Tonight (2021-05-17) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
The big topics of the night were amending the fire arms code and the fire department building. But I’ll discuss the other items first, regardless of the actual order in the meeting.
Sheldon Boyce spoke on behalf of the local Rotary branch, who want to buy the Scout House in Harry Allen Park. I believe $1 was suggested as a price. But the real benefit to the Village is clarifying who is responsible for what and removing the budget line involving maintenance. As the new (and former) owner, Rotary would be responsible for all aspects of the Scout House. It was pointed out that they have been supporting this Boy Scout Troop for a long time (having built the original Scout House for them). I believe I heard 1929 as a year, but can’t be sure. Some technical details were mentioned, but between Matt (Village Attorney) and Sheldon (Town Attorney), I’m sure they can work it out. Regardless, if all goes as expected, would be no change in usage of the property.
Speed limit signs will soon appear on Pride Street. Apparently the speed limit has been 25MPH for as long as the street has existed, but signage was not posted. Concerns about Wolfsberger seems to be the driving factor for adding them now. Or at least approving their addition, we’ll see how long it takes to install them.
Memorial Day parade will be at 11:15AM on Memorial Day (5/31). I can never remember where this one starts (grocery store? school? elsewhere?), but it goes through the light in the center of the Village, before heading up North Main to the cemetery. Feel free to join the party in two weeks.
Work (in the planning sense) continues on Hyde Park. Sounds like they have found the construction company/method they want to use, even as there are still details to iron out. The description of the process sounded interesting, something about giant screws. Hopefully more details will come out as they continue, because I couldn’t do it justice to describe.
The Young/Wyld 5K race in the Village was approved. Will be on August 4th at 7PM. Good excuse to get out for the evening, whether you’re running or watching.
Cannabis was discussed in passing, but little new to add. It was mentioned how the West Main business district would be the only area a business could move in, as everywhere else is too close to a school/church/playground/etc. Which had me thinking… If anyone wanted to prevent it entirely in the Village, maybe a new playground could go in? As I understand the plan, there was supposed to be a park near Custom Brewcrafters. Not something I’m going to pursue, but it could be amusing.
There was a Public Hearing to amend the local Fire-Arms Law (Section 100-2). As described, the change would remove bows (longbow, crossbow, compound bow, etc) from the prohibited list. All existing State hunting laws would still apply (need training, property owners approval, far enough from all resident structures, etc).
Amusingly enough, as an ironic illustration of the issue, a herd of Deer ran through the cemetery outside the building shortly before the Public Hearing.
The room was moderately crowded (yet still plenty spread out for those concerned about that), yet 9 members of the Deer Committee were present. Factoring them out, spouses, the Board itself, support staff, myself… I think that left only 1 person. In line with that, no one spoke out against the proposed change. There were a number of comments/questions about details and next steps.
I learned that it is illegal to feed Deer. Not a surprise, but news to me. Not that it will change my activities.
While the code change was approved (which I support), part of the process felt a little off. The way the discussion went, it sounded like the verbiage was still in flux. To some extent, that is fine. Changing verbiage based on public feedback is much of why Public Hearings exist. But to approve a code change when the verbiage is still unknown seems wrong to me. From a procedural standpoint, if nothing else. While I have every confidence the end result will be what was advertised, I’ve seen ‘simple’ code changes become multi-page monstrosities. Best to have it in writing before agreeing to anything. If only to minimize the chance for misunderstandings.
If rumors are true, it comes as no surprise that the Village is looking to purchase Critics. To use for future expansion of the Fire Department. By the sounds of it, a time frame is in place, but purchase has not yet happened.
Having said that, they are confident enough to award a bid to HBT for architect work. ~$80k for phase 1. I believe I heard ~$400k for the total project, but enough numbers were thrown around I’m not sure on that. The ~$80k I’m reasonably confident on.
No time frame for project completion was mentioned, nor total cost. Too soon for either. While a number of possibilities were mentioned, I’d be surprised if anything is done before 2026. Plenty of time to hunt for grants to offset the likely $4-12 million price tag.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 17, 2021 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.