By Chris English
RICHMONDVILLE — The Village of Richmondville Board of Trustees has been meeting at 5 p.m. for a long time, but that will change starting with the February meeting.
At the Tuesday, Jan. 20 meeting, the board voted 4-1 to change the start time for meetings to 5:30 p.m. Mayor Carl Warner Jr. and Trustees Robert Hyatt, Jennifer Golden and Lisabeth Kabel all voted in favor, with Trustee Milan Jackson the only no vote. He had commented at an earlier meeting that later starting times had never improved attendance of the general public at meetings.
But Kabel said a later starting time would help her and the thought among most board members was that it would also help Village Attorney Michelle Storm finish up her other duties for the day and make it to meetings.
"It would help me, as long as it's not an inconvenience to others, and maybe more people from the general population would come," Kabel said.
Meetings will continue to be the third Monday of the month, except for when Mondays fall on Holidays, like the Jan. 20 meeting that was moved back a day because of the Martin Luther King Holiday on Monday, Jan. 19.
In other actions from the Jan. 20 Trustees meeting, there was discussion on whether to provide Assistant Public Works Department Superintendent Mark Temp with a village cell phone. Various options were gone over, including instead reimbursing Temp and possibly other village employees for use of their personal phones for village purposes. Also discussed was reactivating a phone formerly used by Warner that's been sitting in a safe for awhile. The board will give further thought to all options.
"I think he deserves one because I had one when I was the assistant," DPW Superintendent Eric Jones said of giving Temp a village cell phone.
"I'm more in favor of giving reimbursement for business related calls," Hyatt commented.
Fire Chief Floyd Seales reported that the Richmondville Volunteer Fire Department is undergoing its periodic evaluation from an outside agency on the department's ability to put out fires. It's related to fire insurance rates, he added.
"We're pretty much where we've always been on that," Seales continued. "The only thing that would change it is having a ladder truck, but there's one five miles away (that can assist Richmondville) so we're not doing that. Plus, we have no room for it. We could have to build an addition to have room for a ladder truck."
Seales explained that the lower the score on the evaluation the better. He said Richmondville got a 574 on the last one and he expects this one to be about 550. Also in his report, the chief said the Richmondville Department has given away more free smoke detectors than anyone in the Northeast, and he stressed the importance for every residence and business to have working smoke detectors.
According to Seales, New York State led the nation in deaths from fires last year with 138, the second straight year it has led. Those include three in Schoharie County last year, he added.
"I would love it if nobody in Schoharie County died in a fire this year," Seales said. He said he wants to soon put on public programs on issues like the potential dangers of lithium ion batteries and other fire safety issues. One of the programs might be coming on the second Thursday in March, but final details have not been finalized.
Hyatt and others thanked Village Clerk-Treasurer Jenifer Fisher and Deputy Clerk Alia Harwood on their good work in organizing and straightening up files in the basement of the village office on Main Street. The next step is determining what files can now be destroyed in order to save space and finding a company to do the shredding, Fisher said.
A note in the report from Richmondville Power & Light Superintendent Tim Smith about some disturbances in the power system led to a question on how much a new transformer costs. Smith responded he believed about $1 million, and added RPL has two main transformers, one from around 1978 and the other from around 1990. There was no conclusion reached at the meeting that the transformers are the source of the disturbances or that either one needs to be replaced anytime real soon.
Village Code Enforcement Officer Jesse Wilcox reported that he has to attend a court hearing soon on a problem apartment at the Candlewood complex next to Radez Elementary School.
A board member asked Wilcox if it was a hoarding situation, and he responded "It's a little bit of everything, it's disgusting."
Kabel made Wilcox aware of situations on Holmes and River Streets of debris like an old toilet and sofa being left outside and creating eyesores, and Wilcox said he would check it out.
Mayor Warner reported under new business that Justin Davis will no longer be running the Richmondville Summer Soccer Program and that the new president of the organization wants to change it to a countywide club open to kids throughout Schoharie County, with games continuing to be held on fields at Radez and the Ryder School in Cobleskill.
The club has requested that the village release funds it manages for the soccer organization, Warner added.
Hyatt and Warner emphasized that the funds are raised by the soccer organization and do not involve taxpayer money.
"It was never on our books, we just manage funds for the soccer program," Warner added. The board voted to release the funds as soon as the club submits the proper 5013C paperwork to the village.
The board made no final decision on whether it wants the Village of Richmondville to continue to be an ongoing member of SCOVA (Schoharie County Officers Village Association), but decided that the Village would go ahead and host the February meeting of SCOVA, whose members take turns hosting meetings every other month.
Seales said the Firehouse could likely host the meeting, but asked he be given notice of the exact day and time as soon as possible.
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