Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2-08-2022TOWN OF GROTON – MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022 AT 7:30 PM Town Officers Present: Town Officers Absent: Also Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Eric DeForrest, Groton Fire Chief Richard Gamel, Councilperson Lee Shurtleff, Legislator Crystal Young, Councilperson Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Ellard Keister, Highway Supt. Robin Cargian, Town Clerk Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Francis Casullo, Attorney Paul Lange, Town Justice Mack Rankin, Dept. Highway MOVED by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, to approve the minutes of the January 11, 2022 Town Board Organizational Meeting with a change regarding how often the annual salary for Councilpersons are to be paid. Adjusted from quarterly to paid monthly. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Young, RESOLUTION #22-017‐ ‐ APPROVE PAYMENT OF INVOICES MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel WHEREAS, vouchers for Abstract #2 for the Year 2022, numbered 16- 69 were reviewed and and audited by the Town Board, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves said vouchers for the accounts and in the Total amounts as follows: A GENERAL FUND 12,747.24 B GENERAL FUND PART TOWN 86,566.67 DA HIGHWAY FUND 50,815.63 SFl- SPECIAL FUND - FIRE PROTECTION 76,000.00 SL2- PERUVILLE LIGHTING DISTRICT 89.99 SLl- MCLEAN LIGHTING DISTRICT 152.14 Total 226,371.67 Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Young Nays - Resolution Passed Monthly Reports Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper – I haven’t gotten last year’s books closed yet which is why you didn’t get a monthly report. January never really tells you much as there aren’t any bills run through. You will have a report for February. Town Board Minutes Page 2 February 8, 2022 Monthly Reports Continued W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer – Had submitted a monthly report and is working on the annual reports for the State. Robin Cargian RMC, Town Clerk & Tax Collector – Taxes are still trickling in but all went well. I would like to request the Deputy Clerk’s work hour be raised from the current 35 hours to 40 hours per week. She has requested it and I certainly need her. I have checked with the Bookkeeper, $38,100 was budgeted for the year which included the allotted $.50 increase after the 3 months. This would put us around $38,400 to $38,500 which I can easily save that throughout the year. Speaking of saving, I will also bring up these Law Book inserts from Thompson and Reuters which is a $1600.00 bill. I have used them very sparingly in the past as you can get the information online. The books are addressed to the Town Board so I did not feel it was my call to unsubscribe. The books are replaced about every 2-3 years costing around $2500.00. Chuck Rankin – I cancelled them at the village. Councilperson Young – I wondered why we spent so much on them to begin with? MOVED by Councilperson Young to increase the hours of the Deputy Town Clerk to 40 hours per week effective immediately, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Young Nays - Resolution Passed The Town Clerk was directed to cancel the subscription for the Law Books and inserts. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – We made it through January. I want to thank all the highway employees for putting in the effort that they did during the recent storm. We took a heck of a hit with trucks due to the outdated equipment as we have been talking about through the past few years. We were short three out of seven trucks for the majority of that storm. Everyone put in extra effort which added time and cost, even plowing with the grader to keep the community up and running. Ben did his best to fix what he could and get it back in service with simple things until it ran into where we couldn’t get parts and we were down. We are permanently three trucks down as of Friday night. We live in an area where it may only snow right here and not anywhere else in the county. I need to apologize to the community. There were roads that we were not able to get to until nine in the morning and our drivers were in at four in the morning. When you take a thirty-five mile plow route and have to turn it into sixty, it causes significant delays. A huge thank you to the County Highway for allowing us to borrow a truck on Saturday. They also flat bedded a truck to Allied for broken springs saving us the cost of a towing bill. Ben did a great job doing what he could, quick turn around and was very willing to come back in when I called. To update you on the issues with parts and mechanical equipment, PTO pumps took a couple of weeks to get back and cost us around $3000. They are now almost $6000 and can take six months to get in. We had ours rebuilt and that still cost us, with the PTO, $4000. That is how much everything has gone up. The truck taken to Binghamton with the power issue, which we thought was an electrical issue too much for us, is still not back. The preliminary report on the problems is looking to cost between $5,000 to $10,000. Again, I want to thank the Town Board Minutes Page 3 February 8, 2022 guys for all their very hard work during the storm to keep this township up and running because it wasn’t easy. Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town– Had nothing to report Paul Lang, Town Justice – January has been a very busy month for us, handling over 80 cases from the beginning of the month and concluded 22 of them. Some will be held over until next Monday when the District Attorney is here. What we have attempted to do is to make some changes. Instead of starting court on Monday at 5pm we will start at 4pm to give assigned council the opportunity to also attend court in Dryden which starts at 5pm that same night. Another thing we are also looking at is opening court on Wednesdays. With the end of covid and the discontinuation of the eviction moratorium, we are anticipating the cases will be difficult and prefer to segregate those cases out. Most of the attorneys we have contacted like the idea of the earlier court as well as a separate day for eviction proceedings. On a personal note, I started this process in December, took the forty-hour required course to take the bench along with an updated course as far as the voucher system for assigned attorneys, then spent many hours in terms of reading. I had a discussion earlier with Fran about omnibus resolutions, as I have a case with omnibus motions coming up. He agreed it could be a forty-hour course in and of itself and was unfortunately not in any forty-hour course that I took. It has been a hell of a learning experience not quite what I had expected. Councilperson Young as Representative to Joint Youth Program- We were unable to have a meeting this last month but Jennifer sent us a report. They are plugging away with winter classes and youth basketball. Yoga classes are still taking place on Wednesdays and will continue through the month. Approximately 10-14 in attendance for that. Zumba classes are Tuesdays from 6pm to 7pm but it appears participation is starting to fall. Cabin Fever is planned for March 5th to include the ever-popular roller skating and bounce houses. It is a fun day for everyone to get out and enjoy activities and family time. They are looking for volunteers for supervision. Summer planning is underway. Looking at self defense classes for women and girls, sewing, babysitting classes and karate programs. She has secured a grant for the summer concert series for $800 as well as a grant for the Cabin Fever of $1000. Councilperson Brian Klumpp as Representative to the Youth Commission: We did have a meeting, basically running the same programs as last month with nothing new to report. Lee Shurtleff, County Legislator ‐ Had nothing to report. Eric DeForrest, Groton Fire Chief ‐ Made sure the board got the annual report and with no questions reported the new officers were inducted. They have a chicken barbeque planned for this coming Saturday at 10am located at the station so they will be able to get in out of the cold. They will also have one in April at the new spot. Supervisor Scheffler ‐ Rosemarie submitted her annual Historian’s Report to everyone and if anyone has any questions, they can contact her. She is always here helping people and I thank her for that. RESOLUTION #22-018‐ ‐ APPROVE AGREEMENT TO CONTRACT WITH THE HUMAN SERVICES COALITION Town Board Minutes Page 4 February 8, 2022 MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Clark WHEREAS, the Town Board has been provided with the 2022 Agreement guidelines to provide services to the residents of the Town of Groton and having reviewed and found it to be consistent with past agreements, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the agreement and authorizes payment as requested in the amount of $1,500 for the 12- month period. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Young Resolution Passed Discussion on Highway Cell Phones, Previously Tabled- Supervisor Scheffler – Reminded the board that at the last meeting the Highway Superintendent and Deputy requested a fee be paid to them for using their own cell phones and cancel the cell phones the town now owns. Councilperson Gamel - My opinion is, I do not think it is in the best interest of the Town to pay for personal cell plans and should keep the phones we have or upgrade to something that they need if they will be used. Councilperson Klummp - I agree, if they need a phone then the Town should provide them with a phone for Town usage. Councilperson Clark – I feel it is important that they have a phone and should not have to use their personal phone. Councilperson Young – I can see the point of not wanting them to have to use their personal phones, however, they already have many contacts as most people have been calling them on their cell phones anyways, plus the highway phones we had were not in use for four or five years. Looking at it from a different setting for instance; where I work during the day, we have people who use their personal cell phones taking phone calls all hours of the day and night, similar to what you guys do. They are given a stipend for their personal phones because they are always on call. Councilperson Gamel – In that instance, wouldn’t you think that was what those phones were for, so they can take them and use them for when they are on call. You make the perfect point that they are using their personal phones. God forbid someone gets hurt, if Ellard gets hurt we don’t need the county calling him on his personal phone, he can hand the phone over to the next person in line to do the same job. I understand that he has many phone numbers, but I do think if there is a time to make that swap it is right now. Get a new upgraded Town phone and number. Councilperson Young – I would hate to have your personal cell number posted on the website. I can see everybody’s point. Councilperson Klumpp – It separates things and keeps it cleaner. Supervisor Scheffler – I have asked around and I don’t see a consistency from one organization to another of how they handle this. There doesn’t seem to be a standard way. Councilperson Young – If I go back to my day job, those numbers are out there to the public. They call the dispatcher, and the dispatcher would call the person on call where as your number is out there to the public. If someone should get mad they could call and harass you. Town Board Minutes Page 5 February 8, 2022 Superintendent Keister – Our numbers would not be out there. We would use the office number for the website. We already carry the phone on us 24/7 so it really doesn’t matter. Deputy Superintendent Rankin – One point I will bring up from the town truck point of view, we are using the phone to check the weather radar on the spot. One thing that was really not brought up last time was if we go the route of the Town owning the cell phones, you have two outdated old flip phones that are not going to work for us that you are paying $1200 a year for. So if we go this route, which we are really not looking to do, that phone bill is going to at least double to add data and get a smart phone that we will be able to check weather on the spot. That is another whole expense to this that we weren’t even looking to go. The thought was to take the $1200 you are already paying, delete those phone, give $500 each way as just a small reimbursement check towards our phones. If these phones get damaged it is on us, not on you. Where as if the town wants to take the responsibility for that damage it is on you. That is your phone insurance plan replacing that phone. This would be small reimbursement check for the monthly bill. Superintendent Keister – It doesn’t matter, vote on it the way you will. We are past it and no longer wish to argue about it. Supervisor Scheffler - Maybe it is something that should be brought up at budget time? Councilperson Gamel – Mack you bring up a perfect example. If it’s your phone that gets broken, how do I know that you will go and get what you need. I am now leaving that responsibility to you to go sometime this week, when you are really busy, to get your phone fixed so you have what you need. Deputy Superintendent Rankin - In that example, I am going to use my own time to go get my phone fixed or replaced and dispatch can call either one of us, day or night whatever the case may be. We are the ones getting the phone calls day or night in an emergency when there is a tree down that the fire department can’t get a chain saw through, they are calling us to come get it. So come hell or highwater we have got to have a cell phone. Superintendent Keister – My number is first on the 911 list, my wife’s number is second. I am the first person they are going to contact. It is set up right there for that purpose to make sure it is taken care of. Councilperson Gamel – I am curious as to why you would have set it up that way if we have cell phones purchased? Superintendent Keister – If that cell phone breaks on a Wednesday night, it is set up as a chain system. They still have a way to get ahold of me immediately, then they go to Mack. Councilperson Gamel – Why can’t it be set up as a chain system with two highway phones? Superintendent Keister – It still can. It doesn't matter what breaks. Deputy Superintendent Rankin - Like Ellard says, we have bigger irons in the fire. The thought was we could eliminate those phones, save you guys $200 and we would get an Town Board Minutes Page 6 February 8, 2022 allotment check towards our cell phone bill of $500 each. If you are not interested in that and would rather get two Town cell phones, then we will probably just say forget it and keep doing what we are doing with our own phones and numbers. It is as simple as that. Carrying two phones around is not something we are looking to do. One is a pain now, two with everyone calling us is not what we are interested in doing. If you guys aren’t interested in this then we will just wipe the slate and move on. Superintendent Keister – We are not looking for a handout. Councilperson Gamel – I am not referring to a handout, I am looking at getting you guys two cell phones that you can carry that are Town owned. Superintendent Keister- It will end up being our personal phones anyway and I am not looking to re- track back to where we were before. Councilperson Young – So what I am hearing them say is even if we were to say we wanted to go in that direction….. Superintendent Keister- If I am going to carry a phone, even if it is the town phone, I will only carry one phone and get rid of my plan. Supervisor Scheffler – And that’s what’s been going on. Superintendent Keister- I don’t use my phone for calls and text messages. If you look through my call history it is mainly calls for here. Councilperson Young - So what you are saying is you will get rid of your phone and we will end up updating the town phones to have data along with a call plan we are going to end up in the long run spending more then we are right now and have the same results. So will he be able to use the town phone as his personal phone, well of course. Councilperson Klumpp – I think that’s standard. Councilperson Young – So why wouldn’t we just…..? Who calls the town cell phone right now? How often does that phone ring? Superintendent Keister – Nobody, they call my cell phone. It was being used as a personal cell phone. I could use my same number and just roll it over to the Town. Councilperson Gamel – I think that is what we are trying to get away from and create a separation of your personal cell phone and the town phone. I think we are trying to protect you guys from using your personal cell phone for town business. Attorney Casullo, what is your opinion on this? Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town – I can only say what happened when I was a judge which may be different for the highway department. When I was a judge for nearly 20 years I used my phone as a cost of doing business. When I left, I never got anymore phone calls. I did not get anything from the Town as a stipend as I thought it was part of the job. I gave law enforcement my number but it was never public. I do not know how the highway guys in Cortland did it, but that was how I did it, as a cost of doing business. Town Board Minutes Page 7 February 8, 2022 Councilperson Young – So I think we have three choices. The phones get updated and they use the highway phone so they can turn it over to someone if they are unable to work, or we get rid of the highway phones and we give them stipend or we get rid of the highway phones and don’t give them a stipend. If they have been sitting in a drawer for years and they have already been using their phones anyway. Councilperson Klumpp – What is the negative of giving them a stipend? Originally I was against it as I felt it would be cleaner, but Councilperson Gamel – It is a negotiation item. Councilperson Klumpp – Can we get over that? I think I can. I don’t like the idea of it not being clean. What if next year they come to us and want $750 and that is the negative. I can see their point of having to carry two phones would be difficult. Councilperson Gamel – What if we do it this year and at next years budget put it down as a negotiation item? Deputy Superintendent Rankin - What if we run if for the four year contract program that we have? Supervisor Scheffler – No, it wouldn’t be part of the highway contract Superintendent Keister – No just run it for whatever you want. Do what you have to do. Councilperson Klumpp- I don’t like the uncleanliness of it but in this situation, I think the positives of the convenience of them having one phone as opposed to us having to pay more for an upgraded phone is something to think about. I have changed my mind from before. Councilperson Young – As Fran said, it is part of the job that you will be called on your phone and if those phones haven’t been used in four of five years and have been sitting in a drawer then we can save the town money. If they are not being used and they have discovered them now, it is a bonus to keep that money in the budget. I thank them for finding them and appreciate you wanting to negotiate that into your own salary as you have already been using your phones and everybody already calls you then I would say it should be something to negotiate at negotiation time. Honestly, we are talking about a few cents. Superintendent Keister – Maybe you should look into the legality of it like Brian said? Councilperson Klumpp – I think it is legal. I didn’t mean it’s not clean in a legal sense, I meant that it is a negotiation item. You could have asked for $250 or $750 but asked for $500. This was all I meant. Deputy Superintendent Rankin – In that case you guys have the power to say no, it was just something we thought could save you money. Supervisor Scheffler – This should be something that would come from the highway contractual but will have to be looked at. Town Board Minutes Page 8 February 8, 2022 Deputy Superintendent Rankin – Again it is like what Crystal said, we found it and knew it would save you guys $200 bucks now, plus costing you a lot of money over time. Supervisor Scheffler – I can see all sides of it. Would we like to vote? Would someone like to make a motion? MOVED by Councilperson Clark –that the Town buys two contracts for each their phones. Supervisor Scheffler – Your motion is to buy their phones? Councilperson Gamel – You want to buy new phones that the Town owns? Councilperson Young – Not their phones? So I am clear, your motion is to pay them the $500 stipend to use their own phones and get rid of the highway phones? Councilperson Clark – I don’t think $500 is going to cut it is it? Councilperson Klumpp – That is what they are asking for, if that is the motion you want to make? Councilperson Young - It will cost a lot more to buy them out. Supervisor Scheffler – There is a motion on the floor, do we have a second? No Second of support Motion Failed Councilperson Gamel- I make a motion we continue status quo or as it has been. Let them use their own phones if they are ok with that and use it as a negotiation item next year. Councilperson Clark – Your motion is we don’t give them anything this year? Councilperson Gamel – Not this year as it hasn’t been used for years apparently. MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Supervisor Scheffler, the current highway cell phone contracts be canceled, the Highway Superintendent as well as the Deputy continue to use their personal phones and the Town Board will add the $500 stipend request for the use of personal cell phones owned by the Highway Superintendent as well as the Deputy to the negotiations for the 2023 budget. Nays- Clark, Klumpp, Young Ayes- Gamel, Scheffler Motion Failed RESOLUTION #22-019 CANCEL TOWN CELL PHONES, GRANT STIPEND FOR HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT & DEPUTY’S PERSONAL CELL PHONE FOR 2022. MOVED by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Clark, WHEREAS, the Town owned highway department flip phones have not been used and are currently not being used by the Highway Superintendent and Deputy and, Town Board Minutes Page 9 February 8, 2022 WHEREAS the Highway Supervisor and Deputy currently use their personal “smart” cell phones to communicate with emergency personnel, have compiled several town business related contact numbers as well as use them to access weather conditions in the field and, WHEREAS, it would be cost effective and is in the interest of safety for the traveling public as well as emergency departments, be it RESOLVED, the current highway cell phone contracts be canceled, a $500 stipend given to the Highway Superintendent as well as the Deputy to go to their personal cell phones for the year of 2022. Ayes- Clark, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Young Resolution Passed Discussion Proposed Salt Shed Construction, Superintendent Keister has been in contact with several contractors. The drawings are out but they have not responded back. I believe a lot of this is due to the fluctuations in material prices. I have negotiated with the contractors to do the footers, pour the eight-foot walls in house and they will build off that. We are very capable of doing that without taking too much from road maintenance. It should be a simple springtime project as the contractors are looking at an August start. I have a call in with the Troy who built the village shed as well as CCC. The Bishop’s are also getting me a quote as well. I am hoping by next meeting to have some numbers. Concrete is also a concern as the price has gone through the roof. Supervisor Scheffler - We will need three quotes, publish it and put it out to bid because of the price of it. The state requirement is if it is over $35,000 it has to go out to bid. Superintendent Keister - Doing the concrete in-house will help. I estimated at this last storm we used about 160 ton of salt. It was full but we were in the back of it by the end of the storm. This was not abusing the salt. We will have to table this until the March meeting. Councilperson Klumpp - Would it be possible for you to send me a copy of your drawings? Superintendent Keister- I can scan them and send them. I dropped the dimensions from previous version as I changed the walls. My plan is to pour a ten-inch thick, eight-foot wall, cover them with plywood and build from that to make it more structurally sound. The head wall will be 12 inches thick. My end goal is to keep our footprint down and build up to be able to stack a higher quantity of salt. Contract for a Court Bailiff, Supervisor Scheffler - Hiring a court bailiff by contracting with the Village police was arranged in the past but never completed. Judge Lang and Kathy are asking for court security and the Village has updated the contract you have in front of you. It would provide a minimum of three hours of security, per court session for $30 per hour. This idea was brought up at budget time but declined by the seated judge. Councilperson Young - Did I hear Judge Lang say there would be more activity in here? Supervisor Scheffler – Yes, they plan to have court Wednesday night as well. So it would be $120 per night, $240 per week we did not budget for. We are unaware of how long he will hold two court sessions a week. At some point we may have to appoint another judge or hire an outside judge if it gets to be too much. We could use the salary for the second judge if we don’t need to hire one. My feeling is to wait on it. I also hate to be responsible if something happens. Town Board Minutes Page 10 February 8, 2022 Attorney Casullo, do you have any insight on this? Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town- Quite honestly, Cortlandville is much bigger. When I was there we would have a court office in the court and two officers running the magnetometer. I had security during scheduled court sessions when many people would come in. They were usually a hired police officers sent over by the sheriff. Supervisor Scheffler – We would pay the Village for the individual. I am not sure if they are hiring an individual extra for this or how it works. We did budget for two judges, if we get past April we may have to hire a judge. Councilperson Klumpp – I do not recall this being discussed at budget time, just the second salary for a judge. Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town- If you have an open seat for a town justice I am not sure if you can just leave it open. You need to be actively looking to fill that seat if you have two. Councilperson Klumpp – Is there a worse time, or type of cases that are more dangerous? Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town- If Judge Lang is thinking of going two days but who knows. Maybe you could think about trying it for a few months, paying them and see how it turns out. Get them some security here for three hours because behavior changes in my experience. When the judge comes out everyone settles down, even more when a police officer is in the room. If there is a serious situation when the officer has to leave then you will know how it turns out. At least the judge has some coverage for his court session. Or perhaps on a month-to- month basis to get them in, see how it goes with the one court night and if they need to add another night. Supervisor Scheffler – I can talk with Nancy to see if they want to do a trial period. Councilperson Klumpp - When will we have to make a decision on adding a judge? Supervisor Scheffler – The state only does the new judge training in April and December. If we were going to appoint someone, they wouldn’t be able to sit the bench until after that. Unless we can find an attorney…. Owasco Watershed Commission, Supervisor Scheffler – The Commission has sent a letter asking if there was interest in joining the Owasco Watershed Commission? Would anyone like to participate? The meetings are at 10am on the second Tuesday of each month. Councilperson Klumpp – I was on the Cayuga committee and stopped for a few reasons. The meetings were only during the day which consisted of prioritizing projects they would do if they got the money. None of the projects were in the Town of Groton so it was not a productive use of my time. One thing to think about though, if you are not on a board or commission, we would not have a say in future regulations they make. I find it odd, of all of the organizations protecting the watershed, none of them have talked about the increased run off or the pollutants of proposed solar farms. Town Board Minutes Page 11 February 8, 2022 Board of Assessment Review, Supervisor Scheffler – The assessment department is going back to local review of assessment and we need to appoint three people to take a training and attend the meeting in May. This can wait until the next meeting but something to think about. If anyone wants to be on it or if you know of anyone who wants to be on it please let me know. Privilege of the Floor: No one wished to speak. Councilperson Young ‐ I have been meeting with Regina Cassidy from NYSERDA who took over for Carol. She is the one who came to us when we were doing the LED light conversion which got us the $5000 grant. Regina stated we have not put forward the final paperwork for our points which could add up to more grant money for the town. She suggested forming a task force to try and keep these things moving forward. If there are any community members out there who would like to help I would like to put this out there to social media or the Town Website if that is ok. One of the ways to earn more points is for the code official to take certain classes and for us to keep track of these things that we are already doing. Planning Board Zoning Board Trainings, Donald Scheffler- Some training opportunities seem to fall into a gray area that are not consistent with the specific authority given in Town Law such as any training given by the Department of State, County or Local municipality. How would the board like to handle such situations? In the past we have included classes on professional advancement or de escalation techniques. This would not include state mandated training. MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, If any board member who takes or plans to take training not given by the authorities listed in Town Law or that falls into this gray area, will need to bring some written documentation that explains the content of the training to the Town Board, who will then determine if the training is applicable. Ayes- Clark, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Young Motion Passed Announcements: • Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting, Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 7:00 pm • Planning Board Meeting, Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 7:30 pm There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Clark, at 8:52 pm. Unanimous. Robin Cargian, RMC Town Clerk/Tax Collector