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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-08-2018 Town Board Meeting Minutes ApprovedVirgil Town Board Meeting February 08th, 2018 1 | P a g e TOWN OF VIRGIL REGULAR MEETING February 08th, 2018 PRESENT: Supervisor John Kaminski, Board Members Jereme Stiles, Eric Snow, Matt Denniston, Gary Pelton, Attorney for the Town Pat Snyder, Town Clerk/Collector Alane Van Donsel, Ken Scherrieble Camden Group, Doug & Jenae Withey W2Operators, Sandy Price County Legislator, Highway Superintendent Britt Morse, Teri Pelton and Stacy Kelsey Virgil Youth Commission, Wes Kryger Greek Peak, Linda Hall, Makenzie Morgan, Jasmine Brand, Hunter Eves and Sue Connelly Virgil Youth Commission, Dave Forehand Reigning Miracle Ministries, Carol Rehkugler. 6:30 PM –PUBLIC HEARING LOCAL LAW #1 AND LOCAL LAW #2 OF 2018 RAISING OF WATER AND SEWER RENTS FOR WATER AND SEWER DISTRICTS #1 Supervisor Kaminski called the public hearing to order and asked Town Clerk Van Donsel to read the public notice dated January 23rd, 2018. Supervisor Kaminski asked if there were any comments. Council member Pelton said that he would like to speak. Pelton said that he is the only there representing Greek Peak homeowners. He and his wife own a condominium at Greek Peak. Pelton said that he doesn’t like the idea, but he understands that it needs to be raised acknowledging that the rents have not been raised in a long time. Pelton noted that the rents will only be going up $40.00 a year for the minimum. He felt they shouldn’t have to be raised again for a long time. The water district operator, Doug Withy wanted to know the particulars on the rents, so he can be informed if asked. Supervisor Kaminski said that the Water will go up to $65.00 and sewer will go to $100.00 minimum per quarter. He said that the rate wi ll stay the same. Member Stiles made a motion to close the public hearing. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None PUBLIC COMMENT: David Forehand addressed the board. Forehand said that he is looking at having the town board modifying a local law and create a new law. He said that he has already met with the planning board. Attorney Snyder said he hasn’t seen the new sight plan. Town clerk Van Donsel gave Snyder a copy of the new site plan, that was email ed to her that morning. Forehand said that he wanted to keep things moving along. Snyder said that there was a Local law passed in 2008 that limited approved development. He said that the law said that any further development on the site needed a new local law. Snyder said that the Town board and the planning board will have to figure out who wants to be the lead agency in the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR). Snyder said that he will draft a local law to approve the next phase of this project. Kaminski told Forehand that they will try and move this forward. THE REGULAR MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER: Supervisor Kaminski called the meeting to order, followed by the salute to the flag. RESOLUTION#18-029 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Draft of the Organizational Board Meeting Minutes dated January 11th, 2018: Member Denniston moved to approve the minutes for Jan. 11th, 2018. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston and Kaminski. Nays-None Abstained: Member Stiles Draft of the Regular Board Meeting Minutes dated January 11th, 2018: Member Denniston moved to approve the minutes for Jan. 11th, 2018. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston and Kaminski. Nays-None Abstained: Member Stiles RESOLUTION# 18-030 AUTHORIZATION TO PAY BILLS GENERAL FUND FOR JANUARY 2018 NUMBER 02: Member Denniston moved to approve payment of the General Fund’s au dited vouchers numbered 33- 59 in the amended amount of 26,076.83. One bill under item #52 was supposed to be $15.00 not $75.00. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None. HIGHWAY FUND FOR JANUARY 2018 NUMBER 02: Member Denniston moved to approve payment of the Highway Fund audited vouchers numbered 1026-1047 in the amount of $30,742.25. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None SEWER DISTRICT #1 FUND FOR JANUARY NUMBER 02: Member Denniston moved to approve payment of the Sewer District #1 audited voucher’s numbered 2007-2017 in the amount of $8,353.44. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None Virgil Town Board Meeting February 08th, 2018 2 | P a g e WATER DISTRICT #1 FUND FOR JANUARY NUMBER 02: Member Denniston moved to approve payment of the Water District #1 audited vouchers 3005-3008 in the amount of $4,453.81. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays-None MONTHLY REPORTS SUPERVISOR’S MONTHLY REPORT FOR JANUARY 2018: Member Stiles moved to accept the Supervisor’s Monthly Report in Short form for January 2018. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays –None TOWN CLERK’S MONTHLY REPORT JANUARY 2018: Member Stiles moved to accept the Town Clerks Monthly Report for January 2018. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None TAX COLLECTORS REPORT AS OF JAN. 6, 2018: Member Stiles moved to accept the Tax Collector’s Monthly Report as of February 2nd, 2018. Member Snow seconded the motion. Supervisor Kaminski said that 82.24% of the taxes have been collected so far and that we are on a good track. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None SEWER DISTRICT OPERATIONS REPORT: Representatives Ken Scherrieble was present from the Camden Group. Supervisor Kaminski said that there is a lot of sludge reported. Scherrieble said that is to be expected with the resort up and running. Kaminski said that other than that things look good. Member Stiles moved to accept the Sewer Districts Report. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None WATER DISTRICT OPERATIONS REPORT: Doug Withey reported that he would like to hold off on ordering that Chlorinator analyzer. He said that it is time to upgrade and he will be looking into that. Supervisor Kaminski said that there was an issue with th e meter reader and the bills went out late. He said they are looking into what happened . Member Stiles moved to accept the Water Districts Report. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays-None ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER’S REPORT: Member Stiles moved to accept the Animal Control Officer’s Report. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays-None CODE ENFORCEMENT AND ZONING OFFICERS REPORT: A written report was submitted by Code and Zoning Officer Kevin McMahon. Member Stiles said that he likes the reports. Member Stiles motioned to accept the Code and Zoning Officers report. The motion was seconded Member Snow. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None COUNTY LEGISLATOR’S REPORT: County Legislator Sandy Price submitted A written report. Member Stiles asked Price if she toured the jail. Price said she no, because she has done that before. There was some discussion on how a 160-bed jail was built in Chenango County and it is underutilized. There was some discussion regarding sales tax. Stiles asked who will be heading up that committee. Price said that it will probably be George Wagner. Price said she will probably sit on the committee as she has background information on sales tax. There hasn’t been any mentioned of a meeting date. Price said the agreement is up in June, so they should start working on it now. She thinks they are going to meet as a committee and she suspects they will get representatives from most of the towns, but probably not all. Stiles would like to know the time frame when representatives will be chosen for the committee. Price wanted to know about the work that needs to be done walking trail. A celebration is scheduled for the first Friday in May with Senator Seward. It was stated that the town is working with the school district to have that trail resurfaced. Member Stiles motioned to accept the County Legislators report. The motion was seconded Member Snow_. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None VIRGIL YOUTH COMMISSION REPORT: Teri Pelton of the Youth Commission submitted a written report. T. Pelton reported that the Virgil Youth Commission is looking into ways to improve the program. They looked at what other schools are doing for their before and after school programs. She said that they found that other schools have N.Y.S licensed programs. They are either being run by the Cortland YWCA or the Child Development Center. The Virgil program has been considered a drop in program which allows them to Virgil Town Board Meeting February 08th, 2018 3 | P a g e avoid the rules and regulations of a licensed center. Children in the other centers need to be enrolled. They are looking at the pros and cons of going to a licensed program. They spoke with the YWCA and some of the positives are that they offer full day care on certain holidays such as Martin Luther King Day and on snow days without an extra charge. They offer snacks and lunches on those days. They would provide the program during school breaks as well and they would offer a full summer programs. If they go with a licensed childcare provider, families can apply for childcare subsidies and may only end up paying a $1.00 a week. The staff would be trained and managed by a professional staff rather than by volunteers. All staff members are screened. Some of the programs that are held in Cortland have Virgil children attending at this time. They would take care of all the billing and payments. This would mean a huge change for the school. Teri said that Linda has been a loyal employee of the Before and After school program for over twenty years. She said one good thing is that the current employees would welcome to apply for a position. If this was to become a reality, they would have to start the process in April or May to implement it by the start of the next school year. They would need a certain number of families to enroll in the program to make it feasible. She said that this is just a starting point. What they are looking f or from the board is permission to investigate it further. Pelton said that right now the program is losing money. They have more staffing than is needed and the number of students attending is down. Because the program is a drop-in program they never know how many kids will show up. They are consistently losing $1000 a month. They reported that they are working on getting the staffing down to break even. Supervisor Kaminski said that it doesn’t hurt to look at all options to keep the program going. He said they will have to get the parents to support this. He thought this might be an option to keep the program going, because they don’t want the tax payers to have to subsidize the program. Stacy Bradley said they did implement a cost increase. Member Stiles mentioned that ether has been problems with people not paying. Both Pelton and Bradley said this is not what they signed up for, we did not want to take on the interpersonal conflict with our friends and neighbors. Kaminski thinks they should explore the all options and he was looking for input from the board. Gary Pelton stated that all the other elementary schools have gone this route. Community member Eric Fitchette asked if financial issues are the only reason we are looking for other options? Member Stiles said that there is also a liability aspect for the town. Fitchette said that he has had no problem with the program and that he has no problem with raising the cost. It was stated that maybe the word will get out and people will pay. Kaminski would encourage parents to come to a town board meeting and speak to the board, so they can figure what to do. He liked that the outside organization will run the program on the days that the school district is closed and that they will staff it. Member Denniston would like to know what the rates will be. T. Pelton said that they would be twice as much as they are now, but for some families it would be free because of child subsidy. T. Pelton said that they will do some more research and come back next month with rates and more information for the board. Member Stiles motioned to accept the Virgil Youth Commissions report. The motion was seconded Member Snow. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None HOPE LAKE OPERATIONS REPORT: Wes Kryger reported that the Nordic center will be open this weekend, he said that he has a signed park extension agreement and a signed lease for the pole barn. Kryger said that the Spartan is being filled out. He said there will be additional parking at OCM BOCES and Tompkins Community College. Member Stiles made a motion to accept the Hope Lake Operations oral report. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None There was some mention about snowmobilers riding on some paths at Greek Peak. Member Pelton thought it would be a good idea to put up a no motor vehicle sign. We said he would investigate it. HIGHWAY DEPT. SUPERINTENDENTS REPORT: Highway Superintendent Britt Morse was present and submitted a written report. Morse reported that it has been a busy month. Supervisor Kaminski said that he is glad to see that the building is being organized. He said that Morse is making it a better place. Morse said that the surplus equipment is listed on Auctions International and they won’t be in until the 20th. He was wondering if there was a number the board would accept on each item. Kaminski said they will discuss this later in the meeting. Member Stiles motioned to accept the Highway Supervisor report. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. OLD BUSINESS DISCUSSION ON GAS AND ELECTRIC AGREEMENT: Supervisor Kaminski said that he talked to the electric supplier and the town is going to go from paying .13 cents a kilowatt down to .05 cents a kilowatt. Virgil Town Board Meeting February 08th, 2018 4 | P a g e ZBA APPOINTMENT: Member Stiles made a motion to approve Sarah Dean as an alternate to the Zoning Board of App eals for a five year term. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays- None RESOLUTION #18-031 APPROVAL OF LOCAL LAW #1 OF 2018: 1. Subsection(c) of section 6 of Local Law No. 2 of the year 1999 (the Sewer Rent Law) is hereby amended to read as follows: “(c) in the event that the product computed according to the sub -section (b) above is less than $100.00 then the bill shall be rounded up to $100.00 which shall be a minimum bill for each for ea ch billing period.” 2. This local law shall take effect upon filing with the secretary of State and shall be effective for billing periods April 1st, 2018. Member Stiles made a motion to approve Local Law #1 0f 2018. Member Pelton seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes -Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. RESOLUTION #18-032 APPROVAL OF LOCAL LAW #2 OF 2018: 1. Subsection(c) of section 6 of Local Law No. 2 of the year 1999, known as “The town of Virgil Water District No. 1 Water Charges Law” as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows: “(c) in the event that the product computed according to the sub -section (b) above is less than $65.00 then the bill shall be rounded up to $65.00 which shall be a minimum bill for each for each billing period.” 2. This local law shall take effect upon filing with the secretary of State and shall be effective for billing periods April 1st, 2018. Member Stiles made a motion to approve Local Law #2 0f 2018. Member Pelton seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. 2018 SHARED SERVICES WITH THE DOT- TABLES LAST MEETING: Highway Superintendent Britt Morse said that he took care of this matter. NEW BUSINESS SEQR FOR REIGNING MIRACLE MINISTRIES: Member Stiles made a motion to make the Town of Virgil’s Planning Board as lead agency for the Reigning Miracle Project. Member Denniston seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes -Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. RESOLUTION #18-033 APPROVAL FOR ATTORNEY SNYDER TO PREPARE LOCAL LAW #3 OF 2018: Member Stiles made a motion to allow Attorney Snyder to prepare Local Law # 3 of 2018 allowing changes in the current law to allow changes in the plan in the Reigning Miracle Ministries facility according to the letter from Pastor Evans dated February 1st, 2018. Member Denniston seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None RESOLUTION #18-034 APPROVAL TO HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING: Member Stiles made a motion to hold a Public Hearing at the March 8th, 2018 Town Board meeting regarding Local Law #3 of 2018. The Public Hearing shall commence at 6:15 PM. Member Pelton seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. CULVERT PIPE POLICY: Supervisor Kaminski said that ten years ago he wrote a culvert pipe policy, but now it can’t be found. Kaminski said that everything that has to do with the highway department goes through the Highway Superintendent. Kaminski would like for the board and the superintendent to look over the policy, Morse said that he has looked at it and it is basically the same policy the county uses. APPOINT CAROL REHKUGLER TO THE HOPE LAKE PARK COMMITTEE: Member Stiles made a motion to appoint Carol Rehkugler to the Hope Lake Park Committee. Member Pelton seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes -Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. LETTER FROM DON BARBER: Don Barber form the Tompkins County Health Care Consortium sent a letter regarding p ossible changes in Health care. Member Snow said that he read the letter and that it is a warning of what could happen. He said that the board just needs to be aware 4TH QUARTER SALES TAX REPORT: The board reviewed the 4th quarter sales tax report. Supervisor Kaminski noted that sales tax was up again. Virgil Town Board Meeting February 08th, 2018 5 | P a g e ANNUAL SALES TAX REPORT FROM CORTLAND COUNTY: The board reviewed that yearly sales tax report. PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD POLICY-FEEDBACK: The board reviewed the policy once again. Supervisor Kaminski said that he wants Attorney Snyder to give input. USE OF RESERVES TO PAY FOR TRACTOR: This was taken care of in a previous meeting. SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS TO BE HELD AT THE VIRGIL TOWN HALL: Supervisor Kaminski said that the school board elections will be held at the Town Hall this year in May. Kaminski said there is no problem with that. AUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL RESULTS: Some items have been put on Auctions International for sale. The bids will come in before the next board meeting. There was some discussion on how they will approve the bids, as they will come in before the next board meeting. Morse said that he could tell the Supervisor. The Supervisor will contact the board members to let them know. Morse wants to make sure they are all on the same page. Attorney Snyder said they can always set a minimum bid that they will accept. SURPLUS ALUMINUM RECYCLING TRAILER: Member Stiles made a motion to surplus the aluminum recycling trailer. Member Pelton Seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. DISCUSSION ON A BROOM: There was some discussion regarding a broom for the Caterpillar front end loader. It was discussed that they will table this item until next month. Member Denniston was concerned about paying based on the hours. Morse said that the lease agreement was for a one year. He said the new agreement is going to be a two-year agreement. He says that the representative comes 4 months ahead of time and locks them into a price. He said that last year they got locked in at 360 hours. Morse said that they wouldn’t use the broom to sweep the all the roads. They are looking into hiring someone sweep the roads. DISCUSSION ON LIST OF PEOPLE WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIGHSPEED INTERNET: Carol Rehkugler gave a list of residents concerned with the lack of highspeed internet on her road. Supervisor Kaminski said that he is going to work on writing a let ter to the Public Service Commission. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Member Stiles made a motion to go into executive session at 7:40 PM to discuss a legal matter with Greek Peak lawsuit. Member Snow seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None END EXECUTIVE SESSION: Member Stiles made a motion to go out of executive session at 7:50 PM. Member Pelton seconded the motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None With no further business to discuss, Member Denniston moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:51 PM. Member Snow seconded the Motion. Vote: Ayes-Members Pelton, Snow, Denniston, Stiles and Kaminski. Nays: None. Respectfully Submitted by, Alane Van Donsel, Virgil Town Clerk