[The January 21, 2025 meeting of the Yorktown Town Board focused extensively on proposals to amend the solar panel moratorium and battery energy storage system moratorium. Board members debated residential bans, floating zones, and strict criteria for large-scale ground-mount solar, alongside community updates and several public comments on local issues. Other key topics included personnel appointments, a resolution for traffic study review, and a clarification request on Fieldstone Manor recreational facilities.]
Good evening everyone and welcome to the January 21st, 2025 uh board meeting. Uh if anyone can if everyone could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Silic, would you uh lead us out? Pledge allegiance to the United States of America and the Republic, which is one nation under God under God, indivisible, liberty, and justice for all. If we could have a uh moment of silence, uh as uh we remember those fighting for our freedoms, uh those impacted by the uh forest fires in California, and also those uh uh you know pray for the peace in the Middle East to hold and uh uh thank God for the release of uh the hostages that have uh made it home. Amen. Introductions to my right. Good evening, Diana Kwas, town clerk. Good evening, Luciana Howitt, Councilwoman. Supervisor Ed Lacterman, Deputy Supervisor Sergio Esposito, Councilman Patrick Murphy. Councilwoman Susan Siegel. Okay, for reports to the town. I just want to uh really give a uh big kudos to our highway department and all of those that help in the plowing, an excellent job. Uh had actually gotten a couple of emails saying how grateful people were for the uh quality of the uh the work done. We also want to make sure that when we do have these snow dates, please do not snow uh park in the road. Uh we did do a snow emergency due to the amount uh mainly for the parking and to make sure our first responders could get through because sometimes uh on our narrow roads the rolls the roads get bottlenecked, and if we can't plow them, it gets even worse. Uh I know it was very successful this time around, according to our highway superintendent, and we'll look at uh maybe addressing snow advisories and see how we could address that versus doing a full-scale emergency uh in the future. Uh I also want to uh give a big uh you know thank you and kudos to our water department, one of our employees driving down uh 202 today, saw a little water coming out off of the side of the road, uh stopped, and it was a uh an old, very old valve, a style we don't use anymore, uh, over by one of the churches on 202 that had uh rusted through, and they were able to get in there without much uh water getting away and without uh much damage. Uh also in this weather, of course, you worry about the icing of the roads. Uh so it was way too cold for the road to dry up. They salted it down, but uh got right on it and got everything taken care of. Uh this is the time of year where we will see the the effects of the cold on uh on cast iron and ductile iron and all of those different things. So great job and uh thank you all. I actually am going to wish the fourth graders good luck tomorrow on the simulation for the state test. I know that it's gonna seem a bit scary, so anybody at Crompon in fourth grade, I know that that's coming. Um and also anyone who has students at Brookside, United for the Troops is collecting for their Valentine's Day boxes. If you have any friends or kids that are there, we can go ahead and have their classroom take it. They can do a note, or they can get something that's non-perishable so that we can send it over to our troops. All right, Sergio, I'm sorry. Let me just also add in since uh you reminded me uh if you have a student in the high school, uh the the um Leo's club is doing a cereal collection. They've also asked us to put a box in town hall, which I uh approved for them to do. Uh this time of year, the food banks uh, you know, they've been hit pretty hard after the holidays, and one of the things that is a big commodity that they have trouble getting is cereal, and every year there's a s the what what they call the Super Bowl of cereal drive. So uh we uh I think the Lions last year collected over 300 boxes, and uh the Leos have picked up on it this year as well. It's a great way to help our community. Uh cereal is a very easy staple food, and especially for those in need and for kids, it could be breakfast, lunch, and dinner sometimes. I know I had a lot of uh a lot of uh round the clock cereal bowls uh growing up. Thanks, Serge. Well, good evening, everybody. I hope everybody's uh keeping warm. I'm gonna keep this short. We have a couple of discussion items on here, and so I just want to wish everybody uh uh a great week and uh hope that you guys all stay warm, and I'm gonna pass it on to the gentleman on my left. Even everybody. Uh just a couple of little things. Um I saw Jim Monorano out here before, but uh he had very successful polar plunge. Rob Giordano did it. It was cold. They had to get a little backhoe to break through about four inches of ice, but they did it. And there was close to a hundred people there. Probably, yeah.