Minutes for the Village Board Meeting on Tuesday, November 16th, 2023
The regular meeting of the Village of Galway Board was held at 5212 South Street on November 16, 2023. Present were Acting Mayor (AM) Best, Trustee Hyde, Clerk-Treasurer (CT) Ruman and Attorney John Sutton. AM Best called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. Minutes were read and a motion to approve as read was made by AM Best and seconded by Trustee Hyde.
Treasurer’s Report
- Receipts-$5,232.04
- Disbursements-$1, 194.64
- Check:ing-$73,643.96
- Savings-$48,546.32
- Grand Total-$122,190.28
Motion to accept made by AM Best and seconded by Trustee Hyde.
Correspondence
- Letter was received from Attorney Sutton regarding property located at 5254 North Street.
Code Enforcement
- No Report
Old Business
- Discussed Halloween events including Skeleton House event, Town Fall Festival/Halloween Saturday and Halloween trick-or-treating. Skeleton House event went well and the weather was good. Town event was well attended and the village ran out of candy.
- Halloween went well and the Fire Police did a great job.
- Trick-or-treaters did not start going around until later so maybe the hours should be changed. The total number of children seemed to be down and the number of little kids seemed less, maybe because of the town event.
- Residents should be consulted about their thoughts on trick-or-treat hours for next year.
New Business
- C-T Ruman gave the Oath of Office to a group of Fire Police on October 28th.
- Attorney Sutton spoke about the steps that he would like to take to get the bank to do something regarding the state of the property located at 5254 North Street. Sutton recommends going through the State of New York which is an administrative process as opposed to a legal one. The bank failed to bring foreclosure and maintain the property which is the bank’s responsibility. He walked on the property and found a tree down on the garage, structural issues with the foundation and the possibility of mold. Sutton asked that the village contact Code enforcement Officer Concilla to see if he would be willing to give an opinion concerning the condition assuming we arrange access from the bank. AM Best asked if the board would be able to go in and Sutton believes that the mayor could go in. Sutton is requesting the board’s approval to send the letter to the bank and start the process. Trustee Hyde made the motion to approve the notice to the bank that states that maintenance has not been sufficient and therefore an enforcement proceeding is being prepared. AM Best approved the motion. Best will speak with Code· Enforcement Officer Concilla. The village needs to find out if the structure is worth saving or whether it should be condemned and AM Best will find out if Concilla is willing to give an opinion when we can enter legally.
- Trustee Hyde will contact resident Cody Reed about the neighborhood watch.
- AM Best stated that the cars have been moved out of the driveway at 5185 South Street so the house can be .accessed. They are still on the property. The family intends to move back in. AM Best said that they were not made aware there was a problem with the cars. We can’t do anything more at this point.
- The old police computers still need to be cleaned. C-T Ruman is trying to find out the procedure for doing this from the state.
- AM Best found out that NYS is only responsible for cleaning out the drain located on the East side of 147 near the Verizon building. More stories about what happened in the past have been told. We don’t have many facts. The village needs to hire an outside company to investigate how the system is laid out and how it connects with County Route 45. The board agreed to get three estimates. AM Best will talk to the companies. ARPA money could be used.
- AM Best found out that the village owns the traffic lights and would have to hire an electrician to install a battery back-up system. We have to use LED lights, anything else will bum out. AM Best will talk to Fred Sutch.
- The Saratoga County Department of Works can put up the speed limit sign but someone needs to program it. Will talk to Sutch about this as well.
- The regrading of the park will start next weekend. AM Best will supervise.
- Colleen Fomeris has suggested that the village think about putting Christmas decorations on the light poles. It was suggested that everyone take a look as they drive around and maybe we could think about it for next year.
Abstract No. 6 totaling $4,777.79 was presented for approval and payment.
No further business. AM Best adjourned the meeting at 7:29 PM.