HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB 2025-07-17 attTB 7-17-25
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TOWN OF DRYDEN
TOWN BOARD MEETING
July 17, 2025
Zoom Hybrid
Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Leonardo Vargas-
Mendez, Cl Spring Buck
Absent: Cl Christina Dravis
Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk
Other Town Staff: Amanda Anderson, Bookkeeper
Ray Burger, Planning Director
Marty Conger, Recreation Director
*Cassie Byrnes, Secretary to the Supervisor
*Indicates attendance via Zoom
Supv Leifer opened the meeting at 6:03 p.m. Board members and audience recited the
pledge of allegiance.
RESOLUTION #118 (2025) – APPROVE MEETING MINUTES
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the meeting minutes of June 12 and
June 19, 2025.
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
There has been no movement on the two public hearings on the agenda (1400 Dryden
Road and 2150 Dryden Road) and they were left open.
PLANNING DEPARTMENT
The monthly report has been submitted. R Burger reported that the 2023 CDBG
housing rehabilitation grant is wrapping up. Nine families have benefited to date and there will
be more in the remainder of the year.
DRYDEN FIBER
Executive Director Dave Makar is not present and has submitted his report (attached).
Supv Leifer has been asked to provide an attestation for DEC to remove four locations from the
broadband project. These are locations that do not qualify as broadband serviceable locations
under FCC guidelines.
RESOLUTION #119 (2025) – AUTHORIZE SUPERVISOR TO SIGN ATTESTATION
REMOVING FOUR LOCATIONS FROM THE DRYDEN FIBER PROJECT
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Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor to sign and
send a letter dated July 18, 2025 to the New York State ConnectALL Office requesting the
removal of the following four locations from the Dryden Broadband project:
FCC Location ID CAO identifier Street Address
2nd Cl Buck
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
CHA PRESENTATION
DEVELOPMENT OF PLAYING FIELDS
BEHIND TOWN HALL
Chris Richardson, Project Manager at CHA, the consultant chosen for concept design
development of the seven-acre site behind town hall, presented the attached slide deck and
explained the process taken by CHA in the development of the concept plans. He noted all
development would be outside of the 100’ wetland buffer. Two concept plans were considered
with discussion focusing mostly on Concept B. It includes a large field and a smaller field to
accommodate soccer, lacrosse, and softball. It provides toilets, some paved parking areas and
accessible parking, and a playground area. The cost is estimated to be 1.15 million for
construction only, and 1.5 million with soft costs included. The surface of the fields will be
sod, and the cost of annual maintenance will be minimal other than mowing.
There was discussion about emergency access and traffic flow, parking, child drop-off
scenarios, and the number of people expected to use the facilities. More details will be worked
out in the next steps.
Marty Conger commented that the fields can be used for a variety of sports and one
advantage is that they belong to the town so scheduling events will be easier as there won’t be
an entity with priority to consider.
There was a discussion about searching for funding, a grant writer, and a contract for
design using the concept plan. Supv Leifer suggested the board begin setting aside funds in
the budget. Cl Lamb requested a narrative to assist a grant writer. The next step would be to
take this plan and develop a design plan.
RESOLUTION #120 (2025) – AUTHORIZE DRYC TO TAKE NEXT STEPS
FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORTS FIELDS BEHIND TOWN HALL
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
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RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Dryden Recreation and Youth
Commission and the Recreation Director to get three quotes from grant writers for design of
sports fields and other accommodations using Concept B as prepared by CHA.
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
Mark Bell, Chief of Dryden Fire Department, reported they had 47 calls in June and are
at 257 calls for the year. They are starting to look at their fleet with an eye toward pushing out
their replacement schedule.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS
Affordable & Workforce Housing Committee – Cl Vargas-Mendez said the committee
would like two additional people on the committee who are knowledgeable about housing in the
area. They are also hoping to have someone from the eastern side of town. Supv Leifer
displayed the resolution that formed the committee in 2022.
RESOLUTION #121 (2025) – INCREASE MEMBERSHIP OF AFFORDABLE AND
WORKFORCE HOUSING COMMITTEE
Cl Vargas-Mendez offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby amends Resolution #63 of 2022 to provide for
an increase in the membership of the Affordable and Workforce Housing Committee by adding
two additional at-large members with knowledge of housing.
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
Temporary Revocable Permits for Dryden Fiber – Dryden Fiber will need temporary
revocable permits to continue its work in certain locations.
RESOLUTION #122 (2025) – AUTHORIZE TEMPORARY REVOCABLE PERMITS
FOR DRYDEN FIBER
Cl Buck offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor to execute
temporary revocable permits on behalf of Dryden Fiber when necessary.
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
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Cable Franchise Fee Audit – Supv Leifer said the town will not be paying for the
service if the audit company recovers something. He has asked them whether Spectrum, for
example, could charge back any recovery to the existing users if they are auditing stuff from
the past, and has not heard back from them. They could also audit our utility bills. The matter
was tabled to August.
ADVISORY BOARD UPDATES
Affordable & Workforce Housing – They are applying for a grant from Tompkins
County for $10,000. There are a couple of other applications, and the group is hoping the
county will expand the pool of funding.
Conservation Board – No update.
Planning Board – The Planning Board discussed the Snyder Hill subdivision and
whether to include battery storage in phase one of the zoning update. There was discussion
about the state of the county’s database on short-term rentals and that per their contract with
the vendor, they are unable to share the information with others. They can share aggregate
data, and the Affordable Housing Committee was told there is no impact on long-term rentals.
There may be 100 to 200 short-term rentals in town. The County may impose a room tax on
these units. They sent guidelines to the consultant for the zoning update so she can get to
work on phase one.
Climate Smart Task Force – The Town of Dryden has been designated a Silver
Certified Climate Smart Community. The press release went out and there was an article in
the Cortland Standard.
Rail Trail Task Force – They are very interested in what happens with the bids for the
pedestrian bridge. Cl Lamb reported they are trying to emphasize to DOT that the bid package
should be amended (it has been done in other regions in similar situations) and are still waiting
to hear. It may turn out that the project will have to be rebid.
They are working on a phase three design study for ways to get from Pinckney Road to
Freeville via an alternate route and the cost to do so. Easements will need to be in place to
apply for TAP grants.
Some easements are needed to make repairs to some washed out areas between Game
Farm Road and Route 13.
Parts of the rail trail from Dryden Agway to George Road and on to the Village of
Freeville need resurfacing. It is currently grass and has some rough spots that makes it
difficult to traverse for bicyclists.
Agriculture Advisory Committee – did not meet.
CITIZENS PRIVILEGE
Craig Schutt is concerned about Dryden Lake. He was at the meeting with DEC and
thought it was a good meeting. DEC had some good ideas and different options. He suggested
a public meeting for people to hear those options and weigh in. Perhaps a representative of
DEC could attend.
He is concerned with the state of the screening around the solar panels along Route 13
and on Ferguson Road and asked if the town can hold the developer accountable. R Burger
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responded that someone was hired to do that and brought a sketch to the Planning Board, but
it has not been executed. He will follow up.
C Schutt was curious about how the triangle at Chaffee Road by the lake was filled
back in and had a brief discussion with the board. It was within the purview of the Highway
Superintendent to do that.
There was no further business, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:29 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bambi L. Avery
Town Clerk
DRYDEN FIBER
MONTHLY REPORT
for June 2025
TOWN OF DRYDEN BROADBAND COMMITTEE MEETING on July 11, 2025
And
DRYDEN TOWN BOARD on July 17, 2025
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY –7/11/2025
▪We have 432 paying customers (+30 in June);We had 31 in-bound requests
▪We are now able to serve 1,807 parcels (30.9% of the Town of Dryden)
▪The Municipal Infrastructure Program (MIP)Updates:
o We've increased the project total to $12.55M from $9.9M, a $2.65M increase
▪Partially due to higher than expected per mile cost; and due to missing 14 miles of fiber
o We've increased the project grant total request to $11.6M from $8.9M, a $2.65M increase
o We are working closely with the Connect All Office to solidify the commitment
o We should have a Grant Disbursal Agreement (GDA) within 30 days (July 15, 2025)
o Once we have the GDA reviewed, it will go to Empire State Development (ESD), the
underwriters of the grant at their October 2025 board meeting for final sign -off
o Upon ESD sign-off,we can sign, and submit our first reimbursement request, which we
estimate to be around $2M in project expenses from June 16, 2024 through August 31,
2025. We expect to receive this payment in early Q1 2026.
MIP Scoreboard –July 2025
Projected New Plan
Months to go:
23.1
----------
186.2
(12.4%)
MIP Miles Completed
236
----------
2,711
(8.7%)
# of Parcels Reached
4
----------
470
(0.9%)
# of Unserved Reached
0
----------
74
(0.0%)
# of Underserved Reached
41
----------
400
(10.3%)
# of MIP Installs
18
--------
30
(60%)
Goals for 2025
▪As of 7/1/25, we have 432
customers live on the platform
▪Current estimates:
o 65 more each month 2025
(July-Dec)
o 822 total by 12/31/25 (-195
from initial goal)
▪Note:Demand is strong:
1,356 sign-ups on the online
form: 828 are not yet in
green zone
Month Projected
New
Goal
Totals
Actual
New
Actual
Totals Diff
December 65 240 65 240 0
January 62 302 54 294 -8
February 65 367 42 336 -31
March 65 432 28 364 -6
April 65 497 22 383 -114
May 65 562 22 402 -157
June 65 627 30 432 -195
July 65 692
August 65 757
September 65 822
October 65 887
November 65 952
December 65 1017
Project Highlights
Project Name:Dryden Fiber Expansion
for Towns of Dryden and Caroline
Applicant and Partner(s):Town of
Dryden dba, Dryden Fiber and Town of
Caroline
Construction Miles (Fiber): 124.6
Total Locations Served:2,674
ConnectALL Grant Amount:$ 8,995,979.00
Local Contribution:$ 906,321.00
Total Project Investment: $9,902,300.00
Team Reports
▪Customer Base – Amanda, Town of Dryden Director of Finance and Personnel
▪Customer Service - Netegrity
▪Sales Operations – Gleamon
▪Installations – Clarity Connect, Netegrity, Gleamon
▪Inventory Management - Gleamon
▪Marketing – Exec. Dir. Dave Makar
▪Construction Permitting Updates – Vantage
▪Construction Implementation Updates – Vantage
▪Finance – Amanda,Town of Dryden Director of Finance and Personnel
▪Facilities and Grounds - Department of Public Works
▪Network Operations - Netegrity
▪HR, Admin, and Insurance – Dave Makar, Amanda Anderson
▪Legal and Policy – Dave Makar
Customer Base
As of July 1st, 2025 (billing date is 1st of month)
Customer Service
As of July 1st, 2025 (billing date is 1st of month)
Helpdesk Call Report June 2025
•Bandwidth Complaint (Speed Concerns)
•1
•Billing Related Call
•8
•Downed Drop (Damaged Service Line)
•1
•Email (Calls related to email difficulties)
•0
•No Connectivity
•1
•ONT / Power Cycle (Calls related to the
ONT where unplugging or rebooting
equipment was necessary)
•0
•Other / Unrelated (Calls looking for
unrelated departments or information)
•19
•Outage
•0
•Install Orders / Create Service
•25
•Router Issue
•2
•PC / Laptop Issue
•0
•Sporadic Connection
•0
•Streaming Related Issue
•0
•User Error / Education
•22
•Wireless
•4
Tickets: 83 Customers: 402 Jan: 150/294 Feb: 109/336 Mar:
145/364 April: 102/383 May: 74/402
Ticket / Customer Ratio: 21%Jan: 51% Feb: 32% Mar: 40% April: 27%
May: 18%
Note:
Install Orders denote an
incoming install scheduling
request – not a completed install
One caller can generate
numerous tickets for a single
issue (i.e. calls in 5x for same
problem)
Support@drydenfiber.com
607-391-3500 (direct support
number)
User Error / Education:
User Error / Education:
Service inquiry (non-green)
Hardware Q's
Range Extenders
Sales Operations
As of June 1, 2025 (billing date is 1st of month)
▪Business Tier Prospects: We've identified at least 82 businesses in the green zone
•18 are customers;64 prospects
▪Rental Units: We've identified 61 rental locations in the green zone with an estimated total of 524 units
•34 signed (231 units)
•10 sent and not returned (74 units)
•17 not yet sent (219 units)
Installations
As of July 1, 2025 (billing date is 1st of month)
▪June 2025 Install Summary
o Number of installations completed this month: 30
o Number of installations scheduled (as of July 1st): 8
o Installation blockers / questions:
▪MDU work requires substantial information and engineering planning:
▪Getting enough fiber to the location (having enough fiber to reach 100% of tenants)
▪Determining how to get fiber from the property line to the units (mobile homes)
▪Determining how to get fiber from the building to the individual units (apartment buildings)
▪Construction pause leads to installation slow down (early adopters propel growth)
Marketing: Inbound Requests; Website
As of May 1st, 2025 (billing date is 1st of month)
9/1/23 12/1/23 3/1/24 6/1/24 9/1/24 12/1/24 3/1/25 4/1/25 5/1/25 6/1/25 7/1/25
Total Under
Contract
22 28 (+6)
Sept-
Nov
32 (+4)
Dec-Feb
44 (+12)
Mar-
May
91 (+47)
Jun-Aug
180 (+89)
Sept.-
Nov.
336
(+156)
Dec.-
Feb.
364
(+30;-2)
Mar.
383
(+24,-3)
Apr.
402
(+22,-3)
May
432
(+30)
June
Requests
(since 1/1/23)
174
(+11)
274
(+100)
363
(+89)
429
(+66)
638
(+209)
875
(+237)
1217
(+332)
1251
(+34)
1293
(+42)
1314
(+22)
1345
(+31)
Available 38 44**TBD 87 172 (+85)292 (+120)425
(+133)
453 (+28)483 (+30)500 (+17)517 (+17)
Not Available 136 226 TBD 342 466 579 792 798 810 815 828
Serviceable Live 76.3%72%TBD 51%
(44/87)
53%
(91/172)
62%
(180/292)
79%
336 / 425
80%
364/453
79%
383/483
80%
402/500
83.5%
432/517
Website Visits 8/25-9/7 11/17-11/30 2/1-2/29 5/1-5/31 8/1-31 9/1-30 2/1-2/28 3/1-3/31 4/1-4/30 5/1-5/31 6/1-6/30
Users 226 140 392 516 661 713 866 717 559 503 579
New Users 211 115 346 471 567 619 760 597 458 418 498
Sessions 324 194 617 739 1104 1110 1323 1250 1000 884 959
Engagement
(secs.)
0m
46s
42s 1m 30s 58 s 1m 13s 1m 10s 1m 14s 1m 29s 1m 19s 1m 30s 1m 10s
Marketing
As of May 1st, 2025
▪Dairy Day 2025: Saturday, June 14, 2025
▪Working on Hiring Part Time marketer for Door-to-Door
▪Working with Kyle Jensen on email marketing, website, and social media
▪Added more signs this month
▪Social Media Posts
▪WHCU Radio Interview on Thursday, July 10
Dairy Day 2025
Saturday, June 14, 2025
▪Three Vehicles: Dan's
car; Syracuse Utilities
truck; Clarity Connect
Van
▪Jason, Dan, Dave, and
Natasha
▪200+ postcards with
candy attached
▪300+ other individual
candies handed out
▪Truck magnets
▪T-shirts
Dairy Day 2025
Dairy Day 2025
Operations – MDUs
▪Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs) represent a great opportunity for Dryden Fiber
▪To date, we have not deployed to any MDUs that require utility room level support
▪We have brought fiber to individual apartments one at a time from exterior pathways
▪We have not brought fiber to a utility room to be split out to each individual unit
▪We have the following MDUs in the green zone
▪1062 Dryden Road – 22 units, 4 buildings, hamlet of Varna
▪Willow Brook – 50 units, 2 floors, village of Dryden
▪12-14-16 Lake Street – 20 units,2/3 buildings, village of Dryden
▪Problems to Solve:
▪Making sure we have enough fiber for the number of units at the location / parcel
▪Making sure we provide the right equipment inside the utility rooms / equipment rooms for splitting fiber for each unit
▪Making sure we have an understanding of the ownership and limitations of the material used to get from a utility room splitte r to an
individual unit or apartment
▪Coax
▪Cat-6
▪Fiber drop cable (glass)
▪Where is the demarcation (see next slide)
Operations - Demarcation
▪A Demarcation point (also called a "demarc") is the physical location where a telecommunications
service provider's network ends and a customer's network begins. It marks the boundary of
responsibility for installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting between the service provider and the
customer.
▪Suggestion 1: We could use the outside NID as the clear demarcation point
▪Suggestion 2: We could set it at the ONU or ONU – CAT 5 - Plume or ONU and CAT 5 that goes into
customer owned equipment.
▪Note: As for wiring beyond the demarc, if Dryden Fiber does the installation, it should be clear that this
will be customer owned and maintained wiring. For special cases:i.e. between buildings or floors
should be considered customer owned and maintained. At some point installing beyond a single
ethernet connected Plume should probably be done on Time and Materials basis.
▪In the case of MDU I think we are probably going treat each one differently depending on how they are
provisioned.
▪Here is information on setting up a standard for MDU from Google Fiber:
https://fiber.google.com/legal/apartment -construction/
▪We could not find much documentation from searching the competition on how they addressed
demarcation.
Engineering Updates
▪Pole Applications Update
▪Pole Apps All will be submitted as of 7/11
▪Review Status Map
▪Construction Notes
▪Bid Process Plan
▪Design Update
▪Final QC
▪Ike Complete
▪Caroline Huts
▪Town Hall Site is the only POP
Financial Reporting
as of June 30, 2025
Revenue and Expenses Balance Sheet
Jun-25 2025 to date 2021 to 2024 6/30/2025
Revenue Assets
Customer Subscriptions 20,865.00 133,348.00 62,500.45 Cash 115,984.41
Grants and ARPA funds 624,614.00 1,278,067.17 Accounts Receivable 355.50
Other Revenue Sources 212.66 12,833.29 233,326.49 Grants Receivable - MIP 1,205,297.02
Total 21,077.66 770,795.29 1,340,567.62 Total Assets 1,321,636.93
Expenses
Construction 112,564.93 1,933,628.62 8,710,189.87 Liabilities
Installation 27,450.25 213,507.32 687,482.12 Accounts Payable (est)450,000.00
Operations 17,061.56 106,423.34 306,365.23 BAN 9,460,000.00
Total 157,076.74 2,253,559.28 9,704,037.21 Loan from Town 235,705.64
Total Liabilities 10,145,705.64
HR, Admin, and Insurance
July 2025
▪Administrative resources are being stretched thin: We budgeted hiring a part -time accounting clerk to
support the project in the 2025 budget
▪Matthew Kinast started in June and has focused his time on gathering documents for the MIP grant
reimbursement and reporting
Part-time Marketing Position – job has been posted on the Civil Service website. Will be reviewing
applicants next week
▪Insurance
▪Dryden Fiber Insurance search has started
▪Sent beginning information to two possible providers. Information on assets has been provided to the insurance
agents, awaiting quotes.
▪We are comparing potential providers
Legal and Policy
▪Force Majeure Events approved last month, sent to website editor
to publish new SLAs
▪Credit Schedule approved last month, sent to website editor to
publish new SLAs
APPENDIX A
Meeting Schedule
▪Dryden Fiber Public Broadband Committee – Public reporting on project
o 1st and 3rd Friday morning, 10:30am-11:30am (except July and August, 2nd and 4th
Friday morning)
▪Dryden Fiber Operations Team Meeting – Construction and Install Collaboration
o Every other Wednesday, 10am-11:15am
▪Dryden Fiber MIP Status Call – Meet with Connect All Office to stay on track
o Every Tuesday, 1pm-1:45pm
▪Dryden Fiber MIP Steering Committee – Implementation of the Grant
o Monthly (Town of Dryden, Town of Caroline)
▪Dryden Fiber Policy Committee – Advise and Recommend on Policy
o Monthly
Financial Reporting
Review of Construction Costs from beginning of project
Subcontractors (Syr. Util., Lghtspd, etc.), 50%Equipment Purchases, 28%
Professional Fees (Leg.,
Eng., etc.), 13%
Permit and Pole
Applications, 5%
Loan
interest,
2%
Misc
Constru
ction
Exp, 1%
Construction Costs 1/1/21 to 12/31/24
Subcontractors (Syr. Util., Lghtspd, etc.)
Equipment Purchases
Professional Fees (Leg., Eng., etc.)
Permit and Pole Applications
Loan interest
Misc Construction Exp
Permitting Steps
1.Final Design Edits = Survey has occurred and Prelim in is design edits
2.Prelim Sent = Sent to Engineering Firm (VPS) to review/approve and then to NYSEG/Frontier to review
3.Final NYSEG Design Sent = NYSEG reviewing final design before sending the Final Make Ready Package
4.Telco Recon = Telco Review prelim design
5.Frontier Billing Outstanding = Frontier awaiting payment to proceed
6.RFB = Request for Bid sent to contractors
7.MR Construction = Make Ready Contruction - Moves are in progress
Other Statuses (from slide 8):
▪Attached – definition...
▪Elec make-ready in process – definition...
▪Telco make-ready in process – definition...
▪Final ELEC Design Input – definition...
▪Avant Grid is NYSEG
Permitting Map Colors
1.Green = Conditional license to attach
2.Yellow = non-billable quote approved, quotes back from electrician sub-
contractors (i.e. HRS, Davella), when NYSEG gives ok, this moves to Green
3.Red = Design submitted to joint pole owner
4.Orange = make ready work package approved, heading to bid
5.Pink = out for make ready construction
6.Purple = design input (LaBella)
Project Understanding
TOWN OF DRYDEN RECREATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Project Assessment
TOWN OF DRYDEN RECREATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Project Assessment
TOWN OF DRYDEN RECREATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Project Programming
TOWN OF DRYDEN RECREATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Project Concept Estimates
TOWN OF DRYDEN RECREATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Final Concept
TOWN OF DRYDEN RECREATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN