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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-16TB 12-16-21 Page 1 of 7 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING December 16, 2021 Zoom Hybrid 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 Supv Leifer called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The November 18 minutes were amended by removing three sentences beginning on page 16. RESOLUTION #214 (2021) – APPROVE MINUTES Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the meeting minutes of November 4, November 11, and November 18, 2021. 2nd Supv Leifer Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes ANNOUNCEMENTS County Elected Officials Call Notes – Notes are posted on the website. They reviewed the Health Department’s numbers on Covid. Most testing results have been from what Cornell does on campus. There are no more pop -up booster clinics scheduled. People are encouraged to see their doctor or pharmacy. They can also check neighboring counties. HIGHWAY/DPW DEPARTMENT Rick Young announced that he was notified the town received a BridgeNY grant in the amount of $1,380,000 for the Genung Road bridge. The County will pick up at least 20% of the cost, so we are in good shape with that bridge. Cl Skaley announced the town received a grant for $1,250,000 for the Varna Sewer restoration project. He hopes there will be additional awards in late January or February. Game Farm Road Trail Crossing – R Young said we are heading in the right direction. Cl Lamb has contacted Barton & Loguidice, and R Young will talk with them also. The town has worked with B & L on several projects. TB 12-16-21 Page 2 of 7 Cl Lamb said the previous Game Farm Road Crossing Plan was deemed insufficient by Tompkins County Highway. Barton & Loguidice has reviewed all prior documents, reviewed what the county was looking for, and brought a proposal to the town today. It is a pretty straight forward plan. To do an expedited version of this study will cost the town about $7,500. The total cost will be split with the Town of Ithaca. He expects to have the results of the study in late January or February. We need a crossing plan approved as soon as possible because the current situation is untenable and presents risk to users of the rail trail. R Young said parking will be limited on Game Farm Road and they will negotiate with the DEC and Cornell for parking on Stevenson Road. Parking on Game Farm Road may be limited to those with accessibility issues. Martha Robertson said Jeff Smith at County Highway is moving forward with a survey and sending traffic counts to B & L. It was a topic at the facilities & infrastructure meeting. She is concerned about the parking because people coming from Ithaca, for now there is no way to get across. They have to park on Stevenson Road, and then walk on Stevenson and Game Farm Road. She suggested an intermunicipal group to find a better solution. Maybe there is a better, safer space that is more off the road. She doesn’t think Stevenson Road is a permanent solution. PLANNING DEPARTMENT UPDATE R Burger reported the department’s monthly update is on the website. Tompkins County has completed their Hazard Mitigation Plan and it is circulating among the various municipalities to adopt. It will be a topic on our January agenda. Adoption of this opens opportunity for FEMA money. COUNTY BRIEFING Martha Robertson – This will be her last meeting. It has been great to have a good working relationship with the town. Greg Mezey will be as accessible as anybody could be. The booster clinics will resume after the new year. There is a lot of news about the mask mandate. There is a portal on the county’s website for complaints. They are encouraging business owners and public venues to get serious about masks. It is not the goal to close anything down. They are not asking anyone to wrestle customers down if they aren’t wearing masks. The Omicron variant is way more transmissible, is very worrisome, and people need to take it seriously. The Rail Trail proposal for a congressionally designated request to Senator Schumer have moved through the process. It looks like $700,000 for the rail trail is in the finalist package. There will be a final vote in February. She thanked Cl Lamb for coming to the facilities meeting this morning and explaining why the process for Freese Road has taken so long. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, except the state and federal bureaucracy. Locally, the town and county were doing what needed to be done. It was interesting to hear that construction likely won’t happen until 2023. She raised the question of a Bailey bridge, a temporary bridge that functions as a regular bridge and can stay there long-term. The county owns one that is installed in Newfield, and it was recently decided to leave it in Newfield for the time being because it is performing well and there is not a lot of traffic there. She has suggested the county buy another bailey bridge because they are good to have on hand, and maybe it could be used on Freese Road. That may resolve the inconvenience to users of Freese Road. Cl Lamb said he doesn’t think the current bridge can be removed until the design plans are approved. Removing what is there is part of the replacement process, and he doesn’t think TB 12-16-21 Page 3 of 7 it can be done incrementally. It’s a good idea, but he doesn’t think it can work. They don’t anticipate design approval until summer or fall, and then putting it out to bid. He doesn’t think we can jump to an advanced stage of the project without getting the prior stages approved. DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS Property Tax Exemption for Fire & Ambulance Volunteers – Supv Leifer will have a proposed resolution at the next agenda meeting. Grit Removal Contract Amendment – In October the board authorized the Supervisor to sign all related contracts to this matter. The document was provided to board members and is on the website. DCO Agreement – This agreement has been provided to board members Supv Leifer is asking for authority to sign it after review by the town attorney. It provides a not to exceed amount of $69,864.00 based on the adopted budget and requires the DCO to provide insurance as an independent contractor. Payments will be made monthly and be included in the Abstract. RESOLUTION #215 (2021) – APPROVE CONTRACT FOR DOG CONTROL Cl Skaley offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the contract for dog control for an amount not to exceed $69,864.00 as presented by the Supervisor, and authorizes him to execute the same, subject to approval by the town attorney. 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Freese Road Bridge Update - Cl Lamb reviewed the time frame for the process. We are currently on stage 1 of a 6-stage process for the bridge replacement program. The findings document has gone out to stakeholders for comment. That will go back to the consultant for incorporation of comments from stakeholders, then go to the cultural resource folks at DOT. That is part of what’s known as the Section 106 process. We then revise and finalize the design report and get design approval. Then we have to design the new bridge, which requires three submittals and DOT review. Then we advertise and bid the project. That is estimated to put us into the fall. Once the bid is awarded, the contractor will do the material prefabrication. The former bridge will be removed, and the historical elements preserved (to go to the Village of Groton). We are currently looking at construction in 2023. If we can do it faster, we will do so. A request has been put in to expedite the process. Game Farm Road Crossing – The plan was discussed earlier tonight and the cost of developing a trail crossing plan came in at a price lower than expected, $15,430, and the town would share that with the Town of Ithaca. RESOLUTION #216 (2021) – APPROVE SCOPE OF WORK FOR A TRAIL CROSSING PLAN ON GAME FARM ROAD Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: TB 12-16-21 Page 4 of 7 RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the Scope of Work submitted by Barton & Loguidice for development of a trail crossing plan at Game Farm Road for a total cost of $15,430.00, $7,715.00 to be paid by the Town of Dryden, and the Town Supervisor is authorized to execute the document. 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes ADVISORY BOARD UPDATES Planning Board – There was a presentation by Bob Beck of the Rail Trail Task Force about the trail going through the light industrial area on Pinckney Road. A lot of questions were answered that night. The board recommended that the Town Board reappoint John Kiefer as Chair of that board. Conservation Board – The bulk of the meeting was taken up with review draft comp plan and comments and creating a process to monitor conservation easements. The chair as a complete list of the conservation easements and probably in spring they will being monitoring those and reporting any problems. Recreation & Youth Commission – They reviewed the comp plan. There will be another vacancy on that committee. Ag Advisory Committee – They spent a lot of time on the comp plan, going through with a fine-toothed comb. Rail Trail Task Force – They met at the DPW building on Nov 15 and talked about the Game Farm Road crossing. Safety & Preparedness Committee – They have submitted their minutes and there has been an update to the town web page for that board. There will be a presentation on February 7 on the Swift911 changing to RAVE alert. They have been working with Berkshire Hathaway on notifications for blow down events. Construction at that site is still moving along. They are working on list of shelters for disaster events and information dissemination. Climate Smart Communities Task Force – The purchase is complete for the LED streetlight project, and we have a bill of sale. Something changing with lights, expect construction in spring. The Task Force is still working on their silver certification. They resolved unanimously that the town establish a 15 cent per kw price for the EV charging station. Broadband Committee – The town received a grant for $624,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission. It will go toward funding part of the backbone of the system, connecting Cornell campus all the way to TC3, going through the hamlet of Varna, Etna, Village of Freeville and into the Village of Dryden. The town is using part of our ARPA money toward local match on that. Combined with the rental from Point Broadband, we may be able to start doing more on the western part of town sooner than expected. The town is still working on easements in the village for residential hookups, and hopes that village trustees will be supportive so can begin hooking up customers in village next year. TB 12-16-21 Page 5 of 7 Another project in the county was previously awarded an ARC grant and we may be able to piggyback on their installation. It may be an opportunity to service people more quickly. The town has been prudent with money and getting grants for town. We are in a very good position now compared to six years ago and doing a good job of working with everyone. The broadband project will bring some municipal cooperation with it. CITIZENS PRIVILEGE Fred Stock, 10 Mill Street, Dryden, presented board members with a handout and a map of Dryden. Last month he spoke about marijuana dispensaries. He believes the town should opt out and give it some time. It appears the board is not going to do that. He would like board members’ thoughts where a proper and appropriate location would be for dispensaries and consumption sites. He would like members to mark on the map where appropriate sites might be and return it to him. He wants to know where each board member stands on this. Evan Carpenter said when he thinks of Dryden Dairy Day, and would not like to think of the Dryden drug den. Dairy Day has always been a family-oriented event in town, and he would like to think Dryden would like to stay a family -oriented town. They have fostered over 2 dozen kids in their family over the years. 75-90% of them were placed due to substance abuse in their family, either with parents or themselves. If the town is going to opt in on this, he would like more opportunity for discussion. It seems probably more discussion will happen over parking spots for the trail, than for where we will put a cannabis location, where we will be selling blunts, and where they are allowed to smoke them. What is the zoning plan? It seems like it is going down the wrong path before we know exactly what the path is going to look like. Nancy Crawford said she has lived in Freeville for 41 years. As a mother, grandmother and someone who cares about this community, she is very concerned that the opt out function is not being respected or wanted. Even before regulations are in place, we are saying yes to this. She read from an article by William Klepack, head of the Tompkins County: For the past four or five years I have lectured several times about experiences in states which have regulated THC inadequately. Overdoses, psychosis, suicides, and ingestion by children has resulted. New York can avoid this by using these lessons learne d to address several important areas.” Her problem is that the regulations will follow us opting in already , and there will be no change after this. There is no discussion. What if the regulations don’t come out the way that we like it for our kids and our families and our communities? Do we just trust people to make the right regulations? Here is someone who is the head of the Health Department saying we better pay attention to some of the things that have happened because this can stay in the system for a whole week. This can be given to children by adults, which happens too often. She is concerned about that. If you opt in now and don’t opt out, you can actually get some tax revenue from this. That makes her wonder if she is understanding it co rrectly? If you opt out and want to discuss it and look at it further, then you won’t get the tax revenue? Is that part of the decision making? She thinks the health and safety of our community is more important than money. She asked the board to read the articles in Tompkins Weekly. Tom Corey, Village of Dryden, said he objects to the board’s decision to not opt out of marijuana dispensaries and onsite consumption sites in the town. He presented the statement by the Tompkins County Medical Society’s statement (attached) and read portions of that. The TB 12-16-21 Page 6 of 7 board expects to get money from this, but there is no cost -benefit analysis, as with alcohol and tobacco. He encouraged the board to read the medical studies. The people of the town deserve to hear from each member of this board who have not spoken publicly as to where they stand. Board Response Supv Leifer said he drew up opt out legislation and no board member has offered to introduce it. He thinks it is mostly a fiscal issue. Siting will happen in the zoning process. In the meantime, like other things that are not expressly permitted, it will be prohibited until then. The town can put in a moratorium in while working on zoning, and locations of cann abis businesses will be determined in the discussion. There will be discussion, it’s not over. The state regulations just came out about a month ago. There will not likely be licensing of any facilities until 2023 and the town will be working on the zoning in the meantime. Cl Lamb said nothing will happen in January in Dryden on this issue. Dispensaries are at best a year or more out in terms of applying for a license to operate. You already can have 3 ounces of marijuana if you are 21 years old right now in the town of Dryden and it’s p erfectly legal. The idea that we can somehow keep marijuana out of the town is not applicable. The town will get direction from the state about revising zoning, and that is expected sometime in 2022. In the meantime, if something is not permitted, it is prohibited. There are some basic stipulations in the state regulations right now, including any dispensary must be 500’ from a school and 200’ from a place of worship. The town can make that stricter and will have its own say on where these commercial activities go with input from the public and the planning board. Nothing will happen in 2022 on this issue in the town of Dryden. Cl Sparling said he supports the state’s recent legalization of recreational marijuana for adult use. The prohibition of marijuana has been ineffective and selectively enforced, disproportionately affecting communities of color and those of a lower economic status. With legalization comes the opportunity to regulate and tax marijuana which will allow the public to make better, informed decisions about their consumption and provide new sources of revenue at both the town and state levels. He agrees with Supv Leifer and Cl Lamb. Cl Vargas-Mendez said he supports legalization of marijuana in New York State. Opportunities will come for discussion about where and how these dispensaries can be located in the town. At this time, we cannot do that because we don’t have the information, and no one will be able to apply for a license in the next year or so. We don’t have the tools for a discussion yet. Cl Skaley said Cl Lamb has described the process. Applications will be reviewed by the Planning Board. It is very likely we can do a moratorium until the new zoning is in place. There are various tools available to us, but the fact that use of it is legal anywhere in town is something we can’t control. We have to use the tools that we do have, zoning, a permitting process and such, and that’s how we can regulat e the location where it may take place or not. T Corey asked the board to take into consideration that both villages in the town have opted out, so if something is located just outside the borders of the villages, that would be inappropriate. Supv Leifer said the mayor has talked with him. The town can also regulate the number of plants people can grow on their own. With or without a disp ensary, people can grow up to six plants. That will happen in the villages too. A medical dispensary is allowed as a right – even in the villages. This is about managing an industry that is here, and now regulating it. TB 12-16-21 Page 7 of 7 N Crawford noted that Dr Klepack is saying there is still room to make changes in the regulations. She appreciates the board being wise about putting the regulations in place. Supv Leifer said the state will probably revisit this as it goes on. Reasons for legalization had more to do with societal effects than location questions. New York is a strong home rule state. When the towns figure out how things are working out, the Association of Towns will have an opinion on it and if there is a need for changes to allow local municipalities to do more, we’ll have an ear at the state level. People are open about wanting this to have the least negative impact as possible. On motion made, seconded, and unanimously carried, the board moved to executive session at 7:27 p.m. to discuss the employment history of a particular employee and an interest in real property where public discussion may affect the value. No action was taken, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk