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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-10-11TOWN OF GROTON — MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2016 AT 7:30 PM PUBLIC HEARING ON 2017 FISCAL YEAR BUDGET AT 8:00 PM PUBLIC HEARING ON 2017 FISCAL YEAR FIRE & AMBULANCE BUDGETS THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilperson Kelly Smith, Councilperson Randy N. Jackson, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town Also present: Cassandra Negley, Ed Neuhauser, Jacalyn Spoon, Rick Fritz, Lester Coit, Lance Coit, Lee Shurtleff, Chuck Rankin, April Scheffler. Supervisor Scheffler had invited Jay Franklin from Tompkins County Assessment to come and speak to the Board about Section 487 of Real Property Tax Law which provides a 15 -year exemption for solar, wind and farm waste energy systems. It is a little bit different because it is an exemption that you are in unless you choose to opt out of. Most exemptions you are in because the State tells you that you have to be in or you can choose to allow that exemption. As it currently stands, the Town of Enfield and the Town of Lansing has opted out of the exemption. The school districts of Ithaca, Lansing and Dryden have opted out. Tompkins County opted out in 2013 and then opted back into the exemption in 2015. The reason they opted out was that they wanted to require the Black Oak Wind Farm to have a pilot agreement, then opted back in afterwards. The only option is to opt out and then you can opt back in if wanted. There has been some discussion about wanting to exempt solar panels on a house but to be able to tax solar farms at full value. However, there is no option to allow that; you are either in or out. Right now we are not seeing value added to houses with solar panels. A few years down the line, that might change. If you have a 2 megawatt solar farm, that's a whole different value as a money making venture. The last section of 487 says that a taxing jurisdiction can require a pilot for these solar installations. When a company comes in to establish a solar farm, they are supposed to notify the taxing jurisdiction of their intent to construct a farm. The taxing jurisdiction then has 60 days to respond to them of their intent to require a pilot. Mr. Franklin has offered to be the point person to coordinate between the towns, county and schools with these pilot negotiations. The pilot can't be more than what the property would be taxed at if it had no exemption. Pastor John Iller, from the Peruville Church was there to address the Board about the Peruville Cemetery. There are several people from the Church who would like to assist in mowing and caring for the cemetery. There were several things that he addressed: 1) a clarification of the right-of-way into the cemetery; 2) he would like to know the boundary lines in relation to the fence so they could possibly mow outside the fence to keep weeds under control; 3) he wanted to know if they could install a flagpole; and 4) he wanted to know about setting up stones that had fallen over. Perhaps they could coordinate with the Town to help set up stones. They would also be willing to sign release forms for liability and provide their own insurance through the Church. They will provide their own equipment and also wondered about maybe putting up a small shed for storage. Supervisor Scheffler said that the Town would be happy to have the help and that Pastor Iller should contact the Highway Superintendent, Rick Case. Town Board Minutes Page 2 October 11, 2016 RESOLUTION #16-067 - SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING ON COMMUNITY BLOCK GRANT MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Smith WHEREAS, The Town of Groton was awarded fiscal year 2014 funds under the Small Cities Community Development Block Grant/Community Revitalization Fund (CDBG/CRF) Program. Funds in the amount of $400,000 were awarded to provide atown-wide Owner -Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program, and WHEREAS, Pursuant to 24 CFR 570.486, the Town of Groton is required to hold a public hearing during the grant implementation period to provide details with respect to the program and program progress, solicit comments with respect to funded activities and program administration, and answer questions with respect to the CDBG Program or grant activities, now therefore be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby sets a Public Hearing as part of its regular monthly meeting for November 7, 2016 at 8:00 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #16-068 - PROCLAMATION OF NATIONAL FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARIES WEEK WHEREAS, Friends of the Groton Public Library raise money that enable our library to move from good to great, providing the resources for additional programming, much needed equipment, support for children's summer reading, and special events throughout the year, and WHEREAS, the work of the Friends highlights on an on-going basis the fact that our library is the cornerstone of the community providing opportunities for all to engage in the joy of life-long learning and connect with the thoughts and ideas of others from ages past to present, and WHEREAS, the Friends understand the critical importance of well funded libraries and advocate to ensure that our library gets the resources it needs to provide a wide variety of services to all ages including access to print and electronic materials, along with expert assistance in research, readers' advisory, and children's services; and WHEREAS, the Friends' gift of their time and commitment to the library sets an example for all in how volunteerism leads to positive civic engagement and the betterment of our community, now therefore be it RESOLVED that Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor for the Town of Groton, NY, proclaims October 16- 22, 2016, as Friends of the Libraries Week in Groton, New York, USA, and urges everyone to join the Friends of the Library and thank them for all they do to make our library and community so much better. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed MOVED by Councilperson Jackson, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool, to approve the minutes of the, September 13, 2016 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler. Town Board Minutes Page 3 October 11, 2016 PUBLIC HEARING ON THE 2017 FISCAL YEAR PRELIMINARY BUDGET MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool, to open the Public Hearing on the 2017 Fiscal Year Preliminary Budget, at 8:00 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler The Town Clerk read the Public Notice, which was duly published in the Town's legal paper, the Groton Independent, on October 5, 2016. Supervisor Scheffler - Our health insurance is up 5%. We have tried to take care of our employees. We have great employees and we want to keep them, so we have done the best we can for the employees. We have a commitment to re -roof the highway garage in the future. We started a building reserve fund in 2016 and will add $30,000.00 to it to ensure the roof replacement in the future. We have cut department expenses pretty much across the board by 5%. Our tax rate is up 4 -cents per thousand while staying under the tax cap of .68%. We have made increases to the ambulance budget. Jacalyn Spoon - Looked at the schedule of salaries and thought that the salary of $9.00 per hour for an appointed part-time clerk was incorrect, that the minimum wage for 2017 was a little higher. Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper - Said that we don't have anyone in that position and if someone was appointed during the year that the pay would be addressed. He also pointed out that municipalities were exempt from the state minimum wage rules. No other members of the public wished to speak. MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, to close the Public Hearing, seconded by Councilperson Clark at 8:05pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler PUBLIC HEARING ON FISCAL YEAR 2013 FIRE AND AMBULANCE BUDGETS MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, to open the Public Hearing on the 2017 Fiscal Year Budgets for Groton Fire Protection and Ambulance Service, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool, at 8:06 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Lee Shurtleff, Lance Coit and Lester Coit were there to represent the Groton Fire Department. Lee Shurtleff - We met with the Supervisor a couple weeks ago to go over the preliminary request. We do acknowledge that there is a substantial increase in contracts that was requested. This is a continuation of where we were about a year ago when we met jointly to discuss the challenges we've got in maintaining the ambulance service in the community. The good news is that what the Town and the Village was able to do with the budget last year, it afforded us the ability to hire a third fulltime paramedic who came onboard in March of this year. We've got three very good fulltime people who are working for the Fire Department and running 40 hours plus a week and also working overtime hours. We continue to have a number of part-time paramedics and advanced level technicians and we continue to have a daytime driver that comes through the Village budget who's shared with the Streets and Water Department. Additionally all the drivers, first response, and basic crew continue to be done by volunteer firefighters, EMTs and members of the Department. We continue to recruit and have had some success. We are still a little bit shy of where we need to be as far as staffing. The good news that a year ago we were in a tough spot and were unable to respond on a fairly significant number of calls, but with the third position that was added this year, our average, over the last six months of calls that we've had to call in Town Board Minutes Page 4 October 11, 2016 assistance on has been roughly three a month. On many of those cases it was not the first call but actually a second one that was occurring in the district at the same time. Right now we are at 465 ambulance calls for the year and so are on target to hit about 600. It should be down a little bit and I think we're going to find there has been a reduction of calls out of the nursing facility versus most years, and a number of the multiple occupancy residences, their public services were being used at a pretty high rate the last few years, but that problem seems to have been alleviated. It's tough to separate the Fire and Ambulance budgets. The increase that we've asked for is going entirely towards the salaries. A year ago we moved the salary line from $130,000.00 a year to $175,000.00 understanding that there was going to be a further increase once we hired. At this point we are projecting the salaries are going to run us a little over $200,000.00 a year for the three full timers and the number of part timers that we have. Health and insurance benefits and other fringe benefits are running about 30% depending on whether they take the insurance or not. The other factor driving the budget other than the increase in salaries is workers compensation. In 2015 we were at $38,000.00; 2016 it jumped to over $45,000.00; and we've been told it might increase another 15 - 20%. If we're looking a potential $50,000.00 bill just for workers compensation out of a $500,000.00 budget. That's 10% of the budget. Overall insurances together are somewhere in the area of 20% of the budget. The third thing that is an expense has to do with providing advanced life support. We recently had to upgrade the models of the defibrillator machines. The purchase of those to meet standards was going to be in excess of $60,000 which was not an amount that we were ready to take out of the budget. What we've done is gone to a 4 -year lease. Understanding how quickly the software changes, we are building that into our budget and have gone from a $3,000.00 a year maintenance cost on the old defibrillators to a $15,000.00 a year lease. We have to have it to provide the service and it's an expensive part of it. So, the increases that we've asked for are completely taken up by those three things, salaries, workers comp, and the defibrillators. Together they are $73,000.00. We've adjusted $23,000.00 within lines of the Department. We were able to move to a new insurance company and reduce some of that cost from what it had been, but still it leaves us with a $50,000.00 challenge that we're trying to achieve. At this point, the salaries for the paramedics is 37% of our operating budget and next year, with the requested budget that we put out, those salaries and benefits move to 43%. Here's our concern as we move ahead. We are very thankful for what the Village and Town have done to help us hire more people. We've been able to solve this problem to this point but one of the problems looking ahead is that the fire contracts are heavily subsidizing the ambulance. I mention that because if you look at the ambulance contracts for the Town and Village together they equal less than $250,000.00 at the proposed amounts. The salaries are going to be somewhere between $200,000.00 and $225,000.00 depending on what adjustments we need to make. The ambulance payment to replace an ambulance every 4 - 5 years is $25,000.00 and now we have a $15,000.00 defibrillator charge. Add that together and you're somewhere between $250,000.00 and $270,000.00 and the ambulance contracts are less than that. That means that what we get from the fire contracts is augmenting what the actual cost of providing the ambulance service is. We're down on the fire contract time to about 84 -cents per thousand. Back when I was chief we always kept the fire contract somewhere in the neighborhood of 95 to 99 -cents. We never exceeded a dollar a thousand. We've let that slide over years even though the taxable assessment has gone up. We haven't kept pace. One of the problems we foresee is that we have equipment that costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and we still have a building issue that's got to be resolved at some point whether we build new or renovate. Mr. Shurtleff brought a map to show other fire districts in the County and demonstrated how much more the budgets were in all of these fire districts compared to Groton's budget for fire protection. He pointed this out just to show that there is a growing disparity and they may need to address the true cost of fire service in the future. MOVED by Councilperson Smith, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool, to close the Public Hearing at 8:21 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Town Board Minutes Page S October 11, 2016 RESOLUTION #16-069 - APPROVE FISCAL YEAR 2017 TOWN BUDGET MOVED by Councilperson Sovocool, seconded by Councilperson Jackson RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the Fiscal Year 2017 Town of Groton Budget as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #16-070 - APPROVE FISCAL YEAR 2017 FIRE & AMBULANCE BUDGETS MOVED by Councilperson Clark, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the Fiscal Year 2017 Budgets for Groton Fire Protection and Ambulance Service. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Vouchers numbered 451 - 495 were presented and reviewed by the Board. Vouchers for the General Fund in the amount of $9,745.21 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilperson Jackson, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler. Vouchers for the Highway Fund in the amount of $22,769.67 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilperson Clark, seconded by Councilperson Smith, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler. Vouchers for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Fund in the amount of $30,420.66 were presented for audit. MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Jackson, to approve the CDBG Bills #475 - 477 for payment as presented, and approve Bill #478 pending final inspection by Code Official and closing of file. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Monthly Reports: Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review and requested a budget transfer. His time lately has been spent on the budget and he did file the tax cap with the State. The general fund is a little tight, but we'll make do. Town Board Minutes Page 6 RESOLUTION #16-071 - 2016 BUDGET TRANSFER MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Jackon RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the follow 2016 Budget Transfer: General Fund: From: Contingency A1190.4 .......................................$948.00 To: Employees Benefits, Unemployment, A9050.8 ........... 948.00 Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed October 11, 2016 W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. We are ahead of last year for new houses by 3 permits. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent - Was not present. April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review and had nothing more to report. Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report. John J. Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices - Were not present. Councilperson Kelly Smith as Representative to Joint Youth Program - This weekend we are having our community build for the playground and still need some volunteers for that. Girls varsity soccer won the division and will have an IAC championship game this Saturday at Tompkins County Community College. We are going to continue with the needs assessment but this time they will be talking to the parents. We hope to have the playground done and a ribbon cutting on October 22nd Privilege of the Floor: Jacalyn Spoon - On June 15th the Farm Bureau wrote a letter to the Town Board concerning her. In 2014 my neighbor, Doug Portzline, build a beautiful house next door to mine and all the run-off from his property was sent to my property. I have pictures. I contacted Tompkins County Soil and Water because I have grant funding for my farm through Soil and Water to basically insure that Owasco Inlet and a few other water sources are kept clean. Tompkins County Soil and Water gave the neighbor all sorts of great ideas on how he could fix it and basically what happened was the pipe was hidden. I asked the neighbor to show me some sort of evidence that it was done correctly and he refused to speak to me. I've contacted and attorney. I've contacted Tompkins County Senior Planner, Scott Doyle, who came to visit me and he wasn't able to find any funding in either restoring the wetlands or helping to mitigate the water. I'm here because I don't know where else to go. My land is being eroded. My hayfield is turning into a swamp. This isn't the property that I purchased. And I understand that things change but things changed because my neighbor was allowed to send his water runoff to my back yard. If it was a one -acre property, it would be a very serious problem. It is fixable. We could restore the wetlands; we could put in a ditch. I'm more than happy to have somebody do whatever we need to do make this work for all of us. I don't want to sue my neighbor; I don't want to sue the Town of Groton; I don't want to sue anybody. I just want to see it fixed, and I don't know what to do, and here I am. It's been two years and I've seen this turn to a beautiful hayfield and nice pasture into a swamp. A swamp is fine, but this isn't a real swamp; it wasn't intended to be a swamp; the land isn't right to for it to be a swamp. Can you help me? Do you have any idea what I should do or who I should talk to? I feel like I've talked to everybody. Supervisor Scheffler - It sounds like neighbor to neighbor dispute........ . Town Board Minutes Page 7 October 11, 2016 Ms. Spoon - Right. Supervisor Scheffler - ....that you have to work out with your neighbor. Ms. Spoon - But the Town approved the building in the way that it is situated. There is no place for this neighbor to put his water except in my back yard. The house on the corner, closer to West Groton Road, he was required to run his water to the ditch. He was told by the Town to run his water to the ditch. This neighbor wasn't told to do that, he was told to run his water to my back yard by the Town. So, there's all sort of flood zoning stuff in the town plan about how you're supposed to do you water when you're building a property and it's all supposed to have been approved. This is a picture of how his property drained. This is my fence. Those are the pipes. That was approved by the Town of Groton. You can't see the pipes anymore, however the water is still going in the same place. He was told by Tompkins County Soil and Water to restore the wetland that was there. There was a pond there and he filled it in. He filled in a pond; pushed it to my property and now I'm stuck with all the water runoff from his house. He was told to dig it out; he was told to put in a culvert underground. I thought he was doing that and it turned out he was putting in a swimming pool. I've written letters. My neighbor actually told me that if I came up with a plan, then he'd be willing to speak with me. I consulted with multiple, I mean I have a big long list and a letter that I presented to the Farm Bureau in order to get the Farm Bureau in order to get the Farm Bureau to write you a letter to say, would you please help her sit down with her neighbor. That's all they were asking was to get everybody to a table to sit down and say how can we fix this problem. Supervisor Scheffler - That's something you need to do with your neighbor.... Ms. Spoon - Right. I actually have asked my neighbor to go to the New York State Dispute Resolution Association. They contacted him and he told them that he would not talk to me until I had a plan. He's dumping his water because the Town of Groton allowed him to. Supervisor Scheffler - We'll take this under advisement, but I still think it's a dispute between you and him. Ms. Spoon - Right, then you are suggesting that I sue my neighbor? Supervisor Scheffler - I'm not giving you that advice. Ms. Spoon - Right. I would love it somebody from the Town who has information, knowledge of water, drainage, wetlands, runoff would help me. Councilperson Clark - How far is the road ditch? Ms. Spoon - It's quite a distance. There is no road ditch for his property. Councilperson Clark - If they went across you property to the road ditch? Ms. Spoon - If they went across my property it would be almost 800 feet because it's almost to the back of my property. (Showing the Board a map.) This is my original plan for my grazing, so this would be the neighbor's property here. Basically, this is where the wetland is; it's dumping here. This neighbor was required to dump his water into the ditch. This neighbor is on the up -hill side and the ditch is across the street. I've offered to allow to dig into my property and send a ditch to West Groton Road. Councilperson Clark - If he paid for it? Ms. Spoon - Yeah, why should I? Why should I have to deal with it? Or even, taking a bigger step back, and connecting the creek in the area. There are little creeks over there and if someone were to dig them out and maintain them, they'd probably work for what he needs. But as it is now, it doesn't work at all. Supervisor Scheffler - This gives us an idea of what's going on. We'll talk about it, but we do have to move on. Ms. Spoon - I understand. I would be happy to meet with someone on some other day. I've sent multiple emails through the Groton town website and I've never gotten any response, so I'm not exactly sure how to connect with anyone. Town Board Minutes Page 8 October 11, 2016 Clerk Scheffler said that her emails had been forwarded to the Board, and Supervisor Scheffler said that they had received her correspondence. Ms. Spoon - I've never received anything back. No one has ever responded to this letter to me. That's why I'm here tonight. Supervisor Scheffler - Well, that's from a lobbying organization (referring to the letter from the Farm Bureau). Ms. Spoon - Well, no one responded to the Farm Bureau either. This is the Tompkins County Farm Bureau. No one responded to me. I don't know how to get a hold of you except to come to a meeting. I'd love to meet with someone. Please tell my how. Supervisor Scheffler - You're doing it. Anyone else wish to speak? MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool, to enter into Executive Session to discuss a contract discussion and possible pending litigation, at 8:43 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Sovocool to return to Regular Session, at 9:10 pm Ayes - Sovocool, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Supervisor Scheffler - Let the record show that it was for information purposes only and no actions were taken. Discussion took place on a letter that had been received from Delaware River Solar saying that they were looking at property in Groton for a solar farm. They were asking if the Town would consider being Lead Agency for the purposes of SEQR should they find suitable property. This decision would be made by the Planning Board as they would be doing the site plan review. It was wondered if this should be considered a "letter of intent" as was discussed earlier in the meeting by Jay Franklin. It was decide that the Clerk would forward a copy of the letter to Mr. Franklin for his opinion on the matter and then address it at next month's meeting. Announcements: ➢ Planning Board, October 20 at 7:30 pm ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals, October 26 at 7:30 pm ➢ Next Board Meeting, Monday, November 7 at 7:30 pm ➢ Association of Towns Annual Meeting, February 19 - 22, 2017 ➢ Playground rebuild this Friday & Saturday There being no further business, Councilperson Clark moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Jackson at 9:20 pm. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk