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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-09-11TB 9-11-14 D R A F T Page 1 of 5 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING September 11, 2014 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: Jennifer Case, Bookkeeper Jane Nicholson, Director of Planning Dave Sprout, Code Enforcement Officer Supv Sumner called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Last month the board tabled a request for a budget modification for dam maintenance from the Highway Superintendent so that Supv Sumner could review the budget and determine whether it was necessary to take the money from fund balance. It turns out that the amount needed was less than requested, and the former Highway Superintendent had provided funds for dam maintenance in a general DPW line and that will be used. The budget mod is no longer necessary. RESOLUTION #138 (2014) – DISREGARD BUDGET MODIFICATION Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board will disregard the budget modification request submitted by the Highway Superintendent for funds for dam maintenance because the funds for that purpose were found to be included in a general line. 2nd Cl Leifer Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Lavine Yes Cl Leifer Yes Supv Sumner explained that the Town of Dryden has a three year agreement with the Town of Caroline for gauge station monitoring and there aren’t sufficient funds in the stormwater management budget line so they would like to transfer $1,392 from trails/ environmental planning to stormwater management. The invoice for the monitoring is $2400. RESOLUTION #139 (2014) – APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATION Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the following budget modification: From Acct To Acct Amount A7110.411 Trails/Env Planning A8790.401 Stormwater Management 1,392.00 2nd Cl Leifer TB 9-11-14 D R A F T Page 2 of 5 Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes RESOLUTION #140 (2014) – APPROVE ABSTRACT #9 Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract #9, as audited, general vouchers #667 through #753 ($275,110.42) and TA vouchers #20 through #21 ($3,108.22), totaling $278,218.64. 2nd Cl Leifer Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes The bids for work in the Yellow Barn Water District came in higher than estimated in the map, plan and report. The board has previously approved the increased cost and has applied to the Comptroller for permission to form the district. As of 4:00 pm today, they thought it would be approved tomorrow. The problem is that the contractor with the lowest bid has agreed to hold the bid until October 1. TG Miller has asked the board to authorize the Supervisor to sign a notice of award to Adhan by September 30 in the amount of $494,750, contingent on receipt of approval from the Comptroller’s office. Supv Sumner would like the board to do this tonight on the chance that the approval is received and in the hopes of moving the matter along. RESOLUTION #141 (2014) – AUTHORIZE SUPERVISOR TO SIGN BID AWARD YELLOW BARN WATER DISTRICT Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor to sign a Notice of Award to Adhan in the amount of $494,750 by September 30, 2014, contingent upon receipt of approval of the Yellow Barn Water District from the NYS Comptroller’s Office. 2nd Cl Sloan Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes Budget Requests – Supv Sumner said she doesn’t have information from the Highway Department yet. Supv Sumner said there isn’t much sense in proceeding until we have those figures because that is a large part of the budget. Supv Sumner is working on the water and sewer district budgets. She added that if that budget isn’t received by September 20 she can write the budget for them. The Planning Department budget has some substantial cuts due to programs they aren’t doing or positions we no longer have. They are talking about filling the GIS tech vacancy TB 9-11-14 D R A F T Page 3 of 5 with a GIS/IT tech that would be partly planning and partly building -wide IT. It would likely be a 60% planning/40% IT split. Supv Sumner has a lead with two web design companies for a change in the web platform that the IT person could then reasonably sustain. No pay increase is anticipated for part time elected officials and 2% for others. The Consortium health insurance premium is up 5% vs. the 10-12% average nationwide. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to spend 80% of their revenue on medical care. The consortium is at 90%. Supv Sumner said she has done nothing directly about controlling health insurance costs here. Cl Lavine knows someone who could take a look at the situation here. Supv Sumner would like the board to talk about changing the policy for elected officials. Currently the Town pays 100% of insurance premiums for even part time elected officials. New part time employees must pay 60%. Supv Sumner is looking for a recommendation from the personnel committee. Cl Solomon arrived at 7:25 p.m. The board discussed a larger contribution from employees. Supv Sumner said the town has not adjusted its compensation scale. There are people who were hired believing that their insurance would be 100% paid. She would like to make it an entire compensation package consideration. She doesn’t believe it is fair to give people small raises and expect them to pay insurance premiums resulting in essentially a pay cut. She doesn’t see that happenin g this year, but would like to deal with the part time elected officials’ portion. The court budget request was received today. Judge Clauson is asking for a 5% increase for justices and 4% for clerks. Supv Sumner said without a change in job description, no one has received more than a 2% increase in the past. It will be discussed more in a budget workshop. Supv Sumner has not been able to launch the compensation study she was planning to do this year, but is still hopeful of doing it. It is time consuming, but when completed will be very helpful. The retirement estimate has been received and we should have the workers comp estimate shortly. Supv Sumner reported we may be about $300,000 short on sales tax revenue estimated for this year. She is planning to budget for a 2% increase next year, but there are a few weeks to firm that up. Supv Sumner put out an RFP for a consultant to help with the water and sewer consolidation grant. Proposals are due on Monday and she is cautiously optimistic. She presented a map showing the town’s districts. Calculations indicate we sell 31.6 million gallons of water (sewer bills are based on water usage) for 276 accounts annually. There are over 5,000 parcels of land in the town and those 276 get a lot of administrative time and attention (meetings, billing, etc). Supv Sumner would like to find a way to recoup some of that. Supv Sumner has been negotiating with the Town of Ithaca Supervisor over sewer charges. It seems Dryden had an agreement to pay them because wastewater is transmitted through the Town of Ithaca to the Cayuga Heights plant in the case of Sapsucker and to the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant in the case of Snyder Hill. For some reason Dryden has not been paying that. She did a lot of research, and it turns out Ithaca had no records. There was an agreement in the late 1970s (a one year agreement) that said we should write a new agreement which did not happen. The Town of Ithaca would notify us of the new rate every year and we would pay it, until ‘90s when there was some discussion about the rate that TB 9-11-14 D R A F T Page 4 of 5 the Town of Ithaca announced. It was never resolved and Dryden continued to pay for two years, but then stopped. We stopped at exactly the same time that the Snyder Hill district was formed and we executed a new agreement with the Town of Ithaca for Snyder Hill at a more favorable rate. Dryden was not billed, and we did not pay, and we have now reached an agreement with the Town of Ithaca for the arrears. It will be about $24,000 for the Sapsucker district and about $4,000 for the Snyder Hill district. She feels it is reasonably fair. She was not willing to pay the rate they were charging in the early 90’s because it was absurd. The Town of Ithaca has drafted a new agreement and there are a couple of details to be negotiated. There is a similar issue coming up with Cayuga Heights. It has taken a long time to learn about this and she is documenting details for the future. She is hoping that consolidation of the districts will make this all easier. Supv Sumner said we have a draft of the Cross-Town Water Study. Engineers for the Village of Dryden and Town of Dryden collaborated to look at the possibility of bringing Bolton Point water from NYSEG to the Village. Now it’s looking like it will include TC3, the high school, and the William George Agency and a couple of residential areas off Route 13. It looks like it will come under serious consideration, but is complicated. It w ill mean forming a new district in the town and determining the role/structure for the village. The Village at this point has four options for a new water supply: They can find a new location within the Village to drill; drill at Dryden Lake where we have a test well; drill at Keith Lane where we have a test well; or bring Bolton Point water to the Village. The Village is committed to collect enough information to evaluate the four options side by side. Building permit fee schedule – A public hearing will be held next week. Jane Nicholson explained that a portable shed up to 144 sq feet has no fee. If it is a permanent structure requiring footings or slabs the fee is $25 plus $.15/sq feet. Cl Sloan would like to establish a $40 cap on anything in the fee schedule that was originally $25 on the old schedule, stating that is a large increase and it is about good will with constituents. J Nicholson said fees don’t reflect the work that goes into administering the permit. Cl Leifer believes the fee should reflect the cost of the service. Cl Sloan agrees in principal, but said the jump is too sudden and he would rather increase it gradually. After much discussion, Cl Sloan said barring major objections from the public next week, he will agree to this sc hedule. Verizon will be at the meeting next week for an amendment to their 2010 special use permit for their Walker Road tower location. They need to remove devices and replace them with new devices. There is no change in the footprint. No SEQR is required because it is a Type II action. No public hearing is required. The County §239 response should be in prior to the meeting. Zoning update – J Nicholson and Supv Sumner explained that updates are needed to our zoning because the SEQR form was changed and the short form covers a lot of things that the long form used to. Our zoning currently requires a long form in places that should be changed. The Varna development plan needs to be incorporated and references to the zoning map accurately described. Supv Sumner said we would like to introduce this as a local law vs. an ordinance to address the role of alternates and stricter penalties. There are other minor issues to be addressed. It is estimated to take legal about 10-20 hours, at an expense of $2000 to $4000. After discussion, the board agreed to authorize Atty Perkins to proceed with these changes. Wellness policy resolution – Supv Sumner shared a resolution the Health Insurance Consortium would like the board to consider. The goal is that it will help the municipalities save money by encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyles. There was discussion about whether wellness programs really work, and whether the Town should provide wellness opportunities during the work day. The resolution will be introduced next week. TB 9-11-14 D R A F T Page 5 of 5 Bolton Point has asked the town to approve its water rate of $4.35 per 10,000 gallons. Supv Sumner said once this is approved, the board will discuss and set the town rate (next month). TC3 is sponsoring a training opportunity for planning and zoning board members on October 30 from 4 – 9 p.m. She highly recommends that town board members attend. German Cross Road – The board discussed this year’s 284 agreement and what was listed for German Cross Road. They also discussed the work that has been done, the depth of the ditches, the current speed limit, and whether speed humps would be helpful. There is a question about whether the road will be paved to 20’ or 24’. Residents are hopeful it will be 20’. The speed limit on the road is 35 mph. Supv Sumner said two of the most effective traffic calming measures are keeping a road narrow and overhanging trees. Cl Leifer pointed out that trees hanging into the road can create an unsafe condition. The board discussed adopting a road protection program to address projects that involve a lot of truck traffic through a permitting process, though in this instance it may be considered a “local delivery” situation. Haul routes would have to be communicated to other municipalities. The expense of road repairs due to the increased traffic could be recouped from the permit holder. There was discussion about whether German Cross Road is being repaired to protect the road and make things better for the residents, or whether it was being repaired to accommodate truck traffic to the fill site on that road. In this instance, with use that would not be allowed by current zoning (a grandfathered site), is it the town’s responsibility to re- engineer the road to support that traffic or to find a way to limit that traffic? Cl Leifer noted that there was a water problem under the road and the base needed to be repaired to prevent the water from destroying the road. It was suggested that perhaps a weight limit on the road would be appropriate, but that would not apply to local deliveries. There was a question about how long this activity would be grandfathered. Supv Sumner said she would ask the town attorney. Cl Leifer and Cl Solomon will be scheduling audits with department heads. There being no further business, on motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk