Minutes
City of
REGULAR
MEETING
The
Public Hearing for the Traffic and Safety Committee that was scheduled for this
evening will be rescheduled to a future date.
The
regular meeting of the Beacon City Council held at the
Council Members Present: Elizabeth Foster,
Charles Kelly and Steve Gold
Council Members Excused: Lee Kyriacou, Phil
Shea and Eleanor Thompson
Also Present: City
Administrator, Joseph Braun
City
Attorney, Gerard Pisanelli
Media represented by: Goldee
Greene, Beacon Free Press
Residents at Beginning of Meeting: 17
Public Hearings: None
Community Segment: Peter Winne, Ph.D., Director of
Technology Development -
Subjects covered were Investment Tax
Credit, Employment incentive credit, Tax reduction Credit, Wage Tax credits,
Sales Tax Exemption, Real Property Tax Credit, Sales Tax Refunds, Direct Equity,
Statewide Zone Capital Corporation, Linked Deposit, and Community Development
Projects. Interested parties should call
the Empire Zone office to learn how to access benefits. For more information call: 845-463-5406
A copy of the presentation is available
on the City of
Mayor Clara Lou Gould asked for a
motion to approve minutes for the following meeting:
Correction: Phil Shea should be included as
being in attendance at the
Motion to
approve minutes with corrections:
Council Member Kelly. Seconded: Council Member
Foster. All voted in favor. Motion carried.
Reports: Text of the following reports for
Mayor’s Communications
read by Mayor Clara Lou Gould
City
Administrator, Joseph Braun read his Report of Activities
City Attorney
Report of Activities – 1st Meeting of the Month
Mayor Clara Lou
Gould read her Report of Activities
Council Members read their Reports of
Activities
Public Comments: Pertaining to This Agenda Only
None:
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Resolutions:
1. Resolution No. 9 of 2006 - Resolution Expressing the
Importance of the Historic Preservation of the
WHEREAS, the preservation of Beacon’s
historic assets is of paramount importance for current and future generations,
both for their historic significance, as well as economic and other benefits;
and
WHEREAS, the City of
WHEREAS, the Tioronda Bridge on
South Avenue crossing Fishkill Creek is on the National Register, and is one of
few remaining bow truss bridges; and
WHEREAS, the New York State Historic
Preservation Office (SHPO) has a
Certified Local Government program that helps
communities support local preservation activities; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the City of
RESOLVED, that the City of
RESOLVED, that the City Administrator
shall investigate and provide a report on making Beacon a SHPO Certified Local
Government.
Motion to approve resolution expressing importance
of the Historic Preservation of Tioronda Bridge: Council Member Kelly. Seconded: Council Member Gold.
Council Member Gold Comment: At the meeting with the engineer, it was
decided that the
On a roll call vote, all voted in favor. Motion carried
1. Resolution No. 10 of 2006 - Proposed Redevelopment –
Tompkins Terrace. Tabled
WHEREAS, the City of
WHEREAS, a key goal of the new Comprehensive Plan
will be the maintenance of economic
diversity in the population of the Beacon, including the availability of safe,
decent and affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents;
and
WHEREAS, Tompkins Terrace Apartments ('Tompkins
Terrace"), a 193-unit multifamily apartment community located at 194 Tompkins Ave, currently provides affordable
housing to low- and moderate-income residents and is an integral part of
the economic diversity of Beacon; and
WHEREAS, the current owner of Tompkins Terrace,
Tompkins Terrace Associates, L.P. ("Owner"), is working in
conjunction with its affiliate, AIMCO Equity Services, Inc.
("AESI"), to submit an application for 9% Low Income Housing Tax
Credits ("LIHTCs") to the New York
Division of Housing and Community Renewal ("DHCR"); and
WHEREAS, an allocation of 9% LIHTCs flour DHCR will enable the
redevelopment of Tompkins Terrace
including improvements to the buildings and amenities at Tompkins Terrace while
extending the low income use
restrictions consistent with the City's objectives of economic diversity and
the long-term availability of safe, decent and affordable housing;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Beacon is highly
supportive of the preservation and proposed redevelopment of the vital
low-income housing at Tompkins Terrace Apartments, utilizing 9% low-income housing
tax credits as proposed by the Owner and AESI; and be it further
RESOLVED, that best efforts must be made to advertise,
recruit, and hire local labor.
Motion to approve proposed redevelopment of Tompkins
Terrace: Council Member Steve Gold. Seconded: Council Member
Comment
by Steve Gold: I would like to add to
this resolution a paragraph stating that efforts will be made to hire local
help in the contracting. The Mayor
advised Council Member Gold that we did get a letter from them stating that
they would do that. Will we be able to
approve this under a condition that a paragraph be added to the
resolution? City Administrator, Joseph
Braun said that he does have the letter and will incorporate this into this
resolution.
On a roll call vote all voted in favor. Motion carried.
Local Laws and Ordinances:
NEW BUSINESS:
Resolutions:
1. Traffic
Safety Committee Ratifications:
a. No Parking 30 feet in from
the end of a dead end street that is not designed with a turn around area
b. No Parking, Stopping or
Standing on the south side of
Motion
to table since we didn't have the hearings:
Council Member Gold. Seconded: Council Member
Kelly. All voted in favor. Motion carried.
2. Resolution No. 11 of 2006 - Greenway Grant Authorize
Application for and acceptance of Funds through the Hudson River Valley
Greenway Communities Grant Program for the Comprehensive Plan Outreach - Read by City Administrator, Joseph Braun.
RESOLVED, that Mayor Clara Lou Gould, as Mayor of the
City of Beacon, is hereby authorized and directed to file an application for
funds from the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Grant Program for the
Comprehensive Plan Outreach Project in an amount not to exceed $7,500.00 to
match local funds, total project costing $15,000.00, and upon approval of said
request, to accept said grant, to enter into, and execute a project agreement
for such financial assistance to this municipality for said Comprehensive Plan
Outreach Project
Motion
to approve: Council Member Kelly. Seconded: Council Member
Gold. On a roll call vote, all
voted in favor. Motion carried.
3. Resolution No. 12 of 2006 - Endorsement of Reality Check
Smoke-Free Movies Campaign Read by City Administrator, Joseph Braun.
Whereas tobacco use is
responsible for nearly 5,000,000 million deaths every year worldwide;
Whereas more than 5,000
youth under the age of 18 try a cigarette for the first time each day in the
Whereas more than 3.5
million youth between the ages of 12 and 17 are current smokers in the
Whereas the 1998 Master
Settlement Agreement was intended to prohibit tobacco companies from marketing
their products to youth - including the* use of movies as a means of marketing;
Whereas tobacco shots in
the top-ten grossing movies released from May 2002 to May 2003 were in
youth-accessible and youth-marketed G, PG, and PG-13 films;
Whereas exposure to
smoking in movie recruits more than half (52%) of new adolescent smokers;
Whereas youth from
across the state have collected petitions and postcards calling on major movie
studios to adopt the recommendations of the Smoke Free Movie Project;
Whereas the World Health
Organization, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Legacy Foundation, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and
Immunology, Society for Adolescent Medicine and others - including the Los
Angeles Department of Health Services, US Public Interest Research Group and Interfaith
Center for Corporate Responsibility - have endorsed the smoke free movies
solution;
Whereas Reality Check, a
statewide youth-led and adult-supported movement out to expose the truth about
tobacco and the manipulative marketing practices of the tobacco industry, is
involved raising awareness about the impact of tobacco use in films and to call
on the motion picture industry to adopt four simple voluntary actions:
1. No Tobacco in Youth
Rated Films
No new film which is
rated G, PG, or PG-1 3 should depict or imply any tobacco products, brand names
of tobacco, or tobacco use
2. Certify No Pay-Offs
The producers should
post a certificate in the credits at the end of the film declaring that no one
involved with production of the movie received anything of value (cash, free
cigarettes or other gifts, free publicity, interest free loans or any other
item of value) from anyone in exchange for using or displaying tobacco in the
movie
3. Require Strong
Anti-tobacco Ads
Studios and theaters
should require a genuinely strong anti-tobacco ad (not one produced by a
tobacco company) to run before any film with any tobacco presence regardless of
its MPAA rating
4. Stop Identifying
Tobacco Brands
There should be no tobacco brand identification nor the presence of tobacco
brand imagery (such as billboards) in the background of any movie scene
Now, therefore, be it
resolved that the City Council of Beacon endorses the four goals of the Reality
Check smoke-free movies campaign.
Further resolved that
this resolution shall be transmitted to the Motion Picture Association of
America; to major motion picture studios and their parent corporations
including Warner Bros., owned by Time Warner; Disney and Miramax, owned by The
Walt Disney Corporation; and Columbia Pictures, owned by Sony Corporation of
America; the National Association of Theater Owners; New York State Attorney
General Elliot Spitzer, New York State Health Department Commissioner Antonia
Novello; United States Senators Charles Schummer and Hillary Clinton; United
States Congressman Maurice Hinchey;
and Reality Check.
Motion
to endorse Reality Check Resolution:
Council Member Kelly.
Second: Council Member
Foster. On a roll call vote, all voted
in favor. Motion carried.
Mayor: Again, thank you to the young people who
presented this to the council.
4. A motion to add the following item 5 to this agenda
for the purpose of setting a public hearing.
This was submitted since the last workshop and was sent to us from the
Planning Board. This will be put on our
next workshop agenda for discussion.
Motion to add to agenda so we can set a public hearing. Council Member Steve Gold. Seconded:
Council Member Charles Kelly. All
voted in favor
5. Resolution No. 13 of 2006 - Set a public hearing for
March 6, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. to consider a Special Use Permit Application for a
new two family dwelling at 40 Vail Avenue submitted by Louis Amoroso.
Motion
to set Public Hearing on
Local Laws And Ordinances:
1. Resolution No. 14
of 2006 - Proposed Local Law Adding Landmarks and Historic Districts to the
Historic District and Landmark Overlay Zone in Accordance with Chapter 134,
Historic Preservation, of the City Code.
Set Public Hearing for
Motion to set Public Hearing for
Property owners will be notified.
2, 3 and 4 -
Resolution No. 15 for 2006.
2. Proposed Local Law Amending Chapter 219
Water §219.29 Establishment of Schedule.
Set Public Hearing for
3.
Proposed Local Law Amending Chapter 179 Sewer §179.11 Sewer Rates
Set Public Hearing for
4. Proposed Local Law Amending Chapter 179
Sewer §179.7 Sewer Charges and Fees Set
Public Hearing for
Motion to set public hearing for
Items 2, 3, and 4 for
City Administrator answered a question
by Steve Gold: There will not be any tax
increase. This is to provide for the
allocation. Rather than use percents
they are going to use set amounts that people are to pay.
All in favor to set Public Hearing for
Ratifications:
Appointments:
1. Resolution No. 16 of 2006 - Human Relations Commission:
Approve
Appointment of Joseph Glauda as a member of Human relations Commission for a
two-year term. Term to Expire
Motion to approve appointment: Council Member Gold. Seconded: Council Member Kelly. All voted in favor. Motion carried.
Announcements: None
Public Comments:
Betty DiPompo Regarding the Police Vests
- we can get a grant for that but you have to initiate the request for
funds. What is wrong with the city of
Tom Baldino. This information is for Betty DiPompo to give
her some hope. I understand that there
is a request for 39 police officers. I
would like to say a few words about global warming. On CBS on Sunday, I was delighted that the
amount of coverage that that station has.
It was in agreement with scientists.
We are in disparate straits with the melting of ice in the North
Pole. I have a copy of the text of the
report if any one wants a copy. The
report is as follows:
®CBS NEWS
A Global Warning Feb.19,
2006 (CBS)
The North Pole has been frozen for 100,000 years. But
according to scientists, that won't be true by the end of this century.
The top of the world is melting. There's been a debate burning for years on the
causes of global warming. But the scientists you're about to meet say the debate
is over. New evidence shows man is contributing to the warming of the planet,
pumping out greenhouse gases that trap solar heat. Much
of this new data was compiled by American scientist Bob Corel), who led a study
called the "Arctic Climate Impact Assessment." It's an awkward name — but consider the findings: the seas are rising, hurricanes will
be more powerful, like Katrina, and polar bears may be headed toward
extinction. What
does the melting arctic look like? Correspondent Scott Pelley went north to see
what Bob Corell calls a "global warning."
Towers of ice the height
of 10-story buildings rise on the coast of
Hemisphere,
measuring some 700,000 square miles. But temperatures in the
arctic are rising twice as fast as the rest of the world,
so a lot of
"The entire planet is out of balance,"
says Bob Corell, who is among the world's top authorities on climate change. He
led 300 scientists
from eight nations in the "Arctic Climate Impact Assessment."
Corell believes he has seen the future. "This
is a bellwether, a barometer. Some people call it the canary in the mine. The warning
that things are coming," he says. "In 10 years here in the arctic, we
see what the rest of the planet will see in 25 or 35 years
from now." T~"
Over the last few decades, the North Pole has been dramatically reduced in size
and Corell says the glaciers there have been receding for the last 50 years.
Back in 1987, President
Reagan asked Corell to look into climate change. He's been at it ever since.
In
Corell says all that water will push sea levels
three feet higher all around the world in 100 years.
"You and I sit here,
another foot. Your children, another foot. Your grandchildren, another foot. And it won't take long for
sea level
to inundate," says Corell. t -4—- "Sea level will be inundating the low
lands of virtually every country of the world, ours included," Corell
predicts.
To find the sights and sounds of the arctic
melting, there are few places better than a fjord in
Pelley stood on a huge
block of ice that had split off from the glacier and had dropped into the sea —
a big iceberg.
"This part of
That's more than 105
million acres of melted ice in 15 years. Just four minutes after Pelley cleared
off this berg, part of the ice caved in.
60 Minutes got a
bird's-eye view of how unstable the ice is becoming on a flight with
glaciologist Carl Boggild.
Boggild anchored 10
research stations to the ice. Every time he comes to visit, the ice and his
stations have moved. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/!
6/60mmutes/printable
Flying over the ice,
Pelley noticed lots of fissures and crevices breaking through the ice. Asked
what causes this, Boggild explained, "This is actually the ice flow, where
you have so much tension in the ice that it cannot stick together. And it breaks and
opens a crevice which goes about 150, 200 feet down." The
ice is also melting on the sides, Boggild says. High overhead, Pelley
remarked that one could hear the water running. "It's like a small
river," Boggild said. A leading theory says those little rivers lubricate
the bottom of the ice sheet, helping it move off the bedrock and out to sea. And
there may be no stopping it. arctic warming is
accelerating. It's a chain reaction. As snow and ice melt they reveal dark land
and water that absorb solar heat. That melts more snow and ice, and around it
goes. There's
long been a debate about how much of this is earth's naturally changing climate
and how much is man's doing. Paul Mayewski, at the
The polar bear is the largest predator on land.
Native people in the region say he'll even hunt humans, but not on the day Pelley joined Lunn: with the
tranquilizer, the bear was awake but immobile. The scientists knew this bear by his tattoo. His
history is written chapter and verse in the "bear bible." "This is the record
book of all the bears that have been handled by us or Manitoba
Conservation," Lunn explains. The study began at the
Michael DiPompo - I can’t believe you
buy vests for the dogs and not for the police.
Susan Moss,
Flora Jones – I am glad that this
council is beginning to solidify our historic sites here in Beacon. We need to document our historic
history. I am also hoping that our city
can continue to love the Police, the council, and the city administrator. I do not know of any incident that I had in
my community this past week but I know that I will feel safe if the police are
there to protect and serve the community.
I am encouraged that it will be resolved soon. I would like to ask the council to send
Governor Pataki a note and let him know that he is remembered and that Beacon
wishes him well.
Joe Baxter 1 Green Street – I had some
damage done to me – about $500.00 worth.
I think that the pavilion that was put there against our wishes is the
reason that we are having all these problems.
We did have a petition against that pavilion before it was made and it
was made anyway.
Steve Gold: Requested a brief executive session on a
personnel issue.
Budget Amendments requiring Council Approval for
1. Amend the 2006 General Fund Balance for
the Police Department Bike Patrol line item
(Code: A 3120.X4611.00) by carrying over $1,000 from the 2005 budget. These funds were donated by Sam's Club for
community policing
purposes and were unable to be expended
by the end of 2005.
2. Amend
the General Fund 2006 Budget for the Police Department in the amount of $1,375.00 by transferring that amount from
Regular Salaries Code: A
3120.X1010.00) to Police Officer Candidate Hiring/Training expense (Code:
A 3120.X4432.03). The money will be used for psychological evaluations of 5 new officer candidates at $275 each.
3. Amend the General Fund 2006 Budget for the
Fire Department in the amount of $3,650.00 to be
transferred from (Code: A 3410.X2500.08) to Consultants (Code: A 3410.X4520.00). The additional
funds will be used to pay Mitchell
and Associates Architects for an addendum to the contract for fire facility re-design.
Motion to Amend the General Fund 2006
Budget for Items 1, 2 and 3: Council
Member Gold. Seconded: Council Member Foster. On a roll call vote, all voted in favor. Motion carried.
Review of Bills: Total
Disbursements as of
Total Disbursements as of
Next Workshop Date:
Next Council Meeting:
A Motion to
Enter into an Executive
Session: at
Motion to come Out of Executive Session at
Adjournment: Motion to adjourn meeting at
Text from Reports for
Mayor's Correspondence:
RE: Membership
Dues
We gratefully acknowledge
receipt of your annual membership dues.
Your continued commitment to
Pattern and its principles enables our organization to pursue opportunities
that promote and protect the quality of life in the Hudson Valley Region.
Our five year strategic plan
has introduced new projects and collaborations highlighted by our Global Hudson
Valley Initiative - the most ambitious, comprehensive and expensive research in
Pattern's history. Creating awareness of changing global dynamics and the
challenges and opportunities for the
On behalf of the Board of
Directors, may I extend our gratitude for the financial support and commitment
to Pattern's principles represented by your membership renewal.
And, please, feel free to call me directly if the need arises.
Again... thank you!
RE: American
Legion Oratorical Contest
I would like to thank you
for taking the time to both judge and comment at the American Legion Oratorical
Contest held in Beacon on
Your commitment to this
program in Americanism is more valuable each year.
We have had some stunning
success. For the first time in twenty years a
Adam Hurd, who you heard
speak, won this five-county contest on the 15th of January and is now on his
way to the 1st Zone competition on February 5 . If
successful there, Adam is then a
Again, thank you for your
support and insight; it was most helpful.