Uncategorized – Pine Plains Open Meetings

Sunshine: The New Crop?

On January 21, 2023, the Pine Plains, NY, Planning Board held a public hearing for the community on a proposal for a large solar panel project to be constructed in the township. While an official Zoom video will be on the Planning Board’s YouTube channel, I documented it as a private citizen because I felt it was important to share the experience from the point of view of a community member sitting in the audience. You can watch the full meeting, unedited, here.

The unedited public comments on the second hearing of March 11, 2023 are below.

Pine Plains Town Board, Public Hearing on Zoning Law Changes, 2/17/2022

Let’s Talk… Sewers!

The Pine Plains Town Board held a workshop meeting to discuss the results of a preliminary study for water treatment in the town center.

Meet the Candidates: 2021

The Pine Plains community met to hear their candidates for town board, supervisor, and county delegate. The meeting was moderated by the League of Woman Voters.

This is a video recording of the event as it took place. The candidates’ presentations were not edited. There is a very short gap between the candidates for supervisor and county delegate due to a battery change. No significant content was missed.

Durst Hudson Valley Project, Public Scoping Session, July 21, 2021

I’m baaack!!!

Although I stopped (not retired) filming public meetings on a regular basis, I left the door open for filming meetings of special interest or importance. This meeting met both criteria!

Note: at one point, a little at around 33 minutes, the the camera. bobbles and shakes. No earthquake hit Pine Plains. The camera was handed off to the person (Sarah) sitting beside me so I could speak and be recorded for my own record if nothing else.

By the way, this was the first time I have seen the projection screen in the high school’s new auditorium. Sight and sound were perfect!

Sewer Engineering Meeting, April 8, 2020, Pine Plains Town Board on Zoom

This meeting was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and conforms to social. distance requirements by being conducted on Zoom and shared live on Facebook. This video is the Zoom recording.

Town Board Coronavirus Meeting, March 19, 2020

This was the first sheltering-in meeting, right after the NY Governor mandated that no more than 10 people could assemble at one place at one time. Small towns, along with the rest of the economy, had to be resourceful. Supervisor Darrah Cloud chose to use Facebook Live to record the meeting. It is in 2 parts separated by an executive session.

Speaking of separation, notice the seating arrangements of the town board members!

Community Informational Meeting on Sewer Project, Feb. 10, 2020

To watch in full screen, click the arrow box at the lower right corner of the video. On a mobile device, rotate to landscape mode for full-screen playback.

This is the first in what will be opportunities to discuss and participate in a water treatment district in “downtown” Pine Plains.

Feel free to make comments in the section below.

Enjoy!

Community Meetings

A video archive of Pine Plains Town Board, Planning Board, and other public meetings since 2012, consisting of about 170 videos.

Unlike those of most other municipalities, these videos were neither authorized nor paid for by the Town of Pine Plains. They have been filmed and posted by Pine Plains Views as a service to the community. As of June, 2019, I am no longer filming meetings on a regular basis and will document only those that are of particular interest to me as I am permitted to do as a citizen under the NYS Open Meetings Law.

Comprehensive Plan Hearing, September 25, 2019

Contrary to some rumors that I have retired, I gave notice that I was going to stop filming videos of the meetings on a regular basis. Anyone who has paid any attention at all to the Pine Plains Views website or its Facebook page would notice that actually I have been quite busy behind the camera.

I decided that this public hearing for the community to comment on the Comprehensive Plan was important enough for me to film and so I did and am posting it below.