The evening of 2024-10-15 was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Early on a missing person was mentioned, but not named. That they were not named leads me to suspect there is no need to look for them. Perhaps because they are no longer missing, having been found? Either way, always good to keep our eyes open, help out where we can, but also acknowledge that some details just aren’t any of our business. As much as we may want to know…
The local law on smoke shops was approved. Of note, the one existing smoke shop would be grandfathered in. At least if they were currently open, which they apparently are not. No reason was offered as to why, but the Town is watching the clock. At some point, if the existing shop remains closed, it loses it’s ‘preexisting nonconforming’ status and would then be bound by this new local law.
The contract for the Fire Protection District was approved. Rick (Mayor) was there to speak on behalf of this action, which led to some questions being asked. In particular was one about new fire departments members receiving a stipend to help buy a house in the Village. Turns out this is true, but it is an action being taken by the fire department corporation. Which means no tax payer funds are involved. Not what I would expect for an incentive, but I can see the logic. And we all want the fire department to be there when we call on them.
On that note, the Mendon Fire Commissioners were called out for not offering an official opinion on the idea of merging Districts. Both the Town and Village have supported the idea, and are willing to work with any answer provided by the Commissioners. They just want an answer, because silence is harder to plan around.
The Tentative Budget has become the Preliminary Budget, after some modifications. By the sounds of it, primary modification was to health insurance costs, with some other adjustments to capital reserves.
Following the Ethics Committees suggestion, an attorney is being hired for an investigation. While I understand many of the details being secret at this point, I would like to know at least the broad scope of ‘how bad’. Are we talking something along the lines of rape, on the one extreme? Or off color jokes, on the other? That counsel is being hired implies closer to the worse extreme, but that’s speculation. It would be nice to at least have the broad strokes, even if details like names and such were left out. But as said at the top, sometimes it’s none of my business…
After discussion, the individual that is currently filling the Highway Mechanics role received a 10% raise. Much of the discussion revolved around the hourly rate of the previous person to hold this position, and the qualifications of the current person. While the discussion was interesting, I’m inclined to agree with the gentleman who spoke on this during public comment. The Town should have pay scales with years, positions, etc built in. That would make these sorts of discussions much simpler. But the Board did manage to find a compromise. Which is to say, I suspect no one is truly happy, but everyone can live with the outcome.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the October 15, 2024 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.