Town Board Meeting
You let me know when Luke Okay. Well, welcome everybody to the October 16th, 2025 uh Webster town board meeting. Let's start with the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Denine, can you do roll call, please?
Supervisor Flity,
here.
Councilwoman Cataly,
present.
Councilman Cahill,
here.
Councilwoman Wyn,
here.
Attorney for the town, Taylor,
here.
Okay, our first item tonight is the public hearing uh regarding the town of Webster's 2026 preliminary budget. Um, just a couple things before I put the maillet down and we open the public hearing. Um, the preliminary budget um was adopted I think at the September 4th town board meeting. Um, then it it I mean it goes to you as the town clerk. Uh, this is was in the Webster today October edition that anybody who lives in Webster would have gotten that in their mailboxes at their home a couple weeks ago. Uh this was also in the Webster Herald at least um the summary budget. Is that correct? In the budget notes. Um so this is part of the process. This is part of the legal process. Um and it somewhat culminates after six months with the public hearing and then subsequent to that if uh if the board votes on the budget. Uh, interestingly
enough, if this is TMI, I apologize. If you go over the New York State tax cap that was put into effect about 15, 20 years ago, you can do it, but you have to get a super majority. It's got to be a 4 to one town board vote or a five to nothing town board vote. As you see from the handout that I gave out earlier tonight, we have not exceeded the New York State tax cap in the last seven years. I think the last time we did it exceeded was 2017.
16 16.
Um and uh there's 930 towns in New York State. We just came back from an Association of Towns meeting that said in the last 5 years about 23% of the towns have exceeded the New York State tax cap. Webster is not one of them. um which I'm very proud of and I think that says a lot about the town board's conservative uh budgeting approach. Um for the people that take the podium, I kind of have three simple rules. I think they're common sense. There's a book called Everything You Need to Learn You Learned in Kindergarten, something like that, or five years old. Uh one is it's up to five minutes. Please time your comments and what you have to say correctly because I've said it many times. There is no way nice for me to say you're at 4:45, you're at 450. It just it comes out sounding not good. So don't put me in that position. Uh two, you can go up there and ask 37 questions. When you get done, that doesn't mean the board is going to sit there and rattle off 37 answers. I will say this, we will take those questions and we will try to get you in touch over
the next couple days with the appropriate town department head subject matter expert to get those answers. Three, and this to me is the big one. You get up there and talk and you want to say what you have to say. All right. What you don't need is people heckling you from the crowd. Um, the only people that should be talking are the ones that are on that podium and and what you hear tonight from the podium you may not agree with, but you know what? That's the great thing about our country. You that person is uh allowed to give their opinion and talk. That means that we as a civilization uh civilized people don't have the right as far as I'm concerned to heckle, boo and all that stuff. All right. So, those are pretty much the simple rules. Last but not least, when I went through earlier before the meeting and I asked everybody, do you want to speak at the public hearing or at the subsequent uh open to the public uh five minutes if you didn't sign in, you still have the opportunity to say, you know what, I think I do want to speak. We don't close it out because you didn't sign in. And conversely, if all of a sudden we get to you where you signed in and you're like, you know, I don't really want to speak. We don't make you speak because you
signed in. We're pretty flexible. So, with that being said, councelor, I'm going to open the 2026 preliminary budget public hearing. Per the signin sheet, our first speaker is Christopher Naka. Chris Naka, 1065 Shoecraft Road. Um, I know these questions won't be answered uh immediately, but uh Paul, great job. Thank you for that breakdown. That was indeed a lot of information. I'm happy to have it and I'm excited to kind of break it down further when I get home off the website. Um, I wish I had done it sooner because it's so much information. Um, is it is it going to be the same information that was presented? Is there going to be more like of a micro breakdown? Like if you said 4% increase in people in how much you're paying people essentially that being split up between um the unions and just employees of the town? Like is it how how much is
that breakdown? Like how much went into the unions? how much went into, you know, paying the employees of the town more. Is that kind of like micro data broken down a little bit more? Is it just kind
We have the breakdown.
Okay. Yep. I'm I keep it simple, you know, just in that whole thing. I my mind goes crazy thinking of all the different things we could spend that uh happy fund money on. Uh that just my one little question. Thank you.
Thanks, Cres. Uh, next up tonight is Dave Mi. All right, Dave, you're up.
I have to say, Bridget, 247 365. It's the way I start all my speeches. Um, I'd like to see at least 540,000 earmarked for active transportation in the 2026 budget. Any questions? Any idea how I come up with that number? 45,000 people in Webster, $1 a month. Thank you. Okay. Now, nobody else signed in. Uh
Kevin, you want to speak at the
chair? No, you're not speaking from the chair, you know. You know, because cameras on and all that. No, no cameras are pointing out at the crowd. They're pointing there. So, Mr. Kevin Lockheart has decided to speak at the public hearing for the 2026 budget. Kevin, shoot away. Um so at the bottom 2020 total unrestricted fund balance except the capital fund 16827455 escalations through the next 1 2 3 4 years up to 33,79079. I take that to mean that's the operating uh the tax rate per $1,000 ex I find this all confusing and uh but those numbers escalating I wanted to draw attention to because that I assume means that we're taking on much more debt service and it's getting more expensive to operate this town. Thanks.
Okay, thank you. And you right that was 30 seconds and Kevin is a wonderful young man and like I said accounting is an interesting thing. Uh what he was describing was not the debt we took on that was our aggregate savings account fund balance has gone up double in the last couple years and I described it earlier. That's a good problem. It is a problem and it's one that we have a fund balance policy to make sure we have guide rails to make sure we don't overt tax the citizens as time goes on. So, thank you Kevin. Anybody else for the public hearing? Okay.
I see a hand raised.
Oh, sir, jump up.
I'm not jumping anywhere.
All right. And if you could give your name and address when you get up there.
Yes. Frederick Schwind, 25 Corning Park in the village of Webster. Um, first of all, I want to ask a question of all you up there. What is your party affiliation from there down to here? One, two, three, four, five, six. Is that Is that right? There's six of you up there. Yes. No.
Uh, well, there are, I think, six people up there.
Okay. Yeah. Good.
Now, can I have your party affiliation from here down?
Yeah. We're not going to answer that, but I will tell you what my party affiliation is.
I'm a keg party affiliation. That's what I am. They said we're not going to answer questions. Keep going. You have four minutes. Party affiliation.
You have four minutes and 30 seconds left.
Thank you. You answered my question.
I did.
He likes the keg party affiliation. I'm here to determine in my mind whether your credibility whether you have credibility to represent me in my town. I've been in this town since 1955. I'm 76 years old. Probably been in this town longer than anybody here. All right. I'm very concerned. And when I gets concerned, believe me, I do something. And if you know me, you know that I mean business. All right.
Do you got that?
From what I can see. Well, that's all right. Let me I'll be I'll be done in a minute.
No, I just want to make sure we got that in the minutes.
From what I can see on this, and you correct me if I'm wrong, the budget increase is over almost $5 million. Is that correct from what it was in 25? What you're proposing?
I you know, I I just have to say something. I'm sorry, sir, but then excuse me. Earlier when we started the public hearing, we addressed the fact that we don't answer questions. You're you're absolutely welcome to express any comments.
We don't answer questions
not during the public hearing, but we will get back to you with those answers later.
Thank you. You've answered a question for me. All right. Here's
just by looking through the Webster Herald here, and I didn't check what this stuff is for or anything like that. I base this on my own budget at home when I'm buying groceries or going to Walmart or by the way I do shop at Walmart. Okay, I don't I'm not a big clothes slave. Okay, these are the just the things that I've gotten out of the Webster Herald. Here's an increase. And like I say, I don't know what these increases are for. I'll be happy to go back and find them. But when I see increase, to me that says it's going to cost more. All right, fair enough. Does everybody agree with that? Not agree. Increase more. Okay. Okay. Here's a 19.4% increase. Okay. 40% 7 40.7% increase. 155.7 increase. Webster Herald 18.2% increase, 15.8% increase, 12.1% increase. Oh, these these are real good. Maybe you can answer these for me.
Here's an assessing revaluation up 486.7%. chips road material up $200,000 an increase of 80%. Okay, here another one. Oh, this is a small one. Increase of 46.5%. Okay, that's a little one, folks. That's a little one. All right, here we go again. Here's a good one. I like this one. engineering surveying. Okay, I thought I thought I was reading this wrong. I honestly did. Um, 1900%. Does that sound right? Insurance premium. That one I can sort of see, but not at 30%. Okay, here's one. Town attorney consultant. I would like to see what that guy does. Okay, up 515.8%.
You know, when I look at my budget at home, I know I'm going to have increases. That's a given. But my increases are like 3%, you know, four, maybe up to 10. And that's really
I could have seen this coming. Frederick, you're at 4 minutes and 50 seconds.
I'm sorry.
You're you're now at 455.
Okay. Thank you. I'm almost done.
Okay.
Um vehicle leases 29.5%. All right. Utilities 47.7%. Increases, folks. Increases. You're paying. I'm paying. Think about it. 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Frederick,
your paper,
47.4%. And finally, we're going to deal with deal with natural gas. And that's only 104.
5 minutes and 30 seconds. Thank you, Frederick.
I'm not done yet.
Frederick, you're done.
Oh, thank you.
I am done.
Okay.
And I appreciate what you just did. That That's great. No, it is great. It is.
Well, I'd like to see something done.
Yeah. I don't care.
Hey, Kevin.
Yes, sir.
Can you give that to him?
That's correct. Is there anybody else that would like to speak tonight at the public hearing for the proposed 2026 budget?
That's an interesting pair.
Um, does anybody else want to speak tonight at the budget? Okay. I am going to officially close out the public hearing. And before we move on to the next segment, open to the floor. Each speaker allowed five minutes. Is there any comments or questions by the board um subsequent to the public hearing before we move to voting on a uh a budget tonight? I think since um one of our colleagues board member is sick and is not here I think we should table this and um vote when five of us are here
and and I appreciate that Jenny. Okay, but we could have somebody sick in two weeks and we could have somebody sick in four weeks. As I said earlier, um you know, if you want to vote no on this budget that's been six months, that's your prerogative. We don't need a supermajority. Um, I'll tell you what. Um, I'm going to take executive privilege a little bit here. Um, we can reconider the the sequence of things tonight. We'll do the open to the floor speaker after we do a resolution vote. And that resolution vote is going to be on um number four. I make a motion to adopt the town of Webster's 2026 final budget.
Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilwoman Katali.
I.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman W. Nay.
Okay. All right, we have a passed budget for 2026. 3 to one vote. All right, next up is the open to the floor where each speaker gets up to five minutes to speak to anything their heart desires. We have one person signed in tonight, but we might have some other takers. And that is the Honorable Kevin Lockart. Kevin,
really the only one?
You're the only one signed in. feel like it's all about me.
Hi everybody, Kevin Lockart from 100-2 KDER Park in Webster. Thanks for coming out tonight. Tonight I came out to address our tiny little flag outside on the town pole. It's hoisted up. It's a on a 30foot flag pole. I went outside today and I measured it and the app that I was using to measure it said it was 33 feet tall and the American flag that is hoisted on it is only 4x6. I'm demanding answers tonight on to how we came to the conclusion to begin with on this tiny little flag. It is kind of embarrassing and because uh I was a little upset about it. I broadcast uh my disagreement with it and about 160 people agreed that we should get a mega flag, a giant flag. I wanted I suggested doing 12 feet by 18, which would be magnificent. Might lose some birds to it, but that's
another issue. And turns out that the town had some opinions on this matter. So there is a certain proportion that the flag should be at and it should be at minimum 5 by8. So in a in correspondence with the town I think it was really just me and supervisor flarity to begin with. I outlined my complaint about the tiny flag and uh to his credit, Supervisor Flity immediately purchased a 5 by8 flag, a slightly less tiny flag and uh promised to put it up and I think he thought that I might be happy with that. But I spoke with the town I spoke with the town supervisor's clerk. I spoke with the the clerk that answers the phone at town hall and uh Josh Artuso was involved from the planning department. Actually, he's very central to this because it has to do with planning in the town. I I suppose so between the town supervisor flarity uh planning director Josh Otuso and myself we determined that a 30-foot pole has a 1-3 max allowance of 10 ft which is the streaming the length so it
can stream down 10 ft. So I'm really insistent that we have to have the largest possible American flag outside of town hall. the town is a little bit resistant to this idea. I get I got the feeling that they really didn't like this idea at all and that's why they quickly replace the 4x6 with a five by eight. But the absolute minimum that I'd be willing to concede is a 6x10 flag um which is follows the maximum proportion allowed on a 30-foot pole. The the steel poles are very expensive. They're about $3,000. But most people honestly are most excited about having an enormous flag, which I think would be very, very exciting. I think we should do it. I think we should put a 12 foot by 18 ft American flag on a 30foot flag pole. That would be awesome and inspiring. A lot of people are for it. A few people offer to pay for the flag out of their pocket. So, I would expect to see the town move on this with some excitement and enthusiasm so that we can have a giant
flag. But I think the um the minimal that we should settle for is the larger end of the standard kind of measurements that everyone agrees on where there's a consensus around the data which is the 6 by 10 foot flag and we should settle for nothing less. And every day I look at the little tiny flag on that giant flag pole. I get a little bit upset with the town and I get a little bit aggravated and I start to get a little bit annoyed by the small little things that they're doing that aren't really a big deal but kind of remind me that someone at the town put this little tiny flag on the 30ft flag pole and their solution was to make it one foot bigger. We need a giant flag. I hope to see all of your support on this issue. every one of you. I think we should be calling for giant more flags, bigger flags, especially in front of town hall. We should just make it a point. And I don't understand why people are offended by this. It seems like there's folks out there that are genuinely offended by our flag. And so,
how where were we at?
445.
Those folks should self-deport.
Thank you, Kevin. Does anybody else who didn't sign in want to take the podium? Christopher, jump up there.
Chris Naka, 1065 Shoecraft Road. Um, this was probably the more of the interesting town board meetings I've been to. It's nice to see so many people here. Uh, I love you and I hope you all have a really good night.
Now, that was wonderful, Christopher. You know what? You can speak at these town board meetings anytime you want. And so can you, Kevin. Um, okay. Well, that Well, anybody else going once? Oh, are you over 18? Darn it. Um, we'll get you back here in a few years. Uh so that concludes the open to the floor uh for five minutes. Um our next up is we have two board meeting minutes uh for consideration for approval and it was from two weeks ago tonight and broken record on this. Den, thank you for being so timely on these. Um it really helps the board members. Uh yeah, that's what we did talk about uh last night because if we got him like three weeks later, I I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning. So very it's good procedure and you are following in the footsteps of Dolly and Thank you.
Um I have reviewed the October 2nd, 2025 town board workshop minutes and I make a motion that we approve them.
Second.
Supervisor Flareity.
I.
Councilman Cahill
I. Councilwoman Katali,
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
And I also reviewed the regular town board meeting minutes from the October 2nd, 20125 meeting, and I make a motion that we approve those.
Second,
Supervisor Flity,
I.
Councilwoman Cataldi,
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
Now, this one, I think I might need some help from either uh Kyle, town council, andor Paul, town finance director. Um, unfortunately, Councilwoman um, Wright uh, was not able to make it tonight to the meeting and she was the one who reviewed the bills.
So, I might be able to help reviewing the bills.
What?
She was there reviewing them while I was there.
I got I text I received a textured councilwoman, right? And she did approve the bills as Paul says. U, she did review them. So, I just wanted to give that information out. Council Male, if you could make the motion then.
Well, I'll make the motion to approve the bills as submitted by the director of finance.
Second.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman Cataldi.
I.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
Can I Can we stop at that for just a moment?
Sure.
That's actually the second time that that's come up in the past year. And And the last time it came up, I was leading the meeting and was also confused about what to do. And one of the things we suggested was that and and this probably will happen because I think we're looking at doing these bills electronically. But once once the council person whose responsibility it is that month to review the bills should should put a cover sheet or something on top of it saying that they've done it and just initial it and then we could avoid that confusion.
Well, we initial every single page,
right? But just
so I don't understand page. I don't either, but it would it would give the board the direction that everything has been reviewed without looking through every single one of those because there's hundreds of them.
Um, it it's just an an extra step that I think would be helpful and it may take it may take care of itself when they're done electronically. But I know we talked about it last time. We ought to look into it a little bit more.
Yeah. No, I Hey, um I mean the good news is uh six years I've been supervisor, it's happened twice,
right?
And we the I don't review the bills. That's separation of duties and all that. Um because I sign off on them, right? As as far as
the POS and all that.
Yeah. So the four board members rotate uh monthly I guess reviewing them and and really the only duty per se that the reason why we have to come here every two weeks and have a town board meeting is minimally to approve paying the bills. Um and some board meetings back during COVID towns the only thing they business execution was authorizing to pay the bills. So the, you know, the vendors got paid and, you know, people got paid. So, um, that's the good news. It's only happened twice that the the reviewer, the town board member, but yeah, I think it probably will resolve itself, but I'm certainly open-minded to, you know, um, a cover sheet that
seems to be a way to make a little bit tighter
just in case. So, whatever. Uh, I actually uh will make a motion to approve the prepaid warrants as submitted by Paul Adams, the director of finance.
Second. Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilwoman Katali,
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
And I will make a motion to approve the purchase orders as submitted by Paul Adams, the director of finance.
Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Counciloman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman Cataly.
I. Councilwoman Wyn,
I
Kelsey, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I I think this is a big night. Um, and you are, to me, you are so deserving of this. You have proven over the last couple years that you are very much up for succeeding somebody who is pretty impressive, Braden Connor, as an HR director, personnel director. Um, we talked about this, I think, when they presented at a workshop a couple weeks ago that um, Brighton is uh, retiring after 30 some odd years and uh, public service. And uh, for the last couple years, Brighton has said to us that, you know, when Kelsey came on board, as she started helping him with some HR stuff, he said, "Kelsey Fenie's got what it takes to be the next uh, HR director." And uh it's funny because then I was in some meetings with her. Uh union negotiations are fun, aren't they, Kelsey? Yeah. Um Kelsey's impressive.
She u she gets stuff done. So um I don't know after this resolution if you want to say anything or if you'd be like peace out.
I have a couple words to say.
Okay. Would you like to Well, why don't we get the resolution done? So, you know, um I'm going make a motion I'll make a motion to appoint Kelsey Feny as a director of personnel succeeding Brighton Connard as of February 1st, 2026.
Are we summing this effective December 20th?
Is that what we're doing
for purposes of cross trainining and knowledge transfer?
Well, now that's a very interesting detail. I don't I wish Brighton was here.
I'm just reading what the resolution in front of me says
based on his retirement being January 31st and how that works in the system in New York State pension and all that. Um
where did you see that?
It's on the resolution that that's in my packet. It says effective December 20th concurrent with director personnel Brighton Connard for the purposes of cross trainining and knowledge transfer.
Okay. So uh Kyle I just want to make sure the legal interpretation of that is that we will have concurrent directors of personnel for 40 days. That is correct.
Okay. I am going to amend I guess my uh motion. I make a motion to appoint Kelsey Feny as the director of personnel uh effective December 20th uh where she will run concurrent as that director with Brighton Connard until dis January 31st at which time on February 1st 2026 Kelsey will be the only director uh of personnel. It's a long motion.
Second Supervisor Flity.
I,
Councilwoman Cataldi,
I.
Councilman Cahill,
I.
Councilwoman W.
I
congratulations, [Applause]
Kelsey. If this is anything about the Dallas Cowboys, I'm not going to allow it.
It won't be. Um, so thank you. I'll make it short and sweet. Um, first I just want to say that I'm very excited and honored to become the next director of personnel once Brighton say officially retires. Um, second I want to thank you, Tom, the current supervisor and the entire town board for giving me that opportunity. Um, and lastly, I want to thank Brighton. I know he's not here tonight. Um, but he's been a great mentor over the past year. Um, and I think I can say for everybody at the town that he's going to be greatly missed.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Kelsey. Kelsey. [Applause]
Um, next number six looks innocent enough, but this is kind of uh I I got to say Chris Oh, Chris is leaving. um that this this this feels almost uh like a victory to me cuz back in 2020 I couldn't understand as an accountant how the 2020 budget was approved in uh in October or November of 19 and then I became supervisor in January 20 and there was a resolution to adopt the 2020 fees for the town in like May or June of 2020. 20. And I was like, I don't know. It seems like accounting 101. Wouldn't you adopt the fees, the revenue, the park fees, the wreck fees, and all that at the same time you're adopting the budget? And Paul, I think you were like, well, yeah, that's how it should be done, right?
Makes sense.
We achieved it. So, does anybody have any questions about the the town of Webster fee schedule and the 2026 Webster Parks and Recreation Center, all those fees? Um,
I do not.
Okay.
Then I make a motion to adopt the 2026 Town of Webster fee schedule and the 2026 Webster Parks and Recreation Center lodge facility and field rates as presented.
Second. Supervisor Flity.
I,
Councilwoman Cataly,
hi.
Councilman Cahill,
hi.
Councilwoman Wyn,
I
thanks Chris. Um, well, before we were on tape and whatever, I I said to Mr. and I assume Mr. and Mrs. Turo that what we are about to do tonight has been around for three years. Uh, I remember when you were up there and I said, "Well, you know, back in November or whatever of 22, okay, let's let's let cooler heads prevail. We're not going to go and tear down your shed. That seems ham-handed. Uh, we'll work through this." I didn't think it would take three years. Um, but we got through it. And I kept saying to Denine, our town clerk, who meets with me once a month, to say, "Here's the things we did at town board meetings the last month, two months." need, you know, still to have a ribbon put around him. And this thing's been sitting on that list for three years. So I said, "We're going to get this done." Um, so, um, this is a licensing agreement that essentially, uh, uh, the Turkos who own
819 Houston Road have a shed, um, that is in a sanitary sewer easement. Um, you can't put a shed or a fence or things like that in sanitary sewer easements or drainage easements, but you can come to the town board and ask for a licensing agreement. And part of that is that you understand that, hey, you know, if we ever got to get into this, the pipes and stuff that are under that shed, as long as you understand, you'll be working with Kyle, our town attorney, on this, that, you know, we're going to go in there and probably tear up that shed, and you're God bless you. You we're not liable for tearing apart your shed um or fence when people come to do that. And I think Kyle, you do a nice job of making sure people understand that. So, um I think we have the letter from uh sanitary sewer that says that they're okay with where this shed is positioned relative to where the pipes are. It's a fairly rather large easement.
You think so?
I think so. Um that's a whole another kettle of fish that we won't get into tonight. Um does any of the board members have any questions about this? I have a couple.
Sure.
Um,
and if you want to take because you may be best to answer uh any of the council men or women's questions.
Well, let me just first say that um the process that we go through for these easements um has changed and I am very much in favor of it. Um you'll see that there's a letter in this packet by um Chief Operator Richard Neely. Um So that that process in and of itself is has come a long ways and I appreciate that. So one of my questions is was this shed already part of your property when you bought it or did you did you build it?
No, we we built it. We used to have a uh a kids playground in the same spot for many years.
Okay.
Yeah,
that's the only question I had. Thank you,
Jenny. Patty,
I have no questions.
Okay. Well, I make a motion to grant a license aggregate. I make a motion to grant
Supervisor. Before you make your motion, just note that it's it's both a shed and a fence within the easement. Okay. So, Okay. And Rick's letter His his letter identifies the shed.
It does. So I make a motion to grant a license agreement to allow a shed and fence within a sanitary sewer easement at 8/19 Houston Road tax ID number 063.21-2-18.
Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilman Cahill.
I.
Councilwoman Cataly.
Councilwoman W.
Hi. Dave, if you have you met Kyle yet? No. Well, you'll I don't know. Do you send this this the things out to him?
Uh the um ement agreement or licensing agreement, excuse me, has been prepared uh coordinate with Josh's office on signature and and the fee associated with it.
Okay.
Okay. Beautiful.
You enjoy. Um, well, the nice thing is, uh, that's since you just heard how these licenses agreement work for fences or things inside of an easement. Um, is the young lady behind the pillar? Yes, she is. And she's behind you, too, and the pillar. Um, are you the owner of 637 Ironwood?
No. 692. Oh, bending bow.
Yes.
Okay. Who is the owner of 637 Ironwood?
That gentleman. Okay. Well, in order of these um and this one, because it's a drainage easement, our highway superintendent Pat Stevens signed the letter that this right. So, do the board members have any question about this one?
Pugs in that picture? Is there pugs there?
I think so.
Well, that's why there's a fence, John.
There you go. Serving its purpose.
Yeah. Uh
I don't have any questions. Okay.
And there is a letter from Pat in the packet. Will I make a motion to approve a license agreement to locate a chainlink fence within a town drainage easement at 637 Ironwood Circle, tax ID number 079.13-1-70.
Second.
Supervisor Flity
I.
Councilwoman W
I.
Councilwoman Cataly
I.
Councilman Cahill
I.
Deja Vu all over again. Um, ma'am, who is it at 63 619 bending bow? Heard it. And I'll say the same thing. You'll once we approve this, you'll be working with Josh's department, um, to get all the filings done, fees, and all that. But, um, here is a privacy fence within a town sanitary sewer easement. I think Rick, our chief plan operator, signed this one. Was it? Wait a minute.
No, Rick.
It was Rick.
Yeah.
Um, any questions?
Nope.
Okay. Well, I make a motion to approve a license agreement to allow a privacy fence within a town sanitary sewer easement at 619 Bending Bow Drive, tax ID number 064.11-3-10.
Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilwoman W.
I. Councilwoman Cataly.
Councilman Cahill.
I
All right. And our last uh agenda item tonight. Um hard to believe that we've gotten this far in the year and we haven't had any local laws. Plus, we've been slow this year, haven't we? Um but two weeks ago um we had the public hearing uh about the proposed uh town code changes amendments um that have to do with building construction and property maintenance. Um I think a couple of people took the podium but there was uh if anything um some of them I think are excited about some of the changes that are being made. Um, so before we vote on this, do the board members have any questions or comments?
No, I I did speak with Josh before the meeting started because I know that one of the residents who spoke, while she was excited about it, had a concern um that a couple of her her concerns were not being addressed within the certain section, but Josh said that he had reviewed it and felt that that her concerns were addressed within another section. and the one she was stating might not have been completely appropriate for where it should be placed. So it those concerns are met within these codes.
And I spoke with Josh, what two weeks ago was it Josh? Regarding one of the changes.
Yes. So yeah, you addressed those um to me and I appreciate it the clarification. So I'm fine.
Well, I spoke with you too and I thank you so much for the you know clarification and uh excellent story. Um also too if like you said if any of our constituents have any question whatsoever they can always reach out
to you and then you know you can explain.
Yes.
Okay. Well in that case I make a motion to adopt local law number one of 2025 amending town code sections pertaining to building construction and property maintenance. Second.
Supervisor Flity.
I.
Councilman Cahill.
Hi.
Councilwoman Cataly.
I.
Councilwoman W.
I.
All right. And that concludes the formal part. We'll just do a quick roundt. Uh starting with Rick Canal.
Um I'm going to apologize. It might not be real quick. Um something came to light in the recent days that I felt needed to be addressed. Um, so, uh, you want to put the clock on me? I think I got about five minutes.
You're okay with that?
You're you're you're a professional and we trust you.
Okay. It's in regards to our project and the drying technology that we're looking to install. Um, there's been some concerns out there on social media and in the Webster Herald that I just want to kind of address some of the points that were brought up in there. Um, there was a question posed wondering if the town board and sewer department personnel did their due diligence on this project. Um, we began this project including the drying technology prior to the New York State DEEC's bioolids recycling and interim strategy for PAS compounds which are the emerging contaminants that are out there and the EPA's draft sewage sludge risk assessment for PFOA and PFAS. Those are the larger chain emerging contaminants that they're addressing in this this legislation. So, our goal for this project um and the reason for the drying technology was to reduce and the hope to eliminate our almost $600,000 sledge hauling budget. Hauling costs at the landfill have gone up from $65 a wet ton a little over five years ago to over $160 a wet ton to haul our solids to a landfill. Um that's almost three times it's gone up in the last five years and will continue to go up. Also, landfills are closing. We're originally looking to bring in bioolids from other small municipalities, kind of be a merchant
facility and create a revenue stream for us and help cut their hauling costs. But when the DEC's interim strategy came out, we decided to be proactive and get our current bioolids tested for these emerging contaminants. We found that our levels were well below the established threshold set by the New York State DEEC. The established threshold was less than 20 parts per billion. Um on the PFOA we had results of 3.7 and 2.8 and on the other we had no detects which they were not detectable. This made us decide not to become a merchant facility for taking bioolids from other facilities because we didn't want to bring in someone else's issues if they have them. So we wanted to keep ours at the levels we had them at. So this made us shift the capital that we were going to do for this uh infrastructure needed for accepting bioolids and we built a bigger digtor because Fairlife had come to town and needed an outlet for their high strength organic waste. This waste introduced to the larger digtor will give us the opportunity to replace the revenue that we projected from the Halden bioolids with revenue from Halden high strength waste but also create bio gas to be utilized within the facility. All of these items were brought to the town board and and were voted on and um that
should answer the question whether this staff, our staff or the town board did their due diligence on this. There was a question whether the process is safe for the health of Webster residents and town staff. There are no issues that the Webster residents have to be concerned about. The dryer will be using uh that we'll be using will create a very dry product that will either be sent off to fertilizer or sent to a landfill. These emerging contaminants are in everything. They're in clothing, packaging, food containers, cosmetics, and so on. It's even in the drinking water. And the concern about the health of residents and concerns have been raised by the EPA's risk assessment I mentioned earlier. This study was focused specifically on farm family that lived specifically on or near a site where bioolids were disposed of in a monofill or land applied annually of about 10 metric tons per 100 acres over 40 years. And the assessment assumes that that farm family sustained itself primarily on the crops, milk, eggs, and drinking water from the impacted land over a 10-year period. It did not assess the risks of the general public who typically have a diverse diet and are not in close contact with land applied bio salads, and that would be Webster residents. Um, landfills in other states have been banned have banned land applications. Well, they're finding out that that's
been an issue for those states. Um, it was also referenced that the town of Cameron and Thirstston in New York State have banned drying technology like the ones we're installing. Those two towns have banned land application of bioolids. Had nothing to do with the drying technology that we're going to use. The state 5-year moratorum banning land application of bioolids that was proposed that is proposed was referenced. The case of legis legislators trying to regulate instead of letting the experts at the New York State DEEC and EPA continue their research which is scientific based have a better handle on this than state legislators. We understand that this is an issue for the environment and not against the continue research and studies being conducted but our argument is that they need to go after the areas where the issues are and we do not have an issue here.
Um the last item was what that what is the town of Webster going to do with the $10 million worth of equipment that they purchased that they can't use now. Well, we will be using that equipment and it's not going anywhere. We brought this technology in to reduce our sledge hauling cost. It is going to happen no matter what happens with the legislation. We decided to reduce our solid so we could send less to a landfill. Best case scenario, we give it away. Um, so this drying technology will take it from a 25 to 30% solid, which is 70 to 75% water, and take it to approximately 90% solids, which is 10% water. That's an 85% decrease in water content and we pay for that water to haul it. So, this was a revenue-driven um decision and we did do our due diligence. I apologize for my long public service announcement, but um the misinformation, I just wanted this out there to uh get a bit of clarification.
Thank you very very much for for that. Um, uh, Rick and, um, I know we've had numerous conversations, this entire board,
um, and yourself and Art and Avatas with respect to the upgrades to the sewage treatment plant which were needed years and years ago and you brought this to our attention with respect to the sludge hauling and you mentioned earlier the significant increase per ton. Okay. and hauling our sludge. So, by implementing this plan and this system, I look at it that we're looking into the future. We're planning ahead, but we're doing it in a smart manner. It's going to be a significant investment, but it's most certainly going to be a significant savings to the people in this room because we're not going to have to spend $600,000 a year hauling sludge. And you look at these other towns and villages that are going to have to haul this sludge and it's over it's doubled in the last what five years per ton the taxpayers in the v the town of Webster are not going to see that
increase because you were forwardlooking the board listened to you and I think every board member has spent time at the sewers treatment plan I know I have and I know Patty has and and and the other town board members and ask very direct questions of you and your staff with respect to not only the the drying technology and the investment thereof but also the upgrades that we're going through currently. So to that I say thank you for that okay for bringing this to this board that impacts the town in a positive manner and also thank you don't you you don't regularly hear towns responding to social media but this was appropriate in my mind and thank you for helpating I commend you for doing that. That's all.
The other thing, Rick, I'd really like to thank you and certainly all of those things needed to be addressed. And I know you and I have had numerous discussions about things that I see on social media and say, "Oh my goodness, if these people were only educated, they wouldn't be writing these things if if they were educated to the the topic and really understood it." And I I want to thank you for being proactive when you saw the issues that we could have in causing our product to be over the DEC limits. You said, "Okay, wait a minute. We need to change courses here because this is going to be an upand cominging issue. So, let's avoid it completely and move in another direction." And I want to thank you for being proactive and educating the board as to why it was important to do that. I welcome questions from anyone public at all just for this because it is an education process.
That's one thing I I highly respect and not only of Rick but our other department heads. Um I'm not I'm kind of known for being direct. I I don't really beat around the bush too much.
No,
really? No.
Well, it's you know it can work to my advantage and my disadvantage. But the one thing that I really respect about Rick, as I said, and my other and the other department heads is when I I'll go in and ask a question and I always get a direct answer. I don't get, you know, maybe this or maybe that. They'll either say yes or they'll say no or you're right or you're wrong. And you can't ask any more in my opinion from anyone when you're having a conversation, especially on a topic that may be controversial than just get a direct answer. I just that's just the way I was brought up and and Rick every time and I've had we've had some pretty hard discussions. Um and um and he's always honest and direct and I can't as a board member I cannot ask anymore of any of the department heads.
I I think it's also important that you know people read a lot as I said I've read a lot and I say to Rick, "Oh my gosh, can you believe this?" Um but rather than believe everything that's out there, just go to a subject matter expert.
Yes.
And and get the real story.
It's a great point. Well, uh, yeah, Rick is I mean, we are so fortunate to have Rick Canali as our scientist chief plant operator, uh, here in Webster. What a lot of people don't know about Rick, first of all, he's published in magazines, NAI, which is the New York Water
Infrastructure, too many acronyms in government.
Sure.
But Rick was the chief plant operator in the city of Rome for a long time and he retired. I know he seems too young for that, but then we hired him contracting here in 2020 and uh he was coming in a couple days a week from Rome just to kind of, you know, whatever. We were like, "Wait a minute, this guy is unbelievable. We need to hire him." And and we did. And he and his wife, moved to Webster. And I think is has anybody heard about how Chobani is building this massive yogurt production facility on Griffith Air Force Base outside of Rome? Well, I'm going to tell you something. He working at the Rome sanitary sewer plant back in the day, brought that technology to Rome and he started doing some of the beta testing with Chobani. And I can make an argument that Rick, you are the reason that Jobani is building their well, they're bringing all their production facilities to Rome and Griffith Air Force Base. He has brought that kind of insight and technology here to Webster. And I'm going to be very honest with you, six years ago, I walked in the door and I was like, "Oh, we have a sanitary sewer plant. This is interesting." Um, and in
the first month I was supervisor, I found out two things. One, 30 years ago, every sanitary sewer plant in Monroe County except three decided to go offline and go to Pure Waters. Go to the county. The three were the town of Webster, the village of Webster, and Honeyoy Falls. Okay. The second thing I found out when I sat down with Paul Adams, because we speak the same language as accountants, is that this was his second tour duty as our finance director as a young man in his late 20s, early 30s. He was here in 1990, right?
I was.
And he he was. And he said to me, he goes, "You know what's funny, Tom?" He goes, "I came back here in 2018. When I left here in 1990, the sewer rate, the flat rate on&m, which is operations and maintenance, and the capital rate, when you add them together, it's on your tax bill. Back in 1990, it was $200, right?
Correct. When I left in '98, it was like 164 or something.
Yeah. So, he comes back and it's still down in the 160s. And he says to me, because we're we're facing this massive sewer plant, because here's a you're not going to believe this, but sanitary sewer plants rot. Can you believe that? They rot. Well, if you suck them dry of money, which when you only charge 160 a year to the citizens when 30 years ago you charge 200, cost didn't go down. Paul said to me, you know what? If we would have kept it at 200 flat from 1990 all the way to 2020, we'd have so much money in the bank that we don't have to go into debt to rebuild this sewer plant. And as we have heard some people say tonight, our debt is pretty big now. We had to go in debt to build this sewer plant
significantly.
You know what? I was not I we went to the county and said, "Look, before we do any more on this, is there any way we could go to Pure Waters now?" And they're like, "Are you kidding me? that ship sailed 30 years ago. You can't do it. So, we all got together and said, "Well, we're kind of in a conundrum here because we got to rebuild this sanitary sewer plant. What do we do?" And that was around the time Rick came and you know, all of a sudden we got introduced some stuff that if you're going to be in it, be in it. And when he showed us technology that could reduce cost and increase revenues, all of a sudden what we were doing over there caught the eye of a place called Coke Fairlife. If we weren't in the process of doing that in 2023, and we were already a year, year and a half into it, Coke Fairlife never comes to Webster. They don't come to Webster because the the the the dairy industry I couldn't believe this. I've learned a lot about sanitary. What comes out of your toilet is easier to clean through the sewer system than what comes out of the the the the uh the milk factory, which amazed me. Right. Do you know that the 45,000 citizens in Webster,
3.1 million gallons a day of sanitary sewage comes out of your homes and businesses to our sewer plant. When they're up and running, Fairlife's three lines of production, which they say by April or May they'll be all three up and running, 2 million gallons a day of sanitary sewer coming in. That just gives you some perspective. So where Mr. Schwin got up today and read off 119% increases conceded. We have we have increased expenses, but what Paul showed during our uh budget uh you know workshop, we also have increased revenues because we got into business if we're going to do this sanitary sewer plant, which we had no choice. I got to say, it's one of my proudest things that I'll walk away from in in the next two months that this board and previous board members like Barry Dean and Bill Abbott because it wasn't easy, John, when we first heard Energy Performance. What the heck is this? This is voodoo. But we got to get educated on it because we knew that we were in a tough situation. I couldn't be happier with what has played out in this. And I said at a meeting a couple weeks ago when Rick uh I'm sorry, when Art Patron was hired in 2017, he was the perfect hireer to run
the sewer plant. He was a project manager. He had worked for Christa. He's a construction manager. They knew that they were going to be under construction at that plant. The plant was doing about $3.5 million a year of business. Next year, we got it budgeted at 11 million. Art has left for a private job. God bless him. And I said at this meeting a couple weeks ago, the town needs to look at the next person we hire at sewer. It's a different skill set. We're we're done with construction in a couple months. We need somebody who knows how to run that business because as Xerox's campus starts to get cobbled up and they sell 80 acre parcels, there could be another Fairlife building on that industrial campus. That sanitary sewer plant might be $20 million in business. And I can assure you that if that happens, you might see your sewer rate go from 258 down to 210 because we will the revenue that you get from these industries. We already have zoned industrial park that's sitting over there rotting for the last 30 years. There's some pretty exciting stuff going on in town. So I I know I overtalked. I talked more than you did, Rick, on that
one, but uh you know, John and I both contest with you.
Yeah, I know. But, uh, you know, I'm getting a little uh, you know, melancholy or whatever now that I got four meetings left that I'm starting to take
stock of, hey, you know, we got some stuff done in the last. You know,
Josh, first may I say I do not micromanage. Kevin gave me credit for jumping and getting a bigger flag. I had nothing to do with that. That was Josh's department. I got informed of it after the fact. Thank you, Josh, for getting the 5 by 8 foot flag. I was not involved in that decision, nor should I have been.
Nope.
Josh, go ahead.
Okay. Um, well, I'm happy to report to the town board that we have secured our next building inspector. Um, his name is Kevin Moore. He has 20 plus years of experience in both construction and as an inspector for several municipalities in the area. Um, and I think he'll be a great addition to our team. So, he will be starting on November 3rd and uh I will be sure to bring him to introduce him to you at a future meeting.
Thank you. That is great news.
Great,
Paul.
All right. Now that the uh 26 budget is passed, I will be compiling all the data which will be sent off to Monro County Real Property Services Department, Amy Grande, and then the Monro County Legislature takes that information and somewhere around mid November um they hopefully approve it and that drives the uh the tax rates which end up on your town and county tax bill in January. So, we're on track.
Yeah. And I know that you just started scheduling the third quarter uh 2025 budget to actual
um with the big departments and uh
that handout that I gave you earlier tonight that had their fund balance go from 16 million to 33 million at the end of 24. Notice how it has it 25 NA. Well, we don't 25 is not done. But those meetings that we'll have in the next couple weeks usually portend whether we are going to do better than budget in 25. If we do better than budget in 25, which it seems like every year we do,
it's not out of the realm of imagination that your 25 bottom line number for fund balance will push up to 35 36 million in aggregate.
It almost likely tick up a bit.
Yeah.
Mhm. and we'll the the next board will be back here saying, "Okay, next May, June, what what are we going to do? How do we get rid of that money to keep the tax and and stay within our fund balance policy?" So, as I said, a good problem to have,
but it's one that, you know,
we want to be very transparent and forthcoming to the taxpayers. We shouldn't be hoarding that money.
Um, but we can't also get rid of it all at once,
right?
That would be a bad practice. Um, Kyle,
no updates for that,
man. Five hour round trip today to Bingington to be in court for 27 minutes. Now that's a gamer, right?
Wow.
How about that? And he still looks like a million bucks. Um, last but not least is Denine, town clerk, tax receiver. And I will say this is after this board meeting, the next board meeting, we're going to go back to the round table of the the town board members, too, because the election will be over,
which should be nice.
Yeah,
we'll get back to hearing John and Patty and Jenny and Jennifer. So, Denine, you finish us off.
Just um winding down with school tax collection. We have a couple weeks left. We're just tying up some loose ends and we'll be um trans transitioning any uncollected funds to the county on November 7th. That's all.
That's awesome. Well gang, I hope everybody enjoyed this as much as I did. This meeting is adjourned.