Town Board Workshop
[Laughter] No way. With the round table even with town inclusion we're live now. Oh, well, you know, I mean, it is a workshop, so I mean, okay. Um, for anybody that is in the room watching uh the last 30 seconds or watching live at home or watching a tape of this, I hope the last 30 seconds showed that we try to have a little fun uh at the Webster Town Board because uh you know, all things considered, Kyle, I think you would agree, we do a lot of serious stuff, so you gota kind of cut the tension sometimes with a little joking. So anyway, and John Kale and I were accused this week of you guys got to grow up. And we're like, we're not going to grow up. What would be the fun in that, right? Little late. Right. Well, anyway, um welcome to the uh Thursday, March 20th um town of Webster workshop. Uh we have three uh presentations tonight and we're going to start off um with Chris Bo, our uh parks and recreation commissioner is going to present on uh and I always I'll let you describe it because I the acronym PROSAR I butcher it every time
but you're you have a presentation on the committee recommendations of restructure. So Chris, I'll hand you the the top. Thank you. Um, yeah. So, Prosar, uh, Prozar is currently, as you are aware, the advisory board to the parks and recck department. Uh, Prosar stands for Parks, Recreation, Open Space, Athletic Review. Um, so sort of a sort of a mouthful. And what I'm going to do tonight is kind of just go over a few things that I'm suggesting uh from a restructure standpoint. It's it's and I'll go through this as I go through the slides. Something that I've been um debating and kind of going over the last uh for about the last year as the uh the information that's shared during these uh bimonthly every other month meeting um has not been as uh useful and uh engaging as I think we probably need it to be in the department. Uh and that's not to say that it's um you know on the committee members responsibility or even mine. It's sort of a shared responsibility over how this has morphed over over the time. Um and let I'll start by kind of going over what I'm going to go over this evening. for the agenda topics. Uh give you a quick overview of what Prosar is um sort of how it was started and
then the recommendation moving forward. Um how we take that ProsAr structure and again get the most out of uh the input from our residents that uh serve or participate on those committees. Those three being uh recreation programs, our parks and then uh 55 plus programming or senior programming. Those are the three key areas obviously of our department. Um and then kind of going into a little bit of the creation and the structure of what those uh those three components will look like. So to go backwards a little bit, Prosar uh originally what that uh when that was originally designed uh the original intent not as effective and one of the reasons is a lot of the information that Prosar initially kind of dealt with we no longer deal with. And one of the examples that I put on there uh is field usage. Um you know there is a uh there is a dedicated group that kind of goes over field usage especially uh through you sports council. There's a lot of decisions that are made and discussed within that organization. And then obviously on our end um our field usage is really determined by availability. um you know if we have it available and groups are able to utilize the field space that we
have we make that available. So that's just one side of it. Also again in regards to the athletic review portion of pros are uh you know the fieldhouse we've we've actually gotten to the point where a lot of our activities now we we um hold those activities in house. Good example is this year we took the North Coast program which used to be held at uh at the fieldhouse at Thomas, moved that program back over to the rec center. Uh so all of the games and activities actually took place uh under our roof. So we were able to do that. So again, not as much need for this group to kind of focus on that athletic review piece. Obviously, we're still looking for the community input, which is, you know, the intent of what pros are or an advisory board is. So we're not looking to go away from that int that portion of how uh prosar was structured. Uh we're just looking for more specific feedback in those three core areas. So recommendation that that um that I've shared with uh both supervisor and then also our department liaison Jennifer um is that what we'd like to do is have three of the three focus groups each one would be sort of chaired or or led by um department staff recreation program
events pretty self-explanatory you know focus on current and future programs events offered through the department providing suggestions and input on new programming be led by our uh recreation director Katie Copart 55 plus programming provide focused senior programming provide opportunities for changing senior program needs obviously that's a big one as we start to see sort of the the needs and the uh the interest of our 55 plus participants changing over time and that would be again led by department uh staff DF uh Daphne Gioka and then parks and open space provide a focus on current parks properties ities including the features and amenities uh within them provide input on current town and land and future opportunities as arise. So again to go back to the Prozar structure um you know as open space or as land was being acquired Prozar would give provide some input on potential use of those properties that would stay the same. we would just have it that information would be shared by the park side uh of this these focus groups and again that would be head up by our parks director Glenn Moral. So those are the three groups that I'm suggesting we kind of go to. Um and now I'll get into real quickly the uh the creation and the
structure of what those three groups look like. So each group um would ideally have four to five residents. does not need to be a specific set amount but for just um what I'll say is good group dynamics as well as conversation four to five residents participate quarterly meetings or as needed so if something may come up again I'll go back to that park de uh example piece of property comes up and town board wants to have some input from the park focus group you know they may need to meet additionally on top of those four times a year um and then they can they'll meet discuss obviously on items that relate directly to their area. Uh the rec side is we've had some discussions internally. We would focus those those time frames of those meetings would be around when the seasonal brochures get being prepared. So that way there if there's programs that the community wants to see uh that we can meet that need uh we can include those in the seasonal brochures. Um, so the town will accept any individual to a focus group at any time. So in other words, there's no term limit. I think one thing that's happened over time and especially for the Prozark group since, you know, again, it is an advisory group. It's not a decision-making board. Um, is we were in
a loop of, you know, people coming on and serving their term and then looping off. I'm not sure there's really a reason why a resident if they have an interest to stay on I'll say the rec programming side they could stay on it for two three four as long as they really want as long as they're providing input. Um I think that's the one caveat to it that we'll kind of make sure they adhere to is that you know they're not just showing up for a meeting but they're actually providing their input. Um, and I think what we'll hopefully gain from this is that input because as we were having our Prozar meetings, especially this past year, they were really becoming more information-based from me. Um, where I was providing sort of a monthly report or a bimonthly report on activities and things that were going on and then the next step. So um I'm hopeful that you know with a group of four to five people in a specific area that they have an interest in um that you know that that discussion or conversation will sort of be enhanced. Um obviously if we grow outside of four or five people so if we put out the you know the the call for participants on these groups and we end up with seven or eight people that's fine. We can make that work. um you know
the more input that we receive obviously you makes us better. So um you know there there's no limit as to the number of people that we would uh we would want to have or have to have on this group but again just from a general consensus four to five people is an ideal group size to have for us. Uh I have shared this dis or this topic with our current proar members. Uh there is only five of them. So we only have five individuals who are members right now. Um we have three very what I'll say very active members who have been around for uh a few years and those three individuals have reached back to me and all three of them had shared an interest that they'd like to continue and actually all three of them shared uh a different focus area that they'd like to participate in. So it kind of goes to what I'm suggesting that there's that interest already maybe in specific areas. So each one of those members has already mentioned, you know, one would like to be in the rec side, one would like to be in the park side, and one would like to be in the 55 plus. So we already have what I'll say is sort of a start to that. So that is what I have for you. Questions? Looks like Kate fantastic.
I couldn't be more proud of you. Well, since uh Councilwoman um Wright and myself kind of got an audition on this one from Chris and we were like, "Yeah, it seems like a good idea." I I don't I guess John and Jenny, this is your first time potentially seeing and hearing this idea? I have no questions. I mean, truthfully, ideally what'll happen is we have three committees and if we could get I'll say five people on each one, that's a a board of 15 people where currently we're drawing four or five. So, I'm thinking realistically we'll actually end up with more participation by going with this. So, um I think we're going to get more value out of out of out of the input. I I the more that's what I think as well. I think it increases the community participation and I know the community has been very interested in in different things happening in the town. So this allows increased community participation but it also allows them to go deeper into the areas that they're focused in which like you said will make those conversations much more they'd be more enriched. I I really think the one area that's going to have the best
benefit is going to be the seniors or the 55 plus. Um, it just provides an opportunity for people if they do have that interest, it provides that specific forum for them. Why am I glad you said that because I want to come back to that in a second. We're going to get ahead of this schedule, John. But Jenny, do you have any questions or comments on this? I think it's a good idea and thank you so much for putting your, you know, input into that and have our community, you know, interact with us. This is very, very important. We want to be a relationship. more community input that you have the town benefits as a whole in my opinion. So I think what you're doing is great. I agree. So I just have a couple I guess comments pseudo questions and we'll move on. But um Kyle, I don't expect you to give an answer on this today, but uh it is an it's an advisory board. It's not legislative. To me, that means we have a lot more latitude on what we can do with it. we couldn't come in to and say, "Hey, let's change the planning board and do all this stuff." That's a little different. Um, but on that same note, I I I wonder if we should with Ne's help research like did the town board ever do a resolution to either set up
ProSAR andor approve the bylaws because the current it's a goofy I call it setup right now with the two-year terms term limits or three year whatever it is nine members it's very different from all of our other citizen boards. So, I don't know the genesis of how it came to that. Yeah. But I I wonder if you know, Kyle, if we if we researched and saw how it started, maybe we can just kind of continue on with that with some like board resolution in the future to basically not a lot of heavy lip, but change it to this. Um, if we did something as a board 10, 20, 30 years ago, I don't know. Yeah, I'd agree with that approach. I can work with Denine on that. Yeah. Thank you. And then the last thing is is that I have to chuckle when and uh the 55 plus um I'm not going to ask people's age on this deis but I I do not envy Daphne and you Chris on that because the interest of that population runs the gamut and and I don't know how it's got to be so challenging because some of those people I see them in the rec center they just want to lift lift weights and run marathons and do stuff
that 20 year olds want to do. And then on the other end of the spectrum, I know from talking, you know, doing Tuesday talk with seniors, we got to have more knitting classes and we need to have more bingo and and those are valuable, but you're trying I mean there I don't know there's eight or oh my god, there's I know there's like 8,000 people over 70 in town. How you that's a challenge. I don't know how you do it. Well, to be honest with you, I don't think it's much different than what we already do across the board. Anyways, there are so many different needs and interest in and everything else that goes into it. That just happens to be in one specific category. So, as we've gone through programming um assessments and needs and discussions, usually it's we try to we try to select programs that we think are of an interest and that's where this group will actually provide more of that input. So, as we provide the programs, the participants are the ones that decide if that's for them or not, whether it's got a 55 plus at the beginning of it or it's just an adult program or it's just a community vet. So, I I don't think it's that much different than what we do with everything else. It's just specific to that one area. It's similar to fitness, you know, and trying to decide what fitness classes do you teach. Do you teach is spin still in or is spin not?
Is it Zumba? Is it because I mean as the analogy I'll use, Kyle, this isn't like a deed restricted community where you have to to live there. You got to be 55. If you have a knitting class, a 27y old can go to Absolutely. Yep. Right. We have we have a 55 plus talk coming up here. I think later, I think it's next month. Dan Mason from the Red Wings is coming in. My guess is we're going to have people that are coming to that talk that are not 55. Sure. Sure. Thanks, Chris. Okay, thank you. And we're three minutes ahead, Lori. How about that? Pretty efficient, huh? I just want to make sure Councilman Cale knows there is no overunder on the workshop. Nope. Um so our second uh topic tonight is a presentation and I think it's going to be done um by Lori Fox uh from uh MRB uh consultants engineers uh but also with the help I think of Art Patron our deputy uh DPW commissioner and Paul I maybe you are involved in this a little bit too. So, so I'm going to hand the baton off to that triumphant.
Thank you. All right. Uh, yes, we're back again to uh give you a little update about Vosberg Pump Station. We've talked about this uh several times and the uh condition that it's in and the uh really the need to uh really get this uh upgraded. And uh uh we did talk to we worked with MRB uh in the past to do an evaluation of it. Uh we're just going to flip through some slides to refresh your memories. Uh that is the station and a little background. Uh station is almost 45 years old. Uh in 2122 we again completed a comprehensive evaluation. uh in June of 2024 uh we applied for a uh WEIA grant. Uh the grant was not received. Along with that uh really to apply for the WEA grant we had to do a bond resolution at $5.7 million which is the uh engineers estimate for 2425 and we also completed a seeker uh which was required for WEIA. uh winter of 2025, we started investigating uh other
grant opportunities. Um and in March, uh we will be submitting for a uh congressionally directed spending fund and that's what we're going to sort of talk about today. That's why Lori is here. So, uh again, uh just some concerns. Uh it is well beyond its useful life. Uh everything in there is just about original. Um again we have one pump that is unable to be serviced. It runs at a I'm going to say a 30% capacity. If that uh we cannot remove it because the bales do not work. We cannot isolate it. Uh I think we all know that in the past during wet weather events we've had the uh building fill up with uh sewage up to the doors. I know Patty was here. She was there. She she would definitely remember that. Um again, leaking pipes, raw sewage on the floor. Uh this is the wet well side. Uh this is non-existent um ventilation. Uh this is where the hydrogen sulfides build up. Uh staff has to work in there. Uh so it's not a great uh great place. And those are the veils we're talking about that uh they don't
move. So, uh, the components, uh, that is the control system. Looks like it's out of a, uh, World War I submarine. And that little piece of paper right there, and we should zoom in on it next time, that says do not change the controls. Uh, we had to write that on there because if we do, we'll lose the station. So uh recommendations again uh full uh rehab of the station um well structure ventilation improvements uh pumps valves piping uh in a actual flow meter. The stations uh within this town are of age that we don't have flow meters in them. We don't know what's coming in. We don't know what's going out. So pretty important information especially on this being our largest station uh that does pick up flow from uh Penfield as well uh the Wegman's the uh uh Bay Road um Empire over there Walmart uh down down into the Dougway all of that pumps up through that station. Uh some of it goes to county, some of it comes to us. So pretty important station for the area. Uh again antiquated controls. uh and I
will touch on this one the uh emergency power generator. So uh generators that are used in critical situations and pump stations are categorized as critical hospitals things like that are uh changed out every 15 years. This is 45. So um and again uh just more of the stuff that needs to be done. Again, our 2025 estimated cost is $5.7 million, and that was our submission uh that we funded for for WEIA. So, I'm going to turn this over to Lori and she's going to talk about the grant opportunities, which would help this project along uh immensely. Uh so, sure, would you? Okay. Thank you. Uh yeah, so Paul Sheffield came to me because he's been working on this project for quite a long time and he was just asking me for my recommendation because that's what I do at MRB. I work on grants. I write I administer them and whatnot. So, he was just asking me, you know, ideas. What can we do? How can we get this funded? We were sort of talking about the project a little bit. Um and and I kind of I went through and for the town, I I kind of made up a little funding scenario sheet, we call it, and we just looked at potential funding grants for
water or sewer projects. Um, and pretty much everything on here is is a potential grant that you you could potentially apply for. Um, so once you start looking into these, then you have to start looking, well, are we eligible? Are we competitive? So, we went through the list and um, I'll I'll start uh, actually kind of in the middle. Um, one of the first things we do is we look at the town's MHI because a lot of times there's an MHI which is a median household income. A lot of times depending on some grants it depends on what your MHI is. So for a USDA um grant in order to be eligible for a grant you have to be under like 56,000 and you guys are at 80. So right off the bat USDA we can't do you could qualify for a loan you know long loan but you have to pay it back. We we're looking for grant funds. Um same thing with community development block grant. um because of your MHI is so high that is you're not eligible to apply for that. Um so then we started looking you know at the water quality improvement and that goes along kind of along with the with the WEIA grant. So the town applied for a WEIA grant in 2024. Um what we're seeing with that grant in the last few years is uh pretty much 50% of your score is water
quality. So there's no MHI requirements for the WQIP or for the WEIA, but you have to show some kind of documented water quality issues. And even though this this project does have water quality to it, it's according to the funding or the funding scenarios and the the scoring of it, we don't qualify enough to to get the points to make an application competitive. And that's what happened in 2024. It was a good application. it just didn't hit the the the priorities of New York State right now, which they're going for water quality. They're trying to get rid of emerging contaminants. They're working on, you know, PAS and whatnot, trying to get that out of out of the water and out of the sewer and whatnot. So, they we didn't really qualify. You're eligible to apply, but you're not competitive. Um there's a a new grant, ProHousing Capital Improvement Grant. Again, you could apply for this, but if you're not if you're not um if the project does not support new housing and actually new affordable housing, you're not going to be competitive with that either. So, we were, you know, kind of throwing around different things. And so, I kind of mentioned to Paul, well, you know, the congressionally spended uh congressionally directed spending are coming out very soon. I think that um it's it's a good program. It's a little
bit different. It's not your traditional program. It's a program that goes through the politicians and so there's really no scoring and it it's just what is important to the politicians. So we've been just trying to you know with everything that we have here with all the information that we have we thought we could put in a really good application. It you know it's kind of a regional project because you take some flow from Penfield and do some stuff with the county. um it kind of hit a lot of the bullet points that I think we would need and so because we wouldn't really qualify for any of the other programs um you know we thought let's try to put in an application with the um with the politicians so on March 31st the uh Senate portals are open now so that's through Schumer and Gillivand um those are open now so we'll be applying um by March 31st and then we're waiting to hear when the house portal when Melli's uh portal is going to open um but the information that we're using for the other for the Senate portals. We'll basically just take that and apply. Um and and one of the biggest things is letters of support and the town staff has just come all together and they're we're trying to get as many letters as we can because that's one of the most important things is you know a good application but then letters of support showing the community, showing the region, showing um local politicians are
all in favor of this project. So, who's working on getting letters or we're not that far along in a process yet? We are that far along. Um, because time is of the essence, uh, created a uh, sort of a target sheet, if you will. Uh, we've sent out 36 letters uh, Tuesday. Tuesday. I've lost track of days. I've been a little bit crazy. Uh, we've got nine back. We've got, uh, I believe three or four already committed. Uh today was day to follow up on those. So we do have um we have some very large Rochester organizations already submitted letters back. Great. So I I'm glad John led with that question. I promise I did not ask him to ask that question. That's great because how many people are you assigned, Maria? Three. Three. Art, you've got all the commercial people in Penfield. Yeah. Seven for me. Honestly, I don't even know the number, but yeah, you've got a handful, too. Bridget Harvey took all the politicians because she saw the three county legislatures which are Dondorfer,
John's, and Chardy have the same chief of staff and Bridget knows that chief of staff went to him and they're they're all in. Correct. Because we have to apply for this by March 31st. Um, and we really just had our first meeting on this on March 11th. We have 20 days to have MRB write uh a grant package that has a chance to win $4 million. And uh Lori and Paul were very uh upfront on this based on their experience of having had previous clients that went for this and you navigating them that the letter of support thing is uber important. Yes. So we I it was 36 37 and we've assigned them and we've got a followup and uh it's uh it's going okay. Well, I'm glad that you, you know, follow up before we do any um projects in our town. We wanted to apply for grants first and that would be wonderful. I know that with the grants you got to be specific, you know, how to apply them and I do have a couple of names and connections
um if you do need them and to see if I can try to help, you know, expedite it and hopefully we can um get that, you know, um secure for us. And also too, may I please ask a questions? Um you know, we've been talking about this pump station for a while. this before I got elected. Is this now the final stage? So, are there any additional or anything else that we're going to be doing this with this amount that we applying for? Is this the I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. This is the final stage of the pump station of the pump station. This is it, right? This is where we going to be managing and I try to, you know, taking care of it and um, you know, make it efficient because of the the these you know, um that is the intent. Absolutely. The the entire station that is 45 years old, the entire station needs to be rehabbed. It'll it'll include some of the force man, some of the manholes up the road, uh the air relief valves. That is the intent as we go into these pump stations and really uh a lot of the larger ones, it's to encompass uh everything. So, it's set for, you know, 20, 30 years. Um, yeah, I
I can't imagine myself coming back here and if we did this today, coming back here next year and saying, "Hey, you know, we need to do this on it." So, the intent is it's all-encompassing. It's all the same age. It's all obsolete. Uh, that is the intent. So, Art, to that point, Art, I I know that I took a tour of of um of the pump station. I think it was last year or the year before and the conditions in there are what we're seeing in the photos of your presentation. Um, so my I my question with respect to this congressionally directed spending is when would that decision decision be made? because we're at the point in my opinion and I'm sure you're going to agree we need to we need to move now because if there's a catastrophic failure in that in that pump station and the conditions are there for that to happen in my opinion um when do you think there a decision will be made with respect to this? So that that's that's a great point. Um I'm going to jump back to Jenny. Okay, first though. So, we have looked this Paul Chatfield and I have looked at this this um PR if you
will. Is there a place to cut out of it? Right? Because obviously, you know, it's expensive. And we looked at it and I'm going to tell you, you know, can we cut 20,000 here and 40,000 there? And is everything right? It's a game of Tetris. And can we cut $100,000? We probably could, but that's $100,000 I'm going to come back next year and say I need $150,000 for. So, we we did look at that. Um John, you're absolutely right. And this is uh ripe for a failure. Uh we have last year again, we've had to hand not we've had to have parts machined for those pumps, right? Um yeah, it's it's it's failed. Portions of it failed. um and it'll just continue to fail. So, as far as the uh CDS, I'm going to let uh Lori talk about that. Yeah. So, it could take a while before we know, but initially we'll know um probably by May. Uh we'll we'll submit this in March, I believe, and the final guidance hasn't come out and the final timeline for the politicians hasn't come out. So, what happens is we submit our application to the politicians. They go through everything and they pick the projects that they want to put through.
Once they pick those, I think it's last year was May. I'm not sure what the timeline is this year. Um they'll they have to post the projects that they're choosing to put through for potential funding by May. Then they have to they'll notify the town if if it's chosen by either Schumer, Jillbrand, or Melli. Um and it could be chosen by all three or it could be chosen by none. We don't know. Um but the fact that we're getting all these letters to and everything. I think I'm hoping that's going to knock us up to the top of the pile and and so that that we make it through. So, if we make it through that first round of funding, that doesn't mean you're going to get awarded. That just means we've made it through. And then what happens is it has to go through a bunch of other approvals um and whatnot. So hopefully by May we would know if we've made it on anybody's list. If we haven't, then well, we're done at that point. If we have, then it's just a waiting game of trying to find out. And then if they pass the federal budget in October like they're supposed to when the federal budget federal year starts, we could potentially know if it's made it through all those rounds. And usually if you make it through each there's like certain things like the Senate has to vote on it, the House has to vote on it, then other people have to vote on it. And it does take a while, but I think we were talking we're going to put the money for construction. So you could start design now um without having any
any um impact on the funding. So you could start some design now if you wanted to. Um but again we may we may not know for a year if you're if you're actually getting the funding if we make it through that first round. So here's my next question and and when it comes to the political aspect of it this could drag on and on and on and we do not have that time. Would you agree with that Art? I would agree with that. I would agree with that too. So would it be scary would it be in the best interest of the town to start the design process now because we've already voted on you know the bond I believe right I so we go ahead with the design we're waiting and we're waiting make it past the first phase the second phase the third phase and now we're a year out at what point Do we say we can't wait any longer? We need to start construction because I think we were there a couple years ago. We were there before I started in this seat. Yes. We're lucky nothing's happened thus far. Like nothing. It has. It has, but nothing that has been super caticro. So my question is from a timeline standpoint,
we know that's going to take a long time. Have you set a hard date as to we're not going to wait any longer? we're going to move ahead with the improvements. I I I don't think uh in all due respect, I don't think I can do that. I think my role as a department head and I I share the information. I would absolutely agree with you. I I would encourage that we move forward with the design. The design will take three to seven months, right? So, you know, there's a big chunk of time. U do I think technology will change in 18 months. Uh hopefully we get a grant. I don't think it'll change tremendously. Uh you know, we might change a pump for here or there, something like that. But absolutely, uh to spend that 3 to seven months to get this designed. This is not a this is not a quick station to design a lot of flow. Um there's a lot of controls in it. So yeah, I would I would encourage us to move forward with design. I I would say I would totally agree with you that we need to be proactive with respect to the design initiation process um rather than being reactive because we have a catastrophic failure. We're in big trouble. So I think I have a different question
if I may. You go for it. um how much money is available for the all of the applications and like this is a pump station so I don't know that that's very sexy or very exciting. So where does a pump station rank in that waiting like I don't I don't know what kind of impact that will have as well. Yeah. Well, again, a lot of what we have in the application is about if if it had a catastrophic failure and what that's going to mean, the fact that it's a regional project. Um, water and sewer projects with the um politicians have been very popular. That's pretty much everything that we've gotten funded. Um the just the fact that we're getting so many letters of support, I'm hoping that'll just shoot us right up to the top of the pile. Um, you know, again, it's how how we present the information in there, too. when we're talking about just, you know, the regional impact failure, um, just the amount of developments going on in the town, everything going on. I I think, you know, if that goes, you guys are in trouble. So, how much money is there to be doled out? Is there an amount? Is there a cap? They don't really tell you that. Um, so the House uh representatives can put through 15
projects. Um, so they they go through and they pick their the top 15. Uh, the senators can put through as many as they want. So I don't know that there's really any any cap or what. I'm not sure how well that works because there's different categories, too. So you have to put a project in and it has to fit in within one of the federal categories. So water and sewer definitely um is very popular. There's other categories. So I think it depends on I don't know that there's one answer. It's not like WQIP we know they have 25 million and that's what it's going to be. This is kind of who knows they don't really tell you that information. I agree with John that we need to move forward with the design phase because this is just a it's a ticking time bomb that has extraordinarily extraordinary repercussions if something happens. Do you know what the estimated cost of the design is? Uh I don't have it in front of me. I think it was uh just just short of 400,000. Okay. Thanks, Paul to your my next question is um I just answered my question. Never mind.
I would getting back to Jenny and if Jenny if you could tonight or first thing tomorrow morning please send me any information you have because I know like I yeah because couple weeks ago I know as a lison for the clerk too we just been awarded for $44,191 uh grant for our machine and like I said you know I know that um Maria and everything that have been you know doing it but we have some hiccup up. But thank God I got invited to you know um senator um the um governor budget meeting and I you know was lucky to have spoken with couple of their staffer I explain our situation and they look into it and we got the grant you know I mean a week after so maybe it's timing or whatever if I absolutely if anything that we can do or I can help you know with my connection and what I would love to do because that what it is about rebuilding relationship and rebuilding connection and that's what that would be great. Yeah. So, can I I I'm getting I think that Councilwoman Wright says we should move forward with getting a resolution in the next board meeting on authorizing design. I think that's what you're
saying too, Jen. Correct. Jenny, would you say are you giving me the instructions as supervisor to set up with them for April 3rd's board meeting to have a resolution for design? Like I said, you know, we've been talking about this for years, right? And this is very important and we don't want any, you know, um, emergency or something like that and going to cause the town more. So, I think it's fine. Okay. I would, you know, accept to that. Then I will work with Kyle and Art and Paul and and Lori and and Paul Chatfield of, you know, how that resolution is structured to start. It's really the start of the process process. Um, and that's what we will do on April 3rd. And I think that's a wise move. So, so I'll I'll ask the question. Is this something we can include in our application? And does it garner us any points that you're starting design? Design. Um, absolutely. We're gonna we can we can put that in there. we won't be able to ask for funding for it because you can't start anything before you're awarded the thing, but we can show project readiness. We're ready to go. This is an important thing. So, yeah, we can absolutely Okay. Yeah. And
I I think as we all know, you know, from the, you know, all the other grants we've uh we've applied for, right, that they're the further along, you know, we are I think it benefits us how much we'll find out, but but we still continue to apply for the grants, right? To Absolutely. So, I'm going to ask this question out of ignorance because I have no idea about the grant process and what what you provide, but I think some of these pictures would be very beneficial as to show the current condition of this pump station and the need. I'm going to we're going to attach this with the uh with the application with the letters of support. Um, normally we would attach uh the engineer report, but it's like that thick and I know the politicians aren't going to read it and aren't even going to understand it. So, we won't we won't include that. Um, but yeah, if there's any other documentation or anything that you have that you want us to include, we can include all that. Um, you know. Yeah, definitely include the pictures for sure. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And if you Yeah, and I think we had that other presentation, Paul's other one. That's correct. Yeah, we have a whole bunch of pictures. Great. And also, you have to be specific, too. Like the one that we have for the um clerk, it's for be educational. That's what we, you know, that's what they told us and that's where they went to that portal
and they able to grant, you know, give us the grant. Yeah. Mark, thank you very much. Thank you everybody. Thank you. That's fantastic. And we got some work to do in the next two weeks leading up to April 3rd and uh we'll do it. All right. Well, our last item tonight and certainly not the least, uh I can't thank um Leanne Kimber enough for leaving her family tonight to come in on short notice and it was short notice. If you'd like to sit or if you'd like to How do we do that, Maria? Yeah. Um this uh item is the followup to the March 6th, two weeks ago uh presentation that uh Leanne uh Kimber is from Kers, but I say is the acting um executive director of of Webster Economic Development Alliance. She was here with actually Kimberly Batiste two weeks ago and we described to the board the uh kind of out of left field uh reach
out that we got from Empire State Development from ESD. Um you know usually we apply for grants. This is unusual that a government agency like that reaches out and says, "We'd like to structure this FAST New York grant for you." It's a little different. Um, so I'm going to hand the baton off to uh Leanne, who uh you know, you think, Leanne, it's been a busy two weeks. I would say so. a lot of drives to Webster the last two weeks. Uh okay. Well, thank you all for having me here tonight. Uh again, Leanne Kimber Collier's Engineering and Design, acting director of Webster Economic Development Alliance. Um two weeks ago, I came here and presented to you the map that you see on the screen, diagram of the roadways that were to be included in this fast New York track C uh infrastructure grant. um Phillips Road multimmoal trail, altered and Panama improvements, extension of Chyota Drive, uh reconstruction of Mitchell Dean Drive, and extension of Boulder Industrial Parkway. The grant was going to include all of those roadway
improvements as well as the sanitary sewer upgrades that are currently in progress by the town. Um I'm going to scroll to the next slide. Um when we met last um I don't think based on feedback we heard we didn't hear any strong concerns from the board but interest to hear what was going to come of the next two weeks. Specifically, I think our big action item was knowing that we were going to hopefully vote on a resolution tonight that we would meet with the village and the town um to discuss and prepare a list of bullet points that would serve as the content of that resolution and would be a precursor to a development agreement between uh Weda and the town and WEDA and the village. So, we did that. Uh we prepared those bullets. We shared them with ESD Empire State Development uh for their feedback. They gave us some great feedback, great direction, and that's all reflected in uh the draft resolution you all have with you tonight. Um the one thing that was uh new information to us in that feedback um was that ESD requested that we add to this project um a electrical engineering master planning study um to basically study how um how and what
infrastructure upgrades need would be needed to the Xerox site and you know and thereabouts in order to attract act strategic industrial investment. Um so that was new information to us. We kind of went into this initially on March 4th when we had our first meeting thinking this was a roadway project um for roads that town, village, weda, the state all are in agreement that need to be improved in order to spur economic development in this area. Um so this electrical engineering study uh was sort of a different ball of wax. Um, so this is the updated budget that reflects that. Um, there's a couple of other changes that are also reflected here and my alignment got messed up I think when this moved to PDF, but you get the idea. Um, so one change starting from the top sanitary sewer project by the town. We've learned that that has gone from 6.3 million to $7 million. Again, that's money that's already been spent, money that we know is going to be reimbursed, but wanted to reflect that here as as part of this total investment in the site. Um, the next line item is that electrical infrastructure planning project or study um in the amount of $500,000. Wow. Um, and then this is sort
of a a clerical difference, not a difference in um substance, but in the previous meeting we had, we did not have the HUD grant that the village has been awarded reflected in this table. So, we've now added that in um as that additional 500,000 at the end. Um, so that brings the total project cost up to 17.3 million. The only change to the actual grant request um is that it went from 9.3 million to 9.8. 8 million to reflect the electrical engineering study. Um, so I want to sort of restate that this was something that ESD has requested that we add. Um, recognizing that as Supervisor Flity puts it. Um, we know we need the roads. The roads are the skeleton to this site. Um, even though this electrical engineering study is new information to us, um, we know that that is a study that needs to take place. Again, we know this site needs power. we know we need to figure out how it's going to happen and it needs to happen comprehensively. Um not that we have a crystal ball, but our thinking is that, you know, it's logical that this is looped into the same project where these transportation improvements are happening. Um keep this momentum going. Um sees an opportunity to continue
planning for this site and and move it one step closer to that finish line of opening doors for new investment. Um, so that's all kind of been litigated over and over again. Town, village, WEDA, the state have all agreed that that's something that they are interested in doing and something that they all want to see happen. Um, so philosophically it doesn't change anything. Financially, it changes things a little bit. Um, so what does this mean? I'm going to just scroll down to the things that we do know. Um, so just kind of summarizing what I've gone over so far. Um, this electrical engineering study is going to involve some planning activities to bring sufficient power to support industrial development on this campus of about 200 acres, a million square feet existing, but that would probably increase with additional development. Um, some of the activities that would be included, electrical engineering, capacity studies, easements, legal work, infrastructure design. Basically, what do we need here? How would we bring it here? What would it cost? when would we do it? Um, as I said, the cost would be about $500,000. The difference between this $500,000 and the the 9.3 million that you would be applying for for the
roadway projects is that it's not something that can be financed with like construction financing, the way you would typically do that. This is money that would have to be, I'll call it, sponsored upfront by the town and village. Doesn't mean that it's not reimburseable. It would be reimburseable. It is part of the grant, but it would need to be put up front out of pocket before uh being reimbursed. So, it's a little bit different in kind. Um not a significant difference in impact. Um but that's something to be aware of that the way that the money would come back to you is a little bit different. Um we discussed this with both the town and the village. they're both on or you know leadership of the town and village both on board with doing this and with dividing that cost between the town and village. Exactly how that's divided, we're not sure yet. Um but we know that they would plan to divide it. Um 1% commitment fee that we talked about last time um was going to be 1% of 9.3. Now it would be 1% of 9.8. So that's a difference of about $5,000 that would be divided in some way between the town and village. So the commitment fee is a very minor increase. Um and then there's the financing
piece. So things that we don't know, we don't know the exact scope of this study um once the grant's awarded. That's something that would be worked out um with the town and village at the table, but including um NYG um NYSO and ESD um to figure out exactly what needs to be included, who needs to be at the table um and how it would actually be carried out. Um we don't know yet whether it would be the town or the village that would actually procure that work. So one, you know, one entity would have to procure it and do that study. Um, and we don't exactly know how the money would be split yet. That's something that I think the town and the village would work out. We've discussed splitting it 50/50. We've discussed um, splitting it in some pro rata fashion depending on, you know, the impact or the potential benefit to each jurisdiction or municipality. Um, so same as before, there's things we know, things we don't know. We don't expect that we'll know the answers to these questions in time for voting on this resolution or submitting the application. Um, but there are things that we would work out uh following April 1st. Um, so just see if there's anything else I want to add here. Um, I think that pretty much covers it.
So slight increase in the grant, very slight increase in the commitment fee. Um, I know that can potentially be a financial concern. Philosophically, there are things that could be a concern to this board um that we've talked about. One could be, you know, we don't want to set a precedent that the town and village are willing to pay money for private property owners to do planning studies that are going to benefit their, you know, private holdings. Um that's something we certainly recognize. That's not what's happening here. the money is, you know, coming from the state, being passed through the town and village. Um, and we've talked about, you know, does that set a precedent for the town and village looking to, you know, in the future people are going to come to you and and ask you to do the same kind of thing. We see this as sort of a very unique situation where, you know, the state is coming to us with a grant opportunity. um and if this is something that they see as necessary and something that we all also know is necessary in order to make this site ready for investment. Um this seems like a good opportunity to take advantage of. Um the second concern, are we paying money out of pocket? The answer is no, not really. Um
so yes, upfront the money would have to come from the town and village, but again it's coming from the grant and it would be reimbursed. Um, so that's everything I prepared for tonight. Um, if there are questions, we can discuss those now. Um, yeah, go ahead. I definitely have a question. Go ahead. Because I know I'm pretty sure that as a municipality, we cannot do like I can't go and have the town or the village go pave my driveway. Just can't do it. But essentially, that's what we're doing here. And I know it's encouraged by the by the state and and and I understand that. But my question would be to you, Kyle, is this something obviously we'd be setting a precedent, but would it be legal for us to do work on a private road prior to that being turned over to the village andor town roads? If I remember correctly, they were going to begin the dedication process immediately. Correct. So the so dedication process would take place before any improvements are done. Correct. But the triparty agreement stipulates all of that that dedication would happen first. Yeah. Correct. So the only other concern and I I guess this will be worked out between the town
and the village with respect to this the split, but that'll be discussed later. Yeah. And I think um we've had some good conversations up to this point. Um and I think we'll work that out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Is there a timeline for this project that we go and write is that we have to you know apply the grant at a certain time for this project. This grant is done on a rolling basis. We've received every indication from ESD that we need to move very quickly that we should apply by April 1st. Yeah. Okay. So it's it's a deadline. No, I was just seeing that, you know, with everything that we have going on in our town at the moment, if we can just hold off or, you know, and then see what's, you know, the grant and stuff like that, but apparently it's not going to be that case. So therefore, can I just we got to Yes, Jenny, we we didn't ask for this money. I know. I know. They came to us. This is so critically important for the town of Webster that that property and the risk that Xerox brings given the how quickly that business is declining in how much they contribute to our tax
base. It is imperative that we work collaboratively with the village and with the state. We have this opportunity with this with this grant. When those roads get dedicated, then that property can be subdivided and that brings in that opportunity to have new businesses come to Webster. Well, I know that there's like other grants out there too. They encourage for the state, you know, at the meetings that I've been to and stuff. They want us to revitalize, you know, our community. So maybe this is one of the reason why they want to do this, you know, to try to come approach to us. Exactly. Right. Yes. I I I completely agree. I think the state sees this as a very critical site to economic development goals of the state. And then to the point of this grant versus other grants, um I don't have a crystal ball, but I don't think you'll see an opportunity like this come back again, anything of this scale or magnitude. So, I'm going to play devil's devil's advocate for a second. Okay. I understand the state came to us and asked us to do that. So, in all reality, the grant will probably hopefully we'll receive the grant
money. The skeptic in me worries that these grant the the a dedication of these roads will go prior to correct. Correct. Construction. So then the town or the village will have to be responsible for repairing those roads regardless of us receiving the grant or not. So that's just a concern. I just want to get on the record expressing that concern. So concern that if the roadways are dedicated prior to receiving the grant and maybe we don't receive the grant. Correct. Okay. Um I I think it's a valid concern. I The reason I would push back on it a little bit is only that um one well one this resolution says that this is going to be subject to the terms of the Xerox agreement. Um two I believe I don't remember it exactly but I believe the agreement stipulates that funding has to be in place in order for these dominoes to fall. And so if we didn't get the grant, I don't think there would be pressure from Xerox to to start that dedication process. Yeah. Can I address
that because it it is happening fast. My my head's spinning on this. John, you bring up a great point and you can take the the the mayor out of the village or whatever. You you take John out of the mayor thing, but you can't take the mayor out of John. That concern is the villages. We're not taking any dedication of roads in this. We're we're building an extension of Bolter Parkway and B uh an extension of Chyota. There's no roads there. We wouldn't even consider starting that until the grant is awarded and we knew all the development agreements and all that stuff. Now, if the village and and we told I'm sure the village is watching this as a as a prelude to, you know, their meeting next week. So, and I say this that that question and concern is more for the village because they're taking existing roads Mitchell Dean Panama Orchard and to your point if all of a sudden the government EST reigged and all of a sudden it's like ah too bad you guys now have dedication of the road. I Webster Village is part of our community. That would be terrible. Who lives in the village on this board? I think you might. Well, that's great. Well, um I would say that when it comes to the dedication of the road, there' be an offer for ded dedication. There has to be a formal acceptance by the municipality. So, they could hold off on
acceptance taking actual dedication formally until the the grants approved. And and along those lines, I got to tell you, and and Paul uh is probably the person here that had the most experience on this back in April, May of last year. And I think that's what I'm about to explain is going to happen exactly once we get awarded this 9.8 million. And the analogy is when we got awarded $20 million from ESD last year for the sewer plant in April. We had a meeting with them a week later. There was nine people from ESD in a conference room and it became very apparent that they were kind of making up the rules on this thing as they went along. And it was it was a negotiation and a negotiation that was very favorable to us. So favorable to us that we got all $20 million by Thanksgiving. I envision that once they award this that we will enter into those same type of details. Uh, some of it will be how the development agreement will look and all that stuff, but others will be like, "Hey, this impressed account that you're reimbursing us." Like, I'd rather not go into debt for some of this work. I'd rather us take it out of our fund
balance if we know that a month later we're going to get it right back. Why would we, you know what I mean? So, those are the devil in the details. And I already have a list of a lot of things that going into them today, I went into a couple. It would be serving a wine before it's time. Um but these are things that when we get awarded um we will negotiate with them and really uh for lack of better terms because they've almost agreed in our conversations uh with ESD. Well, I think you can that they're making it up as they go along because all of a sudden we asked them clarification questions like oh yeah oh and we're throwing 500 grand more in. That's odd. That's odd to say the least, right? Generally odd. So, the other thing I would say on that is that um the grand I think I let the board know that I attended a meeting with like 15 people in January, two months ago at Xerox building 208, bunch of mucky mucks from RG& Xerox, the village, the town. We walked out of that meeting and I was like, "Wow, RG& committed committed. We're going to do a threemonth study and we're going to report back to all of you in three months a how long it's going to take to
bring 50 meg of power to this campus and b how much that's going to cost. I was like, well that's a milestone event. I can't wait for three months. I had in my day planner I can't wait till the middle of April. And then the one of the the higherups at RG& who was at that meeting sends us an email to everybody in attendance at that email a month later in midFebruary says we're not doing it. We're not doing it and references NISO and that these studies cost 150,000 to 250,000 precedentwise they bring 10 meg. I took that person's email, that part, and I cobbled it out and it was exactly what my supervisor's corner article was last week. As Leanne, you described, I call the roads the skeleton. I call the power of the organs. And in that part of the organs, I said, "This is what RG& has told us." And I sent that article to the RG& people. I didn't want them to get shocked. I said, "This is going in the paper tomorrow. I mean, you said it to us. I mean, it's a fact. And then two days later, ESD says, "We're going to put 500 grand into this
thing." Okay, coincidence maybe. Um, whatever. Now, last two things I would say on this. I've been really happy that this is the second uh situation in the last 12 months that the village of Webster leadership and the town of Webster leadership has been have coalesed and been on the same page and aligned. We did that for four months back in December of 23 through April of 24. We were a united front as we negotiated that threeparty road agreement with Xerox. I never liked that agreement because I thought that we were the ugly redheaded stepchild that it was a sequential thing that would take literally um five years before we were going to get the land for uh Bolter Parkway because sequentially Panama Orchard funding this and that. Now I remember saying to the village I said you know what you're not you're not getting a gift here. This is a liability. You're getting no gift getting these roads. You got to maintain these. So, you should ask for the everything in the kitchen sink and I'll support you on that. And so, we talked and they said, "Well, we'd like that six acres that's south of it." And I said, "Throw it in there. I'll
support that." And they did. And Xerox didn't like it. But when the negotiation was over, they got the six six acres in that agreement. So, that was a good thing for the village and town to have that kind of alignment. Kyle, Leanne, Paul, you've been at these meetings. I think there is a similar team like we're all for one one for all and I and I think it's good and healthy for as well I'm out of here in nine months but I'd like to think whoever the next supervisor is and whatever that good karma can continue on because it it makes you know John you were the mayor when the village and the town leadership is working you know peas and carrots it's good for the community. Oh it is. And last but not least, because I don't want to drag this on into the night, um we talked about this this morning, Leanne touched on it a little, um we're a pass through agent, so I have no problems with that. We're paying potentially 2500 bucks for the that additional 500,000 to help with getting the momentum going of the organs of that campus, the power. This is just my opinion and it probably will be some other board in years to come and some other supervisor, but
there is not a shot in hell that I would ever advocate that the town government invest money on that campus to bring power to what is going to be to private industry. And as you said, John, it's somewhat illegal, but they've figured out a way to do it right through this WEDA pass through local development corporation. I don't mind the pass through when it doesn't really cost as much because obviously if that campus gets rebuilt, I can tell you that that will be a boom for the the community's taxpayers. There's just no doubt about that. All right, Jennifer, you know that better than anybody because you worked at Xerox, right? I mean, it's going to be a boom financially. It's going to be a boom moralewise. Um, but I, you know, like you said, John, I'm going to go record and say this, and I I think you're right to say we shouldn't be, you know, we can't spend money on that. Well, as Kyle said, well, they'll have the roads in their possession before the the money goes out. Do you know I can't even imagine how much money is going to have to be spent to bring the amount of power to that campus to take 80 acre parcels and 100
acre parcels to power. I know that ESD awarded $20 million to RG& to bring the power needed to fair life to that 100 acre campus. And that power is 20 meg. They're bringing 20 meg to that campus to power that plant. Okay. I don't know what industries are going to come to the Xerox campus and what type of power needs they will need, but two months ago we were talking about bringing 50 meg additional power to a campus that already has around 20. So RG& and Xerox, they came up with that number 50. I didn't come up with it. So they must have an idea that industry in the 21st century that would be attracted to those 80 acre parcels if three or four of them get sold, they're going to need that kind of power. I can't even imagine how much that's going to cost. It cost 20 million to bring 20 meg. So, but I do know this, that ain't our bill. No, it's not. And and and We'll find out what's required, but not a dollar of taxpayer money locally I
will ever advocate for. You and I are we're picky swears on that one. Yeah. I don't even know if it would be legal, but it certainly makes zero sense. No. Um, so any other questions or comments on this before we uh were we can start a regular town board meeting late. We just can't start it early. So, um, thank you very much for coming in and giving us the update tonight. I appreciate it. Of course. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Thank you. So, that ends our workshop at 7:41. I think we take a 5m minute break and we will come back for the people in the room and people watching.