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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-14-2003 TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2003, 7:30 PM AT THE TOWN HALL Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman (arrived at 7:38 PM) Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Victoria Monty, Town Attorney Also present: April Scheffler, Richard Case, George Senter, Liz Brennan, Rick Beals, Kim Reilly, Rebekah Reilly MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the minutes of th the September 8 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes th of the September 30 Special Town Board Meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Morey Abstain - Randall General Fund Claim Numbers 262-290 of the in the amount of $15,687.12 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Randall, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. Highway Fund Claim Numbers 166-186 of the in the amount of $86,963.49 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. Special Grant (HUD) Fund Claim Numbers 302-305 of the in the amount of $11,183.44 were presented for audit. Town Board Minutes Page 2 October 14, 2003 MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Randall, to approve the HUD bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. Privilege of the Floor: Supervisor Morey – Kim, I have you number 7 but if you want to come up and say something now…you’re welcome to stay too. Kim Reilly, Groton Pizza Fest – I apologize that Kim VanBenschoten couldn’t be here tonight. She injured her back. I just wanted to thank the Town Board for the use of the barns. A special thank you to Glenn Morey and April Scheffler for judging the pizza contest. We believe it was pretty successful except that we would have liked more people to show up. Listed there is what we took in and what we gave out. We ended up giving the seniors $100 and they’re going to buy a TV with a DVD and a VCR. They like to watch the old movies. Basically everything is there. th I’ll skip down to what we want to do next year. September 18 is the date we’d like to do it next year and we were wondering if you thought that was a go for next year or how you felt about that. And we’d like any ideas… th Supervisor Morey – September 15? th Ms. Reilly – September 18. Supervisor Morey – Rick? Richard Case – It’s all right with me. Supervisor Morey – Board? Several Board members said it was all right with them. Ms. Reilly – If it’s okay with you I’d like to go over possible improvements on page two. We’d like to get a lot more press coverage and a lot more, just advertising, way in advance and get more into it. We were thankful that Coke gave us three banners, I don’t know if you saw the Coke banners around, which we couldn’t have bought for like $300 or something. We’d like to have the judges introduced. We felt that they weren’t, you know, introduced, and you’d know who they are and what their positions were. We’d like that. The consolation prizes, we gave the kids, the ones that won, they got $20.00 but the ones that didn’t win this year, we gave them $10.00 just for entering because, you know, there wasn’t a lot of kids there and we thought they made an effort. But we’d like to get something that’s pizza related and we’d like ideas, you know, on consolation prizes for the kids. We’d like to call up the Health Department because we weren’t able to sell any food there and next year we’d like to sell pizza, pizza popcorn. We also have a Pillsbury Dough Boy costume that someone has. We’d also like to use that. We’re probably changing who it benefits next time so that it would benefit the Town and the Village. It would be something that would benefit both. We want to work more with the Recreation Committees to have more involvement with the kids somehow and get the different groups to compete maybe. We do need more help heating up the pizza. If we get a lot more entries, we’re going to need a lot more help. We’d like to see more group challenges. We’d like to sell Coke Town Board Minutes Page 3 October 14, 2003 and Sprite there. Since they gave us the banners we’d like to be supportive of them also. I’ve listed the categories there for the contests, 6 and under, 7-10, 11-16, 16 and over. We’d like also a senior category so the seniors can be involved. The feedback we got from the seniors, they really enjoyed the show, you know the demonstration, and they liked it that he did call people up. I don’t know how many people got to see that. At the end we gave out a pizza to all our vendors, we had like a pizza party for all the vendors. We thought next time have it at the beginning because they were hungry. Chris Allenger said he’d like to do a live broadcast. Supervisor Morey – Oh, that’d be great. Ms. Reilly – So, that’s something we’d look into. We did one interview with a radio station where it was broadcast three times but we’d probably want to do a lot more with them too for more publicity. Any ideas? Supervisor Morey – I think you got a great road ahead, I mean the plans that you have are fantastic. I can’t see that you can improve on anything, you know, what you have here. Even though it was a small, it was the first year, I think it was very successful. All the people I talked to were happy and laughing and having an awful lot of fun. You’ve done an awful lot of work and I think you should be commended. You and Kim should be very commended on everything because it was basically just you two that did most of this stuff. I think you had some great people working for you, like Gary Smith, the new Superintendent, and everybody behind, I know your husband was there too and your son. So, everybody had an awful lot of fun and it was a th perfect day and the music was great too. So, anything else from the Board? No? September 18 you’re more than happy to come back, you know. Ms Reilly – Thank you very much. Several people say thank you. Supervisor Morey – I nothing else from the privilege of the floor, we move on to Liz Brennan. Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Deputy Highway Superintendent – I don’t have anything to report other than my report……..(not using microphone)…..auditor. Supervisor Morey – Yeah, Rick, does anybody mind if Rick comes up and talks to us? Rick come on up. Rick Beals, Kirby, Beals, Maier, Public Accounts – I passed out two things, number one a copy of the financial statements, a 19-page report and also a copy of the audit report for the Town Justices. What I’ll do is I’ll give a summary of the financial statements and see if you have any questions and then I’ll go over the Town Justice report. Page 1 of the auditor’s report is your independent auditor’s opinion. That states that it’s the opinion and states that your financial statements are presented in conformity with the accounting principals generally accepted in the United States of America. So, that’s a good clean opinion. The next page, page 2, is your balance sheet. It’s a listing of all your assets, liabilities and equity in all the different funds, the general fund, special revenue fund, trust and agency fund, general fixed asset, long term debt and total. Last two columns are, the first one’s a total column for 2002 and the next one is for 2001. For example, in the general fund you have total assets of almost $557,000. You have total liabilities of $13,600 and you have total fund balances reserved of $38,720 and Town Board Minutes Page 4 October 14, 2003 unreserved at $504,448 making total fund balances of $543,000 and total equity, liabilities and fund balances of $556,000, which was your total assets. So, if you go to the last two columns, the Town’s total assets in all your funds were $4,183,000 compared to $4,025,000 last year. That’s up about $155,000 from last year. The main reason why it’s up is because your unrestricted cash is up considerably this year from last year. In liabilities, your total liabilities are down. Total liabilities in 2001 were $301,000 compared to $275,000 this year. So, they’re down about $25,000, which is a good thing. And your total equity, if you look at total fund balances, your total fund balances this year are $3,908,000 compared to $3,724,000. That’s up by about $180,000. So that’s a positive, strong balance sheet. Let’s go to page 3 and see what happened during the year. Page 3 is a list of your combined statement of revenues and expenditures and changes in fund balance for all governmental fund types. That includes your general and special revenue funds. There was no activity in the capital projects fund during the year. The last two columns, again, it’s the total column for 2002 compared to 2001. Total revenues in other sources for 2002 were $1,604,000 compared to $1,630,000. So that total revenues in the general and special reserve funds were down by about $25,000. But on the other hand, total expenditures and other uses were down $1,450,000 compared to $1,586,000. Plus the other uses, total expenditures were down by about $155,000. Therefore, since your total expenditures were down a lot more than your total revenues were, you had a positive increase in your fund balance of about, or a positive increase in your revenues over expenditures of about $130,000. So, it was a good year. Your income statements look good too. Next page, on page 4, is your general funds and special revenue funds budget compared to actual. The thing I’m going to point out here, first of all, most of your variances are positive variances. That means that your actual revenues were actually more than what you budgeted. Same with your expenditures. You’re expenditures is a positive variance, which means that your actual expenditures were less than what you budgeted. You had budgeted, during the year, you had an appropriated fund balance for 2002 in the general fund of $41,000. Well, you had revenues in excess of expenditures of $86,0000. So, you did much better than what you budgeted. So, it was a good year. Your general fund was strong. Same with your special revenue fund. In your special revenue fund, again, you have positive variances in both your revenues and expenditures. You had appropriated fund balance in your special revenue fund of $116,000, so you didn’t have to use any of your fund balance because during the year, your actual revues exceeded your expenditures by $66,000. So, that was a good, strong, positive outcome in your special revenue funds also. So, financial statement wise for 2002 you had a great year. The next section of your financial statement, pages 5 through 14, I believe, are your notes to your financial statement. They’re the standard notes that we have in there every year and are required by generally accepted accounting principals. I’ll go through a couple of them quickly. The first note is just some general information about the reporting entity and the Town of Groton. On page 6 we describe the governmental fund types, the general fund and special revenue funds and capital projects funds and what they’re used for and that’s continued on page 7. Also on page 7 we talked about the accounting/measurement focus and the fact that you’re required to use the modified accrual basis. And then we talked about your property taxes on page 8 and what that process is. And on page 9 your budget policies are discussed along with encumbrances and budget basis of accounting. Then if you go to page 11, well, page 11 we talk about vacation, sick leave, and compensated absences and how they’re determined. If you go to page, starting with page 11, you get some detailed notes about cash and investments and on page 12 we show you where the cash is, what funds they’re in, general, special revenue and trust & agency. On page 12 the summary of changes in fixed assets shows your beginning balance of fixed assets, your additions, deletions and your ending balance in fixed assets and this is land, buildings and machinery & equipment. You still have that other receivables on your balance sheet which is rehab loan, that special grant fund of $87,000, that I know you’re still trying to collect. On page Town Board Minutes Page 5 October 14, 2003 13 it talks about the New York State local employees’ retirement system and how that works. On page 14, your long term debt, you’ve had some compensated absences at the end of 2002 , which represents the value earned in unused portion of accumulated sick leave of $37,000 and you also have a statutory bond that you’re paying off. You’re paying off an installment bond and the balance at year-end I believe is $136,194. And fund equity reserves is just a little detailed description of what’s in fund equity reserves. The last section of the report gives you more information about the general fund and the special revenue fund. For example, on page 16, is your combining balance sheet for the general fund, which consists of the town wide and the part town. So you see your balance sheet for town wide, part town and total. That whole town will tie back to page 2 on your balance sheet that we went over. So, that gives you more information about where the assets and liabilities are in the town wide versus part town. And on page 17, again, we have a combining statement of revenues and expenditures for town wide and part town. It’s a listing of all your revenues and expenditures for town wide, part town and total and again, that total actual column will tie back to page 3 of your income statement that we went over earlier. The last two pages are your combining balance sheets and your combining revenue and expenditures for the special revenues funds and included in the special revenue funds are the highway town wide, highway part town, lighting districts and special grant funds. So, this gives more detailed information that ties back to the other statements on 2 and 3. So, that tells where all your assets and liabilities and revenues and expenditures in those funds were generated from. There’s a lot of information in this report. Are there any questions that I could answer? I do want to say that the books and records are in great shape. Liz does a great job. We wouldn’t have any adjustments to journal entries. We didn’t even have any managerial comments this year. Believe me, I try to find them but she did a great job so I have nothing to report as far as any recommendations. My only recommendations are to continue as you are doing because your records are in great shape. But if there are any questions on these balance sheets I’d be happy to address them. Supervisor Morey – Board? Councilman Sovocool – I have no questions. Mr. Beals – Like I said there’s a lot of information in this report. The last one page report, we also audited books and records of the Town of Groton’s Justice Court. And the purpose for doing this audit was to make sure, was to determine and it states in paragraph 2, was to determine whether the Justice Court was properly collecting and recording bails, fines, and other charges as well as reporting and remitting funds to the State in an accurate and timely manner. And according to the results of our test they are doing things exactly what they should be. There’s no, Peg Palmer keeps great records. Any questions we had were resolved on the spot and, again, we don’t have any recommendations for her to make improvements or do anything different than what she’s doing. So, for the Town Justices and for the general funds and all the other funds the books and records are in great shape. And I just want to thank you for allowing us to do the audit this year and like I said, the only recommendation is keep doing what you’re doing. And 2002 was a good year as far as your balance sheet and…..?..very strong. Supervisor Morey – Thank you, any questions? Great. Thanks a lot, Rick. Okay, George. George R. Senter, Sr., Code Enforcement Officer – Well let’s see, for the month of September we had 7 building permits issued; 2 were for houses; 5 were for other miscellaneous things, front porches, silos, additions. The silo was actually a shed. A guy took a little silo down and cut it Town Board Minutes Page 6 October 14, 2003 down and made a shed out of it and he didn’t go higher than 20 feet. The Life Safety Inspections, I still have one outstanding but I am working on that to get it done. She just has to find the time for me to do it. We had 2 C of O’s or letters of completion issued in September. You have another thing on your agenda, number 8, about resolution to refund Bill Leaver’s application fee of $30.00. We heard Bill talk at the last Board meeting. If you have any questions for me upon that, I’d be happy to try to answer them. Supervisor Morey – No, we forgot to do it last month and I was informed that we had to do a resolution. George Senter – All right. Any questions? Several people say no. Supervisor Morey – Thanks, George. Rick? Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent – At the present time the Highway Department is making headway on finishing summer maintenance projects. Elm Street, from the Village line to Salt Road, has been sealed. Durfee Road and a section of Sovocool Hill Road have also been sealed. As soon as we can borrow the Town of Cortlandville’s shoulder machine, we will apply the shoulders on the paving projects. Reclamation continues on the gravel bank on Spring Street. Brian Klumpp, from Reagan Land Surveying, will be doing the layout work that the DEC has required within the next 3 weeks. I have requested a meeting for tomorrow at 10 AM with Richard Coralia to see how much more grading has to be done before we can start seeding. We have started to bring in de-icing sand and the shop has started preparation of sanders and snowplow equipment. At this time I would like to request a Board resolution to hire Jeffrey Brockway as a Highway Department Laborer at the rat of $9.00 an hour. Councilman Sovocool – Is this to replace somebody, Rick? Richard Case – That’s to replace Jerry’s fulltime position. Councilman Sovocool – Jerry? Richard Case – Holl, Judd Holl. Supervisor Morey – What’s his name? Richard Case – Jeff Brockway, Jeffrey. He’s from the community here. I think he’s the head coach of the wrestling team…….Old Stage Road. I’d like to get him started before it starts snowing. Councilman Sovocool – Is Jerry off the payroll now? He’s all done? Richard Case – No, he’s still doing a couple, three hours a day and he’s stayed with us through the summer, probably more than he wanted to. I didn’t have anybody that I really felt would work in to this operation. I’m a little selective. Jeff has surfaced…….. Councilman Scheffler – Jerry’s going to be working not at all then, or? Town Board Minutes Page 7 October 14, 2003 Richard Case – Just as needed. We budget for in case we need somebody through the year but he’s been coming in and doing his clerical work in the morning and answering the phone a couple, three hours or if we needed him paving or run the roller or run for parts…….part time Supervisor Morey – Tyke? Councilman Randall – I have no questions. Supervisor Morey – Sheldon. Councilman Clark – I have no questions. Supervisor Morey – Any other questions. Councilman Scheffler – So, we’re adding an employee..err…I guess that’s my question, we adding an employee or are we just…? Supervisor Morey – Adding a full time employee. Councilman Sovocool – Is that going to bring you to more than we normally had? Richard Case – We’ve always had, well since I’ve here, we’ve had 9 full time employees. Councilman Sovocool – And this will make 9 full time? Richard Case – Right. RESOLUTION #63 – HIRE JEFFREY BROCKWAY AS LABORER MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Randall Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby authorize the Highway Superintendent, Richard Case, to hire Jeffrey Brockway as a full time laborer at the rate of $9.00 per hour. Councilman Sovocool – Rick, I’d like to go on record as saying, I think I watched your paving crews get started a little late this year and I think the guys all pulled together and Clark Street, really, doing the culverts and doing the ditches, it really made a nice looking job. All the paving jobs look really good. I think we can be proud of the guys and you. Richard Case – Well, what doesn’t show is we also rebuilt a little over 2 miles of gravel road. I don’t know if you’ve been out on, I call it West Brown. That it is a vast improvement of what was there, a big job. That’s why the paving was late. We hit a telephone wire also. No, I think things have gone real well this year. We’ve covered a lot of ground. Town Board Minutes Page 8 October 14, 2003 Supervisor Morey – The Verizon, do we have to pay them, or what’s…? Richard Case – I wouldn’t pay them anything. Attorney Monty – You said that they were in…. Richard Case – They were in our right-of-way and if they want to push and shove, I have to approve everything that they do within our right-of-way, so. Their wire was tucked, I was telling Vicki, it was right underneath the pipe, that far underneath our pipe on Clark Street. When Pete made the last pass to clean underneath this pipe that we put an extension on, we put bands around for the extension, he caught it the last pass. So, that was about 12 feet from the center of the road. We have to allow them in the right-of-way but I don’t think they would like to jeopardize their working relationship with me. Councilman Scheffler – You saying they’ll get over it after awhile? Supervisor Morey – Well, we have to address a letter back to them. Can you Vicki and just say thanks but no thanks? Councilman Randall – Rick, I’d just like to say that, you know, thanks that you and Joe and whoever else has been up to the gravel bank. It looks awesome, actually. Where are you with the seeding? You were talking to somebody about that. Richard Case – I talked to the Soil and Water people, Craig Scutt, and he’s been up and sampled. At this point he doesn’t see any problem with vegetating that up there. I’ll have a better idea tomorrow after I talk with Rich. That one berm that we have from the driveway up through……..?….I’d like to leave that as a safety factor but if they want that pushed in, we’ll push it in. That and right straight across on the south east corner where we’ve got the over-sized stone stockpiled. If we’ve got to move that, again, we’ll move it, shape it to the way they want it. But we’ve covered a lot of ground in three weeks. Supervisor Morey – Rich and Anne are going to be there tomorrow at 10 AM? Richard Case – I don’t know about Anne. Supervisor Morey – I don’t know if I can make it. Councilman Randall – What time? Supervisor Morey – 10 o’clock in the morning. If anybody else can make it, I’d appreciate it. It seems like if somebody’s there to help you and listen to exactly what they’re saying, there’s more people repeating word for word what they’ve said, it’s gone a lot better. But you’ve done a great job up there. It looks fantastic. Richard Case – It looks real good at this moment. Probably we get the rain tonight it will look like Dryden Lake, I don’t know. There’s no guarantee. I told you before. We took that soil that was on the southwest corner and it was all dirt like I’d predicted, that they had panned that all out and put it up there. We pushed it across. Joe pushed that stuff a long ways. You’ll be getting some bills next month on that. We have exceeded what we had this year for reclamation. I don’t think by a whole lot but there will be some charge there. Going back to the Soil & Water, I Town Board Minutes Page 9 October 14, 2003 talked with Craig and there are funds available. It sounded like maybe matching funds for the seeding. And that’s the other reason we’ve been hustling. I’d like to see that get seeded so….I think you heard they will come back. They’ll come back and inspect it until they think the seeding is up to their standards, I guess. So, it’s not going to go away right overnight but I’m hoping that the majority, geez, I’d like to think that the majority of the earth moving is done. Supervisor Morey – Okay. Great. Thank you. April? April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – You’ve got my monthly report. On behalf of th the GBA I’d like to point out that there’s a meeting November 6 with the Rotary and the speaker is going to be James Seward and they would like to make sure you all were aware of the invitation. They felt it was a good thing for everybody to come to and they would like to make sure that all the elected officials were aware of it. I think I gave you all a copy of that. Fingerlakes Aquaculture has paid off their back taxes, just before the County foreclosed on them. So, that’s all settled up. I’ve been asked by George and the Justice Court to increase the payment for mileage to 36 cents to match the State rate. George has been getting 32 and looking back on the records, we’ve been paying Joan Fitch 34 cents. They asked that you approve the 36 cents. I have a letter of resignation from Lisa Rongo: “October 6, 2003. I, Lisa Rongo, resign as Deputy Clerk of the Town of Groton. I am giving two weeks notice as of today October 6, 2003. My last day of employment will be October 17, 2003. I came to this decision for reasons involving stress caused by the political games played and aimed at the Clerk’s Office. Thank you for the opportunity to see and learn a little bit about local government. Lisa Rongo” She’ll be through this Friday and I am appointing Tena McClary to replace her. She will be starting next Monday and I would like to pay her $9.00 an hour. Supervisor Morey – Okay, is that it? Clerk Scheffler – That’s it. Supervisor Morey – Okay, what’s everybody think about raising it to 36 cents? It’s the federal rate. That’s the highest, I mean we can do it any rate we can but 36 cents is the federal rate. Councilman Sovocool – What are we paying now? 32? 34? Clerk Scheffler – You’re paying George 32 and your paying Joan 34. That’s not quite fair either. But with the price of gas……. Councilman Sovocool – Gas is coming down now. Clerk Scheffler – Yeah, right. Town Board Minutes Page 10 October 14, 2003 RESOLUTION #64 – INCREASE MILEAGE ALLOWANCE TO 36 CENTS PER MILE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby increase the Town of Groton mileage allowance to 36 cents per mile effective October 1, 2003. RESOLUTION #65 – ACCEPT TENA MCCLARY AS DEPUTY TOWN CLERK MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes – Sovocool, Scheffler, Morey Nays – Randall, Clark RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the Town Clerk’s appointment of Tena McClary of 309 West South Street, Groton, New York as Deputy Town Clerk. And be it FURTHER RESOLVED , the Town Board sets the wage at $9.00 per hour. Supervisor Morey – All right, welcome Tena to the Town of Groton. If not, we’ll move on to Victoria Monty. Councilman Randall – I’ve got one more question. Supervisor Morey – Go ahead Tyke. Councilman Randall – I guess seeings how you provided this letter from the Committee on Open Government I really would like to see the letter you wrote because it says it’s based solely on the information presented and I think that we should be privy to that as well. It’s a public thing. I honestly am surprised because I thought that Mr. Bernhardt was the one that did this, this information, and it was you. Clerk Scheffler – I was asked to, by several people, to get an opinion on this. Councilman Randall – I would, I personally think that the Board should have a copy of the letter. That’s my personal opinion. Councilman Scheffler – It says disputed between yourself as the Clerk of the Town of Groton and the Town Board and I didn’t see it in the minutes that you had a dispute with us and it surprised me. I thought it was Bernhardt. Clerk Scheffler – I think it was in the Shopper, the dispute, but I don’t think this is the place to discuss that, do you? Town Board Minutes Page 11 October 14, 2003 Supervisor Morey – Let’s move on. Vicki? Victoria Monty, Town Attorney – I received a phone call from the president of Diversified, I think he called Thursday or Friday of last week and he indicated that he was getting the numbers together. He said the electronics industry has been turbulent and he doesn’t think that is going to change soon. So, he led me to believe that he’d….hoping that it would be on the upswing and he would make some payments. And when I said give me an offer, what are you proposing, he said that he wanted to meet with the Town and consider restructuring the loan. I know that you’ve done that in the past and I don’t know if that’s something that you would be willing to do again. It’s my understanding that he restructured, I want to say in ’98? I’m not sure about that. Councilman Sovocool – I think it was. He never paid after that……. Councilman Scheffler – Probably ’98. He hasn’t paid anything since. Councilman Sovocool - …until we got on to him. Attorney Monty – Yeah……(several people talking)…a partial payment in May of 2001 but it wasn’t, he hasn’t done………….(can’t hear her)…. Councilman Sovocool – I see he owes $87,000 yet according to this report. Supervisor Morey – Okay, let me get ahold of Mr. Sims this week and set up a meeting so you can be there, Vicki, and the Board can be there. Sit down and talk to them. Councilman Sovocool – I think, I mean, all he’s going to do is feed you full like he’s done every other time and he’s never paid. Supervisor Morey – Um-hum Councilman Sovocool – I mean, if you’re going to do it this time I think you ought to be specific. Supervisor Morey – I think we’re be specific last time, Louie, or you were, or the Board.. Councilman Sovocool – Yeah, but we never got any…. Supervisor Morey – Correct. Councilman Sovocool - …..any response. Supervisor Morey – I think we should just sit down and talk to them anyway and see what they have to say. Clerk Scheffler – Where does the payment go? Right to the bank? Supervisor Morey – Yeah. Clerk Scheffler – So, you don’t really know… Town Board Minutes Page 12 October 14, 2003 Supervisor Morey – Yeah, we do, only if they call me. Councilman Sovocool – Would it do any good to have one of the bank people over here when we talk to them. Supervisor Morey – No, we’re going to have our lawyer there. Councilman Sovocool – Gonna have our lawyer, okay. Supervisor Morey – I feel the same way, Louie, as you do, I mean, but we should at least give the gentleman the opportunity to talk to us. Councilman Sovocool – How many years he been talking to us? Supervisor Morey – Um-hum. Well, the last time, I remember he said he’d be here at 10 o’clock and we were here until 11:30 and he got here at quarter of 12 thinking the meeting was at 12 or something like that, so. All right. Anything else? Attorney Monty – I know that Fran has been working on the DEC and the human rights issues and those are………(can’t hear). Supervisor Morey – Correct. We have been relieved of our obligation for the human rights. They realize it was the Village of Groton not the Town of Groton. The DEC we’re constantly contacting them about the gravel pit, so, and we’ve made some improvements on that, so. Attorney Monty – One of the other issues from last month was the campground definition, which I’ve done a little bit of research on that and I want to contact the Planning Board. I understand they have been working on that as well. Supervisor Morey – Thank you. Any questions for Vicki? If not, Town Court is not here. Don, anything in the recreation coordinator? Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator – The Joint Recreation Committee met on October 7, 2003 for a monthly meeting and all members were present and accounted for. We finally got a full meeting. I attended a meeting with the GBA and the Rotary on September th 15 and listened to some ideas for a kiosk and a sign on Main Street. I relayed the information to the Recreation Committee. There was a general consensus that the kiosk is a great idea and a great place to put flyers but it’s not really what we’re looking for in a sign. Some insurance questions have come up and they will be discussed with the Town and Village insurance agent at a later date. I’d like to ask either Glenn or the Board or both or I don’t know who to ask, to seek out and appoint a few people to the United Way Community Council to help oversee grants. There’s a lot of grant money out there but the grants come in to us and you’ve got like a week or two to do something about it and Crystal Young has been trying to sort through them but she doesn’t know who to pass them out to, you know, who could use it, who could utilize it. Somebody has to write it and get it in in a week or two a lot of times. So, if somebody can think of somebody to help her out with that…. Supervisor Morey – We tried that one time…. Town Board Minutes Page 13 October 14, 2003 Councilman Scheffler - …She has some people in mind but….. Supervisor Morey – You cannot be an elected official, you cannot be on any board that benefits from the grants, and yeah, I’ll keep on looking. Councilman Scheffler – If anybody has any ideas, keep. A student from the high school has a plan to fund, build, staff and operate a youth community center in Groton. He’s got it all figured out on paper and hopefully this student will be at our next meeting with a presentation. Supervisor Morey – When is the presentation? Councilman Scheffler – It would be election night. They’d have a quick meeting, their regular monthly meeting, 5:30, Village Hall. All we know, this kid has this great wonderful plan and he’s figured it all out and I think we ought to listen to him. Supervisor Morey – Yeah, I know, I’ve been looking for many, many years. Councilman Scheffler – And he’s billed by the school principal as Groton’s next mayor. I don’t even know who it is. Supervisor Morey – I better come and meet him anyways. That’s great. Thanks, Don. We’re going to skip down to number 8, resolution to refund Bill Leaver’s application fee for $30.00 for his special permit. We missed it last year, last month because April closed the books and so we have to make a special resolution for this month. RESOLUTION #66 – REFUND APPLICATION FEE TO BILL LEAVER MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby agree to refund the $30.00 application fee for a Special Permit to Bill Leaver. Clerk Scheffler – Is that something that you want to add to the abstract somehow, or are you just going to do that through your account? Supervisor Morey – Yeah, you could, because your account, the Clerk’s account, do we do it through that or do we….? Clerk Scheffler – No, because I gave that money to you three months ago. Supervisor Morey – Then we’ll do it on the abstract. Clerk Scheffler – Well, I’m not sure if that is right either. I could give Liz a call tomorrow. Town Board Minutes Page 14 October 14, 2003 Supervisor Morey – Yeah, I’ll call her too. Okay. Discussion of the Tentative Fiscal Year 2003 Budget. Is there any discussion? If not, I move… Councilman Scheffler – Remember Don Palmer spoke last month and said the numbers didn’t come out right? Did we get that straightened out with the…? Is that just a clerical in the budget, or..? Supervisor Morey – No, what it is she’s going to be paid hourly and she got a 3 and ¼ percent raise. So, whatever she works, the budget’s just the estimate, so I think that we’re right. Councilman Scheffler – I don’t have my numbers here but I ran that by her hourly rate times the number of hours she estimated and I think it came out 16,600. It’d be the A1110.12. $11.80 an hour, 1404 hours. Supervisor Morey – But I don’t think she works a full 52 weeks of the year. Councilman Scheffler – That would make the difference. Supervisor Morey – Huh? Councilman Scheffler – That would make the difference. Supervisor Morey – Yeah and since she’s an hourly wage earner, she doesn’t get paid when she’s not working and so and what it is if there is anything else above it you take it out of contingency fund. Councilman Scheffler – Yeah, I know there’d be enough there somewhere to pay it but I figured it on 52 weeks. Okay, the only question I had. Councilman Sovocool – Is the rate still 7.524. Supervisor Morey – The rate. Councilman Sovocool – The rate. Tax rate. Supervisor Morey – No, 7.511. Councilman Sovocool – Well I thought….it’s down? Supervisor Morey – No, you should have gotten this. Councilman Sovocool – What have you got? Councilman Scheffler – I’ve got 7.524. Councilman Sovocool – That’s what I’ve got. I’ll go with the 7.511 Supervisor Morey – No, you’re right, you are correct. 7.524 but you’re up to the thousandths. 7.524 is correct. Anything else? Tyke? Sheldon? If not we’ll move on and set the Public Hearing for the Fiscal Year…… Town Board Minutes Page 15 October 14, 2003 Clerk Scheffler – Are you going to accept it? Supervisor Morey – Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry. Can I have a mo…..I make a motion to accept the Fiscal Year 2003 Budget. RESOLUTION #67 – ACCEPT TENTATIVE BUDGET AS PRELIMINARY BUDGET MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Randall Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the Tentative Budget as the Preliminary Budget for the Fiscal Year 2004. Supervisor Morey – Let’s set a Public Hearing for Fiscal Year 2003 Budget. I suggest th November 11 at 8:00. Clerk Scheffler – It has to be by the Thursday following election. Supervisor Morey – Isn’t that? Clerk Scheffler – It has to be before that. Supervisor Morey – Seriously, really? I thought that was the…….. Clerk Scheffler – Thursday following election. (Reads from budget schedule) “Public Hearing by the Thursday following election. It may be adjourned but not beyond 11/15.” That would be th the 6 but if you want to go see Senator Seward you can’t do it then. Supervisor Morey – And Wednesday is Court? Clerk Scheffler – Court is Monday and Wednesday. Supervisor Morey – Oh, golly. th Clerk Scheffler – Today’s the 14. It has to be advertised at least 5 days ahead so you could do it the last week in October if you want to. Supervisor Morey – Okay. Anybody want the last week of October? Several people say it doesn’t matter to them. th Supervisor Morey – Okay can we do it the Tuesday the 28 at 7:30? At 7 o’clock or 7:30? Councilman Sovocool – Doesn’t matter to me. Town Board Minutes Page 16 October 14, 2003 Supervisor Morey – April? Clerk Scheffler – Doesn’t matter to me. RESOLUTION #68 – SET PUBLIC HEARING DATE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby set the Public Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2004 Preliminary Budget for Tuesday, October 28, 2003 at 7:00PM followed by the hearing on the 2004 Fire Protection and Ambulance Service contracts. Announcements: Groton Business Association – October 15, Noon, Groton Hotel Municipal Officials Meeting – October 21, 7:00PM, Lehigh Valley House Town of Locke Community Enhancement Meeting – October 16, 7:30 PM, Locke Town Hall Next Board Meeting – Tuesday November 11, 7:30 PM Planning Board Meeting for October has been cancelled. There being no further business Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:24 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk