WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE

Monday, July 29, 2024 - 10:00 AM

James Monty, Chairman

Charlie Harrington, Vice-Chairman

Chairman Monty called this Ways & Means committee to order at 10:00 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Matthew Brassard, Chris Clark, Robin DeLoria, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington Ken Hughes Steve McNally, James Monty, Cathleen Reusser, Favor Smith, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Davina Thurston was excused.

Department Heads present: Judy Garrison, Mary McGowan, Dan Manning, Michael Mascarenas, Terri Morse and Matt Watts.

Deputies present: Todd Hodgson and William Tansey.

Also present: Joe Keegan, Hugh Harwood and Oakley Beuhler.

MONTY: Good morning. It’s 10 o’clock. I will call the ways and means to order if everyone will stand and join me with the pledge. Thank you. Roll call, Judy please. Thank you Judy. This morning we have a guest today Oakley Beuhler he is a DPW intern engineer and he is going to do a presentation for the board and his able body assistant, Hugh Harwood.

BEUHLER: Good morning everybody. I hope everybody is having a descent day. Thank you for letting me speak today. My name is Oakley Beuhler and I am the 2024 engineering intern. A little bit about myself, I am an Essex County resident. I grew up in Elizabethtown and I am currently living in Lewis and I am going into my junior year at Clarkson University for mechanical engineering.

The primary focuses of my internship were the public safety building boiler system reconfiguration, culvert inventory using ArcGIS and the damage assessment process for the July flooding.

For the public safety building I focused on schematics, pump sizing, material pricing and ordering and Hugh is going to say a few words about the back story.

HARWOOD: The public safety building main boiler system reconfiguration is a small project amongst larger projects that we’ve been working on the last two and half to three years. A project that we are estimating to be about $3.5 million dollar project. This part is actually what Oakley started on which is actually the first tangible step to start addressing the true disease up at the building which is the short cycling of the boiler.

BEUHLER: So the solutions we generated for this was to use the thermal mass of the hot water tanks that were present. We then ordered new hot water tanks that were properly sized and for those tanks individual circulator. On the bottom right you’ll see a graph of the short cycling this is when the boiler is turning on and off extremely frequently and destroying the parts of the boiler. Here is the schematic. I learned that the schematic is the baseline reference for the entire project and it’s ideal for communicating our ideas between the other engineers working on the project. It’s also ideal to effectively put your thoughts on paper and once your thoughts are on paper it’s very easy to make improvements on that. The schematic on the right is the final schematic for the new boiler.

The pump sizing I just used an excel spreadsheet to calculate the head loss. You’ll see the head loss formula there and then on the bottom right is a graph between head loss and gallons per minute and this is used to properly size the circulators.

Next was the material price and ordering where I contacted multiple companies such as F.W. Webb, Ranger and Supply House for quotes. I then separated all items into lots for ordering purposes. I then pulled out ordering request forms sent that out to the purchasing unit and altogether was about $29,000 in parts and like you said, this is all part of the $3.5 million dollar project that was previously presented.

Next was the culvert inventory for my internship. I did on sight culvert assessments and I used ArcGIS inventory for all the culverts I assessed. The culvert assessments I collected data such as the condition of the culvert, the size of it and the material it’s made of and the inlet and outlet depth of the stream along with the width and I took photos to upload to RJS. So on the right is a photo one of the maps on RJS a major pro of RJS along with the graph you can update all of the new assessments they do on culverts along with coordinates so you can directly place where they are at and it is extremely sole for prioritizing the replacements or repairs of the culverts and Hugh will say a few words about this.

HARWOOD: Again, obviously everyone knows the July storms that we just had a descent amount we are looking at that with Cathy right now in Etown, with Ike in Westport but this is for me personally, I’ve been here five years this is my third FEMA declared disaster. This is the first step. Unfortunately I think we’ve gotten a little bit better at it. I think we know the steps to go through but this is the initial step to actually get a FEMA declaration so that we can actually get the money to get reimbursed for it so we can actually can put roads back to the existing conditions for upsized culverts or do some hazard mitigation so this is a very critical step to be able to communicate to New York State and therefore they advocate for us to get the FEMA declaration.

BEUHLER: So the three steps of the damaged assessment in chronological order were collecting the data and putting that data into a spread sheet online to be handed off to homeland security and then creating damaged write ups and damaged description sheets for every site. For the data collection much like the culverts, I’m collecting the photos, the dimensions, the descriptions of the damage along with the coordinates to properly mark where they are at. We then use site numbers on the roads for organization and reference purposes for homeland security and for ourselves and accurate data allows us to create accurate cost estimations to hand off to homeland security.

So all in all the July flooding was about $8.2 million dollars in damage and the collected data from those assessments is collected here on this spread sheet. Like I said previously that was handed off to homeland security and they used that to advocate for the declaration.

For the damage write ups these are post FEMA declaration. They are just an in-depth damaged descriptions for each site before and after photos. Before photos being the initial damage and the after photos being any emergency production measures that were taken to make the road safe. They also have the cost of the damages and the scope of work.

On the left is before photo. This is on the Lake Shore Road where the ledge forced the water to wash out both the shoulder and the lane and on the right, is after any emergency protection measures were taken and that’s our after photo.

So, what I’ve gained from this internship? I’ve gained a great understanding of the importance of communication between engineers and other engineers along with engineers and purchasing department, the highway department and contractors. I’ve also gained the standard knowledge of an every day at work for civil engineers and mechanical engineers including asset management of culverts, the roads, the boiler systems, condition existence on the main complex and 2D and 3D design primarily the schematics I did for the boiler system and it’s also helped me choose a direction for my engineering career. I truly enjoyed this experience and I would definitely pursue a career like this in the future. Thank you very much for hearing me and I’ll take any questions if there are any?

DOTY: So I’ve got a couple questions concerning the culverts first if you look at our past few years where we don’t get normal rain storms they are torrential now and even though you are going to size culverts that are associated with the depth and the dimension of the ditching I imagine they are both closely related so as you put in bigger or double culverts or whatever the fix maybe are all these road systems going to need deeper ditching?

BEUHLER: Some of them. It’s based off of a lot of different components like just the structure of the road and how the water is going to flow just based off of the earth along with previous damages. We can look at records that show what was damaged in the past and what could be damaged in the future and take actions based off of that.

DOTY: Okay. Back to the boiler system certainly it’s great that you helped come up with new limitations if you will, how did you start the process to determine that you needed less hot water tanks from what I know, one less boiler and are you still doing all your calculations figuring out 100% occupancy in that public safety building? And lastly, who designed that system in the first place?

BEUHLER: That’s a great question. We are not sure if the engineering was the problem or the actual input of it but it definitely is in need of fixing. So, the calculations were based off the maximum capacity it would be unideal to do it any other way. The water tanks in there are 2400 gallons I believe total? 1200 gallon tanks, two of them?

HARWOOD: 1500 each.

BEUHLER: 1500 each sorry. So, that’s extremely oversized for the occupancy. We aren’t reducing the amount of boilers, we are keeping the three boilers but we are only running two at a time just in case something goes wrong then we have the extra boiler to assist with that.

DOTY: So is there a constant reset?

BEUHLER: Yes, there is that was the main purpose of the project. The thermos mass that was in that 3000 gallons worth of hot water, is completely unused. So, we can drop down the size of those tanks and then build that whole system, the hot water system and the boiler system into each other to keep the boilers at a steady temperature.

DOTY: Thank you.

HUGHES: Hi Oakley, good morning. I just want to say Essex County should be very proud we’ve got two amazing Elizabethtown-Lewis Central School graduates speaking to you this morning and it’s really amazing that you guys are doing what you’re doing for the county. So that’s my comment. My question for you is about the access of the data that you created during this internship. Is it only assessable to our highway department or department of public works or is it in a cloud that is assessable by the Feds and the State? All the great brilliance you put together where does that reside and who can access it?

BEUHLER: I’m not entirely sure. Do you have an answer?

HARWOOD: Yeah, mainly for the culvert inventory we have it on RJS so that is actually in partner with Real Property. We’ve actually provided a lot of that information to homeland security which it is accessible pretty much through a link and pretty much the end user has to have the ability to read it.

HUGHES: One thing is to create it another thing to actually use it for future reference. Great job.

BEUHLER: Thank you.

HUGHES: You’re welcome.

GILLILLAND: So you got to see one of our yearly five-hundred year storms this year and in your training at Clarkson, one of the best tech schools in country are they teaching the reality of this or did this open your eyes?

BEUHLER: This has definitely opened my eyes. I haven’t seen anything like this in school. It’s definitely a great experience something to build on and pay attention to in the future.

GILLILLAND: Take that back to Clarkson.

BEUHLER: Are there any other questions?

MONTY: Oakley, again first of I will ask you a question. That $8.2 million in damages was that just county infrastructure?

BEUHLER: Yes sir.

MONTY: Okay. The other thing is I just want to thank Shaun and Mike and Jim Dougan and Ken had a part in this of creating this intern program because here is another great example of what this intern program can bring to a county information that kind of frees up our existing engineers that they can be working on other things. Lord knows that we’ve got a lot of other things going on but this program has allowed an intern to come in and learn as well as allow them some time not that it’s not important but Oakley being able to do the pricing and all this stuff is a huge asset because it’s teaching him what’s going on yet freeing you up to do something else. I think they deserve an applause for that. Good job, thank you.

BEUHLER: Absolutely. I do appreciate the internship thoroughly. Thank you very much.

GILLILLAND: Tell your other classmates.

BEUHLER: Is that all? Thank you very much for time today.

MONTY: Okay moving onto resolutions Judy.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Monday, July 8, 2024

Chairman – M. Wright Vice-Chairman – I. Tyler

1. RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE ESSEX COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS EMPLOYEES FOR THEIR EXCELLENT WORK IN RECEIVING HIGH MARKS AND FOLLOWING ALL STANDARDS AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ON THE NEW YORK STATE AUDIT. DeLoria, Gillilland

2. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A THREE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH OCV, LLC FOR DEVELOPMENT OF AN ESSEX COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES MOBILE APP, IN THE AMOUNT OF $9,900.00 (YEAR ONE), WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM CONTINGENCY. Hughes, Brassard

3. RESOLUTION IN RECOGNITION OF NATIONAL PRETRIAL, PROBATION AND PAROLE SUPERVISION WEEK JULY 21 -27, 2024. Barber, Hughes

4. RESOLUTION OF CONGRATULATIONS TO MITCHELL COLE UPON HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE TOWN OF TICONDEROGA. Wright, unanimous

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Monday, July 8, 2024

Chairman – I. Tyler Vice-Chairman – C. Barber

5. RESOLUTION APPROVING THE DESIGNATION OF ESSEX COUNTY AS LEAD AGENCY FOR THE FRONTIER TOWN DEMOLITION AND REHABILITATION PROJECT - RESTORE NEW YORK FUNDED PROJECT. Clark, Wood

6. RESOLUTION DETERMINING A NEGATIVE DECLARATION FOR THE REHABILITATION OF FRONTIER TOWN FOR COMMERCIAL USE - RESTORE NEW YORK PROJECT #135.976. Clark, Gillilland

HUMAN SERVICES

Monday, July 8, 2024

Chairman – JP. Wilson Vice-Chairman - C. Harrington

7. RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION TO TRACY PRICE, TICONDEROGA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT CHAIRPERSON OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRESCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR HER DEDICATION AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF OPENING A SPECIAL EDUCATION PRESCHOOL CLASSROOM FOR STUDENTS AGES 3-4 AT THE TICONDEROGA CENTRAL SCHOOL FALL OF 2024. Wright, unanimous

8. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH INNOVATEL FOR UP TO TWO (2) MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS AT $75/HOUR THROUGH TO DECEMBER 31, 2025, IN THE MENTAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM INSURANCE REIMBURSEMENT REVENUE. Wilson, DeLoria

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS

Monday, July 15, 2024

Chairman – R. DeLoria Vice–Chairman – C. Barber

9. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH SRA ENGINEERING IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $34,566.00, FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES TO INCLUDE FINAL DESIGN, PERMITTING, CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS AND CONSTRUCTION PHASE SERVICES FOR THE MOSS ROAD OVER THE NORTH BRAND OF THE BOQUET RIVER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF LEWIS WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS. Monty, Clark

10. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH H&T ENGINEERING, PLLC IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $34,565.60 FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES TO INCLUDE PRELIMINARY DESIGN, FINAL DESIGN, PERMITTING, CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS AND CONSTRUCTION PHASE SERVICES FOR THE AMY HILL ROAD CULVERT AND ROADSIDE IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF CROWN POINT WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED/FEMA FUNDS. Harrington, Brassard

11. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH ATLANTIC TESTING LABORATORIES IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $22,100.00, FOR PROFESSIONAL SUBSURFACE INVESTIGATION AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR THREE LARGE CULVERT REPLACEMENT PROJECTS LOCATED ALONG COUNTY ROUTE 7 IN THE TOWN OF MORIAH, WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS. Brassard, Wright

12. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH REALE CONSTRUCTION IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $60,072.00, FOR REPLACEMENT OF SIX (6) CULVERTS ON COUNTY ROUTE 80, (LAKE SHORE ROAD) LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF WESTPORT AND ESSEX, WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS. Wright, Hughes

13. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH SRA ENGINEERS IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $13,290.00 FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES TO INCLUDE FINAL DESIGN, AND CONSTRUCITON DRAWINGS FOR SPRINGFIELD ROAD DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS AND ROAD RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT LOCATED BETWEEN NYS 9N AND BARTLETT ROAD IN THE TOWN OF JAY WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS. Stanley, Smith

14. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE IMPLEMENTATION AND FUNDING IN THE FIRST INSTANCE 100% OF THE FEDERAL-AID AND STATE “MARCHISELLI” PROGRAM-AID ELIGIBLE COSTS, OF A TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL-AID PROJECT AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFORE. (MONTCALM STREET OVER LACHUTE RIVER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT) Wright, Clark

15. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH GREENMAN-PETERSON, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $478,500.00, FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES TO INCLUDE PRELIMINARY DESIGN AND RIGHT-OF-WAY DETERMINATION FOR THE MONTCALM STREET OVER LACHUTE RIVER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT, LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF TICONDEROGA. Wright, Wood

16. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO ISSUE A PURCHASE ORDER TO LUCKYS TRUCK AND TRAILER SALES FOR REPAIRS TO A SOLID WASTE WALKING FLOOR TRAILER IN THE AMOUNT OF $15,001.67, AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE SAID PURCHASE ORDER. Wilson, Doty

17. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH TOWN AND COUNTY BRIDGE AND RAIL IN THE AMOUNT OF $27,240.00, TO PROVIDE THE BRIDGE BEARING ASSEMBLIES FOR THE HURRICANE ROAD OVER SPRUCE HILL BROOK LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF KEENE WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS. Tyler, Wilson

18. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS – BUILDING AND GROUNDS INCREASING REVENUE AND APPROPRIATIONS IN THE AMOUNT OF $6,092.00, INSURANCE RECOVERIES (2009 CHEVY TAHOE HIT DEER AND GUIDERAIL) Tyler, Wright

19. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS TO APPLY FOR AND ACCEPT BRIDGE AND CULVERT NEW YORK GRANTS IN THE AMOUNT OF $6,075,000.00, AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT FOR THE SAME. Tyler, Wood

20. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO AWARD A PURCHASE ORDER TO THE FORT MILLER COMPANY, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $409,350.00, FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE BOX CULVERT PIECES WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE SAID PURCHASE ORDER. DeLoria, Clark

21. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A FEDERAL TRANSIT OPERATING ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT COMPTROLLER’S CONTRACT FOR THE PERIOD 1/1/2023 – 3/31/2029, WITH NYSDOT IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,631,275.00, FEDERAL AND STATE 5311 FUNDS. DeLoria, Clark

22. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECTUE A MASS TRANSPORTATION CAPITAL PROJECT AGREEMENT COMPTROLLER’S CONTRACT FOR THE PERIOD 1/1/2023-3/31/2029, WITH NYSDOT IN THE AMOUNT OF $17,008,965.00, FEDERAL AND STATE 5311 FUNDS. DeLoria, Stanley

PERSONNEL

Monday, July 15, 2024

Chairman – K. Hughes Vice-Chairman – JP. Wilson

NO RESOLUTIONS

FINANCE/TAX REDUCTION/MANDATE RELIEF

Monday, July 15, 2024

Chairman – S. McNally Vice-Chairman – R. DeLoria

23. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING TO ACCEPT THE OMITTED AND PRO-RATA TAXES FOR THE 2025 TAX ROLL. Hughes, Brassard

24. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING TO ACCEPT A CORRECTION TO THE 2023 TAX ROLLS FOR MICHAEL CORKERY AND EMILY KAUFF ON PROPERTY IN THE TOWN OF NEWCOMB IN AN AMOUNT OF $5,556.81 FOR 2024 TOWN AND COUNTY (TOWN PORTION ONLY) AND IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,223.77 FOR THE 2023-2024 SCHOOL TAX BILL, ERROR OF CLASSIFICATION ON PROPERTY. (NON-HOMESTEAD TO HOMESTEAD) DeLoria, Wilson

25. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING TO WAIVE PENALTY AND INTEREST IN THE AMOUNT OF $333.05, ON A PARCEL OWNED BY TODD AND KATHERINE DEBROBANDER IN THE TOWN OF CROWN POINT, TAX MAP #128.3-1-4.200. Harrington, Brassard

26. RESOLUTION SETTING THE DATE FOR A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED 2024-25 NORTH COUNTRY COMMUNITY COLLEGE OPERATING BUDGET TO BE HELD ON JULY 29, 2024, AT 11:00 A.M. Hughes, Reusser

MISCELLANEOUS

27. RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING LONG TERM EMPLOYEES FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2024. Gillilland, unanimous

GARRISON: Everyone should have copies on their desks from the resolutions from the floor. We have one from the Purchasing Department for the Department of EMS. A resolution authorizing the payment of $120,447.68, to Eagleview (Pictometry International) for imagery to be paid for from contingency in accordance with the GSA contract and Essex County contract.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO AWARD A PURCHASE ORDER IN THE AMOUNT OF $120,447.68, TO EAGLEVIEW (PICTOMETRY INTERNATIONAL) FOR IMAGERY WORK FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES, WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM CONTINGENCY. Wright, Reusser

MONTY: Discussion?

DOTY: How long is this contract? Is this just payment for one of the years? I thought we signed on for this pictometry for like, five years or something like that?

MASCARENAS: Yeah we did, this is for the update to the fly over. So what happens is when you do the initial fly over you’ll have that in your most expensive year and then after the fact the process gets updated and then you’re good for a few years and then you have that year one initial expense. The reason why it’s coming from contingent because we didn’t remember that.

GARRISON: Mike, this looks like this is for year three?

MASCARENAS: This is for Flight one in year three right but the flight hasn’t happened essentially that’s what the large expense is.

MONTY: Any other questions? No other questions, all in favor signify by saying aye, opposed – carried.

GARRISON: A resolution authorizing a contract with Twinstate in the amount of $232,461.20, for Mitel On-Premise Telephone upgrade from ARPA funds.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH TWINSTATE IN THE AMOUNT OF $232,461.20, FOR MITEL ON-PREMISE TELEPHONE UPGRADE WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM ARPA FUNDS. Hughes, Smith

WILSON: I’ve got one resolution from the floor from Mental Health. Everyone has a copy on your desks. This is a resolution to contract with a single source provider, Dr. Maria Rheaume from Stepping Stones Psychological Services for $11,000.00 for a year starting August 1, 2024 to August 30, 2025. This is part of the SAMHSA grant so it’s executing the contract so I will make that motion.

AMENDED: RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH DR. MARIA RHEAUME FOR CONSULTING SERVICES WHO WILL TRAIN SERVICE PROVIDERS IN THE AMOUNT OF $11,000.00, FOR ONE YEAR BEGINNING AUGUST 1, 2024 – AUGUST 30, 2025, WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM THE SAMHSA GRANT. Hughes, Wood

MONTY: Discussion?

GILLILLAND: Just one quick question, a concern came up in that department concerning work load and the fact that you are having to go out for, asking for contractors to come in and support work load in the department so I think one of the things we have to consider and ask and get some answers on as well maybe next week we can get this, is when we have these things I know you are saying SAMHSA grants and stuff and generally the board says, okay some other agency is going to pay for this but now we have to consider what’s the impact to every other program we are doing. My thought process is when you’re in a hole and you want to get out the first thing is drop the shovel and stop digging and I think we need to be cognizant of how much we are taking on in that department is my comment.

MASCARENAS: No, I appreciate your comment and we have been having some of those conversations with that department as we work through some of these struggles. Myself, I have a couple of your colleagues I know Mr. Smith, Mr. Hughes have certainly been assisting with trying to figure out the best way out of this current crisis we’re dealing with so comments appreciated, thank you.

DOTY: I believe part of that previous discussion was centered around 35 hour employees and maybe bumping them to 40.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, so we’re going back and forth between a couple of different resolutions right now but I can certainly speak to that. We did look at that. I did the math last week in looking at what the cost would be. It reflected about $10,000 per employee for a cost of about $120,000 or so had each employee picked up five additional hours each week. Ironically, it’s about the same cost as the contract that we’re looking at to meet that need. After speaking with Terri the department really wasn’t interested in going from that 35 to 40 so either way we are going to do a cost benefit analysis it kind of works out to be about the same. We also need to keep that in mind when we are looking at pay scales and such and make sure we are comparing apples to apples not apples to oranges because most of our comparisons that we do get from other places are doing a 40 hour work week so we’ve got to keep that in mind as well.

DOTY: Thank you.

MONTY: Terri, you put your hand up. Would you like to address the board?

MORSE: I would, thank you.

MONTY: I would like to offer the courtesy of the floor to Terri.

MORSE: Mr. Wilson thank you so much for presenting this resolution. The resolution is actually not for psychological services. The resolution is to contract with Dr. Maria Rheaume who is going to facilitate a training program for providers, schools, multiple groups who are struggling with how to provide services for individuals in our community that are what we call dual diagnosed. They have mental health and they have intellectual development disabilities so I just the conversation just kind of gone a little bit off track. So the resolution is about providing some training to our groups, various groups on how to deliver services to a certain population.

GILLILLAND: Schools? How much are the schools popping in on this?

MORSE: I will have to say that they are a very low contributor because they already have resources in their schools for providing services to the dual diagnose population so this is more about DSS, ACAP, Families First, Essex County Mental Health we are struggling. There are more individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities and neuro diversity than we were serving five, ten years ago and we’re struggling with how to do it. We are really struggling and so Dr. Rheaume is a specialist in this and so she’s creating a train the trainer program so that we can have sustainability on making sure that we are appropriately treating individuals with this presentation appropriately.

GILLILLAND: Okay I concur. Now we are doing ACAP, Families First and stuff training them are they making any money on this? We seem to always be financing for other agencies who have their own resource training. Maybe this will be an item for budget discussions.

MORSE: Right. I understand that. We have grant funding that’s available to us and we thought this was a good idea on how to use that funding to promote better services in our overall community.

MASCARENAS: Yeah I haven’t read that specific grant verbatim in terms. I have saw the budget for it. Typically when you see that combination of agencies that will benefit from a service that kind of weighs in on the scoring of grants and being able to receive that grant. I can’t tell you that I know that for certain just in my past of writing grants that county agency kind of tying together all these other different agencies that will benefit that provide that service to that clientele is probably part of the deciding factor of why you received it in the first place. Again, not promising that’s the case because I haven’t read it but just typically that’s kind of how that works. You have any idea Terri?

MORSE: Well, a system of care is just that. It’s all of the organizations that are working to provide appropriate services rather than working in some silos like we have been for many years, this is an opportunity for us to work together, smarter, more efficiently that’s the purpose of the grant. We are in our fourth year of this. So BRIEF, if you remember hearing you know we’ve made presentations about BRIEF over the last few years that’s what this is.

McNALLY: This isn’t really directed to you Terri but I was not here in 2009 and I came along a little bit later with Shaun and myself came on the board and we were there when we lowered the employee’s pay to come in and I think if you look at the facts right now or demographics our employee situation is not going to get better for the next twenty years and I think and I’ve also listened to the employees when it comes to their contract every year they want more, it’s more expensive to live I believe that but I think seriously as a board any position moving forward should be a 40 hour position. I’ve never worked a 35 work week my entire life and the employees want more money and we need them to contribute more so I think moving forward before we sign another contract we have to look at this 40 hour work week. It may not be perfect for some departments but overall, if we’re not going to get employees we need to supply a service and if that means when we hire people they are coming to work for 40 hours that’s what we have to do.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, we only have a couple of departments that aren’t, at least 37.5 so we have a number that are 37.5, we have a number that are 40, DSS is really your biggest that’s at 35 but even with some of their staffing issues when you take that number of individuals, put an extra 5 hours a week you add a lot of work load and decrease the need for additional staff so the number of hours you would add in a week would be far superior. The question is, do us going to 40 hours push out more employees that don’t want to work that additional 5 hours? And that’s where I really look to the department head to give me some advice in that and how they are dealing with their staffing on a regular basis.

McNALLY: And on the other hand, all we are going to be paying is salary we are not going to be paying, the fringe is the fringe you know, full time employees we are going to get this much benefit it’s something we really seriously have to look at because we could be sitting here five years from now with the same labor shortage.

MASCARENAS: My only concern is us making a general policy at the board level that could potentially push out more individuals that’s where I am hesitant without having a department head reassure me that those individuals being staffed will do it.

HUGHES: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Two things, one to see in terms of recruitment it might be argued that 35 hour work week is enticing to somebody who might be compared to working a 40 hour work week but that’s a conversation for another day. The second thing I want to say, I think the resolution probably could be worded better and strengthened a little bit and my recommendation for that would be to add so I’ll read it, “resolution to contract with a single source provider Dr. Maria Rheaume from Stepping Stones Psychological Services as a consultant for $11,000 from August 1, 2020 to August 31, 2025 who will train a team of service providers and yada, yada, yada” to the end of that sentence. I didn’t think it was that this was for training and as a consultant and I think if you add that that probably could answer some questions.

MORSE: Thank you.

HUGHES: Thank you.

STANLEY: Terri, could you remind me and the new supervisors what organizations are part of BRIEF?

MORSE: Oh my, there are about thirty of them on the executive committee though it would be the Probation Department, Families First, Prevention Team, ACAP, Essex County mental Health, DSS, we have an individual with a lived experience like a community member that sits on that to be an advisor I believe that’s it but Sheriff’s Department, I mean health care.

STANLEY: The reason I really ask is this BRIEF SAMHSA grant is for BRIEF and it’s for training these organizations correct? A different part of BRIEF?

MORSE: Correct.

STANLEY: Thank you.

