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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-12-17TB 12-17-2015 Page 1 of 9 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING December 17, 2015 Present: Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner, Cl Gregory Sloan, Cl Joseph Solomon, Cl Jason Leifer, Cl Linda Lavine Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Other Town Staff: Ray Burger, Director of Planning Supv Sumner called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Board members and guests participated in the pledge of allegiance. PUBLIC HEARING PROPOSED LOCAL LAW SEWER DISTRICT #1 RATE INCREASE Supv Sumner opened the public hearing at 7:05 p.m. and dispensed with reading the public notice. She explained that the sewer from this district discharges through the Cayuga Heights plant. Cayuga Heights bills the town and used to charge per unit and now charges per gallon. This local law adjusts our rate to users to cover that. Notices have been sent to all customers in that district. PUBLIC HEARING 902 DRYDEN ROAD 1401 DRYDEN ROAD Supv Sumner explained that no action will be taken on either of these matters tonight, but the board will accept public comment. Kim Simmons, 832 Dryden Road, said her concern is not just the development at 902 Dryden Road, but the state of the infrastructure in Varna. They have had to contact the town several times this summer for water and sewer issues. She feels it is short sighted to add additional draw on those systems before the issue is addressed. Supv Sumner said the town is aware and the number of problems this year has bumped this to the top of the list. They may be addressing that next year. The Planning Department received the County 239 review this afternoon and has not yet reviewed it. The applicants’ stormwater prevention plan has been submitted to the engineer but they haven’t completed their review yet. R Burger said the County has recommended that no fill be placed in the flood plain and that the Town should revisit its 1987 flood damage prevention local law. TOWN CLERK RESOLUTION #173 (2015) – APPROVE MINUTES Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: TB 12-17-2015 Page 2 of 9 RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the meeting minutes of November 5, 12 and 19, 2015. 2nd Cl Solomon Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Lavine Yes HIGHWAY/DPW DEPARTMENT Supv Sumner said the Highway Superintendent has submitted a proposed §284 agreement for 2016 and she has requested a report showing the progress of the work listed in the 2015 §284 agreement. CITIZENS PRIVILEGE Supv Sumner stated she has received a response from the State Comptrollers Office to Bruno Schickel’s letter which Mr Schickel spoke about a few months ago and read that letter for the audience (letter attached). She said she believes this echoes what she has been saying for the past several years. Joe Wilson and several others thanked Supv Sumner and Cl Solomon for their years of service to the town and the effective way they have increased the quality of life in the town over the years. Simon St Laurent, 1259 Dryden Road, thanked Supv Sumner and Cl Solomon for keeping the town afloat and patiently listening to all kinds of cranky people. Jim Skaley, 940 Dryden Road, thanked Supv Sumner and Cl Solomon for their service and wished them a happy retirement. He said in the past six or seven months there have been four to five significant accidents in the downtown Varna area. He suggested that radar signs would be helpful and Supv Sumner suggested he speak with the Sheriff and/or NYS DOT about that. Cl Sloan agreed it has been particularly bad in the past year, but he’s not sure it will continue. The board could put a resolution on one of the next meeting agendas. Don Scutt, Palmear Road, said he is going to bring out a couple of expenses at every meeting that should be looked at because the town has a problem with its budget. In his opinion, if there weren’t budget problems we wouldn’t have to raise taxes. If there was proper planning we could live within the budget. We should not raise taxes to justify expenditures. On tonight’s agenda is a resolution to use recreation reserve fund subject to permissive referendum. D Scutt said he was on the Rec Commission when the fund was establ ished and there was strong talk that the money was geared toward a master park to be built in a central location along the lines of the Recreation Master Plan and the Comprehensive Plan (to have one large park and multiple smaller parks). Because of the current financial situation, he doesn’t believe the town can afford to buy the land on Pinckney Road. We are in the process of nickel and diming DPW that maintains our current parks. We can’t purchase additional land under the premise of building trails and park lands when the DPW is being whittled. He asked the board to postpone the purchase of this land. He understands the old railroad bed is there. It leads to trails. The surveyor stakes do not include the trail or the railroad bed. He doesn’t think the town has the funds to buy the land and said it isn’t what you think it is. TB 12-17-2015 Page 3 of 9 When you take something off the tax roll, the other taxing entities in town are affected. The school will lose $1100 in this instance. He asked whether the school had b een consulted. There have been instances when property is removed from the tax role, that the entity removing the property negotiates some sort of settlement with the other taxing entity (normally a five year payment in lieu of taxes). He asked the board to consider the school in this situation. Buzz Lavine, 719 Ringwood Road thanked Supv Sumner for her service for all these years. He said she has dedication to the town that he has not seen in anyone before. The shoes left for Jason to fill will provide quite a challenge. Craig Schutt, 69 Schutt Road, said he understands the county is putting some restrictions on the Pinckney Road land if they help pay for it. One will be a 100’ buffer along Fall Creek (which he agrees is a good thing) and 50’ along the tributaries. That takes up a good share of the parcel. He isn’t against buffers, but the idea that the town will be able to do anything else with the property is deceiving. His suggestion would have been to try to get an easement along the creek. The $6500 from the one fund from the county would have almost paid for that easement. A 100’ buffer would be about two acres. Even if the town purchases that property, there is still a problem of erosion down by Campbell Meadow. The creek is cutting in toward the park near the picnic tables. It has been doing that for a number of years. And then there is the issue of the bridge. The $8500 from the Flood Hazard Mitigation Program that the county wants to give would go a long way toward paying for a project to protect that bank along Campbell meadow. Purchase of the property across the creek won’t fix that reoccurring problem and someone will have to put money into that. He looked at it several times in his work. It has moved further and further and more and more land from Campbell Meadow is being washed downstream. So you’ll still need money from somewhere to protect the bank. The flood hazard mitigation money would be better spent doing that because that is what the fund was designed for. It is the first time in 15 years he has heard of the money being used for property acquisition. It upsets him to think that suddenly it can be used for property acquisition. It was for stream protection and flood protection, and that purpose fit s perfectly. He thinks it needs to be preserved, but there are better ways to do that than spending $70,000 and still have a problem that someone will have to pay for. If the town owns it, the town will have to pay for it. D Cipolla Dennis presented the Supervisor with the new Freeville calendar. She noted that all the pictures are taken by Freeville residents and the funds go toward a community recreation activities fund. Cl Lavine thanked Supv Sumer for putting up with her and dittos all that Buzz said. Cl Sloan said his introduction to Dryden politics was in 2011 when he was putting up signs for Supv Sumner. It was great fun. It’s a shame it has to end. Supv Sumner said she isn’t going far and will be attending meetings. She has tried to be open and transparent and it has been wonderful to get to know the people. She has learned so much and every day is different. COUNTY BRIEFING Mike Lane thanked Supv Sumner for serving as Town Supervisor. He thanked Cl Solomon serving on the board, stating he is a quiet solid force meeting after meeting, and every once in while we hear a gem of his wisdom and it helps. TB 12-17-2015 Page 4 of 9 Quite a few people came and talked about energy at the legislative meeting on Tuesday. He recommended people watch it on the county website. There were a lot of comments on energy issues. They are always glad to have people attend and share their views. The legislature will be doing a reorganization of the administration of the Health Department and Mental Health Department. They share an administrator, Fran Krupa, who has been the health commissioner for many years. They think it will help both departments move forward. There will be a three-year trial and then they will re-evaluate. Other counties around the state have actually combined those two departments. That may not be a good fit for Tompkins County, but there will be a task force to take a look at it. It is clear that they aren’t undermining any commitment to services for mental health. Tompkins County has a larger department, program and building than many counties. Some are contracting for mental health services. Tompkins County understands about mental health needs and services, and combining the administration won’t cut down on services. TCCOG met today and talked about ambulances and ambulance service. Caroline is losing its ambulance service and they discussed how a small town can afford pay enough to attract advanced life support EMTs. They are investigating whether there is any kind of joint approach to be taken. Cl Leifer arrived at 7:45 p.m. The county legislature will reorganize again in January and will be looking at committees, the chair and vice chair of legislature. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Trail development – Supv Sumner reported that she and Ray Burger met with Barbara Lifton and new Fish and Wildlife Commissioner and others about the rail trail from Game Farm Road to Varna. They have been held up because the Game Farm has not liked the route through the farm. The new DEC representative is listening. The sportsmen groups are not and they will have to address that. There are no Tompkins County members in those groups. They are committed to supporting the raising of pheasants for hunting in New York. Supv Sumner said if we persist we may succeed. We should proceed on the part of the trail where we can get the easements while waiting for a better decision from DEC. Supv Sumner reminded the board that in September of 2014 the Conservation B oard passed a resolution urging the Town Board to consider development of the trail from Freeville to McLean. The Conservation Board would like to make it an official proposed project. She asked the board to keep it on the agenda, but she is not ready to advocate for specific action. Cl Lavine would like to arrange for Bob Beck to present this to the board early in the year. It seems like an excellent goal even it if could be only partially accomplished. Supv Sumner said the board should establish a timeline and priority for parts that are in progress. Cl Lavine suggested that because the Planning Department is short on time perhaps volunteers could help by contacting property owners for easements . Cl Sloan suggested that once there is permission to do a stretch then we should proceed because then the benefits become more readily apparent to people. Supv Sumner closed the public hearing on proposed local law at 7:55 p.m. No SEQR is required. RESOLUTION #174 (2015) – ADOPT LOCAL LAW – SEWER DISTRICT #1 RATE Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: TB 12-17-2015 Page 5 of 9 RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby adopts the following local law and directs the Town Clerk to file the same with the Secretary of State of the State of New York: Local Law # 2015 Amending Local Law #1 of 2013 – Sewer use rate SS1 Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Dryden as follows: 1. Subsection (b) of Section 6 (Calculation of Sewer Rent) of Local Law No. 1 of the year 2013 (Town of Dryden Sewer District No. 1 Sewer Rent Law) is hereby amended to read as follows: “(b) Each dwelling unit using 8,000 gallons of water or less will be billed $30.00 2. Subsection (c) of Section 6 (Calculation of Sewer Rent) of such local law is hereby amended to read as follows: “(c) Dwelling units using more than 8,000 gallons of water will be billed $4.70 per 1,000 gallons in addition to the $30.00 minimum charge. 3. This local law shall take effect for all sewer use after January 1, 2016 and after filing with the Secretary of State. 2nd Cl Solomon Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes NEW BUSINESS Postage for tax bills The Town Clerk has asked for an amount not to exceed $2,700 for postage for mailing the 2016 real property tax bills. The exact amount will not be determined until the bills are printed, sorted and delivered for preparation for mailing. RESOLUTION #175 (2015) – AUTHORIZE POSTAGE FOR TAX BILLS Cl Lavine offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes an amount not to exceed $2,700.00 to be used for postage to mail the 2016 real property tax bills. 2nd Cl Sloan Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes Tompkins County Youth Services Board Appointment TB 12-17-2015 Page 6 of 9 Supv Sumner stated that Kathy Servoss has been serving on the Tompkins County Youth Services Board for a few years as well as on the town’s Recreation Commission. She has been a real asset and truly understands the crossover between recreation and youth services, and recommends her for reappointment. RESOLUTION #176 (2015) – APPOINT K SERVOSS TO TOMPKINS COUNTY YOUTH SERVICES COMMISSION Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby recommends the appointment of Kathy Servoss to the Tompkins County Youth Services Board. 2nd Cl Solomon Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes Tompkins County Environmental Management Council Appointment Supv Sumner explained that Steve Bissen was previously a member of our Conservation Board and has been serving as a representative on the County Environmental Management Council and would like to be reappointed. He has also asked to be reappointed to the Conservation Board. RESOLUTION #177 (2015) – APPOINT S BISSEN TO TOMPKINS COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COUNCIL Supv Sumner offered the following resolution an d asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby recommends the appointment of Steven Bissen to the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council. 2nd Cl Solomon Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes Authorize Purchase of Pinckney Road Property Supv Sumner said she thought the board would do a resolution to authorize the purchase of the Pinckney Road property and also to use funds from the Recreation Reserve, but it can’t be done exactly that way. The board considered a resolution to set a public hearing on the proposed acquisition of the property. RESOLUTION #178 (2015) - SCHEDULING A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED PURCHASE OF REAL PROPERTY FOR THE PURPOSES OF ESTABLISHING A PUBLIC PARK AND PROVIDING RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES TO THE PUBLIC Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: TB 12-17-2015 Page 7 of 9 WHEREAS, the 2005 Town of Dryden Comprehensive Plan and the 2011 Recreation Master Plan both identified a need for increased outdoor leisure and recreational space; and WHEREAS, an approximately 15 acre parcel of vacant land located on Pinckney Road in the Town of Dryden and bordering on Fall Creek, which parcel is currently designated as Town of Dryden tax parcel number 44.-1-2.323 and is currently owned by Jean Hoag (“the Hoag-Harvey Parcel”) was placed on the market for sale; and WHEREAS, the Town Conversation Board evaluated the parcel, found that it meets 18 of the 27 criteria in the Conservation Board’s approved “Methods and Selection Criteria for Land Protection and Acquisition”, and passed a resolution on April 28, 2015 recommending that the Town Board approve the acquisition of the Hoag-Harvey Parcel as a vital addition to the Town’s conservation lands; and WHEREAS, the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission adopted a resolution on August 26, 2015 in support of the Town’s purchase of the Hoag -Harvey Parcel because of its strategic value from both a recreation and youth program perspective; and WHEREAS, the Town Board, by resolution #136 (2015), adopted on September 10, 2015, resolved that it wished to explore the purchase of the Hoag-Harvey Parcel, and appointed Deputy Supervisor Jason Leifer and Planning Director Ray Burger to negotiate for the purchase of this parcel with a price not to exceed 122% of the appraised value reported by North East Appraisals and Management Company; and that any purchase contract with complete terms would be presented for a vote of the full board; and WHEREAS, said appraised value was $57,000; and WHEREAS, the Town of Dryden entered into a Purchase and Sale Contract (“the Contract”), for the sum of $62,700, plus payment of the Seller’s closing costs in an amount not to exceed $7,100; and WHEREAS, the Contract is contingent upon approval by the Town Board; and WHEREAS, §247(3) of the General Municipal Law provides that the acquisition of interests or rights in real property for the preservation of open spaces is a public purpose for which public funds may be expended and that such acquisition requires a public hearing subject to due notice; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board shall hold a public hearing on January 21, 2016 at 7:05 p.m. at the Town Hall, 93 E. Main Street, Dryden, NY 13053 on the proposed acquisition of the Hoag-Harvey Parcel by the Town; and be it further RESOLVED that notice of such public hearing shall be published and posted at least five days before the date thereof. 2nd Cl Solomon Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes TB 12-17-2015 Page 8 of 9 The resolution authorizing the Supervisor to sign the purchase agreement is postponed until the property purchase is approved. PEG co-location on Tompkins County Tower Supv Sumner explained that a company called PEG has applied to the County to co- locate a microwave antenna on the County communications tower on Mt Pleasant Road. The County has reviewed the engineering and is satisfied the structure is sufficient. Normally the board would handle this as an amendment to the special use permit, but b ecause it is owned by the County there is no special use permit to amend. There is a precedent for saying a project like this is in the public interest is outside the town’s zoning jurisdiction. It does need a calculation of the public interest and that requires a public hearing. The town doesn’t have an application yet. Atty Geldenhuys advised that a hearing could be scheduled for the next board meeting in anticipation of the application. RESOLUTION #179 (2015) – SET PUBLIC HEARING FOR CO-LOCATION Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby sets a public hearing for January 21, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. on the matter of an application by PEG to co-locate microwave antenna on a communication tower located on Mt Pleasant Road and owned by Tompkins County. 2nd Cl Leifer Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Cl Solomon Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes Zoning Law amendment This matter is not ready for discussion. Ag Advisory Committee resolution Supv Sumner read the resolution: Whereas, the Dryden Agriculture Advisory Committee is working on a Farmland Protection Plan; and Whereas, the members of the Committee do not have the expertise to analyze the impact the Town of Dryden’s Zoning will have on Agriculture; and Whereas, a review of the zoning is necessary for a successful Farmland Protection Plan, Therefore, let it be resolved that the Dryden Agriculture Advisory Committee requests the Dryden Town Board to work with Cornell Cooperative Extension to create and issue a Request for Proposals for a consultant to review Dryden’s Zoning Ordinance. She said she thinks this has been reviewed many times adequately and suggested the board talk with Deb Teeter or Monica Roth and find out if this is something we can do in house. Cl Leifer noted that there are funds in the Ag grant that can be used to pay a consultant. Supv Sumner recommended getting more information from Cooperative Extension and putting it on the next agenda. There is quite a file on this topic because groups have TB 12-17-2015 Page 9 of 9 asked for review a few times. The board responded and Ag and Markets responded. She will gather that information together for Ray Burger. The organizational meeting was scheduled for January 4, 2016 at 4:30 p.m. There being no further business, on motion made seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk