At 6 PM on Monday, October 5th, 2020 Mayor Meg Grenier read the following statement: this is the Village of Menands Board of Trustees, semi-monthly meeting. I am Mayor Meg Grenier and as it is 6 o’clock, I will call this meeting to order. For anyone outside the village staff who is attending this video conference, I would ask if you would please identify yourselves; Eric Johnson, Mike Mackay, Tom Coates, Sandi Misiewicz, Bill Nevins, Cynthia Elliott, Sal Rajput. The Mayor asked them to mute their microphones.
Mayor Grenier then did a roll call of Village staff; Deputy Mayor Aileen Nicoll, present, Trustee Seth Harris, present, Trustee Brian Marsh, present, Trustee Diane Foley, present, Clerk Don Handerhan, present, Village Attorney Steve Rehfuss, present. On behalf of the Village Board I would ask all residents that we please keep our First Responders, all essential workers and those affected by this pandemic in our thoughts and prayers.
Pursuant to Governor Cuomo’s executive order number 202.1 issued on March 13th, 2020: Suspending article 7 of the public officers law, to the extent necessary to permit any Public body to meet, and take such actions authorized by law that allowed the public to not be physically present at the meeting, but allow the public to listen to or view such meetings via teleconference call or video conference, while recording and later transcribing of the meeting. Village of Menands Board of Trustees semi-monthly meeting is being held via Google Meets video conference to protect Public Safety and Welfare during this COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to conduct this meeting effectively we asked those in attendance to please mute your microphone during the meeting. As we are conducting only essential business during tonight’s meeting, there will be no public comment. Any comments previously submitted to Clerk Handerhan prior to the meeting and deemed essential will be read into the record. Governor Cuomo has extended executive order number 202.1 through November 3rd, 2020.
A motion was made by Trustee Nicoll to accept the minutes of the September 21st, 2020 Board Meeting, seconded by Trustee Foley.
ADOPTED:
Trustee Foley voting AYE
Trustee Harris voting AYE
Trustee Marsh voting AYE
Trustee Nicoll voting AYE
Mayor Grenier voting AYE
A motion was made by Trustee Harris to approve payment for the following, seconded by Trustee Marsh.
WARRANT # 9:
GENERAL totaling $125,103.01
WATER totaling $ 2,737.25
SEWER totaling $146,044.00
TOTALS $273,884.26
PAYROLL # 9: totaling $ 98,251.24
(09/11/20-09/24/20)
ADOPTED:
Trustee Foley voting AYE
Trustee Harris voting AYE
Trustee Marsh voting AYE
Trustee Nicoll voting AYE
Mayor Grenier voting AYE
Clerk Handerhan advised the Board that Governor Cuomo is mandating that each municipality create a Pandemic Operational Plan. As part of the plan this MOU will help both the Village of Colonie and the Village of Menands if one of the DPW’s are hit with a communicable disease.
RESOLUTION
“MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BY AND
BETWEEN THE VILLAGE OF COLONIE AND VILLAGE OF MENANDS
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORK PANDEMIC OPERATION PLAN”
THIS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING dated this 5th day of October 2020, by and between the Village of Colonie, Albany County, acting through its duly elected Board of Trustees, hereinafter referred to as “Village of Colonie” and the Village of Menands, Albany, County, acting through its duly elected Board of Trustees, hereinafter referred to as “Menands”.
WHEREAS, Village of Colonie and Menands have a mutual goal of providing manpower and equipment as part of the Pandemic Operation Plan; and
WHEREAS, Menands and Village of Colonie have manpower and equipment and vehicles to accomplish this goal which would be helpful to each other; and
WHEREAS, the Boards of Trustees of each of Menands and Village of Colonie believe that the sharing of services and equipment as described herein is in the best interests of the people of Menands and the people of Village of Colonie and desire to cooperate with each other as allowed by the Governor’s memorandum No. 7 of 2020; and
WHEREAS, Village of Colonie and Menands are both legally empowered to enter into this Memorandum of Understanding.
NOW, THEREFORE, Village of Colonie and Menands are of the understanding of the following:
- This Agreement shall be effective upon the latter of its signing or adoption by the respective municipalities and shall expire one year from said date. However, either municipality may terminate the Agreement at any time, with or without cause, upon written notice to the other.
- Essential work will be but not limited to the following:
- Trash removal and recycling
- Water or sewer repairs
- Any repairs needed to ensure the safety of “The Village”
- Each party may supply enough laborers and the necessary operator(s) to the other party for as long needed to complete essential work.
- The borrowing party shall return the borrowed equipment and/or vehicles to the loaning party with the same amount of fuel in the tank as was in the tank at the beginning of the day at the expense of the borrowing party.
- The borrowing party shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the loaning party from and against any losses, harm, claims, suits or other damages arising from or relating to the borrowing party’s use of the borrowed equipment or vehicle(s) within the borrowing party’s municipality,
- Both parties agree that if any damage is sustained to the equipment while doing the work in borrowing party’s municipality, the cost of repair or replacement shall be borne by the borrowing party in accordance with N.Y. General Municipal Law §119-o(3)(b).
- Both parties agree that any injuries sustained to personnel while doing the work will be the responsibility of the respective municipality that the injured employee works for. Neither party shall be considered the “employer” of the other party’s employees under any circumstances, for the purposes of personal injury liability, worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, or otherwise. If and to the extent the employee of one party asserts a claim against the other party for worker’s compensation, unemployment benefits, disability benefits or wages, the party employing said claimant shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the other party against all losses and costs associated with said claim.
- Both parties agree that this Agreement may be canceled at any point upon written notice to the other party for any reason or no reason, provided, however, that a party’s cancellation of this Agreement shall not relieve the party of obligations or liabilities that it occurred to the other party prior to said cancellation.
- The parties mutually agree and understand that, notwithstanding any sharing of equipment, personnel or resources under this agreement, neither party shall be deemed the principal, agent, contractor or subcontractor of the other party. Village of Colonie and Menands are each arm’s length participants in this agreement, and the borrowing of equipment, vehicles or personnel by one party from the other does not abrogate their mutual status as arm’s-length participants.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereunto set their hands and affixed their seals on the day and year first above written.
VILLAGE OF COLONIE
By: __________________________________________________
Village of Colonie Mayor
Attest: ________________________________________________
Village of Colonie Attorney
VILLAGE OF MENANDS
By: __________________________________________________
Village of Menands Mayor
Attest: ________________________________________________
Village of Menands Attorney
Trustee Marsh made a motion to approved the following RESOLUTION “MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BY AND BETWEEN THE VILLAGE OF COLONIE AND VILLAGE OF MENANDS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORK PANDEMIC OPERATION PLAN”, seconded by Trustee Foley.
ADOPTED:
Trustee Foley voting AYE
Trustee Harris voting AYE
Trustee Marsh voting AYE
Trustee Nicoll voting AYE
Mayor Grenier voting AYE
The Clerk reported that the following bids were received at the Oct 1st Bid Opening for the surplus 2004 GMC Pick-up (VIN # 1GTHK23U94F235183) with approximately 110,000 miles as is, retired from the Menands DPW.
1. Ray Erlick $500.00
2. William Keegan $750.00
Trustee Nicoll made a motion to accept the bid submitted by William Keegan in the amount of $750.00, seconded by Trustee Harris.
ADOPTED:
Trustee Foley voting AYE
Trustee Harris voting AYE
Trustee Marsh voting AYE
Trustee Nicoll voting AYE
Mayor Grenier voting AYE
Eric Johnson from Chazen Companies led a discussion regarding the ownership of the road leading into Schuyler Inn. The road is in need of repair and there was some confusion regarding ownership of the road. Per Eric Johnson the Village owns the road up to the National Grid Easement. A discussion followed.
After the discussion the Board ok’d Clerk Handerhan to speak to management of the Schuyler Inn about transferring ownership of the road to the Schuyler Inn.
Sal Rajput of 5 Elmwood Project gave a brief description of his plans for 5 Elmwood. Sal also asked about getting a letter of support for the Pilot Program through the Town of Colonie. Village Attorney
Stephen Rehfuss advised Sal that he would prefer to get a copy of the Pilot Program Application before signing a letter of approval. Sal agreed and will complete the application and forward it to the Board.
Attorney Stephen Rehfuss led a discussion regarding Uri Kaufman wanting to purchase the Crainsville Block Building to convert the building to a self-storage facility. A discussion followed. After the discussion the Board was not in favor of a self-storage facility at this location. Attorney Rehfuss will advise Uri’s attorney.
The Mayor read the following letter that was received by Clerk Handerhan before the meeting:
Memorandum 9/28/20
To – Village Board Members
From- Bill Garvey Jr
I got a few topics of concern as follows:
On 9/14/20 while driving on Harts Lane very early that day, I observed 1 silver metal street light marker number 4 is not lighted up during night time. So I reported this problem to the Menands Police within an short time so they reported this issue to Clerk D Handerhan plus he reported this problem to National Grid Power Co. and he put in an work order in the power corporation to repair silver metal light marker No 4 on Harts Lane. Of course I do not know when National Grid Power Company will fix that silver metal street light marker, however I like to thank both Menands Police + Clerk D Handerhan for doing their job for reporting this problem to National Grid Power Co.
On 9/20/20 while picking up litter on both sides of Broadway, I saw some broken glass on
westside of that road so I picked up the broken glass later. I done this in order to keep any one
from falling into broken glass plus preventing anyone from getting injured.
From 9/13/20 – 9/18/20 while driving or walking on Clifford Road, I say + observe 1 brown leaf + lawn bag standing on one fire hydrant at 21 Clifford Road property. So on the early morning of 9/1820 I reported this problem to the Menands Police. I the Menands had told the owner of 21 Clifford Road property that he or she must move the brown leaf + lawn bag far enough from the fire hydrant, I like to thank them for doing their job. Please remember that N.Y. State Fire Safety Rules and Regulations say that nothing can stand next to any fire hydrant period.
For the last few weeks, I have been hearing complaints from several residents who live on Lyons and Brookside Avenues dealing with issues of the contractor who done an very poor job in completing the Railway Quiet Zone Project on D + H railroad which goes through our Village by I fully agree with the complaints of those residents of both Lyons + Brookside Avenues. Now I hear that the Railway Quiet Zone Project won’t be redone until early 2021 + I’m unhappy +dissatisfied about this topic.
I like to thank the Menands Police for informing the kids who play basketball in Ganser-Smith
Park that they must cleanup after themselves when they get done using the basketball court by putting their litter in barrels, not on the grounds 9/27/20
Trustee Marsh led a discussion regarding selling part of Canal Road to Kris’s Mid-City Tavern. A discussion followed.
Trustee Marsh made a motion to sell part of Canal Road to Kris’s Mid-City Tavern for $1,000.00 if all paperwork is in order, seconded by Trustee Nicoll.
ADOPTED:
Trustee Foley voting AYE
Trustee Harris voting AYE
Trustee Marsh voting AYE
Trustee Nicoll voting AYE
Mayor Grenier voting AYE
Trustee Foley congratulated Bill Smith for 25 years of attending NYCOM and Paul Reuss for 10 years of attending NYCOM.
A motion was made by Trustee Foley to adjourn, seconded by Trustee Marsh.
ADOPTED:
Trustee Foley voting AYE
Trustee Harris voting AYE
Trustee Marsh voting AYE
Trustee Nicoll voting AYE
Mayor Grenier voting AYE
The meeting was duly adjourned at 6:45 P.M.
_______________________
Donald Handerhan
Village Clerk