HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-02/01/2022 PH 1
1 COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
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TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
3 REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING
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6 Southold, New York
7 February 1 , 2022
4 : 30 P . M .
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11 B E F 0 R E :
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13 SCOTT A . RUSSELL, SUPERVISOR
14 LOUISA EVANS , JUSTICE
15 JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN
16 GREG DOROSKI , COUNCILMAN
17 SARAH NAPPA, COUNCILWOMAN
18 BRIAN MEALY, COUNCILMAN
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1 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : I ask
2 anybody who would like to address the Town
3 Board on any particular agenda item?
4 MR . HARRIS : Good afternoon . Item
5 134 , the Highway CHIPS fund . Could you
6 elaborate? It sounds -- is the Town losing
7 a significant amount of money from the State
8 for -- towards CHIPS ?
9 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Actually,
10 I think we ' re getting quite a bit . I need
11 an agenda .
12 MR . HARRIS : I am seeing
13 appropriations of a total of $ 139, 324 but I
14 am looking at decrease revenues and decrease
15 appropriations , and to me, that outweighs
16 the increase in appropriations . I am kind
17 of confused on the way that I am reading it .
18 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : I don ' t
19 know why it reads that way either . I don ' t
20 know . Dan or Christy has not discussed that
21 with me and it came through their office . I
22 can tell you, the money for this year, the
23 CHIPS , would -- not what we anticipated
24 receiving from CHIPS , but an additional 200
25 for the 20o we didn ' t get last year . So if
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1 would have gotten more rather than less for
2 CHIPS . But they didn ' t discuss with me why
3 that us on there .
4 MR . HARRIS : Thank you .
5 ( Continuation with the agenda
6 items . )
7 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Hi Doug?
8 MR . COOPER : Good evening, Ladies and
9 Gentlemen . I would like to reiterate his
10 comments about the Highway Department . Good
11 management and good employees . We ' re doing a
12 good job . So they all deserve a pat on the
13 back . As you may remember the ( inaudible )
14 Committee for the Town and we would like to
15 invite the new Board members to come next
16 Wednesday or another Wednesday, whatever is
17 good, to go over some of the AG issues . One
18 of the things , Chapter 70 , we ' re looking to
19 changes in the Chapter 70 law and
20 modernizing it because things have changed a
21 lot with agriculture since that was first
22 enacted . Hopefully you will have a Code
23 Committee meeting somewhat soon . And I think
24 that is it . Thank you .
25 UNKNOWN FEMALE : Supervisor Russell ,
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1 I have one person with their hand raised on
2 Zoom. Tom, you now have permission to
3 speak . You can un-mute yourself .
4 MR . STEVENSON : Hello .
5 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Hi , Tom .
6 MR . STEVENSON : How are ya? Tom
7 Stevenson from Orient, farmer . Along with
8 Doug, I am on the AG Committee . I am the
9 Chair for the Town . At this point, I wanted
10 to echo his invitation to the new Town Board
11 members , Greg, Brian . We generally meet
12 twice a month . Sometimes once a month, but
13 we ' re hoping and willing to come get you up
14 to speed on what we have been working on .
15 The -- oh, I want to echo Pete Harris .
16 Great job with the snow . Really there were
17 nightmares but not in Southold . Great job .
18 Really unsafe but you guys did a great job .
19 I just wanted to say a couple of things
20 about the AG Committee . A bunch of long
21 time members on there that have volunteered
22 thousands of hours of time for this Town .
23 Trying to keep agriculture going . Been
24 reviewing the Comprehensive Plan and we ' re
25 moving towards -- a lot of what was in the
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1 Comprehensive Plan is what we are already
2 doing . There is a few things in there that
3 maybe we are not doing . And we want to work
4 on more outreach to the Town and to farmers
5 and homeowners , you know, about ( inaudible )
6 use . You know, the right way to do things .
7 We have been working for years on
8 modernizing Chapter 70 , which is
9 Agricultural Lands Preservation . About a
10 year ago, we brought it to the Town Board,
11 we ' re hoping to see a little movement there .
12 We ' re not going -- we ' re advising the Town
13 on what we think is in the best interest of
14 agriculture moving forward and the Town . We
15 have taken a deep dive into development
16 rights easements and -- you know, we have
17 not moved as maybe far forward as we could
18 with land preservation . Hopefully we ' re
19 moving modernizing that easement, you know,
20 they ' re 20 pages long . So they ' re not that
21 fun to read but if you go to the Town ' s
22 Laserfiche Planning, not Planning -- Land
23 Preservation . You can go and see all the
24 easements through history of this Town . If
25 you really have nothing to do . I tend to
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1 read through them. A little crazy . Scott,
2 I printed something up from 1956, the
3 ( inaudible ) of coding of the Zoning for this
4 Town for our last meeting . It ' s just -- I
5 love that history . A lot has changed since
6 1956 when Zoning came to this town . Let me
7 tell you . Some things --
8 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : There was
9 a Zoning Board of 7 people and it was said
10 to indicate -- didn ' t realize how long I
11 have been here, since I work with 6 of those
12 7 people .
13 MR . STEVENSON : It ' s amazing . The
14 history . I just love it . I eat it up .
15 Let ' s see, not to keep you any longer . The
16 big house legislation, I was not able to
17 join the discussion or listen in this
18 morning because I was doing something with
19 the school Board . But we do have AG worker
20 housing that -- we will have to get a
21 definition on the books . We just want to
22 make sure that farms are not going to get
23 caught up in the mic-mansion debate . As
24 housing becomes imperative for her farms , we
25 really need to -- we just want to look out
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1 for the farmer, you know, that we can
2 provide farmer housing as possible . Aqua
3 culture and kelp, you know, we have been
4 active in promoting the county . That has
5 been renewed . Big changes , kelp is going to
6 be allowed on those leases . And one thing
7 that we want to work with you know, other
8 departments in the Town, the Trustees , is to
9 see if there is any ability to get kelp,
10 aqua culture in off-season in Town waters .
11 Some of the other Town ' s like Islip and
12 Brookhaven allow farming in their waters .
13 In Southold, we want to see if there would
14 be some way to allow that because you know,
15 oyster growers in the winter, it ' s dangerous
16 to be out in the waters . And it would be
17 official if they can bring some harvest in
18 Town creeks and hold them over as they sell
19 them. And also kelp production in the
20 off-season . Kelp grows real well in the
21 winter . And we think it might be a win-win,
22 to not bother anyone with navigation and
23 maybe help the farmer . Just a thought . So
24 our next AG meeting is next Wednesday,
25 February 9th at 7 : 00 p .m . in the room that
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1 you ' re sitting in . And a month from then,
2 March 9th would be our next meeting . We ' re
3 not going to meet during that February
4 break . The last thing -- well , let me end
5 it there . It has been a long day for
6 everyone . Appreciate you letting me speak .
7 JUSTICE LOUISA EVANS : Thank you .
8 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Thank you .
9 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Tom, this is
10 Brian . Thank you for the invitation to Greg
11 and I for the AG Committee and I will also
12 thank you for your service on the School
13 Board . You are right where you should be,
14 and thank you . I appreciate you,
15 Mr . Cooper . I a big fan of the grounds that
16 enforces greatly as a Town councilman
17 member . And you were one of my mentors and
18 I appreciate that you came to speak and to
19 invite us . So thank you very much .
20 MR . STEVENSON : Thank you .
21 MR . COOPER : Thank you, Tom. Just
22 one other thing too, it ' s not just the new
23 Board members . Any of you wishes to come to
24 the AG Committee meeting, we would love to
25 have you . And also the Comprehensive Plan,
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1 I have read over it a couple of times and I
2 think it ' s very good . I think your Planning
3 Director and team did a very good -- very
4 nice job . And thank you .
5 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Thank you .
6 Is there anybody else that would like to
7 speak?
8 (No Response ) .
9 SUPERVISOR SCOTT RUSSELL : Thank you .
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11 (Meeting Concluded at 5 : 17 p .m. )
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1 C E R T I F I C A T I O N
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4 I , JESSICA DILALLO, a Court Reporter
5 and Notary Public, for and within the State
6 of New York, do hereby certify:
7 THAT the above and foregoing contains a
8 true and correct transcription of the
9 meeting held on February 1 , 2022 ,
10 via videoconference, and were transcribed by
11 me.
12 I further certify that I am not
13 related to any of the parties to this
14 action by blood or by marriage and that I
15 am in no way interested in the outcome of
16 this matter.
17 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have
18 hereunto set my hand this 15th day of
19 February, 2022 .
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22 J ssica DiLallo
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