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Reports for Village Board Meeting: Monday, September 8, 2025

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    Reports for Village Board Meeting: Monday, September 8, 2025
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Amy Smith

Reports for Village Board Meeting: Monday, September 8, 2025

Water Department

The mayor gave the report on the Water Department meeting. I can report on water usage and testing results. The usage report included in our binders appears to indicate a sharp reduction in water usage; however, those numbers are a result of a change in which flow meter was used to collect the data.

H20 Innovations is now overseeing the Water Treatment Plant and they pulled flow data from a meter that captures only a portion of the actual usage. Thus, the report shows roughly 3.3 million gallons of treated water for an average of just over 100,000 gallons per day. However, there is no reason to believe that the Village’s water consumption dropped by two-thirds in the past month.

Three locations were sampled on August 28, 2025. All three locations were negative for Coliform and E. coli. The free chlorine residual amounts ranged from .08 mg/liter to .13 mg/liter.

Grants

Since our last meeting I contributed to the writing of the WIIA grant on this meeting’s agenda. I’ve also been researching possible grants to fund improvements to the wetlands near the WTTP.

In my August report, I talked about the opportunity of a grant from Hudson River Valley Greenway. Initially, we were focused on the option of applying for a $20,000 Greenway Community grant to fund a community visioning process. Nelson, Pope and Voorhies followed up with a proposal on how they might support and develop such a process. In reviewing their proposal and considering how the Village might best prepare for community engagement of this sort, I recognized some intermediate steps needed to make the visioning process more truly productive. In the past 4 years, as part of preparation for a NY Forward grant process, the Village has heard most about the community’s general interests surrounding the Village center. Residents, business owners, and users of the Village center talked about crosswalks, wider sidewalks, more spaces that looked nice, slower/quieter traffic and so on. To take visioning to the next step the Village needs more specific ideas and projects around which to focus community engagement. However, the Village does not yet have the professional reports and proposals needed to move the visioning forward.

The Greenway Compact Grants provide up to $50,000 for projects that support the compact’s values. The single issue we have the most documented community interest in and support for has been improvements to the Village center that would increase pedestrian safety, reduce traffic speeds, and add plantings within the central business area, I think a better option for

where the Village is currently at would be to use a Greenway Compact Grant to pay for the services of professionals in streetscaping, traffic flow and sidewalk engineering.

Changes between versions

2026-04-09→2026-04-13
minor edit+10 −53

The document was condensed from a full formal resolution into a summary of its WHEREAS and RESOLVED clauses.

  • Document date changed from 2026-04-09 to 2026-04-13
  • Removed WHEREAS clause regarding Trustee Uku's requests for financial information since February 18, 2026
  • Removed formal header, signature blocks, voting table, and attestation by Clerk Jennifer Cavanaugh
  • Reshaped content from a complete legal resolution to a condensed list of clauses
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PreparedWHEREAS with AI assistance from Claude & Google Search. **VILLAGE OF RED HOOK RESOLUTION #___ – 2026 DATEDclauses: APRIL 13, 2026** ## **RESOLUTION REQUESTING SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION FOR THE PROPOSED SEWER OPERATIONS BUDGET** **WHEREAS,** - the Chief Budget Officer has submitted a proposed budget for sewer operations for the upcoming fiscal year; and **WHEREAS,** - the current fiscal year sewer operations budget of approximately $160,000 has experienced cost overruns of at least $175,000; and **WHEREAS,** Trustee Uku has been requesting sewer fund financial information from the Chief Budget Officer and Treasurer since February 18, 2026, without receiving the written documentation requested; and **WHEREAS,** - the proposed budget does not include an explanation of the methodology, assumptions, or calculations underlying individual line items; and **WHEREAS,** - given the magnitude of the current year’'s overruns, the Board has a responsibility to scrutinize both the proposed figures and the basis on which they were developed before adopting a sewer operations budget; **NOW, RESOLVED THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED** by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Red Hook as followsclauses: **1.** - The Board requests that the Chief Budget Officer provide, for each line item in the proposed sewer operations budget,: the following: (a) The basis for the projected amount, including whether it reflects actual current-year spending, vendor quotes, contractual obligations, engineering estimates, or other sources. (b) The assumptions underlying the projection, including anticipated equipment condition, service levels, and any planned capital or maintenance work incorporated into operating costs. (c) The degree of certainty or variability in the projection, specifically how much of the line item is fixed or contractually committed versus estimated, and what range of outcomes should be expected if conditions differ from assumptions. (d) A comparison to current-year actual spending for the same line item, with an explanation of any material variance between the proposed figure and current-year actuals. **2.** - This information shall be provided to the Board in writing no later than the April 27, 2026 workshop meeting, in sufficient time for the Board to review and discuss prior to adoption of the budget. **3.** - If any provision of this resolution is held invalid, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. **4.** - This resolution shall take effect immediately. Seconded by: __________________ Motion by: ____________________ The foregoing resolution was duly put to a vote, which resulted as follows: |Mayor Smythe|□Aye|□Nay|□Abstain|□Recuse|□Absent/Excused| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Deputy Mayor Kjarval|□Aye|□Nay|□Abstain|□Recuse|□Absent/Excused| |Trustee Uku|□Aye|□Nay|□Abstain|□Recuse|□Absent/Excused| |Trustee Allen|□Aye|□Nay|□Abstain|□Recuse|□Absent/Excused| |Trustee Rothstein|□Aye|□Nay|□Abstain|□Recuse|□Absent/Excused| |Vote Total|||||| |Result|Motion:||||| I hereby attest that the above Resolution was approved by the Board of Trustees at its April 13, 2026 meeting, and that I have been authorized to sign this Resolution by decision of the Board of Trustees. Jennifer Cavanaugh, Clerk Date

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