TB/ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING JANUARY 09, 2025

 

TB/ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING JANUARY 09, 2025

The regular meeting of the Town Board of Cherry Valley was held on Thursday January 09, 2025 with meeting called to order at 6:49PM by Supervisor Garretson

Pledge to the Flag was said

Roll call of Officers was taken:
Tom Garretson-Supervisor P
Jim Johnson-Councilperson P
Ed VanDerwerker-Councilperson p    
Mark Cornwell-Councilperson P
Holly Waterfield-P
Highway Superintendent Marty Field-P
Mary Beth Flint-P

Reading of last month’s minutes will be dispensed of and minutes accepted as presented and or corrected.    

Presentation of invoices and payments:
HEALTH CENTER FUND
115 Ricoh USA Inc $77.86pd
116 Quill Corporation $84.58pd
117 Spectrotel $389.15pd
118 Leona Johnson $110.00pd
119 National Grid $385.71pd
120 Ricoh USA Inc $21.75pd
121 Bassett Healthcare $60,918.36pd
122 Quill Corporation $139.98pd
123 National Association of Rural Hlth Centers $450.00pd
124 Public Goods Pool $12.00pd
125 Quill Corporation $140.99pd
126 Leona Johnson $155.00pd

GENERAL FUND
253 State Comptroller $313.00pd
254 Elan Financial Services $21.59pd
255 Miller’s Cleaning Service $777.60pd
256 Hummels Office Plus $79.26pd
257 Hometown Hauling $43.25pd
258 Bruce Hall Corp. $16.69pd
259 RL Parsons Inc $1,241.91pd
260 The Daily Star $957.70pd
261 Spectrotel $388.09pd
262 Charter Communications $279.98pd
263 Charter Communications $84.95pd
264 National Grid $538.22pd
265 Cintas Corporation #121 $373.36pd
266 Tri-County Communications Inc $179.10pd
267 Fargo Overland Protection Services $120.00pd
268 Constellation Newenergy Inc $5.32pd
269 Excellus Health Plan Group $329.09pd
270 NYS Association of Towns $85.00pd
271 United Healthcare $17.65pd
272 Otsego Computer Experts $570.00pd
273 Allen Tunnel Tax Service $1,100.00pd
274 American Wholesalers $35.88pd
275 Philadelphia Insurance Company $862.00pd
276 Hummels Office Plus $132.32pd
277 Amy Garretson $498.00pd

Highway Vouchers:
Item 1 (336)
Item 3 (807-813)
Item 4 (221-224)

Councilperson VanDerwerker made a motion to accept the invoices and payments as presented, Councilperson Johnson seconded the motion.  The invoices and payments have been presented and accepted.   All in favor 5 ayes 0 nay

Presentation of Invoices and Payments:
•    Budget reviewed as well as NBT Account balances

Misc. information to the Town Clerk:
•    tsego County Sales Tax for the month of NOV $9,208.91

Community Center Alden Field and Park:
•    Biddy basketball practices and games continue
•    Annual revenue for the Community Center is $7236.00

Resolution 2025-1 Presentation of the Annual Organizational meeting of Cherry Valley

Annual Organizational Meeting of the Cherry Valley Town Board
January 2025
The Cherry Valley Town Board Meetings will be held on the 2nd Thursday of the month and will be called to order at 7 pm.
If the Town Board is unable to meet on the 2nd Thursday of the month, they will meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month.
Town Board members will begin review of the invoices and payments no later then 6:30 pm on the night of the town board meeting.
96 hours prior notice will be allowed to the Supervisor for consideration of a topic or presentation to appear on the monthly Town Board meeting agenda.
The Rules of Procedure for the monthly Town Board meeting are as follows:
Call to Order
Pledge to the Flag — (all are requested to stand)
Roll Call of Officers
1    . Minutes of the last Monthly Meeting - on file with the Town Clerk
2    Presentation of Monthly Invoices and Payments
3    Monthly Budget Review and NBT Account Balance Review
4    Misc. Information to the Town Clerk
5    Community Center / Alden Fields and Park
6    Misc. Information and Updates
7    Health Center
8    Town Facilities
9    Community Facilities Corp / Old School
10    Village
11    Town Planning
12    Highway Department
13    Federal / State / County
Public Questions, Comments, and Concerns    2 minute limit per request
Adjourn
Contact information for the Town Supervisor is as follows:
Tom Garretson Supervisor - Town of Cherry Valley 356 Mill Road - Cherry valley - NY - 13320 cvsupervisorgarretson@yahoo.com
Phone: 607-349-3518
The Town Supervisor will serve as the Town Budget Officer.
The Budget Officer is authorized to pay employees, insurance, utility, communication and any other due invoices prior to the review and approval of the town board.
The Budget Officer will provide all paid invoices with attached check stubs for monthly town board audit review and approval.
The Budget Officer will provide proof of any voided, damaged or destroyed check.
The Town Clerk will stamp all Resolutions, Local Laws, and Payment Acceptance Agreements with the Official Town of Cherry Valley Stamp
One copy of each stamped document will be provided to the Town Supervisor.
Appointed and elected paid positions that are vacant will be advertised in the official town newspaper with a request of letters of interest sent to:
Thomas Garretson - Town Supervisor - 356 Mill Road - Cherry Valley — 13320
The following positions have been appointed, reappointed and [or reemployed for 2025
Town Health Officer    Elletta Horth    $200
Registrar of Vital Statistics    Mary Beth Flint    
Deputy Town Clerk    Kevin Flint    
Youth Program Coordinator    Deb Whiteman    
Deputy Supervisor    Amy Garretson    
Youth / Swim Program Director    Deb Whiteman    $1,000
Town Attorney    Will Green    $6,500
Town Assessor    Kassandra Cade Laymon    $10,000
Dog Control Officer    Jarid Johnson    $3,500
Town Historian    Susan Miller    $370
Town Tax Collector    Mary Beth Flint    $2,600
Community Center Director    Mary Beth Flint    $4,200
Community Center Custodian    Kevin Flint    $4,200
Court Clerk    Nicole Vanderwerker    $5,000
Town Highway Employees    per hour    $26.00
Town Highway Overtime    per hour    $39.00
Part Time Employees    per hour    $25.00
Swim Instructors    per day    $45.00
The following are elected paid positions for 2025    
Town Supervisor / Budget Officer    Tom Garretson    $16,000
Town Clerk    Mary Beth Flint    $14,000
Town Councilperson    Jim Johnson    $3,000
Town Councilperson    Mark Cornwell    $3,000
Town Councilperson    Ed Vanderwerker    $3,000
Town Councilperson    Holly Waterfield    $3,000
Town Superintendent of Highway    Martin Field    $56,000
Town Justice    Chris Barown    $15,000

The following institutions and organizations will receive monetary contributions in 2025
Cherry Valley American Legion    $560
Cherry Valley Library    $0
Cherry Valley Museum    $10,300
Cherry Valley Firemen's Auxiliary    $150
Cherry Valley Fish and Game Club    $300
Cherry Valley Fire Department — Company No. 1    $300
Cherry Valley Facilities Corporation — Town Clerk Office Rent    $3,600
Cherry Valley Artworks    $2,050
Salt and Sand Shed / Recyclables Transfer Station land lease    $3,000
The Official Town Newspaper will be The Daily Star.
The Official Town Bank will be the Cherry Valley branch of NBT
Town business travel reimbursement will be $0.75 per mile
A Petty Cash fund in the amount of $200 is granted to the Town Clerk.
A Petty Cash fund in the amount of $200 is granted to the Superintendent of Highways
The Superintendent of Highways is authorized to purchase equipment and replacement parts prior to the review and approval of the town board, not to exceed $5,000
The Superintendent of Highways will provide the Supervisor with overtime hours per highway employee no later then 4pm on Wednesday of the payroll week.
The Town Supervisor will provide the Community Center Director with an annual budget and provide monthly updates of revenue and expense.
The Cherry Valley Community Center Director will be responsible for organizing and conducting an annual meeting with all parties involved with the use and maintenance of the Community Center and Alden Fields.
The Town Supervisor will serve as Chairman of the Cherry Valley Health Center Board.
The Town Supervisor will provide the Cherry Valley Health Center Board with an annual budget and provide monthly updates of revenue and expense.
The Board of Assessment Review will consist of the following paid individuals
Brian Haig    $250
Edward Harvey    $250
Kim Thompson    $250

The Town Planning Board will consist of the following non paid individuals
Frank McGrath
William Compton
Ellen LaSalle
Dave Cornelia
Marissa Jordan
The 2025 fringe benefit package for full time town employees is as follows
2    weeks vacation for 1 to 10 years of service
3    weeks vacation for 10 to 20 years of service
4    weeks vacation for 20 or more years of service
12 holidays - can be used on a floating basis — no carry over
120 hours of paid time off — these hours can be used for sickness, personal, and bereavement — carry over is limited to 1440 hours
Town paid medical, dental and vision insurance coverage is available to full time employees — town paid medical, dental and vision insurance is not available to employees that chose the op-out program. (details below)
An op-out insurance program is available to full time employees - proof of other health insurance coverage is required — the annual op-out payment is $12,000.
Cintas work clothes provided daily to the highway department employees
Sick days that have been carried over, will not be paid to the employee when the employee retires. However, the employee can contact NYS Retirement and will be able to use those accumulated sick days toward their retirement plan.

Motion to accept Resolution 2025-1 is made by Councilperson Cornwell and 2nd by Councilperson VanDerwerker.  Roll call vote is taken:  Supervisor Garretson-yes, Councilperson Johnson-yes, Councilperson VanDerwerker-yes, Councilperson Cornwell-yes and Councilperson Waterfield-yes 5-ayes 0-nays  Resolution 2025-1 is duly carried.

Resolution 2025-2 Planning Board to five member board.

Proposed Action:  A seven member to five member planning board

Whereas, The Town and Village of Cherry Valley currently have a joint planning board of seven members, and

Whereas, In recent years it has been difficult to maintain a seven member planning board

Now, therefore be it resolved, The Town and Village of Cherry Valley will have a joint planning board of five members.

Motion to accept Resolution 2025-2 is made by Councilperson Johnson 2nd by Councilperson Waterfield
Roll call vote is taken:  Supervisor Garretson-yes, Councilperson Johnson-yes, Councilperson VanDerwerker-yes, Councilperson Cornwell-yes and Councilperson Waterfield-yes 5-ayes 0-nays  Resolution 2025-2 is duly carried.

Health Center:  
•    Supervisor Garretson explained to the public present how we got to this point with the Health Center.  Supervisor Garretson approached the Health Center board in the middle of last year and basically stated the funds are not there to keep the health center open.  The HC board encouraged the Town Board to put enough funding into the budget to keep the doors open until the end of 2025.  So, the Board agreed.  The HC revenue will be monitored this coming year to see if the revenue is there to keep the HC doors opened and if the revenue is not there at the end of 2025 the HC will have to close.  The history we have had with the HC spans 5 generations and this board feels they made the right decision to provide the funding to give the HC a chance.

Village:
•    Town and Village Board Minutes and info- www.cherryvalleyny.us

Public Questions, Comments and concerns…………..2 minute limit per request

Questions/Comments=Public present
Answer SG=Supervisor Garretson
HC=Health Center
TB=Town Board

Public comments are as follows:

Question: Has the HC ever made money?  Answer SG: It has been about 25 years since revenue equals expense.  The HC is not going to make money but the hope is the revenue coming in will be greater to offset the taxes.  

Question:  Does this mean the taxes will not be an additional huge amount next year?  Answer SG: This board will not raise taxes next year.  This was basically a hail Mary pass and we are going to see if this works to save the HC.
Question:  Will the taxes go down?  Answer SG:  If the HC closes taxes will go down.

Question:  Will the taxes go down 40%?  Answer SG:  Taxes went up by 26%.  The billing system at the HC is an old DOS system and the billing cannot be sent electronically.  All the places we have to send for reimbursement are doing this electronically.  Last year we have been working on putting a new billing system in place.

Question:  Has an audit been done?  Answer SG:  Every year.

Question:  How much money does it cost to run the HC.  Answer SG:  The expense for the HC is roughly $800,000.

Statement:  I think why everyone is upset and me as well is that kind of tax increase was shocking, I didn’t feel like we were invited to be part of the process for a decision that huge.  Letting go of a HC that is near and dear to many of us.  This is something we would have wanted to be included in to see the numbers to see if to make sure there was an outside audit not just an internal audit.  Internal audits can be sketchy.  We need an outside audit done on the HC.  Answer SG:  An outside audit is done every year.  It is a company the HC uses every year.  SG apologizes that we need to do a better job of getting information out to the public.  The Town Board meetings are open to the public and they have been on the 2nd Thursday of each month for the past 50 years.  Going forward SG will make sure the agenda is out there before the meeting and copies of resolutions online, at the post office, the Town Clerk office, etc.  

Question:  Is the total budget for the Town $2.2 million dollars a year?  Is that accurate?  Answer SG:  Yes that is correct.  Is $800,000 pretty accurate for the HC alone?  SG-yes So 1/3 is going for the HC alone?  SG-yes  This increase this year is that going to include the $350,000 bond the Town took out to cover the deficit is that included in the $800,000 or is $350,000 separate?  Answer SG:  The bond payment is separate.  So, in addition to $800,000 there is an additional payment of $350,000?  Answer SG:  No, the $350,000 is for back invoices that Bassett Hospital finally sent over for payment.  $800,000 is a regular year operating expense.  The $350,000 is for the back invoices.  Question:  Is that why we got the increase of X amount % to cover that $350,000?  Answer SG:  No, it is a combination of expenses.  It is to cover the implementation of the new billing system and to basically make a bond payment.  Question:  How many years are we going to make a bond payment?  Answer SG:  5 years.  Question:  So, we can assume this increase is going to happen every year?  Answer SG:  No  Question:  How long are we absorbing that $350,000 tab?  Answer SG:  Basically, invoices that should have been paid 2-3 years ago.  Statement:  So, this is basically a back payment and that’s it?  Answer SG:  Exactly  There are 2 bonds payment budgeted for the coming year that will be finished up next year so basically the bond payment of the HC will take its place.  It is budgeted in.  We do not need extra money for the bond payment.  The increase in taxes was to get the new billing system up and running for this year.

Question:  If you are being audited by an outside auditor how is it that we have been in arears?  How is it that this debt exists at all if we have been audited every year?  Where did this money come from that you are just finding out that you owe this debt?  Or have you known for some time that this is owed?  Answer SG:  It was around COVID SG asked Bassett if the Town could get a break?  About that time the invoices stopped coming.  SG thought Bassett is giving us a break.  SG stated what he should have done was set that money aside, the $65,000 a month, and saved it.  

Question:  Revenue for the clinic versus expenditures you come up with $447,185 short for 2024.  So how does that $447,185 will that be covered with part of that $350.000.  Answer SG:  The HC asked how much revenue is needed to keep the doors open and SG came up with the number $500,000 dollars.  Statement so revenue for 2024 from the HC was approximately $208,000 for 2024.

Question how can the HC take in more money if they deny taking new patients?  Answer SG addressed this with the HC.  There is a list at the HC of patients to reestablish.  A letter went out to patients to reestablish.  The HC went back 5 years to compile the letter list.  It is possible some patients slipped through the cracks.

Question when the HC was started wasn’t it supposed to be self-sufficient and no tax money was going to be put into expenditures?  When did this change?  Answer SG:  25 years ago, revenue stopped meeting expense.  Previous Supervisor had to bond in his last 2 terms.  Statement:  How many other towns are being taxed for the HC?  Just Cherry Valley.  All the patients that come to the HC from outside of the Town and they don’t get billed nothing.  Answer SG:  When the HC started back in the late ‘70’s there were 4 towns involved with the HC each town contributed to expenses until the auditors found out.  Each town got audited they were told by the auditors they cannot do this as it is co-mingling of funds the lawyers got involved, previous Supervisor, Bob Loucks stated “the hell with ya” he would take over the HC himself.  So, he did so that is what happened.  The other 3 towns went away.

Statement the patients are still coming.  My taxes went up $1,000 and I didn’t budget for that and that is astronomical.  You’re taxing us right out of our homes.  Not just you but the whole government.  We don’t have the income here to afford that 40% increase.  I just think we could have worked together a little more to help.  We can’t absorb an increase for other townships to come in.  Answer SG:  I went to our attorney and asked why can’t we charge more for out of town patients?  You can’t deny service and you can’t bill differently.  The attorneys stated the law suit will cost more than what you are going to gain in revenue.  Donations would be different.

Statement I was here tonight to listen and I don’t have time to come to every board meeting otherwise I would run for the Board, I do read the minutes online routinely.  There is nothing in the minutes from August forward stating the increase, then I noticed in the October minutes there was hearing with no comments from the public.  The September minutes did not state there would be a Public Hearing in October.  It’s talked a little bit in the November minutes and the December minutes.  Then it was in my tax bill and that surprise was what I was concerned with.  
Answer SG:  We will be more transparent with the HC revenue and billing moving forward.  Question you are talking about implementing a new billing system, we are already into January and have not signed a contract, how much faith do you have getting this up and running properly going to recognize enough revenue to support this making a legitimate decision prior to the end of the year?  Answer SG:  I think with the right training and I think it will be up and running in a month we are that close.  The HC is a Town owned and operated system.  The 2 Nurse Practioners, 2 nurses and 2 medical office assistants get paid by Bassett.  Bassett sends an invoice once a month and we pay the invoice.  There is one Town employee the Town pays.  Bassett has an EPIC system that is 3 parts; med records, registration and its billing.  The med record part and the registration part are used by the HC at no additional cost.  The billing part of the system is not used by the HC.  So, the Town is going to a third party billing system called Athena,  Athena has to be able to read the EPIC system.  This is called a scoping process so the two systems can talk to each other.

Question:  Did we leave money on the table in the past?  Answer SG:  It is possible. I have to believe with the DOS system we weren’t capturing everything.  Question:  So, the auditors did not catch that we weren’t getting the money that was owed to us?  Answer SG:  I don’t think they were looking for that part.

Question:  Did you push back on Bassett on the bills they stopped sending us and get a lawyer and fight that?  Answer SG:  I did not.  Statement:  They got COVID money to subsidize their operations.  So why weren’t they sending the bills?  Answer SG:  Bassett changes hands so frequently one person didn’t know what the other is doing.  Not an excuse but an explanation.

Question:  Have you tried to negotiate pennies on the dollar like giving them 50%?  Have we given them the money?  Answer SG:  No  Statement why don’t you investigate that possibility.  If they don’t have their billing system correct and they did not bill us there is a 90% chance the numbers are wrong.  Push back on it don’t just pay it.

Comment the 2016 audit questioned the wisdom of the Town being in the health care business.  The center itself has never made a dime, each year the debt grows by $100,000 and you are offering the opportunity to lose another $800,000.  When do you make the decision that is inevitable.  People will still have options; they can use the Sharon Springs HC.  I had to go over there because after living here for 27 years in this Town the HC here refused to take me.  But the Town takes my money.  That is unjust if not illegal.  It is certainly morally and ethically wrong.  Sharon Springs incurs no liability having that HC in the middle of their Town.   Why do we have a HC here in Cherry Valley?  Why throw away another $800,000 Answer SG:  Because the Town Board felt it was the right thing to do.

Question:  The surrounding HC are owned by Bassett is this something that can be considered for the Cherry Valley HC?  Answer SG:  We can’t be owned by Bassett.  When I was elected in 2005 I asked for a meeting in 2006 with Bassett.  I talked with some very important people and told them I will have a hard enough time running a Town let alone a HC will you(Bassett) take it over?  They said no.  They want us to survive because it is guaranteed income for Bassett.  Statement:  we are the only clinic owned and operated by the Town.  Technically speaking we cost Bassett nothing because the Town if paying for us and they are getting all of our business.  It feels like extortion.  I have been an employee there for over 20 years, I have lived in Cherry Valley for over 50 years.  As far as being on the electronic medical records, now they want to charge us for it.  Basically, we cannot turn away patients that are not from Cherry Valley that is against the law.  We accept Medicare and Medicaid.  There are only 2 providers and they can only see so many patients.  There is a limit to how many they can see.  We cannot charge a surcharge.

Comment:  I think we as a Town we have a position of strength when it comes to going to Bassett.  You said 20 years ago they said no you have to run it.  They have changed hands 3 times and their billing has been askew.  When you said in COVID we would like a break.  They got PPE money what did they do with it.  They want to make money off of us and if we go to them and say, there is a lot of screwy stuff going on who do we talk to and make this happen?  Is Bassett going to shut down this clinic in this adorable Town?  I think we have grounds to fight this.  Even implementing the new billing system is a sign we are trying to do the right thing, but we cannot come up with that kind of money.  This is taking over the whole Town budget and we need to take care of other Town needs such as our plow guys and our highways to be taken care of.

Question:  Have you reached out to the other Township and asked them to contribute and put this in their budgets each year?  Answer SG:  Who do you start with the original 3?  The problem is we have people coming from several different towns.  Yes we could send something out to these Towns to see if they would contribute, however we had the legal issue already in the past.  Donations to the HC are the only legal way to get around this.

Question:  Is there a correlation between more patients and more debt?  Answer by public present:  Not necessarily, depends on how they are reimbursed by the insurance companies.  Answer SG:  No basically the expense part is the monthly invoice by Bassett for the 6 employees.  It doesn’t go by the number of patients.  Residents are getting turned away because they cannot fit them in.  There is only so many patients the providers can see.  SG spoke with Eletta and stated this is the biggest concern is that our own residents cannot get in to be seen.  There is a list at the HC to try and make an effort to see town residents.  Please stop by the HC and get on that list.

Question:  What can we do as a community to get money to keep this HC open?  Because it is such a vital part of this community.  Answer SG:  I have reached out to Senator Oberacker and he is working on his end to see if there is funding for rural HC.  I have reached out to the Scriven Foundation.  This is part of the Clark foundation.  Meeting with them at the end of February.  Can we reach out to people who would want to donate to us to keep this rural HC going?

Al Konchar stated he would be willing to go to Albany to speak with the Governor and see if she is willing to throw some money our way.  How about postponing our tax date for the end of January to the end of March so we have a chance to resolve this.  Answer SG:  The HC has a chance to prove itself in the next year.  Comment:  this business hasn’t been viable for 25 years.  Giving it another year, what are they going to do to fix it?  I have been in business for companies for 50 years and if you have a facility that isn’t making money in 2 or 3 years and there isn’t a plan to fix it, it doesn’t happen.  You have to have a plan to fix it.  Answer SG:  this is a last resort for the HC.  Once that door closes it will probably never open again.  This Board felt we at least needed to try.

Question:  The providers can barely meet the needs of the patients they are currently seeing now how are they going to be able to take on more patients?  Answer SG:  the 2 providers are working as hard as they can and we are hoping with the new electronic billing system things will turn around.

Question:  Besides the increase on taxes for the HC what else is in the budget that has caused this increase?  Answer SG:  Insurance went up 15% to cover the buildings and equipment.  

TB Councilmember Cornwell stated the question is what percentage of the HC increased the budget? Answer CP Cornwell is 70-75% by my calculations.

Question:  As regular attendees we will find out in the course of the year how much you will be paying to Bassett.  Answer SG:  you will here it every month.  Question:  How much debt are you willing to incur before it is time to pull the band aid off?  Answer SG:  We already have this is it.  Comment:  If it were more than 5 years for the bond there would have to be a public referendum.  The pubic could decide to keep the HC open.  Comment SG:  If the HC is trending towards that $500,000 goal and we get a vote from the public to shut the HC down that isn’t fair either.  The thing about referendums is be careful what you wish for it could go the other way.

Question:  What if the HC were abandoned.  What would Bassett do?  Comment from public present:  They don’t want us that is why SG has leverage.  They don’t want anymore patients.  He has so much leverage over Bassett right now.  Bassett doesn’t want Cherry Valley to come there, they just fired over 100 people they have now bandwidth.  They got COVID money, they didn’t bill us, they didn’t even know how much to bill us.  You could go in there and push back so hard on Bassett and say we don’t want to pay.  We are doing them a favor and we are acting like we are subservient to them.  We need to push on them.  Figure out how much Bassett spends on the satellite clinic in Sharon Springs and its probably 10X what they are spending on Cherry Valley.  We are doing them a favor.  They didn’t have to build a building they don’t have to hire janitors; you are the customer.  Answer SG:  The reason I don’t want to push back to much with Bassett because we need to work with them to get this billing system working.

Comment:  No, we don’t you can privatize it and not work with Bassett.  There is a private practice in Richfield Springs right now that doesn’t work through Bassett.  They hired a billing company and they run it themselves.  It’s a successful new business.  They take insurance and are taking new patients.  There are all kinds of competitive products out there.  Get it off your plate and privatize the HC.  You need a software company a payroll company.  You can send your blood work to Bassett they will be happy to get that business.  You could do this within 60 days.

SG is interested in this proposal and will look into this option.

Comment:  Get Bassett to back off.  It is not our problem that Bassett forgot to send the invoices.  You can bankrupt the HC and then you won’t have to pay the invoices.  The fact that they did not bill in a timely manner is not our problem.

We have spent a good part of the evening speculating how to get money, it begs the question if our tax dollars are due at the end of the month to take care of Bassett what happens if our highway department has a truck that needs to be repaired do we have emergency funding to fix it?  We have a law suit going on with the Town with the solar situation how are we paying attorneys?  We know nothing about the state of HC in America and here we are in the business of HC in our little town, how are we going to be solvent for 2025?  How do we stop the bleed.  I feel we are rather maxed.  Was the attorney present to float this bond?  Answer SG:  the attorney has to float the estoppel.  Since we owe them money for the invoices Bassett can stop the process for the billing system.  

Comment:  There is a company called TEBRA that will do all three things.

Question:  What would be the process be if the public wanted a voting referendum to diverse from the Health Care system and privatize it?  How does the public approach the Board about setting up a vote for the public?  Answer SG:  Right now, we are going to see if the HC can generate extra revenue.  Comment:  Didn’t you say that this increase in taxes won’t be in place next year if they don’t make it next year?  Answer SG:  We want to keep the HC up and running until we privatize it.  Question: Should the public decide with a vote to keep HC open or close it a good idea?  Comment:  having the public vote on something without knowing all the facts can be detrimental as well.

SG will approach Eletta and Rachel and see if they are interested in going private.  Comment:  sell them the entire contents of the building.  Make it as easy as possible to buy it.  The tax increase you just got you could pay off the bond with that if we privatize.

Comment:  If Rachel and Eletta decide to stay it would make keeping the HC more palatable.

Eletta was interested last year about purchasing the building when the subject of closing the HC was brought up.

SG asked Lisa Hershey if getting two businesses working against each other would be beneficial?  Absolutely.

Question:  If someone were to take over the HC and privatize with our diverse age group how would the insurance billing work?  Comment:  the program spoke about before tries to capture as much money as possible from the insurance company and a collection department to go after the bad debt.  You can sell your bad debt.A





Motion made by Councilperson Cornwell to adjourn the meeting 2nd by Councilperson Waterfield

There being no further business meeting adjourned at 8:08PM.

Next Town Board meeting will be Thursday, February 13, 2025 7:00PM

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Beth Flint, Town Clerk
Town Board meeting was recorded