MONTY: Going back, that was an amendment Mr. Hughes to the resolution?

HUGHES: That’s a recommendation, yes. I’m offering that amendment.

MONTY: Do I have a second? Meg Wood. Discussion on the amendment to the resolution? No discussion.

WILSON: I just wanted to bring it back to this resolution we were straying.

MONTY: Okay if there are no other questions. All in favor signify by saying aye, opposed – carried. Thank you Terri.

MORSE: Thank you very much.

MASCARENAS: You all have a list in front of you dated July 29 to Ms. Garrison regarded requested resolutions. I know we don’t like to do a number of these at ways and means as we saw by the last one that came from the floor, we prefer to do by committee however, we are in the middle of emergency declaration and it’s important that we keep DPW moving so we have eight resolutions that were submitted by Todd Hodgson and Judy, Dan how do you want to do them one at a time still?

MANNING: You can do them in mass as long as the record reflects that everyone has a copy of the July 29, 2024 letter from Mr. Hodgson and it is comprised of eight resolutions.

MONTY: Has everyone had an opportunity to review the list of resolutions from DPW to the board? Primarily, all pertaining to the FEMA storm or the storm we had that started July 15, I think it’s still going on but we’ve got eight resolutions. We can do them individually, they all pertain to the storm if it’s the board’s wishes we’ll set one resolution for all?

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE CONTRACT AMENDMENTS AND AWARD PURCHASE ORDERS AS THEY PERTAIN TO THE DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE JULY 2024 STORM ON THE LETTER DATED JULY 29, 2024 FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. McNALLY, DOTY

MONTY: Discussion?

McNALLY: This is becoming a common place all this storm damage.

MONTY: Well, you’re a democrat right? Talk to your people in Albany.

McNALLY: I don’t know if we are going to get FEMA on this?

MASCARENAS: I don’t either Mr. McNally. Shaun and I in person went up and met with DPW and our instructions were simple, we’ve got your back, do what you need to do and fix it right. So whether or not we go it alone or whether or not the State and FEMA decides to help us out, we’re going to do it right because with the frequency of these storms being what they are we’re going to be doing it again and again and again if we do not.

McNALLY: It’s to the point where if we do miss the assist of FEMA in all this what would we ever do? We could never afford this.

MONTY: My estimated damage in Lewis was $750,000, my budget last year was $990,000, if I don’t get reimbursed I’m going to move to Minerva because they are going to run me out of Lewis.

REUSSER: Elizabethtown is asking for over $6 million right now our budget is $1.8 so we cannot afford this as well.

GILLILLAND: That message is at the second floor. The ten July storms are well over $35 million dollars throughout the state so I hadn’t heard anything different or a call saying, you are not going to get it so don’t pull out your pantaloons pistol right now, hold on.

MONTY: So I shouldn’t move to Minerva right off the bat?

REUSSER: So my conversations with representatives from DSHS and FEMA have been very favorable and optimistic. The process that they described even though I was a little irritated that the Governor came in very quickly over the tornadoes south of us it was a concern to me obviously because we have a great deal going on up here that is seemingly dragging its feet is my understanding from those two departments that the process that they would have to go through to get their initial numbers in that margin is a higher burden than the tornadoes so I’m going to follow their optimism. I think we will see it.

GILLILLAND: We still have not collected completely on Hurricane Irene.

MASCARENAS: That is correct.

REUSSER: Well, they are broke. FEMA is broke. They have no money.

MASCARENAS: Haseltine Road is a 2011 project thirteen years later.

HUGHES: Todd can we expect more of these resolutions for other expenses because I’m just thinking in Essex we have that slope failure you know and that’s not on here obviously because it hasn’t been evaluated but that’s a thing. I’m just curious is there more coming along and will that add to the total or is that part of the total we have now?

HODGSON: Yes. Some of it is part of the total that we have in front of us here the $8.2 what we presented but that’s not all the projects that we have.

MASCARENAS: Yeah, I think that $8.2 was an early on projection and we continue to find problems following those initial estimates that were handed out which they will added on and then passed along to our State and Federal representatives.

HUGHES: Thank you.

GILLILLAND: This is a little bit off topic but I do recall one time the State road going to Newcomb that they couldn’t fix, they wouldn’t fix, gave every excuse in the book to fix so one of Mr. DeLoria’s predecessors George Canon, put a little bobble head of Governor Cuomo on his dash board and drove the road and YouTube it and the money came through in about 30 minutes so I would say, if this doesn’t happen we need to think creatively about how to get our message across.

HUGHES: I’ve got a video camera.

McNALLY: Fortunately we dodged this storm but we understand or I understand in ’19 we had the Halloween storm and we went through the procedures with FEMA and we did get reimbursed the state I don’t believe reimbursed their 12% but we made ourselves whole but I understand what it does for your town budget when you’re putting hundreds of thousands of dollars out with no guarantee you’re going to get reimbursed and I understand that so fortunately this time we missed the storm. We could have one tomorrow you never know but we’ve also been helping Matt my highway crew has been over in Moriah helping them out so hopefully the same thing will happen but it is scary to take your budget and to be buying hundreds of thousands of dollars for your roads and not knowing if you’re going to get reimbursed.

MONTY: Thank you Steve.

BRASSARD: I just want to say thank God that Tommy was cheap that’s all I can say because we have a good pot of money but are burning through it pretty good. Steve, thank you for sending your guys over they probably saved the Town of Moriah $100,000 you know what I mean? Easily. I’ll probably be over a million just in temporary repairs.

MONTY: Alright moving on. All in favor signify by saying aye, opposed – carried.

MASCARENAS: Alright I have one more. I handed out two pieces of paper one was a miscellaneous resolution request, requesting the amendment of the ARPA associated budget amendments that were attached. So I gave you a little summary the blue represents the ARPA projects that have been completed. The green are significantly completed or at least contracted which we have to do by the end of the year in order to be in compliance. The red, neither of those things have happened yet and basically what we are doing is we’re at the end of these contracts, I’m moving money around I want to make sure we spend the total amount. For instance we initially had $200,000 put in for solid waste that project has been closed out so we are repurposing it to other areas of need. So what you see there is hopefully a final ARPA budget and just asking you to approve that and the cost associated with that.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE AMENDED ARPA PLAN AND ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS AS ATTACHED. Doty, Tyler

MONTY: Discussion?

DOTY: Mike, remind me if you would under number three the payment to Essex County towns when that was given out does that money carry any restrictions on behalf of the towns?

MASCARENAS: Not that I am aware of. Nothing outside of the ARPA limits so anything that was an allowable cost through ARPA would be allowable through towns and for us we spent it, got credit for it, it has cost some issues for you guys in terms of the reporting mechanism because the Federal program doesn’t necessarily understand that so that has been an issue but we’ll see at the end.

DOTY: So along with that can you remind me, did the county, there were a couple different ways you qualified to use these ARPA funds. In the case of North Elba we used it as direct losses of revenue so that it was let’s say more lenient. I’m guessing that was the case with the county as well?

MASCARENAS: Absolutely. We fell under the threshold for what we received and allowances that everything that we report is based on lost revenue and we’re able to qualify to basically use that for any governmental service we deem necessary. What we elected to do was really, take those one-time purchases and not create a bigger budget gap in the future by utilizing it for services we need to provide on an annual basis and I think that was wise.

HUGHES: Correct me if I’m wrong Mike but the towns are sub recipients to the county for these funds?

MASCARENAS: Right.

HUGHES: So, is there any type of reporting that you’re going to need from the towns back to you about how we spent that money? How we budgeted?

MASCARENAS: No. If there is an audit performed on this process which I can’t imagine there is going to be because the enormity of this nationwide that you’ll be responsible for that money. I am responsible to report that I gave it you and as a sub recipient you need to follow the same guidance that we would need to follow in terms of the expenditure.

MONTY: And I don’t know if anybody else has experienced this I got a call from the Comptroller’s office about two weeks ago, they didn’t like how I tracked my ARPA funds even though the Federal one is fine, the State for the AUB wants me to track it differently so I’ve got to call and find out how they want to do it.

HUGHES: Is there a budget line number?

MONTY: Yes. Any other questions on this? No other questions, all in favor signify by saying aye, opposed – carried. Any resolutions from the floor? I do have two I’d like to offer, one is a resolution of condolence to the Donna Thompson family for her recent passing.

RESOLUTION OF CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF DONNA THOMPSON. Tyler, unanimous

MONTY: Thank you and also if you recall a little over a year ago we had a letter from Barton Mines in support of their permit application. They are requesting an amendment to their permit applications with the Park Agency and they are getting some push back and I’d like to entertain a motion to say that we are in favor of Barton Mines getting that permit.

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF BARTON MINE IN THEIR PURSUIT OF A MINING PERMIT MODIFICATION REQUEST TO NEW YORK STATE DEC AND THE ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY. Gillilland, unanimous

MONTY: Thank you. If there is no other business to come before the board we stand adjourned. Public Hearing at 11:00, Dog confinement task force at 11:30 a.m. Thank you.

As there was no further discussion to come before this ways and means committee it was adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors