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General News: Notes from the Town Board Work Session
December 05, 2012
Notes from the Town Board Work Session 12/03/12
The Town Board Work Session was well attended Monday night, drawing a crowd of residents that came ready with binders full of paper, notepads and copies of letters to share. The work session opened up with public comments and two topics were the most discussed during the session: the Cornwall Commons development and tax assessments.
Many in attendance commenting on Cornwall Commons, were also members of the newly formed group on Facebook called Cornwall Common Sense. The Facebook group was formed a few weeks ago along with a petition on Change.org. The group is concerned that the Cornwall Commons 490 unit development will raise taxes and harm the community if the 55 and over age restriction on the units is lifted. The group started a petition on Change.org to keep the planned adult community zoning pending until a new Environmental Impact Study (EIS) is complete, or if the developer proposes an alternate approach accepted by the community.
Thomas Bregman spoke and told the board “We all want to do our fair share in terms of supporting our community with our property taxes but we want to be careful with how those property taxes are spent. We want to be sure that any future development does not inadvertently have an impact on our tax rolls in a negative way without bringing something else into the community that will support us.”
Kathy Hamel submitted a letter from the Hudson Highlands Land Trust that states “This town’s long term interests must not be sacrificed to satisfy short term goals.” In the letter is a report prepared by Ted Fink of Greenplan, Inc. whom the Land Trust retained to review the revised proposal from Cornwall Commons. The report focuses on age related demographic changes for Orange County, 2011 Comprehensive Plan update and potential impact on the Cornwall School district.
Bill Braine, who assisted Cornwall Common Sense with obtaining a facebook page, expressed his concern that a new site plan be presented along with zoning change requests. Chris Kamlet voiced her concern over the estimated number of children the Cornwall Commons would add to the school system and asked that a new study be done on the impact. Doug Land asked for greater level of transparency and notice of when Cornwall Commons would be on the board meeting agenda.
A number of taxpayers spoke about their dissatisfaction with their reassessments. Virginia Scott spoke about her appeal of her tax assessment and believes that the town is selectively assessing it’s residents and would like this addressed. Terry Digirolamo asked why only some residents would be reassessed and others were not and pointed out that the information the town has on her house is incorrect, the town lists it as 700 sq. ft larger than what was built. Another resident from 42 Willow Ave. asked why his assessment would jump 70% within one year of him purchasing his home and added “Is this what happens to young families in America?”
After public comment, the board moved upstairs to the conference room and about a third of the attendees followed.
Maryanne O’Dell updated the board on the receipt of a $500 grant for use on repairs of the WWI Cannon. She also mentioned that Sands Ring Cemetery received some damage in the last storm and that the town employees were able to help fix the damage. She also had a thank you letter for the employees.
The board discussed the issue of availability of tow companies to be reached after towing a car to their lot and that the towing company must be reachable 24hrs or have an answering service.
The three contracts involving Medex, COVAC and the Town with regards to billing for ambulance service, should be signed soon. Medex will provide a billing service, COVAC will receive the funds and pay monthly to the Town after they open up a separate account for the billing.
Employee business: Douglas Schofield approval as Sargeant, Karen Bidosky approval as Coordinator and approval for aPolice dispatch position.
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