The Yorktown Town Board met on May 6, 2025, for a regular meeting that included presentations, public hearings, and discussions on solar energy, battery storage, accessory dwelling units, and intersection improvements. The meeting began at approximately 12:30 PM and ran late into the evening.
Tom, we're good. We're going. All right. Whoa. If if uh good evening all, welcome to the May 6th, 2025 uh meeting for tonight. You have 2024 from living in the past. Um so uh if we could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance uh Captain Davin, can you lead us? And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. As we uh as we uh have military appreciation week coming up and EMS Week, Nurses Week, Teachers Week. We uh we uh pray and uh remember those that serve us, both uh protect us, teach us, keep us healthy and safe, and uh may they all be blessed for their services. Thank you. Please be seated. Introductions will start to my right. Good evening, Diana Quas, town clerk. Good evening, Luciana Howitt, Councilwoman. Supervisor Red Lacterman. Serge Basito, Deputy Supervisor. Patrick Murphy, Councilman. Susan Siegel, councilwoman. Good evening, Katie Kruhulik, acting town attorney today. And uh we'll we will let you know that Dave Paganelli will be here shortly, our highway superintendent. Um for reports for the town. Um I just want to briefly mention uh three things. Uh first I want to thank the Girl Scouts for recognizing uh the town of Yorktown for the work that we do with scouting. Uh all of our our board contributes, uh, both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and helps out as whenever possible. And uh we were just recognized by uh the Girl Scouts in our town for that service on Sunday. Uh Sunday morning there was also a welcome uh for neurofibrosis, uh the steps to cure uh NF. And uh it was the first one up here. They they m met their goal of twenty-five thousand dollars. Uh NF is uh is a uh uh a like a fibrosis disease where the uh the the patient has uh nerve damage and uh and sometimes other damage caused by these uh fibrosis that grow in their system and they're three different types and it can be quite painful and it can be uh quite uh uh harmful to people. So we're we're very happy that they're doing this and people got together in Yorktown and had a very very successful walk. And then I also want to thank everyone uh for coming for coming to our Holocaust Remembrance event uh this past uh Thursday, May first. Uh it is really truly uh one of the one of the things that we are so proud of doing in the town, and I thank uh all that participated and uh all of our elected officials get involved in it in one way or another. And I thank you all for that. Susan, we'll go down to your side of the table. Um I'd like to talk about a word we uh talk about very frequently these days called transparency. Um I'd like to talk about a word we uh talk about very frequently these days called transparency, and my comments deal specifically with two financial financial transparency issues or unfortunately the the lack of transparency. The first issue involves the online financial records. I was surprised to learn recently um that somebody in town hall made the decision to stop a 16-year practice of putting the town's expense and vendor reports online, the monthly reports that have been online for 16 years. Right? This came as a surprise to me. Um, yes, I know that they can be um you can get them if you do a FOIL request because they are public documents, but one it's I think it's an inconvenience for the for the resident, and also it it's very time consuming for for the town staff. I know because as a resident I foiled a lot, and I know the procedure, it goes to the clerk's office, then to the other department, then back to the clerk's office. It's very time consuming. It's much more efficient if it's just online. One of the reasons I was told why they're not going to go online is that well, other municipalities don't do it. That's not a reason that I think is um makes much sense. Uh Yorktown doesn't necessarily do what other municipalities do. They don't do what we always do.