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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8-13-2024 Town Board Meeting Minutes & Public heaing Local Laws #41 | Page TOWN OF GROTON –MINUTES OF THE TOWN BOARD PUBLIC HEARINGS REGARDING LOCAL LAW #4 OF 2024 SEEKING TO OVERRIDE THE TAX LEVY LIMIT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025 TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2024 AT 7:30 PM Town Officers Present: Town Officers Absent: Also Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Mack Rankin, Dept. Highway Molly Messenger, DR Solar Crystal Young, Councilperson Melissa Melko, DR Solar Richard Gamel, Councilperson Monica Carey, Groton Planning Board Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Andrew Thomas, DR Solar Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Lee Shurtleff, County Legislature Ellard Keister, Highway Supt. Jeremy Zigenfus, TC Sheriff Robin Cargian, Town Clerk Eric Deforrest, Groton Fire Francis Casullo, Attorney Carlin Reyer, Ithaca Times W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Julie Graham, Bookkeeper The meeting was called into session with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:30 PM. MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp to approve the Town Board Meeting minutes of July 9, 2024. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed RESOLUTION #24-064‐ APPROVE PAYMENT OF INVOICES MOVED by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Gamel WHEREAS vouchers for Abstract #08 for the Year 2024, numbered 285-324 were reviewed and audited by the Town Board, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves said vouchers which will make the accounts in the Total amounts as follows: A GENERAL FUND 20,956.42 B GENERAL FUND PART TOWN 42,125.00 DA HIGHWAY FUND 7,488.57 DB HIGHWAY FUND PART TOWN 7,743.99 SF1 SPECIAL FUND -FIRE PROTECTION 39,875.00 SL2- PERUVILLE LIGHTING DISTRICT 103.89 SLl- MCLEAN LIGHTING DISTRICT 211.22 Total $121,464.09 Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Monthly Reports Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 2 August 13, 2024 2 | Page Julie Graham, Bookkeeper - You have my report. There was one budget adjustment. RESOLUTION #24-065 - APPROVE BUDGET TRANSFER MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp to approve the budget transfer From: A1990.4 Contingency $250.00 To A7550.4….Celebrations for memorial flowers $250.00 Ayes - Clark, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer: You have my report. We have been busy and that is the way I like it. Building Permits Issued: 6 New Businesses: 0 Permits Renewed: 7 Building Inspections:41 Sign permits: 1 Certificate of Occupancy/Compliance:5 Site Plan Reviews: 1 Violation Notices: 0 Subdivisions: 1 Complaints: 0 Life Safety Inspections for July 2024: Inspected - 0; Completed - 0 Training Hours- 0 Highway Superintendent, Ellard Keister: Paving is completed. We did miss the CHIPS draw. There was one issue due to the weather: we will need the grinder for the Elm St/222 section. Sears Road is ready for the oil and stone application in a month or so. We paved that the same way we did Stevens Rd. With the Bridge NY project that is going on which started this morning, we are seeing a huge increase in traffic on Stevens Rd. I spoke with the County this afternoon and they will get some counters placed for us. We did not build that road for heavy commute traffic. It is posted at 5 tons. They will let us know if there are tractor trailers and if they are running it, I will have DOT sit there and post it. We have had complaints about the speed as everyone is in a big hurry to get around it. We will check those and if they are speeding, we will get ahold of….it is the shortest route to get around. I was hoping to have our truck #13., the 2012 truck we had talked about getting rid of, already posted on Auctions International by this meeting, but with other projects going on we did not get the fuel tanks out of it. I will have it posted by next month to sell and get it out of the fleet. I have not ordered the plow for truck #11. I was waiting to see which fund would be best to pull from, the winter funding or equipment funding. We didn’t talk about this at the last meeting, but a letter was received from the County that due to the mild winter, winter funding will be cut by approximately $64,000 next year. We have the money to purchase the plow from both funds. If I can order this now, and get on the books, hopefully, it will come by mid-October. This will be from the MDI at the State bid price for plows. RESOLUTION #24-066- APPROVE PURCHASE OF BOSS PLOW DXT FOR TRUCK #11 MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp to allow the Highway Superintendent to order the Boss Plow DWT for truck #11. Ayes – Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 3 August 13, 2024 3 | Page Highway Superintendent, Ellard Keister: We found an architect who responded consistently and came to review what was needed for the front entrance. The proposal is for architectural design, and it sounds like they will get going on it as soon as we sign the agreement that Don has. The estimate including their hourly rate is $19,640.00 and did not include the bid packet. Supervisor Scheffler: This will be coming out of the ARPA funding. Councilperson Klumpp: What was the previous estimate? Did the person I emailed about come down? Town Clerk, Robin Cargian - $6-7,000 in 2023, and yes Gary came down a few weeks after your email after this company came, but if there was an issue with not being able to get it done until spring……… Councilperson Klumpp: That seems like a large jump, is it a bigger firm? Superintendent, Keister:: I don’t think so, they came and took a bunch of pictures and got right back in touch with us. I agree the other one was going to include writing the bid packet. Councilperson Young: You guys probably didn’t put in for that grant? Town Clerk, Robin Cargian: Yes, I started it, got through it and it did ask for the funding estimate and what you would spend, I had no idea. I didn’t even have a ballpark. Councilperson Young: It was an estimate. Town Clerk, Robin Cargian: Was I just going to make up a number? Would that have been prudent? Supervisor Scheffler: I think we need to move ahead with it. Councilperson Klumpp: I am not comfortable with the price but if no one is getting back or can do it. Councilperson Klumpp: Like you said, Don, we will lose the ARPA funds if we don’t get a contract. Councilperson Young: How much is in the ARPA? Supervisor Scheffler: $161,000-168? Julie Graham, Bookkeeper: Something like that, I don’t have the exact number, but I can go get it. RESOLUTION #24-067- AUTHORIZE MOVING FORWARD WITH SPACE ARCHITECTURAL STUDIO FOR THE TOWN HALL FRONT ENTRANCE UPGRADE MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Clark to allow the Highway Superintendent to move forward with the agreement with Space Architectural Studio. Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 4 August 13, 2024 4 | Page Ayes – Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Highway Superintendent, Ellard Keister: The last thing I have is, that I did apply for the WQIP or a water quality grant for Clark St. We have been talking about this double pipe project for a few years, which is extremely expensive the way we are required to build it. The DEC wants us to convert the two existing 6’ pipes into a 30’ wide pipe including a bridge. A grant with Soil and Water was filed a week or two ago which we must match 20%. We will see how it goes. I told them we still may not be able to do it even getting creative with using labor and equipment to get to the match. We will discuss this at budget time. Town Clerk, Robin Cargian: Busy, busy, busy. I have been getting the dog enumeration in the queue. I have the survey ready on the website and created a QR code for the survey which is on the postcards that will hopefully go out here shortly. I have also been looking at budget time and computers that need to be upgraded. I think I mentioned before that our IT folks are saying our computers will not handle Windows 11 after Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10. I reached out to Dell after being advised on what to get and got a state bid price. I first must find the contract bid number on the NY State Procurement site, I don’t know if you have ever been on that site, but it is not helpful. We will find it. $757 per computer to replace three of my computers, code, and two in the court office. We will purchase using this year’s budget to get this done instead of waiting until next year. At that price for 6 is $4,742.00, these are a 16 GB RAM desktop, 256 solid state hard drive, and come with a 3-year warranty or service contract. We talked about getting a laptop for Don, which may or may not happen until next year. The Cintas contract is up, it has been up for a couple of months, and I have other people who will get me a quote which I will bring next month. Julie and I were on a Zoom demonstration for new software, Edmunds Gov. tech. It does everything but clean the kitchen sink which for the price is better, but I will save that for budget time. Finally, Dog Law Draft. Local law #5 is updating mainly the fines for not licensing. The first fine is $25 but the fee for an unlicensed dog is $27 so some people might just want to take the fine. The suggested amount to increase the first offense was $40 but obviously, you can set any amount you see fit so long as it is more than $27. Attorney for the Town, Fran Casullo: This would be updated from the previous law. One of the board members could make a resolution to propose local law #5 that deals with the licensing and control of dogs and if you want to consider this you can set a public hearing next month. RESOLUTION #24-068- PROPOSED DRAFT OF LOCAL LAW #5 OF 2024 FOR LICENSING AND CONTROL OF DOGS AND SET PUBLIC HEARING Resolution made by Supervisor Scheffler seconded by Councilperson Gamel to propose the draft of Local Law #5 of 2024 for the licensing and control of dogs in the Town of Groton, a final draft will be on the desks within the requisite 10 days before a public hearing set for September 10, 2024, at 8:00 PM. Ayes – Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Attorney for the Town, Fran Casullo: Local Law #4 to override the tax cap is something that is done every year which is on the docket for tonight and Don is doing a great job keeping up with and handling all of the solar projects. Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 5 August 13, 2024 5 | Page Recreation Coordinator, Councilperson Young: Programs this summer are going well and are well attended. There was a U14 travel softball team that was put together by a community member that was very successful, they have 14 girls who had a very successful season. The plan is to do it again next year. They are talking about putting together a U12 team and it has been very successful. Working with the village and library to plan Olde Home days. The library is planning a small concert series to run in the park on August 22 and 29th. They will have a food truck on-site and plan to donate 20% of the proceeds to the Groton Youth Commission. The Groton Youth Commission was very pleased and is encouraging attendance. Becky is working with Klines in Dryden to have an adult archery target program at the end of October. She is also working with Adrien Mitchell to run an adult editing class in the fall. People were asking about that. Trunk or Treat planning has started. I believe she is working with Ellard to see if or she will be asking if she hasn’t reached out yet, it was very successful using the highway base here as last year. They were hoping to do it again this year as parents thought that it was safe because they blocked off the road. CS Energy Solar Update, Don Scheffler: Yellow Barn Solar has resubmitted their application. If anyone is interested, I have a copy in my office. It is 40 pounds, 18” high if anyone wants to read it you are welcome to go through it. It takes 21 hours to read it. As far as the South Main St. projects they will be speaking tonight. Public Hearing The required notification which was published in the Cortland Standard was read by the Town Clerk. These notices were also placed at both Post offices, the Town Clerk’s Office, and on the Town of Groton website. No comments were received by the Town Clerk before the meeting time. Supervisor Scheffler opened the public hearing and explained this is a law that must be approved in the event the town needs or wants to exceed the State Tax Levy limit of 2%. We have no intention of going over the limit but in case there is an emergency, or something happens, it must be in place. It is the same law every year. PROPOSED LOCAL LAW #4 FOR THE YEAR 2024 A Local Law Overriding the Tax Levy Limit Established in the New York General Municipal Law §3-c in and for the Town of Groton Be it enacted by the Town of Groton Town Board, as follows: SECTION 1. LEGISLATIVE INTENT It is the intent of this local law to override the limit on the amount of real property taxes that may be levied by the Town of Groton, County of Tompkins pursuant to New York General Municipal Law §3-c, and to allow the Town of Groton to adopt a Town budget for (a) Town purposes and (b) any other special or improvement district governed by the Town Board for the Fiscal Year 2025, that requires a real property tax levy in excess of the "tax levy limit” as defined by the General Municipal Law §3-c. SECTION 2. AUTHORITY Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 6 August 13, 2024 6 | Page This local law is adopted pursuant to Subdivision 5 of the New York General Municipal Law, §3-c, which expressly authorizes the Town Board to override the tax levy limit by the adoption of a local law approved by a vote of sixty percent (60%) of the Town Board SECTION 3. TAX LEVY LIMIT OVERRIDE The Town Board of the Town of Groton, County of Tompkins, is hereby authorized to adopt a budget for the Fiscal Year 2025 that requires a real property tax levy in excess of the limit specified in the New York General Municipal Law §3-c. SECTION 4. SEVERABILITY If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section, article or part of this local law shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operations to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section, article, or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered. SECTION 5. EFFECTIVE DATE This Local Law shall take effect immediately upon filing with the Secretary of State. With no one wishing to speak, It was MOVED by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Gamel, to close the Public Hearing on Local Law #4 of 2024. Ayes –Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays – RESOLUTION #24-069- APPROVE AND PASS LOCAL LAW #4 OF 2024 OVERRIDING THE TAX LEVY LIMIT ESTABLISHED BY NY GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW 3-C IN AND FOR THE TOWN OF GROTON FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2025 MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Young RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves and passes Local Law #4 of 2024, a local law to override the limit on the amount of real property taxes that may be levied by the Town of Groton, County of Tompkins pursuant to New York General Municipal Law §3-c, and to allow the Town of Groton to adopt a Town budget for (a) Town purposes and (b) any other for fiscal year 2025. Ayes – Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Lee Shurtleff, County Legislature: Ellard covered a few things just from the paving schedule and bridge work that is being done. You will notice South Main Street has just been resurfaced and the bridge project on Peruville Road is underway. We had a meeting a few weeks ago regarding the bridge by Baker Miller. That is going out for a final design and bidding this fall. They are replacing it next year. There is some concern among businesses and people about the closure. I will remind everybody it is the Department of Environmental Conservation that dictates when the work will be done over that creek. It is between June to September. A 60-some-year-old bridge that needs replacement. The county legislature did pass a resolution last Tuesday night, the same as you just did, a potential override Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 7 August 13, 2024 7 | Page of the tax levy limit. I opposed that. It did not pass at the meeting in June. They did have enough votes to pass it at last week’s meeting. They followed the same path that your board has. Frankly, I think from a County perspective, it sends a bad signal to the public when people's assessments just went up by huge numbers to come out at this time of the year and pass this resolution. But, I am just one of 14 members. It can always be done right up to the budget hearing. Councilperson Klumpp: I have a question; do they do that every year? County Legislature Shurtleff: They do. Councilperson Klumpp: And do they go over the 2%? County Legislature Shurtleff: They haven’t in recent years. They may this year and that is part of the challenge they got. We expect the Administrator will deliver her budget at next Tuesday night’s meeting. The County Legislature set a goal of a 2% levy increase for 2025. We are being told about the mandated costs and the fact that the sales tax is going backward for the first time in history and a few other things. To meet the 2% it may mean over 5 million in cuts in numerous departments. Some of the programs that have been brought forth in recent years may be under significant review. It may be a tough budget review for the county. The goal is a 2% increase, and I expect most of September and most of October in a lot of budget review meetings. If the legislature acts as an expanded budget committee of the whole and goes through all 26 departments and goes over target requests, it stretches into October. The news has not been good thus far. One other thing, last week there was a little controversy down there, a move afoot to have Tompkins County implement a minimum wage above the State minimum wage. A little bit of research is being done on that. It is what is being characterized as a living wage that is calculated for Tompkins County every year. It has been referred to further study. I have brought forward a number of things that I hope the study incorporates. The fact that there are two economies here, the City of Ithaca and all of the rest of us. What constitutes a living wage where you have an average studio apartment renting for $1500 and what we have out here are two different things. You may hear some information on that. I am not sure it is legal, and they are not sure it is legal for Tompkins County to step out and impose its own minimum wage but we will hear more about it. I have one parting comment, I just read the minutes from the June meeting regarding the fire and ambulance contract. With all due respect to all of the people who spoke on this, Mayor Neville, Bookkeeper Rankin, and Chief Deforrest haven’t been the ones presenting those budgets to you every year. I have been the one representing the Board of Warden’s and if the Chief so deems it I will be here this year. There is a lot of misleading information and speculation, and I don’t know where to begin. You can expect to have a comprehensive budget request from the Fire Department from our Board of Wardens. This bit about where $800,000 came from and so on, there is a whole 30-year history there. Let me remind you that it wasn’t until the last 5 years that this became a municipal building project. We set out to build a fire station separate from the Village in 1990. We looked at a number of different parcels throughout the area. Some of you may remember I came to the board and talked to you about the Fish Farm on Route 222. That property was gifted to the fire department as a site. It was at that point the Village Board did not want the building to be built on Rt. 222. We looked further into buying Plastisol Factory, we were offered that for less money than was paid for it at the foreclosure auction. Again, the Village Board came back and told us they did not want this project to be built there. At that point, they bought the land down here on Main Street and it became a municipal project. We had been Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 8 August 13, 2024 8 | Page building a reserve fund since 1991 forward to get to that point. We sold the property up on top of the hill and there was a substantial profit that came into the reserve fund. When I left the Chief job in the late 1990’s there was about $400,000 in that capital reserve accounts. How many of you people had money invested in the late 2000’s? We were making 4, 6 8% on CD’s. That crashed in 2008, but the fund grew over a period due to a number of economic factors. We weren’t misrepresenting you on these contracts. There were some years that we didn’t put any money into the capital reserve accounts because we had to put money into equipment purchases. The increases you have seen in most recent years for the fire department were there to pay for the paramedic support. Remember, our payroll is over $300,000 a year for paramedics. The amount we are paying for payroll on the ambulance is a bit less than the two contracts combined. The fire department subsidizes the ambulance to pay for the paramedics. We will present this all to you when we bring the budget requests, but I just want you to know what is written in here, I have no idea where the heck this came from. It certainly isn’t part of the presentations I have been making for 32 years. We have been transparent about where the money is coming from in each contract and where it was intended to go. We have subjected ourselves to audits every year that I have been involved in this. It is public information. We will be glad to go through it in detail with you as the budget transpires. I was pretty upset about what I read here. There were a lot of people off on a lot of different tangents. I think we have been comprehensive. You joke about how much time I take when I am here but when I make my budget presentation to you, that is why I bring the charts with me. Eric Deforrest, Groton Fire & Ambulance: I was away last month helping with Kids camp so to get you caught up from last months, there were significant storms causing damage to Peruville Rd and Sharpsteen Rd. There were 21 calls for Groton Fire and we answered 17 of those and had resources come in from McLean, Freeville, and Lansing. With their help we got everything opened back up from the power lines being down. I am sure you are aware the storm was pretty significant. With the busy stormy season everyone has mentioned tonight, we are at 185 fire calls for the year and 573 ambulance calls which is significantly higher than normal for this time of year. We are not even at the beginning of the third quarter, and we are approaching numbers three-quarters of the way higher than we typically are. So it has been a busy year for us. Kids camp was a success. We had to cancel the first day because of the storms. On day two we had a smokehouse, obstacle course, ice cream donated by the Brecht’s, and water ball. Day three we were fortunate to have the weather hold off and we got a helicopter from Mercy Flight come in. Dryden Ladder truck 531 also came in to give the kids a good view in case the helicopter couldn’t land because of the weather. We also had dinner with a firefighter. There were 127 kids there this year, and 131 last year. We did move into the new station on the 20th of July and are still getting acclimated. We are functioning there. There are a few things we still have to move out of the basement of the old building but need to turn the building over to the Police Department. We are fully operating out of 308 Main Street. We had a summer camp come down with some kids on the 11th. They spent about an hour in the new station going over the trucks and the ambulances. It was a great group with a ton of questions. Lastly, Olde Home Days is next weekend and we are having an open house from 1-3 PM on Saturday. We will be handing out some food. The Village Board will be there along with fire staff to answer any questions and give tours to show people what the new building is all about. I think I mentioned earlier in the year that we pulled ourselves out of cooking at the Legion this year. There wasn’t enough time and volunteers to try and manage cooking the food for two days, the parade, and all the stuff that we typically do there wasn’t enough. We will be concentrating our attention on the new station and getting ready for the parade on Saturday. Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 9 August 13, 2024 9 | Page End of Monthly reports Executive Session MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler that the board, Attorney Casullo, and Sheriff Zigenfus attend an executive session to discuss a contract and a law enforcement issue., seconded by Councilperson Klumpp. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays - The meeting reconvened at 8:35 PM - No decisions were made it was for informational purposes only. Budget Meetings/workshops The board was reminded that there are two extra board meetings in September and October. Budget workshops for the department heads are set as Highway Employees 5 PM on the 11th, Highway Superintendent to follow. Town Clerk 5 PM on the 12th, Code Office the Town Justice Court. A copy of the schedule was provided to the board and the departments. Delaware River Solar Projects Mollie Messenger DRS presented the mitigation efforts they will make to comply with the preliminary review from county planning and requested permission to speak with them directly as they may have confused a water garden on the map for actual panel placement. They plan to have a better map to show the distance from the Unique natural area and plan to have the fence 5” off the ground to allow wildlife to move within the area to mitigate the county concern. They are working with Mr. Buhl to complete a final SWPP and test the water model. A public hearing was requested knowing the SWPPP is not final but would like input from the public. Will be happy to coordinate the notices to the neighbors with the Town Clerk. Attorney Casullo stated this could happen if they agreed to waive the 60-day time clock to a decision after the public hearing because there was no final application yet. RESOLUTION #24-070- SET PUBLIC HEARINGS FOR REVIEW OF TOWN BOARD SITE PLAN REVIEW OF DELAWARE RIVER SOLAR APPLICATIONS PROJECTS #1 & #2, SUBJECT TO THE APPLICANT AGREEING TO WAIVE THE 60-DAY DECISION REQUIREMENT MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby sets a Public Hearing for September 10, 2024, that will immediately follow the hearing regarding proposed Local Law #5 and is also subject to a mutual agreement with the applicant that the 60-day requirement to a decision be waived as the application is not yet in a final form. Ayes – Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Natural Gas Usage Contract Supervisor Scheffler negotiated and signed a 1-year contract with Mirabito for about $.40 less than the previous NRG contract. Town Board Meeting & Public Hearing Minutes Page 10 August 13, 2024 10 | Page Announcements: • The Planning Board Meeting for Thursday, August 15, 2024, has been canceled. • The Zoning Board Meeting has been canceled. • Olde Home Days August 23-24th. There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Young, at 8:48 PM Unanimous. Robin Cargian, RMC Town Clerk/Tax Collector