■ The Nelsonville Village Board met on Wednesday (May 21) after shifting its monthly meetings from Mondays and moving the start time to 7 p.m.
■ The board agreed to renew its legal services contract with Keane & Beane for $225 per hour. The contract runs from June 1 to May 31, 2026, and represents a win for the village because the firm had considered raising its hourly fee, said Mayor Chris Winward.
■ The board approved a one-year, $40,760 contract with the Cold Spring Fire Co. and an agreement with the Elizabeth Todd Healy Trust to repair a swale and stone wall at 501 Lane Gate Road to improve drainage on Healy Road, which was damaged by flooding in the July 2023 storms. Under a $414,205 contract approved in March, Sun Up Construction Corp. of Wappingers Falls is widening and repatching the road, crowning a section and installing catch basins, a drainage pipe, curbs and swales. The state and federal government are covering 87.5 percent of the cost.
■ One contract Nelsonville did not renew was for street maintenance, including snow plowing. The current three-year contract is ending, and the only bidder wanted $80,000, far more than the $26,100 being spent in the current fiscal year. “We expected some increase, but we didn’t expect a $54,000 increase,” said Winward. The village could split the contract into two, for winter and summer operations.
■ Discussions are underway with Philipstown on an intermunicipal agreement (IMA) that would cover emergencies. Because the town does not cut grass, the village is soliciting quotes for that service, Winward said. “As soon as we get these quotes in this week, we hope to select a lawn crew and go from there,” she said. “By the next meeting [in June], we hope to have an IMA with Philipstown.”
■ Village Clerk Melissa Harris reported that several accounts that were over their budgeted amounts for 2024-25 had been covered by unplanned revenue from building permits (+$12,000), fines and forfeited bail (+$3,000) and bank interest (+$13,964). “We did not have to pull from the general fund,” she noted. “We are fiscally in very good shape.”
■ The board appointed Brant Thomas to the Planning Board. He succeeds Chris Johanson, who died in December.
■ Winward said that she and Planning Board Chair Dove Pedlosky met with a consultant to discuss strategies for funding an updated comprehensive plan. The current plan has not been updated since 1991, she said.
