Meetings should be broadcast live by Dec. 9

AMENIA — The backdrop for Amenia Town Board meetings is brand new, but residents turning on their televisions to watch meetings from their homes have yet to see the new Town Hall.

That’s because Gary Bonds, the town videographer, is still waiting on the fiber optic cables that will allow a video feed of meetings to broadcast on the public access channel live.

Bonds, reporting at the Thursday, Nov. 18, Town Board meeting, said that he has met with Roger Connor, the representative from Cablevision, and conducted a quick walk-through of the former elementary school.

“Half of the equipment is still up and running in the other building,� Bonds explained, but said that a live broadcast would “certainly be ready for the next Town Board meeting,� which is scheduled for Dec. 9.

The goal is to eventually switch the broadcasting setup to an all-digital feed, but Bonds said that might not be available for some time. The funds making the conversion possible will come out of $10,000 from Cablevision specifically earmarked to make the conversion as well as from the videographer’s budget line.

Bonds has taped the last two board meetings, which have not been transmitted to the public; he said he would hold onto the tapes if the board decided to eventually broadcast them.

Town records to be returned to Town Hall

There wasn’t enough space for all of the town’s records in its previous location, but now that Town Hall is in a much larger building, Town Clerk Maureen Bonds is looking into the logistics of storing all of the town’s records on site.

The records, which according to Bonds include files belonging to the offices of town clerk, town supervisor and the zoning and planning departments, have been in storage at an Arnoff’s Moving & Storage facility. Deputy town Supervisor Victoria Perotti, who was running the Nov. 18 meeting because town Supervisor Wayne Euvrard was absent, asked Bonds to look into the financial logistics of having the records delivered to Town Hall.

Bonds said that when the records had arrived, she could begin to go through the papers and determine which documents needed to be retained and which could be discarded.

Board hoping to interview Trail to Train candidates by end of month

During town Grantwriter Mike Hagerty’s report, the Town Board decided to move forward with the process of selecting a candidate to handle the Trail to the Train project, which will connect the Metro-North Wassaic train station to the hamlet of Wassaic via a half-mile extension of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.

Because of the strict guidelines associated with a $480,000 grant from the state for the project, the town has had to go through a rigorous process to select a final candidate to oversee planning and development. From a list of 13 potential candidates, four have been selected for face-to-face interviews with the Town Board.

At the Nov. 18 meeting, the board asked Hagerty to send out letters notifying the candidates who had not made the cut and to work with the remaining candidates to try to schedule  interviews during the week of Nov. 29.

Board accepts town clerk’s work log

After asking the town clerk to resubmit a three-month daily work log to the board for retirement benefit purposes, the board finally accepted the clerk’s new log in a resolution at the Nov. 18 meeting.

All municipal employees in the retirement system that don’t use a time clock were required to complete the log. The logs for the town’s highway superintendent and assessor were accepted as submitted this past June. At that meeting the board rejected Bonds’ request to retroactively increase her standard work week for 2008 and 2009, and asked her to re-log her hours in further detail.

Attorney to the Town Michael Hayes said that the log, which was accepted as seven hours per day and 22.4 days per month, would not penalize the clerk because it was late as the state had granted the town an extension. This year was the first year of the new procedures regarding the work logs.

“These are very complete and I’m satisfied,� said Councilwoman Darlene Riemer of the clerk’s new log; the vote to accept the log was unanimous.