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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-12TB 10-12-17 Page 1 of 4 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING October 12, 2017 Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Linda Lavine, Cl Deborah Cipolla-Dennis Absent: Cl Kathrin Servoss Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Other Town Staff: Ray Burger, Director of Planning Jennifer Case, Bookkeeper Supv Leifer opened the meeting at 7:05 p.m. RESOLUTION #128 (2017) – APPROVE ABSTRACT #10 Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract #10, as audited, general vouchers #669 to #743 ($444,682.56) and TA vouchers #25 and #26 ($4,736.31), totaling $449,418.87. 2nd Cl Cipolla-Dennis Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Supv Leifer explained a budget modification is needed for the Planning Department for legal ads. RESOLUTION #129 (2017) – APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATION Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the following budget modification: From To B8010.343 ZBA Training B8010.433 Legal Ads 250.00 B8020.411 Planning Board Training B8010.433 Legal Ads 250.00 2nd Cl Cipolla-Dennis Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes Cl Cipolla-Dennis Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes TB 10-12-17 Page 2 of 4 Fire Department Budgets Neptune Hose Company – Mike Hall stated the contracted amount is $282,773 for 2018, the second year of a two-year contract. The budget has been updated to reflect that. He expects that next year there will be a lengthy discussion due to fairly substantial anticipated expenses. They plan to replace a ladder truck which will be over one million dollars, another truck that they’ve pushed off for a few years and make repairs to the facility and parking lot. He hopes to work on grants to help with those expenses. They have submitted financial statements for Neptune and Dryden Ambulance. The fire department has reserve funds, pays cash and doesn’t bond for anything. There was a suggestion that the town’s highway department could help with some of the work on the parking lot. Dryden Ambulance – Increased fees were addressed earlier this year. They struggle with funding for wages and increased Department of Health regulations that are expensive. This is the second year of their contract. Etna Fire Department – Patrick Brunner and Linda Fenner said their budget request is the same as last year ($170,000). They felt they can get by with what they have. They expect more expense in connection with increased use of the training tower with Ithaca’s tower shutting down. The tower needs work done now and they are trying to figure out how to get other companies to donate when they use the tower. The $15,000 last year was used for repairs to the tower, gravel, and they worked on the dry hydrant. Supv Leifer asked for actual expenditures for that in 2017. $40,000 will go to their reserve fund. They want to upgrade the electric service in tower. It was suggested that the County could be asked to contribute. They don’t want to charge Dryden departments or Groton or McLean for use, but there are departments are coming from out of the County. Perhaps the town could c harge these other departments to use the tower. Things to take into consideration would be the c ost to operate the tower per year and how many people per year use it. They have increased their EMS budget to update equipment and cover the cost of trainings. They should be saving money on fuel because they are now purchasing it from the Town. Varna and Brooktondale have submitted their budgets and are not represented tonight. Supv Leifer emailed those budgets to board members. Brooktondale has requested $28,536, a 7% increase. They cover a part of Dryden and Caroline and act as mutual aid for Varna. Supv Leifer will ask for an explanation of the requested increase. Varna Fire Department – is asking for a 4% increase in unrestricted funds and 3.5% increase in restricted funds (replacement funds). Their mortgage payment remains the same. They reduced their request in 2015 and have asked for small increases until this 2018 request. Varna responds to a lot of motor vehicle accidents. They are looking to replace a tanker soon and order thermal imaging cameras. The County has changed radios so there is an ongoing replacement expense. Varna still has a bunker that is typically used by Cornell students. Cl Lamb asked whether the fire departments routinely apply for federal fire grants. If not, they should apply. A group of Cornell students is doing a study on EMS county-wide to try to help control call volume, share resources and coordinate services. They are working directly with Tompkins TB 10-12-17 Page 3 of 4 County Emergency Services and Joe Mareane and the fire chiefs. They will have a report about ways to increase volunteerism and reduce unnecessary calls. The unnecessary calls are stressing the ambulance services and creating a crisis in this county. The students are looking at best practices and what other counties are doing. Freeville Fire Department – Was not represented. Last year’s numbers were used because we don’t have their budget request yet. Budget – The board is meeting with highway tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. and will review every line, including the special districts (water/sewer districts, lighting districts). Lighting districts is part of a shared services plan to be voted on November 7 for LED replacement of all incandescent bulbs. There will be savings over time. This is in response to the state law for shared services agreements. If the plan passes we will get an estimate of the cost from the contractor. The Town of Dryden has 97 lights for the entire town. It puts someone else in charge of it, not our Highway/DPW. Training is proposed to be pooled with the county, so it may save a little bit, but won’t be a huge amount of savings for the town in 2018. 