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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-03-14T8 3 -14-01 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD IYMEETM March 14, 2001 Board Members Present: Supv Mark Varvayanis, Cl Thomas Hatfield, Cl C Hatfield, Cl Deborah Grantham Absent: Cl Ronald Beck Other Elected Officials: Bambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk Jack Bush, Highway Superintendent Other Town Staff: Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Henry Slater, Zoning Officer David Putnam (TG Millers), Town Engineer Supv Varvayanis opened the meeting at 7:12 p.m. Board members and guests participated in the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. RESOLUTION # 100 - APPROVE ABSTRACT # 103 Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract # 10.2, as audited, vouchers #159 through 238, totaling $82,038.97. 211d Cl T Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes CITIZENS PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR Peter Schug asked about the status of the Cayuga Press HUD loan. Supv Varvayanis explained that the Town is presently being audited by HUD. They have requested some changes to the contract with Bernie Thoma for the administration of the grant. A commitment letter should be ready by the end of t:he week. Cayuga Press has begun work on the environmental review. I-TUD is auditing the two previous grants in addition to the present one. COUNTY BRIEFING Joe Lalley - I'm passing out a board copy of the material we worked from on the new tax exempt district that is being established in the City of Ithaca. .It's gone through the school district and the common council as is, and I believe the County passed a. variant to it that's only going to grant: a 50%, exemption. But what they are trying to do is set up a district in the City to encourage multi -story development with the idea of reducing sprawl in the community. I think the main point I want to talk to you about is the fact that this is something that TCAD is working with and the option of setting up some districts in the Towns and Villages is something, as this worked its way through the various county committees, we wanted to make sure was available to places like the Town of Dryden and the Village of Dryden. TCAD is very much interested if there are municipalities interested in helping -you draft something similar. In the packet besides the ordinance and the resolution to the board is an examplb that they Page l of 14 W 1 ..0 TI3 3-14-01 drew up including a map. You aren't actually shifting a. tax burden to other property owners in the municipality, but instead encouraging growth that will increase property values. So there's a draft: of the resolution that was passed. We added some language to make sure that it IN included encouragement to villages and towns. There is some specific language for the exemption in the district in the City of Ithaca and a map, and finally an illustration of how they presume it's going to work in the City of Ithaca. In this particular instance where they are granting certain variances based upon height, the tax abatements do not supersede local zoning laws. I know the Town is continuing to work on its master plan, this is another tool that you may want to consider for encouraging growth in certain areas or discouraging growth. But I think the main message is here's something they've done in the City with TCAD, and if it's something you want to consider at this point, I'd be happy to work with you and at least get some information TCAD. This does have a sunset clause in it so this particular tax district will expire in five years unless it's renewed. There was quite a bit of discussion about the concern that this would essentially get others to pay more while the developer would pay less, but the abatement is only on the increased value of the property. So if you had a $500,000 property, you are still going to pay tax on $600,000. You'll get an abatement on any improvement over the $600,000. The focus now is on ComCap, %LTluch has been one of the more controversial efforts that I've been involved with. The draft scoping is out and they are collecting information. 1 don't know what kind of response we've had at this point. While that is going on we are still waiting to hear what the State is going to do with the state wide information network. They are supposed to be making an announcement any day now about where they are with that. So the ComCap committee has been focusing its efforts on the location of the combined 911 dispatch center. We've ruled out a co- location with Ithaca Public Safety for a variety of reasons, most of them being operational issues having to do with physical site. As far as I know the public , safety building at Marren Road is still an option. The CFR building is still under consideration although there's been quite a bit of desire on the part of the airport managers to not have it there. We are also looking at South Hill Station #5. In the last ten days there has been some activity around an idea that we might be able to build a 911 center on a different parcel at the airport and combine it with another County desire to make airport improvements. There will probably be more activity on the towers project in early April I think when the draft scoping period ends and we get. some word from the State. I also have a copy for a couple of the board members of a memo from Barbara Mink to the people who attended wi intermunicipal planning committee meeting a couple of weeks ago. There was still concern about the County's stance on the position of the Towns as involved agencies and at this point she's tried to address some of those issues. The County attorney also drafted a statement, so you have that. As there is more development on the towers project, I'll be reporting on that. Mike Lane - I'll just note that a strong majority of the board voted for that tax abatement program. I was one of the few that did not vote for it. I felt that we shouldn't particularly because of the fact that. this district would be financing commercial and residential which we've never done through the IDA before. Not only does each individual taxing authority need to make a decision, but I really felt that the County probably shouldn't go along with that because they were basically asking people in the rural areas as well to shoulder part of that tax loss. I thought the City would probably want to do it. I thought the school district was flexible but they decided to go along. But that's why I voted against it. Supv Varvayanis - I'd like to mention that I'd talked to you and expressed my concerns also and 1 was interested in seeing a complete description of it before the County voted on it and I'm kind of disappointed that the Towns didn't get it. ' Page 2 of 14 TB 3 -14-01 M Lane - We didn't get the actual map until almost the night of the meeting. Supv Varvayanis - I'm not blaming you. It's just another example of the rural areas being kind of left out. M Lane - It sometimes looks like that and its one of the areas that I've tried to work hard at over the years. On a couple of projects in the Public Works Committee. The Red Mill Road Bridge: We are working right now to the get the approval of the State Office of Historic Buildings and Parks. They've questioned why we did not examine keeping a one -lane bridge there. It was not one of the options that we put forward. Basically, because of the need of the farm in that area to be able to have wide loads go across it. We did not feel that was an area we wanted to look at. All the options we had included widening the bridge to two lanes, even if we kept the old bridge. So we will be addressing that. We don't: think it's going to be a big hangup, but that's where we are in the process. The bridge over Cascadilla Creek on Ringwood Road: That's still in the planning stages at this point. The State money is not yet committed. That would be an 80% federal funded project, 15% State and 5 %.b County, about a $450,000 project. We've been having staff meetings with DOT on that along with some of the other projects that we have. I told you last time I came about the work w-e're having on reapportionment and the charter. We are planning to move ahead with reapportionment this year if possible. That means, as I told you before, that we will have to move quickly. We have not yet received the data that we need from the assessment bureau yet. We are anxiously awaiting that. We ® should have that we would hope in March. Some of it has been released to some of the States, but not New York yet. It gets released to the State first, then to us. We've already purchased the software that we need with our G.IS system to be able to feed the census data into it to generate various versions of maps that would show different kinds of districts that would become equalized. We expect that the City will probably remain fairly stagnant with its population. We think that some of the areas in the Towns, for example the 'Town of Lansing and likely the Towns of Dryden and Ithaca, will see an increase in population meaning that we will need to change the district lines. Our Charter tells us that we have to wherever possible redistrict with a sense of the municipal boundaries. It's not always possible. We know that in Dryden last time because of the fact that Groton:s population had not grown, a portion of Dryden annexed to the Groton district. We've got Enfield split in two: we've got Caroline and Danby in one district. If we stay at 15 members, and that's not a given because the Charter says we can have anywhere from 11 to 19, probably the City would have to lose a district and probably somewhere on the outskirts there would be a gain. The other possibility would be to have boundaries outside the City. The City that is the only municipality that elects its board or council by district. All the other Towns and Villages elect town or village wide. Most of the Villages won't be affected by this except that Lansing and Cayuga. Heights could possibly be affected. Each of you will receive in the next few days a letter from me as chair of the Charter Committee alerting you to these issues so that you folks can start talking among yourselves about what actions you need to take once the County determines these boundaries so that election district,% can be redrawn in the'rown if necessary. Ten years ago all the maps were done by hand and all the calculations were done by hand. There was basically a dog and pony show that went around to all the Towns and the City and they talked about various changes and asked for comments. It is not likely that with the short time frame we have that we will be able to come to all the Towns and do that. Instead what we are going to do is have a workshop and it looks like it will be in early May on a ® Saturday morning, May 5 is a tentative date. We will invite folks in and have a number of different maps and scenarios and presentations. We hope that you will be able to come. Ten Page3of14 TB 3 -14 -01 years ago when Malloryville was annexed to Groton there was also the possibility that instead of that a piece of Lansing would be annexed to Groton. There could be a similar issue this • year. But I think it is important that you folks are aware of this. Hopefully it will be as unpainful as possible, but the alternative is probably to ask either for a special election or at least a referendum to change the terms of offices of the board, or to ask for a referendum to ask for a weighted voting system. The sentiment on the Charter Committee is that none of the above is very pleasing. We think we would like to run in reapportioned districts rather than have a weighted vote. Supv Varvayanis - We all know how eager the City would be to give up a seat. Politically do you think it's that. Likely or... M Dane - I don't think they'll have a choice frankly. Supv Varvayanis - But if we go to 17 or whatever representatives, they can keep their 5. M Lane - Yes, they could, but relatively they still lose the proportionate number. If they went to four wards, they could do that. They have 5 wards now and there is one County Rep for each of the 5 wards. We have a City rep who has been coming to our meetings, and we"ve asked her to carry back the words that we are serious about doing this this year and we need the City to be on board with it. They're going to have to be thinking about changing their districts at the same time. What we really don't want to have, is something happen to us like with the sales tax issue. You remember when we started out and asked people for their opinion and it took several months and we trying to get a survey and an idea, then we got ready to vote and the City all of a sudden came in and said no, don't do this. We don't want that to happen. We want: them to be informed. We know the redistricting process will not make everybody happy. But finally the County Board does have to decide, it is our members that have to be seated, but we want everyone to be involved in that. I understand that last time there were about 50 maps of different possibilities. COUNCIL PRIVILEGE None. ATTORNEY Re: Woodland Park Atty Perkins - The issue still is open. The developer has not completed the improvements and I guess discussion at this point should focus on what do we do about that. We apparently have lost the opportunity to have this corrected by the prospective purchaser of one of the lots or several of the lots. Cl Grantham asked whether any action had been going on in the subdivision and ZO Slater that there was not. Cl Grantham asked whether Mr. Sutton had been in contact with the Zoning Office and ZO Slater replied that he had not spoken with Mr. Sutton in months. Cl Granthamn - Other than keeping the stop work order in place, what else can we do? Atty Perkins - We could bring an action against him to regluri.ng him to complete those improvements, or else revoke the subdivision approval because he has not complied with those conditions. Obviously the lots with homes on them will have to remain, but the remaining lots 40 we could ask the Court to combine. Page 4 of 14 TB :3-] 4-01 Cl T Hatfield - Could we ask for authorization to go in and do the work and add the cost to the tax roll? Atty Perkins - I don't believe so because we actually don't have a local law that allows us to do that. As you may be aware, the letter of credit that Mr. Sutton put up expired before the Town Highway Superintendent realized it and we lost the opportunity and leverage to do that. I'm of the opinion that we take an action on behalf of the Town anyway at this point to get anything moving. Cl T Hatfield - It seems we've pretty well determined that something has to be done there. The water is affecting the community. We need to get some of that done. Atty Perkins - I'd like to see the Town take an active approach rather than a reactive approach. We can wait and wait and wait until something comes up again that puts us in a crisis mode and then well be forced to accept something that we don't want. Cl T Hatfield - With an active approach, by that you mean you communicating with him first: and then well move forward? Atty Perkins - We'll tell him in no uncertain terms let's have your plan within 30 days and the work commence as soon as weather permits or we'll have to bring an action. Cl Grantham - I think that: sounds like a good idea. Atty Perkins - I would hope that would get his attention and get some movement on it.. C1 T Hatfield - Assume it doesn't. Then what? Cl Grantham - If we write a letter and he just says no or does nothing and then we bring an action against him and he's ordered to by the Court then.... Cl T Hatfield - And he doesn't.... Supv Varvayanis - Then it's one big lot. Then what? Atty Perkins - We can ask for relief as an alternative. if you just have one big lot then I'm not sure how big a water problem you have then, but you aren't going to have any more development other than maybe one house on that one lot. And if he wants then to sell lots again, he's got to come back. The alternative is an action in the nature of an injunction to require him to perform that work. Now, the Court may say it's been too long, that you can have the subdivision erased if you want, but we're not going to make him do that, or they may say it's a continuing obligation, it's never been cured. So you could erase the subdivision, so to speak, or require him to complete the work. I think you might have the most luck if you require him to get the work done. Cl T Hatfield - Well, that's where the whole issue began. There's a problem with water. Even if there are only one or two residences being affected right: now, they deserve it if we can get it for them I would think. So what do you need from us to get going in that direction? Atty Perkins - Well, you need to pass a resolution authorizing the commencement of an action. I would suggest in such form as the Supervisor determines in order to protect the interests of the Town and the people that live in the subdivision, and ask for alternative relief or all the relief. Page 5 of 14 TS 3 -14 -01 Cl Grantham - But the steps would be first a letter? Atty Perkins - Yes, but when I write that letter 1'd like be able to say that I have the authority to commence an action. I don't want him to think I'm blowing smoke. RESOLUTION #101 - AUTHORIZE ACTION AGAINST DOUG SUTTON Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this ,town Board hereby authorizes the Town Attorney to commence an action against Douglas Sutton in such form as the Supervisor determines in order to protect the interests of the Town of Dryden and the residents of the Woodland Park Subdivision, 2n,.1 Cl C Hatfield Roll Call Vote TOWN CLERK Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Monthly report has been distributed. Board members had not reviewed minutes and were not prepared to approve them. ENGINEERING Dave Putnam reported that the Fire Department is looking into options for dry hydrants. He ui l check with NYSEG with respect to that site, and will report next month. He has not heard anything further with respect to Sapsucker Woods Road. Supv Varvayanis stated he had heard from both Cornell and Mr. O'Connor that they preferred the intersection approach on the road. Supv Varvayanis noted that there are presently three dry hydrants being investigated in the Town. Supv Varvayanis stated that it would be necessary to reschedule the public hearing for Cornell Ornithology's Site Plan review to temporarily move their offices to the Prudential Building on Route 13. After discussion, the Board decided to hold the public hearing on Monday, March 2611, at 8:00 am.. C1 Grantham noted that she would recuse herself from that matter, but would attend if there was other board business. The board rescheduled the public hearing on the zoning amendment with respect to billboards will be rescheduled for April 4, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. ZONING DEPARTMENT ZO Slater - You have the monthly report. Some good things have happened with Project Impact. Matt Shulman has worked on resurrecting the old Yellow Barn water protection district project as a 1/3, 1/3, 1 / 3 Flood Hazard Mitigation Project, and we were advised this week that the entire project has been approved so that means the project will be done. It won't be to the extent that the 1998 proposal would have been, but a lot of the engineering work that Miler Engineering and Dave had done at that time was utilized, so that was stuff that didn't go to waste. That was done as a project impact. project. We have been looking at our federal flood maps and we've made a couple of startling discoveries. We believe, as do NRCS and County Planning, that we require some new mapping sooner rather than later. If we go back to when we completed the dam, every two years i get an Page 6 of 14 TB 3 -14-01 application from the Federal ]emergency Management people that asks whether anything has ® been done that would entertain a request for remapping. I've done that twice and been told twice that the dam was an insignificant change in our flood conditions in the Town of Dryden. Matt has worked very diligently and very hard and we're very close to getting that job done. He's also been working on some other grants that would go along with HUD rehabilitation work. One of the areas is the Forest Home mobile park, which is a very old, very run down mobile home park. We have a pretty good line on a grant that would allow, with cooperation with the owners and the park owners, based on the value of many of the homes in that park, to replace those homes. This is similar to the HUD grants that you administer for residential renovation. We met with a representative of the park owners this week and have a commitment that they will work with us in that program and at the same time they will probably upgrade the infrastructure of that park in terms of water and sewer access and park roads and some areas for recreation and a total redesign of the park. That's going pretty well. I can't even begin to tell you the number of things that Matt's exploring and I think we were right in selecting this man for this job. I think there may be an opportunity in the future to use his abilities to ferret out things for other projects. The Town has received a request from The Inspector to offer electrical inspection services. Cl T Hatfield suggested that we respond and request references and a plan for services and generally investigate this. ZO Slater explained that the Town currently uses Atlantic Inland and NY Board of Fire Underwriters and divides the work equally. Both inspectors assigned by those companies have stopped in to the office and are readily available in the community. ZO Slater will write to The Inspector. ZO Slater - As you know New York State is in the process of adopting a model building ® code to replace the current New York State code. As of today, the January 1, 2002 implementation date seems to be a hard date even though we were told as recently as last week that it would be July 1, 2002. It will be an interesting time. We are going to go totally in a different direction in terms of code enforcement and code conformance. It can be a conformance code. It can be a descriptive code. It can be a supply with test result code. It's going to be more expensive to enforce and more expensive to conform to. I've been involved in this for six years. I thank we're probably going to have to raise our fees and we're probably going to have to utilize more outside services. We're certainly going to have to make more and lengthier inspections. We're in the transitional training for that. We have three mandatory days of training this month and we're very fortunate that the courses are being offered at TC3. Kevin and I will be taking the courses there and we will be taking a four day refresher course in October and then we will have to undergo mandatory certification testing, which is totally different from anything in the past where we just simply signed up, got some training and were turned loose. I don't anticipate it being that tough having been involved in some of that planning. It will certainly test your knowledge to utilize the tools you're given in order to complete the inspections. I'll keep you updated in the process because it will be important to the Town. It will cost more to administer, however the State has given us back the "54G" money. That's sort of a luxury tax that's paid with fire insurance premiums. People who hold fire insurance policies in New York State contribute eleven million dollars to the State of New York which the State is supposed to disburse among all the communities for code enforcement. That was part of the carrot to enforce the code in 1984 and they were very good about it for the first four years. The amount dwindled down to nothing, but the State was still getting that money and putting it into their general fund rather than spending it for what it was being collected. The New York State Building Officials have been urging New York State legislators to make sure that money comes back and it appears that it's going to. It could possibly mean something like $20,000 annually to the Town of Dryden in terms of reimbursement, plus they are reimbursing us for expenses involved in getting the transitional time of training and ® materials, etc. We're filing, for a new computer and some code manuals and other things to Page 7 of 14 T8 3 -14 -01 save the Town some money. I just wanted you to know what the program was about so that • you can be supportive. Supv Varvayanis - If you recall, Matt Shulman had insurance for one million dollars, and we wanted him to increase it to a standard of three. He was suggesting that a $35 an hour increase in his pay would cover about half of the added insurance and he would pay half. Supv Varvayanis asked if that was acceptable to the Board and it vas. RESOLUTION #102 - INCREASE HOURLY RATE FOR lad SHULMAN Supv Varvayanis offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby increases the hourly rate to be paid Matthew Shulman under his contract to serve as Project Impact Coordinator by $.75 per hour. 211d Cl Grantham Roll Call Vote Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Cl C Hatfield - So with this increase he'll have the insurance we want him to have. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT .sack Bush distributed information to the Board regarding bids received for a tandem drive 3 -axle cab and chassis with dump body and snowplow equipment. Bids were as follows: Burr Truck 2002 Volvo w/ Viking plow & Cummings Engine $103,994.00 Burr Truck 2002 Volvo w /Viking plow & Volvo Engine $1027694.00 Stadium International w /Tenco plow $113,381.00 Stadium International w /Viking plow $1022900.00 Tracey Freight Liner FLD 112SD w /Everest $105,350.00 Sterling Trucks LT9500 w /Larachell Plow /body $1021548.00 Jack Bush explained that of the bids received, Burr Truck was the only vendor that did not take the time of delivery for an exception. It is essential that the new truck be delivered before September and he is recommending that the board accept the bid from Burr Truck for a 2002 Volvo model VHD cab & chassis with a 14' Beau -Roc HTT dump body & Viking snowplow equipment in the amount of $103,994.00. RESOLUTION # 103 - ACCEPT BID FOR 2002 TRUCK & PLOW EQUIPMENT Cl T Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby accepts the bid by Burr Truck for a 2002 Volvo model VHD cab & chassis with a 14' Beau -Roc HTT dump body & Viking snowplow equipment in the amount of $103,994.00. 2nd Cl C Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Rage 8of14 TB 3 -14-01 0 Cl Grantham Yes Cl C Hatfield asked about the status of the Livermore Road culvert. J Bush - We're still trying to get a contractor to give me some firm prices. It's going to be a lot more money than we originally anticipated. The pipe is so deep and the Town does not have an excavator that can do that kind of work. I'm trying to figure out how to do it without going out to competitive bid and providing most of the work ourselves. 1 might see if I can rent a machine and. subcontract a contractor to actually do a portion of the work. A big concern is yanking those two pipes out and putting a new pipe in and getting it compacted properly. I'd rather have somebody who has done that before to get it up about two feet above the pipe and we can take it from there. I've talked to four or five people about it. J & B Excavation has done a job like this for the Town of Owego. He may be willing to drop his price down because it is slow time of year. DISCUSSION J Buckley - I believe a letter has been sent to you, but I did not receive a copy of it. Medicare is increasing their mileage rates. It does not affect us yet, but it is affecting inter= facility transports. They are going by zip codes for billing, instead of using actual mileage. Over short period of time it will begin to affect us and as a rural area we will be more directly affected once this is fully implemented. This is a mandated change by Medicare. The mileage is increasing from something like $5.35 or so a mile to $7.43 or so. The Town should start making the changes in its system in order to correlate with Medicare's rates. ® Supv Varvayanis - We can raise it to $7.50 and if Medicare only reimburses $7.43, that's okay. J Buckley explained that: Medicare pays up to a maximum amount for services and we should bill near that maximum. RESOLUTION li 104 - RAISE AMBULANCE MILEAGE CHARGE TO $7.50 PER MILE Cl T Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Ambulance District and the Town Supervisor to whatever steps may be necessary to increase the amount charged for mileage by the Ambulance District to $7.50 per mile. 2nd Cl Grantham Roll Call Vote Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Board members have received a letter from Jinn Buckley regarding the need to increase the salary paid the paramedics. He explained that he feels it is necessary in order to hire and keep the paramedics necessary to run the ambulance. He has checked with other ambulance providers regarding the wages paid and benefits paid and /or offered and given that information to board members. Jim Buckley reviewed the duties and responsibilities of other paramedics in the area, noting that some are not responsible for anything other than responding to calls, while in Dryden the paramedic also serves as a clerk. His recommendation for a wage for ® paramedics is $14.50 per hour. There has been no response to the recent ad in the paper and he believes it is because the wage is so low in Dryden. He suggests that the part time Page 9 of 14 TB 3 -14 -01 paramedics also receive a raise. The Town has recently lost two full time paramedics to better paying jobs, even though the Town has a better benefit package. He noted that the younger • paramedics don't particularly care about the medical and retirement packages. He would prefer to hire experienced paramedics, rather than inexperienced. At the end of the month there will be no one to work other than Jim Buckley and a few part timers. He does not believe he can fill the positrons at $10 or $11 an hour, even with the benefit package offered. Cl Grantham asked Mr. Buckley if he was also looking for an increase for himself and he replied that he would like an increase in accordance with their increase. He currently makes $1.00 an hour more than the other Town paramedics in his capacity as lead paramedic and would like it to remain at least that. Mr. Buckley noted that in addition to his supervisory position, he is responsible for the billing. He stressed that right now he is concerned with getting the pay rate increased in order to hire new paramedics and noted that years of experience ought to be taken into consideration when det:ermuling an individual's hourly rate of pay. J Buckley would also like to see a cost of living allowance for the paramedics. Cl T Hatfield stated that right now the immediate concern is getting qualified individuals hired to provide the services and that perhaps the supervisor should be authorized on recommendation of the lead paramedic and the committee to establish a salary for each new hire commensurate with experience and within a range of $1 1.00 to $15.00. He noted that other communities seem to be paying more and suggested that a new ad be placed in the newspapers that includes the pay scale. J Buckley stated that he has the names of all paramedics in the area and will be sending letters out to them to let them know the Town is hiring. RESOLUTION #105 - INCREASE PAY RATE FOR PARAMEDICS Cl T Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Supervisor, on recommendation of the lead paramedic and ambulance committee, to establish an hourly rate for each new hire paramedic commensurate with their experience, qualifications and within a range of $11.00 to $15.00 per hour. 21,d Cl Grantham Moll Call Vote Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Cl Grantham thanked Mr. Buckley for compiling the information he submitted. J Buckley - I'd like to clear up a question I have. Seeing that I'm going through the refresher course, and as you may know, that can get quite costly. My reading of the policy is that I do not get reimbursed for that. If I go through a full refresh, I'm looking at $800 or $900. Cl Grantham - I think we should change that because we pay for other training. Supv Varvayanis - Was there a reason we don't? At:ty Perkins - One of the things that you want to consider is that you can pay for somebody to get completely refreshed and then they leave and you've got nothing out of what you just invested in that. I don't know how long a refresher is good for, but it seems to me it ought to be paid back at some kind of a prorated rate. After a period of time goes by, they get part of it bark or something. Page 10 of 14 TB 3 -14-01 J Buckley stated that every other agency within the region does this and that there are grants that will assist with this. If he does not receive this training, he can not practice as a paramedic. Cl T Hatfield stated that he does not ask for his continued special education. Cl Grantham - We're not paying for people to get their licensing. This is for training as they go on and we do that for other positions in the Town. Like Kevin has done the GIS training and so on. Places that I've worked have put limits on it. If you finish the course and you stay another six months, you get refunded, things like that. Cl T Hatfield - I think that's where I was going with it. Tonight we wanted to make sure we got rates put in place. The rest of this with respect to the structure we've got to keep working on. J Buckley - I just wanted to know. I'm paying out of my pocket right now and was wondering where we stood on that. I'm doing the paramedic refresh and I've signed for management courses. I'm trying to get the management training so 1 can be better for this position. I just wondered where we stood, because it was unclear to me. Cl Grantham - Perhaps the committee can come up with a recommendation and send it back to the board. Supv Varvayanis - It is really committee work. Ron Flynn - When we originally started with this paramedic program we were commended and we were looked up to in other communities, to be able to do this and provide the service. Back then we were considered to be a leader in our profession. I'd like to extend ® my sincere appreciation to the Board for allowing them to approve the raises and to keep the quality of care at. the highest level possible forithe community residents. I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the Board, realizing the problems we have and taking the necessary steps to remedy the situation. Supv Varvayanis -The tower project update. There's really not a lot of news there. Tomorrow afternoon the supervisors will be meeting to discuss what we're doing. Mahlon, you've been invited by Caroline. I guess there'll be more to talk about after tomorrow. On the consultant contract., HUD has a couple of additions they may want to make to that contract, so hopefully it will be signed tomorrow. On the proposed resolutions, we really haven't talked that much about capital projects. C1 T Hatfield - I'd like to discuss that a little bit before we go forward. Supv Varvayanis - Remember back when I first had my proposed budget, I discussed it and then I happened to be talking with Dianne about it, and she put it down here. We still haven't discussed it because we didn't meet last week to have our discussion. Cl T Hatfield - So let's wait on that. Supv Varvayanis stated Mary Ellen Bossack has expressed an interest in being reappointed to the County Youth Board. RESOLUTION #106 - REAPPOINT M BOSSACK TO COUNTY YOUTH BOARD ® Cl C Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: Page 1 l of 14 TB 3 -14 -01 RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby reappoints Mary Ellen Bossack to serve as its representative on the Tompkins County Youth Board. 211d Cl Grantham Roll Call Vote Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes RESOLUTION #107 - APPOINT M VARVAYANIS TO CAYUGA MEDICAL CENTER Cl C Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby appoints Mark Varvayanis as a member of the Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca Corporation for a term to expire April 2003. 2nd Cl Grantham Roll Call Vote Cl T I-Iatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl C Hatfield Yes Cl Grantham Yes Supv Varvayanis stated that the regional Lobby Day will be held March 23 at the Clarion in Ithaca and board members are encouraged to attend. Cl Grantham asked whether there had been any responses to the master plan RFP and Supv Varvayanis .stated there had been only one request to return a call. Mike Lane stated that he is very concern ed about the upgrading of the intersection of Brown Road in connection with the Ornithology Lab project and the additional traffic that may be added to Route 13 from Brown Road. It is difficult to cross Route 13 at: that point. He would like them to develop the project in some way that Brown Road would stay as it has been, only a driveway or something like that. Supv Varvayanis - That's somewhat contradictory in that I thought the County wanted a radius turn and Cornell expressed an interest in keeping it an intersection with stop signs to slow it down. M Lane - Well, if you are looking for improvement there, that is what our Highway Manager is saying. What I'm saying is that I don't think anybody should go ahead at all. D Putnam - 'They're looking to have the main entrance and exit off of Route 13 and not Hanshaw Road, M Lane - Which I think is-a terrible mistake. I think well have people killed there. M Walbridge - I think several people, myself included, when they first came to the board spoke at length that having this as a clear through road and getting off of Route 13 really isn't a good idea and we're hoping that the Town and the County especially would work on them to get to keep it more the way it is now. The road. is kept in poor enough shape to limit the amount of use of it. And I think it's a good use of lack of maintenance. I agree with Mike, I think there will be an accident. I think the Towns and County could get: together and work on this. Upgrading it is not in everybody's best interests. Page 12 of 14 Tli 3 -14401 isCl C Hatfield - So you think if we leave it full of pot holes it %vill be better? M Lane - To have the entrance off of Hanshaw would be a much better solution. Route 13 is a limited access highway and 55 miles per hour. It's difficult for a car to cross after coming to a dead stop. Cl T Hatfield - It's a limited access highway and that area is going to continue to grow. We need to keep truck traffic out of neighborhoods and everything else. Maybe we've got to have an overhead or underground passage through there. M .Lane - I've been an advocate for an overpass at Warren Road. But for Brown Road I don't think (:here's a chance at all that we'll see an overpass there for many, many years. Cl T Hatfield - I'm not arguing the point, Mike. .I think it's well taken. I'm just saying that the whole issue of transportation and how to deal with the desire of the travelling public to get from Ithaca and Cornell to get to Cortland or other points out creates a real problem for something like the lab and someone coming across Route 13. M Lane - If the lab wanted to rebuild Sapsucker Woods Road and improve that how are you going to stop people from using that as a primary access to the Cornell research center? Cl T Hatfield - Just dead end it. M Lane - I'm all for it. Cl T Hatfield -It was just a gravel path atone point. It's probably discussion for another night, but I share your concern. That's a dangerous intersection. Try to come out of Brown turn left. M Lane - I have suggested that Brown Road coming out of the airport should be a right hand turn only. Cl T Hatfield - And everything else can come out of Warren where you've got a traffic signal. Cl C Hatfield - That wasn't the primary entrance to the lab before, and that's what they want now? Cl T Hatfield - They had mentioned federal highway money and we were rightfully uninterested in that because that was a loaded gun. I don't think in the long; run we can just ignore that subject. We've got to find some answers. There are too many unhappy people in residential communities. We have a letter here tonight about truck noise. We aren't going to take the trucks off the road unless you can give them a. better path. It all goes to planning and the whole thing we're dealing with with planning issues. But my comment is really that 13 is not a limited access highway. It's used like one. M Lane - It is a limited access in that area. Cl C Hatfield - If it's a limited access why do they have those two entrances there? D Putnam - There are no driveways allouTed. That's the state definition, And there's a potential to have one more intersection between Brown Road and Hanshaw Road. There is a provision to have one more road enter there, on the right coming toward Dryden where there's a break in the woods. That road has never been built, but it can be built there. That's Page 13 of 14 TB 3 -14-01 Cornell's access to their land that got cut off when Route 13 was built. Cornell owns a whole bunch of land to the south of Route 13. Years ago Lucente and Cornell had come to the Town with a. plan to develop that area and the road was going to go through all the way to Hanshaw Road. Cl T Hatfield - You can almost see where Route 13 could become the median highway which has very limited access, and you have feeder roads on either side that takes it to a major intersection to deal with a traffic light so that people don't get themselves killed. It's an ugly solution, but it may come to that. On motion duly made, seconded, and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 P.M. Respectfully submitted, 11411 4L� 1 X40 Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk Page 14 of 14 Town of mmden Town Board Meeting March 14, 2001 Name - {Please Print) eoeo�7 /1 /i U ►'Y\ \.r C. '20L) II Address VwNk