Good evening and welcome to the town board meeting of September 29th, 2026.

Please note this is a special meeting uh where we'll we'll be going into an executive session fairly quickly to interview potential uh vendors from an RFP.

Uh but we did have some uh things to go through.

Uh let's start with quick introductions.

Good evening, Diana Quast Town Clark.

Good evening, Patrick Murphy, town councilman.

Town Supervisor Ed Lakerman.

Uh

Deputy Supervisor Sergio

Esposito.

Susan Siegel, Council Women.

Ilon Gilbert,

Councilman.

Okay.

Um, so we're gonna start uh with a uh proclamation.

Uh October 7th designated as a day of remembrance, whereas on October 7th, 2023, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihadists, uh both U.S.

designated foreign terrorist organization backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out a devastating terrorist attack in Israel, murdering nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans and kidnapping approximately 250 people, including at least 12 Americans, forever changing the lives of victims, survivors, and their families.

And whereas the October 7th massacre marked the worst act of violence targeting Jews since the Holocaust has been deeply felt by the Jewish community in the United States and around the world and triggered a global wave of anti-Semitism unprecedented in the post-World War II era.

And whereas remembering the victims of October 7th and standing up with those whose lives were forever changed affirms our shared commitment to reject anti-Semitism, hatred and violence.

Now, therefore, I Edward Lacterman, supervisor of the town of Yorktown, along with the town board, do hereby recognize and proclaim October 7th, 2026 as a day of remembrance in the town of Yorktown and call upon our community to remember the victims, honor the survivors and families, and stand with our Jewish neighbors against anti-Semitism and hate.

And that uh that proclamation will be made available uh to the lights of tomorrow group that we'll be doing an October 7th uh commemoration uh this later this week.

Right.

We we have some uh resolutions.

I'd like to just make the additional comment as to that resolution.

Um I just recently um I don't I'm not one to advertise a a TV show or anything like that, but there is a uh a network show, uh a Netflix show called Fauda, uh which uh the fifth season just came out and it deals with the October, the uh aftermath of the October 7th uh attack.

And I watched uh it and as much as we know about what happened on that day.

I I I then researched after watching the show to see how accurate it was.

But on that day, I wasn't aware that over 3,000 rockets were fired over into Israel.

Um and they wanted to overwhelm the uh Iron Dome system uh and as a as a cover for the Hamas attack.

And um uh it it worked to a degree, you know, because they were able to uh permeate uh the border.

Um and I also would note that it was on a Jewish holiday that the attack occurred, uh Simchas Torah.

So um it was just obviously horrendous on it as on its face, as you mentioned, but it it it it it was even more so uh for those reasons.

So I just wanted to.

Well last

November I visited the uh the Nova concert festival site.

Uh we spoke with both Palestinians and Israelis, and uh it was uh it was eye-opening to say the least.

And uh we visited the one of the cities that was that was attacked where the uh police station was burnt down.

Right.

Um yeah, that just there's no comparison along

it.

It's uh uh being there and and feeling it and seeing the the remnants uh it was uh

pure

evil.

All

right.

All right.

Um we have some resolutions from the assessor's office.

We're gonna set a public hearing date for October 20th, 2026 on these four resolutions which deal with uh real property tax law and um these these are uh these are uh property tax exemptions.

Uh I will tell you what each one is for uh and and then we will go by uh we will uh take a vote later to set the hearing.

So we have uh we have uh one for uh people that are uh v eligible veterans who are permanently and totally disabled in a result as a result of their military service.

Uh we have uh one for uh tax exemption of up to 50 percent for the primary residents of a surviving spouse of a police officer killed in the line of duty.

We have one for uh pretty much the same partial tax exemption up to 50 percent for surviving spouse or qualifying volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers killed in the line of duty, and we have one that is a partial tax exemption up to 25 percent uh for um for uh qualified active duty members of the armed forces who serve in a combat zone.

Uh while it is a time that the the town is uh you know looking to save money, these are some exemptions that uh that I think uh speak to the service and the and the dedication and loss uh or the extreme danger that people are in uh when they are there, and these are the people that are supporting our community in ways that uh that most people do not.

I think they're they're fairly important.

Uh and we'll what we will do is we'll hold a public hearing on them on October 20th, uh, and then we will uh probably come back uh in in uh November with the decision process due to the fact that we they will be effective for next year's role, so they won't really affect us in this current year.

Uh let's see, from the engineering department amend resolution.

So

we can do this separately, if you don't mind.

Okay.

Um let's see.