Good evening and welcome to the town board meeting for May 19th, 2026.

If we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr.

Copstein, could you lead us?

Ilegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

And we could all remain standing for a moment of silence as remember those killed uh in San Diego, the three shot at the mosque uh where we should have no tolerance for uh hate of religion uh or of any type.

And also as we are in between law enforcement memorial day and memorial day, let's remember all of those who have died defending our country and our communities and uh paid the ultimate sacrifice for our way of life.

Thank you.

Introductions to my right.

Good evening, Diana Clos, Town Clerk.

Patrick Murphy, town councilman.

Supervisor Red Lacterman, Deputy Supervisor Sergio Esposito, Councilwoman Susan Siegel.

Ilon Gilbert, Councilman and Ruben, you want to introduce yourself there.

Great, thank you.

All right.

Um I report to the town.

I unfortunately left my paperwork upstairs, but uh I do know I want to speak about.

We have the special meeting next Thursday at 6 30 at the library, and that will be for uh the EMS uh services and uh where we think we are gonna need to go in the future as the whole playing field is changing across Westchester and other communities that have uh volunteer EMS service.

Uh we are down in the amount of volunteers and the expenses are doing nothing but going up, so we really need to look at that.

Um we also have uh three uh memorial day celebrations coming through uh on Memorial Day at 9 a.m.

on the west side of Lakeland High School.

I'm sorry, the east side of Lakeland High School.

There is a Vietnam memorial that was actually put in place by Tom Diana's class uh back in the 70s, and uh that uh we do a remembrance there that he started a few years back.

Uh that immediately following that at 10 a.m.

Uh right down the street at the World War II Memorial in between the library and the Lakeland Central School District uh office, uh there is another memorial specifically for those who had fallen in World War II.

And uh you will see uh or fought in World War II, not all fallen, I'm sorry, uh, but you will also see uh on that that monument uh the that uh commemorates that uh at least three or four Dianas that fought for our country uh and in Tommy's family.

Um and then uh at 11 a.m.

we have the Memorial Day parade uh which starts off with a ceremony at the Veteran Memorials Circle, uh right behind town hall over here near the skate park, and then we march over to the VFW and American Legion Hall on Veterans Road.

Uh always uh you know, always a a great way to uh uh celebrate our country and remember those who have once again paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

Uh in Memorial Day, uh just so you know, uh, if you're interested in flag etiquette for the day, you uh at sunrise lower your flag to half staff, but at noon, your flag is brought up to full staff uh after the memorial part of the day, and then it's more of a reflection on the service of of uh all of our uh all of our wars and battles and how we have become a country and and once again uh celebrating our country after that.

Um I will leave it at that uh and I'll go to Lonnie.

Um I just uh uh look forward uh to um celebrating uh this memorial day as I do every year.

all of our wars and battles and how we have become a country and and once again uh celebrating our country after that um I will leave it at that uh and I'll go to Lonnie um I just uh uh look forward uh to um celebrating uh this Memorial Day as I do every year and um uh I always remind myself uh I mean my dad uh was uh um uh thank God made it home and otherwise I wouldn't be here but um uh I always think of what he said to me when there was I was always puzzled uh there were times when I was puzzled when um he didn't partake in some of the ceremonies and that's all well and good uh because uh when I finally inquired he said Lanny to me every day is Memorial Day and I think of my uh my brothers uh um who fell uh every day they're always with me so uh I think uh that's a lesson we all need to learn as well it's uh it's a solemn weekend it's uh barbecue weekend for many but uh let's remember why we why we celebrate uh the holiday amen uh I did remember one of the things I wanted to bring to the town uh on Wednesday of next week the DEC will actually be here I know we've been talking about them coming in to flag wetlands for the possibility of the Hallex Mills sewer and they are scheduled to meet with our engineering department on Wednesday and do their walk through the area and go over some of the flagging.

That's this Wednesday or next Wednesday.

I believe it's next Wednesday after right after Memorial Day.

Susan Okay for reminding people about the um the emergency medical services meeting on uh on um next Thursday uh this meeting is open to the public I think one of the key issues will be the need for a local study a joint study between Cortland and Yorktown to how we can provide supplemental funding to our to to vote volunteer ambulance corps and this is the issue the state is doing the state has mandated that counties do studies to coordinate their their their their um their EMS services but that will not provide funding any funding support for the local volunteer ambulance course and as Ed mentioned both of them especially Mohegan is suffering because of a shortage of volunteers which means more paid more paid staff which means more of a of a of a revenue burden um I do have a question that I was was raised to me about the town website um and I don't know if there's a policy as to whether private businesses can advertise on the home page of the of the town's website I bring this up because um recently there was a grand opening for a real estate development in Yorktown and that was on the home page and to my knowledge it's the first time I have ever seen anything like that and so I wonder if there is a policy and if so what what it is.

Was it an advertisement or a press release it was whether it was a press r press release is an advertisement for it was for Yorktown farms and for their grand opening celebration and this is actually promoting a specific private real estate development and um again I I can't remember it ever being done in Yorktown so I don't know if there's a policy and if so we we're well a press a press release went out and uh we have someone news handling the website she thought she was supposed to put the press release up it actually caused a little bit of uh of concern uh and and it was pulled down because uh that was an invitation only event and it was advertised where people were like oh can we could all go and they were extremely worried about that because they were only exp they only put out two hundred invitations uh but uh it is news that's happening within our town uh so that's why a press release had gone out and uh not considered an advertisement by by my stretch but I'll make sure that uh there's a little clearer uh rev uh avenue on that but we do when we do a grand opening and we go there and we cut ribbons that all goes on our website it could look like an advertisement but it's a celebration of the businesses uh within our town do we always have news releases is i if if private businesses ABC shop opened up uh I I didn't realize that we would put their their press releases about their opening on the town website.

If something is approved by the planning board by the town board then I can understand that the town has recently approved the ABC development what whatever it is.

That's that's a town function.

Well in June you'll be invited to a groundbreaking at AMS which is going to be on our website uh but these these are all things that are noteworthy that we're g we're letting our townspeople know about it's transparency in government.

All right.

I asked how we spent it.

The um town controller sent me a report and I did an analysis of it.

Uh just to speed things up, I will reserve this to the end of the meeting to old and new business, and I will give the community a breakdown um what it is.

One other thing I forgot to say, it's it's almost eight o'clock for anyone watching at home who hasn't voted in the school board elections.

Shut your TV, put it on a shape the rest of the meeting.

You can watch it some other time.

It's most important to DVR and go vote.

The polls are open until nine o'clock, French Hill for the Yorktown School uh district, Van Cortland for the um for the for the Lakeland district.

Voting in the school board elections, whether you have children or not is very important.

So I urge you, you have an hour, get out and vote.

And then uh under old business, I will bring up um several other issues.

So please stay after we do the resolution.

I'm gonna go vote, Susan, so I won't be here for that.

I I did it earlier this morning.

I did mine also, but I'm still gonna leave and vote.

You can't vote twice.

I agree.

I know Susan.