he need to do in order to get his building permit."
Councilman Middleton, "I think at some point we're going to have to look at a section of our zoning that deals with home occupation. At this point in time certain things are allowed but to what magnitude and what size? Does it out stripe the realties of a home occupation?"
Attorney Rappleyea, "We do have a definition that says that the people that work in that home occupation must either reside in the home or not more than two other employees."
Councilman Middleton, "My contention is you can have two employees and still be in a position to grow large enough to hurt the residential districts. My point is, is that what we want? If you happen to be a home owner next to someone who decides to grow his business, that's a right of his to do that. I'm taking about the magnitude of the business, where does it out stripe the home occupation size? I believe that that is something that's going to be coming up on a continual basis. I'm stating now, I believe the magnitude of the business' established within the home occupation will become a problem for us, the way the law is written right now."
Supervisor Flaherty, "Share that thought with us again. Maybe we could invite Helen Budrock, maybe even Mr. Church, a planner, to talk with the Board."

The Superintendents request for a truck had been tabled until he was at a meeting.
Superintendent Mallory, "I want a roller and a trailer before we buy a truck. I don't need a truck as much as I need a roller. I have x amount of dollars and to me the roller and trailer makes more sense. I'm going to start looking in a few weeks for something around $20,000. I would like a truck but I really want to put the money toward a roller."
Councilman Middleton, "I believe the Highway Superintendent needs a pick up truck in this Town and shouldn't be using his own. I believe there's an inherent liability there as well but I applaud your constraint in putting your priorities in line. I think it's a shame we can't say let's do them both."
Superintendent Mallory, "Let me get some thing together, maybe we can do all the things. A $15,000 with 40,000 miles will suffice for this Town."
Supervisor Flaherty, "If something came by we have the potential of having $46,000 to use."
Councilman Middleton to the Superintendent, "For the next meeting or the meeting after could you analyze the amount of roads and what you consider the trade off between all the roads. How this roller would really come in, as well as the truck and let's come up with a number. Let's also explore auctions."

Supervisor Flaherty, "Bob and I were concerned with the CHIPS funding. There was a strong rumor that it was going to dry up, which is a big part of our budget. We get $43,000, which is better than a mile of road for us and we're able to advance it to our State aid. I received this letter from the committee on Local Government that talked about the 2002-2003 budgets. It said the State would maintain the overall funding at last year's level so at least we'll have something going into the budget."

Councilman Hitchcock, "We mentioned the historical thing for the bridge and Jane was kind enough to find the green form. It's a simple application to be filled out. If we get it on the Historical Register then maybe we can get some funds to do some things."
Supervisor Flaherty said he will get to the application as soon as he can.

Councilman Hitchcock, "In speaking with Mike Bolz recently, he mentioned the Mountaintop isn't really covered by any kind of police at night. I thought this might be a topic for the Mountaintop Supervisors and Mayors. I didn't know that. If a resident of the Mountaintop calls because they have a disturbance or something their concerned about that needs police involvement, there's no one up here."
Supervisor Flaherty, "The State Police are out all night."
Councilman Hitchcock, "He thought if the Mountaintop people talked to the Sheriff he might do something to increase coverage."

August 14, 2002 page 5 of 5

Supervisor Flaherty, "When we were looking for an extra Deputy, we had to commit ourselves to an additional $40,000 a year to come out of our taxes."
Councilman Hitchcock, "I don't know if this is crucial or not."
It was suggested the State Trooper Barracks in Leeds be contacted and asked if there was a patrol on the Mountaintop at night.

Councilman Hitchcock, "At some point when we do budgeting I'm going to put in something to think about. I think we could do better with the health insurance. I noticed we budgeted about $22,000. I would like to see us consider having somebody in place, similar to Fay Highdecker, a part time health insurance person, taking care of our people in the Town and doing this in a timelier manner. We would know better where we stand with the budget."
Supervisor Flaherty, "Marilyn and I attended the last EMS meeting. We are hiring an attorney, through the organization, to investigate creating a County wide ambulance district. We would be relieved of all this responsibility. The attorney's been hired. He's going to go into the whole mechanism; it'll be very similar to a fire district. The cost will be distributed on the County bill."

The Building Inspector was not present to answer questions. He prepared a written report for the Board.
Councilman Middleton asked that the Building Inspector give a report to the Board on letters sent out concerning unsafe buildings.

Bills were audited and ordered paid. The general fund was $12,657.83 on abstract #8, claim numbers 197 to 226. The highway fund was $22,525.27 on abstract #8, claim numbers 121 to 140.

Attorney Rappleyea reported on the Prisco case. "The County finally decided that it was their liability and no one else's."

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned on a motion by Flaherty, seconded by Haarklau and carried.

Due to the absence of the Town Clerk these minutes were taken entirely from the tape recordings.
The quality of the tape was poor and parts of conversations were muffled.