Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-05-19 Town Board Meeting Minutes1 | P a g e Town of Danby Town Board Meeting Minutes Held Monday, May 19, 2025 Board Members Present: Joel Gagnon, Town Supervisor Leslie Connors Katharine Hunter Tyler Stein Patricia Woodworth Town Staff: Mariah Dillon, Town Clerk Laura Shawley, Bookkeeper Greg Hutnik, Town Planner Other Attendees: Ted Crane Ronda Roaring Zachary Larkins Captain Charles Tilton Mark Pruce John “Jack” Moore Jim Holahan Dan Klein Kyle Eric kson Garry Huddle Call to Order 6:06 PM Additions/Deletions to the Agenda • Resolution Authorizing Highway Superintendent Shipman to Sign Work Permit Agreement with NYSDOT ~ Moved to Business • Applying for CDBG Funds for Town Hall Accessibility ~ Moved to Business Privilege of the Floor John “Jack” Moore – Spoke to the board about derelict Houses in Danby: “To me, it's real detriment to our community, because we have a nice community here. It's beautiful, and we have people that certainly can't take care of their homes, even those that have low income take care of their homes. But in this case, it's a different story. I have friends come and visit town. They often come through and go, darn your town's kind of dumpy looking, and it's not so much that there aren't nice houses, but they tend to see the ones that aren't nice, because they stick out. I was just con cerned and curious about what’s being done. I know she [Clerk Dillon ] talked [with me] about the zombie properties. I understand the state has a zombie property registry, and they can maybe help. I don't know how they help, or if they have , but I just wanted to bring my attention to the issue as a resident and I’m glad to h elp in any way that I can help out.” Mark Pruce added: “I talked to someone who is a firefighter, who said that they've had issues with [zombie properties]. They would prefer for any houses that they know are abandoned to be clearly marked, so that if there was ever a house fire, they would know that they don't have to go into that house if they know that there isn't anybody in there. And it was Simon [Wyatt] who I know and knows lots of people, but he said he couldn't seem to get traction on that, but he felt like it was a town issue. So , since it came up, it reminded me. I feel like that that would be a pretty clear and maybe easy, low lift way to make the town a little bit safer for the fire.” 2 | P a g e Ronda Roaring “I'll just add that Lansing deals with the problem [of zombie houses] by putting a big red X on the house, which makes the house even more visible. It's unfortunate, but these things are happening, and Danby could do a lot for that by having some meetings with local attorneys to help people understand that they do need to h ave a will. I have in front of me, an email to Mariah from Lori Mithan -Demasi of New York towns.org, this is dated back almost a year, May 30, 2024 and Mariah was asking a question about whether or not town volunteers and employees needed to have emails, and the answer was that there's no state requirement. But I want to go further than that. I've been looking at the town website, and I've noticed that there are some cases where the volunteers like the CAC or some of the other organizations, their names are not listed on the CAC web page. I would like to see anybody who is either an employee or a volunteer who has a town address have that address posted on the town's website. That way that if somebody attends a meeting or something and wants to communicate with a person, they can go on to the website and get the person's email address and email them, but at this point in time, we have no way of really communicating without asking Mariah and that's a change from the way it used to be. It used to be that everybody's email address was on the website, so I'm requesting that those town email addresses be put back on the website, on the appropriate page. Town Clerk Dillon responded that she would take care of that. Ted Crane – “I did send to the [former] Town Clerk sometime back a request for a list of all of the appointed members of boards and whatnot, and their current dates of service, when appointed and when their term would expire. And never got it back. And so, Mariah, I'll, I'll ask again, and of course, if that information was on the website, I wouldn't have to ask . What I did want to speak about, though, I noticed that you have a planned expenditure, that is on the business for today. Consider adding identity threat and detect, detection and response. I think that what it is, is pretty specific, pretty easy to guess from that name. But I really wonder, it's not a lot of money, so it's not a big deal, at least, that's what the quote says. But I wonder how many of you know what Hunter is , and how many of you know what I read the materials? What is EDR, which, which I'll explain to you is endpoint, detection and response. But what is that? And from the material that I see presented with the agenda, I think you've got to be an industry insider to make a judgment. You'd just be spending money without knowing what it really is. I think that's a possibility. I'm not saying it is. So. I think you should educate yourselves about that before making any decision, even if it's only 50 bucks. And that circles me back to Ronda ’s request, because, as part of the quote there, there's a list of the people who have emails through the town, and it may not be possible to contact all of these people that Ronda was asking for through the town because they apparently don't have email addresses. I'm just guessing here, and I believe that that was the result of a discussion with the town board several months ago, that's all.” Jim Holaha n, Appointed Energy Advisor for the T own, a nnounced that on the town website there is an RFP (request for proposals ) for heat pumps for the town hall. “I'm happy to answer any questions about it when someone takes a look at it. So, if anybody knows anybody interested in maybe taking a look and applying, please let them know the proposals are due June 5 . And, if anyone comes by the town hall tomorrow, I will be there to answer questions to contractors, but it's all pretty much laid out in the RFP.” Correspondence – None Announcements Hunter Announced Taps Across America at the Town Hall on Monday, May 26 th, at 3:00. Hunter also announced that Jorin Clougherty has been hired as the new youth educator for the town. Jorin will be training and on onboarding for 16 hours a week. Jorin will not work at all in July or the first half of August. Jorin will become full time in the fourth week of August, and we hope to have fall programs running by the end of September. 3 | P a g e Reports and Presentations County Legislature Rep Dan Klein – “The county had our annual budget retreat last month, and normally the way we start out the budget season is by setting a goal of a percentage increase, or, decrease, in the budget that we would like to see. But we didn't do that this year, because at that time, the New York State Budget had not yet been passed. And as we all know, the federal budget is a big question mark. So, the county is going to reconvene in July with more information and set our goal at that time, and then our budget starts in earnest in Septembe r. We got our first quarter sales tax report, and it is up 9% from the previous year. It's about a million dollars. You know, I've heard theories. No one knows for sure. It might be sort of a stocking up in advance of the tariffs. But we're not sure, and we don't expect it to continue, but it would be nice if it did. The county has had quite a bit of turnover in our department heads in the last few months . We have about 28 departments, and we either currently have vacancies or are about to have vacancies in finance, Department of Whole Health, Department of Social Services and the highway department. Those are some of our biggest departments. But the good news is we're getting a lot of applicants and we're moving along quickly, and so some of those will have an overlap in leadership, which is always desirable. We expect to fill all of them by this summer, July or August at the latest. So as of this moment, even though there's a large number, the process for filling them looks good. I will mention that we've noticed that there are several fired federal employees who have been applying for our jobs here, and that's my report.” Highway Report ~ Shawley reported that the highway department is looking to determine how and where to spend allocated money. Shawley also mentioned she forwarded a report to the Water Department that indicated that they were overspent slightly on one budget line. Meeting Minutes Resolution 139 of 2025 To Approve the May 5 th, 2025, Town Board Meeting Minutes Moved by Connors Seconded by Gagnon Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 139 of 2025 passed on May 19, 20 25  Warrant Abstract 10 of 2025 Resolution 140 of 2025 To Approve the General Fund Vouchers 197 -222 for $21,319.06 Shawley noted that on Voucher 203 there needs to be a change to the account number from A7330.400 to A600 . 4 | P a g e Supervisor Gagnon brought up the payment to the Youth Bureau. Hunter replied that Kate Shanks-Booth, the organizer of the Tompkins County Youth Bureau would be happy to explain how those payments work. Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 140 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Resolution 141 of 2025 To A pprove the Highway Fund Vouchers 82 -95 for $14,864.13 Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 141 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Resolution 142 of 2025 To Approve the Water Fund Vouchers 57 -60 for $474.94 Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 142 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Business Consider Adding Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) to Enhance Email Security Gagnon explained that TCNS recommended we add this layer of protection due to numerous insta nces of spire phishing, regular phishing and spam, as well as the potential for unauthorized access to email. The cost is approximately $130 per month based on the current number of danby.ny.gov email users. Stein mentioned that this decision is typically made by a team of experts… and that TCNS is the expert on this. Stein will look into Huntress and get back to the board. Shawley will get insurance documents to Stein to make sure we are not overlapping on coverage. 5 | P a g e Acknowledge Receipt of Clerk Audit from Audit Committee Resolution 14 3 of 2025 To Acknowledge Receipt of Clerk and Tax Collector Audit from Audit Committee Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Stein Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 14 3 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Woodworth noted that some of the tax payments from the clerk to the town were not always deposited quickly. Consider Response to Proposed Deletion of CDBG in Federal Budget Greg Hutnik agreed to draft a letter that will include testimonials, dollar amounts, and other specific details. He will bring that to the next meeting. Stein believes the letter should focus on the program being cut and asks that the Democrats bring it back in full force. Consider Process for Appointments to Water District Advisory Committee and Planning Board Alternate Member It was suggested that all three WDAC applicants attend the next WDAC meeting on June 4 , then the Committee could bring a recommendation to the Town Board. As well, the applicants can be asked to attend the Town Board Meeting on June 16 th.to answer questions and get to meet the Town Board. Advisory Committee member Marrell Cortright has offered to resign from her position so that the two candidates from West Danby might be able to serve on the committee. Discussion ensued regarding the appropriateness of having a WDAC member who is not from West Danby. Appointing an Alternate to the Planning Board Gagnon explained the provision for having an alternate on the Planning Board. The alternate may only vote if the board needs a quorum. A concern was expressed that being the alternate may appear to be a conduit to being on the Planning Board, which is not necessarily the case. The point of designating an alternate was brought up. Discussion ensued. It was suggested that the Planning Board consider the benefits of having an alternate member. Connors will take this issue to the Planning Board. 6 | P a g e Safe Streets for All Zero Vision Policy Resolution Planner Hutnik explained that the Safe Steets project team is asking for a resolution from towns saying that they endorse the plan. Discussion ensued regarding specific clauses in the proposed resolution of support. It was agreed that two clauses would be removed from the resolution. Resolution 144 of 2025 To Extend the Meeting by 20 minutes Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Woodworth Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 14 4 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   It was decided to modify the Safe Streets Resolution ahead of considering it: Resolution 145 of 2025 to Amend the VISION ZERO POLICY Resolution by Deleting the Following: • WHEREAS, people of color are disproportionately affected by racial profiling and inequitable enforcement of traffic violations • The Town of Danby adopts the goal of eliminating racial profiling and inequitable enforcement of traiffc violations. Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Connors Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein No Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 14 5 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Community Meetings to Further Explore Sewers – When? Gagnon and Hutnik agree that it would be good to have an engineer on board to do the Map Plan and Report for the sewer district. Hutnik has reached out to firms for a quote to find out what it would cost to go through the legal process of creating two sewer districts (one in Danby and one in West Danby). If Hutnik receives a quote, he will bring it to the next board meeting. Hutnik explained that a Sewer District formation can take about 9 months. Where to get the money to pay for engineers, creating the sewer districts and additional cost of the sewer system was brought up. Sewer district formation is needed before the Town can apply for grants to help pay for the 25% of the cost of building the sewer systems not covered by the Water Quality Improvement grant. Since there are so ma ny unknowns, community meetings have been put on hold. 7 | P a g e Resolution 14 6 of 2025 To Extend the Meeting by 11 Minutes Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Connors Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 14 6 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Town Hall Meeting Room Use Policy – Further Investigation Proposed Dillon passed a few Room Use Policy examples around. She will try to get more from other town clerks. Gagnon will ask other town supervisors about their Room Use Policies. Woodworth received examples and information from the Association of Towns and some information from a few towns in Tompkins County. Speed Limit Reduction Request ~ Candidate Road Review Connors went over the previously approved speed limit reductions as well as the not included moving of the speed limit sign on Danby Rd to a position north of the Miller Road intersection. Next up is West Danby - Rt 34 where the Highway Department reports issues and concerns with plowing. Connors will meet with the Highway Department to get details. Also included in the next batch is South Danby Rd, Traver Road to 96B or possibly Fisher Settlement Road to 96B. A sign stating “Dangerous Curve Ahead” should be considered near Traver Road. Connors will get the Highway Department’s opinion. She also mentioned getting a 30 mile per hour speed limit for residential sections of Michigan Hollow, Bald Hill, Hornbrook and Gunderman roads. Resolution Authorizing Highway Superintendent Shipman to Sign Work Permit Agreement with NYSDOT Resolution 147 of 2025 Giving Highway Superintendent Keith Shipman Permission to Enter into the Yearly Work Permit with the State of New York WHEREAS, each year New York State Department of Transportation requires each municipality to renew their work permit in the event that our municipality needs to use their right -of-way to perform any of our road maintenance. Now therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board gives permission for the Highway Superintendent, Keith Shipman, to enter into the Highway Work Permit issued by the New York State Department of Transportation as specified in the attached undertaking. Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Woodworth Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 14 7 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   8 | P a g e Applying for CDBG Funds for Town Hall Accessibility Resolution 14 8 of 2025 to Apply for CDBG Funds for Town Hall Accessibility Hutnik explained that applying for the funds would be in two steps. The town would have to go through a needs assessment first, with a preliminary engineering assessment. Then the Town could apply for final design and construction funding. Hutnik indicated that an RFP for grant application and grant administration might be the way to go. Moved by Woodworth Seconded by Gagnon Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 14 8 of 2025 passed on May 19, 2025   Discussion of Next Meeting Agenda Due to time constraints, there was no discussion. Adjourn 8:45