Added: December 12, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday
November 13, 2019. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) George Hewitt, Nilda Rodriguez, Donna Bernard,
Paul Trautman, Sheila Trautman, Taylor Colton, Paul La Pierre, David Kessler, Marybeth O’Mahoney, Marianne Romito and Marvin Seligman.
Also present was the Superintendent of Highways and the town clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to open the public hearing at 7:02pm regarding the proposed Short Term Rental Law.
(Verbatim taken from tape)
Greg Kroyer, Chair of the Planning Board, took the floor and said, “I’m Greg Kroyer and speaking as the Chair of the Planning Board, I’d like to mention a few things about the current proposal that is before the Town Board regarding Short Term Rentals in our town.
As per our Town of Jewett Zoning Code, the responsibility rests with the Planning Board to make recommendations to the Town Board regarding amendments to the Zoning Code. On September 5th, 2019 the Planning Board which consists of 5 members, myself, Donna Bernard, Paul Lapierre, Marianne Romito and Simon Williams unanimously voted to recommend the Short Term Rental Proposal that is currently before the Town Board.
Among the Criteria that was considered is whether the proposed amendment is consistent with the aims of the Comprehensive Plan of the Town. This proposed STR Amendment was clearly found to be consistent with the aims of the Comprehensive Plan.
Currently we have perhaps 200 or so residents that are operating STR’S in Jewett. Our Zoning Code makes no mention of STR’s whatsoever.
The current proposal would simply add a definition to our Zoning Code for a Short Term Rental.
It would add “Registered Short Term Rental” to our permitted uses in all Zoning Districts.
And it would require the STR property owner to obtain a “Certificate of Registration”.
As far as the issue of an occupancy limit, we chose to let the size of the residence and property, the number of parking spaces and the available accommodations determine the maximum occupancy. For example a smaller 2 bedroom cottage on a small parcel might have a maximum occupancy of 4 and a large 6 Bedroom home on a larger parcel, with plenty of parking, might have a maximum occupancy of 12. Really not much different than a large extended family visiting their vacation home for the weekend. So let the size of the residence and property determine the maximum occupancy number instead of an arbitrary “one size fits all” number.
This Short Term Rental Proposal that is currently before the Town Board is a measured, simple, no nonsense, common sense approach to address a major safety concern in our community, without being overly regulatory.
My recommendation for the Town Board is to vote in favor of adopting Town of Jewett Local Law #2 of 2019, Zoning Amendments Regarding Short Term Rentals, as written.”
Marybeth O’Mahoney took the floor and said, “We want people to come here and visit, we don’t want it to be a bad experience. Jewett is taking the right steps. There needs to be a little regulation. If you are a neighbor (of an STR) and there are twenty five cars maybe parked on your lawn, you need to have someone to contact. A lot of people don’t understand boundaries”.
David Kessler, resident, noting he was involved in creating the local Comprehensive Plan took the floor and said, “One of the main points of the plan was to maintain the rural character of Jewett. A proliferation of home rentals is not in accordance with those objectives.” Suggesting homeowners be given copies of, and acknowledge receipt of the Comprehensive Plan for reference along with a copy of our noise ordinance.
Paul Trautman took the floor and said, “I’m a little confused on how you define an owner.
I think from the discussion I’m getting the impression that everyone thinks this is a person who owns a house wants to rent it out. I think there’s the other side. Down the road from me is a short term rental that is owned by an LLC. It’s a little bit different. Are you thinking in terms of limiting businesses, or dealing with people who own the home and want to rent it out? It’s not clear when you say owner or representative does that include also corporations?”
Attorney Tal Rappleyea and Supervisor Pellitteri both said yes.
Marybeth O’Mahoney said, “An air bnb and I don’t mean to speak out of turn is a business, a short term rental is a business. You’re taking money in my opinion”.
Sheila Trautman asked a question, “We just looked up how many people can stay in the Air bnb below us and its 25. Is that legit for an air bnb?”
Supervisor Pellitteri asked where it is located. Mrs. Trautman said it’s the old Hessley property on Route 77.
Supervisor Pellitteri said, “We will have the building inspector take look at it. Just because they advertise for 25 people doesn’t mean that we agree that’s where it should be. And with this law we will have the right to try and make that judgment, which we really don’t have at this point.”
Paul La Pierre took the floor and said, “One of the concerns we had on the planning board when we were discussing all this, is that there are buildings that are existing or have been built specifically to be air bnb’s with no onsite owner. Everything in there is intended to be rented out. That in my mind becomes a defacto hotel or motel however you want to characterize it.
It’s a conflict with legitimate businesses that are motels and hotels. It violates the spirit of Air bnb when Air bnb was first conceived. It was simply the occasional rental of a spare space in the home to provide an accommodation short term for somebody for a reasonable price and provide a little income to the owner. It seems to me to be a real violation of that spirit, to have a place that is dedicated solely to air bnb rentals, with no onsite owners. I know that you have drawn up the basic law but it seems to me in my mind and I think a number of people and it needs to be considered. And the registration process and I think what Paul spoke to of an ownership by and LLC sort of enters into the same category. An LLC owns it more than likely is only strictly for the purpose of being rented out.”
Attorney Tal Rappleyea took the floor and said, “It’s a struggle and it’s a balancing act and it’s not the first time this has happened. We saw it a few years ago with the rise of self storage facilities. It’s not really warehousing, it doesn’t really fit anything. And so we have to roll with those punches and work that into our zoning law as well. And you can’t think of all the potential uses that may come down the road and you just have to have the flexibility to do something and I think that’s what this law does, it’s a very tiny step, it’s not burdensome at all on the owners, it just lets us have a little bit of understanding of what’s out there. So that if and when the time comes we need to do something more restrictive we’ll have the basis for it.
And this is a good start to help understand what’s out there.”
Paul Trautman asked, “Would the board be willing to exclude LLC’s?”
Attorney Rappleyea said, “I think that that’s something that the board would have to take a look at. I think it’s a matter of knowing what’s out there first and seeing how it impacts us all, because we don’t want to be big brother. We want to be kinder and gentler Jewett that we are.”
Councilman McCrary said, “One of the conditions on the registration in giving them the certificate is having a contact person and its renewed every year. If we find an LLC that doesn’t have a contact person and we find a difficulty like cars parked all over the place and we cannot reach anybody, they don’t get a renewal. End of story.”
Sheila Trautman asked what happens if they don’t get a renewal?
Councilman McCrary said, “We don’t know yet, what fines we set up, this is a question of how these people react. If they want to keep in business they will abide by the registration, they will have a contact person or even a firm that runs it for them and we are satisfied. That keeps your condition of keeping a rural appearance. After all, we presume that’s why people come up here, they want that rural thing and if that is destroyed than they are out. And they are back down to the minimum of the C of O.”
Marybeth O’Mahoney asked what if someone doesn’t register then how do we find them.
Councilman McCrary said, “There is an organization called Host Compliance which is how we got the original figure of 187 to begin with and obviously there will be some that we’ll miss.
But when you start hitting a few people and eventually we set up a fine system and they get fined a few thousand dollars for being out of compliance and a nuisance law or noise ordinance etc. I think you find people beginning to register.”
Marvin Seligman, resident took the floor and asked, “How does registration determine you are in or out of compliance? What’s compliance?”
Councilman McCrary said, “The definition is within the proposed law.”
Supervisor Pellitteri said, “It’s the registration, the inspection”.
Mr. Seligman asked, “What is the standard?”
Supervisor Pellitteri said, “The standard is safety. That there are fire extinguishers, that the structure is secure, that they post the rules like Marybeth mentioned, they talk about the noise ordinance, parking and garbage. We are going to emphasize to the owners that those things are very important to us and that they need to tell that to their customers.”
Mr. Seligman asked what is the standard regarding the size.
Councilman McCrary answered it’s the C of O that regulates the occupancy.”
Attorney Rappleyea said, “The NYS Fire and building code, which is now the international fire and building code says that every structure has a maximum occupancy.”
Mr. Seligman said, “In some towns there are differences between short term rentals or if it’s a hotel, different standards for safety and occupancy.”
Attorney Rappleyea said, “We didn’t want to go that far yet. We didn’t want to make it… owners, the point is to have this first step and then get to that.”
Mr. Seligman said, “I think it’s a great first step, but some inference should be made towards occupancy.”
Mr. Kroyer said, “Tal they have to comply with all Jewett laws”.
Mr. Kessler said, “One of them is the noise ordinance which has specific decimals limitations”.
Mr. Seligman said, “Also the zoning laws, I think some folks are concerned that if it’s a larger place it’s in a place where a business shouldn’t be. I think the registrations important, gathering information and holding people accountable. We have an awful lot of things going on with the county and state collecting taxes. I’m concerned about if the county passes a tax and it’s a state tax then we may not get the money. If it’s an occupancy tax we may get the money. There are a lot of other aspects to this, I’m very much in favor personally of the registration, I’m not exactly in favor of… I’m opposed to the in every zone at this point. Get the information and then take the next step; it’s just a little premature. “
Attorney Rappleyea said, “You raise a number of points, let me address them. This is being integrated into our zoning law and it does take into account all the different zones and what’s in our zoning law, so that’s your first concern. Your second concern about the taxing unfortunately NYS hold the power there. We don’t have any ability to do local taxing, neither does the county for that matter. They can only do it if NYS authorizes them by special legislation. Either, I think it was the city of Hudson, that was given that just a few months ago, and that’s the first that I’ve heard of that anybody getting special legislation. So the state is working at their own pace. I don’t know if there’s taxation that keeps regulation of these things, and that’s why we wanted to do what Jewett wanted to do with respect to these regulations because we want to steer our own boat. We don’t want to have the state say well this is what you are gonna do.”
Mr. Seligman asked if Mr. Rappleyea could explain again what he meant by incorporating into the zoning law?
Attorney Rappleyea said,” Basically each one of these sections that you see have the section it’s referred to in our zoning laws. So it becomes part of it, its integrated in it. I crossed referenced all the different terminology against all the other uses and regulations that are in the zoning law so it is consistent with it.”
Mr. Seligman said, “So a business that is in a zone that wouldn’t permit a large business would be consistent with the zoning laws?”
Attorney Rappleyea answered yes.
Councilman McCrary said,”In terms of taxation, a lot of people are confused because Greene County legislature passed a weird resolution supporting the Assembly’s proposed legislation which only said that hey it’s a business it should have a sales tax, well of course but it has nothing to do with us. However, once we have a registration that means that the state has access to that and someone better dam well pay either a sales tax or a personal income tax and that’s got nothing to do with us. We cannot tax.”
Mr. Seligman answered, “I was just raising that there are a lot of issues still to come down the road as far as size, but I wasn’t aware that we can’t tax.”
Councilman McCrary said, “My personal projection on this having thought about it and talked at great length with Greg is, I figured it will take 3 years to iron out the problems, getting the people who were not going to register and making them pay very dearly for it. Helping those who are willing to register, that’s a very important thing we like to think we do. Both the planning board and building inspector both actually help our residents do what is best for them and best for the town. And so if somebody said, I want 15 people. Well, you can’t do that but we’ll help you comply and let you register for 8 or whatever that may be. If you don’t like that you can’t operate. So that is long term methodology of getting to these people, because LLC’s etc, they are there to make money. That’s fine. But they have to make money within the bounds of the comprehensive plan so we can keep Jewett that way we want it to be. We feel that this is a minimalists approach; it’s not draconian or hitting them over the head. But, down the line one year they don’t comply and don’t register and then we have quite a few tools in the tool box”.
Greg Kroyer took the floor and said, “I’d like to talk about the taxes. Air bnb currently has a tax remittance agreement for the bed tax. A lot of counties have bed taxing. Usually I think 4% I believe it is. Air bnb as a corporation has a tax remittance agreement with 29 out of 62 counties in NYS. Where Air bnb is paying a check to those counties on an annual basis, could be fifty grand or a hundred grand whatever it is. Greene County does not have a bed tax, so therefore and thats up to the county legislature. That is something they can pursue in the future, they haven’t done it yet, but other counties around us do have that. Just to go back to that tax thing, like Tal said the municipality, they don’t have the authority to tax these. It’s been done in the counties surrounding us; Columbia County is at 4%. So we will see what our county legislation does on that. While I have the floor, I want to mention the information sheet for operation that gets posted in the house will immediately mention the noise ordinance, garbage, parking, trespassing. It’s an information sheet about the existing laws in the town of Jewett, notifying the renters. On a side note, I’ve got the comprehensive plan; I’ve got two pages that show how this is actually right in parallel with our comprehensive plan.”
Mr. Kessler said,”But there’s still no number of occupancy, right?”
Mr. Kroyer answered,” depending on the size of the house.”
Mr. Kessler said, “Earlier I said I used to go to the Hamptons to the share houses. It doesn’t matter that it was a 2 or 3 bedroom house you could pile sleeping bags on the floors and it was illegal.”
Mr. Kroyer said, “They could do it, I mean nobody’s watching every single house. We acknowledge that, but to apply for a short term rental you would have to state the maximum number of occupants on your application and when the code enforcement officer goes for the site visit, he would look and say Oh you stated that you have 12 occupants and you only have two bedrooms, how is that? It really should be 4 occupants sir. And that’s what will happen here it’s not going to fall under the cracks, it will be addressed at that point in time.”
Mr. Trautman asked a question, “It reads registered short term rentals shall be added to the list of permitted uses in each zone. Does that mean that anyone who wants an Air bnb can put it in any zone in the town?”
Attorney Rappleyea answered, “As long as they register, yes.”
Mr. Trautman asked, “Isn’t that a violation of the comprehensive plan?”
Attorney Rappleyea said,” No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so at all. Because with the regulations that are going to be with respect to the inspection and the level and the parking and all those things then it keeps it in that rural feeling and that’s the whole point of it.”
Mr. Seligman said, “So what it’s a large hotel like structure?”
Supervisor Pellitteri said, “Then it’s a hotel”.
Attorney Rappleyea said, “It has to fit the definition.”
Councilman McCrary said, “There is another way of looking at this, if you want. And that is, if I have a house with a certificate of occupancy that states 4 bedrooms for 8 people, how can we tell them they can’t have 8 people in there. That’s their certificate of occupancy that we gave them. We don’t say the owner of that place has to have within that 8, that’s the certificate of occupancy we gave them. So as long as it’s within that and of course the DEP is right there smiling quickly about the septic systems, we have some control. And that control can increase if we find abuse. And that to me is the justification for any law. That it is only applied when it’s abused. My step father used to said, and pardon me for this “A good law is designed to be bent. For if it cannot be bent it shall be broken” so a little bit of flexibility is what we’d like to see with guarantees against abuse. Its abuse that we want to avoid because we’ve had it, we know it.”
Councilman Quackenbush said, “Our experience again, is a hand full of houses that have abused and annoyed its neighbors. The majority of houses have been fine so this is really aimed at those few houses that we know of.”
Marybeth O’Mahoney asked, “Are we going to let the real estate agents on the mountain top know so maybe we don’t run into the problem of people buying houses to flip them into Air bnb’s and they didn’t know when they bought the house. To me just to let the real estate agents know that this is part of Jewett’s comprehensive plan.”
The board commented that that was a really good idea.
George Hewitt took the floor and said, “It is a great idea however a year or two ago I was looking for a house in Jewett and realtors gave me all wrong information. I looked at one house that was a five bedroom and it wasn’t a legal five bedroom. I actually came in and talked to Carl about it, we checked the septic system and everything. So, it’s great to ask the realtors to do that but I would be surprised if they actually provide that information, because they are interested in selling, unfortunately.”
Marybeth O’Mahoney responded,”But if you were buying a house and found that information, in my opinion I would be able to go back to the realtor and say look what I just found, now we are going to negotiate this because you didn’t show me this. So to me it’s a benefit to somebody buying a house.”
Tal Rappleyea, Esq. said, “Whether the realtors help us or not, that’s not the point. At least we would take that step and put it out there and give them that information so that those that will can.”
David Kessler said, “When we were making the comprehensive plan, I think the biggest threat that we worried about was a casino coming to town and we never thought about air b-n-b’s.”
Attorney Rappleyea said,”Before you all go, let me talk a little bit about procedure. The next thing we are going to do is called a NYS Environmental quality review act. For every action that a municipality takes we have to do an environmental review. In this case it’s going to be fairly easy because we would make a determination that this local law will not make or have a substantial negative impact on the environment obviously it should hopefully do the opposite and encourage the decent use of the environment. The second thing after that will be a vote to adapt it, but that vote won’t happen tonight. Because part of the state laws says that whenever you change your zoning among other things you have to send a copy of what it is that you are going to do to the County Planning Board for them to do a review and comment.
Most of the time they say that a local decision, it doesn’t have any state wide or inter county or inter town impact and you guys go ahead and do what you do. The reason we don’t have that yet is because they only meet once a month. They met last October 14th and we had our public hearing on the 29th, the planning board meeting had already passed. So the next one is not until next week and we have already sent it down for their review. So when we get their comments back, then we can do our final action. The vote will not be tonight but at the next meeting or final one of the year.”
The board then thanked everyone for their thoughts”.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board moved to close the public hearing regarding the proposed short term rental law at 7:39pm.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of October 9, 2019, October 29, 2019 and November 6, 2019.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Superintendent of Highways Report: It’s been getting colder and the snow is beginning. The highway crew has been out twice already. The superintendent is looking to hire a new employee as there will be some retirements happening within the department.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #19 of 2019.
SUBJECT: Standard Workday and reporting resolution for Elected and Appointed Officials.
““BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town of Jewett hereby establishes the following standard work day for these titles and will report the officials to the New York State and Local Retirement System based on their record of activities:
Town Councilmember Brian Carl standard work day 6 hours. Current term begin and end date of 1/1/2018 – 12/31/2021 with a record of activities result of .34
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable and Quackenbush.
Councilman Carl abstained.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to declare a negative declaration on the short form for SEQR in respect to the short term rental law.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor and said, “I received a letter from FEMA regarding the firefighters grant. At this time they are unable to fund us, but strongly encouraged us to reapply for the third round, which I will be doing. I am also working on applying for technology grants as well as working with Attorney Rappleyea to begin structuring a 501 3C for the town.”
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to authorize Supervisor Pellitteri to sign the annual contract with Columbia Greene Humane Society/ SPCA .
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $9,921.09 on abstract #11, claim numbers 208-226.
The Highway Fund was $39,229.41 on abstract #11, claim numbers 158-177.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for October 2019.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 8:00 P.M. to discuss personnel matters. “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the Board came out of Executive Session at 8:15 P.M. No action was taken.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:16PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: November 14, 2019
A special meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday November 6, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 6:03 P.M. Present were Board Members
Michael McCrary, Allyson Constable, JR Quackenbush and Brian Carl. Also present was the Highway Superintendent and the town clerk. There was no public present.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, seconded by Councilman Carl and carried, the Board opened the public hearing for the 2020 Preliminary Budget at 6:03 P.M.
There was no public comment.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried, the board moved to close the public hearing for the preliminary budget at 6:03 pm.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, seconded by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, the Board opened the public hearing for Local Law #1 of 2019 entitled, “A LOCAL LAW TO OVERRIDE THE TAX LEVY LIMIT ESTABLISHED IN GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW §3-C”at 6:04 P.M.
There was no public comment.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, the board moved to close the public hearing for the proposed Tax Cap Override Law at 6:04 pm.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, Local Law #1 of 2019 was adopted. This law is entitled, “A LOCAL LAW TO OVERRIDE THE TAX LEVY LIMIT ESTABLISHED IN GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW §3-C”
Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Jewett as follows:
“Section 1. Legislative Intent: It is the intent of this local law to override the limit on the amount of real property taxes that may be levied by the Town of Jewett pursuant to General Municipal Law §3-c, and to allow the Town of Jewett to adopt a budget for the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2020 and ending December 31, 2020 that requires a real property tax levy in excess of the “tax levy limit “as defined by General Municipal Law §3-c.
Section 2. Authority: This local law is adopted pursuant to subdivision 5 of General Municipal Law §3-c, which expressly authorizes the Town board to override the tax levy limit by the adoption of a local law approved by vote of at least sixty percent (60%) of the Town Board.
Section 3. Tax Levy Limit Override: The Town Board of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene is hereby authorized to adopt a budget for the fiscal year 2020 that requires a real property tax levy in excess of the amount otherwise prescribed in General Municipal Law §3-c.
Section 4. Severability: If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, or part of this local law or the application thereof to any person, firm or corporation, or circumstance, shall be adjusted by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional, such order or judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, or part of this local law or in its application to the person, individual, firm or corporation or circumstance, directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment or order shall be rendered.
Section 5 Effective date: This local law shall take effect immediately upon filing with the Secretary of State.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Voting to adopt the Preliminary Budget for 2020.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board adopted Resolution #18 of 2019. SUBJECT: Adoption of the 2020 Preliminary Budget
“WHEREAS, the Town of Jewett board held a public hearing for the preliminary budget for 2020 and no changes were made,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, The Town of Jewett Board moves to adopt the preliminary budget for 2020 as the final budget.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bill. The Highway Fund was $8,790.00 on abstract #11, claim number 160.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board entered into executive session at 6:21 pm for the reason of the “medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or relating to appointment, promotion, demotion, discipline or removal.”
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board came out of executive session at 6:43pm. No action was taken.
There being no other business, Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by
Councilman Quackenbush and carried to adjourn the meeting at 6:43pm.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: November 14, 2019
A Budget Workshop and any other business that was brought before the town board was held on Tuesday October 29, 2019. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:03 P.M. Present were Board Members Michael McCrary, Allyson Constable, JR Quackenbush and Brian Carl.
Discussions were had regarding the proposed short term rental law. Councilwoman Constable shared her uneasiness about moving forward with the law. She stated that she does not want to see another law on the books and does not want to get involved in telling people what they can and can’t do in their own homes.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to adopt Resolution #17 of 2019, Subject: MOTION TO AMEND THE JEWETT TOWN ZONING LAW
“WHEREAS, A “Short Term Rental” (hereafter “STR”) of a property in the Town of Jewett is an entrepreneurial use of property not presently a Permitted or Special Use in any Zone; and
WHEREAS, an STR is by definition distinct from a Seasonal Rental; and
WHEREAS, STR’s are a new and increasing prevalent practice in all zones which when carried out responsibly is of benefit to many Jewett Property Owners; and
WHEREAS, it is the intent of the Town Board when making or amending Laws not to penalize responsible residents, but to enhance public safety;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED to Amend the Zoning Law of the Town of Jewett to so regularize this practice:
RESOLVED to Amend the Town Zoning Law be added to the following section:
Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Jewett as follows:
SECTION 1. ZONING AND TOWN CODE AMENDMENTS
The Town Board of the Town of Jewett has determined that it is necessary and appropriate to make certain amendments to the Town Zoning Law and Town Code in order to keep such laws updated and relevant to the changing community. The Board hereby adopts this local law pursuant to the requirements of New York State Town Law §264. The amendments set forth below are referenced in accordance with numbering system currently in effect in the Town Code Book adopted as Local Law #6 of 2010 on July 14, 2010. The amendments set forth herein shall take effect on January 1, 2020.
SECTION 2. AMENDMENT TO §165-51 Definitions.
Add:
REGISTERED SHORT TERM RENTAL: Any property or portion thereof, advertised in any fashion including on the internet, for rent for a period less than one month and for which the owner or representative has obtained a Registration Certificate from the Town Code Enforcement Officer.
SECTION 3. AMENDMENT TO §165-9 HR Hamlet Residential, §165-10 RR Rural Residential, §165-11 RC Rural Conservation and §165-12 C Conservation
Registered Short Term Rental shall be added to the list of Permitted Uses in each zone.
SECTION 4. AMENDMENT TO ADD A NEW §165-21.3 REGISTERED SHORT TERM RENTAL
Owners or representative(s) of the owners of all parcels of land or portions thereof to be utilized as a Short Term Rental shall file an application with the Town Clerk and obtain a Registration Certificate, annually on or before January 31 of each year or within 2 (two) months of a Notice of Non-Compliance having been issued, in a form to be promulgated by the Town Board from time to time by resolution and shall pay a fee as set by resolution of the Town Board. Registration must be completed by December 31, 2020 for all existing Short Term Rentals or at least ten (10) days prior to any new such use not existing as of January 1, 2020.
The Registration Certificate and an information sheet shall be conspicuously posted within the rental unit. The form of the information sheet shall be promulgated by the Town Board from time to time by resolution.
SECTION 5. Severability
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, word, section or part of this law shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional, illegal or invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, word, section or part thereof, directly involved in the controversy in which said judgment shall have been rendered.
SECTION 6. Effective Date.
This local law shall take effect on January 1, 2020 and following the filing of this law with Secretary of State.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 6:32 P.M. to discuss personnel matters, “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”
A motion was made by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to come out of Executive Session at time unknown.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board having come out of executive session moved to accept the tentative budget with changes as discussed as the preliminary budget subject to the public hearing on the 6th.
ROLL CALL VOTE: Aye Pellitteri, McCrary and Constable. Nay Quackenbush. Councilman Carl Abstained.
A date for a public hearing regarding the passing of the budget has been set for Wednesday November 6, 2019 at 6 P.M. at the Town of Jewett Municipal Building.
Councilwoman Constable a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to adjourn the meeting at time unknown P.M.
_______________________________
Maya Carl and Minutes taken from Digital Recording
Added: November 14, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday
October 9, 2019. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:01 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable and Mike McCrary. Councilman Quackenbush was absent.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair), Simon Williams, Kate Lynch-Williams, Paul LaPierre, Charles Kutcher and Peter Aquafredda.
Also present was the Highway Superintendent and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of September 11, 2019.
Highway Superintendents Report: The Highway crew is continuing ditching and cutting shoulders. The salt barn is full and ready for the winter season.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Discussions continued regarding a letter that was written to NYS DOT regarding a request that the town had made a year ago by asking the state to lower the speed limit to 45mph around the intersection of State Route 23A and Demming Road as that is the new entrance to Hunter Mountain West. The letter answered that they surveyed the area and have concluded that the amount of traffic does not warrant the speed limit to be lowered in that area.
The board would like to present a proper diagram of the road to the state so they can clearly see the need for the speed limit change. The highway superintendent will go and take measurements of the area.
(Verbatim from tape) Kate Lynch-Williams took the floor to discuss the zoning board’s recommendations regarding short term rentals. Ms. Williams said, “We looked over the proposal that the planning board had submitted to the town board concerning the short term rental recommendations. The ZBA felt the suggestions were good, but saw some potential problems in two areas which we think can be easily remedied with minor changes and still meet the Town Board’s objectives of protecting quality of life and safety. One, the current recommendations place no limit on occupancy; can which of course affect the safety and quality of life. Two, the current recommendations will change permitted uses in the Conservation district and thus weaken the original zoning intent. We think these issues can be solved by the following changes to the Planning Board recommendations. Planning board recommendation 1 currently reads: Any Property or portion thereof, advertised on the internet for rent for a period of less than one month shall be considered a short term rental.
We would change that to read: A short term rental is a “seasonal rental” advertised on the internet for rent for a period of less than one month. (The board should note that the category of seasonal rentals already has built in occupancy maximums).
Recommendation 2 currently reads: Owners of short term rental properties shall be required to register, pay a fee of $100 and provide contact information for a local contact person who can be reached in the case of an emergency.
We agree with this and propose no change.
Recommendation 3 reads: Registered short term rentals shall be added as a permitted use in all zoning districts.
This should be eliminated as it is no longer necessary. Seasonal rentals are already built into our zoning code. This is what we unanimously came up with”.
Councilwoman Constable asked Ms. Williams if she could read the definition of season rentals that we have in our code book, Ms Williams then read, “A dwelling occupied by at least one but not more than 10 boarders, roomers or lodgers. Three boarders per bedroom maximum who are lodged with or without meals and which they are provided such services as are incidental to its use as a temporary residence and distinguished from a boarding house or bed and breakfast.”
Councilman McCrary said, “I have a comment. Going along with your recommendation will mean that seasonal rentals are also subject to a registration fee. And that is exactly what I wanted to avoid. What we are trying to say is that seasonal rentals are permitted. Seasonal rentals in the common thought, is for a season. What is happening now is not for a season but for a short term. Therefore it is not permitted at all within any of our districts. A short term rental is distinct from a seasonal rental, to my mind anyway very distinct. The fact that it may or may not be advertised on the internet is coincidental but not vital. My thought has always been along with a lot of our residents and some of our board members, that the least regulation, the least restriction possible is best. So my thought in making this distinction is that if we go thru the recommendations as it is, to define short term rentals as we have and then make its compliance conditional on the yearly registration that still permits seasonal rentals to exist under the present regulation without any change at all”.
Ms. Williams said, “Without any registration, that’s what you’re saying”.
Councilman McCrary said, “Correct, because seasonal rental is permitted, but to my mind short terms rentals are not. They are not in compliance at all.”
Ms. Williams said, “In short term rentals going back to our definition that were saying, if we were to add that to seasonal rentals including short term rentals within the definition.”
Councilman McCrary said, “That as you say, that includes it but what we are definitely trying to do is differentiate between the two concepts. It is my personal feeling that defining it the way it is, does allow someone to go to Florida and we don’t care. As you say it is restrictive in terms of occupancy. Which is not different actually from a C of O. You say in there it’s a maximum of 10 but if the C of O says nope it’s a maximum of 6 sorry that 10 doesn’t count”.
Ms. Williams said, “I think the intent of that was to keep it, these are properties within a residential district. So they are trying to keep it at a certain number of people that come into a house”.
Councilman McCrary said, “I couldn’t agree more, which is why if you go thru this conditional for a registration is a visit by the CEO. Who says, the C of O says 6 people and your advertising 20, oh no that doesn’t work. That would be part of the vetting process. But by the same token it is again a condition of compliance which we are stating now this is a new category, short term rentals which hasn’t been around anywhere before, this is why so many towns are having legislative issues of considerable nature. I feel having discussed with the planning board, at some length this way makes a very careful definition with also allows as far as I m concerned and I think the planning board feels the same way, that if I want to rent a room out because I’m going to Florida and I do it thru a friend, this isn’t covered, so that’s fine.
The less restrictions the better. So my feeling is of what we have done satisfies both of your objections because the capacity will be limited by the C of O, basically. Which in fact seasonal rentals at the moment is not. It ought to be but it isn’t. There could be a maximum but not more that the C of O permits, which is always an issue.”
Charles Kutcher, member of the zoning board took the floor and said, “Mike, may I respond to your comment as Kate and I both worked on this. We do define a short term rental as a seasonal rental under certain conditions which is 30 days or less advertised on the internet. So that does not require anybody who has a seasonal rental that is not short term to register, is that correct? Right, so your first point is not correct, right? They do not and we were very careful about that because people do rent their houses out and we did not want them to have to register and under our suggestion they do not need to register. Secondly about size. Occupancy, the C of O is the legal occupancy of a building. Right? So if I build a 20 room house, right? In a conservation district, there is nothing and the inspector comes down and sees my house, we have 20 bedrooms, we have a septic system all you need the occupancy here is 25 people. You have 20 bedrooms. The current thing would say he could rent out to 25 people and the building inspector cannot stop him because he’s just based it on occupancy on C of O. But the current definition on a seasonal rental restricts it to 10 people. So you could have a 40 room house or a 100 room house and you could only rent it to a maximum of 10 people. Clearly the town wanted that, clearly the zoning people wanted that. They didn’t want large groups of people renting. We had a problem with some people for years who have been renting to large groups of people. But anyway so both of your points are well taken and we realized that when we were writing this so we did not say all seasonal rentals have to register only seasonal rentals that are less than 30 days and on the internet. So it means if you want to rent your room out while you go to Florida and you call up me and I say hey I got a guy who wants to be there your still fine so, both of your objections are met by this. Unless I’m missing something Tal.”
Tal Rappleyea, Esq. took the floor and said, “I think the bottom line is that it boils down to whether or not you want to limit the maximum capacity for a short term rental. If you want to include it in the definition as suggested by the ZBA, then you will be capping it at 10. If you keep it the way it is right now, there is not limit other then what is allowable by the CEO”.
Paul La Pierre took the floor to ask a question. He said, “Where do you make the distinction between, in an adjoining town someone has put up, converted a house into a multi bedroom house, which is short term rental, to the best of my knowledge there is no resident owner just a multi bedroom house. When do you draw the distinction between something like that and something that becomes a defacto hotel”.
Attorney Rappleyea said, “It’s the occupancy”.
Charles Kutcher said, “So if you don’t cap occupancy you can have a defacto hotel, so the current proposal as you said does not cap occupancy.”
Tal Rappleyea, Esq. said, “I think we have a definition of hotel also in our code, but it’s also a specific building classification under the code. Yes and no”.
Charles Kutcher said, “I have an eight bedroom house. It’s been listed at points as eight bedrooms. It’s not a hotel it’s not a little hotel. According to this right now I could rent out two to a bedroom, 16 people if we went forward with the current proposal”.
Greg Kroyer, planning board chair said, “You could literally rent it out right now as a short term rental”.
Charles Kutcher said, “No I can’t, I could only rent it out to up to ten people, otherwise I’m not in compliance.”
Greg Kroyer said, “Under the seasonal rental”.
Charles Kutcher said, “Under the seasonal rental, right”.
Greg Kroyer added, “You know that short term rental is not seasonal right?”
Charles Kutcher said, “There is no definition, there is no time definition on seasonal rental, according to the code.”
Greg Kroyer asked, “What was the intent of the seasonal rental being permitted at the time? Was it for the ski season? I think it was”.
Charles Kutcher said, “Well, summer too”.
Greg Kroyer said, “And the summer season. It was for a season. It wasn’t for two days, a weekend, it’s not the same. Short term rental is a separate thing. The seasonal rental intended at the time was for the ski season or the summer season.”
Charles Kutcher said,” But why not use the existing term, restrict it and then you get everything you want and you won’t have the problem of unlimited occupancy.”
Greg Kroyer said,”Some of these houses are large enough, they are paying their tax bills to support that. Say somebody does have a 10 bedroom house and they are paying a very large tax bill. Maybe they are paying $15,000-20,000 a year, why are you trying to limit them; maybe they have 100 acres also?”
Charles Kutcher said, “The answer is because the town zoning and long term plan said that it was what we did not want. People renting for the season more than 10 people at a time. Now we are saying it would be ok to rent to 20 people short term and turn that over every weekend.
It’s not logical, it’s unlogical, right? A long term rental you have more control over, a seasonal rental you have more control over”.
Greg Kroyer said, “It’s just the opposite, in a registered short term rental the CEO visits the house, inspects it, checks on it and does all his things. A seasonal rental is a permitted use, you don’t have any control over it, and no one is regulating it.”
Charles Kutcher said, “We agree with the registration, the registration will do wonders. But if the town and zoning, the intent of it was you did not want more than 10 people in a house, because of what potentially you could do to the neighbors. And I guess we’ve had some problems here with people disturbing the quality of life. If you want to rent your house that’s fine but no to more than 10 people. As a seasonal rental I could rent it out right now for a month. I’m permitted to rent it for a week, for a day but I am not permitted to rent it to more than 10 people. It’s illegal. But if you pass this, it is now legal for me to rent short term to huge amounts of people if I want and we are getting that. So, the registration is great. I never thought of that. A registration is a wonderful thing because it now also means you have added yet another level. But the registration that requires the building inspector to go out does not cover occupancy it only covers occupancy based on the size of the house. If the house is big enough you can have 16 people. To answer your question about why if I’ve got a big enough house and I pay big taxes and why can’t I do it? It’s because zoning didn’t want that, the town didn’t want that, the master plan didn’t want that”.
Greg Kroyer said, “Well the master plan doesn’t limit the size of the house you can build.”
Charles Kutcher said, “No, it doesn’t but it was about the quality of life. The plan clearly excluded a seasonal rental from the conservation zoning district. It specifically said you have to get a special use permit to do that. This will say if you build a home in a special district now you can rent it out short term, which you could not do before unless you got a permit. So I don’t see why?”
