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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-14-2010 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Richard B. Gomel, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Fran Casullo, Attorney for the Town Also present: Dusty Kyes, Harvey Baker, Gary Coats, April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the minutes of the November 9, 2010 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gomel, Clark, Morey. MOVED by Councilman Gomel, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the minutes of the November 9, 2010 Public Hearing on the 2011 Town Budget and 2011 Fire & Ambulance Budgets as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gomel, Clark, Morey. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Gomel, to approve the minutes of the November 9, 2010 Public Hearing on Local Law entitled the Licensing, Identification and Control of Dogs as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gomel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 331 - 375 of the General Fund in the amount of $41,706.71 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gomel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 206 - 225 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $79,955.92 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Gomel, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gomel, Clark, Morey. Town Board Minutes Page 2 December 14, 2010 Monthly Reports: Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk - Was not present but submitted monthly reports for the Board's review and requested budget transfers. RESOLUTION #10-069 - 2010 BUDGET TRANSFER MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2010 Budget Transfer: General Fund- Town Wide: From: Contingency - A1990.4 $73.40 To: Health Insurance - A9060.8 73.40 RESOLUTION #10-070 - 2010 BUDGET TRANSFER MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2010 Budget Transfer: General Fund- Part Town: From: Contingency- B1990.4 $52.20 To: Deputy Clerk Salary - B8020.12 52.20 Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Presented Town Board with monthly reports. He said that things were going smoothly with a lot of construction this month instead of complaint work. Fire safety inspections are done for the year. April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Presented Town Board with monthly report. Sent letters to all people with dog licenses due in December because it didn't look like the State was going to send them out. People did finally start receiving them from the State a day or two ago. Even so, I think it was a good thing to give them an extra reminder and let them know that if they wait until January, they will have to pay the new fee. I sent letters to holders of purebred licenses explaining the changes that will take place and informing most of them that they will no longer qualify for a purebred license and will need to license their dogs individually when their current licenses expire. I think we will have only 3 left at the end of next year. I put an ad in the Shopper to let people know of the changes and will run that for a couple weeks. I don't know if you saw the one today or not, it was supposed to be about 5 x 5 inches and they shrunk it to about 3 x 3 so you can just barely read it so I asked them to make sure it is the proper size next week. Town Board Minutes Page 3 December 14, 2010 Bambi Avery and I met with Abigail and Pam from the SPCA on November 30 to work on the spay/neuter program. The response from the vets was less than enthusiastic, with most of them saying they would only be able to do two or three a month, which would really not be enough. The prices they gave us were mostly twice or more than twice what we could get it done through Shelter Outreach Services, which the SPCA currently uses for their low cost program. Some of the vets did not even respond to my emails. The vet that does the SOS work is very good and would be willing to have more clinics. So, we came to the decision that we need to put our money where we can get the best bang for our buck and that we should go with SOS rather than the private vets. We talked about adding extra clinic days at the SPCA. SOS brings all their equipment with them, so we talked about having mobile clinics, possibly moving around from town to town each month. Having a clinic in each town would catch a lot of people who would not be able or willing to travel to the SPCA. We discussed contacting the Health Department to see if they would be willing to somehow work with us on the rabies shots. Perhaps if they provide the vaccine they can count that as one of the clinics they are required to have. Abigail has contacted the Health Dept since our meeting and they are looking into what they can do. We volunteered that the clerk of the town would help out with paperwork when the clinic is in her town (or the city) and we would also help get the word out before hand. Most of the towns have a fire hall or someplace where they could set up. If not, we might combine neighboring towns. I gave you all a copy of the recent memorandum from Ag & Markets. ASPCA has been appointed as the administrator to the Animal Population Control Fund. Abigail is contacting them to see exactly how we need to present our County plan to get approval from them. We hope to have everything passed at the County level in January. The Ag & Markets Memorandum also instructs us to retain our December money as this money gets paid in January and the revenue sharing structure will be repealed on January 1 . I called David Squires at the County to see if he was aware of this and he said that he had heard some things but had received no official notice from the State. He said he did not have a problem with us not sending it as it is money that is used for dog damage claims and they have not had any, so the money would just be sent back to us. I would like your permission to hold the money that would go to the County for December and put it into the spay/neuter program when we get it started. I would also like you to consider putting the rest of the money that the County pays back to us into the spay/neuter program. I have asked the rest of the clerks in the County to ask all of their boards to consider this. Jay Franklin is planning on printing tax bills this week. Do you want to put a notice in about dogs? We have the law in place to allow us to do this, so we would just need a resolution at this time. Town Board Minutes Page 4 December 14, 2010 RESOLUTION #10-071 - HOLD DECEMBER MONEY FOR SPAY/NEUTERING PROGRAM MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey WHEREAS, the current revenue sharing structure for dog licensing will be repealed on January 1, 2010,and WHEREAS, Tompkins County, the Tompkins County Town Clerks Association and the Tompkins County SPCA are working to create a Tompkins County Spay/Neuter Program, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Clerk to hold the December dog money that would normally be paid to Tompkins County to be forwarded to the Tompkins County Spay/Neuter Program upon its creation and commencement. RESOLUTION #10-072 - INSERT NOTICE ABOUT DOG LICENSING INTO TAX BILLS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby directs the Town Clerk to put a notice in the 2011 tax bills pertaining to changes in dog licensing and fees taking place in January 2011 . Fran Casullo, Attorney for the Town - Has decided to meet on the first Tuesday of every month with the Town Clerk and Code Enforcement Officer to keep on top of any issues that come up and also to speak by telephone at least once a week to the Town Supervisor to let him know what is going on. He also plans on going to a Planning Board and ZBA meeting and catch up with them. Councilman Gamel asked about a zoning issue on Route 222 and Attorney Casullo said that they had not come to court because the subject's attorney had been in the hospital. He also thinks the matter will be transferred to Supreme Court. Other than that, most of the zoning issues have been pretty much cleaned up. Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator - Winterfest is scheduled for January 19 at the Elementary School. Quite a few school organizations want to help this year and it is becoming more community oriented. Privilege of the Floor: Harvey Baker - Was present because he thought the Board would be voting on the Draft Code and was concerned about zoning district changes where his property is located and owns a commercial building. It was explained to him that it would not affect the commercial use of the building. Town Board Minutes Page 5 December 14, 2010 Dusty Kyes - Was there to talk about the passing of the Code also and said that he is still trying to sell his land. There are people presently interested in it for a scrap yard and he feels that the proposed zoning change to an industrial district for his property will be beneficial in his attempts to sell his property for this type of business. Attorney Casullo had received a fax from Mr. Tavelli reiterating again that he did not feel that the 90 decibel level was reasonable or enforceable in the Mass Gathering section of the Proposed Code. This section had recently been rewritten, removing the 90 decibel level, and submitted to the Town Board for review. Attorney Casullo said it contained some of the suggestions that had been made by the Peruville Group and had standards similar to some of the laws that the Group had brought to the Board. Discussion took place on the issue and it was decided to send a copy of the revised section to Mr. Tavelli and hopefully put the issue to rest so that the Board can get the Code passed. RESOLUTION #10-073 - EXTEND TIME TO PAY TAXES FOR SENIOR CITIZENS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that pursuant to Section 925(b) of New York State Real Property Tax Law, the Town Board hereby grants an extension of five business days to pay taxes without penalty or interest to senior citizens who receive an exemption on their principal residence under either Section 425 or 467 of Real Property Tax Law. The extension of five business days shall make the due date February 7, 2011 for such taxes, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Town Board directs the Tax Collector to mail a notice of said extension of time with the tax bills. RESOLUTION #10- -074 - SET DATE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby sets the 2011 Organizational Meeting for Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 7:30 PM. RESOLUTION #10-075 - CONTRIBUTE TO TOMPKINS COUNTY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS FUNDING RESERVE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey Nays - Gamel WHEREAS, the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) has resolved to created a funding reserve as a way to fund projects that are of mutual benefit to the majority of its members, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves making a contribution of $250.00 to the TCCOG Funding Reserve. Town Board Minutes Page 6 December 14, 2010 RESOLUTION #10-076 - APPOINT JOHN MOREY TO PLANNING BOARD MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby appoints John Morey to the Town of Groton Planning Board to fill out the term left vacant by the resignation of Theresa Donlick. Said term expires December 31, 2011 . RESOLUTION #10-077 - APPROVE 2011 SNOW & ICE AGREEMENT MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the 2011 Snow and Ice Agreement between the Town of Groton and the County of Tompkins in the amount of $190,256.00, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor and Town Highway Superintendent to sign said contract. Announcements: ➢ Planning Board Meeting - December 16 - Cancelled due to nothing on agenda ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals - December 29 ➢ Thank you card from Frank Satterly for picture collage presented to him from the Town to commemorate his 50 years of service to Groton ➢ Groton Business Association Christmas Party - December 15 - Benn Conger Inn There being no further business, Councilman Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Clark, at 8:35 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk