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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-08-2001 TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING MAY 8, 2001, AT 7:30 PM Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Francis Casullo, Town Attorney Absent: Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Also present: Colleen D. Pierson, Richard Case, Mark Gunn, Liz Brennan, Arland Heffron, Arthur Dawson, Margaret Palmer, Donald Palmer, George Totman, Mark Gunn, Robert Demeree Supervisor Morey – Good evening everyone. I want to welcome everybody tonight and I want thank Don for doing such a nice job last week while I was out of Town for a week. The last couple of days, I’ve been paying for it. There’s a couple of additions to the agenda. We’re going to add, on 2a, the approval of the second public hearing on 2001 Small Cities Program. We’re also going to add George Totman to the list, the County Representative, to talk to us a little bit about reapportionment tonight. We’re also going to have the M&T investment review, and I have a couple other announcements to be added to the end. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the April 10, 2001 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the April 10, 2001 second public hearing on the 2001 Small Cities Program. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. General Fund Claim Numbers 113-139 of the in the amount of $18,842.29 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Town Board Meeting Page 2 of 17 May 8, 2001 Highway Fund Claim Numbers 66-86 of the in the amount of $19,932.52 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Special Grant (HUD) Fund Claim Number 266 of the in the amount of $20,156.30 was presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the HUD bill for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Supervisor Morey invited Privilege of the Floor. No one responded. Liz Brennan, Bookkeeper – Hello. You’ve got your reports of the revenues and expenditures. I do have one transfer that needs to be made. RESOLUTION # 37 – TRANSFER OF FUNDS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the following transfer of funds: General Fund – Town Wide: From: Contingency A1990.4……………………….$36.50 To: Tax Collection, Pers. Serv. A1330.1………..$36.50 Liz Brennan – Other than that, I’ve called the auditor and he still hasn’t set up a date when he can come. As soon as I find out, I will let you know, and I will let Colleen and Peggy know so that they can get ready with whatever paperwork needs to be prepared for them. Supervisor Morey – Quick note, we got $850.00 for the youth employment jobs fund from the County. That will go into effect this summer. Liz Brennan – We can do something similar to last year because that’s the same amount. Town Board Meeting Page 3 of 17 May 8, 2001 Mark D. Gunn, Code Enforcement Officer – I think I gave everybody a building permit report. We were down a couple of permits from last year, but we do have one new home compared to last year when we had none. The rest were other permits, pools, garages, additions, that sort of thing. My Life Safety Inspections last month, I only had a couple and they are current. I’ve completed the transitional training codes through STBOA last month and I did receive the National Fire Protection Association Codes on disc, so I have them now. I did the local zoning check for the Town this spring and surprisingly enough, the Town looked really good. I only came up with a handful of violations and people seem to be working on that. Supervisor Morey – Great. And I understand we have a new addition going on in the Town of Groton? Mark Gunn – Yes, they have a fairly large addition going on a home up on Devlen Road. The addition alone is $237,000.00. I just got the prints on that last night. This month is real good. I have several new homes. Supervisor Morey – And I would like to congratulate you on your new job. Mark Gunn – Thank you. I start day after tomorrow. Supervisor Morey – Everybody knew, right? Go ahead Mark. Mark Gunn – I accepted a job with the State working over at Camp McCormick as a carpentry instructor for the boys. So, I will be leaving the girls’ school as a maintenance mechanic and going over there. My union is paying for all my school and I will be a certified teacher. It is going to put a little bit of a crimp on me for Codes. I’ve talked to Glenn. I’m hoping to keep this up as long as I can. I found out today that all my classes I can take over the Internet, so I don’t even have to leave the house for them. I am going to work the summer this year, but I will have a regular teacher’s schedule so I won’t have to work any summers after this. But this summer I’m working a four-day week, seven hours a day, so it still gives me time in office, plus all day Friday, which I haven’t had before. So, I am going to keep everybody happy for as long as I can and tough it out. Supervisor Morey – Thanks, Mark. Any questions? Rick? Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent - At the present time the Highway Department is engaged in the changeover from snow to spring and summer roadway maintenance. There has been extensive restoration, repair and preventive maintenance taking place on all plow equipment. The new tandem-axle plow truck has been fitted with a sander and all plow apparatus. After being tested and completely checked out, the plow equipment was removed and the vehicle placed in service. During the month of April, all Highway employees attended the US Department of Labor, Health Safety Course and Mine. This course requires 8 hours of classroom time. Cortland County Highway Department hosted this event and has my thanks for including us. With the decent spring weather that has finally arrived, Highway crews have had the opportunity to get a good start on spring roadway work. All intersections have been broomed once and a good portion of shoulder and ditch damage has been repaired (Pete Carr continues to baby our Town Board Meeting Page 4 of 17 May 8, 2001 excavator and should be commended). The manufacturing of de-icing sand and screened gravel is now underway at the Spring Street gravel bank. The inter-municipal trash day was held May 5th as planned. As always, the Town and Village employees worked well together and all involved have my thanks for their co- operation. The amount of material brought to the site this year is nearly a mirror of last year. I believe this is a worthwhile event and appreciate your support in sponsoring it. On April 16th, the order for the one-ton dump truck was placed with the Robert Green Truck Division. This vehicle is being purchased on the New York State bid - contract #PC57165. The Annual Highway Tour is still scheduled for May 14th at 9:30 A.M. Supervisor Morey – If anything changes for me, I will get hold of you. A little note about the excavator: the paperwork is in the process and should be done this week. Richard Case – I was in touch with the salesman. It is possible that we may take delivery on a machine to use. The machine that we bought has not been shipped to them yet, but as we had in the specs, within 60 days of the award, they had to provide us with a machine. They’ve been very positive in working towards that. So, maybe by next Monday we will have a machine to work with. Supervisor Morey – Do you want that speed monitor? I got a letter from the Sheriff and they are offering a free speed monitor. It comes on wheels and as you go by it tells you what the speed is going and it tells the police officer the time of day when most people are speeding and things like that. Is there a need for that? Richard Case – There’s a couple of stretches of highway that I’ve had people complain about and that would be Salt Road, particularly at the intersection of Elm Street. People are coming both ways, but headed north, they come over that knoll and they don’t see the intersection. We’ve had some accidents there. These are County highways. Pleasant Valley Road, it wouldn’t hurt to have something set up like that for a while. Right in front of Palmer’s house is probably the best speed that they reach coming down the hill. Supervisor Morey – Is that the trucks going by all the time? Richard Case – That’s Case Trucking, right. But there are some stretches of road that I’ve had people talk to me about. Supervisor Morey – So, you’re going to get hold of the Sheriff? Richard Case – If that’s what you’d like. Councilman Scheffler – The Sheriff keeps coming down my road and running the stop sign. Richard Case – The trash days, we’re still loading, but it’s going to be somewhere around eight trailer loads again. We’re still working at that. Supervisor Morey – It worked out great too. I stopped up for awhile. Town Board Meeting Page 5 of 17 May 8, 2001 Colleen D. Pierson, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Submitted her monthly Town Clerk’s Report and monthly Tax Collector’s Report for the Board’s review. Arland Heffron & Arthur Dawson, Town Justices – Submitted their monthly report for the Board’s review. Francis Casullo, Town Attorney – The bonding paper for the excavator, I gave it to Glenn to sign. Then we’ll give it to Colleen to put your seals and your stamps on it. Then I’ll come and get it and forward it over to the Groton Bank so they have the paperwork on file. I want to make sure we have some copies to stay here. The indemnification issue was something that Glenn brought up. I did some research and I put it in a draft local law and provided it to Glenn. I’m sure he’ll probably provide the other Board Members. That’s just something you can look at in the next month or so. Supervisor Morey – Everybody should have it in their packed and the one the Board passed December 10, 1985, for comparison. So you can look at them and see the difference. Fran Casullo – And like I said, it’s a draft, so feel free to have any comments, changes, or suggestions that you want to it. Other than that, I don’t have anything, unless you have questions. Supervisor Morey – There really isn’t any critical time that we have to do this. We can have a discussion next month and see what everybody wants to do. Okay, Town Court, Dewey Dawson and Arland and Peg are here. Arland, you got any words of wisdom? Justice Heffron – I was here last month and made some comments. I’m going to leave most of the talking tonight up to Judge Dawson. My reason for being here is my interest in upgrading our safety for the Court office. And I understand it’s on the docket for tonight and for my part, I would like to hear more about it and where we stand on it. I believe Judge Dawson has some other comments he’d like to make. But if there is any progress getting made on that, I want to compliment the Board on getting over a difficult subject here in the last few months. Hopefully we’ll get it resolved here before long. Justice Dawson – I don’t know if you want to make any comments on that before we get into some comments that I want to make or not. Supervisor Morey – Let’s see your comments. Justice Dawson – Okay. I reviewed the minutes from the last Town Board Meeting and there are a couple of things that I feel obligated to try to clarify for the Board and the Supervisor. I want you to know that I am not trying to get into a tug of war with the Board or the Supervisor or anything else, but it’s my fault for not being here last month when I said I’d be here, but I can tell you that I’ll be here at every meeting that I possibly can from now on. In the minutes, Supervisor Morey indicated Peggy basically couldn’t be bothered spending time with the engineer from the security company as well as Don, to find out where to place it, so they later Town Board Meeting Page 6 of 17 May 8, 2001 placed it where they thought was special. That’s regarding the panic buttons. And I assume you mean Don Scheffler, is that correct? Okay. I have no idea what conversations went on with Don and Peggy because I wasn’t involved in them. But I can say this, that Peggy got input, asked us specifically, Arland and myself, where we thought the buttons should be, and where the buttons are now are where we indicated they should be along with Peggy’s cooperation in placing the reset keys so that we’d be able to find them and stuff like that. So, if you had a problem getting the same information that she had to give to the security people, I’m sorry about that, but the thing did get settled, she did work with the security people, and she solicited our input and was very good as far as my estimation goes in regards to that. Councilman Sovocool is right when he says, in regards to the window or door, let’s do it and get it done. I think he is absolutely right, you know, a man of few words sometimes, and many more at other times. But I think we need to get on with this situation. Once we get this security issue resolved and in place a lot of things should be different. One thing that was in the minutes that I particularly didn’t like was the comment of, “let her walk” I guess was the phrase that was actually in the minutes regarding Peggy being able to work with us and getting it done. I have to work with Peggy as does Judge Heffron, and I’m sure if you ask him he would have the same concern I have, that I don’t want to let her walk. There’s nobody in the State that knows more than she does for this particular job. We work well together. I think there are times when, as with any relationship, people get on each other’s nerves, but I don’t want to let her walk. She is the one that makes the office really function smoothly. I have checked, and there have been no problems with her not showing up when she said she would be here for people. As a matter of fact people have said that they would show up and haven’t on her. But I think that that situation, I just want to let you know that I back Peggy up on that and I don’t want to see anybody else filling that job or even talking about that we need a different court clerk because she is the lady, she’s the one. The other thing that I want to mention, in regards to the security door, or limited access to the office, I don’t know where anybody got the idea that we’re asking for bullet-proof glass. We’re not asking for that. I don’t know where anybody got the idea that we’re asking for limited vision into the office from the people that come to the door. We’re not asking for that. All we’re asking for is to limit the amount of people that actually come into the office, as they do now. I don’t care if it’s a half door, a metal door with a window, a teller’s window or a peephole of some kind. That obviously wouldn’t work but all we want is to keep people out of the office. If any of you think that there is a problem with having two or three people in there at a time, we can all go back in there and stand in there right now and see what it would be like. So, it’s the safety of the Court personnel and everything else. And I commend the Board, for Louie and Don and Sheldon and Glenn and Tyke too, I guess, for finally taking the bull by the horns. Don asked in the last Board Meeting, why couldn’t this work before, when you were talking about the door and the other situation. The answer is, it could of. I don’t know what the problem is, why it’s taken so long. It’s something that’s easy to do and we just gotta get it done. I appreciate you working so hard on it and I’m sure that we can get it done as soon as possible and things will be very, very smooth, especially with summer coming on. Thanks a lot. Supervisor Morey – Okay. Peg, you’re part of the Court. Margaret Palmer had no comment. Town Board Meeting Page 7 of 17 May 8, 2001 Supervisor Morey – George, I know you’ve got a lot about the reapportionment. Do you want to come up? We’ve got 5 minutes. George Totman, Board of Representatives – I’m sorry I could only get one set of maps. There’s nine different options on the reapportionment. I’ve got these to give to you so you can pass around. One is for 13 members on the Board (of Representatives) instead of 15. There is three options for 15 members on the Board and two options for 16 members on the Board and two options for 17 members on the Board. All of them are moving people around so you can get as equal representation as possible. I can tell you right now that I think that the majority of the people that I’ve talked to are going for what they call option A in section 15. This leaves Groton pretty much the way it is now. It changes a lot of other areas, but it leaves Groton pretty much the way it is right now. Supervisor Morey – Can you share that with the Board, just walk around and let them see it? It’s basically just going into a little bit more of Dryden. George Totman – I’ll pass this around. But this option A is the one that the majority of the people …….meeting tomorrow morning to go over this. But some of the other options, like this option B, and leaving 15 members of the Board, takes the representative from Groton way over here into Lansing, plus in Dryden. So, this person would have three different towns to report to. Right now this person only has two towns to report to. Option C is about the same but it changes a lot of other things in the rest of the County. When you go to 16 members on the Board, it cuts down a little bit of your territory so that the person from Groton would just have Groton, but it takes the person from Lansing way over into Bone Plain Road and that area there. One of the reasons why they are doing all this is to get equal representation so the City could keep their five seats. In order to do that, they’re taking parts of the Town of Ithaca and putting them in the City districts and that’s a different problem than what we have here in Groton. But like I said, if you look them all over, option 15 A is the one that seems most acceptable to not only the Republicans on the Board but when they had their meeting Saturday morning, we met in the Women’s Community Building for about three hours, and there were quite a few other people who liked that the best also. st I’ve got another map here on the County highways. There’s going to be a meeting on the 21 of May, in the Boyton High School, and it’s a public meeting. Hopefully from that meeting, the st Board is going to call a special meeting in conjunction with the City. The goal is to, by June 1, th come up with a decision. Otherwise, the petitions are going to be out by June 5, and in order to take petitions out to people, you have to know what district you’re going to be in. Otherwise, they’d have to wait until fall and go to a Public Referendum, which would delay the whole thing. Now, last time they did that, in 1980, they went to that and they went to a weighted voting system and they got challenged in court on that. It turned into a big fiasco. So, they are, st hopefully, trying to make a decision before June 1. Any questions? Supervisor Morey – And the favorite one is that Option A with 15 members of the Board? George Totman – That seems to be the favorite one right now. Of course, you know in County government things can change overnight, depending on who talks to who. But right now, that looks like the favorite one. It’s probably one of the best, there’s only one other one in there that’s best for Groton and that would make Groton all by itself. But that would make 17 members on the Board and when you increase the number of people on a board, it just increases all your problems. So, hopefully, we can hold it at 15 and keep the seats pretty much the way Town Board Meeting Page 8 of 17 May 8, 2001 they are now just by moving around. It looks like the Town of Dryden is going to stay about the same, with two seats. The City could loose a full seat. According to the numbers they should loose ¾ of a seat and they are trying to make that up by taking some or part of the Town of Ithaca, which that don’t make them very happy. Then Lansing will wind up with two seats because Lansing grew 13%. See, the County grew 24% in the last 10 years and 13% of that 24 was from Lansing. Groton also grew more than most of the other towns. So, where it goes from st here is going to be anybody’s guess but there is going to be a public meeting on May 21. Supervisor Morey – Any questions for George? Clerk Pierson – Is this approved just by the County Board? George Totman – Yes. Councilman Sovocool – Which one are you in favor of, A? George Totman – A. Well, to be very honest, I think it’s C17, I think, if you want to be technical about it, that would leave Groton in tact, all by itself. But it would screw up all the rest of the County and I don’t think I really want to do that. So, A leaves Groton just about the way it is right now. Some of the other ones put Groton way over into VanOstrand Road and all those side roads, Bacon Road, Luce Road. And another option takes Tom Todd’s area in Lansing, way over into Cobb Street and all of Cobb Street would be in that area. This doesn’t make sense, I don’t think. Councilman Scheffler – It’s a whole different area right at the town line …… George Totman – Yeah. I think 15, Option A works really the best for us. If there’s no other questions, I’d like to speak about something else, if I could. Supervisor Morey – Could you wait for about 10 minutes? We have a public bid opening and it’s 8 o’clock. We’d be more than happy to. BID OPENING – SALE OF FOREST PRODUCTS Attorney Casullo was asked to open the bids received. They were as follows: 1.(No name on envelope) Johnson Brothers Lumber $11,449.00 2.Wagner Millwork Co., Inc. 4060 Gaskill Road Owego, NY 13827 $11,111.00 Town Board Meeting Page 9 of 17 May 8, 2001 3.Gutchess Timber Harvesting 742 Sherman Road Cortland, NY 13045 $10,786.00 4.Clune Lumber Corporation 116 Secor Road PO Box 469 Otego, NY 13825 $10,740.00 5.N.V. Lumber Co. Raymond T. Volbrecht 792 Rt. 34-B Groton, NY 13073 $9,282.00 6.William Forney 1003 Cortland Rd. Groton, NY 13073 $11,592.00 7.B&B Lumber Company, Inc. Hanson Stone Quarry Drawer “T” Jamesville, NY 13078 $10,010.00 Attorney Casullo – It looks like the high bid is by Mr. Forney, followed by Johnson Brothers, and then Wagner Millwork. That’s without looking to make sure everything is in order. Supervisor Morey – All righty. Bob Demeree – I will leave it up to the Board, but I kind of recommend you go along with Mr. Forney, a local boy. Supervisor Morey – Okay. I guess we don’t have to do anything else. There’s no representatives from the lumber companies that came in. Is there any discussion? Councilman Sovocool – I think we ought to go with the high bid. He’s a Groton guy too. Councilman Scheffler – Yup. Supervisor Morey – I think it was a great bid. I didn’t expect as much. Mr. Demeree expected more, so I guess we’re right in the middle of where we thought it was going to be. Can I have a motion then? Town Board Meeting Page 10 of 17 May 8, 2001 RESOLUTION #38 – ACCEPT BID FOR FOREST PRODUCTS FROM WILLIAM FORNEY MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the bid for the sale of forest products from William Forney, 1003 Cortland Road, Groton, NY 13073 for the amount of $11,592.00. Attorney Casullo – Bob is going to send the other bidders back their bid bonds. I am going to send Bob a contract. I’ll let you review it before and then we’ll have Mr. Forney sign the contract and we’re all set. Supervisor Morey – In your folders, and I’ve talked to Fran about this, is the Joint Recreation Committee. If you call it a commission you are going to have to get the lawyers of the Village and the Town together to write up a specific article to pass that. It’s been around for the past year and we still haven’t done anything. Last week we had a meeting between the Town and the Village and came up with a Recreation Committee Letter of Understanding. Fran has reviewed it. Any comments Fran? Attorney Casullo – Yes. It looks okay to me. Supervisor Morey – Okay, you have gotten copies of that to review. Don, any other comments about you attending there? Councilman Scheffler – Nope. Supervisor Morey – And our Town Representative At Large is Crystal Young, which we voted on a couple of months ago. RESOLUTION #39 – ACCEPT LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING CONCERNING JOINT RECREATION COMMITTEE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the following letter of understanding concerning the Town of Groton and Village of Groton Joint Recreation Committee: a) The committee shall be made up of five members to be made up from the following: 1) Village Board member 2) Representative from the Village at large Town Board Meeting Page 11 of 17 May 8, 2001 3) Town Board member 4) Representative from the Town (outside. the Village.) at large. 5) Representative from the School District (someone with authority who can s peak on school's behalf.) b) The Committee shall select a Chairman and Vice Chairman from the representatives. Term of office shall be one year . c) The wages, benefits and expenses of the recreation program shall be split evenly between the Village and Town. The school's contribution to the program will be for the use of facilities and office space for the recreation coordinator (once hired). d) A Joint Activity Fund for the accounting of this program shall be created. It will follow the fiscal year of the municipality who decides to keep the financial records. We also have some joint youth service program funds that should be run through such a fund although these programs are controlled by the Groton Youth Commission rather than the joint recreation committee. e) Any user fees generated for committee activities would go into joint fund for program purposes. Any excess funds remaining at fiscal year end shall remain in the fund to be used for recreation purposes. f) The Village shall continue to own and maintain Memorial Park on Sykes St. and the Robison tennis courts on Peru Road. The Board of Park Commissioners shall continue to have responsibility over these assets and hiring of summer staff (with the exception of the recreation coordinator) for the Memorial Park pool. The Town's contribution to the park shall be no less than $8800 (less the portion the Town gives. up in State Aid for recreation that goes to the County for the youth service program). Any increase in the above stated amount shall be negotiated between the Village and Town Boards. g) Both the Village and the Town shall provide for general recreation liability insurance coverage on their respective policies. h) The joint committee shall have the direct control of the recreation coordinator. It shall be their responsibility to hire, fire, and review the performance of the recreation coordinator. They also shall promulgate and review recreation activities of the program. i) Due to the insurance issues brought forth in g) above, the Commission shall have general oversight over the Groton Little League and Youth Football. This will in no way prohibit them from continuing to have their own Board of Directors and volunteers to run their seasonal programs. However, the recreation coordinator may work with and provide assistance to any youth league who may request his/her assistance. (It is further under- stood that Biddy Basketball is under the supervision of school personnel and is thus the school's responsibility. Youth Soccer carries their own liability insurance.) Supervisor Morey – Also in your packet, we’re going to have to sign a contract with the, oh, I’m sorry, George, come on up. That wasn’t intentional either. Town Board Meeting Page 12 of 17 May 8, 2001 George Totman – I’d like to just briefly talk about the Public Safety Committee and the radio communications. I see it’s on the agenda, so I’m not sure where you are going to go with that. My original thought was that I was going to congratulate the Board on not being involved in trying to stop the towers like some of the towns are because the firemen and the police agencies in the County very badly need a new communication system. And when the towns sue the County over the rights of trying to decide who is going to place the towers and where they are going to be placed, to me, it doesn’t make a lot of sense because the towers, it’s just like the cell tower …?… that we’ve got here in the Town of Groton. It says in there that they have to prove that this is the best location and then there’s the aesthetics and stuff like that that go along with it. But I don’t have any knowledge about what is the best location for a tower and I’m sure that most of the town board members in the County don’t either because in that communications for the Public Service, they’ve hired professional ….?….and they are dealing with the State communication systems and they’ve got equipment that they take around on trucks to decide where the best location for the towers is going to be. Up to this point there’s about five towns who have decided that they want to call it a home rule and sue the County so that they can have a say over where the towers are going to be. Up to this point I am very proud of the Town of Groton that they haven’t gotten involved in that. It would be spending our money against our money. And in the meantime, if you talk to the volunteer firemen right here in Groton or our police agencies, these are very badly needed and a lawsuit could do nothing but hold the whole thing up. One of the things that are happening that people don’t realize is that the low frequencies that we have now in the 4600 frequencies, are being bought up by other people. We are loosing our contracts on them and the County is planning on going with a Statewide frequency in the …?… megacycles. And they are working with the State to work in conjunction with the State. And they’ve got licenses for them, but they got them three years ago and if you don’t do something within a three-year period, then they pull those. So, we stand to loose those frequencies if we don’t show good intent on working forward on it. So, I hope you leave it the way it is and let the County, because one of the things that’s happened that a lot of people don’t realize also is a lot of the fire departments and police agencies have radios that are quite old. A lot of them are 15, 16 years old and they don’t dare to replace them because they don’t know what the new frequency is going to be. They’ve been told for the last three or four years that we are going to go to something and now it’s pretty well set what they are going to go to, but if all this legal …?… goes on, there’s going to be fire trucks and public safety agencies out there operating with fewer amount of radios than they’ve got right now that work because they don’t dare to spend. A lot of the radios cost $3000 - $4000 apiece and they don’t dare spend the money on something they don’t know what they are going to be using it for next week or next year. And a lot of the areas in the County right now are dead areas because the fact that the radio frequencies can’t get to certain areas. I know, if I remember correctly, when Groton had their flood here and they brought people in to take care of the nursing home and places like that, they couldn’t even talk to each other on the radios because they were on different frequencies. Under the new system they’ll have trunk frequencies where when they go to fire control and he will put them all in the same trunk. Even though you’re from different towns, and even different counties, you can talk together. But if we get into a lawsuit nothing happens until after the lawsuit is settled and sometimes that can go on for years. So, I just plead with you to take strong consideration in maintaining the stand that you’ve taken so far. Supervisor Morey – George, it was the Board’s thought that we would not enter into the lawsuit at all but they want to be updated with all communication that we ever got and I got a letter from Kathy Valentino and Mary Russell from the Town of Ithaca. So, I wanted to share that with them and make sure that they knew about it. But the Board is not in favor of entering into the lawsuit. Town Board Meeting Page 13 of 17 May 8, 2001 George Totman – I understand that. Supervisor Morey – Any other comments? Councilman Clark – George, this exact speech that you just give right now, is something like that been explained to each one of these towns, especially these ones that are….? George Totman – Yes, they have and in some towns the police agencies and local fire departments have pleaded with the town boards. I think one of the things that’s happening now is Mark Varvayanis from Dryden started this off and he got Don Barber to go along with him. Then they decided they were running into a lot, and I know in Caroline the volunteer firemen really got up in arms over it because they got a lot of dead spots over there. And when the volunteer firemen in Dryden got together and went to the Town Board. So they changed the issue and you might see that in your letter, I haven’t seen it, but there seems in the letter now to be a home rule issue rather than towers, but it’s the same thing. My feeling is that if they want to go to a home rule issue, get the towers in, because they are going to be where they have to be anyways regardless of how you do it. And if they feel that they are loosing home rule and everything, do that after they get the towers in so we’ve got our communication system up and running. I don’t know if you know it yet or not, but the new dispatch center, which has in the City of Ithaca, been a fire station for the last 25 years, has now become the main 911 center for the Sheriff’s Department and the City Police and it looks like the State Police might be involved. But they are all going into one center so all calls are going in the same place, the 911 calls. And they are transferring and training people so they rotate so that one day, if I’m a dispatcher, I might be doing EMS calls, the next day I might be doing police calls, and then so it’s making it more diversified. And that, obviously, is too much for that little spot they’ve got in the central fire station so now they’re going to move up to what they call Station 5 up on South Hill. It’s right next to Ithaca College and it’s been voted on and agreed. They’re going to renovate up there and put an addition on so the whole 911 communication system will be on South Hill. Councilman Scheffler – I was under the impression, originally, that this came about because the County had the attitude that they didn’t have to ask the Town’s where to put towers. Is that correct? Is that what set people off originally? George Totman – It wasn’t the intent of the County because I set on those committees. Councilman Scheffler – What actually started it? George Totman – Like I said earlier, it started from the Town of Dryden. Ummm…one of the towers, it might go in the Town of Dryden. It’s going near somebody’s home who is a very strong environmentalist. She got after Mark Varvayanis because she was his campaign manager. But it’s like I said with the cell towers, we all make ordinances how to handle these things. You can sometimes move them over maybe 50 feet here or 80 feet there, but there’s no sense in putting up a tower if what you are feeding to is not going to work. Every town in the County has a cell tower ordinance. In fact, the cell tower ordinance in the Town of Dryden excludes public safety towers. But because the County put the feeler out for saying to the cell people that we can co-locate, we thought that was a good idea because it would save the County money if you could get two or three people to co-locate on that it would potentially pay for the tower. I think that’s what is going to happen in the Town of Lansing. But every town has it’s own ordinance. Like in the Town of Dryden when they put them in they hired somebody, I think from the Rochester or something, to put theirs in so theirs is a little different than the Caroline’s or Town of Ulysses’. Town Board Meeting Page 14 of 17 May 8, 2001 The Town of Ulysses hired an attorney separate from the town attorney to help them draw theirs up. The Town of Groton’s and the Town of Lansing’s are exactly the same. So if you try to put public communications towers up and say that you are going to agree with everybody’s cell tower ordinance, it’s going to be a nightmare to try to figure it out because every town has a different ordinance. I don’t know if that answered your question or not. Supervisor Morey – Thank you, George. Moving back to number 9, the Tompkins County Youth Bureau is going to allow us $850 for the municipal jobs funds. This is for the summer help for the youth. It’s the same amount as last year. In your packet that I gave you they did not include the contract that I am supposed to sign because it is over to the Village and they have to sign it before. It’s basically exact thing as we signed a couple of months ago for the youth services. RESOLUTION #40 – ACCEPT TOMPKINS COUNTY MUNICIPAL JOBS FUNDS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept $850.00 from the Tompkins County Municipal Jobs Funds to be applied to wages for Summer Youth Workers for the Town of Groton. Supervisor Morey – Last months discussion was to talk about Court security and we discussed a Dutch door and the Board decided that a Dutch door didn’t really answer our whole problems and concerns. So, we discussed buying a teller window a lot like the Town of Lansing has in their court system. So, in April, after that I went and called several different places and I found a company, NBP, National Bullet Proof, Inc., and I found a teller window. When I talked to them I asked for a one by two, or whatever, or a two by four, to be able to put into a concrete wall, and he said well how about I suggest something that’s in stock and ready to go? So, he suggested, and he gave me a price for a 15” by 30” bullet resistant teller window, this is not bullet proof, it is bullet resistant. But this ballistic level is to resist a 44 Magnum threat. Is that the most powerful gun, Dewey? Justice Dawson – I think so, unless you’ve got a Howlitzer or something. Supervisor Morey – So, I would say that is pretty close to being bullet proof, but so on and so forth. So, I talked to the Board on the phone, to talk a little bit about it. I visited with Dewey and Peg and their only question was can we have a 6” shelf on the outside so that people can write checks and have their paperwork there. I didn’t think it was not a …?… So, I got a letter from George Senter, who is the Code Enforcement Officer for the Village of Groton, because the Town Hall is part of the Village of Groton. And this is his response and I was out of Town last week so I couldn’t get back to George to find out what he meant. But I’ll read this: Town Board Meeting Page 15 of 17 May 8, 2001 “Re: proposed teller window Dear Glenn: The schematic provided to me on the teller window appears to be an acceptable alternative to the dutch door concept previously approved. In order to allow this window to be installed, the following must be incorporated: 1) a protective shield, rated as the corridor is rated, (2 hours), can be installed and triggered to close by a smoke detecting device, to ensure the integrity of the exit corridor. I have discussed this alternative with the Department of State Codes division, and they are in concurrence. If you have any questions, or need any further information, please feel free to contact me at 898- 3966.” And this is copied to Property File, Chrono File, and Mark Gunn, Code Enforcement Officer. And I asked Mark what he meant by that. He had no clue. I have no clue. So, I have to go back to George and find out basically what it is. But, whatever it is, if it’s simple, within reason, I’d like to make a resolution to buy the bullet resistant teller window as I presented to the Board and George Senter and hire a contractor to get it in. The bullet resistant window is $600.00 plus shipping, I don’t know how much it weighs, plus we’ll have to have somebody install it. Councilman Scheffler – What about this automatic closing? Supervisor Morey – Well, I’ve got to figure out what that is. I have no idea. Mark didn’t have any idea. Councilman Scheffler – Lansing’s doesn’t have it. Supervisor Morey – It might be just a little block that goes in the hole. That’s usually what it is. And if you look at the schematic, it does not have a speaker window or a hole in it where you can speak through so there is no penetration there. The only penetration you’d have would be under the slide tray or the money tray, I guess they call it. So, I think it might be just a little block that you put in there when you lock up or something. Councilman Scheffler – It’s got be something that George is going to approve of. If he’s not going to approve it, like the Dutch door, there’s no sense doing it. Supervisor Morey – Well, I think we should just move forward. I mean, it’s not out of the question on cost, number one. Number two there is the safety issue that we have to deal with. And also, if it’s not unreasonable what George is trying to present to us…um..George Totman, how would you interpret that information? George Totman – I try not to, I’ve learned over the years, that what I might do or interpret the code might be different than somebody else. So, when I have someone call me up from other towns and ask me I say this is the way I would do where I am working. Town Board Meeting Page 16 of 17 May 8, 2001 Supervisor Morey – All right, let me put it in a better way. How does the Town of Lansing’s bullet resistant teller windows, how do they operate? George Totman – They have a regular door that opens and closes, okay? And then they have a window with a shelf that sticks out about like this, and it’s got about a three inch metal thing in there that you can speak through, and in the bottom, it’s a dipped up thing in the bottom of the glass where you can slide your tickets through or the money back and forth through. There’s no moveable parts or something like that. Supervisor Morey – Do you stick something in the hole at the end of the night? George Totman – No. Supervisor Morey – Okay. All right, I’m looking for permission to buy the window, contact George and find out what he wants to do and if it’s not unreasonable I’ll come back to the Board later on. But I would like to move forward. RESOLUTION #41 – APPROVE PURCHASE OF TELLER WINDOW FOR JUSTICE COURT OFFICE MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the purchase of the teller window for the Justice Court Office from National Bullet Proof, Inc., for the price of $600.00 plus shipping, with installation contingent upon a reasonable cost for the extra requirements to comply with the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code as stated by George Senter, Code Enforcement Officer for the Village of Groton. Supervisor Morey – Supposedly, a couple of months ago Patricia Gaines was appointed to the ZBA, but there is a technicality where you had to come down within 30 days to be sworn in and she forgot about it. So, I want to re-appoint, or appoint Patricia Gaines to the ZBA so she can get down, get sworn in, and do it properly. RESOLUTION #42 – APPOINT PATRICIA GAINES TO ZBA MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby appoint Patricia Gaines to the Town of Groton Zoning Board of Appeals to replace Mary Decker for a term that will expire December 31, 2005. Town Board Meeting Page 17 of 17 May 8, 2001 Announcements: Copy of schedule for McLean-Cortland Road and Bridge in McLean. Contract letting in July 2001. Complete construction in Spring 2002. George Totman – There’s been a hold up on that. It was going to be before that. Everything was all set to go and the State came in and said you’ve got to do the test boring and make sure there’s no, you know, Indian spirits along the road……(someone says archeological)…. Archeological, that’s it! And all of a sudden they just came up with that in April. Supervisor Morey – Well, they’ve always been doing that. They did it in the Village when we did Blanchard Heights. George Totman – I mean, that road has been there for a hundred years and they’re not going to make it really wide or anything. They’re just going to pave the shoulders. But I was talking to John Lampman the other day and he thinks they are going to come out all right on it, but it’s just another hold up and another cost, just because somebody said there might be something up through there. It’s crazy. Supervisor Morey – The local committee is in Ithaca, by the way. Okay, thank you. So, at least it is going forward and McLean will be done by Spring of 2002. Announcements, Continued: Town Supervisors’ letter concerning communication towers. 2001 Small Cities Program Grant, copies to look at. th Next meeting for the Recreation Coordinator will be May 14 at 7:30. Inviting Mrs. Jacobs, from Senior Citizens, Joe Graham, from McLean, Joe Pericozi, from the Little League, Kathy Bishop, from the Soccer League, etc., to talk about what they would like in a coordinator. They are writing job description. th Grievance Day May 14 from 3-6 PM. rd Groton Businessmen’s Association meeting May 23 at 6PM. Supervisor Morey speaking at meeting about what the Town has been doing over the last couple of years. th NYS Department of State training, May 30 at 6:30 PM, Clarion Hotel in Ithaca. Thank you note from Norma Neville. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Clark, at 8:35 PM. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk