https://sleepyhollow.localarchives.org/files/original/c3c2535fc52e2d505043a71390adb266.pdf 24f7b8974ed11f137042bb0c36808c2b PDF Text Text The Board of Trustees of the Village of Sleepy Hollow held a meeting on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, in Village Hall, 28 Beekman Avenue, Sleepy Hoilow, New York. Present: Mayor Kenneth G. Wray Deputy Mayor Thomas Capossela David Schroedel Barbara Carr Bruce Campbell Karin Worn pa Evelyn Stupei, Trustees Also Present: Anthony P. Giaccio, Village Administrator Janet Gandolfo, Village Counsel Richard Gross, Village DPW General Foreman Sean E. McCarthy, Village Building Inspector Paula A. McCarthy, Village Clerk John Kapica, Village Chief of Police At 7:05 p.m. the Mayor called the meeting to order with a pledge to the flag. Mayor Wray requested a moment of silence for the passing of long-time Village resident Joanne Collins as well as for the family of DPW employee, Joel Quiniardos. Public Hearing for Architectural Review Board The Village Clerk read announcement for the continuation of the public hearing. The Mayor opened up meeting to the public. He stated that this meeting will be on the agenda at the next work session and the next Trustees meeting. David Pysh, of Sleepy Hollow, ARB chairman, read a prepared letter regarding the approvals and disapprovals over the last 3 years. Trustee Capossela said the memorandum was very helpful. Since there were no further public comments, the Mayor adjourned this public hearing. Approval of Warrants Trustee Schroedel made a motion to approve the warrants as amended. Trustee Capossela seconded. It was unanimous (5-0). �Trustee Reports Trustee Schroedei- had nothing to report. Trustee Carr - stated that the design-bid for the Douglas playground was awarded to Follow the Child. She stated that there will be 3 meetings with this company regarding the design if anyone wants to attend. The meetings will be held on May 12 and May 26th at 7pm in Village Hall and at June 5 th at the park at 10 am. Trustee Carr - stated that the Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) will be completing its research on the use of gasoline leaf biowers. A presentation will take place on May 18th. She also stated that the EAC would like the existing traffic study to be extended to include the intersection from yesterday's accident scene. The Mayor said we will request this in the future. Trustee Campbell - stated that there was a meeting with the Mayor and the Sleepy Hollow Manor residents. He stated that he wants to try and schedule a work session at the senior center in June. Trustee Capossela - stated that on Saturday May 15th at 10am, there will be a Police award ceremony in Village Hall. Trustee Capossela stated that there was a water shutdown on May 10th. He also stated that he met with John Korzelius and Jerry Navin and Charles Depaoio for improvements to the TNT batting cage. He stated that he met with Robert Moon regarding the Memorial Day parade. He also stated that the Fire hydrant flushing will continue this week. Trustee Capossela stated that the air quality testing in the Village Hal! basement has been completed and recommendation was made to clean mold. He also stated that he went with the Mayor to the Sleepy Hollow cemetery last Sunday. Trustee Wompa stated that the Administration Committee is still reviewing resumes and interviewing for the Treasurer position. Chief Kapica stated that this week is a Presidential Proclamation for police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty as well as recognizing officers for outstanding service. He stated that the ceremony will start at 10am and last about one hour. �Administrator's Report Anthony Giaccio stated that the Division St water and sewer negotiations were settled this week. He stated that the maintenance request at Kingsland Park was responded to by Westchester County. He provided an update on the status of severai Village projects; Installation of Devries lights is moving forward. The Rt 9 culvert is now back on track and will take a week to complete. The Pocantico streetscape project will start within a week. Mr. Giaccio spoke about the Village's storm water drain maintenance as well as its procedures and how it is providing information to the public. Richard Gross, General Foreman, spoke about the Catskiil pump station and a recent problem with the water supply. He stated that this is the first source of water for the Village and that the station is monitored 24/7 for water level and water pressure. He stated that when it falls below a certain level, a computer program calls the water department but during off hours the Village Police are called. He also stated that DPW employee, John Arena, responded, on this particular incident around 8:45pm and noticed that there was a dip in the chart but he made sure that everything was ok. Around 3am, the Police Department received a call that there was no water in a limited area of the Village. John Arena and Richie Gross responded immediately and found that the pumps were down and the reservoir levels were very low. He stated that they got the station up and running on manual mode. When the water started back it was brown. He stated that they contacted technicians to address and determine why the 2nd call was not received. He stated that about 35 homes were effect and were out of water for about an hour, Richard Gross stated that this tank is monitored 24/7 and with the new tank, this situation won't happen again. The Mayor said we need a new water reservoir. We don't have enough water in our reservoir for a day and it's critical that we get this system upgraded. Trustee Capossela stated that he met with the DPW technicians today and will have suggestions by the end of week. He stated that he would like Richard Gross and John Arena to explain what is recommended. Richard Gross stated that the technician found one fault and will be developing a cost Public comments Triathlon people talked and thanked for a pleasurable event opportunity. The Mayor said it is a great event and the Village is happy they are back. �Resolutions See attached. Mayor's Announcements There was none. Public Comments Paul Wichmann stated that he did not get reply from building dept regarding a Certificate of Occupancy for his driveway. The Mayor asked Mr. McCarthy to respond in writing to Mr. Wichmann. Mary Elien Joy of Riverside Drive wants to know about the Metro North fence that goes across the road. She stated that young peopie cross over the fence and it's dangerous. She stated that the Village needs to look at which barriers are not working. She also stated that the DPW is not using Kelbourne Ave the right way. She stated that trucks are going the wrong way. She also stated that several neighbors asked for paving on Riverside Drive between Monroe and Harwood Avenues, Richard Gross responded that if DPW drivers violate traffic rules they will be fined. The Mayor said that in addition to disciplinary actions they will be fined by PD. At 8:10pm, Trustee Schroedel moved to adjourn the meeting; it was seconded by Trustee Campbell. At 8:10pm, Trustee Carr moved, seconded by Trustee Wompa to go into executive session to discuss a personal matter. At 8:11pm Trustee Schroedel rescinded his motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Trustee Campbell. At 8:20pm, Trustee Schroedel moved to adjourn the meeting; it was seconded by Trustee Campbell. Respectfully submitted, Village Clerk �Meeting Date: 5/11/2010 Resolution No.: 5/87/2010 W H E R E A S , the Village of Sleepy Hollow Fire Department purchased a second-hand 1987 Steiger Craft 25 foot Pilothouse Utility Boat in March 2004, The boat, formerly a towing vessel, was updated and modified to serve as the fire boat for the Village of Sleepy Hollow; and W H E R E A S , being 23 years old, the boat requires extensive maintenance each year, some of which work the fire department volunteers do themselves while other jobs require the expertise of staff at the marina. The cost of this maintenance is estimated by the fire department at around $5,000 per year; and W H E R E A S , the marine unit use the boat to respond to approximately 40 to 50 calls per year including such incidents as boat fires, watercraft accidents, swimmers in distress, bridge and land fire support, missing boaters, suicide jumps, and assistance to law enforcement investigations; and W H E R E A S , fire department staff have noticed a significant increase over the iast few years in the number of people attempting suicide jumps from the Tappan Zee bridge, ail except two of whom were retrieved from the river by Sleepy Hollow and neighboring marine units; and W H E R E A S , a grant funding source has been identified to assist the Fire Department purchase a new fire boat, which requires a 5% Village cash match. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Kenneth Wray, Mayor of the Village of Sleepy Hollow, is hereby authorized and directed to file an application for funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in accordance with the provisions of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, in an amount not to exceed $170,000, and upon approval of said request to enter into and execute a project agreement with the Federal government for such financial assistance for purchase of a new fire boat; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor is herein authorized to take any and all such steps as are necessary to effectuate the intent of this resolution. Moved: Trustee Schroedel Absent: Trustee Stupel Seconded: Trustee Campbell Vote: 5-0 �PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE P L E A S E T A K E N O T I C E the Board of Trustees of the Village of Sleepy Hollow will hold a continuation of the public hearing on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 28 Beekman Avenue, Sleepy Hollow, New York to hear and consider comments from members of the public regarding an amendment to the Village Code, eliminating Chapter 6, entitled Architectural Review Board and amending Chapter 62 to give certain duties now performed by the Architectural Review Board to the Planning Board. A copy of the proposed revisions to the Village Code is available at the Village Clerk's office, Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Ail interested parties are invited to attend and be heard at said hearing. Village Hall is accessible to the handicapped. By Order of the Board of Trustees Dated: April 27, 2010 Paula A. McCarthy Village Clerk p �Meeting Date: 5/11/2010 Resolution No.: 5/88/2010 W H E R E A S , the Village of Sieepy Holiow Fire Department and EMS' communications system is old and inadequate, with a single antenna site on Tappan Hill School in Tarrytown, resulting in dead spots in which emergency personnel are unable to receive messages transmitted by their colleagues. Such dead spots include the lower inner village, sections.of the Hudson River and highly populated buildings such as Phelps Hospital, Kendal on Hudson and Sleepy Hollow High School; and W H E R E A S , Motorola has recommended a communications solution which includes additional receivers at Sleepy Hollow High Schooi, Kendal and Phelps Hospital, a repeater at the base station on Tappan Hill Schooi and the inclusion of a battery backup, lightning and surge protection to insure reliability; and W H E R E A S , the Fire Departments' Self Contained Breathing Apparatus packs, which have a recommended life of ten years, are sixteen years old and showing significant wear and tear, with over half of the Department's equipment repairs budget being spent on repairs to the SCBA packs each year; and W H E R E A S , a grant funding source has been identified to assist fund the cost of new Self Contained Breathing Apparatus and the required communications upgrade. This grant program requires a 5% Village cash match. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Kenneth Wray, Mayor of the Village of Sleepy Hollow, is hereby authorized and directed to file an application for funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in accordance with the provisions of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, in an amount not to exceed $170,000, and upon approval of said request to enter into and execute a project agreement with the Federal government for such financial assistance to purchase new SCBA packs as well as the components of the recommended communication system upgrade; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor is herein authorized to take any and all such steps as are necessary to effectuate the intent of this resolution. Moved: Trustee Campbell Absent: Trustee Stupel Seconded: Trustee Capossela Vote: 5-0 �Meeting Date: Resolution No.: 5/11/2010 5/89/2010 Resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Sleepy Hollow Accepting Resignation of Lorene Straughen WHEREAS, Secretary to the Village Administrator by the attached letter dated May 3 rd , 2010, submitted her resignation from the Village of Sleepy Hollow. WHEREAS, said resignation must be formaiiy accepted by the Village of Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees, and WHEREAS, the Village, by resolution number 07/138/03 dated July 15, 2003, adopted a policy for employee termination and rehire, and NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Village accepts the resignation of Lorene Straughen dated May 3, 2010 and effective May 14th, 2010, and finds that the termination/rehire policy of July 15, 2003 applies, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of the policy be forwarded to Lorene Straughen and a copy be placed in her personnel record with proof of service. Moved: Trustee Capossela Absetn: Trustee Stupel Seconded: Trustee Campbell Vote: 5-0 �Meeting Date: Resolution No.: 5/11/2010 5/90/2010 W H E R E A S , Police Sergeant, Paul Hood, by the attached letter dated April 19, 2010 submitted his retirement announcement letter from the Sleepy Hollow Police Department W H E R E A S , said retirement announcement letter must be formally accepted by the Village of Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees, and W H E R E A S , the Village, by resolution number 07/138/03 dated July 15, 2003, adopted a policy for employee termination and rehire, and NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Village accepts the retirement of Paul Hood dated April 19, 2010 and effective May 3, 2010 and finds that the termination/rehire policy of July 15, 2003 applies, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of the policy be forwarded to Paul Hood and a copy be placed in his personnel record with proof of service. Moved: Trustee Carr Seconded: Trustee Schroedel p . Vote: �Meeting Date: Resolution #: 05/11/10 05/91/10 Resolution of the Mayor and Board of Trustees of the Village of Sleepy Hollow Authorizing a Raise for Certain Non-Union Employees WHEREAS, the following three municipal employees: Sean McCarthy, Richard Gross and Anthony Giaccio have employment contracts with the Village, and WHEREAS, Mayor and Board of Trustees have reviewed the performance of said employees; discussed their respective performances to date, and wish to increase their salaries. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that a 2% per annum salary increase shall be granted to the above employees effective from the anniversary date of each contract; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all terms and conditions of said contract agreements shall be carried forward in full force and effect for the term of the contract in calendar year 2010. Moved: Trustee Schroedel Absent: Trustee Stupei Seconded: Trustee Campbell Vote: 5-0 �11 May 2010 MAY 11 Z010 BUILDING DEPT. Dear M a y o r Wray and Trustees of the Village of Sleepy Hollow, VILLAGE OF SLEEPY HOLLOW I am writing to respond to the current proposal that the present Village code regarding the responsibilities of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) be revised substantially. As the chairman of the ARB for the past several years, I suppose the responsibility is mine to provide the retrospection on our functioning over the past few years to allow this decision as to whether it is serving the needs of the community to be adequately informed. To begin, I am not invested in preserving the ARB in its exact current form necessarily, nor am I invested in remaining on it or as its chairman. I have been happy to provide my service as the required NYS registered architect and as a resident w h o very much appreciates the physical characteristics of our Village. I am prepared to resign this position so that the following views not be seen as biased. Although, I do personally believe that reform is warranted, it is obviously a question of what specifically the reform is. The current code is rather precise in its language on the scope of responsibilities and area of focus for the ARB. M y view is there is no need to start from scratch. I believe that some consolidation of the approval boards is wise to consider. Perhaps even to the extent that the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and the ARB could be brought into one coordinated operation. Although there is greater time demanded on such a consolidated board the duplicated time presenting projects to three boards and the inefficiencies of informing all the boards of each others' issues and judgments would both be eliminated, just as one example, it would take a little more consideration to do justice to this severe of a change. I am sorry for not having been able, in these two weeks, to complete as comprehensive of a retrospective of the ARB as I would personally feel is appropriate in this case. I would have thought the following to be a reasonable prelude to taking action: How many applications have been heard? How many have been approved? How many appearances were there by the applicant? What was the scope of the proposal? Fence? Sign? Single Family Res.? Commercial Dev.? Were there amendments made to the proposal by the ARB? What were the actions of the other boards on the applications? What was the record of grievances? Were they sensible? What is the setup for other Hudson River Valley Towns? Tarrytown? Etc.? This would be important to expose for you, the trustees, and the community just what the ARB has been doing, so as not to rely on snapshots of the record that on their own can be misleading of the total. I've seen that people generally think it is useless when they are applying for a permit, but those same people want something there to restrain possible changes by others that they don't like. �To start, if the any adjustment has the effect, intended or not, to reduce the community oversight on Sarge scale development, it will very likely be destructive for the Village. Exercising restraints over homeowners and small businesses is clearly not where major effects are and also not where the damage can be done. Those who live and work here in the community are inherently invested in its longer term desirability. Commercial development cannot credibly argue the same long term concern, and having control over the natural tendencies of commercial construction and development to serve these long term aims of the village is in my view a large part of the responsibility of local g o v e r n m e n t It is frankly quite simple to make changes to the current ARB opperation that meet the concerns of overburdening our community residents, while maintaining the function of enlisting qualified local residents to consider and assess the merits of large scale d e v e l o p m e n t To prioritize a f e w critical points: The first and most important issue is to address the idea that an ARB is dominantly about imposing aesthetic opinions. This is a very uninformed view. W h e n an ARB becomes about this, I disagree with it as well. M y perspective as an Architect is to deal with the quality of the planning and if the appropriate time and energy was spent by the Applicant/Designers considering the proposed project. Those of us w h o work in the Architecture/Design field understand how many decisions are needed to adequately describing a building of even the single family scale, and how common it is for considerations to be ignored and/or done hastily and with inadequate care. 1 feel that the village should grant itself the ability to insist that design professionals spend the appropriate time and care thinking about how to build what will become installed in fabric of the Village for decades. Nearly always, this modest added effort delivers the most benefit to those whose project it is. Typically, in relation to the hard cost of construction the soft costs are trivial. The focus is and should be on the higher quality service from the soft costs, and less on the hard costs; advocating for upgrades in material quality. This is what the ARB for the past few years has focused on providing. The most meaningful way to keep the focus on these issues is with the makeup of the boards. As stated at the public hearing on April 27th, it is arguably less critical to the Village deriving the desired benefits from an ARB type mechanism, that there are certain boards with different functions, and more critical that the professional backgrounds and experience of the members of the boards be appropriate to the task of most fully understanding and advising on the built environment Although there are many profession that participate in arena of building and construction, and a diversity of these roles are useful and needed. NYS licensed Architects are the only profession with the authority to certify building designs for review and approval by NYS. They are also the field that concerns itself with the quality of the built environment, and are the ones with the most credibility and knowledge of the field to address claims of hardship by the applicant for being asked to make design alterations, and the ones most appropriate to the subject of the built quality of the village. Therefore the requirement of one NYS licensed Architect to be on the ARB needs to be preserved, and I would suggest expanded. Because the great majority of ARB applications have been for very small scale issues of fences and signs, and because these represent the greatest ratio of effort on the part of the applicant in relation to the cost, 1 recommend that the alternative approach of instituting preapproved design options for fences and signs be considered. This would streamline the process of applicants w h o are satisfied with the options and still leave it open for those who want to propose something unique to do so. It also has the desirable effect of incentivizing cohesiveness for small scale built elements. �i? Because I believe that the ARB requirements are the only ones that insist on notification of the property owners of proposed construction, I recommend that this function be preserved in whatever alteration is enacted.' In order to serve the diversity of neighborhoods correctly and to combat the perception that this is about one set of residents imposing their wishes on others, I recommend that all the boards made up of geographically dispersed member. Typically, an ARB exists in communities with a distinct historical character which is a significant asset to the location. The ARB is the forum and arbiter attempting to maintain this built character and its value to the community. In our case it is about preserving quality and maintaining standards, ie. Responding to property owner proposals, but we will also realize something much more productive by developing an enlarged vision of what we want to see happen and by putting out incentives to get us there. With a focus on: creating an even more active pedestrian life along Beakman and Cortland Streets, the key anchor points along these corridors, especially the terminal points and especially the river ends. Of course it misses the point to think of a forward vision without looking at the G M site. This subject is huge and not adequately dealt with as an adjunct to the ARB subject, but as it is looming, and as someone who was brought into the ARB to contribute to the G M considerations, and be present for most of the process, I would strongly highlight the following: Much of the ultimate quality is cast in early choices: in the caliber of the design professionals that are brought into it and in the caliber of the key ideas used to organize the project. The quality the first greatly impacts the quality of the second. This cannot be stressed enough. If the initial thoughts are clumsy, the mass of following time is spent trying to shine up these early failings. Design expertise is relatively inexpensive. The best talent pool in the county is 22 miles away. Big projects are big carrots that cause people to pursue and compete for them for no initial cost. This informs the decision makers and expands their view of what is possible. The visual appeal of our village and its neighborhoods is a community asset that has been contributed to for decades by hundreds of families. The appeal and desirability of any one property is absolutely not a function of only that which is within its property lines. I expect that we all admit that its desirability is at least in part a function of its surroundings. The neighborhoods have intuitionalized patterns grown over decades, that are their identity, that people use in making their decisions to settle there and have some right to a continuity of it into the future. The legal facts are that there are controls on property use. The seemingly more subjective, but real considerations relevant to an ARB are clearly on the continuum of other property use restrictions. A reasonable limit to this that grants the property owner their due rights, to satisfy their wishes for having the home they want, is to put the burden of proof for requiring adjustments on the Board in the case of the ARB. As the burden would be on the property owner in the case of the ZBA. (there are instituted zoning restrictions that we have all been living with and that have created the density character of the village, why should the applicant be exempt from these and be able to deviate from this character?) As might be expected, those with the lease political and economic power are likely to be the ones most hurt by diminishing an ARB type public forum. Those w h o will have to now create their own forum to respond to physical changes in the community that do not serve them well. As an example that goes to the record of the ARB; the high rise residences on Valley Street were forced to be 10 feet back from the sidewalk, like every other building on that street, and are not built at the edge of the sidewalk because of ARB objection to that proposal even thought there was a Zoning variance granted. This example is �E probably the biggest positive affect we have in the past years because it was the biggest construction project we saw that was completed. Because most of the work is small scale, any positive influence is small scale, but it adds up. I sincerely hope this has been some aid in considering what you are going to do with Village code changes. I expect that there is a lot for you to address in your roles as village trustees, and this is only a part, but as I think have been made clear these matters of our villages built environment are the most difficult to change later. One last thing, if the current ARB considerations are in any way prompted by the complaints of individual property owners, I think there is a need to make that transparent. Very Sincerely, David Pysh Village of Sleepy Hollow Architectural Review Board Chairman � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes & Resolutions-2010 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource MINS_TRUST_2010-05-11 Subject The topic of the resource Board of Trustees Minutes-2010 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Village of Sleepy Hollow All Rights Reserved. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text