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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-10-18 t TOWN OF GROTON PLANNING BOARD Minutes/ Transcript of Regular Meeting - Thurs. , IS OCTOBER 2001 - 7 PM Members. Groton Planning Board (*Absent) Others Present Monica Carey, Chair Joan Fitch, Recording Secretary George Van Slyke Glenn Morey, Town Supervisor Barbara Clark George Senter, Sr. , CEO Tom Guihan Sheldon Clark, Town Councilman Mark Baxendell Don Scheffler, Town Councilman Brad Albro Tyke Randall, Town Councilman Mary K. Gloster Applicants & Public Present Mahlon Perkins, Attorney for Duane 8s Kevin Tillotson, Applicants; Anthony Zarachowicz, Applicant. Call to Order M. Carey: I'll call the meeting to order. It's 7 p.m. I'll also note that Dawn Calkins has withdrawn her application to become a member of the Planning Board . Interviewing of CEO Candidates M. Casey: Glenn is going to give a general description for the position for Code Enforcement Officer. G. Morey: This isn't going to help any, Monica. It just says Administering and Enforcing the State of New York Uniform Fire and Building Construction Code as well as certain local laws in the Town of Groton . (Supervisor Morey then read extensive excerpts from his copy. ) M. Carey: Are there new NYS Building Codes being created? G. Morey: There are new regulations coming out. M. Carey: So these applicants have to go through training to get updated on these. G. Morey: And George Senter called me Monday and he' s interested in applying; he'll be here at 7:30 tonight. M. Carey: 8 :30. G. Morey: 8:30? 8:30 . T. Randall: When George started, back when he started, was he - did he have to go through the training once he got in? G. Morey: He already got the training through Gary Wood' s office, so he had it before he came in . M. Carey: I wrote down some questions to ask the Code Enforcement candidates. If anybody would like some questions, I wrote some down here . fait 1 dF221b 4 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 Preliminary Comments on Pending ECHO Housing Application M. Carey: And we have this application for ECHO housing coming before the Board tonight. We've only done one other ECHO housing and that was two or three years ago. And on the application , the size of the home is 924 SF; in our laws it says the size of the home shall not exceed 750 SF. So he would almost have to go to the ZBA and get a variance for the larger area. If we turn it down because of the size, if he can prove hardship, then he can go before the ZBA and get a variance for it. Or he can decide to get a 750 SF home. Be Clark: What about the two baths; is there a restriction on the number of bathrooms? M . Carey: No, if you look on page 45, 46, 47 in the Code books it lists all the requirements that we have to go through for the ECHO housing and we have to list the name of the occupants of this ECHO home, the age of the occupants, relationship, and nothing is on the application for this, but we can at least put it in the Minutes. This is going to require a little study on everybody' s part and we'll go over it when the applicant comes in . Candidate # 1 - Art Clark M. Carey: Hi. And you're Art Clark? A. Clark: Right. M . Carey: Okay. I'm Monica Carey and I'm Chairperson of the Planning Board. And I guess I'll just let everybody go around and introduce themselves. Joan' s our secretary. G. Van Slyke: I'm George Van Slyke . T. Guihan: Tom Guihan . M. Gloster: Mary Gloster, Be Clark: Barbara Clark. M . Carey: These are the Planning Board members and these are the Town Board members. Be Clark: Sheldon Clark, D. Scheffler: Don Scheffler. T. Randall: Tyke Randall, M. Carey: Glenn will be with us in a minute . He's at the photocopier. Okay, to start with, I guess we need to let you know that you 'll be expected to attend all the Planning Board meetings. We meet on the third Thursday of every month at 7:30 . You'll just give 'us an update on any new development going on within the Town , any concerns you might have with the Code, and basically anything that has to do with planning and zoning that would affect our Board. You'll be ask to attend ZBA meetings; I don't think they meet all that often and , of course, the Town Board. Glenn can tell you how often, and what your requirements are for meeting with the Town Board , G. Morey: Usually come to the Town Board meeting every second Tuesday of ever month, from 7:30 until about 8 o'clock to make a report. (Planning Board Member Mark Baxendell arrives.) M. Carey: This is Art Clark and this is Mark Baxendell, one of our Planning Board members. I guess the first thing we need to know is why you' re seeking this position and how much time are you going to offer to the position and what your training background is for this position . Page 2 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 A. Clark: I've been involved in zoning and planning since it started in Groton . Not so much with the Town after the 701 Committee dissolved, but then I was Chairman of the Village BZA for a few years. I need something to get me out of the house that doesn't bore me to tears. M. Carey: Have you ever had any training in Code Enforcement? A. Clark: Not in the enforcement; we did the writing. What kind of code enforcement? I've had training in code enforcement, but not specifically zoning. M. Carey: Basically zoning. A. Clark: Because I worked for the State Health Department and that was code enforcement. G. Van Slyke: Were you involved in electrical codes? Stuff like that? A. Clark* No, strictly water and sewage disposal. Farm labor camps - yes, we were supposed to be able to inspect a farm labor camp but their idea of electrical enforcement was bare wires and stuff. I'm not a contractor. I built a greenhouse and wired it in . M. Carey: Now New York State is changing all their building enforcement laws and there's going to be a lot of training involved over the next year. Are you willing to go to all these training sessions and make yourself updated? I have no idea how much training is involved . Do you , Glenn? G. Morey: With the new regulations, the State will probably dictate how often. G. Van Slyke: Where? G. Morey: Most of them will be in Dryden at TC3 , and off to Albany probably. I know Marrs gone to Oneida, Oneonta for a couple days. It depends on where the State sends inspectors for training. We pay mileage for cars and hotels and like that. Be Clark: That would get you out of the house. M. Carey: Anybody have any questions? Just speak up. G. Van Slyke: Are you willing to do this? A. Clark: Oh sure, yes. It's not a problem. G. Morey: Art, what are your expectations of the job? I mean what do you see the Code Enforcment Officer as being? A. Clark: 1 don't know. I drove the roads today in the Town . I didn't see a lot of activity. One construction project over on - B. Clark: Old State? A. Clark: No, actually I didn't drive Old Stage Road. LaFayette Road , down toward 222 . M. Carey: One thing we have in the Town is people who are unwilling to cooperate with our zoning laws - A. Clark: I expect that. M. Carey: We're basically looking for someone that can work with all kinds of people. A. Clark: And I am. I have that tendency. And I don't think there's anybody in here that would argue with that that knows me. Page 3 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 T. Guihan: I'll second that . G. Morey: Do you have any questions for the Board? A. Clark: What do they see the job as? It's part time. What do you mean by part time? G. Morey: Well, basically, the last person worked from 2 until 5, 5:30, 6 o'clock. Sometimes later in the summer. A. Clark: This is daily? G. Morey : Yes. And basically they go out to construction sites and check to make sure they are per NYS laws and regulations and Town of Groton laws and regulations and just make sure the construction is a safe environment for the people who are going to occupy it. You have to basically make sure that the Health Department is in charge of the sewer and water and some people don't have any sewer in the country. You have to make sure that the electricity is inspected properly and a certificate is given; you don't inspect the electric. We have somebody else do it. You're basically inspecting the construction of the house . A. Clark: In the farm labor camps, you know, they told you to go in and stamp on the floor. If it shakes it's not bad. It wasn't real good . A couple of places I did tell them they had to do wiring over or at least get it so people don't electrocute themselves or get shocked. G. Van Slyke: I guess I have one other thing to ask. Part of it too is enforcing the Code as established by the Planning Board and our Code as far as ordinances are concerned . Like junk cars and if people are in violation of that kind of thing, that wouldn't bother you a bit? A. Clark: No. M. Carey: Any more questions from any of the Board members? Town Board? Okay, well if you don't have any more questions for us, then - A. Clark: Well, I didn't know exactly what I was applying for. G. Morey: Art, do you want a job description of the job? It's basically Section 51 .2 . . . G. Van Slyke: Oh , you have copies for everybody now? G. Morey: No, not everybody. I promise you George, you will have a copy in your box. M. Carey: Why do you care? J. Fitch: You should put a couple in the other room where the candidates are waiting. A. Clark: What' s this pay? G. Morey: The Town Board has it budgeted right now at 14-9. M . Carey: Do you have anymore questions for us? A. Clark: No, not really. Other than I can tell you that sometime during the winter my wife wants to go to Florida for a month. M. Carey: Well, thank you for coming. Page 4 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 Candidate #2 - Harold Bernhardt M. Carey: Hi. Take the hot seat. I'm Monica Carey, I'm Chairperson of the Planning Board and I'll let everybody introduce themselves to you . G. Van Slyke: George Van Slyke, Planning Board . B. Albro: Brad Albro, Planning Board , M. Gloster: Mary Gloster B. Clark: Barbara Clark. J. Fitch: Joan Fitch, Secretary. M. Baxendell: Mark Baxendell, Planning Board . H. Bernhardt: That' s my neighbor over there. I know him. D. Scheffler: Don Scheffler. S. Clark: Sheldon Clark. G. Morey: I'm Glenn Morey. M. Carey: Okay, first thing is that you 'll be expected to attend all the Planning Board meetings, and we meet on the third Thursday of every month at 7:30, and the ZBA meetings whenever they hold them, and the Town Board meetings which Glenn will explain a little bit as to when you 'll have to meet with them. And with the Planning Board, we'd like to have updates on the development in the Town and any problems that may be arising so that the whole Board knows exactly what' s going on . The one thing is that the State is changing all the Code Enforcement Laws right now and I'm wondering what your ideas for training and how much time you have for this position and why you are seeking the position . H. Bernhardt: I am running a consulting business up here at my home. I find that I have spare time, and I've been using it for fixing my barns and all that stuff. I went to high school here when it was on Main Street. I left for 30 years and came back and bought VanMarter's (??) place and all that land around there. Raised some beef cows, did some other things. You 've seen my resume I believe. I'm not the type of person that likes to work on my farm all by myself. I like to get out and meet the public. I know fire prevention; I was a fire chief for several years. I was an EMT for several years - in fact five years and I just didn't want to go through all the work it took to get recertified. And there were other reasons. I didn't like dealing with accidents. I was Chairman of First Aid for Red Cross for several years. I've always been active in organizations. I'm a people person . I like to get out there . One of the things I've noticed in the past in Groton was you apply for something and you get a permit to do this or that and they give you a big stack and you look through it and you find out that none of it's really appropriate for what you want to do, and they say well, plug it in wherever you can. And I think that the Code Enforcement Officer could spend more time explaining to people, maybe help them out a little bit. I get along with people. Otherwise, I don't know. I'd just like to get out and meet with people. M. Carey: And with training, have you had any training? H. Bernhardt: Well, what training' s available through the County or the Town? M. Carey: The State's going to be offering a bunch of training. Right, Glenn? G. Morey: Well, over the next couple years that are going to institute new State-wide regulations. Basically, they want all CEO's certified on the same level. Basically, it's all new Building Codes, paint issues, electrical issues, fire prevention issues with smoke detectors and sprinkler systems, things like that. Basically, you will have to be certified in each field now. You 'll have a school for fire Page 5 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 prevention, insulation, things like that. They want you to be certified in each and every category. And that' s what's going to be happening for the next couple of years. So you'll be going to school. H. Bernhardt: So you're not looking for someone who' s certified in this now? I mean if a person's certified in it now, why would he be applying for this job, you know? Basically, I think it' s a good question . G. Morey: Well, there's two people who are certified right now . H. Bernhardt: Is that right? G. Morey: One that does the Village of Groton and Freeville. And the other one owns a consulting firm. I think the guy who owns the consulting firm does many towns. H. Bernhardt: I would be willing to go to school and get certified. It's not a case of I don't have time, but it's like with all the projects I've had up there and the building permits I've applied for, and the design work I've done and then built additions on my barn, corn cribs, upgraded all my electricity, and just recently did it again for the buildings out there where I now have 200 amps going not only to the house which I did ten years ago, I'm sure there's a lot of things to learn . You can learn every day. As far as certifications, no, I don't have any certifications. I was safety director for Borg Warner for three years, corporate safety director, those types of things. Fire extinguishers are fire extinguishers and you 've got to have exit signs and things like this. I know that the Code book for the State is about yea thick already. Let me say this, as an engineer they taught us how to use the things that were in these books which we eventually bought and everything and taught us how to find them. But they didn't expect us to remember them . Lawyers, they learn all about law and they got a whole wall full of books. They can't remember all that. They just got to know where to go to look for it. I think that anything that has to do with Code Enforcement, it would be ridiculous for a Code Enforcement Officer to be asked a question and right off' the top of his head say oh, yes, here's the answer. They've got to look it up first to make sure you're right or it hasn't changed. It's all available. But that's where I'm coming from. M. Carey: Any questions from the rest of the people? B. Albro: How would you deal with a neighbor that had vehicles out there for sale or that set there for quite awhile with no plates or any registrations on it? H. Bernhardt: I got I think, in my opinion , one of the worst neighbors in Groton right now . But I tolerate him. Live with him. How would I act as Code Enforcement Officer? I was a police officer for awhile . Got assaulted and shot and all these things. I said hey, I've had enough of this. You have to confront them and explain to them what the Code is, that you're only allowed one car, that type of thing, and you're going to have to do something with the other ones. Give him a reasonable time for you to come back and they've got to be gone . T. Guihan: Then what? H. Bernhardt: Serve them with papers. But I would first discuss it with the Planning Board or with the Town Board. I don't think a Code Enforcement Officer should go off and do things on his own without talking to somebody first. And he works for the Town , so - I think the hardest part of this job is, you know, you have to treat everybody the same, whether you like them or don't like them or whatever. You have to treat them all the same. They're all entitled to the same rights, even if somebody lives near or bordering my land . I wouldn't want them building something there, but they're still entitled to do that. So you can't do anything to them for that. They're entitled to do that. I have a neighbor that I go out there twice a year and take him by the hand and lead him out there in my pasture . I say, see all this garbage? This is a dead-end road. The only people this can be coming from is you . I'd like to have you clean it up. He cleans it up. Calls me up and asks me to come back and look at it. But twice a year I've got to go back to him and tell him. I've been doing that for a long time . Page 6 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 B. Albro: How would you handle him not dumping it at all rather than having to take him twice a year out there to clean it up? H. Bernhardt: You mean not dumping, or not cleaning it up? B. Albro: Not dumping at all. H. Bernhardt: I'd have to go back to him. It becomes an unsafe condition. It's like you can't have garbage, you can't have junk laying around your yard . But that' s a subjective thing, you know, for somebody else to look out there - hey, that's terrible, I don't like that. But you may not be really not conforming, you know. I've complained about things. There are dogs, they run loose. We have dog law. We pay taxes for the SPCA. They chase my cows. For three years this has been going on . Finally I got the SPCA up there last week and said, hey, see that dog chasing my cows out there? And they happened to be doing it just as she was there . So she went and warned him again . He's been warned I don't know how many times. But you have to come back and discuss it with the Planning Board, the Town Board again . Here's a condition we got. And we've had one here in Groton for a long time, over here where people brought, can't remember their name, where they brought in envelopes and tried to recover the stamps off of them, but they never got rid of the envelopes. And it was right on the end of Cobb Street, a little road that goes down through there. They lived in there. They're both passed away. The Town even cleaned it up once, but it got right back to where it was before. As a Code Enforcement Officer, I personally wouldn't do anything to them until I discussed it with Glenn or with you folks. M. Carey: Anymore questions from the Board? Glenn? G. Morey: No. Bob, do you have any questions for us? H. Bernhardt: No, not really. It's probably the main question I suppose somebody might ask, and it doesn't make any difference to me - what are you paying for this, how many hours are involved, but I don't need to know that. G. Morey; Well, Bob, it' s 14-9 that's in the budget this year. George Senter is the acting CEO right now and George also does the Village of Freeville and the Village of Groton, and he works from 8 until 10 and goes on the road . He drives the roads doing inspections during the day. And Mark Gunn used to come here at 2 o'clock and stay up till about 5 and go do the roads after the fact after that. He worked four to five hours a day. H. Bernhardt: Four to five hours a day. So you're talking a little over half time or something like that. Unless you're an avid TV watcher or something, that doesn't present a problem. I have no more questions. M. Carey: Okay. We thank you for coming and we'll be in touch . H. Bernhardt: You all have a good evening. Candidate #3 - Jamie Babcock G. Morey: The next one's Jamie Babcock. M. Carey: Hi, Jamie. I'm Monica Carey, Chairperson of the Planning Board, and I'll let everybody introduce themselves. J. Fftch: Joan Fitch, Board Secretary. G. Van Slyke: You know me. M. Carey: He' s retiring, so you don't need to know him. Page 7 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 T. Guiliano Tom Guihan, Planning Board, Be Albro: Brad Albro, Planning Board , M. Gloster: Mary Gloster. Be Clark: Barbara Clark. M. Baxendell: Mark Baxendell, Planning Board, T. Randall: Tyke Randall, Town Board, D. Scheffler: Don Scheffler, Town Board, S. Clark: Sheldon Clark, Town Board. G. Morey: Glenn Morey, Town Supervisor. M. Carey: Thanks. Okay, the first thing is you will be expected to attend all the Planning Board, ZBA meetings and Town Board meetings. The Planning Board meets the third Thursday of every month at 7 :30 and , basically, what we want you to do for us is to kind of keep us up to date on the development in the Town and any problems that may be arising in the Town or whatever. So would that be any problem? J. Babcock: No. M. Carey: Okay. Also , the State is revising all of their Building Codes and you will need to go for training to get updated on all this, and we're wondering how much time you have available to go for training, how much time you have to spend with this position, and why you' re seeking the position? J. Babcock: Currently, right now, I have all the time in the world to do it. I'm in between; I work part time right now at Goodhope Youth Home, and I'm also the Assistant Chief over here. I live right here in the Village and I'm willing to go ahead and take extra classes or go back to school and do all this if need be. M. Carey: Do you have any training? J. Babcock: As of right now , no. The only thing I have is I was in construction in high school. I had a summertime job working for a construction outfit. He used to be the superintendent for the Village of Virgil, Al Stevens. I don't know if you ' re familiar with him, but he was my boss during the summertime. That' s the only experience I have . But, like I said, I'm willing to go to school and willing to get updated on all the codes and do what I need to do. M . Carey: And Glenn can explain the Town Board's end of it. G. Morey: Jamie, basically what you do for the Town Board is you'd come every second Tuesday of every month to report on all the permits you issued or some of the problems you dealt with. I see that you have a civil engineering degree from Syracuse University? J. Babcock: No, I don't. G. Morey: I'm sorry, I got the wrong one . What about the codes that you have that deal with the fire department? J. Babcock: Right now, the only thing I really know through the fire department is just like the minimal of the fire codes with the extinguishers and stuff like that. I've also been in touch with ?? Page 8 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 about going to the academy to get more training for the codes. So I just put a call into the guy at the academy the other day to find out when the next class is. I'm just waiting for him to call me back. M. Carey: So you're willing to go for all types of training? J. Babcock: Oh , yes. M . Carey: That' s very important. J. Babcock: I'm very reasonable to work with . I'm flexible to what hours I can do or whatever. M. Carey: How are you with people? Especially uncooperative types of people. J. Babcock: As Assistant Chief over there I have to deal with all kinds of personnel within the fire department and I also deal with community, back and forth. Presentation is my number one concern through the fire department, the way we present ourselves to the community and the way they perceive us back is really important. We have an image to uphold and if we don't uphold that image, then people will think we're not doing our job. So it' s very important. M. Carey: Right. Questions from the rest of you folks? S. Clark: What else do you do during the day? J. Babcock: I was currently at Louis Gossett as a division aide. I stepped down from that and I went track to Goodhope as a part-time there, trying to go back to school . I'm eventually going to go back to school . This is one thing I'm trying to do. I'm trying to keep myself within the confines of here especially with me being Assistant Chief over there. I'd like to stay around this area. Pretty much that and try to go back to school . T. Randall: Do you have any other job applications out right now? J. Babcock: Right now the only other one I got out presently I also put another job application back in at George Junior, just for some part-time work to pick up a little part-time work here just so I can keep a little bit of an income coming in . T. Randall: If you got that job, would you be able to do this job too? J. Babcock: Yes, I would . M. Carey: Anyone - else have questions? Be Clark: What are you hoping to go back to school for? J. Babcock: Well, I'd like to broaden my range of everything. Be Clark: What do you want to study? J. Babcock: Well, right now through the fire service I want to get updated with all the codes and stuff. Eventually, there's a nice arson program that they got and the arson awareness program is you have to really know a lot of the codes and a lot of the safety features and stuff like that. So that' s one of the major things I want to go back for too is to do arson. And if I go back to do arson , I can still do this on the side also because of the flexibility of the hours of that too . And, hopefully, I'll get in with Ithaca and Rich Treacy, who is a member of the Ithaca Fire Department, I can kind of team up with him to do that stuff, arson stuff. And that's where the codes and that come hand in hand through the academy. Be Albro: Would you actually work for Ithaca Fire, or would it be a county? Page 9 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 J. Babcock: I'm hoping it would kind of - I'm hoping if I do it right, Jack Miller and through the County, I'm hoping to get myself in that way. I really don't want to work for the fire department because I like doing the volunteer stuff, but I always have this saying that once you become paid you kind of lose the reward you get back because then you just think of it as a job. You don't think of it as really doing anything to help. So no, I don't want to go back and work for the fire department. T. Randall: You're pretty easy-going and a pretty decent person . You've got to be tough sometimes. Are you able to do that? J. Babcock: Oh , yes. Like with the personnel within the fire department - I keep referring to them because that' s kind of like the only kind of leadership role I have right now where I have to oversee people and kind of deal with people on a day-to-day basis. I've had to deal with a few people within our personnel and, unfortunately, it had to be resolved with some suspensions, but I had to deal with that because if I didn't deal with it, other people would follow suit. You 've got to keep a balance, and that' s what I've been trying to do is keep a balance between people feuding. I'm willing to deal with people. I know how people are going to get. Everybody' s told me it' s a rough job to have . M. Carey: Do you have any questions for us? J. Babcock: Other than what I need to do, if I do get the job, how do I need to go about getting the education or - I know I need to go to the schools and stuff, but how' s it like going to help me, benefit me more when I go to the school? Is there anyway - do you guys have a program where I pay for half and you pay for half or some type of assistance there at all? G. Morey: We pay for all the courses. We're very fortunate in the last couple of years so we didn't have to spend any money as they already had the courses so we sort of benefited on that. But we do have money for programs. J. Babcock: Because I know through the fire department, if I go through the academy, the fire department will pay for that too . So that' s why I'm looking both ways so if I need to I can just go right through the fire department. M. Carey: Anybody else have any more questions for Jamie? Do you have any questions for us? J. Babcock: No, that was it. M. Carey: Well, thank you for coming and Glenn will be in touch . Candidate #4 - Kristine Rice G. Morey: The next candidate is Kristine Rice. M. Carey: You can sit down. K. Rice: Wasn't sure if you were going to grill me standing up. M. Carey: I'm Monica Carey and I'm Chairperson of the Planning Board. And I'll let the rest of the folks introduce themselves. J. Fitch: Joan Fitch, Board Secretary, G. Van Slyke: George Van Slyke, Planning Board , T. Guihan: Tom Guihan, Planning Board . B. Albro: Brad Albro, Planning Board . Page 10 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 M. Gloster: Mary Gloster, Planning Board. Be Clark: Barbara Clark, Planning Board , M. Baxendell: Mark Baxendell, Planning Board. T. Randall: Tyke Randall, Town Board. D. Scheffler: Don Scheffler, Town Board . S. Clark: Sheldon Clark, Town Board. G. Morey: Glenn Morey, Town Supervisor, K. Rice: Nice to meet all of you . M. Carey: Okay. The first thing is that you 'll be expected to attend all of the Planning Board meetings, the ZBA, and the Town Board. The Planning Board meets the third Thursday of every month at 7:30 and, basically, we just want to be updated on what' s happening in the Town , the new development that' s going on, and any problems that you foresee arising in the Town . Would you have any problems with coming to meetings? K. Rice: None of them are on Mondays are they? G. Morey : The Town Board meets on the second Tuesday. M. Carey: And the ZBA meets whenever, which isn't too often . Looking at your resume it looks like you've had quite a bit of training. K. Rice: A little, yes. M. Carey: Now, you' re Assistant Director of the Building 8s Planning? K. Rice: Building 8s Zoning, M. Carey: In Ithaca? K. Rice: Yes, the Town of Ithaca, not the City. M. Carey: Okay. So you 've had quite a bit of training on code enforcement laws and you sort of know basically what you would be doing with this position? K. Rice: Yes, I have my Code Enforcement Certificate with the State already, and I do my annual continuing education credits. I'm through the first set of the new International Code training and patiently waiting for the State to decide when they are doing the last part of that . M. Carey: Okay. Now, you'll be able to put time towards this job? K. Rice: Yes. I get home about 4 o'clock. I don't know how that works out this job. G. Morey: Mark used to work from two o'clock and would either go directly to site visits or come into the office to do paperwork and then go out to a site. He worked from two to six every day and then go home. And he'd meet with contractors at night during the summer, of course. He put in somewhere between four and five hours a day. K. Rice: I don't know if I'm going to have four to five hours a day, but I do it full-time right now too and I feel a lot of the paperwork stuff I'm going to be in a more timely fashion than somebody Page 11 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 who's only done it part time in the past. There's a lot of resources at work, bookwise, and I can use those too . M. Carey: So what led you to seek this position in Groton? K. Rice: Well, Mark asked me about applying before he left, when you first found out he was leaving back in May or June . And I was a little worried about the time constraints so I didn't. And then he mentioned it to me again later on that he thought I should apply, so I did. M. Carey: So now with your Ithaca job do you go out and work with the people so that you have worked with some very difficult, uncooperative people? K. Rice: Oh , yes. I spent my entire day working with difficult people . We do a lot of field inspections for building construction and also fire safety. T. Guihan: Do you work with Tracy from the Town of Ithaca? K. Rice: We don't have a Tracy in our department. M. Carey: Anyone else have questions? G. Morey: Kristina, what expectations do you have for the Town of Groton? I mean it's not anything like the Town of Ithaca. You've got more rooted people here than they do in the Town of Ithaca. K. Rice: I'm really not sure. I mean I've lived in Groton my whole life, but for the actual job I know it's going to be more residential than what we do in Ithaca. We deal with rural areas there. So I'm not really sure. M. Carey: Other questions? Be Albro: Would you have four hours a day or more? K. Rice: Some days. I also teach EMT classes, so on the nights that I teach I wouldn't be able to commit four hours on that particular night. But I'm not opposed to time Saturday mornings either, and I know that makes contractors very happy for some inspections. T. Randall: Yes, but it also doesn't make them very happy if you don't get to the jobsite until four and they want to leave at five , either. K. Rice: Very true. T. Randall: I was a contractor so that' s from experience. K. Rice: 1 do that now. They can have the footers ready at 4 :30 and they want to pour at five and I leave at 3 :30. You just have to work it out. Hopefully, if they know ahead of time I'm not available until 4 o'clock for an inspection, then most of the time contractors can schedule it that way, as long as it's not a surprise to them. Be Clark: What are the regular hours that you work now? K. Rice: 7:30 to 3:30 for Ithaca. G. Van Slyke: Okay, that kind of leads to my question then. Are you going to - I assume you're going to continue your job in the Town of Ithaca. K. Rice: Yes, Page 12 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 G. Van Slyke: And do this on the side? K. Rice: Yes. I would love to be able to afford not to do that. M. Carey: Does anyone have any more questions? Do you have any questions for us? K. Rice: Other than timewise, if you think that four to five hours a day is going to be a necessary thing for every evening. G. Morey: All I can tell you is that my experience involves - when I was here and Mark was working here and doing paperwork and then he'd be off inspecting a job. The gentleman we have right now is a part-time temporary person. He's here at least two hours in the morning and then he goes out and inspects. It's George Senter and he does Freeville and the Village . So I couldn't tell you . I guess what we have to do is I think is the contractors are our customers and we have to meet their needs too. If they want to pour eight o'clock in the morning and you can't inspect it until five o'clock the next day, it' s kind of tough this time of year. I know Mark did a lot of phone calls over the answering machine and things like that. Communication you can do any time of the day. K. Rice: Yes, you can. Cell phones are wonderful things. I guess my only other question is how would everybody feel if I had the job and did a lot of the paperwork stuff at home so I didn't have to be necessarily sitting in the office? G. Morey: That would be fine. The computer is set up with all the codes in NYS - K. Rice: I have that at home , too . G. Morey : We have form letters here to use. But you can work anywhere you want to. But we'd really like to see you though. K. Rice: Oh , yes. My intent, if I had the job, would probably be to come into the office a couple times a week, checking the machine daily or a couple times a day. I could do that on my lunch break in Ithaca, and answer phone calls daily. I could then do the paperwork and reviews at home. I have the resources at home to do that just as easily as here. M. Carey: So does anybody else have anymore questions? Well, thank you for coming in and Glenn will be in touch with you . K. Rice: Thank you . Candidate #5 - Douglas Staley G. Morey: The next candidate is Doug Staley, M. Carey: Hi. Go ahead and sit down . D. Staley: Is this the hot seat? M. Carey: Yes, it's the hot seat right there. I'm Monica Carey, Chairperson of the Planning Board, and I'll let everybody else introduce themselves. J. Fitch: Joan Fitch, Board Secretary, G. Van Slyke: George Van Slyke, Planning Board. T. Guihan: Tom Guihan, Planning Board . B. Albro: Brad Albro, Planning Board. Page 13 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 M. Gloster: Mary Gloster, Planning Board. B. Clark: Barbara Clark, Planning Board. M . Baxendell: Mark Baxendell, Planning Board. T. Randall: Tyke Randall, Town Board. D . Scheffler: Don Scheffler, Town Board. S. Clark: Sheldon Clark, Town Board. G. Morey: Glenn Morey, Town Supervisor. M. Carey: Okay. First thing is that you will be expected to attend all the Planning Board meetings, ZBA and Town Board meetings. The Planning Board meets the third Thursday of every month at 7: 30, and basically we want to be updated as to what's happening in the Town, any new developments, any problems that may be arising that our Board needs to be aware of. Glenn can fill you in as to what they expect for the Town Board meeting. The ZBA has met only once in the last two years, so they don't meet too very often. Now, you do Code Enforcement now as part of your job? D. Staley: Yes, I do. M. Carey: So you've had the training on the New State Codes? D. Staley: As much as there is at the present time. I've been doing this for about fifteen years and I teach the codes as well. I'm a certified instructor for the State Codes. Not in the new ones because nobody knows what's going on with the new ones. There's a lot that's changing. They thought it was going to take place in January and it won't take place until at least April 1s` right now. M. Carey: Okay. Now are you going to have any time constraints meeting any of these meetings? D. Staley: No, I usually , ask for a liaison officer, somebody to - either the Supervisor or Town Councilperson - to chat with because usually, on a day-to- day basis because if you've got a problem, sometimes you can nip it in the bud and resolve it. M. Carey: Why are you seeking the position in Groton? You live in - D. Staley: I have a business. We have Life Safety Consultants, and we do 30 communities in New York State from the Pennsylvania border to Lake Ontario. This one' s close so this is something for me. We do a varied amount. I have a staff of seven. They work for me and we do municipalities and we handle programs all over. We're professional code enforcement. G. Van Slyke : Okay, I guess my question is then, if that's the case, there's a possibility then that whoever is working here in Groton could possibly be any one of the seven personnel that you have? D. Staley: We figure it would be me unless - what I do George, is if I 'm sick or on vacation, I have somebody that covers for me. G. Van Slyke : But you would be the main - D . Staley: I would be the main one at this point, yes. Do you have a lot going on that requires a Board meeting on a monthly basis? Is that why somebody reports to you on a monthly basis? M. Carey: We don't have a lot going on, but we would like to be informed as to what' s happening in the Town and just discussing all the codes and stuff, and keeping us updated basically for our Board. If we don't have anything going on, I do cancel meetings. Page 14 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 G. Morey : The Planning Board needs you as an advisory source . D . Staley: All right. I was trying to get a feel for where you were at. G. Morey: You might have to review a subdivision. And there's a lot of rules and regulations that do come up here. Most likely a person coming in for a property line change gets confused and don't understand what they're talking about. Basically, you're advising them at the Board meeting. There's a lot of issues that come up and you need to see us a couple times a month. D . Staley: We have some sheets like a Site Plan Review, with a checklist. You probably have this as well. We go through pretty much a step-by- step procedure so it pretty much tells you what' s cooking on it as far as anything in there . We usually have a slot for anything that comes in so we can pick our mail up . I don't know if that's what you do here or what. With each municipality there's always something going on. B. Albro : What happens if you have a problem with another municipality and you can't be here? D . Staley: Somebody would sub for me if I couldn't be here . Most of the time I would be here. I only cover a few myself and I'm the boss, so I can tell them where I will go . I got hurt in a tractor accident so I was out for a couple weeks during the spring, so somebody covered for me . B. Albro: So you keep them up to par on what you are doing here? D. Staley: Yes. T. Randall: So would you be here on a daily basis, or would you stick to a schedule? D. Staley: Whatever the municipality is asking for. A lot of times it depends on the number of building permits you got and whatever's happening because you're required to be here a certain amount of time, and then you have fire inspections as well. And this is pretty much your bible. Your local law for administration enforcement really has all the context in there for whatever sets your parameter for your regulations, whatever you're going by. I don't know what time you have to spend in here - one day a week, two days a week, whatever's required for the time I don't know. Every day? I don't know. G. Morey: Well, the current person who is doing the acting, and the previous person, were here five days a week. D. Staley: I have no idea how much you even - G. Morey : George Senter is here from 8 until 10 in the morning and then goes and inspects. Mark was here from 2 to 5 daily to inspect and do paperwork. D. Staley: And this position will replace one or both? G. Morey: Just one . D. Staley: George is retiring, is that what's - G. Morey: George is acting Code Enforcement Officer right now. T. Randall: Another question that comes to mind, we're - we have a budget appropriated for the position. Your business, do you have set fees? In other words do you have a set amount you would want from this township? Page 15 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 D. Staley: Whatever you have for your fees. The only thing that I encourage in a lot of municipalities that we do so that whatever the income, it takes at least 80% of the outflow. You never get to 100% because you have to pay for heat, lights, and whatever else. We encourage municipalities to take a look at their building permit fees and site plan fees, and you have the legal fees as well as whatever else that you're incurring on the newspaper - to review that. We try to get them up there. A lot of times municipalities, when we get in there, I still had some when we first started who had a $5 building permit fee. You try to operate a municipality and the general public is paying for it. It's not fair for them to be paying for the building permit fee; it should be the users that are using the fire inspections, which are mandated and you are pretty much stuck with as far as recouping that by yourself. And your local laws are something that you've made and you have to go from there as part of the cost of doing business, but the building permit fees a lot of times are low and we encourage them - do you have to do it, no . But we do have a scale from 0 to 100 that somebody takes a look at. And we encourage them to take a look at some local laws and see whether they need updating. We have a lot to offer municipalities. When somebody's changing, we usually have a couple from the Planning Board, a couple from the Zoning Board, maybe a couple from the Town Board as a committee to revise your regulations to take a look at them and then go from there. And then we have copies from other municipalities so it kind of gives you a little bit of seeing where everybody else is, trying to put you on an even keel. As you've seen in your municipality, you kind of have a little bit of notoriety whether you like it or not. Everybody kind of follows suit with the adult situation. Most of my municipalities immediately after yours enacted local laws to stop it; if you don't have one, you're stuck. Fortunately for you your situation was reversed. I 've had some real weird ones. After that situation, I had a lot of municipalities that all of a sudden they are taking a look at that or having a moratorium or something real quick to stop that type of thing. The same thing with telecommunication towers. That's one of the hot topics. You can regulate them as to where, but you can't tell them that they can't come in. And sometimes the Z word doesn't always make friends. G. Morey: And what are your feelings about cell towers? Can you regulate each usage to that tower? D. Staley: I 'll use Preble for example. What we did on there for the local law we adopted for that one was require multiple use. There had to be at least four on there before they could go and start another one. You've seen so many that sporadically they've had one for Sprint, one for Quest, Frontier - everybody wants one. Well, if you make them co-locate, at least you can have some type of control over it as to where and - how many as much as you can. The FCC guidelines that you have on there means you're pretty well stuck. You're going to have one, it's a matter of where you guys allow them to go . In the case of Preble, it's industrial only, so that put the parameters as to where it could go . I had told them that it would probably be six months to a year and they would be coming in. And if they come in to get a permit and there's no regulations, you're stuck. You can't create something overnight as you very well know. As you go down in Preble you see the lights blinking and it's not too far away, and that's where they ended up with one. And right, wrong, or indifferent, the only thing that was good about it was they made them co-locate for four to resolve it. But once the four are full, then we're looking at the next one. It's a difficult situation. You never make everybody happy. Probably in the municipal government you see, there are three positions, dog catcher, assessor, and the code officer who will never make the people happy. It's just part of the job. And when somebody has to say no, or they got to clean up their junk, or they got to - or they can't build unless they get a permit - you're not there to make friends. You're there to make the best of a bad situation. Ninety percent of the people will voluntarily comply. I 've seen it time and time again. The other ten percent it wouldn't make any difference if you flipped them upside down or right side up. There again, in zoning you tell them what they're going to do . It's unfortunate, but it's the ballgame that you're in. And it doesn't make people happy when you tell them that. I sit on a committee for NYS Fire Chiefs. I have been a past chief and I 'm on the Life Safety Committee for the codes. We're involved in a fiasco at the time and the International Code is coming in in January and the fire service put up a 218 questions of things they wanted to have changed that were still in the NYS Code. In the realm of what it is, there was a lot of people who either got hurt or killed or died for what's in the green book for what's in the context. The International Code that' s coming in is somewhat of a looser context in some parts and some not. As an example in there, a new house now with the existing Code, if you put a house in with an attached garage, you have to put 5/ 8 sheetrock on the wall, fire-rated door and fire-rated closure. In the new Code they took out the closure, they took out the 5 / 8s and reduced it to half. Well, why do Page 16 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 it? And so the fire service said we aren't letting you do that. There's too many lives that are lost. These are some of the things in there that they've had. There's an egress window on a new house that's 4 square foot. In the new code it's going to be 5 . 7. So there's some things that are changing. They're going to allow some more plastic plumbing. Then there are the California regulations as far as seismic; it's there so you're stuck with seismic regulations as well. M. Baxendell: Banks are still requiring a sign-off for commercial structures. D. Staley: Yes, there's some odd things that are in there. There was 218 or 220 things right now. The reason it's stalled is because the fire service is entrenched in there and not allowing some of the changes. They want to allow four-story buildings. We set around here and look around the counties and count how many municipalities have ladder trucks to reach this height. Departments with a 25 or 30-foot ladder are not going to reach a four- story building. Water pressure; those things are in there . It's a pro- active approach rather than a re- active when the bell goes off. M. Carey: Anybody else have questions? B. Albro : Would you be comfortable with four hours a day? D. Staley: We would operate under the budget. If we saw something, we would go to the Town and say after some time you really can't judge something off the cover and say after a year you'd have to take a look. And at the budget time, usually in September, if we thought it should be different we would go to the Town Board or you people and make some suggestions as to what needed to take place. Maybe less. Maybe more. Depending on what your activity is. You'll find that with more rural communities they are becoming bedroom communities so you're seeing that come. Whether the recession will activate that again and we'll take the plunge or whether we'll come back up . In the high 80s we were doing a lot of building construction. On the lakes, we're still doing a lot of them. Money is absolutely no object there. We're seeing it all over . And you go to other communities and there's hardly anything cooking. Is Thoma doing any grants? Do you have a HUD grant that's in process? G. Morey : Yes, we just got a $400, 000 rehabilitation. D. Staley: So there's some building permits that will be activated under that. G. Morey : Probably about 25 next year . D . Staley: Normally what we've done, because I have - Freetown and Harford in Cortland County, we give them a building permit when they do their process too . We actually give them a Certificate of Occupancy or a Certificate of Compliance. But you've got to check them. We do that because we've found some things that didn't get done - smoke detectors when they did the wiring, etc. Sometimes we even get foundation, well, septic, interior carpentry, plumbing, and we take a look at whatever's going on there and give them that type of thing. It gives a kind of check and balance so somebody doesn't miss something. M. Carey: Anymore questions? Do you have any questions for us? D . Staley: Timewise, I don't know. You said something that's going to be opened up January 1 . Glenn, is there a time element on this that it's opening up? G. Morey : What we'd like to do is as quickly as possible. So I think by next month. Either way, we'll get in touch with everybody. D . Staley: Okay. M. Carey: Thanks for coming over . D. Staley: Thank you. I appreciate the time . Page 17 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 Candidate #6 - George Senter, Sr. M. Carey: Hi, George . You know everybody. G. Senter: I know everybody. M. Carey: What interests you in this job? G. Senter: Just the people, I guess. I like the Town of Groton. Seriously, I do . I'm a people person. I work with people well, I think, and I explain the Code to people . I don't tell them what they have to do; I tell them why they have to do it, or I try to . And that goes a long way in helping to soothe things. You catch a lot more flies with sugar than you do crap. That' s the way I approach the job . M. Carey: I think you know most of what the job requires. You know about the Board meetings and you know - G. Senter: Yes. Been here, done that. I've done this job for six or seven years, whatever it was. M . Baxendell: And you want it back again. G. Senter: There' s a reason for that, but I won't elaborate on it here . M. Carey: Well, does anybody have any questions? G. Morey: Yes. Did you get your application in? G. Senter: Yes. G. Morey: Because I don't have it. G. Senter: Yes, I gave it to - she has it. G. Morey : Do you have any questions for the Board and the Board? G. Senter: No, I know what's happening, I think, pretty much. I know everybody. When it comes time, I have a slight project I'd like to bring up. M. Carey: Well, if nobody has any questions for George, we might as well close our interviews. You all are welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. J. Fitch: Maybe before you get going we should let everyone know that we have a little bit of a get together planned for George - he doesn't know about it. We've got coffee and cake and we'd like everyone to stay. Duane & Kevin Tillotson, ROs - Davis Road - TM #29- 1 -7 2 - Subdivision of Land M. Carey: Mahlon is first on the agenda. Mahlon, do you know George Senter? He's our temporary Code Enforcement Officer. M. Perkins: Yes. M. Carey: We've been working on subdividing this Tillotson property over on LaFayette Road and Davis Road. G. Senter: I know where it's at. Page 18 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 M. Carey: And Mahlon has a new proposal before us. Do you want to explain this to the Board? M . Perkins: This proposal involves parcel 7 which is on Davis Road. It's generally a rectangular parcel that sticks out there behind some other properties. And previously you approved what I labeled Parcel G, sort of in the middle of the three along the road, the three small lots along the road. That was previously approved and that was conveyed to Tillotson's sister and her husband. M. Carey: That just happened about a year ago . M. Perkins: And the proposal now is to further subdivide this same parcel into J , K, and L. Two building lots along the road, J and K, and then the remaining parcel L which would be much larger. I think they all meet all the requirements of your Code and everything. And I finally got the surveys so I can give you the exact acreages here. M . Baxendell: You're looking for three parcels tonight? M. Perkins: That's right. M. Baxendell: So all we have to focus on is J , K, and L. J is a 1 .3 acre with 290± road frontage on Davis Road. M. Perkins: Well, actually it turns out, according to the survey, 1 .78 acres and 335 feet of frontage. And then K is 290 feet with 1 . 53 acres. M . Baxendell: What's left on L for road frontage? M. Perkins: 53 . 32 acres with 292 feet of road frontage. M. Carey: So everything's proper. Have you got someone that's interested in L? M. Perkins: Yes, we have someone who' s interested in L. M. Baxendell: And K and J are just additional lots for sale? M . Perkins: Yes. M. Carey: We don't want to close that off because we'll end up landlocking it. G. Morey : Is there a house on the G lot right now? M. Perkins: No, there's a pole barn. The house is actually across the road. They live across the road. B. Albro: Is this a hilly area? M. Perkins: It sort of slopes down. M. Carey: Up along the road is pretty flat then it kind of slopes down. G. Morey : So basically the land back here is not developable. M. Carey: It could be. It's fairly dry land there. Isn't there a creek down at the bottom of it? B. Albro : This is the north side of the road, right? M. Carey: No, it' s the south side of Davis Road, Page 19 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 M . Perkins: So everything slopes. M. Baxendell: I have no problems with it. It makes sense to me, making the best use of the road frontage that there is. M. Carey: Anybody have any questions for Mahlon? Well, George, are you going to do one of your last two SEQRs? He's got one more to do besides this one. Board Member George Van Slyke then reads aloud Part II of the Short Environmental Assessment Form. Negative responses were obtained to all questions in Part II. Therefore, it was determined by the Planning Board, upon the motion made by Member Barbara Clark, seconded by Member Brad Albro, with all members present voting in favor, that the action, based on the information submitted, will not cause any significant adverse environment impact, resulting in a Negative Declaration. This becomes Action # 26 of 2001 . M. Carey: Who would like to make the motion to approve this subdivision for Duane and Kevin Tillotson? M. Baxendell: I make a motion we approve the subdivision, as requested. T. Guiliano I'll second it. M. Carey: All in favor? (All Board members present indicated in the affirmative. ) Carried. Anthony Zarachowicz. RO - Spring Street Extension - TM #25 - 1 - 11 2 - ECHO Housing Unit M. Carey: Okay, I'm Monica Carey, Tony Z. : Monica, I 'm Tony Zarachowicz in case we've never met. M. Carey: I don't think we've ever met. Tony Z. : Call me Tony Z. M. Carey: Okay, first on the thing here is - on the maps - where exactly are you looking to put this house? Oh, okay, it' s just basically just behind your house. Tony Z. : Just behind, as an L- shape . The ECHO unit would be placed - right now we're looking at - let me back up. We're not applying to have an ECHO unit from the County put in here. The story is, we sold our home in the Village, needed a place to live temporarily while we pursue building a new home. The easiest way or the quickest way out was picking up a double-wide for me wife and me and my son who is a student at TC3 and, since we have a two-family, find a place for grandma to go also. Because of the fact that we're not looking at staying in this place - we're not planning on staying on Spring Street any longer than 18 months to two years, I would be financially responsible to move the County unit when we left, no matter where we went. Our intentions are to stay in the Town of Groton somewhere, preferably on the other side of Route 38 because my wife works in Syracuse. So we're presently looking at manufactured housing units to serve as the ECHO unit for my mother-in-law, Phyllis Compton, who 's 69 years old, and it's a personal purchase. M. Carey: So your mother-in-law will be living in this double-wide? Page 20 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 Tony Z. : In the single-wide, and we will be living in the double-wide . M. Carey: What's on the lot now? A double-wide? Tony Z. : Nothing. G. Senter: I issued a Building Permit today to put a double-wide on there. M. Carey: Okay. And how big a home were you looking at putting in for your mother-in-law? Tony Z. : Right now, the regulations require that we keep it at 750 square feet. M. Carey: Right, Tony Z. : We would end up having to buy a brand new single-wide, special order, somewhere in the neighborhood of $26 -30, 000 . I am going to ask George, or appeal to the Board for - G. Senter: The ZBA, Tony Z. : The ZBA for a variance to allow up to a 14 by 70 , which is 920 square feet and allow us to purchase a previously owned unit; something that is less than ten years old, 1990 model year or newer. They are available. And this process is a stumbling block. We have the intentions of applying for an ECHO unit for my mother-in-law but, at the same time, George and I have already discussed the issue that I know what' s out there and in a short period of time I can pick up something that's previously owned, something that's a newer model, something that meets Code and meets insulation integrity. But financially, since it's coming out of our pocket, since we're paying for it, putting a previously owned unit in is much more economically feasible than trying to buy something brand new. T. Guihan: How many feet did you say that was, Tony, the one you're thinking of buying? Tony Z. : It's 14 by 70 - G. Senter: It' s 980, but that's counting the hitch. The hitch always adds more, so you're looking about 960 or something like that. Tony Z. : The hitch is considered four feet. M. Carey: All right, because as you saw in the Code, right now our Code says 750 square feet and so I would think that we would be able to give you approval, contingent upon ZBA's approval for a variance . Tony Z. : Okay, that's fine . Anything that you folks as a group can do to help us achieve this goal we would really appreciate. M. Carey: How does this Board feel? T. Guihan: As long as he gets ZBA approval. B. Clark: Is that setting a precedent, though? G. Senter: I don't think it matters. You don't set a precedent on this stuff. You can make a decision for one person, Barb, and it doesn't mean you have to make the same decision for anybody else . Each case stands on its own merit. That's the way you have to approach it. Tony Z. : And each one is a two-year permit only so that provides the Board with the option to decline renewal of a permit if there's been something that's not quite right or doesn't meet contingencies. One thing that we have done is the County has already issued the sewer permit for us and the sewer permit was drawn and developed based on the equivalent of a five-bedroom home, so Page 21 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 that covers not only the double-wide that we're planning on putting in, but also the manufactured unit that we would be putting in for our mother-in-law. G. Van Slyke: I guess I have one question. Down the road - you say you're only going to be there for a couple of years and you'll go elsewhere - I would assume that the primary home would stay there? Tony Z. : Yes. G. Van Slyke : Do you have intentions of moving the mobile home, the single-wide ECHO unit? Tony Z. : Yes. In fact, that's in the Town Code . If we leave as the primary property owner, that unit has to go with us or - G. Senter: It has to be restored to its original state. G. Van Slyke: Right, right. Okay. I just didn't want it to end up that the trailer ends up there. M. Carey: Now, George, we haven't dealt too much with the ECHO housing. Through the County, they are only 750 square feet is the largest size you can have, right? G. Senter: Yes, Mrs. Guy has one out on Champlin Road, M. Carey: Right. G. Senter: And she' s moving out of that at the end of this month, I think, so that's a modular and it has to be all taken down and everything restored back to the original status. And it's going to somebody else . M. Carey: Right. Because I was just wondering, on our books it says 750 square feet, whether we should consider changing the size of that. But if that's what the County has for these units, then we would leave that size, to kind of answer your question there, Barb. G. Senter: Becky Builderbeck, who used to be the boss down there at Better Housing, and I discussed the situation because our sizes didn't really meet, so we got together and got it all ironed out where theirs is the same as ours. Tony Z. : And, just to add, the ECHO units that the County has, and there's either four or five, I'm not exactly sure, they are a State pilot program and Tompkins County is the only County in any of the contingent counties that has units offered for elder cottages. The other counties - and I'm not certain that Cortland County even offers the program or has it built into their zoning where Tompkins does and that' s an incentive for us. M. Carey: I think that's why we put it in our Zoning Law was because the County was offering these homes. G. Senter: They've got a pretty good waiting list. Tony Z. : Yes, but the folks from Better Housing that I spoke with said there are times that they have to canvass outside of their waiting list because things change. If we knew that we were going to settle on the Spring Street property permanently, we would have applied for the County- owned unit and followed through with that. With us, time is an issue at this stage, so this is the best that we could come up with. M. Carey: Anybody else on the Board have any questions? George, are you ready for the SEQR? G. Van Slyke : Here we go again. Page 22 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 Board Member George Van Slyke then reads aloud Part II of the Short Environmental Assessment Form. Negative responses were obtained to all questions in Part II. Therefore, it was determined by the Planning Board, upon the motion made by Member Mark Baxendell, seconded by Member Brad Albro, with all members present voting in favor, that the action, based on the information submitted, will not cause any significant adverse environment impact, resulting in a Negative Declaration. This becomes Action #28 of 2001 . M. Carey: Any more questions? Somebody like to make a motion? G. Van Slyke: I make a motion that we approve the ECHO housing unit, as requested, subject to the approval of a unit-size variance from the Town Zoning Board of Appeals. T. Guihan: Second. M. Carey: All in favor? (All Board members present indicated they were in favor. ) Carried. You're all set except for meeting with the ZBA. This becomes Action # 29 of 2001 . Approval of Minutes - 20 September 2001 M. Carey: The next thing on the Agenda is to approve the Minutes for the September meeting. B. Clark: I make a motion that we accept the September 20 Minutes as written. B. Albro: Second. M. Carey: All in favor? (All members present indicated in the affirmative. ) Carried. This becomes Action # 30 of 2001 . Robert Walpole, RO - Walpole Road - TM # 321 -2-4 2 - Request for Access Letter M. Carey: Okay. George, you have something? G. Senter: Yes. Bob Walpole is unavailable to be here tonight, but he sent some maps over and I'll throw them out and try to explain exactly what's happening. This is in the Village, but there's a story behind it, so just wait a minute. We did this once before, long before Monica was on the Board, I believe. You take the second map - what this is is on Walpole Road in the Village . This is the lot that Ed Walpole used to own. Bob owns it now, I believe. My son lives here, and Joe Walpole lives here . J. Fitch: Here does not do much in the Minutes. G. Senter: Josephine Walpole owns this property right here. This first little block past Joe Walpole's is going to be a boundary line change in the Village to give that to Joe because he's been mowing it for years and years anyway. He sold this other lot. What he wants to do is get a subdivision in the Village . The first map I passed out has a pink line across the top; part of that is in Page 23 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 the Village and the other part is in the Town. And there's an access road here which is half of the extension of West Groton Road that was abandoned and given back to the taxpayers. M. Carey: Right. Because that road comes out up next to Herb Pitcher's (??) place. G. Senter: That' s right. The Town of Groton got this half, and this other half goes with this property. So he has a 25 or 30-foot ROW access road from the Village back to this lot and also to this little parcel in the Town. If you recall, you did John Pachai's and he had a 60' path into the Town from the Village, and all Bob's looking for from this Board is a letter stating that you have no problem with the access from the Village into this lot which is more Town than it is Village. Similar to John' s. M. Carey: Will this come out at the top of the hill? G. Senter: Yes. He's also going to get an easement to this property for future water and electric. He doesn't have this lot sold. He doesn't know if it will ever sell. But this lot here, that' s sold. Somebody's going to build a house up in here somewhere. So he has the easement so he can have access for that up into this lot up here in case it would ever sell. M. Carey: Because otherwise we're landlocking that little piece. G. Senter: Yes, and legally you can't do that in the State of New York. So what he's looking for is this access right here at the end of West Cortland Street which would all come into Ed Walpole's, which is Bob's now, I believe. It goes all the way back to this property here . M. Baxendell: So what you're telling me is where it stops being West Cortland Street, that has reversed back to a property owner. The Town has no claim on that. G. Senter: The Town has half of it and Ed Walpole got the other half and Bob owns that property now. M. Baxendell: So if he sells this yellow, then you've got a landlocked piece of property? G. Senter: Yes, he's getting a subdivision to break this little parcel from the Village off of this. Three-fourths of that's Town and a fourth looks like it's Village . Doesn't know if he'll ever sell that. It's going to cost some bucks to send water and sewer and everything up there. He wants a letter from you stating that the Town has no problem with him accessing the parcel in the Town from the Village. That' s similar to what you did for John Pachai; there's a letter in the file on the Pachai thing. Be Clark: So that's a 30-foot ROW back through there? G. Senter: Yes. It's about 30 foot, Barb. T. Guihan: That's a 60-foot right- of-way; half for the Town and half for the - G. Senter: It's 30; it's been abandoned and half went back to the Town and half back to him. T. Guihan: So there' s only 15 foot. G. Senter: No, there's 30 . It was either 50 or 60 before. All he's looking for is a letter from the Town saying they have no problem with him accessing that particular parcel from the Village . M. Carey: So, basically, they would go off the end of West Cortland Street and go right up through where that road used to be. G. Senter: Right, Be Clark: Can't they access it from up on Spring Street where Tichenor's - Page 24 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 M. Carey: There's a house there in front and this land would be kind of behind that house. And then it's all downhill. It's just a hill there. B. Clark: I used to ride houses up through that road and you could ride right on straight through. T. Guihan: Where is the road frontage for that lot, George, that you just put your finger on? G. Senter: There is none. M. Baxendell: There is no road frontage for the pink lot in the back that's part of the Village and mostly the Town. G. Senter: See, he's got to go through the Village to get approval of this because now this is a flag lot. The Village doesn't have such a thing, but they can go through the ZBA and get approval to do it. They did the same thing with John Pachai. He just wants a letter from the Town saying they have no problem with his accessing the Village property through that 30-foot ROW . M. Carey: And you can't build in the pole area of the flag lot. Now whoever buys that lot would have to maintain the driveway so fire trucks and ambulances could get up there. Anymore questions? Okay, we need approval for the letter to be written. B. Clark: I make a motion that we approve the letter giving permission to Mr. Walpole to access his Town property from his Village property. G. Senter: The Planning Board writes that letter, not me. G. Van Slyke : Second. M. Carey: All in favor? (All Board members present indicated in the affirmative. ) Carried. Other Business to Come Before the Board M. Carey: Anybody have anything else they'd like to bring before the Board? G. Morey : One thing - Mary, congratulations, you've been officially approved to be on the Planning Board. You'll be getting a letter to that effect. M. Gloster: Thank you. M. Carey: And I 'd like to thank George for serving with me all these years. We need to go into Executive Session to discuss the position of Code Enforcement Officer. T. Guihan: I make a motion to go into Executive Session. (The time was 9 : 07 p . m. ) M. Baxendell: I second that. (All voted in favor. ) Recommendation to Town Board for Code Enforcement Officer ( Note: At 9 : 14 p.m. , the Board exited Executive Session) M. Carey: The Town Planning Board makes the motion to recommend to the Town Board that they select George Senter, Sr. , for the position of Code Enforcement Officer for the Town of Groton. G. Van Slyke : Second. M. Carey: All in favor? (All Board members indicated in the affirmative . ) Passed. Page 25 of 26 (T) Groton Planning Board Regular Meeting Transcript 18 October 2001 Adjournment M. Carey: Do I hear a motion for adjournment? B. Clark: I make a motion we adjourn the meeting. M. Baxendell: I 'll second that one. M. Carey: All those in favor? (All were in favor) . Now we can get out the cake . The meeting was adjourned at 9 : 15 p.m. RECEIVED Jo ff . Fitch, Recording Secretary NOV 13 2001 11 / 12/01 TOWN OF GKU I UN TOWN CLERK Page 26 of 26