Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/29/2018 MATTITUCK PARK DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES MARCH 29, 2018 Attendance Doris McGreevy, Chairperson Nicholas Deegan, Commissioner Gerard Goehringer, Commissioner David Prokop, Legal Counsel Lynne Krauza, Secretary CALL TO ORDER D. McGreevy called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. L. Tortora and A. Noncarrow were excused from this meeting. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion by D. McGreevy, seconded by G. Goehringer, all in favor and motion carried to unanimously approve the Minutes from the March 1, 2018 Special Meeting submitted via email. Mattituck Yacht Club D. McGreevy stated that this was a Special Meeting with the Mattituck Yacht Club to discuss how we can work together regarding the beach. She handed out copies of our survey for review and discussion and asked that the copies be returned. N. Deegan asked if anyone saw the survey markers at the Yacht Club and Ms. Tomao acknowledged that she did. Ms. Tomao stated that another representative, her father, from the Yacht Club was expected to be at tonight's meeting but he never appeared. D. McGreevy asked Ms. Tomao if she knew the boundary areas and Ms. Tomao replied that she saw the markers and knows that the racks were beyond their property. Ms. Tomao said they will remove the racks from our property for the boats. She confirmed that the beach grass and walkway was our property. D. McGreevy stated that the boundary lines are not straight and she spoke with a Town Trustee about maintaining the property. She said the Trustees could give the Yacht Club a maintenance permit so that they can take care of the phragmites. She said the Trustee stated that one level of the phragmites could be cut down a lot to allow them to use that property. Ms. Tomao said'they could then move the racks to that location. D. McGreevy asked Ms. Tomao to contact the Town Trustees. At this time the survey was reviewed and D. McGreevy stated that the pink highlights are our property and pointed out the location for the Right of Way ("ROW'), Clubhouse and underground pipe. G. Goehringer explained that the-Town installed the pipe for us when the steel pipe fell apart. The pipe clips a small area of the Yacht Club property. r D. McGreevy explained that we have questions and that we are not sure of what each other is doing. She said we need to coordinate because we are planning upgrades for that property. She asked Ms. Tomao for documentation that reflects the Yacht Club's not-for-profit status. Ms. Tomao said she did not have any documentation with her but that she knows they have the documentation and she will drop it off to L.-Tortora at our office on Monday. D. McGreevy told Ms. Tomao that she had a conversation with Commodore, Mary, and asked her to have the representative bring this documentation to this meeting. Ms. Tomao was not aware of this. D. McGreevy asked Ms. Tomao what insurance they have and Ms. Tomao did not know. Ms. Tomao said she will drop off their insurance certificate to L. Tortora on Monday as well. Jon Shearin stated that the Yacht Club's insurance certificate should name the Park District as additional insured and should have a hold harmless and indemnification agreement. He said their liability limits should be high. D. Prokop told Ms. Tomao that he will speak with her father about the hold harmless requirement. It was agreed by the Commissioners and D. Prokop that L. Tortora will email the Yacht Club's insurance certificate to Mr. Shearin for review and comment as to the liability limits, etc. L. Krauza gave Ms. Tomao the Park District's address for the insurance certificate. Mr. Hubbard (audience'comment) asked Ms. Tomao if the memberships to the Yacht Club were privately owned. He also wanted to confirm that the Yacht Club has had legal access to their property since 1950 through the Park District property. D. McGreevy asked Mr. Shearin what our insurance covers and whether we had enough liability coverage. Mr. Shearin explained that our coverage covers activities at the beach. He said I because he does not know what liability coverage the Yacht Club has that he cannot advise as to whether he feels it is sufficient. He said our carrier will want to see nothing less than $1 million per occurrence and $2 million general aggregate. D. Prokop said we will see what coverage they have upon receipt of their insurance certificate and go from there. D. McGreevy confirmed with Mr. Shearin that there are certain risks we have to cover. Mr. Shearin said that our carrier contemplates risks and the beach is a risk and the activities on the beach is one of those risks. He said that any activity on the beach we would be covered for so long as it is a legal activity. D. Prokop asked the Commissioners what we are going to permit the Yacht Club to do and if we are aware of something that would not be considered a legal activity, we have a duty to stop it or make our carrier aware of it and obtain additional coverage. G. Goehringer said that there is no question to the Park District that the beach is closed but people are swimming there and the people swimming are not necessarily Yacht Club members. He said he has concerns over this. Ms. Tomao said the majority of cars at the Yacht Club are on weekdays and they are Yacht Club members. Mr. Shearin asked Ms. Tomao if the Yacht Club instructors lived in the District. She said some do and some do not. She said some come in from Ireland and the Yacht Club rents houses for them in the District. Mr. Hubbard (audience comment) said he sees cars from NJ, MA, CT, etc. without stickers in the parking lot and he pays his taxes and obtains his stickers and can't always park there with the amount of out of state cars in the lot without stickers. He asked what he is paying taxes for. He said he thinks it is great that we will be having a Beach Attendant at the Yacht Club. G. Goehringer expressed his concerns about no Lifeguard on duty and our exposure. Mr. Shearin said if someone chose to sue us our carrier will represent us and if need by obtain counsel to represent us in litigation but only up to the limits of our liability. D. McGreevy said even with signs posted. Mr. Shearin said the signs reduce our exposure but doesn't eliminate liability. D. Prokop asked Mr. Shearin what happens if we have a sign that says "No Boat Storage" and someone gets hurt on the rack of boats. Mr. Shearin said we would be covered in the event we were sued but asked if we want to accept that exposure. He said our carrier does not want that exposure and don't consider that a municipal risk. He said we need to push it off to someone else or we get rid of the risk. He said our coverage will cover us and defend us and if we are found liable will pay out on our behalf. He said if the carrier is not happy, it could affect us during renewal time. G. Goehringer clarified that we have to keep our exposure minimal to the best of our knowledge and Mr. Shearin said it is our public responsibility. D. McGreevy acknowledged that the boat storage looks a lot neater now and that it is a big difference from last year. She further stated to Ms. Tomao that if they get another dumpster to put it on their property. D. McGreevy said we don't have a facility to launch motor boats. Ms. Tomao said that the motor boats stay in the water and that there are 2 or 3 out there. She said no boats are launched on that property. She said they are used for sailing lessons. She said she believes they have 4 now but they all aren't working. She said they are owned by the Yacht Club or they were donated by a member. Mr. Shearin then stated that it was extremely important that we see the Yacht Club's insurance coverage. D. McGreevy said that trailers were kept on the property by the dumpster last year and belonged to some of the boats that were kept in the parking lot. Ms. Tomao said she never saw trailers on the property and further stated that she will make sure that any trailers are placed on their property. D. Prokop said that the ROW is for ingress and egress only and that you usually cannot block a ROW. D. McGreevy asked Ms. Tomao how many families were members of the Yacht Club. Ms. Tomao said that they have between 30-40 families. She said they are now receiving members for this season and cannot give us an accurate number at this time. D. McGreevy said in the past our parking lot is used for drop off, etc. and we need to work something out. Ms. Tomao said that children in their program are dropped off and picked up and when an event is going on, they have a parent stay as extra supervision. D. McGreevy explained that our maintenance staff picks up a lot of garbage from the beach, etc. and that the kids are using our field. She said that garbage, stones and bottles are on the field and we have to mow the field. She further stated that we are considering changing that field to a soccer field. She also said that maintenance staff has stated that they are there on weekends too. Ms. Tomao said that the Yacht Club is not open on weekends, doors are locked and if someone needs to get there equipment, they have to request that someone open up the Clubhouse. N. Deegan asked if they have events on weekends. Ms. Tomao said that they have no organized events on weekends. She then stated that sometimes they host a barbecue around July 4th and most of those attendees are from Mattituck, Laurel and Jamesport. D. Prokop asked how many kids are in the program. Ms. Tomao said between 25-30 but that they are not all sailing at the same time. She said when not sailing, the instructors are teaching the children about caring for the boats, etc. and that they have to prove that they are comfortable before they can sail. D. McGreevy asked if they are swimming and Ms. Tomao said yes. She said there is a swimming test at the beginning of every season. She said the children start at age 5. She said they swim in front of the Yacht Club. N. Deegan said that the high water mark is anyone's property. D. McGreevy said but you have to walk from our property to get to the water. Mr. Shearin asked Ms. Tomao how they know whether their patrons have liability coverage. He said if they have a homeowners insurance policy or renters insurance, they have coverage. D. McGreevy said people need to look at their policies to see what is covered. ,D. Prokop said we are looking to put a gatehouse their and how are we moving forward regarding swimming. He said now we will have a Park District rep on site and how do we keep people from going into the water. He said we have a responsibility and there is no lifeguard on duty. N. Deegan asked if anyone has ever drowned there over the years. Mr. Shearin stated that if you are not concerned why are you paying him. Mr. Shearin stated that the risk is there with swimmers and people coming from other areas with regard to the Yacht Club and general public. Ms. Tomao said that people may think that it is a beach for swimming with an attendant there. D. McGreevy said our parking lot is for our District residents and not anyone outside the District. She said we agreed to have an attendant onsite to hopefully prevent anyone from driving into the parking lot. She said she has seen many people sitting on the beach and not swimming. Ms. Tomao said people come in and eat lunch on the beach. Mr. Shearin said in reality they are going into the water. D. McGreevy told Mr. Shearin that we have Swimming Prohibited signs posted onsite. Mr. Shearin said from an underwriters standpoint, they want us to try to prohibit swimming. D. McGreevy explained that the only reason why we don't,allow swimming is due to no lifeguard on duty and in order to allow swimming, we would be required to have a bathroom and not a porta potty onsite. She said we are required to have a bathroom with a sink for washing hands and we are required to meet the Suffolk County Dept. of Health requirements. N. Deegan stated that things have worked out well over the years with the Park District and the Yacht Club. D. McGreevy disagreed. Mr. Hubbard (audience comment) stated that you can't park there as a resident and that we are now a popular destination but we were not in years past. Mr. Shearin stated that should something happen, we would have coverage but the risk and exposure still exist. G. Goehringer expressed his concerns about the monies invested in our beaches and he does not want to lose any or a piece of property in the event something did happen because of something we didn't do. He said that we may want to consider creating a bathroom at the Yacht Club site and that there was a bathroom there years ago but'it became so dilapidated it was removed. D. McGreevy explained that we want to have an attendant at'the Yacht Club to check for stickers because residents have a right to park there. She said maybe we could consider a special pass for Yacht Club members. D. Prokop said it is not appropriate to give the Yacht Club a preferential pass. Mr. Hubbard (audience comment) said he has resided in Mattituck for a long time and he pays Riverhead Town $200 for each of his cars for out of Town stickers. He asked the Commissioners to clamp down on out of Town people because he doesn't want to see 14 out of state cars in the parking lot at our beaches without any stickers. D. McGreevy said we have daily guest passes and asked if we could give the Yacht Club summer guest passes and D. Prokop said we need to be careful not to create any kind of preferential treatment to allow the Yacht Club to take the position that they have the right to cross our parking lot. He said we need the same sticker for everyone. He said we could consider some type of permissive easement. Ms. Tomao asked how we can handle the drop off and pick up of children taking sailing lessons at the Yacht Club. D. McGreevy said she thought it could have been as simple as a pass but clearly,it isn't. Ms. Tomao asked if we could make non-residents pay fees for a sticker because the Yacht Club was allowed to use our property for so long. D. Prokop said this meeting should have happened a long time ago. He said we have had meetings at the site over the past 7 years. He said someone could'bring an Order to Show Cause to drive past the booth. He said the Park District has to protect the residents. Ms. Tomao acknowledged that they want things to be amicable with us. Ms. Tomao asked if parents could pay a daily drop off fee. She said there will be a traffic jam at the booth. D. McGreevy asked if parents could drop off the kids at the entrance and they can walk down. D. Prokop asked if the 1950 ROW was created for access. G. Goehringer said it was created for the underground pipe. D. Prokop said if you read the Deed ROW it doesn't mention a pipe. He thinks it was created for ingress and egress. G. Goehringer said it was created to allow the Yacht Club access. D. Prokop said it might be possible for the Yacht Club to abandon the existing ROW and create something new to allow them to come across our parking lot. He said this would require a vote and legislative approval. He said this could resolve some of our, issues. Mr. Shearin agreed with D. Prokop's suggestion and said that no carrier wants to see anything discriminating. He said a ROW is usually given for access to a piece of property that you could not have otherwise. D. Prokop said legal documents are required to terminate the existing ROW and put a new ROW in place. He said we would have to go through the State again. He said this makes more sense. Ron McGreevy (audience comment) said the Yacht Club paid money for that ROW and it goes behind where the sump was. He said the Yacht Club had 7 power boats there at one time and only 1 or 2 were registered in NY. He said the rest were registered in NJ and CT. D. McGreevy said we should pursue changing the ROW. Ms. Tomao said she is willing to discuss this with the Yacht Club representatives. G. Goehringer said what about letting the Yacht Club use their own access that we deeded to them to get to their building by the sump. N. Deegan said that would require a lot line change. He said they have been driving over the pipe for years. D. McGreevy said they don't own the land. D. Prokop said we have to be mindful of alienation of parkland. D. Prokop said they can drive on the ROW now but•they can't parts there. D. McGreevy said we could move the ROW to the parking lot. Ms. Tomao said if we bought the ROW and could do what we wanted with it, that may cause other issues. Mr. Shearin said what D. Prokop suggested is more practical and will give the Yacht Club access to the parking lot. D. Prokop asked if we need more parking there. D. McGreevy said we do and informed everyone that we were going to be redoing that parking lot and will restripe it. D. Prokop said we could address a new ROW in less than 6 months. Mr. Shearin asked if we could grant temporary access pending legislative approval of a new ROW and D. Prokop said no. D. McGreevy stated that we need an RFP for 3 vendors to write specs and then we can go out to bid for the parking lot work, including restriping. She said the Yacht Club parking lot is in bad shape and will be a big job. D. McGreevy explained that we are putting in a light on the pole closest to the Yacht Club building. D. McGreevy asked if they can remove the walkway to the Club that is on our property because we have had instances where people tripped and fell and sued. Ms. Tomao said she will bring it up to the representatives, D. McGreevy asked if we need to post a No Boat Launching Sign. Ms. Tomao said that people launch there boats at East Creek. Mr. Hubbard (audience comment) said he has seen people launch boats at the Yacht Club. Ms. Tomao said she will make certain that boats are not launched from their site. Ms. Tomao said that once a year a Yacht Club hosts a regatta and people come from all different Yacht Clubs with cars, etc. She said this summer they are hosting it. She said it is usually the last week in July or first week in August and the date has not been scheduled yet. It will take place on a weekend. N. Deegan said there is a precedent for this and he remembers allowing this in the past. Ms. Tomao said there will be boats on both sides of the bulkhead and in the parking lot. She said other Yacht Clubs have been given a pass by the Town for parking. c She said the races go all day and this year it will be 2 days from 8 to 4. D. Prokop said we can't permit this event. Ms. Tomao said they will get additional insurance. Mr.-Shearin said we know about it and additional insurance would have to be about$10 million as a liability limit. N. Deegan said the last one at the Yacht Club was in 2011 and the Park District gave permission. He said we don't need to open a can of worms. D. Prokop said we have a gate attendant now. N. Deegan said we should remove the booth and everyone work together in the name of recreation. Mr. Shearin said this doesn't take care of your Queens, etc. D. McGreevy said we need to consider all of these issues. Ms. Tomao said she has a lot to relay to their representatives and confirmed she will drop off documentation to our office on Monday. Aldrich Lane—Caretaker/Management for Fields 1 a and 1 b D. McGreevy stated that the legal ad is in the paper. Meeting &Work Session Policy D. McGreevy asked if the Commissioners had a chance to review the Meeting and Work Session Policy. She said she wants to add one more thing that the Commissioners review the bills at 6:30 p.m. prior to our Work Session. N. Deegan said if we start at 6:15 p.m., then we should notice this time in the paper. D. Prokop said we can leave the time for our Work Session for the paper at 6:30 p.m. L. Krauza will ask L. Tortora to assist her in writing up the-Policy. N. Deegan said he was concerned about the Commissioners having to discuss Agenda items ahead of a public meeting. D. McGreevy explained that the Commissioners can have an initial discussion via email prior to a public meeting so that we are more prepared for these discussions at public meetings. N. Deegan asked that we remove "and approval" at the end of the first sentence. It was agreed by all Commissioners to remove this language. N. Deegan asked that the time limit for submission of Agenda items be Tuesday and not Monday. D. McGreevy explained that L. Krauza had asked it to be Monday and L. Krauza said okay to Tuesday. L. Krauza stated that she is not able to make any changes to the Agendas on the day of a meeting and that she needs Wednesdays to finalize all Agendas, etc. D. Prokop said we don't want to preclude the Commissioners to raise additional Agenda items. N. Deegan said he is not comfortable deciding issues ahead of a meeting. D. Prokop said it is acceptable for the Commissioners to have an email discussion. He said the level of approval will be more open as it always has been. D. McGreevy said this Policy will hopefully streamline our meetings so they are not too long. Jon Shearin \ Mr. Shearin asked the Commissioners if they would like him to go to the carrier about the Yacht Club activities. He said that he doesn't think the carrier contemplated the exposure with an event like the regatta. N. Deegan said he feels the regatta is a recreational activity. Mr. Shearin asked if we want to eliminate the risk, try to control the risk and have higher limits. N. Deegan said all of the above. D. Prokop asked Mr. Shearin to get us 2-3 quotes with higher limits. Mr. Shearin said he will see what coverage the Yacht Club has and then will obtain quotes for higher limits for the Park District. Public Comment Ron McGreevy, Beth Tomao from Mattituck Yacht Club, Jon Shearin from Roy Reeve Insurance Agency, Dennis Hubbard and Carolann Hengge were in attendance from the public. RESOLUTIONS Resolution 2018-41 approving the Mattituck Park District's Meeting and Work Session Policy was unanimously approved. Motion by D. Mcgreevy, seconded by G. Goehringer, all in favor and motion carried unanimously to approve Resolution 2018-41. There being no further business to come before the meeting, motion by D. McGreevy, seconded by G. Goehringer, all in favor and motion carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:30 p.m. t RESOLUTION 2018-41 RESOLUTION APPROVING THE MATTITUCK PARK DISTRICT MEETING AND WORK SESSION POLICY RESOLVED that the Board of Commissioners of the Mattituck Park District hereby approve the attached Mattituck Park District's Meeting and Work Session Policy effective immediately. MATTITUCK PARK DISTRICT MEETING AND WORK SESSION POLICY The Board of Commissioners of the Mattituck Park District hereby approve the Meeting and Work Session Policy as follows: The Board of Commissioners (hereinafter the "Board") may discuss a topic for consideration at an upcoming meeting or work session prior to said meeting or work session provided all three Commissioners follow the Public Meetings Law. The Board has set the start time for all meetings and work sessions at 6:30 p.m. and an end time of 9:00 p.m. or sooner. The Board further agrees that they will review all bills prior to work session meetings at 6:15 p.m. The start time for all work session meetings will remain at 6:30 p.m. The Board agrees that during a regular monthly meeting, all bid openings and/or requests for quotes, proposals, etc. will be scheduled after the approval of Minutes from the prior meeting(s) and before all Reports are given. The Board agrees that all meeting and work session agenda items will be included in the upcoming agenda provided all agenda items are submitted to the Secretary by Tuesday evening prior to said meeting. If an agenda item is received after Tuesday evening, that agenda item will be included on the agenda for the next month's meeting. The Board agrees-that meeting arid work session agenda items may be listed and categorized on the agenda by property location (i.e., Veterans Park, Aldrich Lane, Breakwater Beach, Bailie Beach, etc). The Board further agrees that meeting and work session agenda items may be listed on said agenda by priority. The Board agrees that approval of all meeting and work session agendas be approved by the Board by the Tuesday evening before said meeting or work session. The Board agrees that audience participation is limited to five minutes at the end of the meeting for non-agenda items and before the meeting for agenda items. RESULT: ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY AT A SPECIAL MEETING HELD ON 3/29/18