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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 11, 2026 - Town of Enfield Regular Town Board Meeting Minutes1 Town of Enfield Regular Town Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, March 11, 2026 6:30 PM In-Person and Via the Zoom Meeting Platform Present: Supervisor Stephanie Redmond; Councilpersons Robert Lynch, Melissa Millspaugh ; Town Clerk Mary Cornell; Highway Superintendent Barry “Buddy” Rollins; Code Officer Alan Teeter Virtual Attendance: Councilperson Jude Lemke Call to Order: Supervisor Redmond called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM Privilege of the Floor: Rosie Carpenter. She would like to know what has happened to the transparency that was promised during this past election year. She wants to know why the Food Pantry has not cleaned up their area as is an eyesore. She wants to know why their board meetings are private. She was not happy that she had heard on the radio that Terry Bloom was being appointed as the Deputy Town Supervisor. Additions and Changes to the Agenda: N/A Correspondence: Councilperson Lynch – NYSDOT regarding Halseyville Rd and Tucker Rd TE9A request response from Scott R. Bates, PE., NYSDOT Engineer. Councilperson Lynch read the letter into record. Supervisor Redmond shared the survey from the ECC that is being sponsored by Tompkins County. Quarterly Reports Environmental Management Council – Melissa Millspaugh. Their next meeting will be on May 14, 2026 from 4- 6 PM in-person. Enfield Community Council – Robert Lynch. They met on February 26, 2026. they re-elected the current board members with expiring terms. Up until now membership was limited to the Enfield area. They will expand it so that people can join who live within adjacent towns in Tompkins County. The idea is to expand the reach of the agency to parts of Ulysses, Newfield and the Town of Ithaca. There is a need to lobby to protect Enfield Elementary School from possible closure. There is a desire from some ICSD board members to close some elementary schools. Cayuga Heights, Fall Creek, and Enfield Elementary School. They had a successful Cabin Fever Event and the Physics bus was a big hit at the event. Cemetery Committee – Cassandra Hinkle. She had communicated with Limbwalkers to ask them to start the work at the Christian Cemetery. Cleanup day will be on April 26th. She had emailed two posters to Board Members for the clean-up. They usually start at the Christian Cemetery and work their way to the Rolfe Cemetery. The Board chose the poster to use. Water Protection Committee – Nancy Spero. They had their meeting on Monday, March 9th. They had a guest speaker - Rebecca Schneider from Cornell University who spoke on ditch maintenance, they will be talking as a committee on ways to continue this engagement. No one has heard anything from the State on the drinking water submission. Their next meeting will be on April 16th. 2 Sustainability Committee – Cassandra Hinkle. Climate smart will be starting up again soon. She is waiting to hear back on meeting dates/times. She will be attending a seminar tomorrow and will report back to the Board. Park Committee – Greg Hutnik. To sum up the last few years. He secured $10,000 from Tompkins County Parks and Grants. He worked with Cornells Design Connect to develop a plan for a park on Town Property next to the Highway Department. With this meeting, Greg is leaving Town service. He is only a phone call away if any questions arise. Cayuga Lake Watershed IO – Supervisor Redmond. They had their organizational meeting in January. Tompkins County Health Consortium – Robert Lynch. The GTCHMIC. He attended the February Meeting of the Operations Committee and they will have a special meeting tomorrow. There will be a number of plan changes that were talked about at the February Meeting. As he understand s it changes can only be made by the full group in September. The full report is on file with the Town Clerks Office. Food Pantry – Jean Owens. The full report is on file with the Town Clerks office. Recreation Partnership – Melissa Millspaugh. They will meet on March 24th to discuss submitted 2025 annual reports. She is hopeful to have more information for the next meeting. Fire District Report – Robert Lynch. As with the Health consortium, he has filed the full report with the Town Clerk. Monthly Report Highway Superintendent Report – Barry “Buddy” Rollins. Spring is around the corner and he has been asked about sweeping the roads and cleaning up the shoulders. They received the new medium sized dump truck. Supervisor Redmond asked how the septic issue turned out. It just needed to be pumped and appears to be fine. Buddy asked about getting the garage doors serviced. He would like to get the safety bea ms lifted as they are at the bottom of the door. OSHA has said to put it at hip level. He can check with Gensen’s to get a quote. Town Supervisors Report – Stephanie Redmond. In addition to the normal duties of the Supervisors Office. There was a second Town Board meeting last month where she gave a run-down on the AOT classes she had attended at the February conference. She sent in the newsletter blurb. She has been meeting with the Design Connect Students. Code Enforcement Report – Alan Teeter. Once again, it was slow this month. He issued one permit for a small home on Aiken Rd. A new house will go up on Tucker Rd, and they may be putting in a driveway. He will have his training next month, so he will not be able to attend the April meeting. County Legislature Report – Randy Brown. The full report is on file with the Town Clerks office. The Asteri apartment building in Ithaca was closed by the Ithaca Fire Marshall with less than 24-hours-notice. The city is in court to see if they can require individuals to move. There are over 80 animals in that building. The owners have done a horrible job of managing the building. There have been over 500 calls in the past 18 months. Supervisor Redmond would like the Park grant funding reinstated. Councilperson Lynch – He is glad that Randy is fighting the fight to keep the costs down on the new Center of Government Building. He wishes there was a 3 way to stop this process. Randy had stated to the legislature that his constituents are not in favor of a new facility. Planning Board Report – Dan Walker. They don’t have as much excitement going on. They are waiting for the application to come in on the proposed Van Dorn Rd cell tower, which may come in April for the May meeting. He is being firm on the time frames for submissions, especially for a bigger possibly more controversial project. This would allow Alan to have more time to process the application before passing it on to the planning board. He is concerned that the developer did not know what a LEAF is, so he will be giving them a call. They spent time talking about sign laws and he is drafting a small (fewer than 4 page) law with reasonable restrictions in place. They did some SEQR training. He attended a seminar at the grange this morning on solar farms, which, was led by the former Homer Planning Board Chair, who is also the chair of the Cortland County IDA. His talk focused on several million dollars of dairy farms being built in NYS, and the farm land will be needed for farming not solar. We should not allow solar farms on the class 4 or 5 good soil. The one on Podunk Rd could have been a class 3 if well drained. The Applegate one was a class 2, it really wasn’t being actively farmed and didn’t take a lot out, but more trees were cut than probably should have. The solar law does not define where they can be placed as we do not have zoning. Tompkins County Council of Govts – Jude Lemke. They only meet every other month as there was not a meeting. Data Collection Center and Crypto Currency Centers – Jude Lemke. Dryden has banned these centers and she would like to know if the board would like to pursue doing do. Councilperson Lynch, he is not in favor of restricting this in the town with a local law because there’s virtually no chance of a data center coming here. We do not have the infrastructure for crypto mining as you need to have huge power lines for crypto lines. He thought it was a reach for Dryden, little Enfield or little Dryden is not going to stop crypto and he does not think that we should spend a dime on legal Counsel to draft a law. Supervisor Redmond agrees that there is a small chance that this will come to Enfield and we should use caution. Councilperson Lemke can put something together for the next board meeting. Consent Agenda Audit Claims: General fund vouchers #48-77, dated March 11, 2026 in the amount of $129,824.73 Highway fund vouchers #27-44, dated March 11, 2026 in the amount of $157,247.05 Approval of Minutes: February 11, 2026 & February 25, 2026 Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. No further discussion. Vote: Aye; Hinkle, Lemke, Lynch, Millspaugh, and Redmond. Nay; 0; Carried. Business: Authorize the Town Supervisor to sign the Food Pantry Contract and restated License agreement. Discussion: Councilperson Lemke gave a brief overview of the contract and the license agreement. The one change that she is recommending is to give it a 10-year term from the day the license is signed. Most of the provisions are 4 around how the food pantry operates. Changes proposed by Councilperson Lynch for added safety and sanitation. The Food Pantry Board had asked that a change be made the time requirement for the food waste. It was originally asked that food waste be removed within 24 hours and the Food Pantry Board asked that it be changed to 48 hours. Councilperson Lemke is in favor of doing so as they have a pest control contract in place at the Town Courthouse as well as a couple of area residences. The food pantry will be bringing in a large contained container to hold the food scraps until they are picked up by Tompkins County Solid Waste (Cayuga Compost). Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. No further discussion. Vote: Aye; Hinkle, Lemke, Lynch, Millspaugh, and Redmond. Nay; 0; Carried. Design Connect – Cornell Presentation by Della Alderson, and Enoch Parmour – They are the leads on this project and have enjoyed their experiences in Enfield so far. They are leading a team of 7, which includes an architect as well as the students. They have been studying the plans and they have been working with Spencer the Youth Director for the ECC on the next phase which is community engagement. They will be working with Spencer to get to know the students at their programs next week. They will have a survey which will open for the public to complete. Rosie Carpenter asked what area they are looking at. They responded that they are looking at the youth park across from the Town Hall, which consists of the community arts partnership sculpture, the pollinator gardens and what the youth would like to see developed. They are looking for ways to separate the lot from the neighboring apartment complex, and it was suggested that they contact John Rancich said owner of the complex. Terry Bloom, there is no close playground in this community. Councilperson Millspaugh would like to see it modeled similar to the Ithaca children’s garden. Councilperson Lynch, approx. two years ago that was a grassy unused area and a gentleman came to the Town board who had wanted to put in a simple skate ramp, which then evolved to what it is today (excluding the pollinator garden.). What you see is what he had created with Town Board permissions. Aside from the skating ramp it does not really have character now and we were dealing with some degree of friction with the neighboring apartment complex. What we have now is a place with no character and we do not like the wood chips. We need low maintenance, with limited mowing and weed-eating. Update on Enfield Road Clean-up, Cemetery Clean-up, and Enfield Clean-up days. A brief discussion took place, which focused on publicizing the posters as well as the availability of materials for the Road clean -up and Tire sizes for the tire collection event. Resolution #_____-2026 Authorize supervisor to execute contract with for disposal of drain wastewater captured at highway garage. Postponed. Discussion: Supervisor Redmond as we did not receive any bid’s we will need to republish the RFP. Councilperson Lynch has still not yet heard back on his inquiry and will update the Board as soon as he does. The new bid deadline will be 4 pm on Tuesday, May 12th and bids will be opened at the May 13th Regular Town Board Meeting. Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded to rebid the contract. No further discussion. Vote: Aye; Hinkle, Lynch, Millspaugh, and Redmond. Nay; 0; Carried. – Lemke was excused as she was no longer present. 5 Resolution #39-2026 Authorize Supervisor to Execute Contract with JB’s Excavation Services, Inc. for culvert replacement and stream stabilization work on Bostwick Road WHEREAS, the Town Board has reviewed the proposal submitted by JB’s Excavation Services, Inc.; and WHEREAS, the Town Board has determined that the proposal from JB’s Excavation Services, Inc. represents the most advantageous offer for the culvert replacement and stream stabilization work on Bostwick Road; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board authorizes the Supervisor to execute a contract with JB’s Excavation Services, Inc. for the culvert replacement and stream stabilization work on Bostwick Road, and to take all actions necessary to effectuate the terms of such contract. Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. Discussion: Councilperson Lynch read the bid specs to those present. Supervisor Redmond explained that JB’s Excavation Services, Inc. had made a minor typo on line 3 of the BID form as they had not included a dollar amount. They updated the form that then stated that no additional cost for bond if town requires a bond. Sh e checked with Town legal counsel to see if this would invalidate the bid and was informed by counsel that it would not, however, if their bid amount had changed it would have. Vote: Aye; Hinkle, Lynch, Millspaugh, and Redmond. Nay; 0; Carried. – Lemke was excused as she was no longer present. Resolution #-2026 Deputy Town Supervisor – Salary at $5,464/year/prorated, paid monthly RESOLVED, the Town Board establishes the Office of Deputy Supervisor to act for and in place of the Supervisor in his/her absence RESOLVED, the Town Supervisor appoints Terrence Bloom to fill this position Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. Discussion: Councilperson Lynch expressed his initial intention to abstain from this appointment as he pointed out Town Law accords the Supervisor the exclusive right to appoint her deputy without Town Board approval. Furthermore, he said, we heard a comment from one resident who is not in support of this appointment and the Town Board had already established the office of Deputy Town Supervisor at its January Organizational meeting. Clerk Cornell suggested removing the first resolved from the resolution. Councilperson Lynch asked Terry if he had grant writing experience, Terry shared his experience and that he was a little rusty, but is good at writing. Councilperson Lynch also asked if he had enough time to devote to this position. Terry replied that he did a lot of thinking and had even asked his mother ’s opinion before committing, discussion continued. Resolution #40-2026 Deputy Town Supervisor – Salary at $5,464/year/prorated, paid monthly RESOLVED, the Town Supervisor appoints Terrence Bloom to fill this position Vote: Aye; Hinkle, Lynch, Millspaugh, and Redmond. Nay; 0; Carried. – Lemke was excused as she was no longer present. 6 Resolution #41-2026 Town Bank Accounts Signatories WHEREAS, there is a need to update the authorized signers on Town bank accounts due to the resignation of the Deputy Town Supervisor, be it therefore RESOLVED, the signatories on the Town accounts are as follows: Stephanie Redmond (Town Supervisor), Mary Cornell (Town Clerk), and Terrence Bloom (Newly Appointed Deputy Supervisor) Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Millspaugh seconded. Discussion> Clerk Cornell Terry’s name needs to be changed from the original resolution to his legal name. Vote: Aye; Hinkle, Lynch, Millspaugh, and Redmond. Nay; 0; Carried. – Lemke was excused as she was no longer present. Discussion: Site Plan Review Law. Supervisor Redmond started the discussion. Board members did not have significant changes and will be prepared to finish their individual review of the remaining sections ahead of the next Town Board meeting for discussion. Privilege of the Floor: Councilperson Lynch. Curb cuts to town property, at night is difficult to see where the curb is in front of the Town Hall and it should be made more visible for night time driving. Supervisor Redmond will ask the state if they will take the curbs out. It was also mentioned that the school speed limit flashing light heading into the center of Enfield is on all of the time. Buddy the state has the keys to set the sign school hours. Supervisor Redmond will reach out to the state. Adjournment: Councilperson Millspaugh motioned to adjourn, adjourned at 8:51 pm. Respectfully submitted, Mary Cornell Mary Cornell Town Clerk