The Town Board met on November 10, 2008 at 7:30 pm. All members were present.

The meeting began with three public hearings. The first hearing was for the Preliminary Budget. Chris Sonne of Tuxedo Park commented that he could tell the Board had put some effort into reducing expenditures, however the bottom line is an increase of approximately 4%, which is along the lines of inflation. Given the current state of the economy, Mr. Sonne feels the Town should be prepared to make further cuts as he doesn’t think things are going to get better any time soon. Supervisor Dolan responded that there is NO fat in this year’s budget. Police and Highway workers have contractual raises, and both fuel and electricity costs have risen. The Town has been exploring the sharing of services with the Village of Tuxedo Park. Any further cuts to the budget would result in the loss of personnel in the Police Department and/or Highway Department. Mr. Sonne was followed by his wife, Sally Sonne who pointed out that the agenda for the evening shows a public hearing for the evening shows a public hearing for the Preliminary Budget followed by the regular meeting during which there was a Resolution to vote on the Final Budget. She wondered what the point of a public hearing was if the Board was only going to vote on the matter ten minutes later. She further added that in this economy, everyone has to tighten their belts and she feels everyone should be willing to make sacrifices. Supervisor Dolan reiterated that there is no excess in the budget and pointed out that had there been many members of the public present with concerns about the budget, the Board would have delayed the vote. This, however, was not the case. Town Clerk Laurent stated that the State requires the Town to adopt the budget no later than November 20. Therefore, if there were to wait to vote, a special meeting would be required. On behalf of the Silver Dollars, Andy Berish thanked the Town Board for the inclusion of a $7500 stipend for the seniors in the budget.

The second public hearing was for the Hamlet sewer rates, which will rise from $5.14 to $6.33. As there was no one present to comment, the public hearing was swiftly closed.

The third public hearing was for the Woodlands sewer rates which will remain the same. Woodlands HOA President Frank Peverly was present to state that all is running well. As there were no other comments, the public hearing was closed.

During the Supervisor/Town Board update, Peter Dolan reported that the first meeting of the LDC had taken place –– although not in an official capacity as a representative of the Bank was not able to be present. They hope to meet again, this time with the Bank representative, within the next two weeks at which time they will be making decisions about the process of applying for loans for revitalization. They are leaning toward keeping most of the money in the Hamlet and would like to award funds to projects that have matching funds.

Supervisor Dolan also reported that he had met with the Regional Director of the DEC at the Highway Department and that the Department is in complete compliance. The final announcement was that the Town will be removing 400 yards of dirt from the Powerhouse property and plans to replace it with sod eventually.

Councilman Darling stated that he would like to open a dialogue with the Village of Tuxedo Park about the state of the Tuxedo Lake Dam. He noted that if anything were to happen to the dam, it would directly affect people living in the Town. Supervisor Dolan responded that he has a regular meeting with Deputy Mayor Jim Hays once a month. The next one will be Wednesday, November 13th at 8:30 am and Councilman Darling is welcome to attend.

During the regular part of the meeting resolutions to adopt the Final Budget and approve the Woodlands sewer rates were adopted. They also resolved to appoint Robert Marsh, Sr. as a Seasonal Plow Operator at an hourly rate of $22.49 straight pay with no overtime or meal allowance. The Library requested permission to erect a temporary banner thanking the Town residents for passing their budget resolution. Permission was unanimously granted.

Every year, terms expire on the Town’s Boards. Councilman Phelps has agreed to keep track of which positions may be open. The Board decided to post for all open positions on Boards, regardless of whether the current member is interested in continuing, so that all Town residents will have a chance to apply.

The final piece of business was the Local Law entitled, “Moratorium on Approvals for Wood-Burning Furnaces.” This was passed unanimously.

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