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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-24 - TB TOWN OF ULYSSES SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING JANUARY 24, 2006 Present : Supervisor Douglas Austic ; Town Council Roxanne Marino, Don Ellis, Rod Ferrentino and Lucia Tyler; Town Clerk Marsha L . Georgia; Deputy Supervisor Richard Coogan; Planning Board Member John Wertis . Planning Board Mr. Austic called the meeting to order and stated that the agenda is to discuss the three different options for the Planning Board : 1 . Seven year term / seven member board 2 . Five year term / five member board 3 . Seven member board / five year term The Board discussed the advantages and the disadvantages of each one of these scenarios . The Board was in receipt of a letter from David Tyler expressing his options and had comments from John Wertis and Margot Chiuten . After a lengthy discussion Ms . Tyler moved, seconded by Mr. Ferrentino the following : BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses will stay with what the Town has currently for the Planning Board with the seven year term and the seven member board. Mr. Austic aye Mr. Ferrentino aye Ms . Tyler aye Mr. Ellis aye Ms . Marino aye Adopted. The Town Board has several interested residents that need to be interviewed for the two positions that need to be filled on the Planning Board . Those residents are Rebecca Schneider, Jennifer Wapinski -Mooradian, Kenneth Zeserson, and Rob Sharkey. The Board discussed several different dates for interviews and first will check with Margo Chiuten, Planning Board Chair to see her availability for the interviews. Mr. Coogan will check with the interested people. Personnel Policy Mr. Ellis stated that every few years the Board should have a personnel review, things change and there are reasons to take a look at where things are and where they are going. Mr. Ellis said he had reviewed the current policy and it needs to be updated because there are some things that are clearly out of date. Mr. Ellis said that another part of it is the compensation should be reviewed . Mrs . Georgia showed the Board of a copy of the payroll fourth quarter that shows all of the salaries for the year and the benefits . The Board would like a copy of this report. Mrs . Georgia will also supply who is on health insurance and what the charge is . This is what Mr. Ellis would like to see, a clearer picture of these compensations . Mr. Ellis also requested that when it is time to review the budget again a one page presentation that shows the compensation be provided . Mr. Ellis would also like to see the defining areas of responsibility and lines of authority defined in something like a chart as here are the people (the positions) that work at the Special Town Board Meeting 2 01 /24/2006 Town of Ulysses, here are their areas of responsibility. Mr. Ellis is willing to make that chart. Ms . Marino said that the personnel manual needs to be updated and this chart would be one great page in that. Ms . Marino would like to expand this and take a look at the other Town polices. Mr. Ellis will talk with Ms . Tyler and come back to the next Regular Town Board meeting with a suggested calendar. . Mr. Austic wanted to highlight some items that will be coming up in the future . • Tompkins County Highway Department - the plan is through the Inter- municipal Cooperation the Town of Ulysses has more County Roads than any other township so in meeting with James Meeker, Highway Superintendent, Ed Marx , Tompkins County Highway Administrator, Bruce Wilson, Town Attorney, Richard Coogan Deputy Supervisor and Doug Austic , Supervisor the County said that they would like the Town of Ulysses to take over certain roads . The Ulysses ' representatives said they would consider some roads, such as Willow Creek Road because the Town' s section goes into the County' s section. The County spoke about five or six miles of road that they want Ulysses to take over and in return Ulysses give them a couple of other miles somewhere else to make it more efficient for their use of snow plowing and maintenance, The net outcome is the Town would gain a mile and half of road and the Town would not take the roads over unless the County brought them up to the Town ' s level or better, which the County agreed . Mr. Austic said on the other hand the Town would not have to fix up the roads that would be turned over to the County. One of the roads the Town will be turning over is the Iradell Road Ext. , and the roads they are talking about to give to the Town is Willow Creek Road ( a mile of that) , part of Agard Road, they wanted to turn over Searsburg Road but the Town said no to that, and Falls Road may be a part of this. The Town would get the CHIPS money, would lose the two or three miles of snow plowing contract, in the long run planning wise it is a good thing. The County will bring all of this to the Town Board with a "Memorandum of Understanding" which may not happen for several years . . • Trumansburg Fire Contract - Mr. Austic has concerns with the Fire Contract with the Village of Trumansburg and has had meetings with the Village to discuss the contract, not the fire budget, but how the money is being handled . The issue with the contract is that there is no actual "Fire District" and if there was a District than the Town might be able to start charging the " fire protection" to the exempt properties . The second issue that was asked of Mr. Austic is why the Town would want to turn over $200,000 plus to the Village and have then put that into their General Fund and not put it into a separate savings account that would draw interest and accrue to the Fire Department . Mr. Austic said that it is a basic issue of accountability of what they are doing and where they are doing it. In the future a discussion should take place about forming a fire district with the other two municipalities that have a fire contract. Mr. Wilson, Town Attorney and Mr. Tyler, Village Attorney are working on the contract . • Water District #5 - Mr. Austic stated that this is a important issue that the Town needs to consider and the Town needs to figure some kind of plan in the future on how to do this . NYS Parks is willing to participate because the Tompkins County Health Department is willing to give them extensions just like they have been giving the Village of Trumansburg extensions for their second source as long as they know some thing is in the works . Mr. Pond of Barton & Loguidice presented a presentation of the literature that the Board received . The meeting was taped for the Board members to review that could not make the presentation. It has been determined that the NYS Park would be around 50/60 users and at that cost they would be paying around $ 525 a user. The park can not front money for the studies because some of it is outside their boundaries . Mr. Pond is more than willing to come back and explain it again . Mr. Austic said that the Special Town Board Meeting 3 01 /24/2006 suggestion was that if the Town is considering this that the Town starts out with phase one the archeological study to get that out of the way because the Village found out you need to tell those people what is going on. Mr. Pond ' s estimate of the cost is that the Town can qualify for a two million dollar grant and also a two million dollar NO interest loan . The project as designed, if any part of the project is taken out you would lose the two million . The scope of the project adds up to points and the Town ' s point rating as of the other day was 179, which is high, and allows the Town to qualify for big money. Mr. Austic said if the Town does not get the letter of support from the Park and the Village then the project could be done . The cost to just get to the Park could run as high as two million. Barton & Loguidice work to get money and than explain why the project is important to get that money. Mr. Austic said that the State would be involved twice because of the Park and than also because of Alpha. House and than with the Village involvement because of needing the second source it adds up the points . The options of the five different locations are combined because it is the best scenario to get the best money. Mr. Austic said that the Town has applied for two different sources of money to pay for the $ 60, 000 Map, Plan and Report . One of those is a shared services grant from NYS and another one is the TCAT and also talking with Tompkins County. The Town is looking for money to pay for the engineer planning. The County and TCAT are interested because the Park is an important part of the County and the Town and if the Park does not get another clean source of water a lot of the facilities at the Park could go away because they don ' t have potable water such as camping and the cabins . • Pump Station - Mr. Austic said that there are a couple of problems with the pump station and Mr. Austic is going to write Bolton Point a letter. It turns out that Bolton Point pumped around 300, 000 gallons of water on to the ground because of faulty management of the pump station. Mr. Austic will copy the letter to the Health Department and Town of Ithaca. Mr. Austic said that the Town has spent a lot of money for hi-tech equipment in the pump house building to notify Bolton Point station that something is wrong and Bolton Point has failed to get this equipment hooked up and so they do not know what is going on . In the last year over eight times because either Mr. Coogan or Mr. Austic have been at the pumping station early in the morning they have found all kinds of stuff such as the pumps are not running, the tank is out of water, the doors are open, the lights are on, it is just poor management on Bolton Points service. The Town Attorney feels that there may be a breach of contract involved. • Letter from Mr. Chase- The Board is in receipt of a letter from Mr. George Chase. The letter is very confusing. Mrs . Georgia explained that the request that Mr. Chase is making is that his property at 1635 Trumansburg Road be withdraw from the Town of Ulysses Industrial Zone and put back to Residential . Mr. Chase is asking to be heard on this matter at the next scheduled Town Board meeting. Hearing no further business Mr. Ferrentino moved, seconded by Mr. Ellis to adjourn the meeting. Unanimously approved and meeting adjourned at 10 : 15pm . Respectfully submitted, Marsha L. Georgia Ulysses Town Clerk MLG : mlg