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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-16-1995 & Budget Work SessionMINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1995 AT 7:30PM Those present: Teresa M. Robinson, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Gordon C. VanBenschoten, Councilman Donald E. Cummings, Councilman Carl E. Haynes, Councilman Fran Casullo, Attorney Also present: Leland Cornelius, George Senter, Betty Sperger, Pat Gaines, Donald Palmer Moved by Mr. Cummings, seconded by Mr. Sovocool, that the minutes of September 11, 1995, be approved as mailed. Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson. Claim Nos. 146 to 167 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $24,390.93 and Claim Nos. 226 to 260 of the General Fund in the amount of $23, 304.83 were presented for audit. Moved by Mr. VanBenschoten, seconded by Mr. Haynes, that the bills be approved for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson. LIZ BRENNAN, BOOKKEEPER - Not present. Supervisor Robinson passed out monthly reports and expenditure sheets. Three transfers are necessary. RESOLUTION NO 49 - AUTHORIZATION TO TRANSFER FUNDS Moved by Mr. Sovocool, seconded by Mr. Haynes Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize the transfer of the following: GENERAL - TOWNWIDE (A) From: Contingency A1990.4 $ 80.00 To: Control of Dogs A3510.4 $ 80.00 GENERAL - PART TOWN (B) From: Youth Program, Pers. Serv.B7310.1 $ 65.00 To: Refuse B8160.4 $ 65.00 HIGHWAY - TOWNWIDE (DA) From: Brush Pers. Serv. DA5140.1 $375.40 To: Brush Contractual DA5140.4 $375.40 1 GEORGE SENTER - CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER - Year -to -date building permits issued: 1994 73 5 homes 11 mobile homes 57 misc 1995 86 10 homes 20 mobile homes 56 misc Life safety inspections are current through October. NYS Codes Division requires that we attend 24 hours of schooling every year to maintain a registry number. There is a one day seminar on October 25th that I would like to attend. Cost to members is $35.00 for the all day seminar. It amounts to about six accredited hours towards the required 24 hours. The cost comes out of monies already budgeted in my expense account. Councilman Haynes asked Mr. Senter when the value of the above building permits actually shows up in the assessed valuation for the Town. The cut off date with the County for tax purposes is March 1. The County comes out and assesses or reassesses every building permit that is issued in the Town. LELAND CORNELIUS - HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT - I don't have anything. Oh, yes you do. What about the loader? We just discussed that in there, didn't we? What do you want me to talk about? Councilman Haynes said that we should wait until we see how the budget thing figures out before we can do much more with it, I think. By next month you have to have some kind of figure on that don't you Corney? Yes, I have to give them an answer by November. Councilman Haynes asked Attorney Fitzgerald how we can handle this buy back lease, if we could let bids now for November opening and, depending on how the budget looked, we could either accept bids or reject bids, etc. etc. Bids could be kept open for 30 to 60 days. You are going to discuss the fuel tanks too. You had it on the agenda. We've already talked about this, I guess. Councilman Haynes said we could do that next spring and it appears like there is enough money left in the building fund to take care of that. So you don't really need a resolution until next spring. BETTY SPERGER - I was wondering if the Board would consider starting a noise ordinance for the Town of Groton. The motorcycle races across the road are extremely noisy. The people in a one mile radius would like to have something done about the noise. Police won't do anything because we don't have an ordinance. The Judge says he can't to anything. Is there a special procedure that I have to go through or just what can be done? Atty. Fitzgerald said you could adopt a noise ordinance if we want to and you don't need a petition. The Town does not have a noise ordinance. It's so bad that we can't eat outside in the summer. We have to go inside and close the windows. They come by with pickup loads of motorcycles and race. Atty. Fitzgerald said those ordinances are very very hard to enforce. Maybe you can attack the problem by coming up with something that controls motorcycle racing. Town Clerk said that George Senter and herself had discussed this problem and would suggest that the Town Board ask the Planning Board to review this situation and have recommendations to the Town Board by their next meeting. Consensus of the Town Board was to pass this on to the Planning Board for their review as a zoning problem and make recommendations to the Town Board by the November Meeting. 2 RESOLUTION NO. 50 - AUTHORIZATION TO LET BIDS FOR LOADER Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by Mr. VanBenschoten Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize Leland Cornelius, Highway Superintendent, to advertize for bids on a new 1995 Wheel Loader with bid opening to be November 6, 1995, at 7:30PM. RESOLUTION NO. 51 - SCHEDULE NOVEMBER BOARD MEETING, SET PRELIMINARY BUDGET HEARING AND FIRE BUDGE HEARING, SET HEARING TO AMEND DOG ORDINANCE Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by Mr. VanBenschoten Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby set the following schedule of activities for the November 6th Town Board Meeting: 7:00 PM - Town Board Meeting 7:30 PM - Loader Bid Opening 7:45 PM - Hearing to amend Dog Ordinance Fees 8:00 PM - Hearing on Preliminary Budget 8:30 PM - Hearing on Groton Fire Department Budget Discussed Agreement between Municipalities and the County of Tompkins. Purpose of agreement is to define roles of the aforementioned parties and to form the "Tompkins County Consortium," designed to effectively administer the mandated drug and alcohol testing program. Each of the aforementioned parties, including the County, shall be referred to as the Consortium. The County's Personnel Department shall act as the Consortium's internal coordinator for the drug and alcohol testing program. The term of this agreement shall be from September 1, 1995 through December 31, 1996. All we have to do is fill in the number of drivers, which is nine. 3 RESOLUTION NO. 52 - ADOPT AGREEMENT BETWEEN MUNICIPALITIES AND COUNTY OF TOMPKINS KNOWN AS THE rnuC(1RTTTTM Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by M<r. Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby adopt the Agreement between Municipalities and the County of Tompkins know as the Tompkins County Consortium to implement and be in compliance with the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 mandating drug and alcohol testing for commercial motor vehicle drivers by January 1, 1996. RESOLUTION NO. 53 - 1996 HIGHWAY EMPLOYEE NEGOTIATIONS Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by Mr. VanBenschoten Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town of Groton Highway Employees be granted the following for the year 1996: 1) A 35 cents an hour pay increase across the board. 2) Add one additional sick day per year (total 12). Discussed proposed 1996 Dog Contract. It has increased 2 1/2o from 1995. It includes only services provided for dog control. This does not include enumeration of dogs for which the SPCA has submitted a proposal of $2400. This also does not include any monies for cat control. Town Clerk reported that our current contract works very well. It was suggested that the Town Clerk negotiate with the SPCA for enumeration in the near future. The Board felt that we should consider increasing dog fees so that these fees would cover our dog control services which currently are not covering these services. The proposed increase in dog fees will be $2.50 per dog. RESOLUTION NO. 54 - ACCEPT 1996 DOG CONTRACT WITH SPCA Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by Mr. Cummings Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the 1996 Dog Contract as submitted by the Tompkins County SPCA in the amount of $9,340.00. 4 RESOLUTION NO. 55 - SCHEDULE HEARING TO AMEND ORDINANCE RELATING TO OWNING OR HARBORING AN UNLICENSED DOG Moved by Mr. Haynes, seconded by Mr. VanBenschoten Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby schedule a hearing to be held on November 6, 1995, at 7:45 PM for the purpose of amending the ordinance relating to owning or harboring an unlicensed dog. Supervisor Robinson explained new Rehab of Old Houses program. It is another cycle of Housing Preservation Grant. (Better Housing for Tompkins County, Inc.). They are doing jobs now for people who don't have a lot of money. What they do with this one would be to do houses that would be a little more expensive, I guess. This is the one that they are going to have with matching funds. This is coming from Better Housing of Tompkins County Inc. Other grants were handled through Tompkins County Planning. Supervisor Robinson will complete form and return on behalf of the Town. The annual financial statement from Time Warner has been received. Also the final 911 listing of County residents has been received from Jack Miller of County Fire Control. Auchinachie Heating and AC were here to repair heating and air conditioning units on the roof. The had an excellent day to do extensive repairs which was a full days job. All units should now be in good working condition. PERMA Insurance is have a safety program on October 26th at Drumlins in Syracuse. Most of these are mandated and then they have to come down and teach our people. Supervisor Robinson and /or Leland Cornelius should attend. Ithaca - Tompkins County Transportation Council has distributed the Tompkins County Greenway Coalition Report entitled Building Greenways for Tompkins County:An Action Plan. During the coming months we will be asked to provide an audience for a presentation currently being prepared by TC Greenway Coalition members who reside in our areas. Councilman Haynes moved to go into executive session at 8:55PM to discuss a legal matter. Seconded by Mr. VanBenschoten. Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Cummings, Haynes, Robinson. 9:15PM - Board meeting reconvened. Supervisor Robinson received letter from Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca regarding their name change. Mrs. Lucille Baker has contacted the Town Clerk to see if there is anything the Town can do to see that the Groton Historical Association is exempt from paying solid waste fees. The Association has no solid waste and are not a commercial business. Anything that is carried in is carried out by members. 5 It was suggested that other Towns be called to see if they are charged. The Board suggested that George Totman, our County Representative, be contacted to see if he could resolve this problem. Supervisor Robinson said she had contacted the County and they just passed the buck. Supervisor Robinson said that D.I.V.E.R.S.I.F.I.E.D. has not sent us the statement that we requested. We don't have much money to loan out but we have had some inquiries. I have received applications from Bernie Thoma for receiving funds on loan from the Town. This is so that additional businesses can borrow funds from the Town. This is what the Village uses. We are going to have to set down rules and regulations for borrowers. We have about $20,000. We should try to adopt something similar to what the Village is doing. One request is needed right along. We need to set up a loan committee. Possibly bank people, people from the new board, and possibly a Village person. We need someone here to help set this up. Possibly Bernie can assist us or someone from the Village or Gary Watrous to help us. Mr. Haynes moved to adjourn meeting until Monday, October 19, 1995, at 3:OOPM to work on budget. Seconded by Mr. Sovocool, at 9:25PM. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk Monday, October 19, 1995 - 3:OOPM - Budget Work Session. Supervisor, Bookkeeper and Town Board Members met to work on budget. (Councilman Haynes was absent) Moved by Mr. Sovocool, seconded by Mr. Cummings, to accept the tentative budget as the preliminary budget to be presented at the Hearing. Ayes - Sovocool, Cummings, VanBenschoten, Robinson. Moved by Mr. Cummings, seconded by Mr. Sovocool, that HUD bills #16, 17 and 18 in the amount of $ 24,624.67 be approved for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Cummings, VanBenschoten, Robinson. There being no further business, Mr. Sovocool moved to adjourn meeting, seconded by Mr. Cummings, at 4:OOPM. Unanimous. Budget Work Session scheduled for October 23rd was not held. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk