Town Board Meeting
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. Taking a little executive privilege here before we do roll call. Um, we're going to move uh some of the agenda items up. We have people here for licensing agreements that have young children at home and I sure I'm sure they would like to get home. So I just want to make sure. Um Michelle, your address is 11:29. 11:29 is Michelle. Okay. And we're going to do that agenda item first once we do roll call. Um, and then uh Joe, your address is 753. 753. We'll do that second. Is anybody here from 493 Sherbornne? Me. And your name is Anthony. Anthony. We'll do you third. And is anybody here from 1594
Bradboro Drive? I guess we'll just keep that in order then because nobody is here. Is anybody here from 691 Maple Drive? Okay. All righty. With that being said, uh can you please do roll? Sure you can. Supervisor Flity here. Councilman Cahill here. Councilwoman Wyn here. Councilwoman Wright here. Attorney for the town Taylor here. Okay. Um, so our first item we're going to do tonight is actually number seven on the agenda, and it's a it's a a resolution to consider a license agreement to allow a 5-ft chainlink fence within a town drainage easement at 753 Tanya Circle. Um, I did that wrong. I'm sorry. Number seven is to consider a license agreement to allow a fence within a town drament at 1129 Shallow Brook Terrace. Um, and uh, Michelle Lochner, I take it you are the the property owner. I beg pardon. Yeah, it is under Christen Highland.
I'm sorry. Uh, what did I just uh remove? I'm not here for license. I'm just here to listen. Okay. Um, now I got it. I just when I thought I had my sheets correctly. I'm three sheets to the wind. Um, okay. So, it's Kristen. All righty. Well, let's put it this way. We could probably make this very easy for you because when it comes to these license agreements, especially in drainage easements, if uh Pat Stevens, our highway superintendent, has a support letter for it, which I think he does. He does. Um, that is the magic pill for this board usually saying you can have it. Any questions or comments from the board? No. I make a motion for a license agreement to allow a fence within a town drainage easement at 1129 Shallow Brook Terrace, tax ID number 095.05-4.10.1. Second. Supervisor Flity. I Councilman Cahill. Hi. Councilwoman W. I Councilwoman Wright. I Okay, that was Chris. Well, you're set. Unless you have to do any communication,
Kyle, or is that something that comes subsequent about just the legal stuff? Yeah, we'll work Josh and I will work with Kristen and the other license agreements and wrapping that up. Beautiful. Uh the next one is a uh a resolution to consider a license agreement to allow a 5-ft chain link fence with a within a town drainage easement at 753 Tanya Circle. Uh and this is Joe Schuler. Correct. And Deja Vu, I think we have our esteemed highway superintendent letter of support on this. Am I correct? You are correct. Any questions from the town board members? Nope. I am going to make a motion for a license agreement to allow a 5-ft chain link fence within a town drainage easement at 753 Tanya Circle tax ID number 094.05-2-33 05-2-33 second supervisor flity I Councilwoman W I Councilman Cahillo I Councilwoman Wright I deja vu yes sir
it might be one that's called utility Kyle and I doing this a little bit. Um, I I think you're referring to the 15 foot wide proposed pedestrian easement that's shown on the map. No, Joe, you may want to come up to the podium um to clear this up hopefully actually. There's there's two ements. There's I think there's two drainage ements. Um there's a 30 foot wide one and a 20 foot wide one. In the letter from 30 and 20 from Pat the highway superintendent, it says along the south and east side there. So those are the two areas that require the easement and they're both in the letter. I think as long as they're not a different type, then the letter should cover all the drainage ements on the property even though they're different dimensions in different locations. I think we're good. But it it's good to clarify. I just want to make sure I'm approved to build the fence. No, that's a great point because I believe the In your sorry in your interaction with Joe there are two and that probably has two filings with the I don't know there's one you guys figure that out it's one filing yeah I think it's one set of meetats and bounds I would imagine love it love it just on my review of the
abstract there's two different easements that were reserved so I don't know if that matters or if I'll need one license agreement or two still just be one license agreement okay all right goodight we say both if we need to. Okay, great. Devil in the details. I'm glad you asked. Thanks, Joe. Look at you. You're hanging out. You want to You should have brought the baby. Okay. Uh last uh but not least on my uh executive privilege of moving some things up. Um, there is a uh resolution here to consider a license agreement to allow a 4-ft chain link fence within a town drainage easement at 493 Sherburn Road. I'm a broken record. I think we have from Pat uh Stevens a support letter on this one. I know I looked earlier and they all have support letters from the appropriate uh department heads. Yep. Yes, it is in there. There it is. Okie dokie. All right. With that in mind, any questions, comments by the town board members? All right. I make a motion for a license
agreement to allow a 4ft chain link fence within a town drainage easement at 493 Sherborn Road. Tax ID number 049.20. 20-1-34. Second. I don't know what he did. Supervisor Flity. I. Councilwoman Wright. I. Councilman Cahill. I. Councilwoman W. I. All righty. Now we'll go back to our regular scheduled programming. Um, what number? Our first item tonight after those previous three is a public hearing um on a proposed cell tower uh called Creekide on a town-owned uh parcel and um I we had a workshop presentation at 6:30 by uh the Verizon crew here in the front. Um and certainly their packet uh that they presented is I think on our website now um to be downloaded and accessed by anybody that would like to see it. Um I also want to make sure everybody knows that that the there is no town board vote being done tonight about anything about this proposed cell tower. Um I don't want to be redundant
to what I said uh at the end of the workshop. The town board will take in the information that was done at the workshop presentation, things that are presented by the public at the public hearing and we will go back and I I don't know. I don't know if in two weeks we will come with a resolution or a series of resolutions on this or if it'll be longer than that. The only thing I can tell you is that there is no voting on anything tonight. This is the public hearing for the town board and the public as a whole because it's taped for posterity to hear comments for the public. So with that in mind, I am going to open the public hearing. We have two people uh from the public who have signed in to speak. And the first one is Teresa. I hope I say this correctly. Zawaki Chapman. Wait a minute. Are you related to Mike? That's my brother. How did I get that spelling? Don't tell Mike I said zawaki. You know what? I don't need him on my bad side. I don't think so. Yep. So, jump right up there, Teresa. All right. Well, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is
Teresa Zawaki Chapman. I am a mom of a first grader at Clem North Elementary School, a graduate of Webster High School, Shrader when there was only one. I'm from a family who has lived in this community for close to 60 years. My husband, son, and I live just two houses away from the parcel proposed cell phone tower site. I'm here tonight not only for myself, but on behalf of my family, my neighbors, many of whom share serious concerns about this tower being placed in our residential neighborhood. First and foremost, we are concerned about health impacts. Within a stones throw, where this tower is slated to be, there are 15 kids under the age of 15, not to mention grandkids and other younger family members. Whilst the science around long-term exposure to radio frequency radiation is still evolving, there is enough uncertainty that many communities, especially those with young families, are choosing caution. I'm a recent cancer survivor still going through active treatment, and the idea of this in my backyard terrifies me. Simply put, we do not want to be a test case for whether living next to a tower causes harm over decades. Beyond health, there's a
significant concern about property values. Studies and real estate experts have shown that pro a proximity to a cell phone tower can reduce home values by 5 to 20%. That affects us not just today, but also the future ability to sell our homes and build generational security. We're also worried about the aesthetic and environmental impact. Our neighborhood has a certain character. It's Mil Creek. It's the woods. It's beautiful. Um, it's quiet. It's green. It's residential. A cell tower changes that dramatically. We're looking at industrial equip equipment instead of trees and sky. Some towers require tree clearing and that can impact our local wildlife as well. We also ask that you consider noise and safety. Many towers include generators which may run during out during outages and emit mechanical noise. Towers are not without risk whether it's wind damage, equipment failure or being attract an attractive hazard to kids or teenagers, curious ones. Lastly, we feel strongly that other options could be explored. Could the t town consider a more appropriate commercial or industrial location? Perhaps around the Xerox abandoned area,
a rooftop installation in a non-residentidential area. These are solutions that balance the coverage needs with community preservation. We're not against progress. We're not anti-technology, but we do ask for thoughtful community centered decisionmaking. Please do not allow this tower to go forward without deeper exploration and transparent dialogue with the residents it directly impacts. Thank you, Teresa. Thank you. Well said. Okay. Uh, next up and actually our last person from the public who signed in on this is David Remington. Uh, good evening. My name is David Remington and I live at 1214 Creekide Trail directly across from the proposed location of the cell tower about 100 yards away from it. My neighbor across the street would be a 100 feet from it and our family would be looking at this out our front windows. I live probably three houses down from
Teresa. Um, and I pretty much have the same concerns as Teresa. Um, my first concern is safety. Um, many teenage kids go back there to play and um I'm just curious what would happen if they climb this tower. Um, we've called the police many times. We've lived there for 11 years about kids partying back there so often that they finally put up a chain gate to keep people from going down there. Um, it has stopped the cars from going down there, but many kids still go down there to play. and um god forbid one of them climbs it and falls and or seriously you know gets hurt or worse. Um we just feel that it would be an eyesore as Teresa said. The reason we bought this house was because it just looks like a a beautiful park setting and I think that this tower would would be an eyesore and I also agree that our property value would would uh decrease. Um just not our house but the entire neighborhood and everyone in the surrounding
area. Um I'm curious as why we need another tower. If you go on antennasarch.com, it says there are 39 towers with 154 antennas in a threemile radius of Walmart in Webster. Do we need another tower um when we already have so many towers? And if so, can it be located on a commercial property like Teresa said or in a large open space, not near a residential area like Xerox or at Webster Park? I think there's a concern about people on Lake Road have no reception. Uh could it be put at Webster Park? And then finally, um I also have health concerns and studies have shown that wildlife are more sensitive to radiation than humans. Salmon go up Mil Creek, which would be right near this tower, and um they go up there to spawn. And once they spawn, the salmon go out into Lake Ontario. And I feel that that would greatly affect the salmon population in Lake Ontario. Um, we've watched them go up this creek for years, and it's quite
a sight. And last, but not least, there have been numerous studies on humans with conclusive evidence of radiation, sickness, cancer, and biochemical changes. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts and there has to be a better solution. Thank you, David. Thank you. Um and just so uh we can kind of tie the loop on a public hearing which is has minutes to it and tape. Um, Verizon, does Mike, would this be you or as far as from the public hearing statements from Verizon or do you guys want to make any public statements or do I close this out? Okay. Is there an opportunity to bring up workshop. Yeah.
Go to the page with the orange. Yeah. Page five of the PDF. Um, so I I'll speak briefly and then I'll turn it to Mike for um for the health concerns, but to answer the question of why here, when Verizon is looking at coverage gaps within the town of Webster, um the the area that we're looking at, if you see on the screen, it's Webster North. The green uh the green coloring is showing full coverage. The lighter green to yellow um is showing a reduced amount of coverage. The orange um for example is is as if you're driving on a rural highway. Um spotty coverage but still can connect at times. And then you'll see the area in the white. Um that's the coverage gap that this cell phone tower will cover. So to answer the question of, you know, going to a more industrial space or going to Xerox or going to a commercial area, that's not within that search ring, right? It's it's within this wide area and that is the coverage gap that that this tower will serve. I'll ask briefly if we could go to page six. Uh this is a demonstration of the coverage that would be that would be provided if this tower uh is
constructed. Um so in the larger sense that is why the search ring is here. That is why the location is is in this neighborhood. Um it is the residential houses that that this tower will serve. It is the homes and communities that make calls every day. They connect to 911. It is these residences that we're trying to serve. Why this parcel is why we're before the town board. It is a town-owned parcel. It has the ability um Verizon as any commercial activity, right? Could go to any private property owner um enter into a lease and then come to the town for zoning and planning approvals. The decision in the the application before the town board is one step beyond that. It's actually to lease the property so that the income from the lease will go directly to the town and help support um town initiatives. So when looking at where towers should be placed and and I I'll even say what type of properties towers should be placed. As I mentioned during our workshop meeting, the very what the very first place that we always look at is existing towers. That's easier for us. It's easier for the town. It's a no-brainer. The next place that Verizon looks at
when it's looking at the types of sites it needs to construct, it actually looks for municipal buildings. So, it looks for municipal structures. It looks for municipal land. So, that the revenue from the lease, the leaseold, the revenue from the rent is going to the town. So maybe to say this a little less artfully, the tower needs to go into this neighborhood to serve that coverage gap. What it we're asking of the town is may we put it on town land so that the rent is going for a town purpose. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mike to address your other the other issues. Mike Crosby, Verizon Wireless RF engineer. Uh, regarding the health concerns, um, I'll just say a couple things about that because I think it's important to understand. So, I'm as a radio frequency engineer, um, you know, we're trained in RF health and human exposure. Um, but with that being said, I'm not a a physicist or, um, you know, a medical doctor or anything like that. Um, but I will say that the positioning of the antennas, which is high up on the tower above the tree line, the RF energy that's emitted from the antennas is emitted in what we call a very narrow vertical beam width. So that RF energy is high up and it's emitted out over the tops of the trees. So the people that
are close to the tower actually have very very um, you know, low levels of uh, RF energy that's that they're receiving from that nearby tower. as far as kids being, you know, access accessing that area, the RF energy levels that would be present on the ground at the closest location possible that that people could access at whether they were trespassing or not um would be u less than 1% of the maximum permissible energy level that's allowed by the FCC. And with that being said, the FCC uh exclusively regulates RF health concerns um through a document known as OET bulletin 65B. Um that document um very strictly um you know guides municipalities throughout the country on uh the health effects and their consideration of that. Um coverage wise um you know this is this is one of the largest gap areas that we have left in Webster. There are still a few. Lake Road certainly is one of them that we're looking at. In fact, you can see on this after image that the computer modeling has provided with us. You can actually see that even with this site, we still do have uh a gap at the
hole in Lake Road portion of Lake Road. There's still some weak areas along Lake Road as you get out towards Basket and County line. Um we have heard from uh customers in the Ship Builder Creek area. Uh actually during one of our recent applications for the Pellet Road and Lake Road site, we heard from several uh constituents there and we have a solution that we're planning for. um you know these other areas that are of concern. Um, but this particular one is really the heart of the northern part of Webster. And there's the the customers that we've heard from, whether they be on Joseph Circle or Aion Drive or Brooktree, Holt Road 250, Providence, um, Shoemaker, Sherborn was mentioned, uh, Nestwood, I mean, I could go on and on. that roads uh creek or uh stock bridge uh woodall you know we we've heard from so many customers in this area that coverage is unacceptable um they have no coverage in their homes um you know so this is a this is a hot spot of need for us to resolve this area um with that being said Verizon has a significant lion share of the wireless subscribers in this area uh and and it's a big
obligation of ours to address the needs of the customers and of course make sure that we provide for, you know, a safe environment for mobile users in the area. So, in the event of a real life emergency, people are able to make a call when they need to. Um, I know some customers that I've heard from, you know, that have had to call 911 and they're not able to to get a signal at all during the summertime when the leaves are on the trees. So, um, the coverage is is a real issue here. Um, but I, you know, I hope that that helps a little bit about the RF energy. One one more thing that I'll mention about RF energy and then I'll hand it back to Laura or for other you know feedback from the board is that um it's a little bit of a counterintuitive um concept. the cell site itself is actually very low power and from a any any customer any mobile phone user the RF energy that you would be exposed to that the highest level of exposure that you'd be exposed to is the phone in my case I have it in my pocket this is going to provide the highest level of RF expo RF exposure for you as opposed to the site so this is a higher level what's important about this concept is that because this is such a weak area everyone's phones that are in these weak areas are ramping up the phones themselves are ramping up the power level that the phone is transmitting at to communicate with the
network. When we're able to solve a coverage issue like this and and have a site that's close to the public where the users are, it allows the UEES or the mobile phones to be able to power down to lower levels. This is something that many people have experienced when they're talking on the phone and they're like, "Wow, my phone is really getting hot. Like, why is it because I'm on the phone too long?" could be that you're in poor RF conditions and the phone is having to struggle or ramp up power in order to do that. When when that's happening, the phone is at a higher level. Doesn't mean that it's not safe. It's just that there's a concept here that when the site is located closer to where the users are, it allows the mobile phones to power down and have an easier connection with the site. So hopefully some of that is helpful. I didn't know that. Mhm. Um, so actually talking on your phone is I know we're not I guess talk, but talking on your phone is actually more dangerous than being shell tower. Well, we can close out the public hearing and you can stay up there and the board can ask questions uh if you'd like. Um, but I will say just before because I want this in the public uh hearing minutes. Um, Teresa, I circled back uh and gave uh David the 20page uh handout that they showed a couple of pages up there. I know you came closer to look at. Uh that handout
was uh gone over in a 20-minute presentation at the town board workshop tonight by the crew from Verizon to the town board and to the public. Um you can download that off of uh the town website and print it out. um the actual um video and audio of that workshop so you can watch the whole thing uh probably will be up on our website uh probably by Monday. So you'll be able to to see all that stuff. uh anybody uh can see that stuff from the workshop uh audio and video, but also of that 20page handout that I I gave my copy to Dave uh because you were up there and he can share that with you and any of your neighbors uh in that. So, um with that being said, I just want to make sure that's in the public meeting minutes. Um, I'm going to close the public meeting and uh I will say this. I said it at the beginning before I opened the public meeting. We're not doing any votes tonight. I couldn't even sit here with a straight face and tell you if we're showing back up here in two weeks with a resolution to start a process or whatever. I don't know. Um, and you'll see that it was reiterated in in in the workshop presentation that I don't know
where we go next with this. We have to kind of come back talk to town council, kind of figure out the process and the things of that nature. And I said at the workshop, we also want to hear what does the public have to say? And we got a chance to hear that from Teresa and David today. Um, so that's all I got. Uh, town board members, if you have any questions or comments for the Verizon people or I guess I made my comment. I just didn't realize that that was the case. And my phone gets hot all the time and I talk on it all the time. And maybe I need like earbuds or something and not hold the phone to my head when I'm talking when it gets hot. Well, I appreciate you guys um addressing some of the concerns that the uh participants had. Um with respect to the safety um of because kids are going to be kids. Let's we all know that we were all kids at one time and there to the gentleman's point that the kids are still going to go back there. What from a fencing standpoint in the perimeter of the location of this um proposed cell tower? Um do you plan on putting any barriers up there is my first question.
Um the second question is with respect to the existing mature trees in that area. Um will any of those trees require being taken down if this location is eventually chosen? David Weisner with Kitchen Engineering. In regards to the fencing around the compound, the compound is roughly 37 feet by 72 feet within a couple feet. Uh we are proposing a 7 foot tall chain link fence with one foot of barb wire at the top angled out. Um so that is typically sufficient to uh prevent any uh trespassing into the compound. Uh in regards to um that takes care of the that issue. Yeah. Second trees. The part of the uh tower placement was taken into consideration. We originally proposed it in the clear area where there's the gravel turnaround area. Um, at the request of the town, we did slide that to the west to maintain the turnaround area for the town trucks. Um, so we are moving a portion of the project, the compound into the woods. Uh, it is going to be roughly about 60 feet, I would say, uh, like an area 60 by 60 uh, off the west side of that gravel turnaround area.
So, how many trees would you say have to come down? I can't give you a specific number, but I can probably find out before your next meeting. Okay. No, public hearing is over. David, I'm sorry that um certainly if the if the board has any questions of the of the public like David or Teresa, that is the public hearing is over, but the board this is where we go back and forth with each other or ask questions. Does anybody have any questions or comments for David and or Teresa who you know I ask my questions out between now and the next meeting? I'll definitely make it a point to do a site visit. Gotcha. Well, I appreciate you know all your times coming here. It's always great to see that if the town could get some kind of um um initiative, you know, to back for our community, you know, to ease the taxpayer. We appreciate that. But we I would like to see more input of the public to see how they feel about this and you know and then we can make our decision then for the process when it does come back
for a vote. Is there an opportunity? Well, you there isn't a public hearing but you can have the open to the speaker open. I'm such a good concierge or matraee that I don't want to shut down Dave or Teresa. They seem like really wonderful people. There is nothing that rules against it that the next topic that we have is the open to the public for anything their heart desires. We have John Baldwin that signed up for that and Mark Avalone. If Teresa and David want to step back on the podium and their what their heart desires is to talk more about Creekide, that's fine. But as I will explain and I guess this is I am explaining it the open to the public um one thing I will say is it's a max of five minutes. It's the worst part of my job is I'm keeping time when I got to tell somebody up there you're at 4:45 be you know let's start winding it up. There's no way I can say that without sounding like a jerk. So don't put me in that position please. What I liked about Teresa and Dave is they took three minutes and five seconds and three minutes and 10 seconds at the podium for their their statements. Very succinct. That's great. So I don't think if they go up there, they're going to go past that five minutes. Now I'm telling John Baldwin and I'm telling uh Mr. Abalone,
please consider that five minute thing when you take that podium for the open of the public. The second thing that I want to make sure everybody understands is the rules of engagement that we've had in the past where somebody takes that podium for the open to public and rattles off 37 questions where they're saying I want answers from the board on these 37 questions. The board is under no uh obligation at the open to the public to answer any questions. So I also want to make sure that that is understood. Um, with that being said, I think we are moving on to the next topic or next agenda item. And uh, I just gave the rules of engagement on that. So, John Baldwin, you're up first. Okay. Um, recently there's been an issue in my backyard. Uh, there was a in-law suite built at 504 Pipeline Way. There's five houses on Pipeline Way. Uh, that their backyard is my west property line. So,
moving my butt up. I got five properties that are draining into my property. And now I'm going to go off my sheet and try not to fear off too bad. Um, since the grading of 504 pipeline way, um, the area the area in my backyard that, uh, would be a little muddy when it rained is now ankle deep in water. Um, now I have several inches of standing water where I never had water at all after a rainstorm. Um the project review board meeting for this uh structure held on May 16th, 2024 stated if they change the grading, they should have an inspection, get grading plans to ensure it will not affect neighbors. I'm a neighbor. I'm being affected. We sent a letter to the planning board for the June 4th, 2024 meeting stating our drainage concerns for this project. The conversation between Mr. Kosani and
Ed Matthew who was representing the owners stated that no new drainage would be put in place. Recently, the builder of this project went to the Webster building department at least two times to go over new drainage proposals for this project. Part of this plan is taking pipeline road runoff and redirecting it to the back of the 504 property. So that's bringing water basically 100 ft from the road into my backyard into the vicinity of my backyard. Um, did the town engineers do any investigation with with the plans presented to make sure that they were adequate and they were tying into some existing systems and can the these existing systems handle that extra volume of water that is now being placed into it. Uh we asked through foil a copy of all drainage plans for this project because the finished results have a negative impact in our pro property. The town could not find
anything for the foil foil request and my wife asked for certification which she got that the town does not have any documents for these drainage. I was planning on going to the zoning board for this application to further state my drainage concerns, but the project never went before the zoning board even though it is 30% larger than the town code allows. Code states 750 square feet and the plan state 10,72 square feet. It also the code um also the code states one bedroom and one seating area but the plants show a second room that could be a second bedroom or a second seating area. Also the one set setback is 14 12 ft off the property line where 15 is required. So I'm confused why that didn't go before the planning board or the zoning board. And basically the problems that were re were recurring were not caused by us. It
was a neglect by parties involved that didn't take into account the storm water coming into my property. and my wife and I should not be responsible for fixing this problem when we did not cause it. And that's basically what I want to say. You did fantastic as you were at 4:35. He saved me from having to say it. And I got to let you in on a little tell about the town of Webster uh organizational structure. Um, unfortunately, I'm at the top of it, I guess, as the town supervisor, and maybe you can, this will, uh, make sense to your own job or if you're on top of the ORC structure at your job. The department heads are fantastic here. And tonight we have the town engineer, we have the finance director, we have town legal, we have the head of the the highway department who oversees drainage. We have Mark Stein, the assistant town engineer, and we have uh the Josh Artuso, community development director, who handles planning board, zoning board. Mr. Baldwin just got a heck of an audience of the key players
on what he just described. I really enjoy working these with these people. I'm done as supervisor in a little under seven months. One thing I'll miss is working with these people. This is a professional lot. And early on, I said, "Do me a favor. If you think that your interaction with a citizen or a contractor or an engineer is starting to bubble up to the top where this may end up on my desk, would you give me a heads up?" Today, Keith Mortimer sent me a very long email thread between Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin and several of these people here that said, "You should see this, Tom, because this might come in front of you at some point through call or whatever." Actually, it was through Mr. Baldwin coming to the town board meeting. So the reality is where I'm I can't answer your questions today, but I know that this group is on it and so you and your wife will get some answer from the town forthcoming probably next week. What that answer is, I don't know because you described what you said. I respect that. these people need to now go and tell us the fact pattern and
sometimes descriptions are different from the fact pattern. I hope they're exactly what you said and there can be a remedial situation to you and your wife's uh liking. So, we'll see. Okay. Well, I mean, thank you, John. Yes. Thank you. All righty. Uh, next up is Mark Avalon. Um, I just thought this gentleman to see if they can Google a video for me and I want you to see a video on YouTube. This This is a wild night. Is it Is it a First of all, Mark, could you get on the podium so the people that are watching this either live or whatever? Okay. My name is Mark Avalon, Lemon Gravel Road. Okay. I'm a service connected disabled veteran. I fought in the Gulf War, Desert Blanket, Desert Storm. I was the first 100 people over there. Okay. And you that Thank you. You had asked if can you get something up on there? I mean, we're trying. Is or is that we have internet connection? I believe so. Mark, what do you want on the screen? Because we'd like to accommodate your request. Okay. There's a disturbing video that affects everybody in this room. Maybe we don't want to put this up. Describe the video and then we'll make a judgment call on whether we're putting that up. I'll tell you exactly what it is. Me and my wife encounter a death threat from a person across the street. My wife has left me. We got a
divorce. And this video was loud, obnoxious. Two women across the street threatened to kill my wife. My wife is Filipino. I see you have a a a um Vietnamese woman on the board. And this is a cancer that's bleeding in a Webster. Next thing we know, we have four wheels and dirt bikes riding up and down the road. I went to the police. The police say there's nothing I can do. I'd like you to see this video. Uh, we're not going to put the video up and I hope you appreciate why, Mark. Okay. Um, but that is something that um if I'll give you my card, reach out to me tomorrow. All right. We'll talk offline. Well, okay. Because and and I'll research it also with the police department and what happened. And once again, I appreciate what you said and I respect what you said. I'm going to go to the police department for the fact pattern and we will talk about this offline, but we're not going to put that video up. That was the first time in five and a half years that I've been supervised that somebody came up and said, "Can we put a video up there?" Um, we're not going to do that one. Anyway, I'll give you my card. We'll talk tomorrow. All right. Thank you, Mark. Now, that is the last person who
signed up for this, but like I said previously, if David and or Teresa want another shot about talking about something, you're more than welcome to. You certainly can. And what is your name? My name is Christine. You do. So, we have Who do we have? We have Christine. And your last name again is is Remington. Oh, excuse me. Tom say first of all sir Paul I mean I'm sorry to hear what you know about your incident and everything. I I love Webster and I yeah this is you. Um it's about you. I'm just saying that you know I'm really am sorry. First of all I would like to say thank you for your service. Um, I love Webster and to hear things like that is very very disturbing and it's saddened you know. Um, so I believe that Tom our supervisor and all of us Tom War here will look into it to see what's the situation and maybe we can help try to resolve for you. If I may I have been to the place many times. Okay. All right. I'm going to make this very clear and thank you for saying that. I'm Can you hang on one second?
I'm going to hand you my card. I wrote down my cell number. My cell number is not on my card. Mark, you and I will talk about this tomorrow. We might get together for coffee, but we're not going to deal with this now. Thank you for coming. Mark the pizza. It'd be great. I'm hungry. All right, Christine, by all means. And I take it you're at uh the same address as uh My name is Christine Remington and I am David Remington's wife. We are at 1214 Creek Side Trail. Um and I know I was not on the original docket or signup sheet, but I just appreciated after hearing a couple of minutes. Um, I just had a couple additional thoughts I wanted to share. So, thank you guys for a couple of minutes. Um, so while I do appreciate and I did learn from a business standpoint, I can certainly understand why Verizon may see this site as advantageous or a convenient spot. Um, it from a business standpoint and additional cell coverage, I can
appreciate and understand that may be a great spot. Um however, living there for over 10 years, knowing the families in that area, knowing the impact, the kids that have grown up in that area, um this could have a tremendous impact, negative impact on all of us in that area, including all the children that run around the street that play our kids that are just having a great time. Um, I wanted to add that uh with uh the structure of this potentially being built, it would I would imagine cause increased traffic from trucks or maintenance folks or whomever to check on the status of it if there's outages, if there's they need to check on it. Um, I would imagine the traffic flow going down this very quiet neighborhood would increase tremendous tremendously. Um, it's a very quiet neighborhood and I don't know, um, I I live directly across the street from we call it the service road. I don't know what the exact town wording is um, what the name of is. I live directly across from that. So, I have noticed actually an increase in traffic and um, I now
understand it's probably site visits. It's probably been folks checking out to see is this a uh, an appropriate site. Um, and that is concerning to me seeing the number of vehicles going down there. Um, and then from a safety standpoint of um, I don't exactly understand the technical term of the height of where the RF waves will go, but they're at a certain height because they can't be lower is perhaps my understanding. Maybe from a safety standpoint, they can't be lower. Um, and perhaps I don't have that correct, but that is concerning to me that it is that close that we will see this that um this beautiful treed park-like setting. Um, perhaps trees may get cut down. I was not clear on uh the exact proximity, but that would also go closer to this creek that Dave had mentioned where there's all kinds of wildlife in there. Um so if whatever these RF waves are or um anything else that could expose this creek or anything else in the surrounding area, that is also another concern. Um, so if a site visit has not been done from the Verizon team
and or anybody on the board that is contemplating or considering uh this proposal, I I beg you to look at this area, to look at the impact that this could have and would you want this in your front yard, your backyard, your sideyard, whatever. Um, so I thank you for a couple minutes. Thank you very much. Do the people over in your neighborhood. Do you guys have an internal clock that you all speak in about three hour three minutes and 10 seconds? It's uncanny. Well, I I was trying to keep it under the two minutes. You did fantastic. Apparently, I went over. No, you have five minutes. No, you five minutes. Yeah, you did it at 3 minutes and 17 seconds when I hit the timer. And that's, you know, look at that. Yeah. Teresa, you getting back up there? If if Okay. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. I knew that was coming, right? We don't you don't have a bank, by the way, that you can trans. You know, my brother I know. Well, you know, if Mike came in here, I'd give him more time because I Well, you know, I know. Yeah. Um, thank you for uh the Ryzen team for sharing this extra bit of information for me. And as I was looking at it, um, you know, interestingly enough, I found out
about this from Michelle who lives a little a few houses down from us, you know, a couple weeks ago, and it was like, wow. And thinking about it of of where it is and and looking at it on this map, it's like, wow. Okay, so this is this is the proposed site right in my house. SM. This is where my six-year-old, my husband and I go into the backyard where we hike, where we fish in Mil Creek to catch those salmon that who knows what could happen. We have deer that are beautiful and nest in that area. Um, and I'm just curious because when we we bought this house and one of the one of the things about Webster that is beautiful is is the parks in these areas. We're booming. We know these there's neighborhoods going up left and right. Um, but I I thought like the this area and I don't know if this is a question for the town board, but do forever wild areas in our town still
exist because it was to my understanding that and I know there's a water treatment pl there's a water treatment and we do have a lot of traffic and this is going to breathe significant and I kind of like where I lived because I can know that Nathaniel is safe in our cult going on what we call scoot scootaloops to scooter. Um, but this is gonna this is this is literally in in our backyard. Um, and and the area that that's this is going into this is a beautiful area and I I am invite I'm inviting all of you in this town board because again I'm right here this little area here. Come to my house. I'll make coffee. If you want a glass of wine, if you just want water, sparkling water, whatever, grill or whatever, come sit on my patio in the back. Let's I want you to come see the area and we can walk down. You can take a look at it. But it it's my understanding this this area was and was to be forever wild. And if we can think about that as a town in our community, can we can still conserve some of these areas that are forever wild and that are homes to not just us but to so many
other things, so many creatures, so many things. Um, I'm really happy that I came tonight. I'm going to continue to educate myself on more information from and to study on this and I will be back to be able to speak. I will talk with our community, our neighbors that are also on this map a little bit more. But um yeah, thank you for for the time. Thank you for sharing this. And um I'll be back with more questions, but the the uh invite is welcome for the board to come on over to the Zacki Chapman House 1219 Scenic Circle. Thank you, Teresa. 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Unbelievable. It just is amazing. Um there's an internal body clock. Um okay. Uh we are moving on with the next part of our agenda. This is a bit of housekeeping. The first couple ones I think Jennifer the minutes first. We got to do the minutes first. Oh shoot. I'm so discombobulated tonight. I forgot. Moving everything around. I am uh okay. We have two uh sets of
board minutes uh on the agenda for consideration for approval tonight. They are from the meeting three weeks ago. our last board meetings. Um, I've reviewed them. They look great. Uh, thank you, Denine. Timely as as usual. Um, I make a motion that we approve the May 15th, 2025 town board workshop minutes. Second. Supervisor Flity, I. Councilman Cahill, I. Councilwoman Wyn, I. Councilwoman Wright, I. And I make a motion that we approve the May 15th regular town board meeting minutes. Second. Supervisor Flareity. I, Councilwoman Wyn. I, Councilman Cahill. I, Councilwoman Wright, I wasn't you, John. Now it's my turn. Yeah. All right. It was a crazy week, but I reviewed all of the bills and they are in order and I make a motion that we approve the bills as submitted by the director of finance. And a little bit of commentary at the end of that. very excited about the progress that the finance team is making to advance on a paperless approval system um in leveraging the munis technology that the town has already invested in. I'm very excited about um
the opportunity that it's going to save from a cost savings perspective and a paper perspective and I'm happy that's moving forward in addition to approving the bills. And that's my motion. Second. Councilwoman Wright I. Councilman Cahill. I. Supervisor Flity. I. Councilwoman W. I where I'm with Jennifer on that. That wasn't all in the motion though, right? That's not minutes that she prefaced it by saying I have some commentary. Right. I Okay. Um, and then, uh, I did review the prepaid warrants as submitted by Paul Adams, director of finance, and make a motion we approve those. Second. Supervisor Flity. I, Councilman Cahill, I. Councilwoman Wen, I, Councilwoman Wright, I. And I did uh, review the purchase orders uh, submitted by Paul Adams, director of finance, and make a motion that we approve those. Second. Supervisor Flity. I Councilwoman W. I Councilman Cahill I Councilwoman Wright I uh Paul do you want to say anything
about the next one? Sure. Uh in early May we received our final audit report from our CPA firm bar and they provided an unqualified opinion dated April 24th. So the town's in good standing. We have the 50 plus page report and uh we're on to another year. Yeah. Uh this is kind of countant uh language, but uh you know how like if you go for a test medically and they say it's negative and that's good, right? Negative is good. Unqualified in an audit report is good. That's very good. And just in case anybody's like, "Oh, they're unqualified." No. Unqualified in an audit report is thumbs up. Thank you, Paul. So, um I would make a motion that we accept the 2024 independent audit report is prepared by Mangal Mezer Bar and Company LLP. Second. Supervisor Flity I. Councilwoman Wright I. Councilman Cahill I. Councilwoman W. I. Um, the next two, one thing that I I got to say, I really thank you, Paul, that you always seem to get to the town
board these transfers and amendments probably nine days prior to the meeting. Get them out there. You get them out there early. So, does anybody have any questions on what Paul got out as far as the transfers and amendments? Okay, questions. No, no questions. Probably explain. Uh, this includes three amendments in regard addition to some transfers. Uh, one of the transfers actually refers to one of the items Jennifer just mentioned. Um, and taking the purchase orders and vouchers to a paperless system. We had a purchase software product called TCM actually allows us to attach all supporting documents to everything electronically. So that's one of the transfers and the other amendments two of them relate to grants that we received. one for tasers and one for records management whichffects our town. Yes. And the third amendment pertains to some Monro County that we received are going to be receiving. our parks and recreation department decided to purchase a 22 passenger van
uh to service our seniors and to be used for some other purposes and that's being paid for without funds. So, we're expanding the budget to allow for that. He's he quick he's not getting a taser, right? Parting gift. No, too soon. Right. Well, I'm going to make an appro a motion to approve the 2025 budget transfers as presented by Paul Adams, director of finance. Second, Supervisor Flareity I. Councilwoman Wright I. Councilman Cahill I. Councilwoman W. I. And I didn't say getting tased. I meant receiving a taser. Well, John knows if I get a taser, I'll tase myself. And that's why they should not give me one. Anyway, uh I make a motion to approve the 2025 budget amendments as presented by Paul Adams, the director of finance. Second. Supervisor Flareity, I. Councilwoman Wyn, I. Councilman Cahill, I. Councilwoman Wright, I. So, the next two, which are uh licensing agreements, I mean, I'm usually uh Pat,
the the applicant comes to the meeting. Is there any particular reason why they didn't? Not that they have to be here. I I don't think there's any particular reason. No. Uh they all got reviewed the same on my part. Uh we've discussed similar things with them. You know, all of these situations are areas where there's an easement. We evaluate it and see if it would it'll hinder us from doing what we need to do in that easement. Um we just apparently have a a large run of these where um there's easement in an area that doesn't have either a lot of infrastructure or doesn't need a lot of work. um oftentimes there isn't any feature there to be maintained. Yeah. Um so that those are the circumstances we can grant them. Uh these next two are are of that similar nature. I don't know if the folks are busy or and you have support letters on both of them. So yeah, correct that. And to to that last point, I don't want to uh and Kyle, this is going to probably be something you'll deal with potentially long after I'm gone is that we talked about this at previous board meetings. the way certain easements were set up in town in subdivisions a long time ago didn't we were finding they don't make a lot of sense like you said some of them like the person wants to put a fence in their backyard that's a thing you'd like to do but the whole backyard is a drainage easement pack goes out there and says yeah really only about 10 feet of the back of the thing should be you know
what we got to maintain I I don't know what the thought process was by the developer their attorney the plan I I don't know but this is where we find And sometimes these easements are expansive over a certain amount of square feet, square yards that they just you can put a fence in there. It's not a big deal. Now whether we go to to to to take and get rid of old easements to set up new ones, that is a massive project. I couldn't even imagine what that would take to do. I'll get off my soap box. Uh, I'll make this quick. Uh, make a motion for a license agreement to allow a six-foot privacy fence within the town drainage easement at 1594 Bridalboro Drive. Tax ID number 050.02-2-31. Second, Supervisor Flity. I, Councilwoman W. I, Councilman Cahill, I. Councilwoman Wright, I. And I make a motion to consider to I make a motion to issue a license agreement to allow a sixoot privacy fence within a town drainage easement at 691 Maple Drive. Tax ID number 063.20-1-87. Second.
Supervisor Flity. I. Councilwoman Wright I. Councilman Cahill. I. Councilwoman W. I. All right. We're coming down the stretch. Josh, do you want to give any comments on why we're about to table this one or Kyle? Yeah, I'll make a comment because Josh had gotten those proposed changes over to me. Um, and I had a chance to review them. I sat down with Josh this week and I just identified some further uh revisions and other areas to consider. So, in the interest of just being comprehensive and thorough, u we decided to table it. All good. Yes. Uh make a motion to table uh to the setting of a public hearing on appro code changes related to code enforcement and property maintenance for June 18th, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. to be advertised in the Wednesday, June 11th, 2025 addition of the Webster Herald. That's my motion to table that. Second. Supervisor Flity I. Councilman Cahill I. Councilwoman W I. Councilwoman Wright I. And a little deja vu when we did this last time I think John you asked like well is that what do we do when we come back because we tabled this on May 15th right so we will change all the dates when we come back to the appropriate in the future. Okay. Is that right? That's
correct. I don't know if table is the proper but the spirit of it we know what Yeah. All right. Well this is the big one. Lucky number 13. Um h you know how many times I've said at this board deis that uh we paid $1 for 600 Ridge Road, John, we might have got ripped off. No, we did not. And I will expand on some of the discussion we had earlier with respect to the um the bids that came in and the bid that we ultimately selected. Um probably 10 15 years ago, we demolished a building in the in the village. Oh, it was very unsightly. It's like a four-unit building and it was just it was in very bad shape and you know, no the banks didn't want to do anything with it and we paid back then was like $45,000. So this price is a very good price. Um so congratul congratulations on going through that process. Um, and again it's astounding the difference the swing from low to 175,000 if and why I said John we got ripped off
and not to Jennifer or Jenny. John's in the trades. He's in the construction. He's been in the demolition business pretty you know at one point. Yeah. So that's why I address him because well John was also here I think probably when you paid a dollar for the building. Yeah. Jenny was too. Yeah I was. I was here. So was Jenny. Yeah. And I actually walked that building um when we we did a site visit. I don't Were you there, Josh? I was not, but I heard about it. Yeah. And I I was just astounded that they would even consider, you know, having someone go in there and and take a look and and, you know, put it up for sale. That building when I was in there years ago was in very very poor structural uh condition. Yeah. I was shocked too. Yeah. Um so anyway, um this was talked about at the workshop. It's been talked about ad nauseium for several years. Is it It's just great that it's finally coming to fruition. I mean, it's the lynch pin of that. It really is. And and you cannot have a plan as a planner, Josh, and you know, to redevelop the West Webster Hamlet a 100 yards in each direction of that intersection and not admit that you
have to take out 600 ridge first. Yes, that domino has got to go first. Y and we're about to potentially topple that domino. So, I mean, John, this is kind of close to your heart. Do you want to make the motion since this kind of your belly wick? I'll move to accept a low bid for demolition services at 600 Ridge Road and authorize supervisor to sign said contract. Second. If if I may, supervisor, just to amend that uh motion there. Uh the contract Josh is there there's two separate ones. One with the uh elite excavating and one with lo. That is correct. That is correct. Okay. So just both contracts both contracts contracts with elite excavating not to exceed uh $59,500 and a separate contract with loure for an amount not to exceed what was the amount Josh,000 believe it was 5850. Do you have Yeah. 587 5850 the back fill was 10 grand, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. 5850. That's my motion. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Great point. Go. Second. Councilman Cahill. I.
Councilwoman W. I. Supervisor Flity. I. Councilwoman Wright. I I'm I'm voting I. But I just want to say a couple words about this. Sure. Um I I think it's very unfortunate that we are not getting the grant to be able to do this work. That would have made this decision a lot easier. But I know um it's very difficult to predict, but I believe given the condition of the of the building and hearing what council councilman Cahill had to say as well as Josh Artuso, the cost of the ongoing maintenance or abatement or anything else that can happen with this property. While we don't have a crystal ball and know what that may be, um I do think this is a good thing to move forward with um for the health and safety of the public and for the people in the area. David lives down the street. This has been going on for decades. Like I was going to say like 20 years. It was a a a web a such a complex web that nobody wanted to tackle it. So again, I wasn't
here when all of that happened, but I commend the board and the people before me, Tom, and Patty, John, you were on the board like back when some of this really started. Um it's like 20 years coming to a closure and uh it'll be really nice. the domino needs to fall and then maybe once the domino falls, round four of the grant, the restor grant might actually be awarded. That'd be great. Uh I hope private money starts to show its funnel in after we get the phase two testing done. Um and I think you'll see that's just my guess. you'll see some private interest in developing there. We'll see. Um that's a milestone event that uh resolution that we just passed. Um wow. Uh I didn't think that uh Brighton needed to come tonight because this is kind of a housekeeping item. Uh Paul, I'm involved in this. Ah Paul, go ahead. Certain elected and appointed officials
have to do join the retirement system have to do a time study usually once per term. So they do like a premon. That's all it is. We just have one person this time around had to do the study. Okay. I'll make a motion to adopt the standard workday and reporting resolution for the New York State and local employee retirement system. Second. Councilwoman Wright, I. Councilman Cahill, hi. Supervisor Flareity, I. Councilwoman W. I. All right. And here we go. It looks like it's uh spring cleaning time in Webster. Uh I'll do human resources. I make a motion to approve the following asset for recycling from human resources. A wood desk asset tag number 3033. Second. Supervisor Flity. I. Councilman Cahill. I. Councilwoman W. I. Councilwoman Wright I. I guess I'll do the supervisor's office, too. I make a motion to approve the following assets for recycling from the supervisor's office. A modular workstation asset tag number 42 and a dust unit with two file drawers. Asset tag number 42. Second.
Supervisor Flity. I. Councilwoman W. I. Councilman Cahill. Hi. Councilwoman Wright. I the heck. We got to get more liaison ship out of the supervisor's hands. I I guess I'll do community development, too. I make a motion to approve the following assets for recycling or transfer of the from the community development/engineering department. The attached list. Second. Supervisor Flity. I. Councilman Cahill. I. Councilwoman W. I. Councilwoman Wright. I. I'd move to approve the following uh assets for recycling from the sewer department as listed. Second. Councilman Cahill. I. Councilwoman W. I. Supervisor Flareity. I. Councilwoman Wright. I. Now, I know you're running out, but now we do a round table and the the department heads give a little update. You might be excited about this, but I also appreciate if you got to get home. Uh, so we're going to start with Keith Bordr, our town engineer. what you got for us tonight? I uh can confirm that Pittsburgh is a fun town to visit. Nice long weekend
there um this past weekend and it's a it's a nice place to be. I haven't been to Pittsburgh before. Highly recommend a visit. Good update. Terrible tow. Is is is the theme going to be vacations? Paul, where have you been lately? What? No, your update. Uh, well, tomorrow's June 6 deadline for the department. together next week in the next 10 days and we'll have meetings with the department heads and town supervisor and the board lie where we go from there. Other than that, uh my daughter has a baby girl. Congratulations. 6 lb 14 o. A little peanut 19 in a peanut. Tiny. That's awesome. Monday night. That was fun. Cool. Cool. Mark, um, we had two interns start about two weeks ago. Yeah. James and
Caitlyn. So far, they have been proved their worth by far. They've uh, really have been undertaking our pond inspections that we need to get done yearly as part of our MS4 studies. They've dove right into our GIS issues. These kids coming out of college these days already have more knowledge in some of this IT stuff and uh they're so far have been very great. Can't wait to work with them all summer. Awesome. Josh, um we are continuing our public engagement efforts associated with the comprehensive plan update project. Um, our survey is still online and accessible. So, I urge anyone who hasn't had a chance to check that out and participate to do so by visiting the project website, webster 2040.com. Um, I will be at summer celebration this weekend. We'll be engaging. We'll be holding another popup event at that uh at that event. And uh I'd also like just to take an opportunity to thank Mark Stein for all of his assistance with the RFP process for 600 Ridge. Um it was very helpful to
have his expertise on that. So awesome. Kyle, no update from the No update from Kyle. Well, last but not least, the esteemed town clerk, also tax collector. So tax collection is over. Um Monday was the last day for taxes to be collected for town and county and we will be surrendering the remaining um warrant amount over to Monroe County on Monday. And for town clerk, we are booming with marriage licenses for all of our June brides. So it's been pretty crazy with all of our marriage licenses. So that's all. Awesome. Well, guess what? Uh, we'll get out of here before 9:00. Thank you everybody.