Common Council Infrastructure Committee

1. 0:01It's not an iPhone. You guys there's three. Yeah. Okay, I would like to call the meeting of the infrastructure committee of Hudson, New York. Um on April 13th at 5:31 p.m. Uh we are going to start as we always do with the report from Rob Cherry the DPW superintendent. Who wrote Thank you. Uh salaries for the month of February was $25,000. You know, we our monthly average is about 35 to 40,000, but we expect the winter to be low just because there's snow and ice and you guys have to go in people's yards to get to them, but usually in March things have started to turn around for us. Uh so if you look at picture number uh one and two. So one is right there. So what happens is that the primary clarifier of the sewer plant and you can see how there's a bunch of plastic
2. 1:05that's all tangled up and wrapped around itself. That's not supposed to happen. There's actually um three redundancies. Uh there's a shear pin. There's an actual throwout bearing and there's an actual fault that should turn the power off if this happens and we uh are trying to diagnose exactly what happened because this is not supposed to be the case. That said, uh many of the flights are plastic, you know, so they're not you know, incredibly expensive, but we did have to replace them and uh those were delivered last week and they'll be installing them over the next week. Uh picture two just shows the tank. We put the tank back in service, but there are no uh treatment flights. So what will happen is the solids start settling out, but in case we do get a high flow, we want to make sure that we have that tank capacity. Um So street sweeping myth list and this is something that comes up almost every year. Certainly every time there's an administration change.
3. 2:07And this letter was forwarded to me. I I removed the contact information to protect the innocent, but it does touch across most of the major talking points of street sweeping and why we do it the way we do it. So the first issue is why is it at 3:00 in the morning, 3:15 in the morning? And uh and why do I hear it make multiple passes? Well, the reality is uh where you live, you may only hear a pass once and where you live, you may hear a pass multiple times. So for me, I hear the sweeper come up Warren, I hear it go up Worth, I hear it up Prospect Avenue. Jason, you may only hear it pass I hear it on McKinstry. McKinstry near house. Henry, you probably hear it five or six times. Union, maybe Warren, sixth, seventh grade. So So it is where you know, so you know, and if you live by the courthouse, you're going to hear it coming up Allen, up Union and when they go across Fourth. So uh the reality is that's just how it works cuz these cities are on a
4. 3:12the streets are on a grid and so you're going to hear it coming and going each ways. Um there was a question as to you know, this is the way it's been done. Well, I don't want to quote the Mandalorian and say this is the way, but the reality is we need the cars to be away from the curb and they have to be away from the curb in a straight line, not just oney onesy twosy. Um if you if you wanted us to do it during the day, then you're going to have to make parking prohibitions during the day and enforce them. And you know, right now in Hudson, which is the single biggest complaint going on is parking. So if you're going to have guys going out and doing alternate side parking between 8:00 a.m. and noon, uh you know just take whatever you complaints you're getting now and you can you know, take that as a factorial three probably. So um Sorry about that. We only have one, correct? Yeah, just one. >> Yeah. So it does about 10 miles in a three and a half hour shift. And uh so
5. 4:16that's that's how we do it. You know, cuz regular parking begins at 8:00. There's no parking restrictions outside of the handicapped and things of that nature. Alternate side is suspended at 8:00 and um you know, we do 10 miles of three it's in a row. It's a it's a pattern. So it's not like you can just wait and do one or two streets and do the other one. Now So then Yeah, go ahead. The some street is not alternate parking. Correct. So that that's mean I'm not going to do. That's mean like those street don't need to be sweep. No, usually when there's the streets that don't alternate you usually there's something wonky going on like um you know, like the 200 block of Columbia is once a week. The first two blocks alternate. Those are they're wide. So they can alternate like a regular street. 200 block is a little bit more narrow, so they only go over once a week. Once you get Third Street, you got that truck
6. 5:19route and if you've ever gone like if you've seen the 200 block of Columbia the time people move their cars around, if they were doing that in the 300, 400, 500, 600 blocks of Columbia with the trucks coming both ways, I mean it would it would just be a log jam. So that's why those streets we usually on the clean when we um when we put signs up to say no parking at all because it's and there's just no room for trucks to get around and cars to be kind of interspersed. Uh one more question on that. Go ahead. So the the street we don't do alternate. There's no storm line going through the under the road. Oh, it could be, but it could be if some of the streets do have separate separate storm water and sewer lines. So if they have a separate storm line it's less critical that we do it every single day. So you know, but most of the grid if you
7. 6:23will, you know, Union, Allen, you know, Columbia, State, they all have they still combined sewers. And so that's why that's the boulevards have separate storm sewers. >> [clears throat] >> Don't we all that's why we only go out there once a week because you know the you know, we have regulatory requirements from the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency and DEC that mandate that we keep as much of this grit out of the sewer system as possible. The easiest and most efficient way to do it is to do it on a regular basis and just hammer it and we pull a couple of tons of grit off of the streets every single night. So it's there and the longer it stays there, more damages it creates downstream. Um one of the other, you know, complaints we hear is it violates the noise ordinance. Well unfortunately this is uh part of maintaining our combined
8. 7:26sewer system. Uh it is a compliance with EPA and DEC and it is the maintenance of the utility which is the sewer system and therefore under 210.7 Number F, the exceptions, noise generated by the installation and maintenance of utilities. So it is exempt from the noise ordinance. Um there's another that says uh we had never had this problem in New York City. That's my favorite. I love that. I don't know how New York City runs their operations. My guess is they probably have a fleet of sweepers and maybe they do midtown Manhattan in the nighttime cuz it's commercial and maybe they do Brooklyn, you know, during the day cuz it's residential. >> They have hours. Yeah, daytime hours. >> And I'll guarantee you they've got a fleet of meter maids out there to enforce it, too. You got to move from 8:00 to 10:00 o'clock. >> Yeah. So I mean if if that's the business that we want to get into, uh then hey, you know, like I said, that's not that's not for me to decide. I have to operate within the within the the framework that we have right now.
9. 8:30Um you know, and maybe they don't have the same regulations that we have. I mean, New York City's huge. I mean, I imagine for DEC and EPA give us a consent order cuz we're little Hudson. You know, New York City with its power, I mean, it's the exact who knows. Um Sorry Rob, is this When did this complaint arrive, this complaint? Uh it was forwarded to me from another official or whatever. Over the weekend, I guess. And it's same uh work before. Yeah. Uh I know. And like I said, I'm just keeping the the names out of here, but uh yes. But like I said, it touches upon, you know, a lot of things that we and a lot of discussions with these meetings uh at least every two years for sure. In fact, there's a bunch of associated documents that I can provide to you that actually gives you excerpts of all the regulations, the consent orders, our speedy permits, you know, gives there's a lot of you know, back information, but just as a conversation. Uh and why there might be uh
10. 9:34let's just say the uh 6:00 a.m. before retail businesses and light stream frequency. Like I said, you know, we have these regulatory constraints. You can't just you have to fill the tank up with water. You got to get everything ready for the set it up. It takes an hour and a half hours to set up and then out it goes. Uh it also takes a half hour to break down and and clean out, you know, because we want to maintain this equipment. It's almost $400,000. So, um And, you know, so what happens is our staff comes in, whoever is operating the sweeper is a part of another crew. They may be part of the garbage crew, they may be part of a parks crew, or a street maintenance crew. So, whatever it is, we need a minimum of X people. This guy is X minus one. So, we need him to finish his duty on the sweeper, get the thing back in, and at 6:30 a.m. when the staff when the crew arrives, I don't set the hours for the crew, that's contractual. They start at 6:30 a.m. We need him off that sweeper, everything
11. 10:38put back and clean, and ready to go with his crew. I mean, what do you want? You want to have a garbage crew that's waiting for a third guy an hour sitting around playing pinochle. Um that's not it. We want these these We got to move with what hours we have, and get them, you know, get the jobs done that everybody expects to get done. So, um you know, if you uh if you push the hours back, you're going to have, you know, projects that just aren't going to get done, or they're going to be down uh a man, potentially creating a safety issue. Uh so, it it you know, it's part of the reality. Uh frequency, you know, I kind of touched on this. The greatest oldest part is stone brick, you know, so unfortunately, you know, the people in the you know, the oldest part of the city are those that are um uh you know, they're probably going to hear it most more times than others. Uh the winter months. This is a a new one for me, why we don't sweep during the winter months. Well, the the street sweeper uh employs water. The water gets sprayed on the
12. 11:41components. Uh and the power keep it cool, it also gets sprayed on the ground to keep dust down. Uh and if 4° outside, first of all, all the nozzles or whatever are going to freeze and break. But, what water does go on the street is going to freeze. And now we just created ice, which, you know, is not what we do. Uh also, there are typically snow banks, and, you know, we can't get to the curb when there's snow on top of it. But, I did show a nice little picture. This is the some of the remaining snow behind one of our snow dumps. And you can see that as the plows go over in the snowstorm and push the snow, when we do snow removal, a lot of this grit gets picked up in that snow, and the snow melts, and so as that pile melts, it will get more black and more black cuz the grit doesn't melt. And and there it goes. So, that's kind of like our you know, our fallback position for winter cleaning, but reality is we don't unless we want to put radiant heat in the streets, so it's all nice and toasty, um you know, then, you know, Okay? Will Will it Will there be any Will things change at all when the sewer
13. 12:45project separates? As streets are separate, then yeah, absolutely, they can change. But, it won't be going in the sewer. What's that? That one. Well, it'll go into dedicated storm water. We'll have to filter it. >> the storm water, right. Right, it won't it won't have any impact on the sewer. It won't create the number of CSOs, it won't increase the number, it won't increase the the flows. And where does the storm go, I guess? Where does it go? Well, it ultimately goes into the river. Yeah. But, we have these infiltrators, we have these other mechanisms. They'll be storm water solutions to keep this grit out of the storm. Storm water solutions. You may want to keep, you know, doing regular street sweeping. Just saying. >> if you treated everything before it hits the river or anything else. And we're Remember how much salt we put in the on the roads. >> Well, the salt is dissolved, so we run A good rain, that storm water, the first few washes it. But, the salt even now, the salt just goes right through the sewer plant. Good. Because we're running a like we run a
14. 13:47microbiological process, where where we're not doing chemical filtration or or a gap or carbon active uh activated carbon filtration, so Uh and then, you know, this last one was kind of a new one, a lucrative contract. I mean, the only way it makes money out of it is for this grit that we don't capture makes its way into the primary sludge, gets sent to a digester, where the organics break down, the grit does not, and we have to have a company come and back that out as a hazardous waste. So, The more you clean, the cheaper our bill is. Yeah, so Uh as far as uh Do we have a 2026 DEC inspection last week? You know, we'll get the results back in that in a month or so. Uh the CSO separation project. So, we've started sending portions of this to DEC to get their preliminary uh review. Everything that they've seen so far, they've sent back to us uh with no no issues or concern. The
15. 14:50idea is that, you know, once the last of documents makes their way through, we can get a quick turnaround and get this out to bid. Um Water Department. So, that if in case any of you get a letter from the Town of Ticonderoga, there's a uh concerned citizen out there about the state of uh culvert below our reservoir. Um Just so that we all know, that road, which I highlighted here in number five, that that's called Reservoir Road. It's It's in the Town of Ticonderoga's inventory. It's their road, they own it, they control it. Um there's an issue with the safety. Their town engineer has ruled the the culvert unsafe, and so the road is closed uh midway uh to through traffic. It's still open if you want to go one way and turn around and come back out. So, it has no impact on our operations out there, as we're able to either at um we can access either side of the dam or chemical feed building from either
16. 15:52side that's open. So, um there's no concern there. Just so everybody knows, cuz a lot of people don't, is that we are not just a property owner in the Town of Ticonderoga, we're also a taxpayer. Wait, what? Municipalities pay property taxes? Well, when you own water infrastructure, and your reservoir is considered real property, and there's an actual code for it. This is how, you know, the whole watershed for New York City is you know, totally devastated. New York City has to pay real property taxes, so does everybody else. So, we actually in 2022, we paid just over $15,000 in property taxes to uh the Town of uh No. What What is this Town of Ticonderoga? Yeah, Town of Ticonderoga. And uh and this year, we just paid $19,324. So, we are one of the That's just the town's taxes, that's not the school
17. 16:53bill. That's not Ticonderoga school bill. So, you know, we're one of the largest property owners in the town. Uh so, if they're looking for money to make repairs, we just wrote them a check for 20 grand, and uh you know, we'll do the same thing next year and the year after. They can create a capital fund and then take the DE you know, take the City of Hudson's property taxes. Uh however they want to do it, but it when it comes down to it, it's it's a local decision. Uh the concern is from one of their residents, and it doesn't uh it it's no impact on us. What Did I understand We own on both sides of the road, but they own the road. >> They own the road, exactly. Exactly. Um Also on uh So, just kind of segueing into the Harry Howard thing. So, this was the break that we was discovered at Lucille Drive. Uh picture seven, you can see the water coming out. Picture eight, uh we actually had an isolation valve, so we were able to shut it down. But, where I circled is where the gasket had failed, and that was put
18. 17:58in maybe 10 years ago, and we actually had a similar problem elsewhere in the city, so uh we're no longer going to going to use this product um for a connection. And what you see here in picture nine is it's all mechanical joints. Um you know, the the gaskets are compressed. It's uh much much more significant, more robust. And uh so, this is what we'll be using going forward. Uh but, once we identified this issue and corrected it, the leak uh stops. If you look at picture 11, it's by the town. The town is actually Well, this is the culvert that's under goes from under help on under Harry Howard Avenue, and goes through the thing. So, we were concerned originally that there may have been a failure here. Uh we were able to look inside, and you can see the integrity is just fine. There's no failure with that. What is this ball you're talking about? Yeah, in between
19. 18:59there was a there's a gasket in between it. The gasket failed, and the water was spraying out through the side. And this is what the spray was looking like while they were still excavating it. This These things don't come warranted or anything like that. Well, it's like 10 years ago we put it in. But, you know, these things should last, you know, decades. 50 years or something. Just I don't know. I mean, it's hard to say cuz it's a lateral to Lucille Drive, and Lucille is one a dead end, and two, it's only a few handful of residents there, so I'm sure it doesn't get a lot of usage. So, it there it's possible that the especially But, what it it looks like it's been running for a very long time. So, if it froze, it it may have frozen 20, you know, 19 or something like that. Um Uh, so, uh 11, that just shows, you know, we witnessed this clay that's kind of was coming out of the side, so we knew that was our source of what was uh once we turned the water off
20. 20:03and that would that whole area dry right up, then we were like 99% sure Uh, at that point, you know, in the meantime, we we have the pump, we we own the pump. We were using it to kind of draw down in case there was any additional weight from the pressure of underhill, even though what the the failure was well above the waterline of underhill pond. Underhill pond is probably 12 to 15 ft down. You know, this failure was about 6 ft down. In fact, perfect segue, you can see this is probably the original excavation on picture 14. Uh, you know, you can see that guy's like 6 ft something and you can see the top of the water main cuz what he's walking over. Maybe he So, you know, we went down. Um, you know, picture 15 is the catch basin, which is actually at the road finish road grade. So, that, you know, that's that's how far it went down. You can see it sticking up over in the background. On the right hand margin of 14 you can see the fabric mesh. So, once everything was down and and new stone
21. 21:07was put and compacted, they put these layers of fabric in there to hold everything together and lock it together. After that, they did install under drains. So, 16 just kind of gives you the footprint, you know, the grates over top of each of these drains. They put four of them in. So, in the future, if something like this happens again, the water's going to hit these drains, they'll follow a pipe, shoot out and it won't undermine the road at all. Uh, 17 are the are the weep we call it weeps. 18 is, you know, after the weeps are put in, you know, this is them putting in gabion gabion and then some larger aggregate for structural stuff, then they, you know, they cover it with smaller fines and then compact that and it can lock everything in place. Um, you just picture of one water truck existing, you know, we've been hauling material uh excavation out and bringing some material in. Uh, just trying to keep some of the costs down. Well, you have a utility like when is it going
22. 22:09Well, right now um So, all this all this all the under this kind of the the whole sub structure uh, should be done this week. The next thing and this is when I first talked about it, we have to wait for the asphalt plant to open and that it was going to happen for a couple of weeks. Uh, we also need to coordinate with the guardrail company to cuz the guardrails had to come out. They have to reinstall them. It's, you know, it's he's going to come in and do it in a couple of hours. Just pound it in and then mount a new guardrail, but you know, we got to we have to get on a schedule. He's had been working on a schedule all winter. Uh, so, we're going to try and slide in there. Uh, but we're hoping that within a couple of weeks uh, we should have this whole whole thing open up and uh, it'll get striped in the summertime when the other streets lines striping comes through. If you're waiting for asphalt, can you single lane it or or do you want it or you just No, because the other lane is going to be
23. 23:11down probably 4 to 6 in. Yeah. I mean, what do you you want somebody to drive over that? No, no, I'm just There's no guardrail No, it's going to be all dirt fully Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, at this stage of the game it's it's been a month almost, right? So, Yeah. I said 4 to 6 weeks from the very beginning and we're going to be 4 to 6 weeks is good. Yeah. Um So, meanwhile, while we had this closed you know, we did we wanted to inspect the sewer main that was there to make sure that the shifting didn't have any problem with that. Um, you know, 20 shows there was some pooling in one of the structures. Spoke to them freely. >> [clears throat] >> So, we went with the sewer line, which is 21. And, you know, we found there was some obstruction. Cleared it out. We were able to use a camera. There's actually two mains that run next to each other. Camera, this is showing the the other main and you can see a bunch of material some collapse up further along. So, there was a failed uh uh, flange and that's what picture 24
24. 24:13shows. That was cut out, removed. You can see the new section of pipe in it, picture 25. So, that hub was taken out. And that was going to be What's that? That's a PVC pipe on the PVC? Schedule 40. Plastic. PVC. Um, you know, and actually this is the hub that we cut out is picture 26. 27 other than the utility work, this is the repair uh, catch basin. We bought from Glenwood. >> Yeah. Do you want to Do you want to talk finances at all about this? Well, it's going to be a couple hundred grand and hopefully the DOT will cover it. That's what I was going to ask. Is there any emergency stop funds? >> No, we I mean, I already have a chips budget, so when we get, you know, when the state approves our budget I'll get a letter from DOT telling us what our new balance is. And based on that new balance, as soon as we we have to have paid the contractor. So, once it's paid in full, we'll immediately turn around and submit to DOT for reimbursement. Road reconstruction is an applicable
25. 25:16cost, so uh, I I don't anticipate a problem, but if it does >> [clears throat] >> uh, I've already spoken to Didi Barrett's staff and if, you know, we do get pushed back from DOT, we'll you know, we're going to do the 911 to our elected officials to see if we can't get them to change their mind. But, I don't I don't really I don't imagine it would would be an issue. All of it would be and you mentioned something else on this is that chips money that we're using often to pave our streets is being used on this and the bridge and some other things and Well, the state touring money is being used on the bridge. Okay. Well, you just we just talked about right, but that type of stuff >> But, you know, that's state touring money. It's a really different account altogether. But, yes, so if we you know, whatever we use for here is less money that can be used for uh, paving streets elsewhere in the city. But, you know, we shouldn't be out of pocket, so. Yep. Um
26. 26:19The basin, the docks are in. We started putting them in last week. You know, this shows you the loader holding one of the support beams. That's to keep the things from rocking the floats from going rocking back and forth. Uh, there's also bushings that help stabilize that go in between. It's a and that's pretty labor intensive process. >> [clears throat] >> Um What do we have here? National Grid. So, this is a Question for you, sir. Um Did we pay uh, Sloop Club to use their boat during dock installation? >> My understanding is that's a part of the contract and it's only we use them for the river dock. We don't help us at all They don't even help us at all with the other docks. >> I thought they'd help with everything. No, just the river ones. Because you can't reach out there. Yeah. Um, but these we actually just we actually drop in from the side. Thanks. Um So, uh, you know, naturally that we own
27. 27:21the street lights now, but you know, now that we own them, so picture 30 just kind of shows you when National Grid installs a new pole, they move their infrastructure over. Uh, they won't move the street light anymore. What? They won't move them? No. Cuz we own them. That happened the day after we signed the paper taking ownership of them, they immediately stopped moving them. For a while they were putting them on the ground. They were disconnecting them and just leaving them on the ground. So, this is better cuz at least it's still energized. They ran a little jumper to it, so it's still energized, but >> That's No, we have to pay uh to do it ourselves. >> Ours or I The street lights are Who's that? Scotty. Oh, we have to pay him to do it. Fine. I mean, I said Scotty and you Well, I you know, the other electrician that we use uh, you know, they do a lot of bigger, you know, and they have a lot more equipment and whatever, but they're also busy on other projects. Those guys are local guy and cuz it really is just a you know, Easy. Just some arm and some time. Yeah,
28. 28:23it's hard when I mean, but we we had to build up an inventory. They've done that for years. When we Yeah, when we paid $10,000 a month Yeah. to them, they were happy to move the lights. But, you know, the irony is, you know, I say that for the first 15 years I worked here, I don't think they installed 10 new utility poles unless there was an accident, got hit by a tree. And now they're installing hundreds of them. But, we hear from other municipalities that similar things happen there, too. And they're slow getting them all together. So, anyway, so this is one of the things that we have to, you know, we have to internalize this cost. Um, but we end up with two poles near each other. No, then they end up with >> Then Verizon You see below all that Verizon Yeah. and then FairPoint and whoever Arch Fiber whatever. They're all those on there, they have to move all their junk over there to the new pole, too. And then Verizon does theirs last and then they take the old pole out. So, we we will this light will end up on that pole. Yeah, we're going to have
29. 29:26We're going to have We're going to We have a contractor that we pay to do that. Anyways, so but it was better than 120 grand a year for it was just easier. Uh, and speaking of the money as usual, I don't know if you recall, maybe probably none of you were here. When we built the police station we got these really low utility bills for like three or four years. We called them up, said it seems odd that we're paying like $6,000 a year for electricity for a 24/7 operation with those big RTUs and everything else that they're using the data center. And then all of a sudden, three years later they said, "Oh, yeah, we had the wrong classification." Yeah. Boom, and they sent us a bill for $85,000. So, they sent a new all over and got When they heard to go with the street lights, apparently they created new street light invoices for us, but they never sent them. And so, we had some credits on some other accounts. And they sent us a disconnect notice.
30. 30:30That's how we found out that there was another set of bills out there. Um the good news is there's 890 lights, so if they want to disconnect them, they're going to go one by one. So, it's not like pulling a meter. But the uh So, they're you know, they say we owe $100,000. And uh my administrative assistant has calculated that at like 70,000 or 65 or something like that. So, we're just trying to get all the puts and calls and to see what the actual number is. You know, the money is in the but it's going to wipe out the 2026 street light budget. So, we're going to have to basically fund that that account all over again and at a higher rate because you know, we're going to be at about 7,000 a month, which is about 100,000 a year. And I think we maybe we put 120,000 this year, so All right. But
31. 31:32Yeah, the good news is she's coming. Yeah. So, uh She can be our treasurer. Yeah. Yeah, she knows about it. That's why she doesn't come to my meetings. Whatever. Uh Give me some more red pens. Yeah. So, uh Yeah, but you know, hey. I you know, I lost three staff. Yeah. And see people who landed up on the audience, you know. I want to walk first. Yeah. We We love Lorraine alive. So, you know, I guess >> means to use the park. Yeah. Yeah. Uh this is just one of those idiosyncrasies cuz I know we all get spammed Yeah. from this domain uh about the as it as happens many, many times in our code, there are inconsistencies. Uh so, in one section of the code, it says sidewalks are supposed to be 5 ft wide. And in another section of code, it says sidewalks shall be 4 ft.
32. 32:37So. So, can we just uh do a little resolution for that and get it That's a local you'd have to do a local law. Yeah, but do a little local I don't care one way or the other. Well, we should fix that. Yeah. That's Well, we should probably know I mean, we'll just get one out. Not sure ourselves. All right. Well, it should be five. That's the code for municipal uh new sidewalks. Yeah. So, we'd have force us to fix any Hey, I'm out of the sidewalk business, so I don't care. You got to That's could be one of the reasons why um the pocketbook factory got snuck through. Their new sidewalks are four. Yeah. Well, that's the code. Yeah. Depends on the meter. No, in the other spot, it says five. It's different neighborhoods, you know. You want something different on Warren Street. Oh, Warren Street is double anyway. It's double and triple. Heavy traffic um sidewalks are safer, you know, especially if you have Yeah, that food and uh drink and music and traffic. Whatever. Whatever. Good luck, guys. Thank you.
33. 33:40Yeah. I'm out of the sidewalk business, so unless it's part of a municipal contract. Something we can uh earmark and send to legal to protect protect us. Just, you know, that'll protect us in the future. Uh outside of that, we got you know, a little uh parks work there, just some clean up uh around the park and the next to radio park. Um Just that time of year. And you know, the last year with the cemetery is I'm not sure I It's not a big secret, but for those who don't come and pay attention to these things, So, obviously two different sections of the cemetery, but if you look at picture 35, you see how dark and gray many of the stones are. That's how 36, that's how they all looked, the same. So, there's like this little ragtag group of volunteers that have taken amongst themselves to um to just do cleaning Clean cleaning. cleaning So, So, they uh anyway, just so kind of I'm
34. 34:41meant to take one of the sun lights. You have a great cemetery. Well, I We're about >> I say that our cemetery is one of the best attended parks. Yeah. Yeah, that's why they put the fence When I walk my dog, there's always walking there. That's why there's a fence around the cemetery. Yeah. We're about to lose one of those pine trees right in front, the one with the trail the Indian trail on Where's that? Right at the front right at the entrance to the park off of I guess right across from um Bill's house. former mayor Oh. Um that entrance. The city cemetery. city cemetery bunch of trees there too. doing one of these from the last winter. >> Yeah. We every once in a while we get a couple of you know, we get a couple thousand dollars just left over and we bring somebody in there and uh Yeah. a lot and I mean, a couple of them we've had actually use a crane. Yeah, cuz you can't really can't drop any stones, right?
35. 35:42>> Yeah. Yeah, I had one of the fallen stones last year. Well, you know, nature does what nature's going to do, you Yeah, unfortunately this one's nowhere near the headstones. We're trying not to do it ourselves. So, but that's uh that's my work. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh and quick Can I ask a lot of questions in between? Got a question now? Yeah, Rob. I don't know if anybody has emailed you regarding 210 State Street. Supposedly it's a city-owned property and Travis is old property. It's a what? City-owned property and like apparently during the summertime, the weeds and branches and stuff get into the Yeah, that's a lot of um If it's city-owned, it should be I don't know anything about it. No, it was used to be owned by uh Travis um paintings. Travis Enterprises. >> Yeah, Travis did I know all about it. I don't know if I remember 327. Yeah. We had the property that years ago and it slipped through the uh under the radar a long time.
36. 36:46Well, I can tell you this. The BEA last year removed my parks department by 33%. >> Yeah. I had three. And we have two. So, be prepared to be disappointed. Uh these little things are not going to be kept. You know, we're going to focus on riverfront parks, you know, a lot of the big open spaces. And a lot of these little out parcels are going to have to wait until we get to them. I wonder if we're going to sell them. I mean, I hope so. Just get rid of them. Or Or Wait, oh oh. DPW can mow the lawn or we can sell the property. >> [laughter] >> I mean, we should talk about it and that I actually I'd say I mean, we we I can add it to the I have 35 different properties and parcels that >> Just sell it. With that Put a resolution for a special auction to sell it for last 10. That can't be hard to I don't know why we haven't sold it. This thing is Oh, because 210 No one's taking action and that's what we're here to do. Because I
37. 37:48believe 210 I believe it was coded wrong. Yeah, coded wrong. at an agency in the city. Ah. Please to meet you. I haven't been paying on it, so It's okay. Okay, thank you, Rob. Thank you. Thank you. We can do that. We can send a resolution to that for a special that I just said Look at my Please pull up LaBella proposal. Okay. Uh Jennifer Belton and I um started a conversation with the LaBella engineers uh about a few intersections. There's The list is here on on page two. Um but the strategy has reduced it
38. 38:53to begin with just two. Um I'll I'd like to talk about those two and the strategy to approach those two initially and why. Um and you can read the rest of the intersections as we go. But back when um well, the friends of the public square are working to rebuild the park. They looked at expanding in a I think it was called a phase three, expanding the sidewalks. As you guys were just saying, most of the sidewalks on Warren Street are double width. So, along Warren along the park is single width, 3 ft 3 ft wide, but it's four. 4 ft wide. Um So, it doesn't align with the sidewalk in front of, say, the um Hudson Quality Ears' new little bag shop. What's it called? On the corner used to be House, yeah.
39. 39:58Um South 7th and Warren. >> 260 624 Warren Street. Yeah, so they they they don't align. So, they want to expand those sidewalks around the park. And Sorry So, they Yeah, sorry I shouldn't So, but in general, I Look, if you put the map up the park, you can see it if you look closely. Can you do a satellite view? Yeah. Where is the satellite? >> know. Usually it's in the right upper right corner is usually where I see it on mine. Unless it's lower right on yours, I think. This side, yeah. That They like that. It's on the left on the left. This one? No, the next one, I think. I don't know. I think Boyd's actually right. Huh? It would be this one. Where is that? That one. Your pop-up came up. Main paper here. Is that it? This one? No. No. Okay. So, um right along Warren there, if you zoom in right at 7th and Warren, No.
40. 41:03Yeah, it doesn't align with >> align. So, you can actually So, that Warren Street is technically wider than in that little block. So, they So, they want to expand it. And the same is true Expand the width on Warren? Well, expand the width of the sidewalk. On the Warren Street. On Warren. And the width of the sidewalk on 7th. And the same is also true on Columbia. It's not a good idea. Well, that's The reason they don't I'm sorry. They wanted They want to do it on Warren, not 7th. No, they want to do Warren, 7th, and Columbia. Okay? But that's that's their project. But that What that led to was making 7th a one-way headed southbound. So, 7th is one-way headed south north of Columbia. So, when I heard this and I saw a company that drives red trucks, and I can't remember the name of
41. 42:05it, using the light to turn left. So, they're not following the truck route, but they're actually doing it Like a pickup truck or a >> No. Like a box truck, like No, an 18-wheeler. Oh, okay. So, the the The intersection that has the conflicts is Park Place and Warren. With trucks turning right off of Warren onto Park Place, trucks turning left off of Park Place onto Warren. So, if 7th Street was one-way, Mhm. um we could reroute the truck route to there, and then the trucks headed towards Worth would have a light. And they would not be turning at the same corner as the trucks heading, say, towards Fairview. Well, um okay. So, but that's not for Yeah. for us to specifically decide, but we've asked for a proposal, and that's what
42. 43:07this one item is is for LaBella to look at whether 7th as a one-way south and Park Place as a one-way north would be a feasible and good idea um for traffic flow, and they were also going to study general safety around the park. Um so, that is part of what is being proposed to be studied. A study of traffic flow around the park, including trucks. Are they the ones that were doing the sidewalk bump-outs on First, start front, and the 200 block of Warren? >> No. Um so, the other the other little project uh to be funded initially is the triangle at Columbia Street and Prospect Avenue
43. 44:09and Columbia Turnpike, also known as the hospital intersection. Mhm. For the triangle? The triangle. So, um looking at volumes, traffic flows, solutions to make this a better intersection. Mhm. And the reason we've focused on those two projects is of this list, those two seem to be the have the biggest impact on the whole city. And it keeps the project small enough to fit into So, the Hudson River Valley Greenway Grant is a 50/50 match. The application is due April 24th. We have $10,000 left in truck study money that was um funded by Didi Barrett. And we talked to her office, and they'd be fine with us using it in this manner. And so, it'd be a this grant would apply to conceptualize those two locations for better traffic flow,
44. 45:14better safety. >> Mhm. Um and >> that triangle already? >> Yeah, there is a study before. So, There's a couple of study in there. We have to dig it. Would you help me find it? It's uh yeah, City Hall has it. You're sure? Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Um I don't know most of it. I feel like every every time I've we've talked about it in the last, like, my two terms, someone's said, like, "Oh, we should study that." Yeah, there was there was really nothing you can Well, it just can't. It's expensive. Yeah, it's expensive. Yeah. But So, it's very expensive. Along along the lines of expensive. >> Well, which is I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that we shouldn't You know, I'm just saying, like, Yeah. Those should be referenced. Yeah. Or they should be sure. Or at least we should maybe uh decide on a plan even if we can't afford it. Yeah. Just to know that maybe one day maybe we'll get a grant or Well, so there's two other grants listed. One of them is in June, and one is at the or July, and one is at the end of the year. What are they? There's the um Safe Streets for for all
45. 46:18grant, and the Climate Smart Communities grants. So, these grants I've been told would like to see the the cities put some investment in. So, there's $20,000 investment half from the city, half from the Greenway grant, which show us that we've we're invested in pursuing. We use that to pursue the next grant. And [clears throat] the Climate Smart Communities grants can be quite large and could even be for construction. Mhm. So, whether this can work or not, this is this is the strategy of approaching of what we're trying to do. And so, hope to get a vote before on the informal meeting to approve to go for the Hudson River Valley Greenway Grant um for the $20,000 to That's the study money. and then go from there. So, how much money you got left from the truck study? 10,000? >> 10,000, but the grant would match.
46. 47:21It'll be a 50/50 match. It would be a $20,000 project. Um and then if we want to and things are going well, we can pursue some of these other intersections, but um I think one step at a time. I was very anxious about that one-way thing, but it's slowly growing on me. I think for me it was the focus of all the conflicts, and in fact, it was like there was something floating around last week about a truck that stalled at that corner. Um I'd say headed south, and it just makes a big bottle neck. But um I I think we have this pattern of one-way streets, including 8th Street. And so, it fits into the pattern. Yeah. Um Honestly, I think most of the streets except for maybe 3rd Street What's that? >> should just be one-way. >> Yeah. 3rd is like >> 2nd is just crazy right now. Yeah, 3rd is 2nd 2nd is crazy. Parking on both sides, people have to basically >> After they did the corners like that,
47. 48:25very difficult to do. Yeah, but you're right. Those Those could be one-ways as well. Um Baby steps. Yeah. So, we'll talk about it more hopefully at the informal meeting. Yeah. But uh it it seems very doable to at least get this ball rolling. Yeah, great. Um Okay. Switching to uh the email from the mayor or the And what that last item was? Excuse me? What was that email? Uh no right turn on that for you. So, um Henry's at a meeting that we discussed Is that from the from the mayor? I brought it up briefly at the Safety Committee as well. Yeah. I think he suggested it, and I asked the chief for some feedback about what they thought, and if there was anything Obviously, we got the data from the mayor saying it increases pedestrian safety significantly. Yeah. Municipalities that have it have it. So,
48. 49:27Yeah. It It is the the law in New York City. Um I think I listened to your meeting, and they discussed a few locations that we already have this. Mhm. Mhm. Um, what is your general feeling about basically no right turns on red anymore in Oxford? Huh? Any other questions? Um, Third Street all the way. Yeah, they're definitely locations that are Yeah, definitely. The reason we want to do that even all the ones that I started thinking about that more driving around after we And I think more awareness should be Yeah. Yeah, I think there's definitely some areas. I don't know if I don't know if it's worth doing it in every single place. >> Not not every single place. I think it is warranted. >> Just because I think in some places there's probably not enough foot traffic for it to make a difference, but it would make a difference to well, regular traffic. It is you have a lot of red turn or right
49. 50:29turns normally count following you. It's a little simpler to otherwise we Exactly. But you're going to have to do this every single time we do which ones you want to do all of You know, I I I have been out like walking at 8:00 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday and somebody's going to stop at the light and there's no one around. That's a little hard to envision. I can I can tell you just off the bat one place that it probably like helps the flow of traffic is Third and State. Pretty much everybody goes right. Coming up on the cement And plus because it's such a short block, yeah, there's so many cars putting a no turn right there might actually cause a backup. But But there's the green light actually set up like that, you know, so So you're saying like is it going to be sensor lights? Not not sensor light. The light on that is um Oh, you mean it's going to be like uh synced up to Yeah, yeah.
50. 51:34I the one that that came to my mind and I'm not sure I love it or not, but because there's so much walking up and down Warren, yeah, no right turns off of Warren. That's why I suggested Warren. Warren I think makes sense. Because and I think that is sensitive too because it would allow for There's not even Yeah, definitely There's definitely stopping there. Well, that is why So I think the last last year you guys put up you uh wait for green light sign. Yeah, about three years ago. Well, that's basically just a way to process >> just a way to drive Yeah, right. But those are you know, buying pedestrian Yeah. walkway and we said they're expensive for us, so we're not going to do that. Then they then the thought I was like no right turning onto the Columbia Street. Uh it's probably just so much easier like you said a a local law without arbitrarily choosing. Maybe the short term we could pick out a few to put some signs up, but
51. 52:38if we if we want to do it, I think maybe this is not one way we would do it piecemeal and just do the whole thing. Yeah. I mean in the interim if if it's an issue, then it has to be discussed. I think the police commission has Yeah, has the right to change traffic. Well, I think I think Joe considered that. And I think he just wanted to blanket get us Well, I wanted to get us to get in on it. Yeah. wanted our opinions wanted Good idea. Um It's hard to be against. Uh I I I guess where I if you I don't think it got asked, but do do we enforce rolling stops? I don't think I asked that one. I think it's hard, but we do when they're I I know we do cuz I've been pulled over by bicycle cop doing it a few years ago. Well, I think Yeah, I've definitely been stop we have that Is that a new stop all the way up? I'm like Yeah. I think rolling stops are dangerous.
52. 53:41Absolutely, yeah. I did not bring that, sorry. And then there's also just the politeness of people, you know, crossing the crosswalk and not stopping. Um it is a it is a state law. Um I know they put a sign up down at uh the train station. I don't know who did that or who Amtrak did it, but or the train or Amtrak did it, but >> Well, we did it cuz otherwise it's illegal. Yeah, I don't know. It it surprised me. Uh well They put the sign right in the middle of the crosswalk. I think Amtrak has been putting that out. It says that it's a pedestrian I don't think like yellow with yellow plastic thing with a big rubber bottom. It looked permanent, but How long is I think it's probably I don't know. I only noticed I noticed um actual like flashing light on uh Kiwanis Park. Is that new or did you just I have just not noticed Where? Um You know where the uh Columbia meets where Kiwanis Park is.
53. 54:45Was that just put up recently? No, I think that it's by the pedestrian crossing, right? Yeah, there's like you can press it to Yeah, that's one of the lights, but it illuminates I just must have never I believe it Yeah, I almost almost ran over it. It started flashing, though. Oh, there is some in front of you guys too. They have one I'm surprised they put that there. Yeah, we already did I think they had one extra and when Dominic got the money for it, there was one extra that didn't have I think the perfect place would have been where the hospital employees always cross. Yeah. That would have that would have right in the middle of Columbia Street there. Maybe they'll pay for one for them. They should just people. I don't understand why they But they don't really pay their employees. Yeah, they did, yeah. Well, that's why that's why we let them build that parking garage for their employees and then they started charging employees, so Yeah, and then So I don't know what They're the only people they got to charge them. Cuz They should have just said that. Just said that. You're getting a Maybe. What do we do relative to this idea of no right turns on red?
54. 55:47I'm I'm for it. I I don't see >> Do we just give this feedback to the mayor or do Yeah, let's Well, I mean I say well, if we're for it, let's bring it up at the meeting and then I guess we could send it How do we If we're doing a local law it's illegal and then it goes back to us or back to the committee. Yeah, that's what I mean. It should just go to the Yeah, they can give it to me. We could We could write it up ourselves and save Margaret the hassle because Joe's done so much work. We're basically just copying and pasting another municipality's local law. We'll just give it to our legal and and then we can bring it to the council for you. Okay. Save save Margaret the debate. Can't do it there anyhow, but maybe we just draft something and do as much work as we can. Okay. Who is our council? It's Um Ken Dasch. Ken, right, yeah. Yeah. Ken Dasch. Um any new new business? No. You got one hand up. Okay. Uh want to
55. 56:49Yeah. Questions online? All right, Bill. You hear me? >> [clears throat] >> Bill Houston, you want to speak? Ask your question. Do you hear me? Seems I'm muted. He's on mute. Yeah, he's not talking. We can't hear you, Bill. I don't know if you're talking or not. Okay. You might you might be better off typing it cuz it's not working. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? >> Okay, so does it seem like no one no one else online? Ron, would you like to speak? Uh he lowered his hand. Um Hello, Ron. How's it going? Sorry. Ron, if you'd like to go ahead, you're all set. Yeah. Yeah, I I can hear Mr. Houston. That's what I want to say. Hello. Sorry, maybe it's I hear him. Hello. Margaret, she can hear us fine.
56. 57:52Bill here. Margaret, can you try to speak? Yeah, she's talking. I don't know if [clears throat] she's Hello. I can just text you that. Hello. Give it another minute to see if we can sort this out if there is anything. I I mean you guys can just if you have a question, you can just type it in. Yeah, text. Hello. Hello. Yeah, we're having audio issues. We can't hear you. Hello, can you hear me? First of all, I can't hear It's enabled. But there's nothing coming out this way. I think Speakers are enabled. I hear Bill on mine. Oh, that's great. You don't have to be in our I think maybe the audio of the speakers connected. I have it on here.
57. 58:55I hear him. Uh well, okay. If anyone wants to type in their question really quick. Hello, can you hear me? We can't Did you did you text from Bill? I can hear him. Can you hear him? Can you hear me? Yeah. Uh we cannot hear you in the room. We're having audio issues. We can't hear you. Maybe it's something Um that's the Um Plus button on that's how I put it on. What do you mean? think? Nice. Nice. All right, I'm sorry folks. Um, we seem to be having technical difficulties. Then I shall not touch a thing. No, um, we'll have to have to do we'll have to get email questions. Thank you. You just crushed it.
58. 1:00:05Uh, All right, I have a motion to adjourn. Motion. I got motion and second. Second. All right, thank you. Sorry public. Um, please email us your questions.

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