2019 may be a different story because the county may look to push some more substantial plans. BridgeNY – A survey of Freese Road was done. George Road will happen next. They are not yet at the stage of scheduling a public meeting in Varna, but when they do there will be two public meetings in Varna. Barton & Loguidice will handle the SEQR to be used for bonding the projects. We are waiting to hear whether the county will pick up all or part of the 5% of the town’s cost for Freese and George Road bridges, or if they are going to do something with Red Mill and Malloryville instead. Mike Lane is working on that. Law suits regarding solar – those will be heard in court on October 27. Delaware River just submitted their 4MW plan and TG Miller is reviewing it. When it is deemed complete it will go to the Planning Board to review and recommend. When TG Miller gets their analysis done it will come to the Town Board for SEQR. There are no public hearings scheduled for next week. Planning Board – will discuss the 802 Dryden Road on October 26. Supv Leifer said he is working with the Town of Ithaca Supervisor to work out an agreement for Dryden to take over the pressure release valve in the apple orchard at Cornell. The Sapsucker tank built by Ithaca last year was not intended to supply development in Varna, so that PRV will be transferred to the town. All development in Varna will get its water from there instead of the Sapsucker tank. The source is also Bolton Point water. Multiple 2MW installations – Cl Cipolla-Dennis proposed a modification to the solar law to eliminate the 50’ setback requirement for interior lot lines. That would basically make it so these companies won’t have to go to the ZBA for a variance to do this. By doing that it puts things closer together and preserves more green spac e on the outside. You could increase the exterior setbacks and eliminate the interior setbacks. She is not proposing increasing the exterior lot line setback. This is a weird artifact of the way the PSC makes us subdivide the property. Ray Burger will talk with Susan Brock and start putting together language. Geneva has a law to look at. Budget – Supv Leifer said after tomorrow’s discussion we will be closer to having a preliminary budget ready. He will get a draft to present to the board on the 19th and decide when to set the public hearing. Tomorrow’s discussion will determine a projected tax rate. Right now we are at a no greater than a penny increase in rate. We could lower it or start replenishing fund balances. There is a piece of equipment that if purchased would only be used in the special districts. The cost of that equipment could be spread across the special district budgets. Not taking it from the DA fund would help. We could then put some money TB 10-12-17 Page 4 of 4 toward replenishing the rec reserve and set aside money for capital projects such as the match for the rail trail grant. The appropriation increase is $73,000 without including highway at this point. Total use of fund balance is projected at less than $250,000. $200,000 of that is from DB and no property tax goes into that fund (all sales tax). With the increase of one revenue line in the B fund, sales tax money was moved to DB so DB fund balance to be budgeted right now is at $183,000. About $11,000 will come from A fund balance, and DA is at $44,000. So a total of $239,000 in fund balance is budgeted right now. The tax rate is 1.9499 at this point. Supv Leifer said he has asked the Highway Superintendent to more accurately project the payroll. The union contract calls for increases. There was discussion about the living wage and other than part-time/seasonal/temporary help, all employees are making a living wage. Supv Leifer said he doesn’t believe there will be a need to override the tax cap (1.84%). He’s reviewing the special district budgets and some of them may decrease. We’ll know more tomorrow after talking with highway. The expenditures will go down in the Varna districts because the force main was able to be covered without bonding. A final decision can be made after Tuesday or Wednesday when any changes from tomorrow are entered in the budget. J Case said she has made changes from the second budget workshop. The board decided there is no need for updated copies since they will only be working on highway tomorrow. The only other minor change in the A fund would be the new budget for the summer camp. The rec budget now calls for one full time employee and two part timers at $12.00/hour (19 hours per week each). Those positions can be posted. Cl Cipolla-Dennis said at this point she would like to see all full time employees at a living wage. The board can look at the part -time positions later. The Recreation Partnership Agreement will be voted on next week. Revolving Loan Fund – Cl Lamb said he has reviewed documents received from Heather McDaniel on the program that was set up with TCAD in 2009. It basically sets up a structure for them to administer a revolving loan fund for up to $100,000 per year. We have given them $50,000. He met with Martha Armstrong of TCAD and she thinks they can do this for us. They have not been promoting it and he thinks we should revisit the contract and get this active. The current contract is for a minimum $50,000 loan, but we would like to give smaller loans ($10,000). They could work with what we have from CDBG funds and the protocols that we set forth in the spring. Cl Lamb will talk further with Heather McDaniel. There being no further business, on motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 8:28 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk