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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 17, 2025 - Town of Enfield Special Town Board Meeting Minutes1 Town of Enfield Special Town Board Meeting 6:30 PM Wednesday, September 17, 2025 In-Person at the Enfield Town Courthouse and Via the Zoom Meeting Platform Present: Town Supervisor Stephanie Redmond; Town Councilpersons, Jude Lemke, Cassandra Hinkle, Melissa Millspaugh, and Robert Lynch; Town Bookkeeper Blixy Taetszch; Town Clerk Mary Cornell Call to Order: Supervisor Redmond called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM Privilege of the Floor: Councilperson Lynch led the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance. Additions and Changes to the Agenda: Move the presentation by Becky Sims to the start of the agenda, and pay the voucher to Suit-Kote. Correspondence: N/A Business: Audit Claim: Highway voucher for Suit-Kote in the amount of $134,259.08. Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Lemke seconded. Discussion: This needs to be paid, so that a canceled check can be in hand to submit the reimbursement request to CHIPS. Vote: Aye, Lemke, Hinkle, Millspaugh, Lynch, and Redmond. Nay, 0 Carried Presentation Becky Sims, RCAP Solutions, results of water survey Becky gave an overview of the water survey results. The water survey was conducted to gauge interest in municipal water services. The water committee had identified 5 areas of the town from the past water survey and targeted those areas. Approximately 368 post cards were mailed. The survey was also available at the Town Clerks office and on the Town Website. The full report is on file with the Town Clerks Office. Conclusion – two geographic areas showed interested and there may be others. Supervisor Redmond, they had spoken at a water resource meeting on looking for funding resources. Sims stated there may be some funds that are available for income qualifying individuals. Councilperson Lemke suggested sitting down with constituents to have an active discussion on water costs. Buddy asked for clarification on the 25% of responses and if there would be hookup costs for water. Rosie Carpenter asked if any of the surrounding towns with municipal water hookups were asked how the process went for them. Supervisor Redmond responded that was the point of this survey and there does not seem to be enough interest to pursue it further. An alternative would have been spending $30-50,000 on an engineering study, which does not seem to be a direction that we should move in as a next step. Councilperson Lynch asked Becky if anything surprised her with the results, and she responding with how much interest was shown. Councilperson Lynch asked for clarification of where the postcards were mailed. Councilperson Hinkle asked if there are resources to check to see if a farm runoff is having a negative impact on your well. Community Water Resource has testing and Tompkins County Health Department also offers services. 2 Authorize Supervisor to sign contract with Language Line Services, LCC (for town court). Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. Discussion : Councilperson Lynch asked if there were any fees associated with the contract. Blixy shared that she has two other municipalities that are using this company and the only fee has been for the phone calls themselves , which would be a nominal fee. A few hundred dollars a year or so. Vote: Aye, Lemke, Hinkle, Millspaugh, Lynch, and Redmond. Nay, 0 Carried Budget Work session: Town Bookkeeper Blixy gave an overview of the budget as presented. Key Changes to budget lines: A1620.4 was increased by $20,000 as utilities are expected to increase significantly. Buddy had previously shared that the costs of having the tanks in the Highway garage pumped will increase as we will need to go with a different vendor. Councilperson Lynch asked if Buddy if he had looked around at other companies to cost compare. Buddy suggested that Councilperson Lynch look into it and Councilperson Lynch replied that if he did investigate, someone might later criticize his actions. Blixy suggested that Buddy is the best candidate to look into this and Councilperson Lynch concurred, however, he did offer to look into it. that Buddy investigate possible alternate waste pumpers. Buddy said he did not have time as he does not have an administrative assistant. Councilperson Lynch suggested this be looked into further and Supervisor Redmond said that he could come back with more information at the next Town Board Meeting. $35,000 was added to the Bridge Reserve Line as it had been mistakenly taken out. Fund balance use was increased to $182,500 to offset the budget. Councilperson Lynch gave a handout on his recap of the GTCMHIC meeting. Councilperson Lynch suggested moving away from the legacy plan and to the Platinum Plan and setting up a reserve to help offset the difference in co-pays for employees. Blixy assisted the library in making this same arrangement, however, it took a year or so to implement and a third party service was used, which in itself creates an expense. Supervisor Redmond does not want to cut our budget on the backs of our employees. Councilperson Lynch moved that we amend the tentative budget by replacing the legacy plan with the platinum plan and councilperson Hinkle seconded for discussion purposed. Discussion: Councilperson Hinkle asked if this is inevitable, should we proceed? She needs more information. Councilperson Lynch asked Blixy what would be involved with hiring a third party service. She explained that she is not sure a company would take us on as we are such a small municipality. A lot of research would be needed to make this happen. T he Town would have to set aside the funds for the reimbursements as well as the costs for the use of the third party service. It does not mean that is not something we should investigate; it may be something needed in the future. It would take six months to a year to complete. Councilperson Lynch amended his original motion to an investigation into changing the health insurance plan and offering an incentive with the use of a third party service. Vote: Aye, Lemke, Hinkle, Millspaugh, Lynch, and Redmond. Nay, 0 Carried 3 Councilperson Lynch completed a Multi-Town Budget Survey and gave a handout of his findings to Board members. He had surveyed 7 Towns on whether they had administrative assistants for their highway superintendents and compensation information for those that did. He also colle cted data on Town Justice & Court Clerk Salaries. As both an administrative assistant was requested for the Highway Superintendent and the Town Justice and Court Clerk both asked for a $2,000 salary increase this budget year. Supervisor Redmond would like to have included both requests in the budget, but as it is the 2026 budget is already predicted to have over a 6% increase. She welcomes any suggestions on decreasing budget lines, as she does not see where additional decreases can come from. Clerk Cornell suggested to the Board that the Town Board Contingency line be decreased by $7,500 and that Superintendent Rollins match from one of his lines with $2,500 to budget for an administrative assistant at $10,000 for the year. Buddy asked that his brush line be reduced by the $2,500 and moved to the General fund account for the administrative assistant’s salary. Councilperson Lemke amended that the $7,500 come from fund balance and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded to create the position of administrative assistant for the Highway Superintendent to be funded from the general fund at a salary of $10,000. Vote: Aye, Lemke, Hinkle, Millspaugh, Lynch, and Redmond. Nay, 0 Carried Councilperson Lynch asked Clerk Cornell where the Planning Board was on creating an application and fee schedule for developments in the Town. Clerk Cornell will bring this topic up at the next Planning Board Meeting. The Board discussed tentative dates for the public hearing for the budget. The Board will set the public hearing at the October Regular Town Board meeting, as they are currently considering October 22, 2025 at 6:30 PM. Superintendent Rollins – I forgot to bring this up earlier. We may be looking at the need to hire a full time mechanic, which would help in keeping maintenance costs down. The Board asked Buddy what the costs would be? Salary would be at approx. $80,000 and equipment needed would be a laptop, software, and tools as needed. Larger jobs would still be outsourced. This will be discussed again in the future, however, this position will not be created or funded in the 2026 b udget year. Beverly Rollins. Health care and the highway guys. This is a risky and hazardous job. You need to think about this and fully understand the risks they take. Do not take the plan away, let the consortium be the bad guys. Adjournment: Councilperson Millspaugh motioned to adjourn, adjourned at 10:03 PM. Respectfully submitted, Mary Cornell Mary Cornell Town Clerk