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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommunity Development Block Grant SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD PUBLIC HEARING October 17, 2006 5:00 PM COUNCILMAN WICKHAM: Citizen's Ideas Wanted On Community Development Program Announcement of Public Hearing In April, 2007 the Town of South old expects to receive approximately $136,000.00 in Federal Community Development Block Grant Funds. These funds may be used, and have been previously used for a variety of projects to be selected by local officials. Eligible activities include: Acquisition and demolition of blighted property Housing rehabilitation Elimination of physical barriers for the handicapped Public facilities and improvements Street Reconstruction Code Enforcement Public Water projects Economic Development Public Services (limited to 15%) Town Residents are invited to attend this public hearing on Tuesdav. October 17.2006. 5:00 P. M. in the evening at the Southold Town Hall, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York, to express citizen views on local housing community development needs to be met with these funds. I have a letter from the North Fork Housing Alliance, addressed to James McMahon. 'Dear Mr. McMahon, Please be advised that our agency, the North Fork Housing Alliance is requesting a portion of the Community Development Block Grant Funds for 2007 and the projects are listed below: $50,000 for home improvement; $10,000 for North Fork Housing General support and $10,000 for housing counseling.' All of these are requests. 'Our agency greatly appreciates the administrative support received from the Town to assist in serving our clients. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.' I have a notice that this has appeared as a legal in the local newspaper, it has also appeared on the Town Clerk's bulletin board outside the door and I believe that that is all the communications I have on this. Well, I do have some, one additional comment. The legal notice also included the eligible activities for these $136,000 block grants. The eligible activities acquisition and demolition of blighted property, housing rehab, elimination of physical barriers for the handicapped, public facilities and improvements, street reconstruction, code enforcement, public water projects, economic development and limited to 15 % public services. And those are all the comments that I have in the file. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Would anybody like to come before the Town Board and address this particular public hearing? Mr. Carlin? FRANK CARLIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Board. Frank Carlin, Laurel. I would like to suggest that we put some money from this funding to improving the senior citizen recreation center over there in Peconic Lane. That building is in bad shape, has been in bad shape for many years. And I feel that they should have some, something done about it and I think some of this money should be put into that project. COUNCILMAN WICKHAM: Thank you. MR. CARLIN: Oh, no, I am not done yet. And Riverhead has a new one for their senior citizens. Southampton has a beautiful one. And it is a shame, ours is over there and needs so much repair done on it. I remember back in 1987 when Ray Dean was the Highway Supervisor and George Penny was on the Board. And at that time we were trying to build an animal shelter for $125,000 and they had a problem with the roof on that building over there, at that time it was falling apart and these seniors rely on that building over there. They don't have a bowling alley no more, you gave that up to CVS, which we needed in this Town like a hole in the head; you have two places in town to buy prescription now, Ekerdt and one in Love Lane, so I don't see why we can't take some of this money and do something about that building for these senior citizens. Now, you are probably gonna say it is not made for that but as far as what this notice said in the paper here today and I will give you two, three examples of it, like Tom just read off. Public facilities, public service and reconstruction. Well, that covers some of that. There is no reason why some that can't be used for some of that. It is a shame how you let that building go so far out of shape for these people. They don't, honest, you can't find the money anywheres along the line? I mean, you can go spend $2.5 million for the Camp Malloy property to have that facility that you have there now which don't get me wrong, it is beautiful. Laurel Lake preserve, beautiful. Jim is doing a wonderful job on it. I am not saying anything against it. But if you can find $2.5 million to buy that property from Camp Malloy and then put a new big roof up there which is a large roof and all that on there, you should be able to find some money along in your budget to give these senior citizens a decent place where they can go and enjoy. I understand you want to think about considering moving that to the old Peconic school, is that true? SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: I would like to acquire the Peconic school as a community center. MR. CARLIN: And what do you want to do with this one? Close it down? SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: That is going to be subject to a lot of discussion. A lot of people have a lot of ideas with it. MR. CARLIN: Well, I got a lot of ideas, too. You'd be jumping from the pan into the fire on that. Number one, it is too small. The auditorium is too small, it is no where near the size of the one that you have now. I don't understand what you are doing here. What do you people do on these work sessions? Have all these discussions but no decisions. What do you do there? I should suggest you televise them, let the people see what you do in them. Look out for the senior citizen in this town a little bit more than you do. They are fighting about taking the Cross Island ferry away, the Sea Jet. That is a little bit of recreation for them. You took the bowling alley away, we don't have no bowling alley here on the whole north fork, so consider if you can't have some money from this $136,000, find us some other place in the budget to put some money into the recreation center for the people. They live here too and they are tax payers. Thank you. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: I think you are 100% right in everything that you said. That building was built on the cheap years ago but I think one of the problems is it hadn't been well maintained historically. It is no fault of this Board or any other Board, it was just one of those things that should have been paid attention to a long time ago. Even humble buildings like that need regular maintenance and it hasn't gotten it over the years. And it is in deplorable condition. It is so bad, I didn't even want to have my inauguration there last year and that is saying something about what we are into in this community. You are exactly right. MR. CARLIN: (Inaudible) Well, what are youse waiting for? I mean, this reminds me of the animal shelter, you talked about it 20 years ago and you knew it was that way 20 years ago. What are you waiting for? SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Well, 20 years ago I was in college but I agree with you. MR. CARLIN: I am not blaming you. Your hands are tied on this Board. Let's be honest, I know how politics run. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: I think we are working well together and honestly, when you brought the animal shelter... MR. CARLIN: Inaudible SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Well, we brought the animal shelter up, we did have I think a very good presentation on that today. I feel confident that we are working in the right direction finally. MR. CARLIN: Well, I want to get into that a little bit later on. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Okay. Fair enough. COUNCILMAN WICKHAM: I would like to just respond to the suggestion that the work session be televised. I think the public would really enjoy a sense of how the Town Board works if it could observe and listen and find how the Town Board really comes to agreement on the key issues that we are dealing with. They do not learn that at these official Board meetings in the evening that are a recitation of the resolutions that we are adopting. They would get exactly what you suggested, Frank, if they had a clearer picture of how we operate during our work session. That is really the more important period of Board deliberations. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: I would love the opportunity to broadcast the work sessions. If I can get the support of the Town Board of that, I think we should start doing that right away and I would ask this Town Board to be as candid in future Town Board sessions as they have been in the past. MR. CARLIN: You have nothing to hide. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Absolutely. COUNCILMAN KRUPSKI: We are open to the public, anyone is welcome to come down anyway. MR. CARLIN: Inaudible. Let's have a committee on it, let's get it on at the next work session get it done and discuss it and get it over with. Move in this town. COUNCILMAN ROSS: Mr. Carlin, today's work session went from 9:00 until 4:00. .. MR. CARLIN: Well, that is alright. COUNCILMAN ROSS: So it would be a long show but, you know... MR. CARLIN: Well, that is what you are a councilman for, you took the job. COUNCILMAN ROSS: Okay. COUNCILMAN EDWARDS: Well, I don't think Councilman Ross is objecting to the number of hours spent in the work session, his point is whether people will want to watch a television show that runs six hours long, that is all. MR. CARLIN: Well, if they don't want it, they don't have to look at it but give them the opportunity to look at it. COUNCILMAN EDWARDS: You are right about that, Frank. Hey, I ....Frank, it is a public meeting, anyone can attend. I would be glad to have them, I will support broadcasting along with the Supervisor. I don't have any problem with the meeting televised. COUNCILMAN ROSS: I have no problem. I have maintained that we should be using channel 22 to a greater degree rather than having the blue screen, I think the high schools should be using it. I encouraged Jim Grathwohl and his Historic Board to use it for info commercials. I would love to see channel 22 be used 24 hours a day. MR. CARLIN: It is supposed to be an educational channel, let's make it an educational channel. COUNCILMAN ROSS: You are right. MR. CARLIN: Louisa, what do you think about it? JUSTICE EVANS: I am willing if you find someone to film it, Frank. MR. CARLIN: And so does Tom Wickham, so what are we waiting for? The next Board meeting, put it on your resolutions. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: We will try to make that happen and you tell those folks at CSI we are coming for them. We are coming for them. MR. CARLIN: If you can't do it, I will be there, too. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Mrs. Egan. This is, just so you know, this is actually a hearing on the Community Preservation Block Grant money. JOAN EGAN: Well, it captions public hearing to hear citizen views on local housing and community development needs... SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Yes. MS. EGAN: And I think Mr. Carlin addressed part of that. Incidentally, talking about channel 22, I was delighted and didn't know about it. There was something, a meeting on it last night that I had not seen before. Do you know which one I am talking about? SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Was that the school board discussion? MS. EGAN: It could have been, I didn't listen to all of it but I had never seen that on before. It hadn't been running at any other time. It could have been very interesting. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Was it the wind turbine? Last night? Oh, okay. That was the meeting my Energy Committee ran. MS. EGAN: Yeah. Now, in addition to all of that, not only on public hearing and citizens views, we seem to have a problem with accuracy being reported in our local paper and I agree with a lot ofthe things that are said in it but some of the comments and statements made in it, especially about court. Things are not very accurate and doing a disservice to many people and families. Now, now, as far as the local housing, I came to almost all the meetings with regard to the Factory Avenue housing and from what little I could get on how people would be eligible for it, sounded to me as if you could be, they could be playing politics with that and I didn't, first off, I don't think it should have happened there because it is much too crowded there, I think you are going to have serious, serious parking problems. I think you are going to have accidents. It shouldn't happen but you went ahead and let it happen. Now, in addition, I just don't know whether that can be truly done honestly. You are going to have a problem there. Now, with housing and speculation as it is, it is also knowledge to me that a lot of these spectators put up houses and with the glut on the market and to get some money out of it, they are allowing a lot ofillegals, sometimes 20-30 of them, to be in those buildings and that would mean, you know, more code enforcers to check it out and even if they apprehend the illegals in it, the Town, the State, the immigration will not come out for them and it is causing a very serious problem. So, I, I think we have to be very careful on this public hearing but as far as that recreation center it is, when Supervisor Cochran was here, I reported many times bad situations there and I have reviewed those here before and as far as the purchasing the Malloy property, that caused some problems and I think you have to start appropriating money where it belongs. And certainly most of the buildings and most of the roads and most of the library's and most of the schools were all built by people who are now senior citizens and it is a shame, we are getting a raw deal. Thank you. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Thank you. Just one clarification on the rec center. Actually, we have a recreational director who is by and large, also a facilities manager of that facility. I talked to him, I have talked to him at length about including capital improvements that need to be made to that building. We have a lot of buildings in town and sometimes we rely on each department head to govern the use and the long-term maintenance of those buildings. Karen McLaughlin is a good example. She has one of the nicest buildings in town and that is because she watches it like a hawk, she goes out, she finds grant money. She is on the phone with Jim, she doesn't take no for an answer and I talked to my recreation director, who is a great man and a great recreation director but I talked to him about his need to be more of a facility manager and budget for those improvements that need to be done at the rec center. Every time a failing comes to us, we are mid-stream in a fiscal cycle and there is no money to make any repairs because no one asked for it last November. And that is part of the problem that we need to correct. But you are right about that building, both of you. Would anybody else like to comment on this particular public hearing? COUNCILMAN WICKHAM: Scott, I would just like to make a comment myself. I hope that the, as a Board member and as a resident of the Town and our Community Development director sort of coordinates all of this, so I will speak to him. I hope that our Community Development Block Grant can honor the request of the North Fork Housing Alliance and I also hope that the bulk of it can be made use for housing needs for people who really need it in this town but if there is any money left over, I noticed that one of the categories is demolition and we will be needing a significant demolition fund to take care of the remains of the old animal shelter as we build a new one. And maybe we could consider allocating some funds for that purpose. SUPERVISOR RUSSELL: Okay, if there is nobody else that wants to comment, can I get a motion to close this hearing? * * * * * P;'j~Cl!J-..J', Elizabeth A. Neville Southold Town Clerk 10/11/2006 22:17 NORTH FORK 'ID~ PAGE 01/01 7a TA- 'E,' 9lortli !F or/(}fousing flllfiance, Inc. (FORMERLY T.... QREENPOR'1' HO~IIINar. ,AJ...I.IANCE) t t. SOUTH 9TRIII1' GRE;ENPORTt NIW YORK 11844 (.31).77-10'10 FAX (831)477-1769 ^_^ft "0."'_ ~.... ~ SECTION 8 DEPARTMENT (63' ) 477-8888 NFHAeOPTONLINE,NET BARRY LATN1i:Y. PRESIDENT TANYA "ALMORIE:~ .s:XIiCuTIVE DIREC"raR October 12,2006 RECEIVED Mr. James McMahon Community Development Director Southold Town Hall P.O. Box 1179 Southold, NY 11971 OCT 1 3 2006 SouthoM Town C1erA Rc: CDBG Hearing for FY 1007 Funds Dear Mr. McMahon: Please be advised that our agency is requesting a portion of the CDBO funds for FY 2007 and the proj ects are listed below: Home Improvement NFHA General Support NFHA Housing Counseling $50,000.00 $10,000.00 $]0,000.00 Our agency greatly appreciates the administrative support received from the Town of Southo]d to assist in serving our clients. If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 631.477.1070. TJP/mh CDBO Hearing 2007 FUNOEO Illy NEW YORK S:TATE DIVISION OF HOUSINQ 8: COMMUNITY flE;f'tr&EWAL Alii EQUAL O....OIl!:TUNITv I(,..,.L.OYI!A ANb PROVIDER . . #8063 STATE OF NEW YORK) ) SS: COUNTY OF SUFFOLK) Dina Mac Donald of Mattituck, in said county, being duly sworn, says that he/she is Principal clerk of THE SUFFOLK TIMES, a weekly newspaper, published at Mattituck, in the Town of Southold, County of Suffolk and State of New York, and that the Notice of which the annexed is a printed copy, has been regularly published in said Newspaper once each week for 1 week(s), successively, commenqng on the 12th day of October, 2006. ! \ . . J VII1!/JI/tfJ/2i)/(({)jdY Principal Clerk Sworn to before me this 2006 I,~ day of OChl-v)/ C ~'1 r?:>TIW liD L,\/)(( . ~ CHRISTINA VOLlNSKI NOTARY PUBLlC.STATE OF NEW YGRi( No. 01.v061 05050 Qualified In Suffolk County CommIssIon Expires February 2iL 20ne. LEGAL NOTICE Citizen's Ideas Wanted On Community Development Program Announcement of Public Hearing In April, 2007 the Town of South- old expects to receive approximately $136,000.00 in Federal Community De- velopment Block Grant FUl)-ds. These funds may be used, and have been pre- viously used for a variety of projects to be selected by local officials. Eligible activities include: Acquisition ~nd demolition of blight- ed property Housing rehabilitation Elimination of physical barriers for the handicapped Public facilities and improvements Street Reconstruction Codc Enforcement Public Water projects Economic Development Public Services (limited to 15%) Town Residents are invited to attend this public hearing on Tuesdav. October 17.2006.5:00 P.M. in the evening at the Southold Town Hall, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York, to express citizen views on local housing community de- velopment needs to be met with these funds. BY ORDER OF THE SOUrnOLD TOWN BOARD OF THE TOWN OF SOUTHOLD Dated: October 3. 2006. ELIZABETH A. NEVILLE SOUTHOLD TOWN CLERK H063-1T 10/12 J' - LEGAL NOTICE Citizen's Ideas Wanted On Community Development Program Announcement of Public Hearing In April, 2007 the Town of Southold expects to receive approximately $136,000.00 in Federal Community Development Block Grant Funds. These funds may be used, and have been previously used for a variety of projects to be selected by local officials. Eligible activities include: .fAcquisition and demolition of blighted property Housing rehabilitation Elimination of physical barriers for the handicapped Public facilities and improvements Street Recoustruction Code Enforcement Public Water projects Economic Development Public Services (limited to 15%) Town Residents are invited to attend this public hearing on Tuesdav. October 17.2006. 5:00 P. M. in the evening at the Southold Town Hall, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York, to express citizen views on local housing community development needs to be met with these funds. BY ORDER OF THE SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD OF THE TOWN OF SOUTHOLD, October 3, 2006. ELIZABETH A. NEVILLE SOUTHOLD TOWN CLERK PLEASE PUBLISH ON October 12, 2006, AND FORWARD TWO (2) AFFIDAVIT OF PUBLICATIONS TO ELIZABETH NEVILLE, TOWN CLERK, TOWN HALL, PO BOX 1179, SOUTHOLD, NY 11971. Copies to the following: The Suffolk Times James McMahon Town Board Members Comptroller Town Attorney Town Clerk's Bulletin Board . . STATE OF NEW YORK) SS: COUNTY OF SUFFOLK) ELIZABETH A. NEVILLE, Town Clerk of the Town of South old, New York being duly sworn, says that on the I \ day of C\t>-h&.... , 2006, she affixed a notice of which the annexed printed notice is a true copy, in a proper and substantial manner, in a most public place in the Town of Southold, Suffolk County, New York, to wit: Town Clerk's Bulletin Board, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York. Public Hearing October 17,2006 at 5:00 p.m. ~/H~Oa;~~ lizabeth A. Ne Ie Southold Town Clerk Sworn before me this ---1!.... day of ()~LLoI..., 2006. ,gLlf;fl--- ~ ~ otary Public LYNDA M. BOHN NOTARY PUBLIC, State of New Ycllll No. 01 B06020932 Qualified in Suffolk CounIL Term Expires March 8, 20.Q;l . Board~October 3, 2006 Town of South old - Letter RESOLUTION 2006-780 ADOPTED Item # 10 DOC ID: 2185 THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION NO. 2006-780 WAS ADOPTED AT THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD ON OCTOBER 3, 2006: RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of South old hereby sets October 17.2006 at 5:00 p.m.. Southold Town Hall. 53095 Main Road. Southold New York 11971. as the time and place for a Public Hearinl!: to hear citizens views on local housinl!: and community development needs to be met with approximately $136,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds the Town of Southold expects to receive in April 2007 and authorizes the Town Clerk Elizabeth Neville to publish an Announcement of Public Hearing Notice. ~~":I/;' Elizabeth A. Neville Southold Town Clerk RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Thomas H. Wickham, Councilman SECONDER: Louisa P. Evans, Justice AYES: Evans, Wickham, Ross, Russell, Krupski Jr. ABSENT: William P. 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