Good evening, and uh thank you for joining us at our work session tonight on uh November 12th, 2024.

If we could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, can you lead us off?

And which is one nation under God, under God, invisible.

And if you could all remain standing for a moment of silence, uh today I'd like that moment that uh moment of silence would be in honor of Sergeant Andrew Patrick Smith, uh, Diana's uh second cousin who tragically passed away uh this past week.

And uh may God hold him and Diana and her family tight.

Thank you.

Before we get going with discussion, I just uh I know we have uh at least one veteran in the room, so I want to say uh happy veterans day and uh thank all of our veterans a day a day late, but uh we had a nice ceremony yesterday with a uh Hua Jima survivor as our veteran uh speaker, and uh we could never never truly thank our veterans enough every day to me is Veterans Day, and uh we appreciate all you've done for our country.

Thank you.

All right, so we'll open the session.

Uh I'd like to have a discussion on the use of a hundred thousand dollar grant from Pete Harkum's office, uh Crest Grant.

Um we've had some discussion on this already.

There has been there have been uh some conversations with department heads.

Uh there were just from a point of view, there are different types of grants available out there for different things.

And uh the Crest grants are sort of like an open door grant uh where they're there they could be worked on with different things.

Uh we had a conversation about um electronic boards for both the Cappellini Center and the library.

Uh the library has been working uh towards trying to uh get an electronic board for a while to be able to advertise the programs and be able to communicate with our public on different things that are happening.

And with the move of the uh parks and recreation offices into the Cappellini Center and all of the events that go on there, uh there's been a lot of discussion about trying to get that information out there a little more as well.

The library we have the museum there, we have uh the theater, we have different programming, and we have the uh center.

Uh there was another idea about using it for a uh heating and cooling system adjustment at the courthouse, but that uh to me I've always felt that is more of a capital project and uh part of our maintenance that needs to be uh up capped.

Uh open for discussion.

I know Susan, you wanted to I have another suggestion.

Um, and I think the the bottom line issue I reminds me I always have to speak at the right the right distance, he says.

Uh hope this is okay, Tom.

Um I think we have to look at needs versus wants.

Okay.

And I think we have a need, and I'd like that has been, we haven't done anything about it for I think about four years.

The Sparkle Lake Dam is classified as a high-hazard dam.

If anything were to happen to that dam, it would go downhill onto Granite Springs Road, the houses going down Broad Street.

That's where I think it would go.

I don't know if it would hit Hyatt Street.

I think the town knows, and I've heard I've heard um Jim talk about this several several times.

Every ten years we are required to have it inspected.

Okay, and it's not just you know a 100 dollar inspection fee.

It takes we need an engineering firm to do this.

We are the last one was done in 2011.

We're already four years behind schedule, and DEC is gonna get on our backs, and if we don't do that, then we can be fined.

I know doing an engineering study for Sparkle Lake Dam is not very glamorous, certainly it lacks the glamour that the digital signs have, but this is a need, and if we don't do that, if we don't use this this nice hundred thousand dollar gift, we might have to take it at a fund balance.

But this is a need, and if we don't do that, if we don't use this this nice hundred thousand dollar gift, we might have to take it out of fund balance.

I know there's a possibility of getting grants, but you can't just say, well, let's look at a possible grant that just kicks it down the road, and without knowing which grant, what the criteria for the grant would be, whether we really have a chance for the grant, I think that's short-sighted.

This is something that needs to be done.

The digital signs are a nice thing.

I even questioned the need because frankly, there aren't that many pedestrians that walk past the library, all right?

Oh, there are plenty.

Well, I don't know very active site.

What about the cars?

Okay, well, you can't read the signs when you go by the cars.

Not not unless you want to have the car stop.

How many people can read all the words on the um at the triangles?

But regardless, I do think that we should look into this.

But uh but I think that's how much is inspection?

I think 70,000 to 100,000.

I think Jim has to, I think he's gotten a quote from Weston and Samson who has done work in the past.

And I think this is a critical need.

We have a high hazard, a dam that DEC considers high hazard.

It we're four years behind schedule.

We're subject to possible fines if we don't do this.

But regardless, I hear what the concerns around that, so we should just do a little bit of a deep dive to study that.

So I think we have to do this before we decide on something nice.

Well, let me let me tell you where we are, Susan.

Uh I have spoken to Jim about it in the past.