Tonight (2019-02-19) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
Before getting into the meeting proper I should point out how this meeting was on Tuesday instead of the regular Monday. Unlike last month, I was able to attend. While the Board does give plenty of warning, and they are predictable in this (and January’s) date shift, I still would prefer they stuck to the Monday. Even if it is a holiday. But then again, with all the tension out there, taking a day to honor our president isn’t all bad.
Turn out was unusually low for this group. Audience was about normal (me and emergency service chiefs), but a number of the people at the table were out. Mostly people on vacations. There was someone I hadn’t seen at one of these meetings before, but I didn’t catch his position/title. His uniform gave away his ambulance affiliation.
This is the first meeting I have seen with Dan Harris at the table, although I believe it is his second meeting. Always a bit of a learning curve, but he seems to settling into the post well enough.
The PILOT for Carriage street has been approved by the county. If I heard right, McQuillen Manufacturing and Han-Tek will be the new occupiers of the buildings. Although other names were mentioned, I could well have them wrong. Odds are I misspelled a name and therefore found a similar company instead. Regardless, next step looks to be a subdivision, which should be at tomorrow’s Zoning Board meeting. Expect comment on that then.
Was a decent amount of discussion on cannabis/marijuana legalization. The opinion was that the State would legalize it soon, and that the Village should get ready for that eventuality. While I think this should be a state issue, I believe the federal law making cannabis (in it’s various forms) illegal is still in effect. So long as that stands, there doesn’t seem to be anything the states can legally do. Yet some of them still take action. Another data point questioning if we are still a Republic.
There was also discussion on a plaque for Parmelee in the cemetery. Those present seemed in favor of the idea, although wanted to see more details before granting approval. From the descriptions, I suspect I would recognize who they were talking about, but never knew his name. Only ‘Parmelee’ I know (at least by name) was a teacher I had years ago, and she didn’t fit what was described.
March 16th, from 10AM to 2PM, the Girl Scouts will be doing ‘drive thru’ cookie sales in Harry Allen Park. While the idea seems as strange to me as it did last year, they apparently did well enough to want to continue. I say good for them, and hope the sale goes well.
The ambulance gained nine new members tonight. Or maybe eight and a half, as one of them was conditional. Rick’s (Mayor) son being on the list caused some discussion. No one said anything against the idea, but effort was taken to make sure everything was ‘above board’. So his joining the ambulance was conditional on getting confirmation that the process was done correctly.
Personally, I think it was fine. If this was the first new ambulance member in a long time, or if the pay was higher, or some such, it would be different. But this was one of nine tonight, another last month (along with four fire department). And it was repeatedly said that all of tonight’s group were starting at the base salary level. Still, better safe then sorry.
Unfortunately, this summer’s ‘Festival on the Green‘ will most likely not happen. For whatever reason, the group that ran the project previously doesn’t believe they can do it this year. It sounds like the Trustee’s are going to try to pull something together for that weekend. My impression is it will be more musical performances, less vendor booths. I’m sure details will be made available as we get closer to the date. Fireworks, at least, are still on.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the next Village Board meeting has been move from March 18th to March 11th. I’ll defer comment on that for now, but expect me to grumble one of those nights (if not both).
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the February 19, 2019 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.