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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-08-19TB 8-19-21 Page 1 of 12 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING August 19, 2021 Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl James Skaley, Cl Loren Sparling, Cl Leonardo Vargas-Mendez Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Other Town Staff: Ray Burger, Planning Director Peter Walsh, Town Attorney Supv Leifer called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. TOWN CLERK Cl Sparling provided some edits to the minutes of July 8 and July 15, 2021, that were reviewed by the board and accepted. B Avery will clarify a couple of items that were unclear. RESOLUTION #142 (2021) – APPROVE MINUTES Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the meeting minutes of July 8 and July 15, 2021. 2nd Cl Lamb Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes COUNTY OFFICIAL CALL NOTES Supv Leifer said there was no call this week, but he expects they will resume meeting weekly if the Covid case count keeps rising. COUNTY BRIEFING M Robertson said Dan Lamb and Jim Skaley attended the facilities and infrastructure committee meeting this morning. They discussed the BridgeNY program and the county’s participation and partnership on the Freese Road bridge. They are hopeful that this will come to a good solution for the town and the county. Highway Manager Jeff Smith said that as of this morning there were no major washouts that he was aware of, though water almost reached the bottom of a couple of bridges. She thanked Dan Lamb and Jim Skaley for coming and said it was important that Dan was able to talk to Jeff about the design of Freese Road and they will be able to move forward with that kind of communication. Covid numbers are rising and the county is watching carefully and updating guidance and data on their website. All pharmacies and a lot of doctor offices have vaccines. In most cases people don’t need appointments at pharmacies. Two clinics will be held at TC3 in the field house for those 12 years of age and older: September 1 from 1:00 to 4:00 and September TB 8-19-21 Page 2 of 12 2 from 9:30 to 12:30. These will be Pfizer first doses and walk-ins are welcome. She encouraged everyone to get vaccinated and wear masks. It is on all of us to improve compliance and vaccination numbers. 2020 census numbers have come out. The County as a whole increased, the city and town of Ithaca especially increased. The town of Dryden actually went down by about 500. Supv Leifer said he feels it was undercounted. There is a redistricting process at the state and county level. The county is forming an independent redistricting commission and applications are being accepted through September 15th for any citizen who is interested. They will look at how the numbers have shifted and what the county legislature district lines should be. M Robertson said she testified at one of the state’s redistricting public hearings with the message that the county legislature passed a resolution in June to keep Tompkins County intact for a congressional district and with one state senate district. She requested that Tompkins County be put in a district with Cortland County. It makes sense because the counties share TC3 and have the most commuter traffic between counties compared to other counties. It is appropriate if the district lines are changed. Tompkins County has received almost 10 million dollars in the first of two payments of American Rescue Plan funds. The legislature voted to put all the funding from ARPA toward county projects, mostly cash or capital projects, mostly because of the reporting requirements and monitoring complexities. They are now discussing how much of their fund balance they would like to use for community projects such as childcare, affordable housing, and other projects. They are hoping to have an application process going this fall so they can disburse some funds before the end of the year. PLANNING DEPARTMENT R Burger said his department’s monthly report is on the web. The Planning Board steering committee for the comp plan update is actively reviewing draft #2 with the intent to get it to advisory boards by the end of September. There is a new bus service in the area. TCAT has launched TConnect, a first-mile, last- mile where riders can get service near their home to connect them to the major routes. Discussion/Action Items Stretch Code – R Burger reported that what we originally adopted contains a ventilation requirement that is in conflict with the Uniform Code. After discovering that, the Planning Board made a recommendation to the Town Board to do a re-adoption of the stretch code minus the ventilation requirement. There is a possibility of other conflicts being discovered. He suggests giving them an opportunity to see if there are other conflicting sections. He is hoping to have it reviewed within a month or two. Other municipalities and our code enforcement officers are working on it. M Moseley is doing a similar review for the Town of Ithaca. R Burger said he is looking into whether the board will be able to enforce the remainder of it effective September 1, 2021. Traffic Calming in Varna - Cl Skaley said after listening to the DOT presentation on the plan for Route 366 in Varna, he determined that speeding would continue to be a problem in the hamlet and with more densification it seems appropriate to ask DOT before they complete their final designs to consider a number of calming measures. Those measures include certain areas of speed, adding a radar screen, and three different crosswalks (at the Freese Road intersection and at the two existing bus stops). He thinks this would give a more calming situation and relates to the complete street formulas recommended by the US Dept of TB 8-19-21 Page 3 of 12 Transportation. He has sent the resolution and proposal to Fernando de Aragon who proposed appropriate suggestions. Supv Leifer said it seemed at the meeting that DOT hadn’t taken into account the Varna Plan or comments from the public. They didn’t consider things like narrowing lanes. Cl Lamb said their response was this is a resurfacing project, not a re-engineering project, but this is an opportunity to bring these things up and see if we can get some re-engineering. Cl Skaley said most of the suggestions are pretty minimal in terms of cost. It relates back to what DOT’s safety people will look at and see whether they agree. F de Aragon said they do have a fair amount of flexibility if they choose to use it. Rt 366 is a moderately minor arterial and is technically eligible for 10’ travel lanes. Because of a certain percentage of truck traffic, they are saying it reverts back to the 11’ requirement. He has been told that by limiting the area between the intersection of Freese/Mt Pleasant Roads to the Forest Home Drive intersection as 10’ travel lanes, it should be the kind of flexibility they may consider. It would make the environment there considerably safer. Two families have moved from the area in part related to traffic issues. Cl Sparling asked if there were plans to update the Varna Community Development Plan. It seems you want bike lanes on 366, but the nearby rail trail accommodates bikes as well. He hopes there is a plan to interconnect all the trails and cross that way. Cl Skaley said when he proposed bike lanes, DOT said you can’t have designated bike lanes unless you have sidewalks on both sides of the road. That is being proposed, but they say that would be confusing to bikers if you only have bike lanes for a short distance. Maybe in the future they can be convinced. Because of the closeness of trails, there is likely to be bikers coming on to 366. RESOLUTION #143 (2021) - Resolution to address traffic speeds and to propose traffic calming measures in the Hamlet of Varna as part of the Rt 366 upgrade Cl Skaley offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: Whereas, NYSDOT is undertaking a significant upgrade of Rt 366 from the City line to the intersection of Rt 13, and Whereas, this will include milling and repaving as well as fixing storm drains and the construction of a sidewalk on the south side of the road from approximately opposite the Forest Home Drive to Mt. Pleasant, and Whereas, the Varna Community Development Plan adopted in 2012 and incorporated into the Town Comprehensive Plan anticipated and recommended various traffic calming measures including narrowing traffic lanes, including bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of Rt 366 in the area between Forest Home Drive and Freese/Mt Pleasant intersection, and Whereas, the initial draft of proposed work on Rt 366 through the Hamlet offered little suggestion of traffic calming measures except for a blinking light to be inst alled at the intersection of Freese/Mt Pleasant, and Whereas, in an email from NYSDOT no further updates of the Rt 366 upgrade will be shared with the Town until such time as the Advanced Detail Plans are completed as stated in the following quote “At this time, the Department does not have a set of well-developed preliminary plans that we can share with the Town; we are still developing project specific details and plans for the TB 8-19-21 Page 4 of 12 project corridor. We anticipate that we will have a plan set available that we can share with the public when we reach our internal landmark referred to as Advanced Detail Plans (ADP plans). We are happy to share this ADP plan set with the town as well when that time comes…feel free to coordinate your continued interest in the project with Gina. She can provide you with a date of when we expect these plans to be available.” Michael Washburn, P.E.Acting Assistant Regional Design Engineer. and Whereas, in the public hearing held on-line on August 10, 2021 there were numerous suggestions by the public made to NYSDOT to include traffic calming measures for both bikers and pedestrians, and Whereas, the central portion of the Hamlet has connections to trails along Fall Creek on the north and the new rail trail on the south where both trail systems are used by numerous runners, pedestrians and bikers, and Whereas, many runners and bikers descend unto Rt 366 and utilize the shoulders of Rt 366 on a return loop to Forest Home Dr or up the hill toward CU campus, and Whereas, since the Varna Plan was adopted in 2012 residential apartment units have been constructed at 802 and 902 Dryden Rd with an additional approved development to be constructed on Freese Rd extending up the hill to Rt 366 intersection, and Whereas, an additional large development is being considered directly east of Bell Auto that would extend up the hill exiting both onto Rt 366 near Bell Auto and unto Mt Pleasant just below the rail trail, and Whereas, future development of a commercial/resident development for the corner of Mt Pleasant is anticipated in the Varna Plan and Whereas, the use of shoulders are the de facto pedestrian and bike facility that is unsafe and inadequate in this more densely settled portion of the Hamlet and Whereas, these new developments will add to pedestrian, bicycling and car traffic onto the Rt 366 corridor, and Whereas, it is important to provide safe accommodation for the existi ng and anticipated additional foot and bike traffic through the Hamlet and Whereas, the Dryden Town Board has authorized seeking funds to construct a sidewalk to be added from 902 Dryden Rd to Freese Rd, and Whereas, by reducing travel lanes from 11 ft to 10 ft in the section of the Hamlet between Mt Pleasant/Freese Rd to Forest Home Drive will allow for improved separation of traffic from pedestrians and bikers and also allow for more space for sidewalk installation on the north side of Rt 366, and Whereas, given the statement by NYSDOT (quoted above) that no further design plans will be released to the Town or the public until the Advanced Detail plans are complete, and Whereas, that the Dryden Town Board urges the NYSDOT to consider incorporating the traffic calming measures outlined in the attached memo to assure pedestrian and biker safety, and reduce traffic speeds by incorporating suggested traffic calming measures a ll of which are advanced by USDOT and various transportation engineer design groups, therefore, be it TB 8-19-21 Page 5 of 12 Resolved, that such improvements in traffic calming will advance safety for residents of the hamlet, as well as pedestrians and bicyclists who utilize the Rt 366 corridor between Freese/Mt Pleasant and Forest Home Drive and connections to adjoining trail networks. Resolved that using traffic calming measures and complete street concepts has been shown to reduce traffic noise, improve the quality of life of local residents and to encourage new economic development as the result, therefore be it further Resolved that the Dryden Town Board urges that the calming measures outlined in the attached memo be incorporated into the Advanced Detail Plans. 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes TextMyGov – B Avery has provided board members with information about a product from TextMyGov. After a brief discussion, the board decided it is not interested in moving forward at this point. GHD Consulting Contract – Supv Leifer explained this is a 3rd amendment in connection with the grit project at the plant. It is emergency work that needs to be done and the initial scope of services is not to exceed $75,000. A prior authorization allows him to sign this amendment on behalf of the town. ADVISORY BOARD UPDATES Planning Board – Cl Lamb said R Burger had covered what the Planning Board is doing. Revising the comp plan is a lot of work and all members are contributing to finding errors and making substantive amendments. The third iteration of the plan will be released and shared with advisory boards for comments. The plan will be updated with the new census numbers and because those are available now, more accurate projections can be made . Freese Road – Cl Lamb said the process is starting over with a findings document and it should go fairly quickly because we’ve already had the findings document for the Freese Road bridge. We will now have different alternatives, and the alternative will be to have the current bridge disassembled. The important most visually pleasing elements will be moved to Groton for display. The estimate to move it will be about $50,000 or less. That will not be covered by the BridgeNY grant. He had a conversation with Jeff Smith about having the county cover that as part of the local match outside of the BridgeNY formula. But because this project has been scaled down a little and we are not doing the rehabilitation of the trusses, it is a less expensive project. The town was given 2.68 million dollars for this project, and they estimate it will come in several hundred thousand dollars less. We are not doing a two -lane bridge. We are doing a single-lane bridge. We are not rehabilitating the trusses; we are moving them to Grot on. The trusses won’t be ours to worry about anymore. He is hopeful that the county will cover the expense of moving. The new bridge will have a historic look to it and be a galvanized steel truss style bridge. Our consultant is working on a new findings document. Conservation Board – did not meet in July. TB 8-19-21 Page 6 of 12 Recreation & Youth Commission – Cl Sparling reported most of the meeting centered on the Rural Youth Services 2022 budget proposal. They talked about devot ing one session to addressing DRYC goals in the future. Southworth Library will put on a program that will address the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 with programming for families. He attended Dryden’s summer camp on August 9 and said Marty Conger has a good hold on the summer camp and all the kids were having fun. They need more parents to volunteer for all their programs. Soccer camp just started and they need parents to set up soccer goals. There is a desperate need for volunteers. Ag Advisory Committee – Cl Sparling reported they approved last month’s minutes and most of the meeting revolved around him updating the committee on what has been going on around town. Rail Trail Task Force – Cl Lamb said he asked Jeff Smith of County Highway about the status of marking the crossing at Game Farm Road. Rick Young and his crew have done phenomenal work on replacing the trestles on the Game Farm section. People want to get to the trail right away, and he emphasized to J Smith that we have an immediate safety issue with people wanting to cross Game Farm Road and people will circumvent any barrier that is put up. The process has involved a traffic plan that is nearly complete and once it is stamped by an engineer, it can be sent to the County Highway Manager for approval. Then the town can immediately work on implementing the recommendations. He wants everyone to be aware of the urgency because people are going to want to use this immediately. Bob Beck said John Lampman just sent him an email that stated the crossing plan is complete. The towns of Ithaca and Dryden will now review it then it will be sent off to an engineer to be stamped with the credential the county wants. Hopefully it will be presented to the county next week and we’ll soon be able to move forward with installing the safety features at Game Farm Road. He thanked John Lampman for volunteering his work on this plan. He noted the fabulous work done by Rick Young and his highway crews on the trestles and placing the gravel and stone dust surface on the trail between Game Farm Road and Stevenson Road. The work will be paid for in part by the NYS Parks and Environmental Protection Fund grant and the $15,000 grant from the Triad Foundation. Supv Leifer said there is a disagreement between the town attorney and the petitioners’ counsel on whether a public vote should be held on the petition for referendum that was served on the town. We should know more next week. Safety & Preparedness Committee – Supv Leifer said he does not have a report from them but knows that they have been communicating with Cornell University about notifications for Cornell’s gas line on Genung Road and believes it was resolved successfully. They have also received responses from Berkshire Hathaway to their follow-up questions. Climate Smart Task Force – Cl Sparling reported they did not meet in August, but there are a few items to report. Regarding the EnergyWi$e Dryden community campaign, they have received documentation that they made their target of 7 weatherization signups and 3 heat pump committals. That information was provided to NYSERDA and NYSERDA notified them that Dryden has officially completed the community campaigns for clean heating and cooling high-impact action under NYSERDA’s clean energy communities program. Dryden should now be eligible to receive a $5,000 grant from NYSERDA. The next step for the Climate Smart Task Force will be to decide on what next actions to use these grants on, and then submit the paperwork detailing this plan. This could be completed by late September. TB 8-19-21 Page 7 of 12 Climate Smart member Chuck Geisler has also been continuing to reach out to low income residents about the on-going availability of grants, particularly with the Empower grant extension through November that is pertinent to insulation and air sealing. Regarding CCA, a meeting is scheduled for next week. CCA hopes that several municipalities over the next two or three months will move forward on passing enabling legislation to facilitate the creation of a CCA program. Passing the authorizing legislation opens the CCA door without committing a municipality to signing on to the final details. Hopefully the board can vote on this next month. Once the LED street lighting project is finished, we will receive a $10,000 grant. Supv Leifer said there has been a change in who is managing that project in the NYSEG office. NYPA has put in for a $20,000 grant so we can have some smart features (such as cameras to check road conditions). Broadband Committee – There is a meeting tomorrow to review the responses (3 vendors) to the RFP for the back end equipment. They will make a recommendation to the board after their next meeting. They will be reviewing a proposal by Clarity and Chuck Bartosch is present. Chuck Bartosch of Point Broadband explained what they had in mind. They are completing a broadband grant from the State of New York, and it goes right past the neighborhood of Baker Hill Road and Mt Pleasant Road. They have been approached by many residents there inquiring about service. They can do the build out, but it is not economic to build out to them ($155,000 to do the build). They are asking the town for $75,000 toward the build. They will put in a 72-count fiber, so that the town has a 24-count fiber for its own purposes that will help with the town’s general broadband plan. He expects that someday the town will compete with them, but the priority is trying to build out to these areas and get service to these people as fast as possible. They can help and save the town money in the process. Their goal is to serve those who don’t have service. They will be doing a kind of lease arrangement for fiber and will lease to the town at $20 per foot. They already have crews in the area, so the timing is good. This may be used as part of the match for the ARC funding grant if it is received. Supv Leifer said this may enable the town to get to the western side of town faster. The town’s intent is to compete with Spectrum. The town wants to build a system that is as future proof as possible. C Bartosch said they try to build so that every single customer gets a dedicated fiber, so it is not shared with anyone ever. It is infinitely expandable and is a great system. CITIZENS PRIVILEGE Craig Anderson, said he asked Cl Lamb at the meeting last month if the Planning Board would be reviewing the proposed trail bridge, and his reply was that it didn’t require permits, so it doesn’t have to go through the Planning Board. He was surprised bec ause the Planning Board has reviewed other goals for the town regarding health and safety, including the Stretch Code, so it surprises him that the Planning Board was not involved. Because of that, he felt compelled to come to the meeting tonight. He presented a map of the industrial park area at Route 13 and Pinckney Road. His main concerns are safety and economics. The big concern is why are we putting a recreation trail through the middle of an industrial district that has water and sewer ? If a family was using the trail and wanted to go to a gas station to get water or go eat at the hopefully rebuilt Plantation Restaurant or just access Route 366, they’d have to walk or bike TB 8-19-21 Page 8 of 12 down Hall Road. Hall Road is a narrow road with limited sight lines, sharp corners, no sidewalks, no bike lanes. The road is primarily used by tractor trailer trucks and large equipment trucks. Not the safest route for pedestrians. He is also concerned with the negative impact economically building this trail through the industrial park. We currently have the old Vangaard Printing building, 200,000 sq ft bldg, 23 acres of land, still remains vacant, could be a major employer, or it could be an economic driver for the town. Hanson Concrete has probably 10-12 acres of unused land for expansion. Hall Wood Road has potential for additional industrial growth. But with the trail connected to the industrial park, many of businesses may choose not to locate there because they will have to mitigate pedestrian conflicts. Any business that may move into the industrial park will have to apply for a special use permit and they, too, will have to come to this boar d and mitigate pedestrian use that travels through there. You don’t think that this is important, but Cricket Lane had a part-time repair facility and he wanted to be a full-time operation. It was an allowed use. He applied for a special use permit and was turned down by the Town Board because the large trucks and pedestrian traffic made it incompatible with the area. They have now moved to Groton. There is a reason the town has an industrial park. It separates incompatible uses, industry away from residential and recreational uses. The proposed rail t rail is an incompatible use with the Hall Road industrial park. It should not be allowed to encroach on established businesses and shouldn’t be located in a designated industrial zone. We’ve heard a lot about safety concerns with the trail crossing Route 13. Rightfully so. He is concerned with Hall Road. One of the overlooked safety concerns is the trail crossing on Pinckney Road. It shares the same driveway, entrance and exit, with the pedestrian trail and the traffic entering the concrete plant. That is a hazard waiting to happen. These concrete trucks by law have to exit south on Pinckney Road. They can’t go over the bridge. S o every trip they cross the trail. The trucks are 60,000 pounds and don’t like to stop going up that slight incline. The currently planned Pinckney Road crossing is p oorly planned and needs to be redesigned so a terrible accident doesn’t happen there. Map 2 presented by C Anderson shows a proposed alternate route for the trail around the industrial park. It would use the right of way from the west side of Route 13, go along Route 13 under Fall Creek bridge, use Cornell property and go under the Pinckney Road bridge, and follow it all the way up to Pinckney Road. It is a safer road crossing at Pinckney Road, mitigates pedestrian safety concerns at Hall Road, allows the industrial park to continue to be built out and grown. It is a safer route for pedestrians travelling north on Pinckney Road and going to Lower Creek Road and allows for future expansion of the concrete plant and provides safer connections there and provides public access to Fall Creek. It is an alternate route that is worth considering. Cl Lamb asked if C Anderson was aware of the 2005 Comprehensive Plan that outlines and encourages a rail trail on the exact route they are following. C Anderson asked if anyone had discussed the safety concerns. C Anderson said this has never come to the Planning Board. Cl Lamb said it is not within the Planning Board mandate as an advisory board. C Anderson said the board looks into health, safety and economic issues. Cl Lamb maintained it is outside of the Planning Board’s jurisdiction. Joe Osmeloski, 2180 Dryden Road, read a letter (attached) that he wrote to the Department of State on August 15, 2021. He said a Town of Dryden council person should never stereotype people, especially people he is supposed to represent. It is reprehensible and in his opinion he should resign. TB 8-19-21 Page 9 of 12 Shirley Lyon, Mineah Road, said she endorses the rail trail. She believes in it, has used it, and enjoyed it. She doesn’t like being painted with a broad brush that said that she is anti-trail. It has been suggested by people that they are against the trail. They are not. They are against the bridge, some of them are against eminent domain. She b asically wanted to go on record saying that. She asked Supv Leifer to discuss with Cl Lamb his behavior tonight and the way he is treating the public. Jolene Lyon said she is also pro-trail as she has mentioned previously. She enjoys it numerous times a week meeting friends. She is against eminent domain and this bridge. For many technical reasons for the bridge. For one, it is extremely underpriced and we will see that unfortunately. She also wants to share something upsetting she heard at the Rail Trail Task Force meeting. When she asked a question, she called it a recreational trail and Mr Lamb corrected her. She said it was a recreational trail until this extra money came in and it became a commuter path. She asked to see the studies, with all this money and taking people’s land away from them, showing this is a commuter path. Chris, who is technically not a member of the Rail Trail, but was there and admitted he was in several executive sessions, said it is not their responsibility. It is our money/your money, and we are taking people’s property. Cl Lamb agreed that it was not part of their responsibility. It is your money, our money, our neighbors, and it isn’t your responsibility? People do studies all the time. She would stand up for each one of you if someone said they were going to take your land or make you pay a fee, but not even give them the decency of doing a study or the respect before we do it. She would stand up and demand that a study be done or something , not recreation, not cost you money or your home or your privacy and just say that’s not my responsibility. She can quote that because she recorded that conversation for her notes. She said it is the responsibility of the board to protect the people of Dryden and their homes. It is the board’s responsibility to say should we even do this? Look at these alternatives. Do everything you can. Talk to more people. To say it is not your responsibility and shove it off is the rudest thing she’s ever heard. Supv Leifer said the grants are from the Department of Transportation. The intent is to create an alternative commuter route. In the beginning of the discussions for the trail they talked about using it for a commuter trail. The bridge discussions were started over two years ago, that’s why the grant applications were made to DOT, for that commuter purpose. We still don’t know how it is going to end up, but it is a commuter trail as well as recreational. Whichever way it goes in the end, people will hopefully be using it to commute by bike or some other alternative. You see commuters on the Black Diamond Trail all the time from Trumansburg all the way to Ithaca. People from the village can use it to get to work at Cornell. The way to do it by using transportation grants as we have because of the amount of work required on this trail. J Lyon said to put our community first and look at alternatives. For a little bit extra distance, we can respect our neighbors property and save a ton of money. And then say we’ve done due diligence and met in the middle instead of just taking someone’s property. Supv Leifer said the assumption is that the state will use eminent domain, and we’re not there yet. Cl Lamb said it is commonly referred to as a multi-use trail. To parse out whether it is a recreational or commuter trail, is an exercise in semantics. It is a multi -use trail. It has recreational and commuter components. That’s inarguable. The DOT gave us a grant for the bridge for its commuter potential, because it is a transportation alternatives project to get people out of their cars, taking an alternative. It depends on the context of how we are describing what we are working on. With regard to the bridge, we got the funding beca use it is TB 8-19-21 Page 10 of 12 a transportation alternative project for commuters. There is no misleading. There’s no inconsistency here. Shirley Price said there is not full funding for the bridge and was told it is very close, you can’t say how it is going to go yet. Jerry Lyon, Mineah Road, said at the last meeting he got a little irate about how much work has gone into this. What you are building is a bridge with no foundation. You don’t know the cost. It’s only going up. You’re going to saddle the taxpayers, the people that you represent, with this bill. The grants are taxpayer money. Whatever isn’t covered by the grant will saddle every taxpayer in the town of Dryden. If you can get this bridge done for $3,000,000, it will be a surprise. It will go over that. You have no figures of how much use it will have. He was in the Mirabito and asked two bicyclists who had street bikes if they would ride the rail trail and they said not if it wasn’t paved. How many people do you know will use this? Who has done the basic work for this project to know how much use it will get? Will we end up with what they have by Home Depot? He’s sure some people will use it. The one down by Binghamton ten years ago was 10.2 million and hardly anyone uses it. Do the fundamentals of the project. And where is stage three? The stage that we were going to evaluate this with that goes underneath the new bridge at Fall Creek. Let’s take a look at it. He is not necessarily against the bridge if he knew it was going to be worthwhile. He is for the trail and uses it, but someone needs to start looking at what the cost is and what the use will be, and what the benefits will be to the constituents. What is the tax bill going to be for th ese people? To him, there is a small handful of people that want this bridge. Only 10% of the people in the town use the Schug Trail as it is now, and that’s with Covid. People were out of work and used it more. He saw that; he’s for that. People in this community should be able to sit down together and see if it is worthwhile. If the money that we are going to spend for this is going to be worth it to the pocketbooks of the taxpayers of this community. Please, take a look at it. He has been down Pinckney Road and he wouldn’t want to be in front of those trucks coming in and out of there. Concrete trucks bringing in cement, people going out with cement, RMS bringing in tractor trailer loads of stone and sand. He doesn’t know why someone hasn’t looked at the safety aspect of just Pinckney Road alone. He thinks more work needs to be done. We need to loo k at the financials, safety and use. Right now we could take another three years and put it down under the bridge over Fall Creek. He used to motorcycle along Fall Creek from Pinckney Road down to the bridge before they even rebuilt it back in the 70’s. It’s a beautiful trail along Fall Creek and he would enjoy riding that with his bicycle. He appreciates the board’s time and said we n eed to do more work before we ram this thing through. Supv Leifer said the board is still looking for more funding on this, so for him there is no done deal on it yet. The trail committee was put together to be a cross section of people in the town. The board has trusted that large group of folks to study this and he believes they have done a good job. Shirley Price, said she lives on George Road, another dangerous intersection for the trail. She doesn’t care what her house is worth, she wants to be able to afford to live there. She doesn’t want to see any more property go off the tax roll. Our taxes are sky high in Tompkins County as they are right now. Over 900 signatures were collected in less than 24 hours. She doesn’t understand why the board won’t put this to vote. Let the people decide. They will decide in November who they want on the Town Board. They w ill remember this when election days comes along. TB 8-19-21 Page 11 of 12 She wanted to comment on the nice signs all over. They look pretty professional. She hopes it isn’t taxpayer money paying for them. She doesn’t understand ho w it can be called a commuter corridor. It has to be seasonal. No one will ride down the trail in the middle of winter. With respect to eminent domain, the town doesn’t have an easement on her property yet and she hasn’t roped it off yet, but has been thinking strongly of doing that. She said the town could have her easement when the speed limit on George Road was reduced to 45 mph because people fly down that road. Nothing has been done, basically. She doesn’t feel the bridge is a necessary expense to the taxpayers. She always pays her taxes on time and never really complained, but when you are retired on a fixed income, money goes out, it doesn’t come back in. She agrees with the need for a study. She lives on the trail and more than half the time when she looks down it, there is no one there. People have a problem with it being so rural between Agway and Freeville. There is nothing there but woods and sometimes women don’t feel safe on the trail. Put it up for a vote. Supv Leifer explained the town doesn’t control the speed limit and has made a request for a reduction to the state. They will keep trying. There was a discussion of different funding streams for grants of different purposes. They can’t be interchanged between types of projects, and that’s why we go after many of them. For instance, if we were not able to move forward with the George Road bridge with the BridgeNY funding, we could not repurpose that money for anything else. The dam at Dryden Lake was mentioned, and that is a DEC responsibility. They will replace it, the town does not have to contribute to the cost, and you will not see a separate line item in their budget for it. That is our tax dollars paid to the state being invested in Dryden to keep the lake. He’d like people to think about this as one big project, because the trail does go by the lake, it goes through the two villages, it leads to businesses all over the town, and that’s why we’re doing it. You’re connecting folks across the town. It’s worth investing in the entire town. The signs mentioned are not being paid for by the town. The people who support the bridge are paying for those. J Osmeloski asked if the matching $369,000 for the 1.5-million-dollar grant is coming from town. Supv Leifer said yes, that will end up having to come from the town either in -kind or in cash. A lot of times the highway department will do some of the work and that is an in - kind contribution. We did it for instance wit h the farmland protection grants where staff time was used for in-kind. We have a local contribution for the Bridge NY grants also, but the town is working to get the County to pick that up because we applied for the grants. The BridgeNY match is 5%. The town had to pay 20% of the cost to replace Red Mill Road and Malloryville Road bridges. Bruno Schickel wants the people of Dryden to be able to vote on this question of acquiring this land for the bridge. 493 people signed the petition in less than 24 hours and the board is obligated to allow the town to vote. He was shocked that the board would do the ultimate voter suppression of simply not allowing the vote to take place. It’s shameful. It’s outrageous. There are very, very few things that the state of New York allows the citizens a direct democracy, but this is one of them. For the board to simply say no, we won’t allow it on flimsy legal arguments is outrageous. It’s just wrong. He finds it incredibly disappointing that the board would trample on a sacred thing in our democracy, right to vote, and when we have it, you’re saying no, you won’t allow it. They received a letter from the Supervisor saying that it wasn’t allowed. Now it sounds like you’re sending out another letter and he doesn’t know what that is and guesses they’ll have to wait until that comes in. The law allows it, and you are obligated to call the vote within 60-75 days from when you received that petition. By his TB 8-19-21 Page 12 of 12 calculation there is somewhere around 35-50 days left to schedule that vote. He thinks the vote needs to be scheduled, or he thinks the board should cancel the whole crazy bridge. You should back away from it, reverse course, unite the town and everybody would cheer. Build the trail down under the existing bridge and get on with building this trail out. It’s the simplest path. It’s the most cost effective path. It’s the most economically viable path and it’s the most environmentally sensitive path there is. It has all of the elements of something g ood and beautiful. He does not understand why the town would turn that down. It defies the imagination. It gets you a little better than a half mile more of trail. It gets you down next to the water, which is an incredible asset. He just does not understand. He asked the board to reverse course, but if they won’t do that, they are obligated to call the vote. S Price said she can take a survey of the people on the trail and get what their thoughts are. Supv Leifer said she is free to do that. It may be that the bridge could be necessary at some point. People will probably want to have both options. There are a lot of people who want it and there are people that are focusing on the method of acquisition. He said there is a legal disagreement. Like Mr. Schickel says, there are some things that the state allows a referendum on, and we don’t think this is one of those things where you are permitted to. We have a disagreement about what the law says right no w. If we hold a referendum on something we are not allowed to, that is a problem too. Michelle Morusty Adams asked if the trail will be paved or gravel. Supv Leifer said there will be crushed stone on parts of it. More work needs to be done on surfacing all the way across. There are parts that are paved, like the part near the Freeville sewer plant. Supv Leifer expects a transportation trail would be crushed stone, a similar surface to the Black Diamond Trail. She asked if there was a study that showed the percentage of people that would use the trail and was told by other audience members there was not. C Anderson said some of the build the bridge signs are nailed on the kiosks for the trail. A Planning Board meeting was conducted last month with one in the conference room. Cl Lamb said it is not a political sign and the town supports this plan, so it is consistent. They are not political signs. Varna Water/Sewer Update Cl Skaley said they are awaiting a contractor to start scoping the sewer lines, so we know if we have extra work to do or not, but that is taking longer than hoped for. As soon as that is done, they expect to be going to bid packages and go forward with the bonding application at some point. They need some easements from Cornell and one of the developers on Freese Road. Those are in process. They hope to get started with construction in March, so they need to get to the bid process soon for water main work. All mains will be replaced. TG Miller is looking at the possibility of running a main parallel to the current main so they don’t disconnect people as they work along. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk