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Touvt Offscerx Present:
Iklnald I Scheiner, Supenl.or
Richard Gaind, Cotuwilper.on
Cr+cial Noting, Cotuwilper.on
Brian Flunlpp, Cotuwilper.on
Sheldon C Clark, Counedper.on
Michael P%Anl., Illghllal Supt
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John \onllail, to\til J11�11eC
Clark. Rankin, I► of l ogler
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Town Board Allnutes Page 2 Febmarp ll, 2020
Monthly Reports:
Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper — Was not present but had submitted monthly reports for the
Board's review and requested a budget adjustment.
RESOLUTION 420-023 - 2020 BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS
MOVED be Supervisor Scheffler, seconded be Councilperson Gamel
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2020 Budget _adjustments:
General Fund, Town Wide:
From: Contingence. _1990.4 ................................$1025.00
To: Justice. Equipment. All 10.2 .........................$850.00
Louth Program, County Program. _7310.4 ........ $180.00
Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler
Nays -
Resolution Passed
W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's
review. They had been cleaning up some open pennits during the last month.
nlichael Perkins, Highway Superintendent - They had been busy plowing and sanding: doing
some cold patching: some tree and brush trimming. He would like meet to discuss the salt shed
and get that under motion. A letter from Brian Weir had been received announcing his intent to
resign from the Highway Department. Two applications had been received so far, and he would
check with the Clerk to see if anymore had been received through the County website.
April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the
Board's review and had nothing else for the Board.
Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report.
John J. Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices - Were not present.
Councilperson Crestal Young as Representative to Joint Youth Program — The Rec
Committee audited the books. They might talk about having the Director go to fiull time. If so,
that will be an increase in the amount the Town pays towards it. The plan would include her
taking over the bookwork that is currently being done be volunteers.
Glenn Morey, County Legislator - Was not present.
Ben Nelson, Groton Fire Chief - They_ are currently at 112 ambulance calls and 20 fire calls.
Thee did a standby for Dryden during their annual banquet and there was a call for a car fire.
Their chicken barbeque was last weekend. The fireworks are set for Thursday. Jule 2nd so that it
doesn't conflict with other ones nearby.
Rosemarie Tucker, Town Historian - Submitted her Annual Historian's Report to the Board.
She sent it to the Tompkins County Historian who will present it, along with the others from
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Town Board Allnutes Page 4 Febmarp ll, 2020
RESOLUTION 420-027 - PARTICIPATE IN TOMPKINS COUNTY HAZARD
MITIGATION PLAN UPDATE
MOVED by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Gamel
WHEREAS, it is required that the Tompkins County Hazard Mitigation Plan be updated every
five years, and
WHEREAS, the Town of Groton is a partner in the Tompkins County Hazard Mitigation Plan
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby appoints Donald Scheffler and Daniel Carey as the
Points of Contact for the Town of Groton.
Ayes - Clark, Young, Mumpp, Gamel, Scheffler
Nays -
Resolution Passed
RESOLUTION 420-028 - APPOINT COMMITTEE TO PRESENT AMENDMENTS TO
LOCAL LAW 41 OF THE YEAR 2007
MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby appoints Rick Fritz and Robin Cargian to review and
present proposed amendments to Local Law # 1 of the Year 2007 entitled "A Local Law
Providing for the Administration and Enforcement of the New York State Unifonn Fire
Prevention and Building Code" to make it more compatible with the 2020 New York State
Building Code taking effect in May 2020 and report back to the Board at the April meeting.
Ayes - Clark, Young, Mumpp, Gamel, Scheffler
Nays -
Resolution Passed
RESOLUTION 420-029 - TEMPORARILY RESCIND PERMISSION FOR
ORGANIZATIONS TO VOLUNTEER AT TOWN CEMETERIES
MOVED by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Young
WHEREAS, the Town of Groton is responsible for maintaining the Peruville Cemetery, the East
Hill Cemetery and the Steams Cemetery and has had invaluable volunteer assistance from
several community organizations, and
WHEREAS, the Town Board has seen a need for a police concerning the care and maintenance
of its cemeteries as well as oversite for the volunteer work being done, and has appointed a
committee that is working to create such a police, be it
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby rescinds any previous permission given to any
community organization to work in cemeteries owned by the Town of Groton until said police is
finalized, and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby gratefully recognizes the contributions to the
cemeteries that have been made by community organizations and looks forward to renewing the
pennissions and partnerships with these organizations once the police is in place.
Ayes - Clark, Young, Mumpp, Gamel, Scheffler
Nays -
Resolution Passed
Town Board Allnutes Page S Febmarp ll, 2020
Supervisor Scheffler - We were notified that Delaware Solar intends to build a solar array in
Groton.
It had been suggested that the Town should write a letter to the Tompkins County IDA in
reference to the notice saying that the Town was not in favor of a PILOT for any solar array in
the Town. Attorney Casullo advised that this might not be such a good idea and that the Town
should at least bear them out. Councilperson Klumpp said that they should at least listen to what
was being offered first: that it should come up for debate every time. _after some discussion, the
following resolution was passed.
RESOLUTION 420-030 - SEND LETTER TO TOMPKINS COUNTY IDA
CONCERNING PILOT AGREEMENTS
MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Clark
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the writing of a letter to the Tompkins
County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) reminding them that while the Groton Town
Board is in favor of alterative energy, the Town of Groton has opted out of Section 487 of New
York State Real Property Law. However, the Groton Town Board will give careful
consideration to PILOT Agreements and Host Community Agreements, where a complete
application has been received for Site Plan Review, on a case-by-case basis with the
understanding that a critical review of each PILOT and Host Community Agreement will be
made with the benefit and best interests of the Town of Groton in mind.
Ayes - Clark, Young, Mumpp, Gamel, Scheffler
Nays -
Resolution Passed
Privilege of the Floor:
Ellard Keister, Highway Employee - I've been here for quite some time. My background is
that I started here at 15 as a youth worker every summer through high school. I went to college a
little bit and worked here part time. I was offered a fulltime job while I was in school. Knowing
that probable wasn't the path for me, I took the job here. That was almost 10 years ago. I started
as a laborer: worked my way up through: learning through that whole process: snowplowing: the
construction work that we do here: every aspect of it. Now I'm an operator here for the Town,
plowing the northeast corner. I think that growing up through that transition has helped me
become what I am here today. With that being said, I'm going continue my career here and
hopefully, in the future, further myself in this job.
Now that we have Mr. Perkins here, him knowing that we want to get our bands in and get a little
more in-depth, he's allowing us to help out a little more with some of the decision making and
some of the choices that are made on the other side of the wall. We're very grateful for that, and
with the new crews that we have, we've accomplished more in this past summer than I've ever
seen us accomplish in any year here throughout my whole career. It's unbelievable. We
replaced pipes that were improperly put in. And thanks again, I tried before, I wanted a laser for
putting these pipes in to read grade and was told, back in the day, I didn't need one. We replaced
three this year, including one a crossover pipe under a road, that were all run backwards: that had
ponds at the top of them. The one underneath the road was off 3 inches the wrong way. We've
now replaced all that. We're on the track to making things better.
Town Board Allnutes Page 6 Febmarp ll, 3030
The Walpole Road project, that's a pretty big project. We're working on that with Soil and
Water and DEC. That's been swept under the carpet for three years now and the bridge over
there is in terrible condition. It's unsafe and deteriorated. There were plates put in it, band aides,
and it was ignored because it was too much work to go through. And it is a lot of work to go
through. The construction of it is not going to be terrible: we have the crew here to do it. The
paperwork, it's a protected stream, and that was the problem. So, now we've made some phone
calls: we started almost a year ago: and we still don't have the pennits. That's no one's fault, it's
just how it goes. It takes a long time. We're probable 3 weeks away from having the rough draft
of the pennit drawn up and submitted to the DEC. Soil and Water has been perfect for that.
They have done almost all of it for us and because we are a small nnuniticpality, they are doing it
for us for free. We just escaped under the -A nny Corp of Engineers for size, so that saved us a
boatload of money because we don't have to meet their requirements. Soil and Water will send
us a rough draft: we've taken all our measurements: we've gone over with them what we're
looking to do: but they would like to see what DEC wants. Once they get that done, we're going
to bring it in and review it, have Mike sign it, and he'll send it to DEC. DEC will finalize it. We
will have our box culvert ordered and in June we can start the process if all goes right.
_Mother big project we did this year was on Wood Road. We had to do a verb, deep crossover
there. Mr. Rankin was able to nun the machine. We anticipated having the road closed for 2
days but we had the road open that night. Way better than I've seen before. We did one big one
like that before on Elm Street, a little more large-scale, but it took almost a week. It's incredible
the stuff that's getting done around here now.
One of the things I've been working on over the past few years is plow blades. Little things add
up. You guys see the bills and they add up quite quick. I've been in charge of the plow blade
inventory, just a small project, not a big deal, for five or six years now, taking care of stuff,
making sure we have the inventory so if a truck needs to be changed, we've got the stuff out
back and we change it. _y lot of stuff I like to do at the end of the year to finalize the last year's
budget is cancel that out and it bolds us over for a while. Right now. I keep it so you could
change every truck if needed. It needs to be that way because usually we change pretty close to
each other and we can't go running off in a snowstorm to Ithaca to get parts. It happened and
that's why I ended up taking it over five or six years ago. That being said, the way we used to do
it was, steel plate on the back, carbide on the front. That's not bow it's supposed to be done.
The carbide goes on the back. It wears different. I have to explain it so it makes sense. It wears
extremely different. We were changing these about twice a year. _y frill blade change on a front
plow costs almost $1.400.00 to change the blade. Twice a year we were doing that. That's
$2.800.00 a year multiplied by seven treks, that's $19.600.00 a year just on front blades. That's
not including our treks with wings. Five out of our seven treks have wings. We're also going
down a different road with that. Since the transition, we have switched the carbide to the back,
where it's supposed to be, and the steel cutting edge to the front. We're seeing great wear with
that. We're probably going to get a blade a year with that instead of two. That's a lenge
cut-back. Ben came to us from the County last year. He's seen a lot of other stuff and has a lot
of other experience. We're looking at new ways to do some of these things, not staying stuck in
the old ways with 'this is the way it's always been and the way it's always going to be." This is
not necessarily the mindset anymore. Ben has seen other stuff that we have. There's another
company called Winter. You saw the invoices and maybe you thought they were a little
expensive. They are. It's a different blade setup. It has a bullnose carbide in it instead of just
the regular taper, which will give you a little more life. It's also made out of _yR500 Steel. It's
got wear plates that we can move across the plow to the wear points of the plow. _y lot of time
the one end of the plow still has three inches of life left but the belly has a half inch, and we're
done with it. Now we have to throw the whole thing out because of the middle. This setup is a
Town Board Allnutes Page - Febmarp ll, 3030
lot simpler to put on. It all comes in one package so we don't have to nun out and get a bunch of
different parts and put them together. It does cost $1.986.00 for one 12 -foot setup. However, we
have noticed great wear with that. Most of the places, they are saying, are getting two to three
years out of this. If we only get two years, we will save roughly $25.000.00 on plow blades.
Those little things are kind of a big deal that some of us are looking at around here. We are very
fortunate that Mike lets us make those decisions and take part in this because we do get to see a
lot of it and now, we're able to help out. We do care. Part of that, us doing some of this, the
laborer position that was mentioned before. Brian. I know you asked about risk vs. reward. Part
of why I told you what I did, working my way up through, is because of that laborer position. I
started as a laborer, not knowing very much. I still don't and probably never will. But if you get
someone with potential, they will work their way up through. If you load one of those salt trucks
right now. I can empty one in about 20 minutes on a bill. That's about $400.00 of salt that I can
spread in 20 minutes. Or. I can know bow to properly manage that and make it last a day, or
maybe do two loads a day because of weather conditions. But the point is, that knowing how to
properly manage the material, the application rates, that's one aspect we wanted to teach a
laborer. Before I was hired Rill time. I was part time and had my own plow route, when we had
more gravel roads. But before I did that. I'd go ride with Joe a lot of times. He was the plow
driver in the corner that I do now. I couldn't figure out why I rode with Joe all the time, drinking
coffee, chit-chatting with him, just riding along with him. I already knew Joe's route: I picked
that up the first time I rode with him. Well. I didn't. I didn't know what be was doing and why
be was doing it, and it took me a couple of years to figure out why I was riding with Joe all the
time. I didn't ride with him a couple of years, but years down the road, when I started doing that
route on my own. I figured out why I was riding with Joe. I knew what to do already. When
they left. I walked into that position with no trouble. When Jeff left to further himself. I walked
into the salt truck job with no trouble. We had a smooth transition. We never had, well geez, we
just gotta hire somebody and figure it out. We had that last winter. That was a little more large-
scale, but now we are fortunate with some great employees. We've got Brian leaving now and
we don't have anyone to walk into that. What would be nice would be if we could walk
someone into that and give us a buffer for that nest hire. Risk vs. reward, maybe that's not worth
it. That's up to you, not me.
We started hydro -seeding this year, which everyone wants to do. It took us a little longer to get
the hydro -seeder because of mechanical problems with it. But that worked out pretty nice this
fall. We did a lot of hydro -seeding in one day. Also, free to us. You just have to work with
people once in a while. It's a quick phone call: tell them when you need it: they're here: we
spray the ditch in about ten minutes: we're out of here: it's all green: no erosion: not all going
into the lakes. This is the kind of thing we hope to further advance throughout the nest few
years.
Couneilperson Clark - Who owns the hydro -seeder?
Mr. Heister - Soil and Water of Tompkins County.
Councilperson Clark - Do they furnish the product too?
Mr. Heister - Yes, they do. It's very simple, you just have to work with people. _y lot of that
stuff wasn't happening before. We would like to see this happen in the ftrture. There are some
of us that are looking out for the future around here and we would like to be a part of it. If you
guys have any questions, feel free to ask me. Or if you'd like to see some of the stuff we've
done once the snow gets off, feel free to contact me. I'd be happy to take you around the Town
and show you some of the work that we've been doing. We're pretty proud of it.
Couneilperson Gamel - We're pretty proud of what you guys do too
Town Board Minutes Page 8 Febmarp ll, 3030
Councilperson Clark - Maybe we could do that for our Spring drive around
Councilperson Young- Thanks for looking out for the community too, because the money that
you're looking at saving over a year, two years, three years, that's huge. Knowing the budget
process that we're going through right now in my frill -time job, we're going through and making
cuts everywhere. So, saving that kind of money is huge. The more you guys can do that, the
more everybody is going to appreciate that. With the position, is that something that you want
the Board to discuss again?
Mr. Keister - That's not up to me. That's not my call.
Supervisor Seheffler - It may be something long teen that we might want to look at more. It
may take us into budget time in another year to address something like that.
Mr. Keister - I know it made my life easier here and hope it made other people's life easier here
by me doing it.
The Board thanked hien for his presentation
There being no further business. Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by
Councilperson Clark, at 8:38 pun. Unanimous.
April L. Seheffler, RMC
Town Clerk