HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 10, 2025 - Regular Town Board Meeting Minutes1
Town of Enfield Regular Town Board Meeting
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
6:30 PM
In-Person and Via the Zoom Meeting Platform
Present: Town Supervisor Stephanie Redmond; Town Councilpersons, Jude Lemke, Cassandra Hinkle, Melissa
Millspaugh, Robert Lynch; Code Officer Alan Teeter; 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.
Quarterly Report
EMC- Melissa Millspaugh. They did not meet in August, the next meeting is on September 11, 2025.
Enfield Community Council- Cortney Bailey. The Harvest Festival is scheduled for September 20, 2025 from 11
am – 3 pm at the ECC. There will be a bounce house for kids, and they will be celebrating their 50th
Anniversary. Sue Thompson and Helen Hetherington have been working on collecting history f rom the last 50
years to share. They had 40+ kids consistently at the summer day camp. They will be interviewing two possible
candidates for the youth services role/summer camp director. She thanked the Highway Department for fixing
the driveway. Every month, there will be a fundraising dinner (not in September). She has met with the
Elementary School principal and thinks they will have a good working relationship.
Cemetery Committee – Cassandra Hinkle: Cassandra heard from Buddy on the Trees that need to be taken care
of at Christian and Budd, and they have marked them. She has been researching arborists on Facebook, and
she is getting quotes. Initially, the plan was to trim any limbs that needed to come down; however, having
insurance is a requirement. She was contacted by Cornell University’s GN Bee’s Project, and they would like to
take 3 cups of soil from the cemeteries to study. This will be a spring project, and they will connect again in
March.
Water Protection Committee- Stephanie Redmond. Becky Simms gave a presentation on the water survey, and
she will present it to the Town Board at the September 17, 2025, Special Town Board Meeting.
Enfield Fire District – Robert Lynch. The full report is on file with the Town Clerk. They will have a Public
Hearing on October 21st for their 2026 budget. The district has a new treasurer and secretary.
CLWIO – Stephanie Redmond. They had a presentation on white foam on Cayuga Lake. They had a
presentation on Seneca/Cayuga Canal water quality. They talked about the DEC Cargill permit approval. The
permit is for five years. Cayuga Power signed an agreement with Mega Wolf. Dan Walker asked if the data
center will be for data collection, or are they also planning on restarting the generators. Stephanie responded
that the generators are antiquated and there has not been a conversation on restarting them.
Tompkins Health Consortium – Robert Lynch. The full report is on file with the Town Clerk. The Legacy program
may be on its last legs. It was not stated at the meeting that the plan was going away, but the writing is on the
wall, and it may only be a matter of time. They shared a 102-page plan, and he contacted them to ask for the
2
benefit changes for the legacy fund, and they stated there were none. The next meeting will be on September
25th, where he projects an 18% rate increase to pass.
Food Pantry – Jean Owens. N/A
Recreation Partnership – Cassandra Hinkle. They are on break until the spring.
Park Committee – Greg Hutnik. They talked about future projects. A bike trail was discussed and would be
located on Town Property near the Highway Department.
Monthly Reports
County Legislature – Randy Brown. The full report is on file with the Town Clerk. Councilperson Lynch shared
that the County is looking at a proposed 4.5% budget increase.
Town Supervisors Report – Stephanie Redmond. She spoke to several people about skatepark ideas. Several
applications have come in for the Einhorn student project. She met with the water protection committee. She
met with other Town Supervisors, and as a group, they met with the Tompkins County Historian. Stephanie
would like to work with Sue Thompson on getting more information about Enfield out to the public. The
County Historian noted that she has been seeing a loss of knowledge with the passing of the older generations.
It was suggested to have history nights or presentation times in our community. Sue does have an office at the
Enfield Community Center. If we ever do renovations of the town hall, we may want to make display cases.
Highway Superintendents Report – Buddy Rollins. No Hwy report. Councilperson Lynch. $98,000+ went into
Colegrove Rd, and $66,000+ went into S Van Dorns Rd., as of the vouchers he signed today, and he expects to
see more. Those projects are progressing well.
Code Enforcement Report – Alan Teeter. He issued 8 building permits last month. 3 of which were for new
houses. New requirements for Air B&B’s may come into effect, and the board may want to consider charging
for the inspections. He had written a ticket on a remodel that had asbestos. There will be floodplain training
offered, and he plans to register for it. His daughter is having a new house built in Enfield, and he is
comfortable issuing the permits. Rosie Carpenter stated that Lea Webb had put something out on fees for air
B&B’s inspections at a rate of $125, and Alan responded that municipalities set their own fees.
Planning Board Report – Dan Walker. At the last meeting, they primarily rehashed the conversation with
David West (Tompkins County Housing & Community Development Director) from the August meeting. As part of
the comprehensive plan, they talked about proactively planning for affordable housing. The current regulations
that we have do not put an unnecessary burden on people. There are some programs that we have
participated with in the past that applied to low-income families and some were awarded grants for home
improvements.
TCCOG – Robert Lynch. They meet next on September 26, 2025.
3
Consent Agenda:
Audit Claims: General fund vouchers #185-203 dated September 10, 2025, in the amount of
$14,409.72
Highway fund vouchers #130-149, dated September 10, 2025, in the amount of
$205,868.64
Approval of Minutes: Approval of August 13, 2025, Town Board Meeting Minutes
Supervisor Remond moved, and Councilperson Lynch seconded.
Vote: AYE – Hinkle, Lemke, Lynch, Millspaugh, Redmond
NAY - 0
Business
Remembering George Trutt. Supervisor Redmond took a moment to acknowledge all of the work that he had
done in and for this community. When she has the obituary, she will send it to the board.
Discussion: Electric Signboard. Supervisor Redmond asked Clerk Cornell to give an overview of what she was
proposing. Two outdoor TVs would be used with housing to protect the screens. An electric line would be dug,
and the line would be run from the electric box at the Town Hall. The total project would be under $8,000. Due
to budget constraints, this project will be postponed to a future discussion.
Discussion: Present 2026 Budget. Supervisor Redmond shared that there are two budgets in front of the Board
tonight. One includes the original requests, and the other does not include a lot of the requests. The budget
that has cuts by Supervisor Redmond includes using a large sum of fund balance. All personnel salaries,
excluding highway employees had an increase of 3%. With Highway employees at 5%. She noted the highway
requests. Councilperson Lynch, before we get too much into the highway budget, he would like the Highway
Superintendent to be present for the discussion. Discussion continued.
Discussion: Set Budget - Meeting for September 17th
Supervisor Redmond moved, and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded to set the meeting for September 17th at
6:30 PM.
Vote: AYE – Hinkle, Lemke, Lynch, Millspaugh, Redmond
NAY - 0
Resolution #66-2025 Authorization for Supervisor to Sign the SCT Computers Contract
WHEREAS, the Town has been utilizing the services of SCT Computers to assist with IT support, website
hosting, and website design, and
WHEREAS the Town wishes to continue to use this service, now therefore be it
RESOLVED, the Town Board authorizes the Town Supervisor to sign the 3-year SCT Computer contract
4
Supervisor Redmond moved, and Councilperson Hinkle seconded.
Vote: AYE – Hinkle, Lemke, Lynch, Millspaugh, Redmond
NAY – 0
Discussion: Town Park. Supervisor Redmond started the discussion with a recap. A couple of years ago, we had youth
attend a town board meeting, and they expressed what they wanted to see the town make available to youth, as current
offerings were limited at the time. The Town Board created a park committee, and the committee recommended a town
park. Dan Woodring from SkateGarden contacted Supervisor Redmond with a request to use Town land to build a small
skate ramp for public use. Deputy Supervisor Hutnik had applied for a park grant, which the Town received, and the
Town Board voted to use the funds ($5,000) to start the project. Dan presented his proposal to the Town Board, and
they set a structure to be followed. The board stated they would not continue with phase 2 or phase 3 if the first part of
the project was not completed correctly. It was not completed correctly. Volunteers came in to make the area safer and
the highway department did landscaping. There were negative interactions with the neighbors and Dan Woodring. A
beautification grant was used to build the pollinator gardens. Rosie Carpenter asked if Hanna on Podunk Rd was
contacted about donating materials, etc., for the pollinator garden. Clerk Cornell responded that Hanna had been
contacted and was unable to donate anything at the time, as she is a small business. Councilperson Lynch suggested that
the sculpture be moved to the Town Park instead of the Highway location. Supervisor Redmond shared that in Seneca
County they have a sculpture trail which has placards on their trail that offer historical information. It was suggested
that Enfield “ARE” could be approached to assist with crafting placards. It would be great if we could collaborate with
some of the older residents of our town who would be willing to assist with this project. Discussion continued.
Discussion: Site Plan Review Law. Supervisor Redmond asked if Board members had a chance to review the
law, most had. Supervisor Redmond asked Dan Walker about the requirements for the ADUs since it did not
initially specify what would happen. Dan responded that it would be a separate unit, with the assumption that
it would be on the same water and sewer. Dan would have to look back over how they described it. In the
design considerations for it, it would not need further review as long as it is part of the initial building.
Supervisor Redmond asked if it is listed anywhere else besides in the definitions. Walker responded that it
would not be reviewed unless it initiated a site plan review. That was Supervisor Redmond’s only question in
section 1. Councilperson Lynch clarified that you can have two separate living units without triggering a site
plan review. Discussion continued. Supervisor Redmond asked the board to review section 2 for discussion at
the next Regular Town Board meeting.
Announcements:
Privilege of the Floor: Melissa Millspaugh, the Ithaca Teachers Association contract negotiation discussions are
re-starting. There is a lot of stuff circulating online please support your teachers. Councilperson Lynch gave a
shout-out to Rebecca Carpenter, who installed the solar panels at the Town Hall. Besides the Town's project
solar panels, there were solar panels for other projects stolen. Within a day or two of the theft, she had
ordered replacement panels. She took the loss for the new panels and completed the project on time. She did
not have insurance for the panels, and she is willing to eat the cost of the panels. She was a good citizen and
completed the project.
5
Adjournment: Hinkle motioned, and Millspaugh seconded to adjourn. Adjourned at 8:29 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Cornell
Mary Cornell
Town Clerk