AGENDA

HALCOTT TOWN BOARD MEETING

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

6:00 PM

Pledge of Allegiance

1. Approval of minutes of October 17, 2022 meeting

2. Highway Superintendent’s Report 

1. Update of proposed purchase of new truck
2. Other Highway business

3. Budget Officer’s Report

4. Approval to pay vouchers

5. Preparation for 2023 Organizational Meeting
   1. Select date: January 2 or January 9 (Draft of meeting attached here)
   2. Appoint committee to discuss garbage (report attached here)
   3. Appoint committee to discuss proposed building application fees (attached here)
   4. Re-appoint Planning Board members Adina Johnson, term to expire 12/2026; Teddy Johnson, term to expire 12/2027;.
   5. Re-appoint to Zoning Board of Appeals  John Dobsa, term will expire 12/2026; Christl Johnson, term will expire 12/2027.
6. Clerk’s Report

7. Land Use Code update  — Karen Rauter

8. Other Business

Follow-up on tree in stream near Virgil’s house

Public Comment

Adjournment.  Next regular Board Meeting 6PM, December 19, 2022

Please note: there are attachments to this agenda:

1. Draft 2023 Organizational Meeting; Halcott Highway Terms of Employment are part of this document.
2. Garbage Report as of October, 2022
3. John Mathiesen’s proposed building permit and application fees

If you wish to attend the November meeting, please print these additional 8 pages for your information.  Thank you! 

Note: Stars indicate attention needed.               DRAFT                                                                       

Town of Halcott

Organization for 2023

January, 2023

NOTE:  OATH OF OFFICE MUST BE TAKEN BY EVERY NEW OFFICIAL AND EVERY OFFICIAL WHOSE TERM BEGINS ANEW.

Elected Officials:

Supervisor: Innes Kasanof (two year term) term expires 12/2023; $3900.00

Town Justice: Kenneth Williams (four year term) – term expires 12/2025; $1075.00  

Four Council Members: (four year terms) – $850.00 each.   

Alan Reynolds, term expires 12/2023

Samantha Bouton, term expires 12/2023

Judy DiBenedetto, term expires 12/2025

Eric Fronckowiak, term expires 12/2025

Full Time Superintendent of Highways: Russell Bouton, two year term,

term expires 12/2023; $52,500.00

Fixed Assets (Highway): Superintendent of Highways

Town Clerk: Patricia Warfield, (two year term), term expires 12/2021; $4800.00

Tax Collector: Robin White, (two year term), term expires 12/2021; $2600.00

Records Management Officer: Town Clerk

Registrar of Vital Statistics: Town Clerk

Fixed Assets – (Town): Town Clerk

Appointed Officials:    

   Assessor: Marc Neves, (six year term), term expires 9/30/2025; $8700.00 

   Health Officer: Susan Fiore, MD; annual salary $110.00

   Dog Control Officer: Greg DiBenedetto, (one year term); $1175.00

   Dog Enumerator: Dog Control Officer, $1.00 per dog plus mileage.

   Code Enforcement Officer: John Matheisen, (one year term), $33.00 an hour plus mileage and training. Submits quarterly reports.

   Greene County Planning Board Representative: vacant.

   Planning Board Secretary: Nancy Reynolds – (appointed by Planning Board) – $250.00 

   Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman: Karen Rauter, $250.00   

   Attorney for the Town: Shawn Smith, Grand Gorge(one year term) (Budgeted $2000)

   Grange Building Steward: Robert Van Valkenburgh, one year term, $600.00

   Webmaster: Greg Beechler, one year term, $600.00 

   Grange Cleaner: Judy DiBenedetto. 12 cleanings a year at $50 each time.  More to be scheduled when necessary.

   Flag Steward: Chris DiBenedetto

   Budget Officer, Paul Tamaccio, $8000.00

   *Solid Waste Coordinator:                  paid quarterly; one year term, $2400.00.

   Deputy Supervisor: Alan Reynolds 

   Deputy Superintendent of Highways:

   Deputy Town Clerk:  Ariella Warfield. 

   Deputy Bookkeeper: vacant

   Deputy Code Enforcement Officer: Hiram Davis, effective 3/1/19

Committees:

*Finance and Personnel committee: Innes Kasanof, Alan Reynolds  (to propose at 2023 Org mtg.)

Town Board Building Committee:  Judy DiBenedetto; Samantha Bouton.

Town Board Highway Committee:  Chair: Alan Reynolds; Eric Fronckowiak

*Fire Company Liaison:  vacant           

Grange Oversight Committee: Jennifer Bouton, Robert Van Valkenburgh, Town Councilman Judy DiBenedetto, Samantha Bouton

Emergency Planning Committee:  Chair: Innes Kasanof, Judy DiBenedetto, Alan Reynolds, Bob VanValkenburgh, Lee Austin.

ATV committee- Jen Bouton, Lee Austin

*Shared Services Committee-                              , Alan Reynolds

Planning Board – Meets first Wed. of every month at 7PM as needed.

*        Five members – (five year terms) – (chooses its own chairman) 

             Chairman: Teddy Johnson, term expires 12/2021 – propose 12/2027 at November 21 2022 mtg.

Adina Johnson, term expires 12/2021 – propose 12/2026 at November 21 2022 mtg.

Mark Vogler, term expires 12/2025

Andrew Kelder, term expires 12/2024

Nancy Reynolds, term expires 12/2023

*Zoning Board of Appeals

Five members, five year terms:

John Dobsa, term expires 12/2021 – propose 12/2026 at November 21 2022 mtg.

Christl Johnson, term expires 12/2022 – propose 12/2027 at November 21 2022 mtg.

Chairman, Karen Rauter, term expires 12/2025  

Bruce Rowe, term expires 12/2023

Vacant, one member

*NOTE:  Hours of annual training received by Planning and Zoning Board members will be reported to Town Clerk at every January board meeting.

*Fee Schedule

Minor Subdivision:  $50 application fee & $50 at approval

Major Subdivision:  $100 application fee & $50 per lot at approval

Special Permit:  $100

Boundary Line Adjustment – no charge

Variance to ZBA – no charge

*Grange Hall Rentals:

$50.00 security deposit for all users.

$10.00 per use for private weekly events.

$50.00 a (private) event for Town of Halcott residents.

$100.00 a (private) event for non-residents

Events freely open to the public are free of charge.

Historian – Cindy Bouton

Board of Elections – set by Greene County (chooses its 

        own chairman)

            Democrats – Jennifer Bouton, Jamie Vogler , 

            Republicans – Sheri Reynolds, Jane Schramm

            Alternates – Cindy Bouton, Lee Austin, Nancy Reynolds, Laura Kasanof, Joe Aronson

*Board of Assessment Review – (Three year term) –  Three members (chooses its own chairman).       

Susan Herzog, term expires 9/30/2023

Mark Kugler,CHAIR term expires 9/30/2024

Marta Weiss, term expires 9/30/2025

Board of Elections School – Round trip to Catskill reimbursed

Cemetery Maintenance $1300.00  

Mileage:  to be calculated according to the current federal allowance.  Rate can be revisited by Town Board during the year.

Senior Citizen (aged 65 and older) Exemption follows that of Greene County. 

Payroll Schedule:

        All Highway Employees – every two weeks

        Assessor – monthly.

        CEO, quarterly

        Solid Waste Coordinator, quarterly 

        Town Clerk, annually.

        Tax Collector, annually.

        All other Officers, annually

   Fire Protection: Fleischmanns Fire Company.

   Official Bank: The Bank of Greene County, Inc.

   Official Newspaper:  The Mountain Eagle

   Official Radio Station: WRIP, Windham [97.9 FM]

Town Board Meetings: third Monday of the month, excepting January and February when it will be the fourth Monday of the month to avoid Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day, at the Town of Halcott Grange Hall, at 6PM unless otherwise noted.  All changes will be published beforehand in The Mountain Eagle and/or posted at the Town Grange Hall, Clerk’s bulletin board.

A Town email list will be kept by the Supervisor.  Pertinent notices will also be sent by email.  Requests to be put on the list may be emailed to:  halcott.town@gmail.com

 Office Hours and locations:

Office of Supervisor:  813 Route 3, Halcott Center, NY 12430; Tel:  845-254-9920

Office of Highway Superintendent: 9 Ursum Way, Halcott Center, NY 12430; Tel:  845-254-5736

All other offices located in the Town Grange Hall: 264 Route 3, Halcott Center, NY 12430

Town Clerk: Wednesdays 5 to 7pm; any other time by appointment. Tel:  845-254-6441

Tax Collector: At the Grange Hall:  During January:  Wednesdays 6PM to 8PM; Saturdays, 10AM to Noon.  All other times by appointment or by mail.  Closed all legal holidays. Tel: 845-701-1364

Code Enforcement Officer: 586-2074; By appointment.

Justice Court: as needed, or by appointment. 

   All Annual Reports: due by January 20^th or the January monthly meeting each year.

   Highway Fixed Assets Report: due by January 20^th, or the January monthly meeting of each year.

   Town Fixed Assets Report: due by January 20^th or the January monthly meeting of each year.

   Highway Time Sheets, Daily Records, Log Work done each day.

   ALL Vouchers – should be itemized and/or with bills attached.  They should be given to the Budget Officer/Supervisor by the Thursday preceding each meeting.  

   Photocopies – twenty-five cents – one side.

   MINUTES of the meetings of the current month are available free of charge from the Clerk by email and from the Website.  Hard copies are available from the Clerk for twenty-five cents each page – one side.  CDs available at $5.00 ea

Standard Guidelines for Response Times: Response to requests for information to any of the appointed or elected officials shall be initiated within 24 hours from the time of the request. Most of our town officials work from remote locations on a part time basis. We will do our best to respond as quickly as possible.

2023 Town of Halcott Terms of Employment

 Adopted, Organizational Meeting, Jan 2023 

Be it resolved by the Town Board of the Town of Halcott, Greene County, N.Y.  as follows:

1. That the starting wage schedule of Town Highway employees in the Town of Halcott  for the year 2023 shall be asfollows:

a.  Truck/Heavy Equipment Operator with Mechanical Skills – $21.00/hr. based on experience.  Highway Superintendent shall determine.

b.  Laborer – $13/hr.

c.  Emergency help – $15.00/hr straight time pay.  (Must be approved by a member of the Town Board or Supervisor).

d.  Part-time Mechanic –$ 20.00/hr, up to 4 hrs per week.

e. Part time snow plowing- $20.00/hr

2. That subsequent raises for full time highway employees of the Town of Halcott will be established when annual budget is discussed.

3)   That each fulltime highway employee in the Town of Halcott be paid time and a half for overtime after a 40/hr week.

4)   That each fulltime highway employee in the Town of Halcott be entitled to receive the following holidays each year:  New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and one floating holiday [TEN] and shall be entitled to receive his/her wages at the regular rate prescribed for his/her classification of work.  (If holiday falls on the weekend, the employee will be given either the weekday before or after the holiday.  If the holiday falls within the work period of four ten-hour days, the employee will be given 10 hours for the holiday).  

5) That full time employees hired before 2017 would receive the following annual leave: 

1. Ten days sick leave given on January 1^.  Unused sick leave is not compensated.  Unused Sick leave will not carry over from year to year after December 31, 2017 and will be reported to NYS+LR for additional service credit. If sick leave is used up before the end of the year employees may use available vacation leave as sick leave.
2. In addition, personal or vacation leave as follows:  one-half day a month, with an extra half day for anniversary month (month hired); employees will not receive compensation for unused vacation leave at the end of service. 
3. After 3 years: 1 day a month with extra day for anniversary month;
4. After 7 years:  One and a half days per month, with extra day for anniversary month; 
5. After 10 years: Two days a month with extra day for anniversary month. 

All leave must be approved by the Highway Superintendent and cannot be taken until after six months of service.  Vacationleave can accumulate up to 240 hours for all employees hired before 2015.  For all other employees, vacation leave will not accrue from year to year.  The Town encourages employees to use their vacation during the year.

6) That full time employees hired after1/1/2017 will receive the following leave: 

a. Ten days sick leave given on January 1^st . Unused sick leave is not compensated.  Unused Sick leave does not carry over from year to year and will be reported to NYS+LR for additional service credit. If sick leave is used up before the end of the year employees may use available vacation leave as sick leave. Compensated sick leave may not be taken during the first six months of employment

b    In addition, personal or vacation leave as follows:  one and a quarter days a month;   

c.   After 7 years:  personal or vacation leave as follows:  One and a half days per month, 

d.    Employees will not receive compensation for unused vacation leave at the end of service. 

e.    All leave must be approved by the Highway Superintendent and cannot be taken until after six months of service.  

f.     Any leave requested in excess of the above amounts will be uncompensated and must be requested in writing and submitted to the Town Board for approval. Such requests must state the purpose of the leave, start and end dates. 

g.     Vacation leave will not accrue from year to year, with the exception that five days may be carried over to the next year. The Town encourages employees to use their vacation during the year.

7) Every full-time employee will contribute 25% of his/her monthly health insurance premium.

8) The Town of Halcott will participate in the New York State and Local Retirement System according to its guidelines.

9) These terms will be posted at the Highway Garage. A copy signed by full time highway employees will be filed by the Finance Chair

10) Full-time, working Highway Superintendent receives same benefits as listed in numbers 4, 5, 7, and 8 above.

11) The Highway Superintendent must seek approval for unbudgeted expenses over $2500.

GARBAGE MONEY RECEIVED AND DISBURSED

As of October 2022

GARBAGE, as of Oct 2022
	Jan-Oct.2022
Received from tickets sold	3073
Billy Haynes @ 250/mo.	1750
(Paid up to July)
Total Received to date:	4823
Total budgeted:	4000
EXPENSES:
Greene Co Solid Waste	6481
Budgeted:	6500
Salary Kip Johnson (to date)	1738.5
Budgeted:	2318

This list has two pages

Draft Regular Town Board Meeting Minutes Halcott Grange
September 19, 2022, 6:00 pm

Present: Town Supervisor Innes Kasanof, Council Member Alan Reynolds, Judy DiBenedetto, Eric Fronckowiak, Samantha Bouton, Town Clerk, Patricia Warfield. Public: Ariel Bogert, Warren Reynolds, James Zampino, Alicia Dunn, David Grossman, Fred Herzog, Dave Carpenter, Vicky Ballard, Paul and Sybil Margaritis, Brian and Ashton Grocholl. Absent: Highway Superintendent Russ Bouton, Budget Officer Paul Tamaccio.

Call to Order at 6:04 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Approval of the minutes of the August 15, 2022 meeting: With the following corrections: present: Vic and Mary Lou Pagano. Motion to approve by Councilman Eric Fronckowiak, 2nd by Councilwoman Samantha Bouton, Councilman Alan Reynolds: aye, Supervisor Innes Kasanof: aye.

Highway Superintendent’s Report: Presented by Councilman Alan Reynolds: (A) The Highway Department has been working on ditching and widening on Townsend Hollow Rd. (B) Contractors for Greene County were here and took down all the dead trees which had been marked for removal. (C) The Highway Department has invested approximately $9,000.00 in parts to update and upgrade the Oshkosh. (D) Councilman Reynolds informed the Board that a state grant for $100,000.00 would come through Green County to Halcott for the Highway Department, which would be used to purchase a new 1-ton pickup truck with a snowplow, sander, and dump body. Supervisor Kasanof would like the Highway Department to gather the vehicle specs and desired add-on information to be presented at the next regular board meeting, with the board then passing a resolution for the purchase of the new vehicle. Approximately a month before the due date, Supervisor Kasanof will alert our county administrator Shawn Grodin and he will cut a check to the town to pay for the vehicle. Councilwoman Bouton asked if the Highway Department would keep the old pickup and the answer was yes. (E) Councilman Reynolds stated that the Town received notification from Del. Co. Soil and Water of approval of $300,000.00 for work on the Bank Stabilization Project/Elk Creek Toe Cut. This amount is to be used on the project itself with other funds to pay for engineering costs. The project will not start this year as it has not yet been decided if they will hire an outside engineering firm or handle the project themselves. The Townsend Hollow culvert project was turned down, each year grant characteristics and requirements change hopefully this will lead to its approval at some point in the future.

Voucher vote: General Abstract #G0922 – vouchers 140 – 147 = $2,169.87. Highway Abstract #H0922 – vouchers 148 – 158 = $15,716.55. Motion to pay bills by Councilwoman Judy DiBenedetto, 2nd by Councilwoman Samantha Bouton, Councilman Alan Reynolds: aye, Councilman Eric Fronckowiak: aye, Supervisor Innes Kasanof: aye.

Finance Chair Report: (A) Supervisor Innes Kasanof presented the monthly finance report for August. (B) Supervisor presented the 2023 tentative budget to the board for discussion which includes the following proposed salaries: Town Board Member $850.00, Town Supervisor $4,000.00, Town Clerk $5,000, Highway Superintendent $52,500.00. The total tax revenue to be raised by the town would be $395,058.00, a .7% rise from 2022.

Clerk’s Report: Building Permits (4) 1 @ 75.00, 1 @ 25.00, 1 @ 150.00, 1 @ 160.00: 410.00, BP Renewal: 345.00, Transfer Station: 272.00. The Town collected and disbursed $1,127.00 for the month of August.

Other Business: It was brought to the attention of the board that there has been a gradual disappearance of chairs from the Grange Hall. With no way to monitor when chairs are borrowed and returned, it was decided that a lock should be installed on the chair closet, with someone to be present when items are taken and then present when they are brought back to make sure the count is the same. The Community Fund will purchase additional chairs to increase the count.

LUC Update: There was a 35% response rate to the survey with 114 received. The LUC committee wants everyone to know that the survey is not a vote, the purpose of the survey is to gather information about how people feel about the town. Nan will dive into the data and sort things out, she recommended adding definitions for legal purposes to define rural in our comprehensive plan. The planning board has regularly attended LUC meetings with Nan Reynolds making sure that everything mentioned is noted on the document for future reference. The things people most value in our town according to the survey is beauty, nature, open space, neighbors, peace. Farming was the biggest word with neighbors and people second.

NYC Land Purchase in Halcott: The Town received a Community Review request from NYC Dept of Environmental Protection for a land acquisition project in Halcott. Hiking, hunting, trapping, and fishing would all be allowed and would be posted as a public access area with no NYCDEP access permit needed. The board had no comment on the purchase.

Next Meeting: Public Hearing, October 17, 2022, 6:00 pm, Regular Town Board Meeting to follow.

Motion to Adjourn at 7:04 p.m. by Councilwoman Samantha Bouton, 2nd by Councilwoman Judy DiBenedetto, Councilman Alan Reynolds: aye, Councilman Eric Fronckowiak: aye, Supervisor Innes Kasanof: aye.