Tonight (2021-01-11) was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
It was the annual organizational meeting. Not a surprise, as this happens every January. The surprise was I realized that I needed to add a ‘Full Disclosure’, so expect one of those at the bottom of this.
Andy Caschetta was sworn in as the Highway Superintendent. Previously he was the ‘acting’ Highway Superintendent. But as we are past the election and this is when terms would start, he is no longer acting.
The Sentinel was approved as the official newspaper. In and of itself, this is nothing new. But it had me thinking about the potential impact on ‘Legal Notices’ if the paper ever folded (for whatever reason). Would the Town be able to use their website for ‘Legal Notices‘? Or would they have to find another paper? Even if it served a smaller portion of the Town. Have I mentioned organizational meetings lead to ponderings?FD*
The Town’s Environmental Conservation Board may be evaporating. It sounds like none of the current members have met their training requirements, making them ineligible to hold the position. While not the most important Board in the Town, I’d rather it went away because it was unneeded then members not meeting requirements.
Brent Rosiek, Planning Board Chair, was given training credit for reading he had done. Of note for two reasons. First, that training is usually acquired through in person events run by State sanctioned entities (if not the State itself). But the panic threw a spanner in that activity (among others). Second, this demonstrates that the Board will accept non-standard training for the required training. While such is their ability, this is the first time I can recall such actually being done (I can recall non-standard training being denied).
Mary Meisenzahl was appointed to the Records Management Advisory Board. While I suspect this was a reappointment, this is when I realized that everyone in the room (all ten of us) work for the Town in various ways. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but that’s not always the case.
The Semmel Road Farming Lease was re-approved. Only of note due to the amusing copy/paste error. The motion/second from last year were accidentally left in. As stated before, is the kind of minor hiccup I find entertaining. A continued reminders of our humanity, warts and all. So, of course, those same two people removed/seconded this year. I was not the only one entertained.
The Mendon Public Library will be reducing their hours of service. While I think this is unfortunate, I wasn’t really surprised. I don’t know if the logic for this was recorded, but I would be interested in finding out. From my point of view, the panic precautions the Library has implemented make it impractical to visit. Which I expect led to a downturn in patrons, and thus harder to justify staying open. Of course, I could be entirely wrong. Which is why I wonder about recordings. FD*
Badges for Town of Mendon staff have been produced. While I didn’t get much more then a glance at them, they looked nice enough. So next time someone claims to be working for the Town, ask for their badge number. I have no idea if they have numbers, but asking for one is what you do when someone presents a badge, right? FD*
Electrical Vehicle Charging Station 52550A is up and running in the Library parking lot. Worth pointing out, taxpayers are not paying for the electric. The user pays (with a credit card or phone app) and is then billed. Effectively reimbursing the Town for the electricity cost.
Last year was a good year, financially, for the Town. If I heard the numbers right, revenue was 103% of expected, while expenses were 88%. In other words, income was up and costs were down. Primary driver seemed to be activities that were canceled, due to panic, thus their cost was not paid.
~$200k of the ~$386k vouchers was for the retirement program. The bulk of the this months vouchers were for other annual expenses. Apparently paying for things as a lump sum at the start of the year has cost savings.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the January 11, 2021 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Agenda was not available anywhere I could find. Perhaps it will be on the Town’s website in the future, perhaps not. In the Town’s defense, their website was recently refurbished, so they are likely still getting used to the new system. FD*
Which brings me to that FULL DISCLOSURE:
I have previous worked on the Sentinel website.
I have previous provided training sessions at the Mendon Public Library.
I am the Zoning Board Chair for the Town of Mendon.
As such, I expect to receive a Town Badge.
I worked on the Town of Mendon’s website.
Which is all another way of saying ‘I interact with people in the Town I live’. There was just enough of it, and money was involved at times, that I felt I should point it out tonight.