Tonight (2017-06-12) was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
There was a surprisingly large crowd tonight, with no obvious reason. A few of the people commented at various times, but most of them just observed. I speculate that two of them were candidates for the Town Board at the upcoming election. If so, good on them for showing up. If not, wouldn’t be the first (or last) time I’ve been wrong.
As often happens with this group, the more interesting items are during the ‘Communications’ agenda item. In particular, it was mentioned how the Town had to change email services, due to State requirements. The details of those requirements was not mentioned, I’ll have to ask the office staff.
A potential grant for a sidewalk connecting to the HFL Middle School was denied. Not by the Town, but by the State. Stated reason was something about how the local wealth is too high. Yet there is a tax cap denying the ability to tap into that wealth. Estimated cost was ~$35K. Considering the benefit to the school, I’m wondering if they could contribute. We’ll see.
The Town is continuing it’s re-codification process. It will be interesting to see how that turns out. In the mean time, it would be nice if they updated the website to point people away from the obvious and wrong code and towards the hidden but (more) right code. It’s embarrassing when lawyer’s working for the town reference the wrong code at public meetings.
The next agenda item that I found interesting was the scheduling of a special meeting for June 26th at 7PM. And rescheduling of two public hearings to that night. On a personally humorous note, that makes three meetings I have scheduled to observe at that time. I wonder which I’ll actually make it to.
To continue the trend of odd actions from the State, the Town board had to pass a Snow and Ice Agreement with New York State. For the third time, as the State has found something wrong with the previous two versions. Apparently the last one was an ‘Agreement’, not a ‘Contract’. Which wouldn’t be an issue, if it wasn’t the contract the State asked to be approved. In other words, first and second try failed because the entity that wrote the agreement didn’t like it’s own agreement.
Didn’t have long to wait for more evidence that the bureaucracy has grown too large. The Town is pursuing a Water District extension. They have passed a number of resolutions towards this over the years. Apparently that isn’t good enough, the State requires they all be passed in one motion. So the Town re-passed them tonight.
On a more pleasant note, the Village Mayor is also a Town Marriage Officer. As Mayor, Rick can already marry people in the Village, this allows him to do the same in the Town. Not technically a new thing, as he previously had this title. But the position had expired, and was in need of renewal. I wonder who the happy couple to be are.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 12th, 2017 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
No link to an agenda this month, the Town appears to have lost their copy (or not updated their site).