Enhancement
Committee
Chairman
P. Riva opened the meeting at 7:00.
Motion
made to accept the minutes of April 2004 made by N. Seeburger, seconded by D. Holland.
Vote
Taken and Passed.
Façade
Plan – Subcommittee
meeting is this Sat at her house w/ Erin
Rollins at 9:30
am. Erin
got more historical info. Sample façade
easement was submitted to P. Riva for files, future grants.
Connie Clapp will help us with contacts with State Office of Parks,
Recreation and Historic Preservation. Erin
hopes to have plan ready by July, hope to provided. Vicki
and Mimi will follow up w/ payment for Pig Farm photo.
Wassaic
sidewalk - Mark
Morrison has not yet followed up w/ vocabulary of furniture.
Electric Company met w/ Bonnie, according to B. Carroll and will follow up. Will come to Town workshop or Town Board meeting to
talk about what kind of lighting enhancement committee is looking for. Is a pole that would look better if it were moved
to opposite side of the road. Morrison: Knows old lights on poles that are DOT approved,
and provide electric for Christmas lights. B.
Carroll will let P. Riva know what can be done w/ NYSEG.
Motion
made for enhancement committee to actively coordinate aesthetics, designs compatible with
Morrison design made by J. Devine, seconded by K. Dunlop.
VOTE
TAKEN AND PASSED.
Sign
Ordinance
- Barbara Wrobel wrote a letter to Marco Sartori about what she feels are excessive, some
illegal and unaesthetic signs at Cascade Winery plaza.
J. Devine said it is hard to legislate good taste, pertaining to signs. We could look at ordinance and improve with
comprehensive plan and ordinance adoption. Matter
is primarily now for Code Enforcement Officer who will make the decision of legality.
Diana
King – signs of Cascade Winery impinge upon North
Street. Looks tacky. Pizza
parlor entitled to three big signs. Originally
when approved, Sartoria put up an attractive sign board listing businesses – used to
work fine. Comments better off with Code
Enforcement Officers.
Plantings
– what funding might be available? Dolores
suggested that Townscape funds might be used for plantings.
Stone walls: D. Holland
and P. Riva know masons who could bid for stonework. D.
Holland
submitted name and address of mason. J. Devine
spoke to W. Euvrard. What are pros and cons of
having separate checking acct?
D.
Holland
should townscape money should be used and rolled into Enhancement
Motion
made that Town use the Townscape money for Enhancement use, made by N.
Seeburger,
seconded by K. Dunlop
VOTE
TAKEN AND PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
Streetscape
– May 12, 10
am
site visit w/ DOT Jim Rapoli and Hart. Meet at
Town Hall. Nan
is interested in lowering the speed limit on East
Main St. Town Board might look into getting speed limit
reduced. J. Clark suggested bumpouts and trees
for traffic calming. Nan: Let’s not wait for bumpouts. Crosswalks are helpful with pedestrian crossing
signs. Jim has seen the plans and is happy
about plan.
FoodTown: FoodTown share plans to undertake façade
renovation of shops, and moving steel fence to an appropriate location. Then will open 40-acre field. Could open discussion of getting right of way to
get access from downtown to FoodTown. DOT will
allow walkway through wetland if properly built. Katz
brothers assured Riva would cover cost of easement and walkway. D. Holland
has contact with EIS which has done walkway. Riva: Foodtown is supposed to provide new site plan,
could be included in whole site plan approval process.
Tech
Fair – Garett Corcoran: date
approved w/ Silo Ridge Mar. 25, but prefers later Friday, April or so. Lots of vendors want to come again. Great success.
Next year want more sponsors, more attendance.
Saturday might be better for business people?
Telecommuters, according to Riva, should be enabled, enticed to Amenia, get
kids from Webutuck to provide booth. Bad time
for private schools, avoid spring break. Garrett: Should be joint effort by Town Board, Hlm Vly
partnership (Town increase support to provide more assistance in fundraising). Town could also be a sponsor of fair.
Communic.
& Dev. Subcommittee
– Nan Seeburger - Top priority to invite Garritt Corcoran. Will get to this.
Past, still dealing with URL’s of town website, no T. Bd. Minutes, T.
Bd. Notices. Please supply e-mail of minutes. Comp., Enhance., Tech. & Rec. Jim will talk to Julia about T. Bd. Minutes.
Flags
– Riva: Purchase extra flags. Businesses sponsored extras. Have no plan for putting flags in Amenia. Have no year-long plan for hanging of flags. Need to decide on plan today, fly flags by May 30. DOT safety rep. here on Tues. – should ask
then. J. Devine discussed this with Ann –
how get symmetry? Firemen have pipes installed
in sidewalk. Want to coordinate 8 Amenia flags
on one side of street interspersed with American flags.
Devine: will ask fire company to
put these up and take down for parades, etc. Cast
metal brackets should be purchased along w/ decent poles.
Can’t leave them for long. Steve
Benardete: Best way to have uniform and
consistent manner for flying, need to ask them for $10 and volunteer to install for
owners. Riva:
There was some resistance from owners. Devine
thought 16 might be used. Road signs will be
taken care of by Riva, perhaps with Eschbach.
Townscape
– D. Holland said there are 3 weeks before planting should be done. Red and white would be nice. Amenia Nurseries will supply petunias. Maryann will put out release for planting. Usually Sat. before Memorial Day. Sat. May 22 at 10am,
meeting at Four Brothers. 80 buckets planted. 3 buckets are broken, Stan should take away.
Subcommittees
– not giving reports prior to monthly meetings.
Grants
– Lisa Coon - Preservation League – Cultural Resource, Historic Structures
Historic
Structure Report, cultural landscape – should go to Dave Shufelt
Architecture
and Design Grant
NYSERDA
for industrial lighting
OPRHP
Taylor
Pyne
Acquisition
– Pat, K. Dunlop and Herb met at Brookside. Report to follow.
Street
Trees - Richard Poole, Guest–
G. Fenn asked about planting trees in the parking lot at FoodTown. A long planting strip might be preferable to type
of planters as shown was used in McClean. With
snow, might need posts to show where trees are. Rearrangement
at back of parking lot would need adjustment as well.
6’ hole is adequate for mature tree as long as good dirt is used, and
hope to have reasonable dirt below, not hard packed. With
2’ feet of topsoil. Large planters could
also, Willow,
oak both resistant to pollution or male ginko. P.
Riva thanked him for providing example. How
many trees planted in McLean
– planted about 5,000 trees and bushes. Made
money by sponsoring newspaper recycling. Company
who owns bins pays us by the tons.
Meeting
adjourned. Next meeting is June 2 at 7
PM.
Respectfully
submitted by,
Vicki
Doyle |