Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-12- 30TB 12 -30 -03 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING December 30, 2003 Present: Supv Mark Varvayanis, Cl Charles Hatfield, Cl Stephen Stelick, Jr., Cl Christopher Michaels Absent: Cl Deborah Grantham llected Officials: Iambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk Other Town Staff. Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Supv Varvayanis called the meeting to order at 9:05 am. because of a lack of meeting space at the Town hall, the meeting was adjourned, moved to the Village Hall and reconvened at 9:16 a.m. Atty Perkins said the board has previously reviewed the Intermunicipal Wastewater Agreement: between the Towns of Dryden, Lansing and Ithaca, the Villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights and the City of Ithaca and resolved to sign that. A part of this is the revised joint sewer agreement and Noel Desch is present to discuss the history of it, including the formation of the original sewer agreement, and bring the board up to date so they have an understanding of the where the Town of Dryden's interest lies. is Noel Desch said the original agreement was signed in December of 1981.. It has taken a lot of time and effort to bring the parties together but was critical in order for them to be competitive in getting a 30 million grant to build the plant. The Towns of Dryden and Ithaca and the City of Ithaca was major players in achieving that goal and in the successful operation of the plant since the agreement was finalized. The plant was "over= designed" to allow for excess capacity and future expansion. In 1987 the three owners applied for a re- rating of the plant which resulted in the discharge permit being increased. This was a foundation for the group of agreements to move forward because the Town of Ithaca had acquired excess capacity in the original plan and now all the parties gained additional capacity. The Town of Ithaca can now divert its flow from the northeast part of the Town from the Cayuga Heights plant. The diversion works to each parties benefit, including the Town and Village of Lansing who can now expand their sever district areas. Area maps were reviewed. Changes from the old agreement to the new agreement were outlined. The service areas were changed, particularly a benefit to the Towns of Ithaca and Dryden. The governance was changed and instead of this being a subcommittee of the City's Department of Public Works (done because of charter restrictions at the time of the original agreement). SJS will now provide the governance. From the representation standpoint there is no change. It will now be easier to get things done. There have previously been accountability questions and will eliminate that. The new agreement includes an operations review committee which will look at those city departments, on a rotating basis, that provide services to the jointly owned plant. This is a big issue because over a period of time the City started charging for portions of the activities, including things like the mayor's office. After a long negotiation, now 10% of overhead will be allowed to be charged to the operating costs. With respect to issues of capacity, the original agreement required that when an entity • filed a request for additional capacity, all the others had to contribute toward providing a piece of that capacity. That turned out to be a major issue for the City, who wanted to be in a Page 1 of 6 r W O �J T13 12 30 -03 position to say no if they chose. In the new agreement, any combination of parties can decide ® to buy and sell capacity as they choose. At some point, the Town of Dryden may find a need to purchase excess capacity and it will be likely the Town of Ithaca would be a willing seller because it has a great deal of excess capacity. There is a clause in the new agreement that requires an interest charge in the event: that the quarterly operating and maintenance bill for each of the three parties is not paid. This was a point the City hung tough on and the other parties finally agreed. It is a relatively non - punitive point: because the quarterly payment is made from revenues raised from quarterly billings. Mr Desch said this new agreement should serve all the parties extremely well. Supv Varvayanis said that Cayuga Heights may have capacity issues, they have never been cited by DEC and no official action has been taken on their capacity. With respect to the 10"/6 overhead, it is 101/o of the actual expenditures, not what it budgeted. The Town can currently buy excess capacity from the Town of Ithaca, and while there is no guarantee, studies show there should still be excess capacity 20 years from now. Atty Perkins said with respect to capacity, the Town is basically losing a position. Where before they were required to make it available, now hopefully there will be a willing seller. N Desch said that with the City continuing to do a lot of work in improving their system, they will probably be gainung more excess capacity than new development will use, and he wouldn't be surprised if the City should decide to sell excess capacity. Appendix U identifies excess capacity. Atty Perkins noted the expanded service area (an appendix to the agreement) may or may not: coincide with the areas in the Town's Comprehensive Plan (presently in draft form) that have been targeted for development of municipal wastewater systems. Cl Michaels asked how any future change in the service area would be accomplished, and N Desch said that would require an amendment to the agreement. Atty Perkins said it was his understanding that if the Town were to propose establishing a sewer district and expanding a service area the only issue would be capacity. Current service areas were reviewed. N Desch explained that the agreement between the six parties (the "umbrella agreement ") previously approved by the board, is what makes the mechanics of the diversion fall into place and legitimatizes the service area so that when new districts are formed there is flexibility of diverting flow regardless of where it comes from. This helps keep the six parties from stumbling over whether a piece of property is in or out of a collection system from either plant. Mike Hall said the umbrella agreement provides a set: of standards for the entire service area and a basis for the six municipalities and two independently operated sewer treatment plants to make business arrangements between themselves. This framework establishes the ability to work together and the agreement being addressed this morning addresses some structural flaws between three rather diverse owners of the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant. There had been disagreements between partners about how they should work together to operate that plant. He said good agreements make for good partnerships and what has been negotiated between the three owners of the Ithaca area plant is a far stronger agreement and should allow for operation in a more effective manner. `There is a functional agreement between the owners of the Ithaca. plant: and an umbrella agreement within which that functional plant will work in partnership with the Cayuga Heights plant to provide a more 40 effective wastewater treatment plan for the six municipalities in ways that benefit each municipality uniquely, Page 2 of 6 TB 12 -30 -03 The Environmental Protection Agency must sign off on the governance change because they approved the previous pretreatment provisions. The Cayuga Heights plant and the Ithaca plant must be on the same page with regard to pretreatment requirements and that is addressed in the agreement. Atty Perkins noted that the ownership of the plants has not changed. The agreement allows for the Lansings to contract for capacity. M Hall said it offers a basis on which business deals can be made to take advantage of the new services areas. RESOLUTION # 184 - SIGN JOINT SEWER AGREEMENT Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the Joint Server Agreement between the Town of Dryden, Town of Ithaca and City of Ithaca, and authorizes signature of the same. 2nd Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Supervisor and board members present signed the agreement, together with intermunicipal wastewater agreement between the six parties previously approved. 41 Cl Michaels thanked Noel Desch and Mike Hall for coming and for their presentation. Mike Hall said the last action on these two agreements involves a similar meeting to be held at the Town of Ithaca tomorrow at 11:00. The board discussed operating monies to be paid for 2002 ($16,920.00) and 2003 $15,373.00). Noel Desch said the budgets for 2002 and 2003 had not been approved by the Towns of Ithaca and Dryden because of the issue of the City's charge back of City department. expenses. His view is that once everyone had agreed to the 10`% overhead rate, which substantially reduces the amount the City can charge, that it is appropriate to sign off. He said the Town of Ithaca has the intent to do that and he believes everybody is on the same page finally about how much operating revenue is needed to keep the joint activity fund balance at: the minimum that it needs to be. They have decided they need to have 1/4 revenue at all times in case of an emergency situation (about $400,000 in the fund balance). Supv Varvayanis said one of the reasons he has a fair amount of confidence is the City of Ithaca has made payments based on this formula to the SJS fund. The Town of Ithaca has made some payments toward their amount already. Board authorized the Town of Dryden' is payments. RESOLUTION # 185 - AUTHORIZE PAYMENTS TO ITHACA AREA WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: Page 3 of 6 TB 12 -30 -03 RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes payment to the Ithaca Area ® Wastewater Treatment Plant in the following amounts: $16,920.00 for operating expenses for 2002 and $15,373.00 for operating expenses for 2003. 2nd Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Mike Hall asked whether the Board had decided on the $20,000 and $28,500 that was due. Supv Varvayanis said $20,000 had been sent on the 1501 and it was his understanding that the $28,500 would come from the SJS account. Mike Hall explained that the six parties had gotten together for the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement and the agreements that he had seen did not specify the source of the funding for that. 'There was an agreement that Jim Schug had signed on behalf of the Town of Dryden but there was no discussion in that agreement about who pays what portion of the fee for preparation of the EIS or what source the funds would come from. He is not sure that any of that was to come from SJS funds. The $28,500 represents one -sixth of the cost of the Environmental Impact Study. Much of the focus of the EIS was related to the efforts in the Town of Lansing and Villages of Lansing and Cayuga. Heights. He said it is unfortunate that it wasn't straightened out at the time of the agreement. Supv Varvayanis said that Ithaca City Mayor Alan Cohen and Ithaca Town Supervisor Cathy Valentino had been under the impression that it would come from the SJS funds. N Desch said the board should decide whether the Town of Dryden received a one -sixth benefit from the cost of the environmental impact study. There could be an argument that the City of Ithaca did not benefit from the environmental impact study because they are mostly already served by sewer. The Town of Dryden has been able to capture a large service area under the new agreement that would not be available if the study had not: been done. Supv Varvayanis said the DEC did not require the environmental impact, that the City of Ithaca wanted to see it, and one could make the argument that since they wanted it they should pay for the whole thing. N Desch said they did not know what would have happened if the study had not been done, and said you had to look at whether the $28,500 was a reasonable cost to get all the agreements done. Cl Michaels asked if the funds were not delivered by the Town, what the effect would be and N Desch said that the Mayor may well not sign the agreement. The City's Common Council authorized the Mayor to sign by only a one vote margin when he was satisfied that: the payments that were due were paid. Supv Varvayanis said the City hasn't yet paid their $28,500. M Hall said the intent of the closing tomorrow is put all the funds and the signed agreements on the table, meaning all parties will come to the meeting with the funds that are due. Any money remaining in dispute means there is risk that the agreements will not be signed. N Desch said the City of Ithaca and Town of Ithaca clearly have the resources to do it, and he thinks it would be good for the Town of Dryden to take the lead and force the issue, and show the level of trust in moving forward. Atty Perkins suggested that delivery of these funds could be conditioned on all other parties paying their shares. Supv Varvayanis said Cathy Valentino had just heard about this yesterday, that there has never been any discussion of the $28,500. Cl Stelick asked if we did not pay, would it be a deal breaker, and N Desch said that was likely. Cl Stelick asked why it was brought up now. M Hall said the issue of the monies has been under intense discussion and Cathy Valentino ® had been involved in those discussions. She has worked with Steve Thayer to determine accurately what payments had been made by which municipalities and in the course of doing Page 4 of 6 TB 12 -30 -03 that it was discovered that the City had not invoiced back to its partners, and all that has been worked through and there is an agreed upon spread sheet. Supv Varvayanis said the City had not funded anything, that it was SJS funds. M Hall said this number had been know for a while and it is what has to be done to get finished. The reason for this meeting is to make sure that all the details are known and the matter can be closed tomorrow and start 2004 with good agreements in place. N Desch said not paying the $28,500 would send a bad message to the Villages of Cayuga Heights and Lansing and Town of Lansing, who clearly are paying for a benefit, but this would put it in a d.ii % rent light if the other parties aren't paying on the same basis. Supv Varvayanis said the other municipalities don't want to see the Town of Dryden get blackmailed by the City of Ithaca, which is the way this is being perceived. N Desch that in a real world situation that is not how the benefit is related. If the Town of Dryden were not in a position now to sewer whatever area it chooses within the Town as a result of the effort put through in the environmental impact study, then he would agree, but that is not the case if you look at who the benefactors are and who the payees are, that everyone wins if you do it on a one -sixth basis. He said the Town of Dryden will have assurance for the next 20 years to have a public wastewater system on a viable basis. Atty Perkins asked if the issue was the one -sixth or whether the amount of $28,500 should be paid from SJS or Town of Dryden funds. Supv Varvayanis said according to the understanding he had, the Town would pay 29/o from the Town fiends. N Desch asked if the Town was getting more than a 2% benefit, and Supv Varvayanis said his answer would be no. N Desch said it is not clear to him that the City is throwing a curve ba11. The SJS minutes indicate that the intent was to do it on a one -sixth basis. Cl Michaels said that he would recommend the Town pay the one - sixth. He appreciates all the negotiations and frustrations, but thinks it is the right thing to do and the Town will get a lot of benefit from it. Atty Perkins asked what the Town of Ithaca's position was and Supv Varvayanis said it was his understanding that C Valentino had said she would do it `kicking and screaming", that she ® finds it unfair. Cl Hatfield said he has seen this going on for seven years and it is frustrating that nothing gets done, and if the payment would make it all work, then perhaps it was worth it. Cl Stelick said that he agrees, the amount is not so important as the way it was brought up, and he is disappointed that this wasn't worked out earlier in the process. He would like to go forward, but is disappointed in the way it came about. N Desch said that the board is willing to discuss it and recognize it is admirable. Cl Stelick said that Supv Varvayanis has put in endless hours, negotiated in good faith and now we are being held hostage by this amount. Supv Varvayanis said well have to figure out where to get: it: later. RESOLUTION 0186 - PAY $28,500 FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDY - IAWWTP Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board does hereby authorize payment of the sum of $28,500 in connection with the preparation of the environmental impact study for the intermunicipal wastewater agreement. 211a Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes N Desch said he thinks what the Town is doing is great and it means that the Mayor will have to come to closing with a check for $28,500 too in order to make the whole thing consistent. Supv Varvayanis said this was not City money that was fronted, it was SJS money and the City has to come up with checks just like the other municipalities, Page 5 orb TB 12 -30 -03 On motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the board moved into executive session at 10:25 a.m. to discuss the employment history of a particular individual. No action was taken the meeting was adjourned at 10:45 :.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk Page 6ofG