Tal G Rappleyea, Esq. said “I’m going to get back to my original comment; I think everybody’s all saying the same thing, but it really just boils down to, so you want to limit the number of people for short term rental to that artificial number of 10? Or do you want it based upon what the CEO would grant as a C of O.”
Councilman McCrary said,” Let me ask another question if I may of Tal and this is a question raised to me by a resident, not here but in a neighboring town. He says my C of O allows for 10 people but he’ll only be renting out 2 rooms, so that’s 6. And he says you can’t limit me as to how many people I can have as long as I held to the C of O. So if we follow their plan and limit the total number of people I think we are subject to liability, cause somebody can say my C of O says I can have 40 people in my 20 bedroom house, you can’t stop me from having 40 people in my 20 bedroom house.”
Charles Kutcher and Kate Williams both said, “Yes we can.”
Councilman McCrary said, “No, you can’t.”
Charles Kutcher said, “Yes, we can and it’s called zoning.”
Councilman McCrary said, “Within zoning, but if the C of O says x number of people, zoning doesn’t make any difference.”
Kutcher and Williams answered that it does make a difference.
Councilman McCrary said, “So in other words you can’t build a 20 bedroom house.”
Charles Kutcher said, “Yes you can build that size, you just can’t rent out to more than 10 people. Yes, a large family can live there you just can’t rent it out to more than 10 people.”
Councilwoman Constable said, “What if you have a large, my sister, me, my cousin Jenna and my cousin Marie as family we vacation a lot together. And we will rent houses, there are 16 of us and we are not partiers we are just 4 young families who like to rent a house.”
Charles Kutcher said, “You wouldn’t be able to do that in the town of Jewett”.
Paul La Pierre said, “You might want to make a distinction between whether the renters are family or non family.”
Peter Aquafreeda, a resident of the town, took the floor and said, “There is a difference between permanent and transient residents. In NYC it’s a distinct difference between permanent resident which would include family that’s excluded and transient residents’ means people who are only there for a short term.”
Tal Rappleyea, Esq. said, “Even though they are family they are still transient.”
Councilwoman Constable said, “I don’t know if I like this, it’s just not welcoming. I would have to chew on this, I can’t make a decision.”
Charles Kutcher said, “It’s a point well taken, I think it’s… were looking at the outliners, just like the 20 room house, it’s an outliner. We are looking at outliners. However it’s easily changed at some point, where you go in and change the definition of seasonal rentals and if it’s felt that you want, we should be able to rent to 16 or whatever you can do that. But everything else is already in the law, it’s already there you don’t have to do any but just define short term rental as a season rental that’s 30 days and on the internet. Everyone that currently rents can still continue to do it and they still have to register to do it.”
Kate Williams said, “Because I thought we were under the impression when we sat down that this is something that you kind of wanted to get going on pretty quickly and this is sort of a way to do it without any big regulations without any using a whole lot of time and energy in getting it going as what Greg was saying he wanted to get the registration going by January. Well, this would be a way to do this because we have the definition already. This would be the first step, the first step to get going. And then to discuss it further for the next step as to where we want to go from there and see how this all works at this point.”
Councilwoman Constable said, “I appreciate all of your help, I totally do. I’m just like throwing things out there. But the other part is too and I do understand but this is also something cause it is new and it’s such a… you don’t kind of know sometimes which way is right, which way to do, me personally I am not saying I speak for the board and I know maybe I will get maybe tarred and feathered for saying this but I am not comfortable trying to push it for just a date until I feel like this is what we all really think. And that’s just my own opinion so I do appreciate all of your work and trying to make it as smooth as possible, like I totally appreciate that but me personally and I don’t know if that will screw everybody else’s timeline up but I’m just not comfortable pushing something thru just for a date right now, just to say that we did it, so we could start. Because I just feel like once we do, it’s a lot harder to change. I guess there is really not a wrong way because we really don’t have any guideline right now of what is right and wrong but me personally, like it’s just a lot to chew on and I’m not comfortable pushing it thru”.
Charles Kutcher said,” Believe me we had that discussion but we said well, let’s say we didn’t use seasonal rentals as the base. Well then you start getting into, you got to have a base and people have to agree. Should it be 10 or should it be 12 or should it be 13. It took the people who did zoning 3 years to figure out whether it was going to be 10 or 12 or 13. But then we said the intent of the planning board and the intent of the people pushing this is that they wanted it a little quicker rather than later. So it seems that if we just use the existing framework that we have and we could solve the issues that were raised by Mike and Greg and this would be the easy way to go and not allow for the potential problem of unlimited people in somewhere and also making a change to zoning conservation which is a big step when you think about zoning.”
Greg Kroyer said, “Conservation district just to get back to that. When you are in the conservation district, it is a very ecologically sensitive area and to build a residence in the conservation district there is a special use permit. So, if you even have a residence in the conservation district that means you came before the planning board, the environmental SEQUOR review occurred, the planning board set limitations and restrictions on the site plan, etc. So you have already jumped thru the hoops. So, you’ve done things right, that’s how they have a house, but now you are going to tell them that they can’t rent that house?”
Charles Kutcher said, “They will know that before they build the house”.
Greg Kroyer asked how they will know.
Charles Kutcher said, “Because it says you need a special use permit, it has always said that you need a special use permit to even have a seasonal rental.”
Greg Kroyer said, “Let me just say this, we have had seasonal rentals as a permitted use in all zoning districts in our town except for certain zoning areas where a permit is required. People have been renting out seasonal rentals all year long. Nobody’s ever checked to see if there are 10 people or 12 or 20. It hasn’t happened. Now we probably have a proximally 200 people operating short term rentals in our town right now. I don’t know what percentage of that has more than 10 people but I suspect a good portion. I suspect probably half of them. So now you are going to outlaw these people, and they are going to be coming in here and saying wait a minute we’ve been doing this for the last 5 years, making a decent income on it and now you guys not only are you requiring us to register for a $100 but you going to put us out of business basically or tell us we can only have 10 people in our 15 bedroom house or even a 10 bedroom house that can sleep 20 people easily. And I can easily see the sights in Jewett where it wouldn’t bother anybody. It’s certainly possible. I’m just not seeing the reason behind it. You are putting your CEO in there; you’re going to have a chance to get them registered. You are going to put the information sheet in the house that specifies all the town laws that are relevant to things which may bother their neighbors. It’s a way to get a grip on it. What you want to do is go further. What you want to do is limit the amount of people that can rent a house. So literally a 4 bedroom house is basically it. Anything bigger than that, you’re not going to let them do it. You will tell them that you can only use those 4 bedrooms and cannot use the other 4. And that’s what you’re going to do and you will find people, I am sure that object to that much more.”
Charles Kutcher said, “Who, people who run businesses doing this or people who live here?”
Greg Kroyer said, “Residents that pay taxes in the town of Jewett. I am not differentiating between the two. I’m saying they are tax payers of our town, that’s what I’m talking about. People who put their money to invest here; they have invested it in the town of Jewett and I’m sure some are both. So, I get where you’re coming from with limiting that number to 10,
I understand why a little better, your definitely pointing that out and I kind of get that. But, practically speaking its going to be much tougher to institute what you want to do. And I don’t think it fits at all, quite honestly I think a seasonal rental, the intent of that was for a ski season or a summer season, however you want to say it. It isn’t to be able to rent out your seasonal house for a weekend. That was never the intent. You can’t make that up that it was, it wasn’t.
Someone can build a hotel in Jewett, it’s a special use. You can build a Hilton hotel. If you can find a Marriott to come here, they can come here. As long as they pass the environmental reviews and the planning board reviews, they can do it. Im not saying they will do it, I don’t think they are, they would probably want to build it next to the ski slope. But it is a permitted use with a special use permit. So, I’m just looking practically speaking it seems like you are going to be putting people out of business that are already in business, like our tax payers and residents”.
Charles Kutcher said, “We are talking about our quality of life here. So if you don’t live here and you buy a house and you rent it out and you turn over short term all the time. You don’t really give a hoot about quality of life, until it gets so bad that nobody wants to rent out your house.
So you are a tax payer, I guess I’m trying to get away from tax payer and get back to citizen. Were not taxpayers, we pay taxes but we are citizens, we’re citizens of the town. The town wants certain quality of life and that’s all were suggesting. And that quality of life was once put in effect even when times were much freer, that 10 seemed to be the right amount, more than that is a little bit. So if we say that we should change that because some people, especially people that are doing this more for earning a living than to be part of the town because they’re breaking the law, so we should change the law so they are not breaking the law.”
Paul La Pierre said, “Thirty years ago the understanding of seasonal rentals was different that it is today. Air b-n-b and such the like did not exist. The intent with Air b-n-b initially was simply incidental use, incidental income coming from a rental of an extra bedroom. Now a days the intent, I sent out an article last spring from Harpers Magazine or The Atlantic, about the impact that Air b-n-b in Europe has on communities, particularly Barcelona, and what’s happened is that people have now been taking the Air b-n-b concept and turning it into a viable commercial activity as opposed to an incidental income and it changed the whole nature the way building are used in neighborhoods and communities. And those of you who got that article may remember that it denies rental properties for people who might have a long term interest in renting a house in a neighborhood and community. They have no interest in buying a home but would like to have a place to rent. But once you start getting into this commercial approach to Air b-n-b and those kinds of activities, you now denied some housing units to a market that might have a longer term interest in renting and that alters the nature of the community considerably. And when I say defacto hotel that essentially what these things become and that becomes a commercial activity that is not regulated because it falls into this never never land.”
Simon Williams said, “If I may just add one point to that. If you actually go on Google maps you will find that there are actually hotels on Colgate Rd. and they are Air b-n-b’s. So now who’s labeling them as a hotel is interesting I couldn’t tell you but, if you go on now you can find them. They are 3 bedroom houses, 4 bedroom houses but they are labeled as hotels.”
Councilman McCrary said, “I think Paul brings up, to me that is the most important thing is that 30 years ago, these concepts were not even thought of. And when we talk about the feeling that we all had here, these concepts were simply not thought of. And what we are trying to do is make a differentiation between your classic view and what is now a defacto situation. Now in the recommendation that we’ve put up, we, the planning board and Tal has talked about it and Tal has stacks of paper about it, there are other quiet restrictions such as parking. There are other ways of controlling this which do not suggest restrictions but control for the public wheel and that is what we’re really looking for. I mean come on a limit of 10? Still allows parties. We are trying to do something that we can identify the owner and identify the responsible contact which is not the case. But again I want very much and my request to the planning board let us not get into the trap of restrictions and regulation but for the public wheel, identification. One has plan reviews to come up with, which are quite large. When they are well regulated particularly when they come up with a limited number of vehicles because they are all packed in or even for a wedding they come up in a bus. So that’s over the 10 but they follow all our other regulations, no trespassing, no noise, etc. That is the control of the public use. As soon as you say no, you can’t have any more than 10, you are going back to the very outmoded concept of seasonal rentals. And what we are trying to do is bring compliance with our zoning into the present day in a gentle way. And again because this is an annual registration, that’s the important thing, it’s an annual registration. If someone is seen to continuously disregard our intent which is to retain the rural nature of our town then their registration isn’t renewed period. That is not the case under seasonal rental. If somebody can rent their place out as a seasonal rental and can have a maximum number of 10 and they can disobey all our regulations all the time and there is no way to stop them whatsoever. In this way by very carefully differentiating we have methods of for again the public wheel, we have ways of stopping abuses like this and that is the most important thing I think is to have a control which stops abuses.”
Charles Kutcher said, “That’s a lot of words but the truth is, we have to find out short term rental. I think Tal hit the nail on the head. You are arguing 10 and what your saying is we will figure it out if the guy has parked too many cars there, then we won’t register him again. Well you are going to get a whole series of laws and more regulations and all this stuff to put that in place. Yes, is this perfect? No, should it be 12 or 8 or 16? But it’s already there so you don’t have to argue about what the number is. Do we want in our town a 100 places or 200 places renting out to more than 10 people every weekend? And I don’t think the seasonal was that much, things always change you know that a seasonal rental used to be the whole summer. But when I was younger and I’m pretty old, but not as old as you, but I’m pretty old. Seasonal rentals down at the shore were one week or two weeks. Those are seasonal rentals. I bought a house for seasonal rentals; I rented it out during the season. The rest of the year I lived in it or whatever. Seasonal rental is just something you’re thinking about or it’s easy to think about that way but we understood that there’s a confusion so we changed the way we did things. We could have started out saying a seasonal rental which rents for less than 30 days is a short term rental. Well that might confuse people because they see seasonal rental first. So we specifically said a short term rental, we start with that. So you call it a short term rental law.
A short term rental is… and you have a definition of what somebody can do. If you don’t like it the alternative seems to me unless you have a free for all, is you now have to go in and make those decisions, you can’t just swap a decision about the number of people who rent it, because we don’t want to restrict it.”
Greg Kroyer said, “It’s not that we can swap that off, we are requiring registering, they need to write down what the maximum occupancy is, it needs to make sense when the CEO goes there.
There has to be an adequate number of parking spaces, bedrooms, bathrooms etc. I personally don’t object to a house with 16 people in it. I object if they are making noise or bothering their neighbors, spreading their garbage in the road, trespassing on my property, these type of things. If they are well behaved, if there’s 24 of them in the house it doesn’t bother me all day and it shouldn’t bother anybody else. If they are keeping themselves and being good, it’s not just the occupancy, it’s the way their behaving and following all the laws. To me again a season is a season; I don’t define a season to be two weeks and I never will. I’ll never come around to that. Seasonal to me means a season of some sort, spring, summer, winter or fall. The ski season, the summer season. People are buying Air b-n-b’s, alright you don’t like it but, the tax base increases, in other words now that property that was delinquent and on the rolls for $40,000 and now it’s on the rolls for $400,000 and look your taxes went down along with that. My quality of life just rose up. I have a better quality of life now because my tax bill isn’t as much as it used to be. So the quality of life is only going bad if you have bad neighbors/bad actors. This gives the CEO a way to identify them and if they are not acting right, they lose their registration, they are out of business, and it’s as simple as that.”
Charles Kutcher said, “I don’t see how you could put them out of business, you can only fine them.”
Greg Kroyer said, “You can not renew their registration for the next year”.
Charles Kuther said, “We all agree on registration. I think Tal hit the nail on the head, if you want it unlimited, then you go ahead. Granted you can have a house with two people in it that is much more painful than a house with 20 people in it on how they act. But chances are a house that turns over 16-20 people every couple of days is going to be more of a problem than a house that turns over 2, 4 or 6 people on average. And all you can do is work on the generals and averages but there will always be something that just doesn’t quite fit.”
Councilman McCrary said, “With your look at it then the only possibility we have is to fine them for various infractions. With this as it is and you say you agree, registration is annual. Now again I go back to the part that the whole purpose of this is minimalistic. Change as little as possible. You say by including the seasonal rental, that is not change. I say it is because it is restricting people who are already doing this and the whole point is to bring people into compliance. At the moment short term rentals is not in compliance with our regulations period, end of story. The whole purpose of this is to bring an operation that is existing and uncontrolled into compliance with minimal control. And the minimal control here is the annual registration. And no changes in seasonal rentals, no changes in definitions except adding a new definition and my point is that to make a new definition to bring it into compliance deliberately, differentiates it from seasonal rental and very deliberately doing that by saying, oh this guy has a seasonal rental, he is ok. This one is under our definition of short term rental and he is not in compliance”.
Charles Kutcher said, “You can make that change Mike, it’s just what’s in your head. We tried to take that into account in this. There a definition of a short term rental. We could have said a definition of a short term rental is… and then taken all the elements of a seasonal rental and put it in there. But that would include having to change each zoning district. But you have the ease of already having this stuff said that way. And registration is absolutely necessary. You brought up incompliance, but currently people are… with the registration anybody who’s renting a place out short term would try to register whether it’s… under any condition. And people, who aren’t going to register, just aren’t going to register their places”.
Councilman McCrary said, “All I want is simplicity out of this. I want this to be a step one, to see how step one goes.”
Kate Williams said, “That’s why we were recommending using what we already had in zoning instead of making changes to the zoning and putting it as a permitted use without putting any controls on it, because you don’t want to do a whole thing of controls is like opening up a can of worms that you don’t know what you’re going to get. That the reason why we were going in that direction and looking at it from that point of view”.
The board thanked Kate Williams for sharing her thoughts with them.
Councilman McCrary said, “It will be taken into consideration”. (End verbatim from tape)
The board reviewed the tentative budget.
Councilman McCrary moved to table the approval of the budget until after the executive session.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to set a public hearing regarding, local law #1 of 2019 the tax cap override law. The public hearing has been set for Wednesday November 7th at 6pm.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to set a public hearing regarding the preliminary budget. The public hearing has been set for Wednesday November 7th at 6pm.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board moved to have a budget workshop. The date for the budget workshop has been set for October 29th at 6pm.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board moved to set a public hearing on local law #2 of 2019 entitled, “Zoning amendments regarding short terms rentals”. The date for the public hearing has been set for Wednesday November 13, 2019 at 7pm.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor and said, “I spoke to the property owners in regard to developing the Town Tourism Center. He is interested in selling the property and was impressed with the vision for it. He will be up later this week or the beginning of next week for a site tour. I have invited Supervisor Pellitteri, the Town Board Members, th
e chair of the planning board, Superintendent of Highways and the town clerk to come along for the tour. Whatever can be incorporated into the facility that will improve the efficiency of our town operations now would be the time to tie these things into the project. Having everyone tour the site will give us all a chance to see what we would like to accomplish aside from the Town Tourism Center itself.”
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $9,072.87 on abstract #10, claim numbers 195-207.
The Highway Fund was $20,281.35 on abstract #10, claim numbers 139-157.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for September 2019.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 9:22 P.M. to discuss personnel matters. “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilwoman Carl and carried the Board came out of Executive Session at 10:40 P.M.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the board moved to increase the town clerks salary as presented with the addition of $5,000.00.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to adjourn the meeting at 10:41PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: November 14, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday
September 11, 2019. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) Marianne Romito, Marvin Seligman, Simon Williams, Carol Muth, Jimmy Thorington (Greene County Legislator) and Janet Nicholls.
Also present was the Town Clerk.
A moment of silence was taken after the pledge of allegiance was said to remember the victims of 911 and their families.
Greene County Legislature, Jimmy Thorington took the floor to invite the Town Board to attend a meeting on October 7, 2019 regarding the current ambulance situation on the Mountain Top. The county budget is coming up in the legislature and he is going to all the towns he represents and seeing if we are ok with the current ambulance services. He said that Hunter, Tannersville and Lexington are having issues and that Prattsville has some as well.
Legislator Thorington is trying to get a grip on what is needed and relayed to the board the importance of attending the upcoming Mountain Top’s Supervisors meeting. They are looking to try and solve our issues.
Carol Muth took the floor to ask Mr. Thorington a question. “Will this be any different than the proposals that have been set forth in previous years?”
Legislator Thorington answered, “Probably not, that’s why we’re trying to get everybody together all at once. It seems to be that they get a few people together and a decision will start to be made and then it falls apart. It’s on going and it needs to be nipped in the bud and taken care of for everybody’s resources as far as us, not for them. They are going to move the paramedic from Windham to Hunter because Windham is fully staffed with ALS 24/7. Hopefully that will take up some of the paramedics call time going to Hunter and Lexington. We’re going to try this first and see what happens”.
Mrs. Muth asked Mr. Thorington if he personally belonged to the fire department to which he replied, I do. She then said, “Then you are hearing all the scanners with the proliferation of calls that actually Windham and Hunter are covering below the mountain. And correct me if I’m wrong, but one of your fellow legislators made the comment that he didn’t see why he should help pay for it, a paramedic up here. Am I correct?” Legislator Thorington answered,
“You are correct”. Mrs. Muth then answered, “To which my reply would be, they have no trouble taking their share of the sales tax revenue from hotels, restaurants and ski areas.”
Mr. Thorington answered, “You are 100% right, it’s about 50/50. From up here to down there its 50/50. Everything’s 50/50. They have 3 fly cars down in the valley, we have one up here.
We have tried getting two paramedics up here, it was said that if we have two in the summer time, they will be bored. So we are trying to get a part time even through the winter. When we are done moving the fly car we will see how this works. Lexington is really hurting, Spruceton gets up into the valley and it takes so long to get there”.
Mrs. Muth said, “When it has been proposed in the past and they were looking at ways to finance it and they were looking at the assessed value of the town that kind of puts the screws to Jewett because we are very highly assessed with a lot of state owned land. The more state owned land you have, yes they pay tax but it’s not sizable compared to residential business, etc.”
Legislator Thorington said, “Nothing ever seems to get done. It gets hashed out and we talk about it, meeting after meeting after meeting and then nothing gets done. We need to do something.”
Councilman McCrary said, “Im a little concerned because of the changes that would be happening up here subject to the election, that any agreements you make in October may not be valid in November/ January 1st. I think that’s a very serious issue and I don’t know how you will handle it. I don’t know how the low country legislatures look at the shenanigans that go on up here.” Legislator Thorington said, it’s pretty tough when its 12 against 2. It’s very hard to deal with but we have to work at it.”
The board then thanked Legislator Thorington for coming in and relating all the information regarding ambulance issues on the mountain top.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of July 10, 2019 and August 14, 2019.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #15 of 2019.
SUBJECT: TAX COLLECTORS YEAR END REPORT
“WHEREAS, the Town Tax Collector is required to give the Town Board an annual report of monies received and paid out during the tax collection period,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Tax Collector offers the following report for the period of January 1, 2019 to August 31, 2019
Amount of County Warrant $2,943,608.70
Amount Paid County 1,589,139.77
Amount Paid Town 1,055,029.00 (before penalties, service fee and interest)
Penalties Service Fee Interest
January 177.03
February 1,142.92 545.91
March 1,645.58 472.01
April 3,191.55 485.84
May 118.33 62.00 228.30
June 1,010.49 30.00 162.02
July 660.80 18.00 173.42
August 34.41
TOTAL 7,769.67 110.00 2,278.94
TOTAL PENALTIES, SERVICE FEE & INTREST PAID TO TOWN $ 10,158.61
TOTAL AMOUNT PAID TO TOWN $ 1,065,187.61
TOTAL AMOUNT OF WARRANT____ $ 2,943,608.70
TOTAL PAID TO COUNTY AND TOWN $ 2,654,327.38
AMOUNT OF TAXES UNPAID $ 289,281.32”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
A letter was received from NYS DOT regarding a request that the town had made a year ago by asking the state to lower the speed limit to 45mph around the intersection of State Route 23A and Demming Road as that is the new entrance to Hunter Mountain West. The letter answered that they surveyed the area and have concluded that the amount of traffic does not warrant the speed limit to be lowered in that area.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to request the supervisors of Jewett and Hunter to respond to NYS DOT asking them to continue to survey the area as we expect the traffic to double, triple and quadruple around the upcoming ski season.
The board continued discussions regarding short term rentals. Councilman McCrary took the floor and said, “I think everybody here knows that this has been a subject rattling around this board for a year at least, other boards for longer. We’ve had various residents come in to complain, we have heard other reports of difficulties, but to my knowledge we have never heard from anyone that is an air b-n-b host, to get their opinion. I very much wanted to get the planning boards thoughts on this because it occurred to me very early on is no matter what else we may say, since we do have zoning here short term rentals is not per say a permitted use anywhere. So there is a possibility strictly speaking that short term rentals is a violation of the
C of O. So, I have decided to open up this issue for the planning board to discuss and after doing so, they have made their recommendations. I think that the definition is adequate and sufficient. As everybody here will recall I was very adamant in suggesting that the approach be for public safety. Not for income not for any other reason, not for registration, not for limitations, not for restrictions on people regarding their property, but some sort of registration so that we know what’s going on for public safety and to make it actually a permitted use where it was not a permitted use before. I was happy to get Mr. Kroyer and the planning boards thoughts.”
Greg Kroyer, planning board chair took the floor and said, “Well like you say we have been looking at this for a while, really probably a couple of years. We reviewed a lot of the different things about it that was presented to us from other towns for example Watkins Glen and others and some of the regulations were like a phone book full of regulations. This isn’t a proposal to regulate them sort of speak; it’s basically a proposal to require them to register their properties for a nominal fee, supply a contact information for a local person who can be reached in case of an emergency. Then add the definition to our code because there is no definition right now for short term rentals. Then add registered short term rentals into our permitted uses in all districts. Those who pay their fee then agree to post an information sheet in their house, to notify their guests. The town is proposing this idea so we don’t have the information sheet we have an outline for it that we can work out and it might be notifying them that we have a noise ordinance here, it’s not the wild west, you can’t be blasting your music here all night. You can’t go on your neighbor’s property and pick their flowers out of their flower box on their deck.
Just an information sheet about parking, trespassing, garbage, noise, etc. This is a measured approach, a measured response to a problem that is ever increasing. We were talking about a host compliance as a website. It’s very difficult to get a handle on who is operating a short term rental. Even if you go on air bnb and home away, good luck, you won’t find the address there listed. This company has developed an algorithm that searches the entire internet and they give you a print out upon your request of all the short term rentals in your town. So with a little more research and looking into it as of April of this year, there was a 187 short term rentals in the town of Jewett. So it’s not a small thing, close to 200 properties at any given time are advertised by the internet per weekend/ week rentals. There have been plenty of complaints; I’ve seen it on my block, everybody we all talk about it. We are not looking to regulate sort of speak more than to register them and have a look and make sure that it’s safe. That’s what this is about.”
Simon Williams, member of the planning board took the floor to speak. He said, “I am a short term renter and so I have spoken about this to the planning board. One of my questions was about host compliance but I think you have answered my question. I was concerned how often you could actually access and get that information because I think that’s key. And that piece coupled with who enforces it, I’m assuming it’s the ZEO or CEO. I would imagine to start with there’s not going to be a heck of a lot of enforcing; it’s when you decide to make this a much bigger project that it already is. I don’t know how much responsibility or time it will take.
After all is said and done to come and say ok this person hasn’t registered, we have several people that haven’t registered and we’ve got all these complaints. Looking down the road that would be a concern that I personally have, is how are we actually going to enforce this.
Take it 2 or 3 steps further down the road.”
Councilman Quckenbush answered, “I agree, there are 187 properties identified as of right now, could be more, and could be less. It could be tough to enforce as the CEO/ ZEO doesn’t have that much time.”
Councilwoman Constable said that the cost to the town is what she is worried about.
Greg Kroyer answered that there is no cost to the town to do this.
Simon Williams said, “What I do support whole heartedly is the approach because this can be down and dirty and for the person that is a short term rental owner, it would be very easy to actually comply with this. Really, really easy. If you go into any of the rental websites, the format is very extensive. The form that the town has can be filled out in 5 minutes. You spend hours and hours filling out forms; it’s a lot of work to actually rent a short term rental, it’s a lot of work to make sure your T’s are crossed and your I’s are dotted in everything you do online and once its set up its easy but initially it’s a lot of work to set up, but this is easy.”
Greg Kroyer said, “Its very easy. We send out a simple mailing. The application is in the letter.
It will say that you are a short term renter in the Town of Jewett, we notify you that you’re required to register, and here is your application you put it in an envelope with a fee.
The registration then goes to our enforcement officer. He works here two days a week, one of those days in office and he can extend it. But it could go like, the people send in the application, the town clerk can process the application and then forward it to the CEO. He then sets up an appointment, goes and meets them and confirms maximum occupancy, etc. If it makes sense to him as he’s standing there looking at it, he gives them the certificate, you move on. The next year, it can be done thru the mail. This system allows us to get a contact number from the people and that’s big and it allows us an opportunity to require them to post an information sheet in the house to notify everyone.”
Attorney for the town, Tal Rappleyea said, “That’s the part I like about this the best, the information sheet. A lot of times people think it is the wild west and that they can just do whatever they want and then they see those rules and they know that they are going to have some responsibility to follow the rules.”
Marianne Romitto, member of the planning board took the floor and said, “They are coming up here and they don’t know the area. They don’t know where the police stations are, they don’t know where anything is. We are giving them the phone numbers and contact information on that sheet and that’s important for emergency purposes.”
Simon Williams said,”I think the crux of the matter is that most short term rental owners actually have this posted and in fact, they go over and above that posting a bit. For myself over the last couple of years, it’s turned into a manual. There’s so much detail in it, it’s unbelievable and it’s over the top. But the fact of the matter is you still have people that don’t care when they come rent your house and that’s the problem.”
Marianne Romitto said, “And you have people that aren’t as detailed as you are and they are just doing it and it just becomes routine.”
Councilman Quackenbush asked, “Tal as a town, if we are charging a registration fee, what liability does that put on us if something goes wrong with the house?”
Tal Rappleyea, Esq. answered, “nothing, it does not put any liability on the town.”
Councilwoman Constable was worried that this would target people who are responsible hosts and she didn’t want to penalize people who are doing the right thing.
Councilman McCrary answered,” Its aimed at those who are making it a business and that’s always a questionable use of your property as a business when you haven’t registered it as such. I would also like to thank the planning board for spending their time last Thursday and discussing this and to Greg for bringing this into a nice, clean format. Thank you. ”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #16 of 2019.
SUBJECT: SHORT TERM RENTAL REVIEW
“WHEREAS, the town of Jewett board has been discussing short term rentals and,
WHEREAS, the town of Jewett board has identified that short term rentals are not within the permitted uses of any district located within the town of Jewett,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the town of Jewett requests town attorney, Tal Rappleyea to draft a requisite zoning law amendment.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor and spoke about the Jewett Tourism Center project. He said, “The business plan is 50% complete. 40 of the 80 line items have been expanded on. Upon completion it will greatly improve our chances for multiple awards under the Smart Growth Grants awarded by New York State. There will be a broader range of federal grants available as well. With the business plan in place, it will give us the ability to launch the Tourism Center at another location in the Town of Jewett if need be.
I’m hopeful that we can secure the property I am meeting about acquiring. I passed along the outline of my vision for the Tourism Center to a potential property owner who seems interested in the possibility of the project, for the property her and her husband currently own. We are working out a plan to meet in person to discuss the matter further, hopefully in the next few weeks. I am currently reviewing new NOFO’s for the town in the NYS Grants Gateway.
I will update the board as to what I find that would be applicable for us.”
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board’s consensus is that they are in favor of a town wide revaluation with the price to be negotiated between the assessor and the supervisor.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $12,468.47 on abstract #9, claim numbers 177-194.
The Highway Fund was $165,616.99 on abstract #9, claim numbers 122-138.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for August 2019.
The supervisor asked if anyone had anything to say and Mr. Marvin Seligman, resident of the town of Jewett took the floor and said, “Tonight is 9/11 and you paid tribute to the victims and their families at the beginning of the meeting. There are a lot of people connected to 9/11 in this town. As you all know a special person, Jeremy Glick lived in this town and a person said to me the other day that he’s probably one of the first combatants in this war on terrorism. We should pay special tribute to him because he was really a special person.”
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to give a token of our appreciation to Mr. Glick as he was one of the first warriors against the war on terrorism.
On a motion by Supervisor Pellitteri, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 8:04 P.M. to discuss personnel matters. “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.” And “discussions relating to proposed, pending or current litigation.”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the Board came out of Executive Session at 8:52 P.M. No action was taken.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:52PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: September 12, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday August 14, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush. Councilwoman Constable was absent.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) and Mike Ryan (Mountain Eagle Newspaper).
Also present was The Superintendent of Highways and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried The Board moved to table the minutes of July 10, 2019.
Highway Superintendents Report: The following roads were paved, Wilderness, Acorn, Barnum and Tower Mtn. with Hyer Rd. being chip sealed. Superintendent Mallory will apply for CHIPS reimbursement once all the invoices are received from Peckham for the paving.
The superintendent received notice from CDE electric that all paperwork was sent in to Kohler regarding the emergency generators and that they will be making an appointment with the town to come down and do an inspection. Superintendent Mallory also mentioned that the generators have been hooked up with propane and when the town was invoiced, the amount was much higher than the original proposal we received from Nolan Bottled gas.
He will call and ask for the invoice to be corrected according to the original proposal.
Bids were advertised for the 2019/20 hauling of salt and sand for the Town of Jewett.
Bids were opened August 14, 2019 at 7:10pm. The following sealed bids were received:
Carver Sand & Gravel – $6.95 per ton, good till 3/15/20
C& C Trucking – $7.25 per ton
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, the board moved to authorize the Superintendent of Highways to grant the award of the hauling of salt and sand to Carver Sand & Gravel as they were the lowest responsible bidder.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #14 of 2019.
SUBJECT: The Re-appointment of the Town of Jewett Assessor
“WHEREAS, the appointment of the town assessor is every 6 years and,
WHEREAS, the current term of the assessor will be expired at the end of August,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the town board of Jewett board moves to re-appoint
Nancy Wyncoop Bower as the Town of Jewett Assessor for terms of 6 years on terms to be negotiated.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilwoman Constable was absent.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
The board continued discussions regarding short term rentals.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor and spoke about the Jewett Tourism Center project. He said, “Work is continuing on the completion of the Jewett Tourism Center business plan. I had provided an outline at our last meeting. I hope to be meeting within the next few weeks with potential property owners in the town where the area is, to present our vision for property and the tourism center. I believe they will embrace the project and I hope to negotiate a potentially good deal that’s fair and beneficial for both parties, for us and them as well. And finally I would like to thank Supervisor Pellitteri for getting us enrolled in the NYS grants gateway program. This will expand our abilities to target specific grants that are solely in our state as well as several regional Catskill Parks grant.”
Councilman Carl said that he will continue to update the board at the next general meeting.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $10,471.85 on abstract #8, claim numbers 152-176.
The Highway Fund was $12,545.06 on abstract #8, claim numbers 108-121.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for July 2019.
On a motion by councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 7:44 P.M. to discuss personnel matters. “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.” And “discussions relating to proposed, pending or current litigation.”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the Board came out of Executive Session at 8:12 P.M. No action was taken.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:12PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: September 12, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday July 10, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) and Simon Williams (Planning Board Member),
Steve Canfield, Lisa Hommel, Terry Hommel, Carol Muth, Keith Hall, Tammy Vannuchi,
Tal Rappleyea, Attorney and Mike Ryan (Mountain Eagle Newspaper).
Also present was The Superintendent of Highways and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
Steve Canfield took the floor to express his thoughts regarding the proposed new dog law.
Mr. Canfield said, “You all know why I’m here, it’s the tid bits from Jewett of the dog issue that’s a real burr in my saddle. Everyone knows who I am I’ve lived here 44 years and I’m a volunteer fireman for 43 years. The thing in the paper really bothered me. I have hunting dogs that go outside; they are in an enclosed area with a roof. They have a kennel to run in, they have insulated coups, they have heated water in the winter and they have good care. This appears to me that this is just another personal agenda law that somebody wants to use to block somebody. Why do I say that, because I think its anti hunting? All the people that have these dogs that are outside are hunting dogs; they are not to be inside. I have beagles that have lived to be 17 years old outside. They hunt at 30 below zero, 20 below zero and 15 above zero. They hunt in the Adirondacks and they survive very well. They are all cared for and anytime anyone wants to come and look I have perfect kennels for all of them. This personal agenda thing bothers me; I’ll tell you a story. This affects me personally and that’s why I’m here. Because I got stung, I got it stuck to me once. I’m not happy about what happened years ago. There was a barn on 23C. I had leased it from the owner. The individual who lived across the street had a bug about the barn and couldn’t view the mountains. The barn was not in good shape. So he decided he was going to paint it without myself or the owner’s permission. But, that wasn’t good enough. So the previous supervisor put him on the board because they had a vacancy.
His goal was to get that barn taken down and that’s how we ended up with the unsafe building law. As soon as it was passed, by this guy, you know I didn’t fight it, I said it’s a good thing let’s get all those empty, unsafe buildings and barns down, I didn’t fight it. Well guess what who was the first person to have to tear their barn down, me. How many buildings have been torn down under that law? Do you know? One. Because of a fellow on route 23C. Right now you’ve got somebody in this town that wants to put thru another unenforceable, personable agenda law just like the one that was passed about the barns which is totally unenforceable. Go to Peck Rd., go to Ryan Rd. where do you want to start? There’s a trailer up in East Jewett next to the firehouse with trees growing thru it. So that’s my main reason. I got burned, I was a target and I don’t like it. And this law is another target. Not to mention after that the same individual went after if you remember the bid deal with the kiln? The pottery kiln, does anyone have a memory of that? With the law suit? You gave a person a permit to build a building. She built it, you gave her use of it and then you cancelled the permit. The town supervisor, because this individual who caused my problems went to the town, he was on the board and said hey,
I don’t want this building here. It makes too much smoke. So you had public hearings to the point of he had the police brought in and he made sure the police were here during the public hearing because the locals might get out of hand. We had to have the sheriff here during these public hearings. That’s how bad it got. Plus we were all videotaped, I got up and spoke because I have a little farm here, I sell maple syrup I thought I’m next, she was selling pottery, they’re after me, I’m next. So I got up and spoke, I was videotaped by this individual by the TV crew he hired. And it’s just wrong again, personal agenda. And what happened after that, he got off the board, he got what he wanted and left, walked away. You want to talk about some other issues, what about your junk car ordinance. Let’s go there. I asked, not this board, I asked a previous board member about somebody that had 5 junk cars in their yard. I said why don’t we do something about this junk car thing. I was told well they vote for our party, were not going to touch them. Is that the way the law is going to be written on this is we vote for you guys? We can keep our dogs outside? I mean again, personal agenda. Hunting dogs are meant to be outside and they are cared for properly. Its again selective enforcement, it’s who you want to get. And that how this town’s building laws go. You know what; I sat down with Bruce Feml yesterday and talked to him. It’s all right here in the Ag and Markets law. Look it up on your computer. It tells you how to take care of your dog. Bruce notified Terry today that he wrote a letter to the town board. It’s on its way here”. The board answered and said they had received Bruce’s letter. Mr. Canfield went on to say, “Good, you can include that. I got to tell you it really set me off, because I don’t like being targeted again. I’ve been a good citizen of this town, I walk Scribner Hollow Rd and there is no garbage there. I pick it, I don’t want my name on a plaque but I pick it up. This is just really aggravating. Will I fight this? Yes, absolutely. I’ll fight this and I’ll get more individuals to fight it. Because you just can’t bring your hunting dog in.
I’ve had times when its 30 below and I’ve felt bad and brought them in and what do they do? They barked all night because they don’t want to be there. They have insulated coups with flaps and that is the bottom line. Again another unenforceable local ordnance that doesn’t need to be. You got Ag & Markets law all you have to do is enforce that. Any gun control officer, sheriff’s department, any police officer can enforce Ag & Market Laws. Encon, forest rangers, anybody can enforce this. All you got to do is let them know there is a problem. That’s all I have to say.”
Councilman McCrary asked Mr. Canfield if he spoke to Bruce Feml, Dog Warden. Mr. Canfield answered yes. Councilman McCrary then went on to ask if Mr. Canfield, “Do you feel, as I do, that Mr. Feml is fully competent to notice and take action against somebody that does abuse their dogs?” Mr. Canfield answered yes; he thinks he’s very competent. Councilman McCrary thanked him for his answer. Mr. Canfield said, “Again it has to start with the police. The police can come in and notify Bruce; they can meet together and go over the situation. The police can write a ticket under Ag & Markets just like Bruce can. Not to mention whatever you do here is civil. What are you going to do? Charge them $50? You can’t take the dog. You don’t have the right to do that. It’s all civil. This is criminal. Ag & Markets is criminal law. There’s a big difference, you’ve got jail time, you’ve got higher fines, and you’ve got a whole bunch of stuff. I’m not a lawyer; I’m not here to talk about the law. I’m here as a private citizen”.
Terry Hommel, resident of the Town of Jewett took the floor and said, “Bruce Feml has been the dog warden up here since the 70’s and I used to work with Bruce back in the 70’s. I talked to him and he doesn’t have a problem with Ag and Market the way it is. He does say there’s a couple little things that maybe could be better with the Ag and Market bill. But it isn’t up to the town to set this law. You guys set a law that you can’t have the dogs running loose. Five years ago or somethin’ I had to be in Utica at 8:00 in the morning. I let the dog out and he didn’t come back but I had to meet that appointment. My dog wandered over to the Boy Scout camp and he was playing all day with the cub scouts. They are throwing balls and they are doing all that. Towards the end of the day they called Bruce up and said we have a dog here can you come get him. And the troopers were there first. I ended up being issued a ticket because my dog was wandering at large. I came here to court; Stan Tatar was the judge here at the time. I was the first one in court room. I sit down and he made me sit here until everybody was out and when he said how do you plead, I said, I plead guilty. It’s a town law and my dog was running at large. He looked at me, he said are you sure you want to do that? He wanted me to fight the town law because it’s the stupidest law I’ve ever heard in my freaking life. I don’t know where all you people come from. I’ve been up here since 1955. My grandmother was born on Colgate Rd. Everybody comes up here because they love this area and then they get here and they want to change it. I want to be able to let my dog out and run loose. I had 30 some sled dogs. They all lived outside. I never had a freaking dog freeze in my life. You feed them and you make sure the coups are good and this law is crazy. The same as the leash law because there is a leash law in Catskill Park. Why the town had to pass more laws is beyond me”.
Town resident Tammy Van Nucchi took the floor and said,” My name is Tammy Van Nucchi and I’m here tonight to talk about this proposed dog law. People come up here like Terry was saying and they want to change things. They come up here for the purpose of it’s a beautiful place to stay and then the first thing they want to do is change our laws. I have a 125lb German shepherd who is long haired. I have a woodstove that keeps my home warm in the winter. I’ll bring him in when its 20 below zero this winter and all he did was eat the other dogs food and want to go back out. He does not want to go in the house. I mean what’s next? Are you going to tell me I have to bring my goats and chickens in the house because its 32 below zero? It’s ridiculous. And like Steve mentioned, you passed a law with junk buildings what’s going on across the road from me? They’ve been condemned, how many years ago. DEP filled their sewer system in. There are people still living there and where is their human waste going?
Probably in the stream that feeds my well. I am terrified to drink the water out of my own well. This is the country. People should be able to drink their water and let their dog run loose and not have to worry about it. The dog across the road was constantly in the road. It got hit how many times, the horses are in the road, did anybody bring up the law about that? No. The horses are down my driveway and destroying my property. But because Jeff Prince owns those horses, no one wants to admit to it. Nobody wants to bring it up into law. Do something besides bother the people who have hunting dogs or large dogs that don’t want to be inside at all. My other dogs are inside, they are small dogs, they are border collies, and they would rather be out playing in the snow bank and burying themselves. They don’t want to be in. They come inside at night. They come in during the day when I’m not home. Because I can’t let them run loose because somebody will turn me in. And I would end up getting the ticket or some idiot will run them over. Like they’ve done in my driveway, down my driveway and I don’t know if you all know where I live, but my driveway is 1800 feet away from the main road. Its long. Four years ago somebody came down my driveway and I wasn’t home and my german shepherd got run over and they left her there to die. Nobody admitted to it, because she got out of her kennel. Yes it was my fault. I own 13 acres, she can’t run? Come on. You guys want to pass stupid laws. Your gonna get a whole mess of people here the next time and it’s not going to be pretty. And I don’t think you’ll need a sheriff then”.
Keith Hall took the floor and said, “My name’s Keith and I’m agreeing with everybody here. I got hunting dogs. Everyone knows since I was a little kid. I would hang out with my cousin and he had an inside beagle. When it got cold out, 32 degrees the dog would sit there and shiver ok, and got frost bite on its feet because it was cold. My dog sat there and was like I want to go back outside. I keep great kennels because I don’t want to get ticketed for the leash laws or the nuisance law so I follow that ordinance but then other people’s dogs wander over to my dog, but that’s fine. But I feel like you guys make these laws but then you don’t uphold the ones you already made. I mean, Tammy just spoke about all these houses that are abandoned. My own well I don’t drink from because it’s contaminated, I can only imagine what’s in it and I don’t live far from Tammy. We are in the country; if you don’t like the country then don’t live here. Go to the city and listen to horns beeping and everything else. But I mean, when is it going to stop? That’s all I got to say.”
Councilman Quackenbush took the floor and said, “I am the one that has been pushing this law.
I get elected and I work for everybody. And Steve I want to tell you that you are so wrong on this. Number one, I am not against hunting at all. You should know that, you and I have talked I’m not against hunting at all and I’m not against the dogs running around and being off their leash. I have one myself and I do it all the time. My dog doesn’t want to come in, its 10 degrees outside and she’d rather be outside. So I agree this is not meant to go after any individual. What this was meant to do, there are some people and this is because people have spoken to me about it and that’s why I brought it up, that leave their dogs out and they are abused. Steve I know your dogs, they are not uncared for. They are well taken care of. Everyone here their dogs are well taken care of, mine too. This was not about anybody here it was about people that do leave them out and abuse them. When I first proposed this law, again it was not against any individual, it is not against hunting, and it’s nothing like that at all.
It’s to protect animals that aren’t protected and people that just abuse their animals constantly, that is not anybody in here, I get that, totally. And most of the people probably 98% of them, that how they are with their animals. So that’s the only reason this law was brought up I mean if you guys disagree with that, its fine. I understand your side of the story too. But the thing is I talked to Bruce 2 months ago. We agreed that before we go further with this that we talk to Bruce. So I sat down and I talked with him and Bruce said I like the law, it gives him a little more teeth. When he does find someone that is abusing the dog, he has something behind him now where he can do something about it. And this is exactly what Bruce and I and you can talk to him, this is what Bruce and I talked about”.
Terry Hommel said, “Bruce is my cousin and we have discussed this a lot. And he told me today that he sent you guys a letter and I didn’t get to see what his letter had to say. He said there were a couple things in the law that he might agree with. But at the same time, he said to me, Terry I’ve been the dog warden up here on the mountain top in the town of Hunter in the 70’s and then he ended up taking Lexington and the other towns over. And he said, I’ve never had a problem taking care of a dog that has been mistreated and I wonder why the town of Jewett feels that they have to address this issue and throw another law on the books”.
Councilman Quackenbush said, “Because there are other people in the town, again we are elected to represent everyone and there are some residents that have brought this up about people abusing dogs and leaving them outside when they shouldn’t be”.
Terry Hommel said, “All they have to do is get a hold of Bruce or the State Police and it can be taken care of. The town does not have to address this issue; it’s the same as the town leash law. The Catskill Park already has a leash law and the town did it. Because the town did it, that trooper had to give me a ticket. When he handed me the ticket, he says Terry I got to give it to you because the town of Jewett has this law. I know it’s a joke the dog was licking me and playing with the kids and it’s a joke but I got to give you this ticket”.
Lisa Hommel said, “They do enforce cruelty because we had a big case in the town of Hunter, where a woman neglected her animals and there were 25 counts against her. Both Bruce Feml and the State Police were called; they were on top of it. Anytime they get a complaint they follow thru with it”.
Stephen Canfield said, “The ASPCA is criminal, they have criminal police officers and they come in and seize the dogs”.
Councilman McCrary said, “May I point out to the assembled here that this law has not been passed, in fact it hasn’t even been moved. It has been discussed and that’s all. That’s one thing it is not necessarily the opinion of the board yet, or it may never be. But I would like Steve to point out to the assembled councilman among others the difference between civil and criminal law”.
Stephen Canfield answered, “Talk to your attorney, your town attorney he can explain it to you”.
Councilman McCrary said, “He isn’t here yet, that’s why I hoped you could explain it. As an enforcer, there is a difference”.
Stephen Canfield said, “A big difference, criminal is the way to go. It’s got more penalties and much easier to enforce”.
Councilman Quackenbush said, “This is something that is just being discussed. We have not passed it and we haven’t even got to the point of a public hearing. So here a group of people come in and let us know what their opinions are, which helps to make a decision. But to say that this is personal, that is 110% wrong, seriously Steve”.
Stephen Canfield answered, “All I know is what has happened in the past with the town of Jewett and my experiences haven’t been good. The town made ordinances based on picking on people, this guy has junk cars, and this guy doesn’t. How about the noise ordinance, let’s go there. Who did they go after? Bellstock. They never had a rescue call there, never had the police there, nothing. But they went after them. We had to have a noise ordinance because somebody didn’t like that bellstock noise, so they placed limitations. Is that being enforced now with all these big parties people are having? Let’s talk about the air bnb mess. How many of these houses, I mean, you know, I mow lawns for people. We don’t have quiet weekends around here anymore. Just next door, there’s like 14 cars, music going all night. Another neighbor was supposed to write a letter to the board, he is an attorney, I don’t know if he did or not. But let’s address things like that, that really mess up the town”.
Councilman Quackenbush answered, “We are actually addressing that but my point is that you are making this kind of personal by saying that I’m against hunting. You know who it is that is pushing this law and you know I’m not against hunting. And I’m not against any individual. Everyone here knows what kind of man I am. I love animals and I am not against anyone. You are making this out to be something it’s not”.
Stephen Canfield replied,” You got see where I’m coming from. I got burned. I got burned bad over that barn and I never forgot it. Because they used the political system to screw me and I let it happen. I abided, I thought this is a really good thing for the town; I’m going to go along with it. I’ll spend the $1600 and tear it down, get a bulldozer and do all that stuff and I said this will help. It didn’t do anything and now there’s more abandoned buildings. Whatever, I think were done”.
Terry Hommel said,” I got one more thing to say, the last thing Bruce said, as I stated earlier,
I feel this law is unnecessary since the concerns are already addressed in the laws set forth by NYS Agriculture and Markets”.
The board then thanked everyone for voicing their opinions and concerns.
Councilman Quackenbush shared his opinion he said, “My opinion and again I happen to be the one pushing for this. I get everybody’s point, I totally do and I don’t disagree with them, I agree with them. But this was not brought up for people like them. Steve I know, my dog is from one of his litters. And he takes care of his dogs. This is not about that at all. It’s about the few people who do abuse their animals. That’s all and the funny thing about this is the letter we got from Bruce today. The total opposite of what he told me when I sat down and talked with him. He said he was 110% behind this and he thought this was a great law. By the way Hunter has this law since 2015, the same exact law we are looking at. It’s not a personal thing. No one is going after Steve. I’m not anti-hunting. He riled everyone up and came in for all the wrong reasons. He could have called me and talked to me about this and maybe changed my mind on this or give me a little more insight into it to help me with my own decision. To come in like this it just didn’t make any sense. We are not unreasonable people here. You can come in and talk to us, I’m always happy to talk to anyone. But they are taking this totally the wrong way. He wouldn’t even look me in the eyes so I know he knows he’s wrong and again Bruce backtracked and I think had to do with Steve sitting down with him yesterday. And that’s fine; you can change your mind too. I have nothing against anything they are bringing up here. My opinion stays the same about animals that are being abused. We do represent everybody in town not just 7 or 8 individuals that show up, but I do respect their opinion very much. I wish somebody would have riled up some people on the other side and came in and spoke about animals that are being abused”.
Councilman McCrary asked why the abuse wasn’t being reported to the police. He said, “That’s my question. One of the things here I really dislike, I’ve said this before and I don’t know if you were on that board or not, something my stepfather told me and that was that a good law has to be designed to be bent, for a law that cannot be bent will be broken. And the problem with this type of regulation that you have been proposing is that there is no flexibility, there is none.
And what Terry was saying is very true. That if your dog is out and loose, you get a ticket. There is no, oh gee I know your dog is ok, no that’s it you get a ticket. And there is no flexibility in this law. That’s why I asked Steve a very simple question. Do you feel personally that Bruce Feml can make this sort of decision? I personally feel he can. I don’t know why he says that this will give more teeth, because it doesn’t. The Ag & Markets law that he is talking about is in fact criminal and gives him and the police much more teeth before a court of law than the law that you have suggested we pass.”
Councilwoman Constable said, “I spoke with Bruce a couple weeks ago and same type of deal he told me the law is not necessary and that there are laws already in place. I don’t know if this is a popular thing to say but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I really do think there are too many laws as far as certain things go, so I do 100% agree with what they are saying and I feel like there are certain things, this and I ll bring it up the garbage law. Both of those things if there were to come up, I’ll tell you right now that I won’t vote for them. Because I feel like it’s the same idea. There’s already something in place for the dogs, there’s already something in place for the garbage. Carl has a law for the garbage. I get their point that way of being somebody who wasn’t on the town board for a while and had some issues with some things, this is a personal thing like how we had to zone some things and do things just to get a garage on my property like it was just a lot and I do feel like if somebody really looks into how difficult certain things are to do in Jewett like they are not going to want to buy in Jewett and that might not be the popular thing to say right now here but I do agree with them. We are dipping into something we don’t have to just to make another law. I do have to say that a couple of people who did get wind of this were more annoyed that we were paying Tal to come up with these laws that now the town has to pay him to devise these laws and that’s more money that’s going to Tal to devise these laws. So a couple of people who got wind of it did say something to me about how much are we paying Tal and it wasn’t anything against Tal it was just more like there you go making another law that we don’t need and how much are we paying him to devise these laws and write these laws and send these laws and all sorts of stuff. I totally get your point its nothing to do with the cruelty, I don’t want anyone to be cruel to animals but I just, this past month of getting the e-mails on dogs it was the first time on the board I was totally overwhelmed, wow I just don’t like it. And again it’s probably not the popular thing and I might be tarred and feathered as I leave but I do feel like we are dipping into to two things that we don’t have to get involved in because its already written out somewhere”.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of May 8th and June 12th, 2019.
Highway Superintendents Report: Last month bids were advertised for the 2019 highway black top paving project for the Town of Jewett. After reading thru the bids, there were some questions regarding the wording in the contracts and clarification was needed. Since then Superintendent Mallory received clarification and the bid was awarded to Peckham as they were the lowest responsible bidder and paving will begin in August. Superintendent Mallory informed the board that he has been in contact with Nolan Bottled gas regarding the propane hook up for the two new generators. Superintendent Mallory also informed the board that Gail from the Senior Center showed him a kitchen counter that is starting to rot. The board will look into replacing it.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Supervisor Pellitteri related to the board that he was in discussions with the zoning board regarding definition change. Supervisor Pellitteri asked the board for their thoughts.
The discussion of the board was regarding definition change and the consensus of the board was that there will be no definition change.
The board continued discussions regarding short term rentals.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor and spoke about the Jewett Tourism Center project. He went over an outline of the business plan. He referred the board to the table of contents and how it outlines everything that would be inclusive in the business plan under each of the categories. There are about 80 items. This covers every element of the actual operation.
Councilman Carl said that he will continue to update the board at the next general meeting.
Supervisor Pellitteri brought up ambulance billing and told the board that town clerk
Maya Carl has come up with a way to bill non-residents to try to recoup some of the money back. Town Attorney, Tal Rappleyea looked over the invoices that Ms. Carl typed up and gave some suggestions. The board was pleased.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to authorize Supervisor Pellitteri to sign and send in the ballot for the election of the Coalition of Watershed Towns Executive Committee.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $21,563.37 on abstract #7, claim numbers 132-151.
The Highway Fund was $16,046.62 on abstract #7, claim numbers 99-107.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for June 2019.
On a motion by councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 8:34 P.M. to discuss personnel matters. “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the Board came out of Executive Session at 8:56 P.M. No action was taken.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:56PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: July 11, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday June 12, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) and Simon Williams (Planning Board Member),
Tal Rappleyea, Attorney and Mike Ryan (Mountain Eagle Newspaper).
Also present was The Superintendent of Highways and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to table the minutes of May 8, 2019 to the next general meeting scheduled
for June 12, 2019.
Highway Superintendents Report: Bids were advertised for the provision and hook up of a new 1000 gallon propane tank. No bids were received. Superintendent Mallory said that since no bids were received and the cost of the contract is under the competitive bidding thresholds he suggested going with Nolan Bottled gas as they already have a contract with both the county and the state.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board moved to authorize the Supervisor to sign an agreement with Nolan Bottled Gas for the propane provisions for the generators.
Bids were advertised for the 2019 highway black top paving project for the Town of Jewett. Bids were opened June 12, 2019 at 7:15pm. The following sealed bids were received:
Cobleskill – $75.49
Peckham – $73.00
Callanan – $73.37
After reading thru the bids, there were some questions regarding the wording in the contracts.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried, the board moved to authorize the Superintendent of Highways to grant the award of the black top paving project in the Town of Jewett to the most responsible bidder pending clarification.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Supervisor Pellitteri related to the board that he was invited to the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting last month. The zoning board has been going over town codes and wanted to discuss their thoughts with the supervisor. Supervisor Pellitteri said there were differences of opinions on certain definitions within the code book and he has been looking into it. He will lay out all possible angles of the definitions and present it to the zoning board next month.
The Zoning Board also mentioned that when complaints come into the town, there doesn’t seem to be a paper trail to follow up on how they were handled. The zoning board gave different complaint forms to the supervisor as examples of something we could do.
Supervisor Pellitteri said he thought the documents were a good idea.
The board continued discussions regarding short term rentals. Supervisor Pellitteri said, “What we really want is to have something in place and let the public know we have something in place. Then we will hear about problem houses from the neighbors. If someone is responsible and there are no garbage problems or noise problems, then there are no problems. But it’s the problems that have to be solved. So if the citizens are aware that we have this rule and there is a way to complain, we will look into it because we have this law, I think that’s a good solution. We need to make everything as simple as possible.”
Different ideas were discussed; possible thoughts have been to have people register their short term rentals with the town. This would enable us to have contact information for the owner and can get in touch with them if there is a problem. There were also thoughts that if the owners do not live up here that there would have to be a contact person in Greene County that would be able to come to the premise if there was an emergency. Another idea was to place a short term rental page on our website where people can share their ideas, make complaints or maybe have a survey to get the public’s input regarding short term rentals. The board will continue to think on how to best regulate short term rentals.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor and spoke about the Jewett Tourism Center project. He is working on completing a business plan with a 3 year projected opening date.
Councilman Carl said that timelines are on schedule and everything is rolling right along and looking good. He will bring a condensed version of the business plan to the board meeting next month.
Councilman Quackenbush took the floor and said, “I wanted to revisit the dog law I brought up last month. At a certain temperature your pet should be brought inside. If it’s below 32 degrees, you bring your dog or cat inside. I spoke to Bruce Feml about it and he is behind it 110%. He said it is the best thing we could do. It gives him some leverage when he goes out and has constant issues with the same people over and over again. He said if we could pass a law like this in our town he would take that and bring it to every town up here and suggest they do the same, he thinks it’s that important and I do as well. I would like to see something happen with that, if everyone agrees.” Tal Rappleyea, Esq. will bring samples of similar laws to the board meeting next month.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $10,311.90 on abstract #6, claim numbers 108-131.
The Highway Fund was $12,854.00 on abstract #6, claim numbers 83-98.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for May 2019.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:16PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: July 11, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday May 8, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush. Councilwoman Constable was absent.
Public present:
Thea Stabin, Dave Marsh, Nancy Bower (Assessor), Carl Giangrande (Code Enforcement Officer), Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair), Janet Nichols (Town Historian) Tal Rappleyea, Attorney and Mike Ryan (Mountain Eagle Newspaper).
Also present was The Superintendent of Highways and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board accepted the minutes of April 10, 2019.
Highway Superintendents Report: Superintendent Mallory took the floor and said, “Town Pick Up Day has been scheduled for May 28, 29th and 30th. We have been trying to mow the sides of the roads but it’s been too wet to do. The highway department recently purchased a gradall just like the state and county have. The machine is used and so we paid 20 x’s less than a new one. We have capable guys to keep it running. It will be arriving on Friday and we will begin getting to know the machine. It will be a good asset to the highway department. We haven’t started bringing in sand yet, normally around this time we will start to load up the barn. It was heard that the material we buy will soon become available in Ashland as opposed to Schoharie and so we will wait a month to hopefully purchase it in Ashland”. After the emergency generators were installed 3 weeks ago, the superintendent was asked by the board to obtain bids for propane. Three bids were received from the following companies: Main Care, Nolan Bottled Gas Inc. and Paraco Gas. Main Care added in their quote, “We do not participate in any work that requires prevailing wage”. Nolan and Paraco both gave a bid for a 1000 gallon rental tank for a hook up price of $2100. Both of them also state that they have state contracts. Councilman Quackenbush asked Superintendent Mallory what they gave as a price for the actual propane. Superintendent Mallory said he only bid out the hook up and not the propane. Councilman Quackenbush wondered if we wouldn’t get a better price if we bid both the propane and the hookup at the same time.
Superintendent Mallory said, “Technically we don’t have to bid it out if they have either county or state contracts, the board can just make a decision”. Attorney for the town, Tal G. Rappleyea reviewed the bids and said they are not very detailed regarding prevailing wage and that it must be rebid. Tal Rappleyea, Esq. will give the correct wording to use for the bid specs.
Code Enforcement Officer, Carl Giangrande took the floor and explained his report to the board. Mr. Giangrande then wanted to talk about three quick issues that he thought was relevant. He said, “My office is in the process of closing out old documentations/ applications from 2012- 2014, resolving these issues and moving on. The second issue is the documentation and resolution of what to do with some old and unsafe buildings. Primarily ones that would create a public hazard that have proximity to a state, county or town road.
My approach is to try to deal directly with the owners of these properties. Most of the people who own these properties we either know or can be dealt with directly and could work for them in addition to working for us. The process for demolishing a building thru the county and having them reimburse the town is very lengthy and it requires a great deal of documentation, processing of legal papers and court dates that I think at this point if we could deal directly with these owners, to resolve these issues it would be more effective. The third issue regards a process by which we can resolve complaints and nuisances. Things that come to my attention from third or fourth parties, that there would be a more direct way to deal with it, perhaps by providing a simple slot with a complaint box. People can anonymously if they would like drop something in the box. It would be reviewed and addressed and then entered into my monthly report as either resolved or the actions that have been taken so that we could eliminate a lot of the guess work and lack of communication that would otherwise seem to be occurring.
I would like to deal with this forthrightly, transparently and effectively”.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Supervisor Pellitteri put together a packet regarding ideas for regulating short term rentals.
As Supervisor Pellitteri presented the ideas, the board discussed their thoughts on it.
Thea Stabin, took the floor from Meadow Lane and related how her and husband Dave Marsh have many concerns regarding Airbnb’s. She said, “There is an Airbnb across the street from us. In every sense of the word it is a business on our residential street. There are new groups of people every weekend, which is completely understandable but the truth is they come here to party. They are skiing, they are attending festivals, they want to be up at night, they are drinking, they are loud, there’s garbage. I think that the property is maintained, I see landscapers, cleaners etc. But there was a bag of dirty diapers dumped over our rock wall and a bear got at it and it was everywhere. There are coffee cups that were thrown down the cul-de-sac, plastic bags in the culvert where my side street and Carl Rd. meet. Plastic bags of garbage, they are loud.”
Dave Marsh took the floor and said, “It’s the big black plastic kind of garbage bags full of the weekend garbage. They are all along Goshen Street, then animals get into the garbage and it’s all up and down the road with garbage on a Monday morning you drive down the street and the whole streets lined with garbage and then it’s still there on Friday. Who is responsible for picking that stuff up? It costs the town money to do it”. Councilman Quackenbush said the owners are responsible to do it.
Ms. Stabin said, “It’s really the idea that I can’t run a business out of my home, these are businesses. I just think that we are setting a precedent. And once it’s ok to have one across the street and down the block there’s gonna be one on windy lane behind me and its going to get out of hand. If a neighbor decides to have big family guests every weekend and it gets loud and they party; if it’s them they know whose coming, it’s their friends, it’s their family and that’s just something neighbors have to accept, that type of neighbor. This is a whole different thing.”
Councilman Quackenbush said,” What’s happening is that we are losing a sense of community.
I live on Colgate Rd. and we used to know everyone that lived on that road now we don’t know who’s walking up and down the road in big groups, we have a bunch of houses by me that rent to 15 people or more. So, we do loose a sense of community, I don’t know if there’s a whole lot that anyone can do about it, it’s kind of just where the times are going.”
Ms. Stabin said, “But what about the separation between commercial and residential zoning areas? The idea of having a residentially zoned portion of town.”
CEO, Carl Giangrande took the floor and said, “In regards to the regulations and the process by which these facilities would be regulated if there is a regulation than that presupposes that you can cancel that action or activity at that facility. So for example if they come in and register every year and if there are x amount of complaints on a particular property then they lose their right to be a short term rental. There are a lot of responsible homeowners who do air bnb and who are respectful and try to maintain a quality of life for the community and understand responsibility. But for those that are bad actors there ought to be a consequence. With registration the consequence is when they come back and if they have a certain degree of complaints, then sorry.”
Councilman Quackenbush said,” We have been looking into how to regulate short term rentals and figure out how to hold people responsible.”
Councilman McCrary said, “The objection to it being a business has been thrown out of court in that you have a certificate of occupancy, period. So there are other considerations, public safety etc. which will stand up, once the regulations have been written properly. So that is what we are trying to look at, what other towns are doing which have possibly been challenged in court and succeeded in weathering the challenge. And then we’ll have a model on which we can proceed. One of the major aspects that have to be looked at is what penalties and how are they applied and to whom and it should be the owner but sometimes you don’t know.
We are very aware of this and that’s why it’s on the agenda. The problem is overcoming challenges in court and we’re not the only town. It’s throughout the state, throughout the nation.” Ms. Stabin and Mr. Marsh expressed their love for the town of Jewett and thanked the board for their time. The board in turn thanked them for coming in and expressing their concerns.
Councilman McCrary took the floor and related how several land owners along the East Kill have received a letter from Greene County Soil and Water back handedly telling them there was going to be an inspection of the stream. Councilman McCrary said, “It concerns me because in the fourth paragraph it says; in order to expedite our efforts we ask that you contact us only if you have concerns or misgivings about our access or if you would like to discuss the assessment in greater detail. It sounds as if these guys are going to wander around on somebody’s property and there are certain people within our mountain top that will shoot them. It’s not fine to say if you object just let us know otherwise we assume you agree is exceedingly dangerous and that is my concern. My objection is that it went directly to the land owners and not the town at all so the town was only informed by one land owner that happens to be concerned about their property and the liability of the town. I was concerned about the liability. I am also slightly annoyed because had we been involved in the discussions to begin with, we could have promoted it because a proper survey of the stream are required for a good LFA (Local Flood Analysis) which enables us to get grants and they have been pushing us to do a LFA and if this is a precursor, then this is bad news. They sort of wander around and say oh by the way, your stream is falling in. That’s not really a wise procedure and basically I will be asking the town on behalf of the Schoharie water shed committee, we as a committee from all the towns involved along the Schoharie are the ones who votes on the grants. Now you’d think from that I would know something about it and I know absolutely nothing about it. But, as your designated representative I would like the town’s approval to go ahead and contact Mr. Flack and voice our objections and suggestions. One of the suggestions would be if they could please send someone here to discuss the FLA and to discuss the details of this investigation. I am concerned for the potential liability which is there, but if we don’t know anything about this maybe we are not liable”. Attorney for the town, Tal Rappleyea responded by saying, “Even if they had sent us a copy of it there wouldn’t be any liability on our end because we don’t have any control of what they do, we have no control over their activities or whether the person wants them on their property or not. The biggest thing is the danger of getting shot or arrested for trespassing. Notwithstanding this thing, it doesn’t give permission”.
Greg Kroyer, Planning Board Chair took the floor and commented that if you read the first line in the letter it says that we would like to request your permission and then as you continue to read the letter, no where does it ask the property owner’s permission. Mr. Kroyer also mentioned that he got their attention at the water shed summit and they are aware that at least one person had a concern with the way it was worded. He said personally he doesn’t have a problem with them on his property but he would have preferred to have been asked permission like they had first stated.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to give Councilman McCrary permission to speak with Jeff Flack in regards to Greene Counties Soil and Water East Kill’s Stream Assessment in regards to accessing properties and any matters that it may concern.
Grant Committee Update: Councilman Carl took the floor to talk about the town tourism center project. He said, “I had a phone conference with Ben, Nicole and Scott from the Laberge group and we were able to discuss in detail the scope of the tourism center project. I am applying for a Catskill Park Grant, which is a valid funding opportunity even without ground being broken at this time. The Lagerge group is advising me on specific CFA’s and time lines that pertain to funding for the center. Ben from the Laberge group has provided me with the plans from a completed tourism center they did for the town of Speculator. We will have a follow up meeting this Friday. I made copies for everyone, please see an example of one of the town tourism centers that the Laberge group worked on and completed. I’m at the stage where we’re just communicating friendly, there’s no contract, no agreement with them but basically we have a good line of communication open with them where they are there to field questions and give insight. This is where we are at right now. I also wanted to ask the board if anyone was able to go over the paper I had handed out to everyone at last month’s meeting and if you were able to choose 4 out of the 10 energy actions that you thought were realistic for the town to do.”
Councilman McCrary answered and said he wasn’t sure if there was anything we could do.
Councilman Carl did find some that were doable, for example one action was benchmarking adopting policy to report the energy use of municipal buildings on an annual basis, adopting legislation requiring annual disclosure of energy use in large private buildings.
Councilman McCrary suggested he contact Central Hudson as they have done energy use measurements and can possibly help us. Councilman Carl will look into this. Councilman Carl also gave an update on the Firefighters grant he is working on and said he had resubmitted the application and will keep the board updated.
Discussions were had regarding ambulance calls in Jewett. According to the contract we have, it reads that residents of the town will be covered but not non residents. The problem is tracking down non residents and billing them for the service. We are very limited in the information we have on the person because of HIPPA laws which make it difficult to obtain contact information for that person. Tal Rappleyea, Esq. suggested contracting further with Windham to do more follow up billing on our behalf for non residents. The board agreed to send the bills out to non residents to try to recoup payment.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to include a request for a presenter on the local flood analysis to come to the town and explain the whole process.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #12 of 2019.
SUBJECT: Renewal of Health Insurance Contract with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield.
“WHEREAS, the town has received the current prices for health insurance premiums for renewal and;
WHEREAS, premiums have only gone up a couple of dollars,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the town board of Jewett accepts the quoted price to renew the contract with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield Health Insurance”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilwoman Constable was absent.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #13 of 2019. SUBJECT: Transfer of funds
WHEREAS, the town has purchased two generators and funds must be moved from the good neighbor fund to the general checking fund and
WHEREAS, the town has purchased a gradall and funds must be moved from the capital fund to the checking fund
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the above transfers be made.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilwoman Constable was absent.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $53,515.81 on abstract #5, claim numbers 85-107.
The Highway Fund was $26,587.92 on abstract #5, claim numbers 74-82.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for April 2019.
Councilman Quackenbush made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:49PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: May 09, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday April 10, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush. Councilwoman Constable was absent.
Public present:
Elly Quackenbush, Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair), Simon Williams (Planning Board Member), Janet Nichols (Town Historian) Tal Rappleyea, Attorney and Mike Ryan (Mountain Eagle Newspaper).
Also present was The Superintendent of Highways and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of March 13, 2019.
Town Historian, Janet Nichols took the floor to give her annual update. She is on her 14th year as historian and she is looking forward to 15 years. She brought in a binder filled with obituaries that she has been working on, containing anyone who was born, lived or died in Jewett. She is looking to copy the newspaper clippings onto archival paper so that it will last longer. Councilman McCrary suggested the items be scanned instead so that there is an electronic copy as well. Ms Nichols also mentioned to the board that she would like to set up a Saturday where the public can come in and view her obituary book. Town Clerk, Maya Carl suggested Ms. Nichols be given a booth at the upcoming Jewett Town Day where the public can also view Ms. Nichols collection. Ms. Nichols expressed she is happy being the historian and would like to continue. The board thanked Janet Nicholls for a job well done this year.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to authorize the purchase of archival paper along with scanning and recording all the information that Ms. Nichols has.
Highway Superintendents Report: Winter is almost over and we have begun brooming and cutting brush. We have broomed three times already with a fourth time to go. The installation of the generator has been finished. We will need propane to operate it. Superintendent Mallory will contact local businesses to obtain price quotes on propane. Mr. Kroyer took the floor and asked if the board authorized The Superintendent to purchase or lease a propane tank and Superintendent Mallory answered neither, he is just gathering information at this time. While the generator was being installed, the power was shut down momentarily. Due to the power being shut off, the fire shutter/ shade came down. The building custodian was able to re-set the shutter saving the town $700.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to approve the Taste of Country festival as long as the following two conditions be adhered to.
1- The town would like staff at the parking area at all times.
2- The noise ordinance law must be posted on premise.
Attorney for the town, Tal Rappleyea took the floor and discussed his findings regarding how the town can regulate Air BnB’s. He showed the board a couple of examples from other towns.
He said, “They are all really good but are all diverse based on topography, history, philosophies and how they do things. The four big things that you must look at are defining your uses because from there everything else comes. You must make sure you have a good definition of what it is you’re regulating and how you are going to do it. The next question is what zones you want it to be in. Do you want to have it just in the hamlets or let it go to other places or town wide? From there comes the actual regulations. Do you want it to be something that Carl approves? He reviews with a checklist and makes sure that they don’t have too many people and that parking is sufficient. Do you want to make it a site plan review or even a special use permit, which makes it even more difficult. It depends on how bad we think the issues are.
The last thing is always the teeth of it, the enforcement of it. Once we put it in we have to make sure that code enforcement understands what it is, how to do it and do it. I’m sure if there are violations that happen he can handle it with a notice and talking with the owners but the potential is that we could be in court shutting someone down or taking away their permit.
It’s all in the packets I’ve handed out to everyone, please keep those big 4 things in mind as you read thru it and figure out which way you want to go with it.”
Councilman Quackenbush asked the attorney why you would ask the question, “If the town wants to do it?” Mr. Rappleyea answered, “Some towns say we’re just choosing not to regulate it and we will let it happen as it happens. Lexington actually did that, they put together a committee and studied it for a couple of months and decided that they did not want to touch that baby.”
Councilman Quackenbush commented that it would be hard to do just certain areas or just the hamlet because we are a small town, we would want to do this thru the entire town.
He also said the enforcement of this could turn into a full time job.
Councilman McCrary said that once he reads thru the information, he would possibly be in favor of a law that is minimal with the possibility of clamping down further if there are a lot of violations. There could be a possibility of revenue coming from fees for permits to have an
Air BnB. Also residents would have to upgrade their properties from residential to commercial use. Supervisor Pellitteri said, “Let’s all read thru the packets we received from Attorney Rappleyea and collect a list of issues that we are concerned about. Rather than trying to devise a way to control it, let’s figure out what it is we are concerned with. There might be some ways of addressing those concerns without doing a lot of work.”
Councilman McCrary said, “Another thing we might consider is having an informational meeting before the public hearing to get input before we go charging ahead, suddenly finding people with fire torches and pitch forks.”
Councilman Carl said, “I agree, we need to make the people aware and not blind side them.”
Councilman Quackenbush took the floor and spoke about protection of animals during the cold weather. He said, “I would really love to see us pass a law where any pet, obviously a dog or a cat, would not be left outside if the temperature dropped below a certain point. I have information from other towns that have done this. The entire state of Pennsylvania does this.
If it gets below 30 degrees, you have to bring your pets inside, because animals like people can get hypothermia. I would love to see us be a leader up here on the mountain top and have a law like this in place to protect the animals.”
Councilman McCrary said, “It would be difficult to enforce this because some animals like to stay outside in the cold, for example sled dogs love being out in -30 degrees. I would say that there would have to be some flexibility within the law. Instead of making it contingent on the temperature maybe we could state instead that any containment that creates an obvious stress in the animal is illegal. Do any other towns on the mountain top do this?”
Attorney Rappleyea said, “The only one that I know of that did this was Ashland a couple of years ago and then they backed away from it.”
Councilman McCrary said, “I would like to formally ask Bruce Femyl if he knows of any cases of severe distress that has come to his attention. Right now, the Human Society will deal with it, whether there is a law or not if they find any animal that is in distress they will help them.
So again, possibly a very loose addition to the law, a fourth paragraph could be placed under the animal law in the owners shall or shall not section, that owners shall make sure that any outdoor shelter shall guarantee the animal not be in distress. This includes short chains which is covered as well as too cold or too hot and it is relatively easy to enforce.”
Councilman Quackenbush said he has already spoken to Bruce and Bruce likes the idea. Councilman Quackenbush will ask him specifically if he had any problems with animals in distress in the cold. Councilman Quackenbush said, “I understand what you mean by flexibility within the law but also too much flexibility sometimes means you can’t enforce anything.
I think we have the ability to enforce a law like this. I think if we had it on the books, if someone see’s something you can always call the dog warden and he can go check on the situation.
If its 18 degrees and someone has their dog outside all night long, Bruce can go and check it out.” Councilman Quackenbush volunteered to speak with Bruce Femyl, Dog Warden about this and will get his statement in writing to bring back to the next board meeting for discussion. Councilman Quackenbush stated that he would really like something to happen in regards to this issue.
Other Business: Councilman Carl took the floor and shared with the board that he resubmitted the application for the FEMA grant for the retention and recruiting of volunteer fire fighters on March 22, 2019. He was able to refine it a bit more and had the chance to request more money. There is a 180 day award period and he will keep the board updated on this. Last month Councilman Carl was asked to look into the clean energies community grant.
Councilman Carl said, “The first step we would have to do is to complete up to four energy compliance initiatives, some are realistic and some are not, I have identified a few that might be realistic. But we would have to do these four things before we would even be eligible as a community to receive any grant funding. If everyone could look over the ten initiatives during the month, I will follow up with everyone at our next general meeting and look forward to your feedback. Also at next month’s meeting I will give an update to the board on the town tourism center project.”
Councilman McCrary took the floor and shared with the board how Michele Yost has strongly urged that the Town of Jewett do a flood analysis. A flood analysis is essentially a study on how to alleviate the possibility or the effect of flooding. The CWC (Catskill Watershed Corporation) has offered to pay for this to be done. If we do this then we can apply for all sorts of other grants. Councilman McCrary would like to request the board to formally request that
Michelle Yost, of GCSW (Greene County Soil and Water) come and present and tell us what is involved with doing a flood analysis.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $17,572.33 on abstract #4, claim numbers 56-84.
The Highway Fund was $15,053.35 on abstract #4, claim numbers 61-73.
Councilman Quackenbush made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for March 2019.
On a motion by councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried the Board went into Executive Session at 7:55 P.M. to discuss personnel matters. “The medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the Board came out of Executive Session at 8:39 P.M. No action was taken.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:39PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: April 11, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday March 13, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:03 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) and Mike Ryan (Mountain Eagle Newspaper).
Also present was the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilwoman Constable, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of February 13, 2019.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to table the Superintendent of Highways report to the next general meeting scheduled for
April 10, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri received an e-mail from NYSERDA regarding Clean Energy Communities.
This program encourages towns to implement clean energy actions. Once those actions are completed, it would cause the town to be eligible to apply for grants to fund additional clean energy projects. Councilman Carl will look into the details of this program and see if Jewett can benefit from it.
Other Business: Councilman Carl took the floor to present to the board his latest project.
Councilman Carl said, “I am in the developmental stages of a business plan for the Town of Jewett Tourism Center. There would be a prime location for the center; the building can be purchased and revitalized thru grant monies available from community revitalization grants and NYS environmental grants. The center would be inclusive of an environmental education center which will create more of an awareness of what Jewett has to offer our guests and residents. We would also have the ability to have a DEC ranger stationed there as well as the ability to sell hunting and fishing licenses on premise in a much higher volume. The town would have the ability to sell Town of Jewett merchandise as well as showcase shelf stable products from local businesses such as maple syrup. We would also have the ability to sell supplies for outdoor living such as camping and fishing supplies, firewood, bottled water, other beverages and shelf stable snacks. Councilman Quackenbush will be working closely with me on obtaining community feedback specifically on what our residents and guests would like to see offered at the center. The housing located on the property could be used for town office space expansion or be leased as office space to other agencies. We can become pioneers in what a town tourism center has to offer our residents and guests. I will be working with the Laberge Group on securing grant funding for the project”. Councilman McCrary suggested that Councilman Carl speak with Warren Hart of the Economic Development and Planning Department of Greene County as Mr. Hart is very interested in this sort of thing and can supply us with tourism information. The board agreed that this idea would tie in perfectly with the Scenic Cloves byway project.
Councilman Quackenbush said he would love to see this area become a big destination for bicycle riders. He said, “Route 23C is an amazing bike ride and coming from Tannersville would be the beginning of our scenic byway. The proposed tourism center could provide water, protein bars, maps and tubes for your bike, etc. If the town got the property and somehow down the road it didn’t work out for a tourism center, we could at least have that place for a possible future town hall, something to think about.”
Councilman Carl also mentioned that he is resubmitting the application for the FEMA grant for the retention and recruiting of volunteer fire fighters and will keep the board updated.
Councilman Carl wanted to give an update on the fire shutter information that he was delegated to research at the last general meeting, which he had done and all information was
e-mailed to Bob Mallory, custodian of the building.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $30,909.51 on abstract #3, claim numbers 40-55.
The Highway Fund was $41,265.20 on abstract #3, claim numbers 39-60.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for February 2019.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to adjourn the meeting at 7:32PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: April 04, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday February 13, 2019.
Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present were Board Members:
Brian Carl, Allyson Constable, Mike McCrary and J.R. Quackenbush.
Public present:
Gregory Kroyer (Planning Board Chair) and Marvin Seligman.
Also present was The Highway Superintendent and the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of January 9, 2019.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Highway Superintendents Report: Continuing to plow, sand and salt the roads. No major truck issues. The board thanked Superintendent Mallory and his men for doing a great job during all these storms.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #11 of 2019. SUBJECT: CHANGE IN FEE SCHEDULE.
“WHEREAS, the fee structure for building permits and applications to the planning and zoning boards had not been increased for the last two years,
THEREFORE, we propose the following increases:
Building Permit Fees
Valuation of Work
$ – $40,000 $150
$ 40,001 $50,000 $200
$ 50,001 $60,000 $250
$ 60,001 $70,000 $300
$ 70,001 $80,000 $350
$ 80,001 $90,000 $400
$ 90,001 $100,000 $450
Over $100,000 ½ of 1%
1 Year permit. The renewal is $250 plus the valuation fee of the remaining structure.
Zoning Fee $100
The Town of Jewett Building, Planning and Zoning Fee Schedule:
Altered Lot line Application 200$
Application for site plan approval 100$
Boundary Line Adjustment Application 200$
Non‐conforming Building Application 200$
Sign permit Application 150$
Site Plan Application 200$
Special Use Application500/200 each meeting after 3rd meeting
Special Use application Sketch review 250$
Special use‐ Telecom Tower 6,500$
Subdivision Cluster Development Application 500$
Subdivision Sketch Plan review 200$
Zoning Board Review 250$
Zoning Enforcement Officer Fee 100$
Minor Subdivision Fees
·Two (2) lots $500
·Three (3) lots $800
·Four (4) lots $1,000
Major Subdivision Fees
·Two (2 lots $500
·Three (3) lots $800
·Four (4) lots $1,200
·Five (5) lots $1,600
·Lots six through twenty‐nine $1,000 each
·Lots thirty or more $1,500 each
To be posted in the town house and on the website.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, the board decided to table the short-term rental discussion to the March general meeting.
Town resident, Marvin Seligman took the floor to express the importance of the town starting to think about regulations regarding Air BnB’/ short term rentals. His concerns are related to safety issues. He feels that there are no regulations regarding fire/ building codes, occupancy codes and pool regulations. He would like the board to start thinking about ideas on how to enforce these very important safety issues.
Councilman Quackenbush made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board appointed Councilman Mc Crary as a delegate to the Schoharie Watershed Advisory Committee and Supervisor Pellitteri as an alternate delegate to the Schoharie Watershed Advisory Committee.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #4 of 2019. SUBJECT: TOWN CLERK’S REPORT
“WHEREAS, the Town Clerk is required to give the Town Board an Annual Report of monies received during the year, and;
WHEREAS, the Town Board must audit the Town Clerk’s cash book;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board has examined the Clerk’s cash book and accepts the annual report of the Town Clerk.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, the board moved to request the supervisor to nominate Ms. Bonita Chase to be on the board of directors for the Catskill Watershed Committee.
Other Business: Councilman McCrary brought up the issue of dog licenses. He is looking to make town residents aware of the law of licensing their dogs. Ideas of placing an ad in the paper or recording a radio broadcast to get the word out was suggested. Incentives for licensing your dog were also discussed.
Councilman Carl spoke about the fire shutters that are located upstairs in the senior center.
The town was looking for an easier way to re-set them after they are activated. Councilman Carl found that there are specific tools made for the re-setting and release of fire shutters. There is a company that also makes fire curtains which are a lot more cost effective. Councilman Carl will e-mail all this information to the custodian of the building. Councilman Carl also gave an update regarding grants.
He was able to meet with John Farrell, head of Greene County Emergency Services. Mr. Farrell explained how they use a grant writing company to apply for EMS grants they are interested in. The Laberge Group is a company they use. They are also used by the town of Athens, Greenville,
New Baltimore, Coxsackie, Lexington and Hunter. Councilman Carl met with Nicole Allen, planning service manager for Laberge Group. Ms. Allen would like to come and give a presentation to the town regarding their grant writing services. If the board is interested, Councilman Carl can set up the presentation.
Councilman McCrary asked what the status of the generator installation is. The custodian for the building, Robert Mallory answered that he was in touch with the company when they were notified that they were awarded the bid and they came up to the town house and was shown the facilities. We are waiting on them for the schedule of the installation.
Councilman Quackenbush took the floor and spoke about a fly car meeting that was held a couple of weeks ago. He brought up the importance of all towns on the mountain top being involved and thanked Supervisor Pellitteri for attending these meetings. Councilman Quackenbush also mentioned that he would be available to attend any of these upcoming meetings if Supervisor Pellitteri could not make it as he explained that it is very important and key for Jewett to stay involved with discussions and decisions regarding a fly car on the mountain top. Supervisor Pellitteri agreed to let Councilman Quackenbush know if there are upcoming meetings that he cannot make.
Town Clerk, Maya Carl took the floor to relate to board members that she was recently awarded a certification by the NYS Town Clerk’s Association. It is an RMC award. RMC stands for Registered Municipal Clerk. In order to qualify, you must prove a certain amount of education and work experience within the office of Town Clerk. All was met and Ms. Carl received the award.
Councilman Quackenbush made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $11,781.83 on abstract #2, claim numbers 18-39.
The Highway Fund was $32,709.20 on abstract #2, claim numbers 10-38.
Councilman Carl made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for January 2019.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:11PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: April 04, 2019
The re-organizational meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday
January 9, 2019. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. Present were Board Members Mike McCrary, Allyson Constable, J.R. Quackenbush and Brian Carl.
Public present was Gregory Kroyer, Planning Board Chair and Mike Ryan Newspaper Reporter. Also present was Highway Superintendent Robert Mallory, Tal Rappleyea Esquire and
the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #3 of 2019. SUBJECT: Town Justice Report
“WHEREAS, the Town Justice is required to give the Town Board an Annual Report of monies received during the year, and;
WHEREAS, the Town Board must audit the Town Justice books;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board has examined the Justice books and accepts the Annual Report of the Town Justice.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of December 12, 2018.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of December 27, 2018.
Highway Superintendents Report: The highway department has been out 5 mornings a week sanding and salting the roads due to snow, ice and sleet. They have used a lot of materials up but no more than our surrounding towns such as Windham and Hunter, as well as the county. One of our snow plow trucks has been brought down to Ben Funk’s for repair but is covered under warranty.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to table the town clerk’s report and resolution #4 until the February general meeting.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board accepted the dog control officers report for 2018.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #1 of 2019. SUBJECT: Town Organization Appointments “THE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENTS SHALL BE MADE
Depository for Town Funds Bank of Greene County, NBT Bank
Official Newspaper The Daily Mail, Mountain Eagle
Deputy Supervisor Michael McCrary
Town Historian Jan Nichols
Association of Towns Delegate James Pellitteri
Alternate Delegate Michael McCrary
Insurance Broker, Property & Casualty Mang Agency
Insurance Broker, Health Insurance Keith Valentine
Deputy Highway Superintendent Cynthia Mallory
Attorney for the Town Tal Rappleyea
Deputy Tax Collector/ Deputy
Records Retention Officer TBD @ Later Date
Dog Control Officer Bruce Feml
Records Management Officer Maya Carl
Health Officer Robert Schneider
Custodian Robert Mallory
Registrar of Vital Records Maya Carl
Permission is given to the Supervisor to pay electric, health insurance, telephone and discounted bills when they come due. A running balance of $100.00 for the Town Clerk/Tax Collector from A1410.4 will be maintained. Permission is given to the Supervisor to enter into an Inter-Municipal Highway Agreement with Towns and Greene County. The Deputy Registrar of Vital Statistics, Cindy Mallory will be paid $50.00 per year from A4020.4. The Town Board authorizes expenditure of funds for job-related schooling.
Board meetings are the second Wednesday of each month at 7:00 P.M. in the Municipal Building. Audit by all board members will precede the regular meeting at 6:45 P.M.
Mileage reimbursement is $.45 per mile for all Town business not occurring at the Municipal Building.
Committee and liaison appointments, if any, will be made at the February meeting”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #2 of 2019. SUBJECT: Highway Personnel “This resolution establishes wages, benefits, purchase agreements, county and/ or state contracts and paid holidays for the highway department.
BE IT RESOLVED:
WAGES be paid as follows: 1/1/2019
Mechanic/Truck driver/foreman $23.37 per hour
Highway equipment/truck driver $20.03 per hour
Truck Driver #1 $18.99 per hour
Truck Driver #2 ` $17.49 per hour
Overtime paid at 1 ½ hourly rate over 40 hours per week. Overtime paid on a holiday at 2 times the hourly rate.
BENEFIT HOURS
5 Days Sick Leave
5 Days Personal Leave
5 Vacation days from 0 up to 2 years service
10 Vacation days over 2 years up to 5 years of service
15 Vacation days over 5 years up to 10 years of service
20 Vacation days over 10 years of service and up
Carry over – up to 160 days sick leave based on an 8-hour workday
Schedule of vacation to be picked based on seniority
PURCHASE AGREEMENT:
The Superintendent of Highways shall be authorized to spend up to $1,500 per purchase without prior approval from the Town Board and have a running balance of $50 for miscellaneous expenses from DA5130.4.
COUNTY AND/OR STATE CONTRACTS:
The Superintendent of Highways shall be authorized to purchase under County and/or State Contract without competitive bidding.
PAID HOLIDAYS:
New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Election Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.
BENEFITS:
Highway Department crew uniforms provided on an as-needed basis.
BENEFITS:
Upon presentation of other insurance, medical Insurance buy-out will be paid quarterly at 50% of the individual premium as billed to the Town of Jewett in January.
BENEFITS:
Current Highway Department crew will receive a longevity payment equal to $100 per year for each year of service as per contract. Payment will be made on a semi-annual basis”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Bids were sought after for a new fire alarm system for the Town Municipal Building. One bid was received from CIA Security for $2,108.00.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the bid from CIA Security for a new fire alarm system to be installed in the Municipal Building for $2,108.00.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #5 of 2019. SUBJECT: Official Undertaking of Municipal Officers
“WHEREAS, James Pellitteri, of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene, New York, has been elected to the Office of Supervisor of the Town of Jewett, and
WHERAS, Michael McCrary, of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene, New York, has been elected to the Office of Councilman of the Town of Jewett, appointed Deputy Supervisor and
WHEREAS, Maya Carl, of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene, New York, has been elected to the Office of Town Clerk of the Town of Jewett, and
WHEREAS, Maya Carl, of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene, New York, has been elected to the Office of Tax Collector of the Town of Jewett, and
WHEREAS, Stephen Canfield, of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene, New York, has been elected to the Office of Town Justice of the Town of Jewett, and
Robert Mallory, of the Town of Jewett, County of Greene, New York, has been elected to the Office of Superintendent of Highways of the Town of Jewett, and
NOW, THEREFORE, we as respective officers above, do hereby undertake with the Town of Jewett that we will faithfully perform and discharge the duties of our office, and will promptly account for and pay over all moneys or property received as Town Officer, in accordance with the law; and
This undertaking of the Town Supervisor is further conditioned upon that he will well and truly keep, pay over and account for all moneys and property, including any special district funds, belonging to the Town and coming into his hands as such Supervisor; and
This undertaking of the Town Clerk is further conditioned that she will well and truly keep, pay over and account for all moneys and property coming into her hands as such Town Clerk; and
This undertaking of the Town Tax Collector is further conditioned that she will well and truly keep, pay over and account for all moneys and property coming into her hands as such Tax Collector; and
This undertaking of the Town Justice is further conditioned that he will well and truly keep, pay over and account for all moneys and property coming into his hands as such Town Justice; and
The town does and shall maintain insurance coverage, presently with Selective Insurance, in the sum of $1,000,000.00 for the Supervisor, Town Clerk and Tax Collector to indemnify against losses through the failure of the officers , clerks and employees covered there under faithfully to perform their duties or to account properly for all monies or property received by virtue of their positions or employment, and through fraudulent of dishonest acts committed by the officers, clerks and employees covered there under”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #6 of 2019. SUBJECT: Setting Income Levels for Real Property Taxes
“WHEREAS, the Town of Jewett follows Greene counties sliding scale regarding income levels for Senior Citizens and for Disabled and Low Income Citizens;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board Jewett Adopts the current “sliding scale” provisions of NY Real Property Tax Law s467 (1) (b) (1), consistent with the levels adopted by the Greene County Legislature”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #7 of 2019. SUBJECT: Amendment of Resolution #23 of 2018.
“WHEREAS, Resolution #23 of 2018 says all funds must be in balance at the end of the fiscal year, in order that the Appropriation account be balanced the following transfers should be made:
From: A3620.4 Safety Inspection CE $800.00
To: A1410.1 Town Clerk PE
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, it shall read excess funds were available to increase line item A1410.1, THEREFORE, the following transfer shall be made within the budget of 2019,
from A3620.4 Safety Inspection CE of $800 to A1410.1 Town Clerk PE.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #8 of 2019. SUBJECT: Amendement of Resolution #22 of 2018.
“WHEREAS, Resolution #22 of 2018 says all funds must be in balance at the end of the fiscal year, in order that the Appropriation account be balanced the following transfers should be made,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, Resolution #22 of 2018 be amended to show the correct transfers and line items.”
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #9 of 2019. SUBJECT: Appointments of Chairs to the Planning and Zoning Board.
“WHEREAS, it being a new year,
THEREFORE IT BE RESOLVED, to appoint Gregory Kroyer as Chair to the Planning Board and Kate Williams as Chair to the Zoning Board”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #10 of 2019. SUBJECT: Re-appointment of a member to the Zoning Board.
“WHEREAS, the term of Charles Kutcher as a member of the Zoning board had ended on December 31, 2018,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the board of the Town of Jewett re-appoints Charles Kutcher to the Zoning board for a 5 yr. term”.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board moved to authorize Supervisor Pellitteri to sign the contract with Greene County Emergency Medical Systems.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board approved the following motion, “WHEREAS, it being the beginning of the tax season and WHEREAS, the traffic increases enormously to the town clerk’s office and WHEREAS, identification of visitors would be advantageous to said clerk, BE IT THEREFORE MOVED, to authorize the installation of a sliding glass window to the clerk’s office”.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board moved to authorize Supervisor Pellitteri to accept the annual contract with the town attorney,
Tal G. Rappleyea.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $8,508.50 on abstract #1, claim numbers 1-17.
The Highway Fund was $7,974.29 on abstract #1, claim numbers 1-9.
Councilman Quackenbush made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for December 2018.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried to adjourn the meeting at 7:43PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: January 15, 2019
The end of the year meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Thursday December 27, 2018. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 5:00 P.M. Present were Board Members Mike McCrary, Allyson Constable, J.R. Quackenbush and Brian Carl.
Public present was Gregory Kroyer, Planning Board Chair. Also present was the Town Clerk.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #21 of 2018. SUBJECT: TRANSFER OF FUNDS IN THE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT.
“WHEREAS, all funds must be in place at the end of the fiscal year, in order that the Appropriation Accounts be balanced, the following transfers should be made
HIGHWAY FUND
From: DA9950.9 $30,000.00
To: Highway Capital Fund
NOW THERFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the budget be amended accordingly”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #22 of 2018. SUBJECT: TRANSFER OF FUNDS WITHIN THE GENERAL FUND AND WITHIN THE HIGHWAY FUND.
“WHEREAS, all funds must be in balance at the end of the fiscal year, in order that the
Appropriation account be balanced the following transfers should be made:
General Fund
From: A1320.4 Indep Auditing Acctng $ (2,069.22)
A5031 Interfund Revenue $ (2,913.53)
A8160.4 Refuse Garbage $ (2,125.66)
$ (7,128.41)
To: A1430.4 Personel CE $ 591.00
A8020.4 Planning CE $ 1,620.31
A9040.8 Medical Ins $ 2,078.14
A8810.4 Cemeteries CE $ 600.00
A9010.8 State Retirements $ 2,238.96
$ 7,128.41
Highway Fund
From: DA3501 General Repairs CE $ (31,638.74)
DA4130.4 Machinery CE $ (19,020.00)
DA5140.1 Misc PS $ (15,619.00)
DA5130.1 Machinery PS $ (24,910.49)
(91,188.23)
To: DA5110.1 General Repairs $ 229.80
DA9030.8 Social Security $ 303.28
DA5112.2 Permanent Improvements E $ 31,678.55
DA5142.1 Snow Removal PS $ 38,696.76
DA5142.4 Snow Removal CE $ 17,064.00
DA9010.8 State Retirement $ 749.04
DA9060.8 Medical Insurance Town Share $ 2,466.80
$ 91,188.23
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Budget be amended accordingly”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #23 of 2018. SUBJECT: REALLOCATION OF MONIES
“WHEREAS, all funds must be in balance at the end of the fiscal year, in order that the
Appropriation account be balanced the following transfers should be made:
From: A3620.4 Safety Inspection CE $800.00
To: A1410.1 Town Clerk PE
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Budget be amended accordingly”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #24 of 2018. SUBJECT: DOT REQUEST FOR SPEED LIMIT CHANGE ON 23C.
“WHEREAS, the speed limit in front of the Jewett Municipal Building is currently 55mph and,
WHEREAS, the town of Jewett facility is used extensively both by the Town of Jewett Highway Department and the Greene County Department of Human Services,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the town of Jewett board requests Supervisor Pellitteri to communicate with the NYSDOT and The Greene County Highway Department to reduce the speed limit on CR 23C to 25 mph, to communicate with both agencies to reduce the speed limit from 55mph to 25mph starting from the top of the hill approx 400 feet from eastern boarder of the Town of Jewett parking lot to the junction of SR296 and CR23C”.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board moved to appoint Simon Williams as a member to the planning board for a 5 year term beginning January 1, 2019.
Councilman Quackenbush made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $8,824.00 on abstract #12A, claim numbers 259-268.
The Highway Fund was $3,608.02 on abstract #12A, claim numbers 208-209.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried, the board moved to table the December financials to the reorganizational meeting on Wednesday January 9, 2019.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to adjourn the meeting at 5:14 PM.
___________________
Maya Carl, Town Clerk
Added: January 15, 2019
The general meeting of the Jewett Town Board was held on Wednesday December 12, 2018. Supervisor Pellitteri called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. Present were Board Members Mike McCrary, Allyson Constable, J.R. Quackenbush and Brian Carl.
Public present was Gregory Kroyer, Planning Board Chair and Mike Ryan Newspaper Reporter. Also present was Highway Superintendent Robert Mallory, Tal Rappleyea Esquire and
the Town Clerk.
The Supervisor’s financial report was given to the Board prior to the meeting and the bank statements were reviewed by Board Members after the signing of the bills.
Bids were advertised for an emergency generator and three were received and opened on October 22, 2018 at 1:05pm. Present was Robert Mallory, Highway Superintendent,
Cindy Mallory and Maya Carl. Also present was Peter Amrod and Gregory Gurin.
The following bids were received:
CDE Electric for $27,900.00
Alliance Electrical and Surveillance Systems for $34,000.00
Roundtop Electrical for $18,634.71
The Highway Superintendent rejected all bids and no one was awarded the job.
A second round of bids was advertised regarding an emergency generator. One bid was received from CDE Electric for $27,900.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board moved to accept the bid from CDE Electric for $27,900 with a request for the bidder to provide a year’s worth of service except for any generator work itself, along with contact information from the generator dealer, with the work to be done relatively quickly.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of October 30, 2018.
On a motion by Councilman Carl, 2nd by Councilman McCrary and carried The Board moved to accept the minutes of November 14, 2018. Councilwoman Constable recused herself.
Highway Superintendents Report: Salt and sand usage was heavy thru the month of November, heavier than Superintendent Mallory has seen in many years. He has had to bring in more deicing materials before the possible rise in price after the first of the year. Our heavy duty sanding and plowing trucks at this time are operating well.
Superintendent Mallory was recently asked about expanding our parking lot to accommodate more vehicles and possibly painting lines. In Superintendent Mallory’s opinion the direction that the cars have been parking (parallel to Route 23C) takes best advantage of the space available. However he feels employees, help and anyone parking for the day should park in the middle or far end parking lot, due to the seniors that come here daily. They are the ones who should park up front. Superintendent Mallory is considering a design across the street for extra parking.
Another situation the Superintendent brought up was the speed limit going east or west on County Route 23C. The current speed limit is 55mph. Most people go thru at higher speeds. Superintendent Mallory is asking the members of the Jewett Town Board to consider making a request to the NYSDOT thru the Greene County Highway Department to lowering the speed limit. Change in speed limit should begin approximately 300 feet to the east of Jewett Town Hall and continue west to SR 296/23C intersection. Form TE 9 should be used. Speed limit of 25mph is suggested. The board agreed that because of the highway dept usage and the department of the aging it would require people to slow down. Plus the hill causes people to fly down.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to request Supervisor Pellitteri to communicate with the NYSDOT and The Greene County Highway Department with request to reduce the speed limit on CR 23C to 25 mph. Whereas the town of Jewett facility is used extensively both by the Town of Jewett Highway Department and the Greene County Department of Human Services, Therefore we would request the Supervisor to communicate with both agencies to reduce the speed limit from 55mph to 25mph starting from the top of the hill approx 400 feet from eastern boarder of the Town of Jewett parking lot to the junction of SR296 and CR23C.
The board discussed a couple of structures in town that are in very bad shape and would need to be demolished. The homeowners are not doing anything about it and it has become a safety issue. Tal Rappleyea, esquire related to the board that town can go ahead and demolish these structures and get reimbursed by Greene County.
On a motion by Councilman Quackenbush, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the board moved to accept the Code Enforcement Officers report. The board would like to request the ZEO to start producing a monthly report.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried the board reluctantly accepted the resignation of planning board member Jo Ann DeLong effective December 31, 2018.
The yearend meeting for the Town of Jewett has been set for Thursday December 27, 2018 in the municipal building located at 3547 Route 23C. The town clerk will place this in the newspaper.
Bids were sought after for a new fire alarm system for the Town Municipal Building. One bid was received from CIA Security for $2,108.00.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to accept the bid from CIA Security for a new fire alarm system to be installed in the Municipal Building for $2,108.00.
The kitchen fire shutter has been down due to a malfunction with the current alarm and fire system. The board would like to request the custodian to make an appointment with the appropriate company to have them come and reset the fire shutter.
On a motion by Councilman McCrary, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried, The Board adopted Resolution #20 of 2018. SUBJECT: Proclamation for Gene Beers
“WHEREAS, on behalf of the Town of Jewett, The town board wishes to record our deep sorrow over the passing of Mr. Gene Beers on November 19, 2018, and;
WHEREAS, Gene was a beloved son, friend and community volunteer, and;
WHEREAS, He grew up and spent his adult life in East Jewett, and;
WHEREAS, Gene was an accomplished and well respected individual who worked for the Greene County Department of Social Services for over 30 years and served on The Town of Jewett Planning board from 1/1/11 to 1/12/13, also representing the Town of Jewett to The Greene County Planning Board until 1/2014, and;
WHEREAS, His life was dedicated to the best interests of our community and his family, and;
WHEREAS, The Town of Jewett along with his family was blessed to have know him and been a part of his life, and;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Town of Jewett Board, on behalf of the entire town, in recognition of Gene Beer’s many contributions to our town and its citizens, do hereby express our deep appreciation for his dedication to the progress of this community and extend to his family our sincere sympathy upon his passing.
ROLL CALL VOTE: AYE Pellitteri, McCrary, Constable, Quackenbush and Carl.
Grant Committee: Councilman Carl explained what he is currently working on for upcoming grants. The first part pertains to security systems regarding cameras and retroactive reimbursement. The current for 2019 for the NYS Homeland Security and emergency services critical infrastructure grant is open for application as of June 1st. Retroactive reimbursement for recently installed alarm systems would have had to have been installed within the previous 90 days of submitting the application.
This will make us void on getting any reimbursement. He will put thru on the security cameras and system for the municipal building and salt shed. He linked up with a municipal grant data base specific to NYS and federal grant alerts. You can enter specific grants you are targeting to compete for and it will generate time frames for open enrollment and submittal deadlines for each specific grant. It’s a software that will track what’s coming up, what’s available, item specific to key words, enter what you are looking for and it will keep you informed so that nothing goes under the radar. An excellent tool for researching grants that meet our needs. Councilman Carl will meet with John Farrell, Director of Greene County Emergency Services after the New Year to culminate a county wide effort to obtain funding from FEMA for the recruitment and retention of volunteer fire fighters. He believes a combined effort of towns rather than a sporadic effort individually will better our chances at receiving grant assistance for our local fire departments. He is also exploring funding options thru NYS community renewal grant programs. This would enable us to receive funding for our municipality, to improve or upgrade our building facilities such as the Senior Center, general offices and the highway department as well.
Other Business: Councilman McCrary was approached by Digital Towpath, Jeanne Brown. There has been a huge increase in phishing type e-mails and Jeanne is applying for a SARA grant, NYS Archives local government directives to develop a program and test various digital towpath members to see how they react to phishing e-mail. She is asking for various towns to partner with her. Councilman McCrary would like to ask that we partner up with her. We would be involved with the testing process, to test the system as it is developed and help the design team identify improvements. In order to do so, we need to have a shared services agreement form which would be from the town.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, second by Councilman Carl and carried the board moved to authorize the Supervisor to sign the agreement form to partner up with Digital Towpath to be a part of the testing process.
Scenic Byway update: There was a joint presentation done with the town of Lexington and was very well attended. The presentation went extremely well. A large map has been placed upstairs in the Senior Center of the Jewett town hall for the public to look at which shows the path of the scenic byway thru the town of Jewett along with business in town. There will also be a map on the town of Jewett’s website with a place for residents to ask questions or make comments/ suggestions. The presentation has been handed off to Peter Manning and he will be making the final presentation in Albany.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilwoman Constable and carried the board moved to proceed with utilizing the payment of various town fees with credit cards paying a onetime fee of $599 to eGov for equipment and process set up.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Carl and carried to approve the bills. General Fund was $44,782.57 on abstract #12, claim numbers 225-258.
The Highway Fund was $53,120.48 on abstract #12, claim numbers 187-207.
Councilman McCrary made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to accept the Supervisors financial report for November 2018.
Councilwoman Constable made a motion, 2nd by Councilman Quackenbush and carried to adjourn the meeting at 8PM.
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Maya Carl, Town Clerk
