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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-08-04 Town Board Meeting Minutes1 | P a g e Town of Danby Town Board Meeting Minutes Held Monday, August 4, 2025 Board Members Present: Joel Gagnon, Town Supervisor Leslie Connors Katharine Hunter Tyler Stein Patricia Woodworth Town Staff: Mariah Dillon, Town Clerk Greg Hutnik, Town Planner John Czamanske, Interim Planner Laura Shawley, Bookkeeper Other Attendees: Mark Pruce Garry Huddle Danny Wheeler Bill Evans Marnie Kirchgessner Zach Larkins Ted Crane Ronda Roaring Raphael Akrofi Captain Tilton, USNR Jim Holahan Steve Selin Call to Order 6:0 5 Public Hearing – Demolition Order for 1840 Danby Road Public Hearing Opened at 6:0 5 The following individuals provided testimony: Ted Cra ne commented in favor of the demolition order. Public Hearing Closed at 6:0 6 Additions/Deletions to the Agenda ~ None Privilege of the Floor Marnie Kirchgessner Thanked the Board and Highway Department for the new speed limit sign on her road. She also spoke about the music from South Hill Cider and how it disturbs many of her neighbors . However, she does not want the cidery shut down. Further, s he does not want Danby to be turned into a town with McMansions. Ted Crane greeted Bill and Danny and expressed gratitude that the ir item was on the agenda. He would have liked the DOT Correspondence to have more detail . He noticed the General Fund vouchers for the Danby News have gotten more expensive. He said: “ I hope you'll consider enforcement actions with 2 | P a g e respect to new noise and possibly special events which sort of have vanished from the radar.” He also announced the County Legislature meeting where “working on a plan which will spend fifty million dollars to build a building downtown which will no longer house the Board of Elections downtown. Instead, they want to move it to a location that's just about as far from downtown as Danby Town Hall is. And I'm just picturing how it'll take 4 h of transit on public transit from Danby to get there and back. and how that would be a disservice to voters, and I think you should say so . After all, if you can spend fifty million dollars on a building that doesn't house the Board of Elections , you could certainly spend a million dollars to get fiber and Internet brought to Danby. It would go a long way toward helping them.” Zach Larkins thanks the Town for sending out the mailers for the skate park to residents around the area. He did a preliminary dig to see how deep the water table is. He created the email address DanbySkatePark@Gmail.com for the skate park. Was happy to report several local otters stopped by his patio recently for a visit. Steve Selin, Owner and Operator of South Hill Cider: “I'd like to thank all of you members of the town board and everyone serving the town, because I know it's not an easy job. I served on the planning board for 7 years with several of you that are on the board there today. Thank you all for all the time you put in . South Hill cider is somewhat the product of my listening to neighbors over those 7 or 8 years when I was on the planning board, hearing citizens lamenting the lack of small businesses, the lack of small farms, and needing more places for neighbors to gath er, and South Hill Cider is attempting to fulfill many of those wishes, and I also wanted to thank the one Danby Town employee who stopped by about a week ago to let me know that there was a petition that was circu lated asking the town to limit South Hill Cider’s “farming and marketing operations ”, that were presented on July 21. And that's in reference to our hosting of music events at the cidery. And one, I want to suggest that anyone who's interested in this discussion that we can have some kind of Town Hall meeting where we can all chat together and hear each other out. I would love to have an open dialogue, and I think that's incredibly important for any issues that are contentious. I won't list the many examples , but if there's anything that's going on in the town that's contentious, having a meeting where people can talk with each other, I think, would be incredibly productive. Even if we have to hire a mediator, constructive discussions would be the key to a happy community. Some of the people who signed the petition were told things that were not true, and that's mainly why I wanted to start this conversation, and I'd like to inform those that signed the petition that I've been working to mitigate some of the concerns that were raised. My wife and I visited many of the people who signed and spoke with them and found that they were told that we were unwilling to mitigate any of people's concerns. But that statement's far from the truth, because one example (I can give many upon request), but one is that I actually had two meetings with a landscape architec t to discuss concerns, such as sound mitigation , before the petition was even submitted to the board . And that one of our nearest neighbors emailed me asking for me to work on sound mitigation, and I immediately called a landscape architect, and I invited my neighbor to come meet me on site . And the landscape [architect]and I had two meetings, but the neighbor declined to join me on site for a discussion. And at that point that's all I want to say. I definitely want to have an open discussion. I would love to talk with all of you. If you want to have a meeting directly with me, let me know.” Stein asked if Selin had a sound engineer. Selin replied that landscape a rchitects are trained in sound mitigation , where sound engineers are concerned with getting the sound out there. Woodworth offered information about voting on the supervisor’s reports. She looked into the fiscal oversight responsibilities of governing boards : “It does not specifically say we need to vote on the supervisor’s report. But the pieces that we get [abstracts and vouchers], those are parts that we already vote on . When we vote on the vouchers, we are approving the vouchers and part of that approving the 3 | P a g e vouchers means we know that there's money in the account to cover them, and we know that because it says that in the supervisor’s report. It doesn't specify anywhere that we have to vote on that separately.” Consideration of Location and Wording of Historical Marker – Wheeler and Evans (This was moved up on the agenda due to participants’ time constraints.) Presentation from Bill Evans and Danny Wheeler showing a proposed sign for the historical marker. Discussion ensued. Evans and Wheeler specified that their desired placement of the sign was on the north side of the monument, providing the lawn mower can get around it. Resolution 194 of 2025 To Approve the Location , Wording and the Basic Design of the Mount of the Historical Marker Sign Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Hunter Discussion ensued about color and material for the sign. Gagnon said he was willing to have Evans and Wheeler make the final decision about colors for the sign. Evans and Wheeler said they will commence to raise funds to pay for the sign. Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 194 of 2025 passed on August 4, 2025 Correspondence • 2025 DOT Moving Sign on 96 B • 2025 DOT Acknowledgment of Requests Received Announcements Reports and Presentations Supervisors Report Town Clerk Report Code Oiffcers Report Supervisor Gagnon stated that: “A lthough we were supposed to bring up South Hill Cider at this meeting… we have not heard back from the State Department of Agricultural Markets. We want to have our information together before we have that discussion. We hope to have that by the next meeting, w hich is why I asked Steve [Selin] whether he could come to the next meeting. 4 | P a g e Meeting Minutes Resolution 19 5 of 2025 To Accept the July 21, 2025, Town Board Meeting Minutes Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Connors Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 19 5 of 2025 passed on August 4, 2025 Warrant Abstract 15 of 2025 Resolution 19 6 of 2025 To Approve the General Fund Vouchers 302 - 312 for $8,801.71 Moved by Connors Seconded by Woodworth Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Abstain Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 19 6 of 2025 passed on August 4, 2025 Resolution 19 7 of 2025 To Approve Highway Fund Vouchers 137 - 146 for $156,593.50 Moved by Connors Seconded by Gagnon Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Abstain Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 19 7 of 2025 passed on August 4, 2025 Business Consideration of Enforcement Actions – Derelict Buildings and Junk Discussion ensued regarding potential candidates for inclusion on the unsafe/derelict buildings list. Board members added several houses to the list of houses from the Code Enforcement Oiffcer. It was agreed that some of the added houses may just need Community Development Block Grants to get fixed up. Several specific houses and situations were talked about. It was agreed that three houses in particular needed to be high priority. 5 | P a g e Resolution 19 8 of 2025 To Direct the Code Enforcement Officer to Initiate or Pursue Action on 1644 Danby Road, 1896 Danby Road, and 223 South Danby Road. Moved by Gagnon Seconded by Hunter Vote:  Connors Yes  Hunter Yes  Stein Yes Woodworth Yes  Gagnon Yes        Resolution 19 8 of 2025 passed on August 4, 2025 Discussion of next meeting Agenda • Room Use Policy Updates – Discussion ensued. • Possibly Special Events Law Discussion (if we hear back from Ag & Markets). • Potentially the Code Oiffcer to D iscuss unsafe/derelict Houses. Or, at least have the Code Oiffcer provide an update on the list of unsafe/derelict Houses. Adjourn 7:18 - Mariah Dillon, Town Clerk