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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-9-2025 Reg meeting TOWN OF GROTON - MEETING MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2025, AT 7:30 PM Town Officers Present: Town Officers Absent: Also Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Fran Casullo, Attorney E. Deforrest, Groton Fire Chief Crystal Young, Councilperson D. Carey, AG Council Sheldon Clark, Councilperson D. Durrett, Ithaca Times Richard Gamel, Councilperson Brian Klumpp, Councilperson L. Shurtleff, County Rep Ellard Keister, Highway Super. Mack Rankin, Highway Deputy Robin Cargian, Town Clerk W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Julie Graham, Bookkeeper The meeting was called into session at 7:30 PM with the Pledge of Allegiance. MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Young, to approve the Meeting Minutes of November 11, 2025, to include the correct total amount of invoices of $126, 023.27. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed RESOLUTION #25-088 ‐ APPROVE PAYMENT OF INVOICES MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp WHEREAS, vouchers for Abstract #14 (#13 was previously used) for the Year 2025, numbered 470- 519, 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 58,551.88 B GENERAL FUND PART TOWN 23,085.00 DA HIGHWAY FUND 59,812.51 DB HIGHWAY FUND PART TOWN 48,444.29 SL2- PERUVILLE LIGHTING DISTRICT 117.89 SLl- MCLEAN LIGHTING DISTRICT 218.81 Total $190,230.38 Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Monthly Reports The bookkeeper Julie Graham read the following Budget adjustments: From A1990.4 Contingency $590.00 To: A320.4 Auditing $590.00 From A1990.4 Contingency $158.66 To: DA9060.8 Health Insurance $158.66 Town Board Minutes Page 2 December 9, 2025 From A1620.4 Buildings Contractual $4,500.00 A 1620.42 Building Repairs $11,000.00 To: Building Front Entrance $15,500.00. To: A1620.43 Building- Front End Improvements $15,500.00 Invoice #3 Final Bill for the Entrance Upgrades MOTION #25-089 – APPROVE BUDGET TRANSFERS MOVED BY Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Young to approve the budget transfers as requested. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays - W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer: Submitted a written report and stated that on December 31st, the new 2025 code will go into effect at midnight. The all-electric utility requirement for new-built construction has been paused, and they are told to follow the 2020 energy code. Building Permits Issued: 6 New Businesses: 0 Permits Completed: 12 Fire Safety Inspections: 9 Permits Renewed: 2 Building Inspections: 23 Demolition Permits: 0 Certificates of Occupancy/Compliance 11 Site Plan Reviews: 0 Violation Notices: 0 Subdivisions: 0 Complaints 0 Life Safety Inspections for 2025: 9 Inspected - Completed – 100%; Training Hours -0 Highway Superintendent Ellard Keister: The final bill of $15,500 for the front entrance will close up that project. It's nice to be done in time for winter, and they plan to tie the sidewalks together in the spring. Robin and I have been talking about what we're going to do for signage and will hopefully have ideas to present at the next board meeting. Tompkins County has a tower up above Houston's farm on Sincerbeaux Rd., which we plow throughout the winter. The County has offered a used radio system that is like a walkie-talkie, in exchange for this service. Approximately four years ago, I quoted a new radio system for around $40,000. I've been communicating in the hope that they may donate these radios and the system. Should that take place, it would help us get started, and we will slowly budget for it throughout the year. I hope to have more news at the next meeting. We've provided NYSERDA quotes to utilize the remaining grant funds. The amount was insufficient to do anything significant, as you saw how much a small front entrance cost. The next logical project is self-installed weather stripping and new battery-operated tools. Just this morning, we had frost on all the door jams, which, after daylight thawing, the water is running back in the building, where weather stripping will help. We're getting a little more winter than we wanted in early December, which, as discussed, the budget isn't handling that. Salt is up $12 a ton from last year to around $64 a ton. Due to that, I've been making small orders, but if everything stays the way it looks in the 10-day forecast, we are going to have to dip into contingency next month. We've been sitting on $280 in the county fund since last spring, and we had some money because we put away a little extra just in case last year. Now we're running tight, just trying to make it to January 1st as logically as we can. Councilperson Klumpp asked why the price went up. Superintendent Keister could only suggest an increase in fuel surcharges or a supply-demand run caused by last year’s American Rock Salt shutdown. This forced other municipalities to find new suppliers on short notice. The Town is currently mixing in more sand with salt to stretch inventory, as well as pushing the purchases of other necessities out for as long as possible. He commended the Groton School Superintendent and Groton Bus Garage for their communication during the last snowstorm. The snow came very fast during the early morning hours, Town Board Minutes Page 3 December 9, 2025 when they were unable to keep up, and therefore, school was closed. He also commended Mack for keeping on top of truck issues. They still had a chain, fuel, and a Power Take Off issue, but were up and running by the next round of snow. He then opened a discussion regarding the Deputy Highway rate of pay by requesting an increase for the position to match what is customary at other municipalities, as well as due to the current added responsibility of lead mechanic. The open lead mechanic position has had no applicants in the county portal and will be reposted. He cited the money available by not paying for a mechanic, as well as the tool allotment savings. After some discussion, the board resisted increasing the deputy’s pay but preferred to solve the open position of lead mechanic. They advised seeking a younger mechanic out of BOCES without experience or asking the instructors to see if they have any contacts. Superintendent Keister asked the board for a rate of pay to include in the listing, currently at $25-$30 per hour. He also noted that our shop does more major in- house repairs than other municipalities, paying their mechanics more. When asked what a competitive number would be, he felt $35-$40 per hour, logically $38 as an average. Councilperson Young suggested something in terms of a bonus for the extra workload for Mack. Mr. Keister did not feel this was a possible solution and understood that things are tight for the coming year, but reminded them that he brought the same deputy highway position pay rate question up at budget time. He has also opened up an operator’s position to see if there is any interest. Councilperson Gamel asked Deputy Highway Superintendent Mack Rankin if he would be interested in the Mechanic’s position, but he declined it. He explained he feels obligated in a management position to keep things going forward, as when things break, it falls on them to make it work. He prefers his regular position, especially when it is not snowing. The board appreciated him for what he is currently doing. Town Clerk Robin Cargian provided the accounting report, noting that the tax bills will be on their way, the legal ads were set to be published, and the new website will be live by the January deadline. She thanked her husband, Jeff, for painting the office in the new blue. Denise was busy with archival scanning projects and updating the outstanding permits list for the Code Official, which also prepares the town for the annual State Required Code Report. Recreation Coordinator, Councilperson Young reported that youth programming is in full swing for the winter. Wrestling camp has 13 participants and a new wrestling coach. K through two skills and drills begin in January, with Mason Slade and Abby Dykeman. The Girl Scouts will be assisting with the first day’s hike with a fire pit, s'mores, and soup donation from Good Neighbor. Hot chocolate will be donated by the Junior and Senior High PTO. The Facebook recreation survey was posted as well as distributed by email to past recreation participants. To date, 128 people responded regarding adult programming, as well as other good feedback. Becky moderated three sessions at a conference and came back with information surrounding parks, maintenance, planning, design, and implementation of successful multi-use trails, alternatives to malt at the playground, such as poured rubber, grants for splash pads, and wading pools. They are considering a replacement for the kiddie pool at the park. One of the sessions regarding recreation programming for seniors cited resources such as the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Health. The session was helpful as it was full of ideas for adult programming, many of which she thinks can be applied across all generations. She is going to communicate more with Lisa Park about programming for the seniors at the housing in Groton. Councilperson Young explained that Tim Conger has volunteered to be the Town representative for the youth commission and would need their approval as the agreement is until December 31, 2025, and then made a motion. MOTION #25-090 – APPROVE A TOWN AT LARGE YOUTH COMMISSION REPRESENTATIVE Town Board Minutes Page 4 December 9, 2025 Motion to approve Tim Conger as the Town at large representative for the Youth Commission was made by Crystal Young, seconded by Brian Klumpp. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays - County Representative Lee Shurtleff: Since we last met, the county passed the budget with some last-minute changes. Cornell would not agree to fund Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit TCAT to the same levels that the city and the county were going to, which caused a reduction. The three of them have to raise or lower their amounts in the same increments. The request was for a $500,000 increase from each, which was reduced to 280,000. As a result, with a few last-minute adjustments, the county budget passed with an increase in the tax levy of 3.59%, exactly at the tax cap. It was a long budget process. Next year we'll be entering with a new legislature. Eight of the 14 are going to be returning, losing six incumbents, but we added two seats in the redistricting. Eight new members will be joining us on January 1st. meaning half of the legislature will be brand new, on top of a number of fairly new county administrators. The challenges are significant. The airport's running at a deficit. TCAT is running at a deficit. Tompkins, Cortland Community College, and Cortland County also have to agree to similar numbers, which they did agree to increase their contracts for the first time since 2019. The college would tell us that they're running at levels below where they feel they should be in light of an 11% increase in enrollment over the last year. At the same time, we're looking at long-term sheltering needs. The county opened a new facility at the end of November, its Code Blue Shelter, in a temporary facility on Sherry Street. It has worked well, fulfilling the county obligation, any night that it's under 32 degrees or less, they must have shelter. What they've been able to accomplish this year is by moving it to the new location, which is a 24-hour-a-day facility that can serve as a warming center during the day, sheltering at night. They also provide additional services that weren't available in the alternatives before. Indoor facilities, plumbing, no more rented showers, and outhouses. But again, it's a temporary move. All these things together are going to make for significant challenges in the budget years ahead, and I know that you're seeing the same things with your sales tax, which is flat. You're seeing the same thing with tax rolls; they're flat. Your revenues are at a point that they can't sustain the growth that we've seen in local government budgets over the last few years, so I know what my next term is about to look like. We were able to recommend a reasonable number and meet the community's needs to sustain vital services. One thing I just mentioned briefly to Ellard before the meeting started is that the project here with the rebuilding of the bridge by Baker Miller is back in the mix. They have identified a different funding source, and the county highway department is moving ahead to see if they can replace that this year. They've started conversations with the village because there are implications for water lines and water mains that run across the bridge, as well as some substation changes and feeds across there. There's one main pole that all of this area goes through, and so it will have some implications for the electric department in terms of having to reset or make changes, and we're trying to get that incorporated into the budget. You’ll be hearing more from Nick Enzine, our new county highway manager, who was appointed in October. I was glad to hear that he and his predecessor, Jeff, were out having conversations with Ellard tonight. One of the reasons that Nick was appointed was because of his strength in working with the local governments. We're fully expecting and know that he will continue that collaboration with Ellard and the other highway superintendents who enjoyed working with Jeff Smith for the last several years. I know there'll be time for accolades and praise at another point in time, but I do know this is Don’s last regular meeting as town supervisor, and as a member of the community, I want to thank you for those years of service. They span two decades plus, a quarter decade, when you consider all the different roles that you've had. And I appreciate the collaboration and friendship that we've shared over Town Board Minutes Page 5 December 9, 2025 that time. And thank you for your willingness to serve the community during that time. And Dan, we also look forward to rejoining this august body. Groton Fire/Ambulance, Eric Deforrest: As we've been talking about all year, we are at 1179 calls as of today. It's about 80, I think 86 more than I reported on last month, and still covering out of district like crazy. I think we were in Family Health Network in Cortland yesterday. We've been downtown Ithaca for the last couple of weeks quite a bit. Just a consistent new trend that we're going to see. Record-breaking year for us at 985 ambulance calls to date. I think last year was 908, and with two- thirds of the month left, we will hit well over a thousand. We've been hitting about 75 to 80 ambulance calls a month. So we're about 50 to 60 more calls this month. Well beyond a record for us. where most of them are being handled in-house. According to the software used for reporting calls to the state, mutual aid was toned out to Groton 143 times in the year of 2025. I'll have better numbers for you next month when we do the end of the year report, but I'm willing to guess that less than half of that or more than half of that was turned away to go back into service, that we didn't need them because we covered our own calls. They still get recorded as a tone out even if they don't respond all the way to the scene, so once we get that breakdown of that, I'll have it for you next month. Pretty remarkable. We have a new firefighter who has just started, originally from Freeville. He is fully qualified for interior firefighting, which is a 165-hour class over the course of six months. It is very difficult to find anybody who wants to dive into that at 20 or 21 years old and do it for some cool T-shirts and ride a fire truck. It’s a pleasure to have him. Our pancake breakfasts are going to start back up in February. We try to avoid the same weekends that Freeville or McLane holds them, so we're not stepping on each other's toes. We held chief nominations last week. Unless somebody runs against me, you're stuck with me for another year. I'm sorry. Sorry, nobody wants a spot for some reason. However, my deputy chief, Rob Gallinger, will be stepping down. I don't know what his total years are exactly, but at least 30, 32 in the fire service throughout different departments, and my deputy for four years. An amazing man and a credit to him for what he has done for the community and the fire department. His knowledge will be missed. Of course, he's not stepping away; he's just stepping down as deputy. His daughter will graduate from high school this year. So, thank you, Rob. And lastly, the fire department is in the third year of sponsoring three separate families through Cornell Elves, a program where we buy presents for one child, and then the department buys for the parents. Most of the time, the parents get gift cards for food or whatever the case may be for the holiday season. We either deliver in a fire truck and make a production out of it for the kids, or the parents can come to school and pick up the presents. It's been going well with a lot of members starting to buy on their own outside of the fire department, adding to those kids' presents. It is a good program, and I hope we can continue to move forward with that in the years to come. Yellow Barn Solar Update, Supervisor Scheffler announced that they are very close to locking down the host community agreement as well as the road agreement. Fran has advised us not to do anything with the host community agreement from Bullock tonight. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Software for Public Online Dog License Renewals Town Clerk Robin Cargian supplied a copy of the quote to the board and explained that residents have been asking for an online option to renew a dog license. Such an option will save time as well as encourage dog owners to renew as soon as they receive notice. The additional cost per year is $1795, which was added to the 2026 budget. Town Board Minutes Page 6 December 9, 2025 MOTION #25-091 – APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF WILLIAMSON LAW BOOK’S DOG LICENSING QUICK PAY PROGRAM. With no other questions or discussion, it was MOVED BY Councilperson Gamel and seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, to approve the purchase of the Williamson Law Book online dog licensing program and allow the Supervisor to sign the annual agreement. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays - MOTION #25-092 – SET 2026 ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING DATE MOVED BY Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Young, to set the 2026 Organizational meeting for January 13. 2026 at 7:30 PM Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays - MOTION #25-093 – APPROVE THE 2026 COURT SECURITY AGREEMENT MOVED BY Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Clark, to approve the 2026 Court Security Agreement and authorize the Supervisor to execute it. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays - Host community Agreement and Landscaping Escrow for Groton LLC I & II- Tabled Newly elected officials were given their oath of office. No one wished to speak during the privilege of the floor. MOTION #25-094 – AUTHORIZE RICK GAMEL AND CRYSTAL YOUNG AS SIGNERS FOR ALL TOWN BANK ACCOUNTS Supervisor Scheffler made a MOTION to authorize Rick Gamel as incoming Deputy Supervisor and Crystal Young as incoming Town Supervisor as signers to all Town Bank accounts, as well as allowing Julie Graham as Town Bookkeeper to have access to all accounts as necessary, which was seconded by Councilperson Clark. Ayes - Clark, Klumpp, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Nays - Announcements: • Planning Board Meeting for Tuesday, December 20th, was cancelled • Zoning Board Meeting on December 19th was cancelled • Organizational meeting for the ZBA is January 14th at 7 PM • Organizational meeting for the Planning Board is January 15th at 7:30 PM • Organizational meeting for the Town Board is January 13th at 7:00 PM There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp at 8:44 PM. The Motion was Unanimous. Robin Cargian, Groton Town Clerk