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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB Minutes 1990-09-10 TOWN OF ITHACA REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING September 10 , 1990 At a Regular Meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca , Tompkins County , New York , held at the Town Hall , 126 East Seneca Street , Ithaca , New York , on the 10th day of September , 1990 , there were : PRESENT : Shirley Raffensperger , Supervisor John Whitcomb , Councilman Patricia Leary , Councilwoman David Klein , Councilman Frank Liguori , Councilman Catherine Valentino , Councilwoman Karl Niklas , Councilman ALSO PRESENT : John Barney , Town Attorney Scott McConnell , Highway Superintendent Dan Walker , Town Engineer Susan Beeners , Town Planner Andrew Frost , Building Inspector/ Zoning Officer Linda Nobles , Asst . Budget Officer Robert Hines , Zoning Board of Appeals Pam Stonebraker , SPCA Nathaniel Knappen , SPCA Stephanie Schaaf , SPCA Laura Marks , CAC Representatives of the Media : Greg Williams , WHCU PLEDGE OF i3LLEGIANCE The Supervisor led the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance . REPORT OF '.[OWN OFFICIALS Supervisor ' s Report Supervisor Raffensperger reported that the SJS of the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment plant is discussing the possibility of expanding the service area to include service to the Town and Village of Lansing . An engineering report was prepared for the SJS in 1989 outlining possible financial arrangements for a buy in and for expan,�ion of the plant . Negotiations are really just beginning , no time table has been established but SJS representatives from the Town will keep the Town Board informed of the process . The Supervisor went on to say that the Town of Ithaca had received a deposit of $ 2 , 000 from the owners of Ide ' s to be used in the construction of a sidewalk along Mitchell Street and Ellis Hollow Road . The Town already has on deposit , $ 10 , 000 from Cornell University for the same purpose . Some construction may take place in 1991 with budget approval . Town Board Minutes 2 September 10 , 1990 Supervisor Raffensperger noted that the Town had received the post census review statistics , growth in the Town is reported as 17 , 735 a 10 . 7 % increase . There is an increase of over 11 % in the Town outside the Village of Cayuga Heights . Supervisor- Raffensperger stated that a newsletter was tentatively scheduled to go out mi&October . Town Board members , Committee chairs and staff should let her know , in writing , of items they wished to have included in the newsletter . The Supervisor stated that she had received a telephone call from Lynn Leopold today , fron Tompkins County Solid Waste , to say that the curbside recycling in the Town of Ithaca has been delayed . Now it seems that the head of the Solid Waste Division has decided that to be equitable there has to be an arrangement to have curbside pick up in all of Tompkins County before they can initiate any additions to the curbside pickup . obviously , the people who had arranged an earlier curbside pickup for Town of Ithaca , the Village of Lansing and parts of the Town of Dryden are somewhat concerned , there have been public information meetings scheduled and all kinds of things but this has come to a halt and it looks like there will be no addition to curbside recycling in the Town of Ithaca until the first of the year . Town Engineer ' s Report Town Engineer Dan Walker reported that the 1987 Water and Sewer Improvement Project is moving ahead , we have all the bonding money I n and we are now planning on how best to spend it . The Tru mansburg Road water and sewer improvements are about ready to go out to bid . The Health Department is doing the final approvals on them . The water meter pit that we have on Taughannock Boulevard is under review with the City and we received word today that there may be some minor changes . The three projects will go out to bid in one package as they are basically for West Hill . He noted that the Troy Water Tank is out to bid and will be opening bids on September 26 . We plan to start construction this fall with the probable ccnnpletion of the tank in the Spring . We will be keeping the tank height under 30 ' with a slightly larger diameter . The Engineer went on to say that they had just received the final plans from Stearns & Wheler for the Inlet Valley Water and Sewer Project and are starting on easement negotiations . We have two large parcels that we are crossing with a line that we are not going to be directly serving , initially . one is in the City and one in the Town and we are negotiating with both landowners . We have draft easements for their review and hopefully they will be finalized by the end of the month . In conjunction with the Inlet Valley Project we did a monitoring project of the existing flows in the Floral Avenue sewer at the request of the City . We found that initially that we should have enough capacity in the system for the first phases of this project with an anticipation of a need to expand the City sewer system within the next five years . We are working with the City Engineering Department to keep those costs in line , as much as possible . He went on to say that the survey of the 6 " water main along Tramansburg Road from the Cliff Street Pump Station to Bundy Road , has been completed and we are in the process of doing some design . The main concern there is that if we get additional development on West Hill then we will be asking for contributions from the developers to help replace that line because that is the weak link in the West Hill water system . The Engineer went on to note the development review of Deerrun and Chase Farms Phase II and that there was some cleanup left in the drainage :Nystems and the roads before fully releasing the Town Board Minutes 3 September 10 , 1990 developers from any financial commitments . Commercial projects reviewed include MacDonalds , Andre Petroleum and the East Hill t Plaza renovation , which was withdrawn . We have done some work with the Cornell staff on their Cornell Master Plan and the GEIS but they have not been able to do a lot of work on their GEIS at this point . Ithaca College has been very cooperative in working with the Engineering and Planning Departments in starting the frame work of a GEIS and Master Plan . He stated that he was reviewing a fairly detailed drainage plan and was happy with the cooperation . He noted that the East Hill water planning with the Town of Dryden and Cornell is proceeding and at this point no Town funds are proposed to be expended as the cost will be shared between the Town of Dryden and Cornell . Town Engineer Walker stated that his department was providing mapping and technical support to the Planning Department for the Comprehensive Plan . Also , he was trying to work his way through the somewhat complicated municipal agreements that the Town has entered into in the past . We have a very important need to take a very strong hold on our infrastructure maintenance system . Basically we have been dealing with repairs on a crises basis and there is a need for us to go into a much more planned repair and maintenance program on water and sewer . He stated that he had been working with the City whose staff has ' been doing emergency repairs on our sewer systems and the Bolton Point staff has been coordinating water system repairs . He stated that he was bringing together cost information over the past and trying to set up a program where it may be more feasible for the Town to do the work inhouse . Councilwoman Valentino asked about the inhouse maintenance and the surcharge that is paid on the water bills . She asked if that money wasn ' t meant , at the time it was done , to be used for those sort of things ? Town Engineer Walker replied that those funds are being used , however , wE! don ' t have all of the resources , such as time . So we have contracted out the major excavation work and utilized the cleaning capabilities of the City . He felt it may be possible to utilize an extra person within the Highway Department and Parks staff to doing the sewer work and also paving . He felt this would help to control costs . Town Highway Superintendent ' s Report Town Highway Superintendent Scott McConnell stated that they have done maintenance on numerous vehicles , one in particular was the van that the Engineering Department purchased from Bolton Point . We put pavement over top of the culvert pipe that was installed on Sand Bank Road and the Rich Road turn around was improved . We had two storms which resulted in ditch and culvert damage . Also , resurfacing was completed at intersections of newly paved roads and several roads were swept after the oil and stones ' were worked in and set . The Highway Superintendent reported that the Parks Department had spent most of their time mowing . He noted that usually August was a slow month for mowing but not this year . Also , they had a lot of clean up after the storm with trees down and walkways that were washed out . The baseball back stop that was damaged in February or March is now up and usable . They continue to do maintenance on play structures and mowing . Building Inspector/ Zoning officer ' s Report Town Board Minutes 4 September 10 , 1990 Building Inspector/ Zoning Officer Andrew Frost reported that 15 building permits were issued during the month of August , four for single family detached residents , four renovations , one conversion , three additions , one for Cornell for the thermal storage tank and two for miscellaneous construction . 29 certificates of occupancy were issued during the month of August . We investigated seven complaints for the month and several are pending . He stated that he had been talking to the Town Attorney about the property maintenance law as several are abandoned vehicles . 130 field visits were made this month . Mr . Frost went on to note that his assistant had obtained his certificate as a code enforcement officer from New York State and he had received his certificate for his continuing education requirements . He went on to say that they have had several contacts with people during the summer where they have actually been doing work in the lake with permits from the Army Corp of Engineers and in some cases the Department of Environmental Conservation . He stated that it was clear that the Town ' s Zoning Ordinance does not apply to anybody doing work in the lake , particularly any part of the lake that is within the low water level . Councilman Niklas asked what the people were building ? Mr . Frost replied , a boat house . Not anything anyone would be residing in but a cover for a boat . Also , there have been a couple of boat lifts . Town Planner ' s Report Town Planner Susan Beeners reported that the Planning Staff had supported eleven committee meetings . She noted the agenda tonight contained some reccnutendations for revisions to the Zoning Ordinance . We had a presentation from the representatives of the Cornell Vet School and Ithaca College for their new science building . The Planning Board requested some additional information on the Andree Gas Station proposal , so that has been adjourned . MacDonalds was adjourned with no date set for a further hearing because of the litigation . She went on to say that there was a review of the short environmental assessment form which has been revised and with revisions approved by the CAC . The final revised version by the CAC is available now and she would like the Town Board to approve it at a later meeting . The Planner went on to say that she and the Town Engineer attended a meeting with the Planning and Engineering people at Cornell to talk about circulation improvements that they are still investigating . We also met with some representatives from DOT who are looking into either a three or four lane widening of Route 13 from the City line south to just about to where Bell ' s Convenience is located . The exact number of lanes have not been determined , at the present time . We saw their plans and there will be an initial public information on October 3rd or 10th . She went on to say that she was proud to say they have two new Planning Aids , both are recent graduates of the City and Regional Planning Program . The Planning Technician position which is naw being filled on a temporary basis by John Cyzmanski is being advertised this week and we will be holding interviews next week . Councilman Niklas asked if there were any inside candidates ? Ms . Beeners replied that she believed John Cyzmanski would be reapplying for the position . Town Board Minutes 5 September 10 , 1990 REPORT OF TOM COMMITTEES CPC Committee Councilman Klein reported that the CPC met on August 21st and split into suboarmiittees , one to analyze the survey , one to deal with goals and objectives and one to deal with transportation systems . These subcommittees have been meting with the staff and with Ron Brand . Tomorrow night there is another CPC meting and Ron Brand will be bringing down the draft of the Chapter No . 1 , so we are finally seeing some parts of the Comprehensive Plan , which he noted contained many chapters . One of the items on the agenda was to establish a date for the first public information hearing . He thought the time line had set it for September 25th but they would be discussing that tomorrow night as to whether this was a reasonable date to take the survey results to the public and hopefully some of the goals and objectives of the Comprehensive Plan as well as a general update . That may be a little premature , we don ' t want to go public with something that ' s not of good quality to share with them . If it wasn ' t September 25th , he assumed it. would happen early in October . They had also hoped to have the draft of the Comprehensive Plan ready in October , that seems most likely to happen in November . There has been a lot of effort on the part of staff , again with the various subcommittees and there is quite a lot of support required of the staff and he knew the staff was putting in a considerable amount of effort . Conservation Advisory Council Councilman Whitcomb stated that they were meting twice a month now and are quite a ways along on their mapping . The Ag Corgnittee is beginning a draft outline of the agricultural components of the draft Conq)rehensive Plan . We are also beginning to draft the environmental components of the Comprehensive Plan , the open space index . We have subcommittees working on agriculture and also the Six Mile Creek corridor protection in conjunction with the City . He stated that as he understood it their draft of a protection package i 's- nearly completed and should be presented to the Planning Board at their second meeting in October for their review . Youth Services Councilwcmm Valentino reported that she had a meeting with Rick Dietrich from the Town of Danby . They are very interested in pursuing some kind of a building as a focal point in their community for youth services , for meetings , for other community types of things , day care , etc . They feel a real need for that . He made it quite clear that they are going to move ahead on that , that the Town of Danby is going to get some kind of a building at some point, down the road not too far in the future . He was wondering if there was any interest in the Town of Ithaca on perhaps some kind of a joint facility on the border line between the two towns . She went on to say that they had quite a long and interesting conversation . The bottom line was that they would like to pursue the idea , at this point , jointly with no real commitment that would say that if one party decided to withdraw at any point the other party wouldn ' t feel that they had some kind of a commitment that had been reneged one 'There might possibly be some real interest in doing that and Mr . Dietrich has talked with people from the County Planning Board and the Human Services Coalition and seems to have quite a bit of information together already . We will be continuing to meet with them to see just what might be possible . We already have the community center on Coddington Road with quite a bit of growth in that area . They are also willing to come along Town Board Minutes 6 September 10 , 1990 with our :idea of pursing a joint youth commission . We already have a ccmnitment from the Village of Lansing and she felt the Village of Cayuga Heights would come on board shortly , and the Towns of Ithaca and Danby would also like to be a part of at least the meeting process at this point to see if there might be scene joint things that we can do together . Codes & Ordinance Committee Councilman Niklas stated that because they had a lot of items on the agenda tonight he would keep his comments brief . At the last meeting they were very pleased to add a new member to the committee , who is in attendance tonight , and that is Mr . Robert Hines who is a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals . Councilman Niklas went on to say that they were continuing to discuss the feasibility of and desirability of dealing with non-conforming uses and right now we are focusing on occupancies . The issue of non-conforming occupancy . The other issue we are dealing with in a preliminary way is the feasibility and the desirability of having the Town ' s own legislation for designated wetland areas that are less than 12 . 4 acres in area . Fire Stations Committee Councilman Klein stated that the Committee should have been ended by now but he felt there would be at least one more meeting . He thought that both stations had their certificates of occupancy and the renovated stations and the new stations were occupied . He noted that the contracts have not been closed out , however , they are close . Councilman Klein noted that the renovations have almost exceeded the budget . There was a million dollars bonded for that and they are about a million and one thousand . The new stations he thought were about $ 70 , 000 under the bonded amount . Councilman Niklas asked if the new stations were functional now? Supervisor Raffensperger replied yes , for about a week now they have been functional . There will be open houses for them sometime in mid-October as there is a fire prevention week and they are planning on scheduling open houses at each of the new stations a week apart , she thought on the Saturdays in hopes that they will get some c(immnity interest and new volunteers . 1991 SPCA PROPOSAL Supervisor Raffensperger noted that the Town did not have a contract for Board consideration , at this time , but she had provided the Board members with the material she had received in the form of a letter which would be the basis for the contract . She went on to note the letter which discussed the proposed amount for 1991 and that she had checked and in 1989 the Town of Ithaca paid $ 11 , 4191 the requested amount this year is $ 21 , 667 . 14 which is a $ 10 , 248 increase or almost 90 % . In 1989 , in her understanding of the correspondence , is that the Town of Ithaca ' s share was determined solely on the basis of the number of tickets issued which in 1989 was 68 tickets . The equivalent number of tickets in 1990 is 621 . In 1989 for the tickets issued the Town of Ithaca accounted for 13 . 7 % , in 1990 for 16 . 4% . She stated that her understanding of the letter that came to the Town was that the SPCA is proposing that the determination of cost for each of the municipality be changed . That in addition to the number of tickets issued , that there should also be a percentage of the total budget for the dog control budget , the number of tickets issued is Town Board Minutes 7 September 10 , 1990 considered and also the total number of stray dogs impounded from each municipality . She noted that this was a bit of a change in the basis on which the contract is formed , as she understood it . Additionally , she noticed in the correspondence last year that the City of Ithaca which has in the past had a system of patrolling for dogs was considering discontinuing that and she felt that the Board needed to understand whether or not that City service had been discontinued . She noted that in the Town of Ithaca the SPCA was not asked. for any patrolling functions , they only respond to cciTlaintS and she felt it was necessary to know if all were buying the same kind of services . Pam Stonebraker , Director of the SPCA replied that the City of Ithaca does not have patrolling . Supervisor Raffensperger noted that the SPCA budget had increased substantially but not as substantial as the request from the Town of Ithaca . Nathaniel Knappen Counsel to the SPCA remarked that part of the change they were trying to effect is to rationalize the system of the SPCA over what has been done in the past . In the past for a long time -the various municipalities had their contracts negotiated on an independent and historical basis which did not have much to do with what was going on each year in terms of the number of strays impounded and over the last two years , mainly from pressure from the City who pays the largest amount , we have been asked to rationalize that process . The place that we started was by taking the total amount of the budget that we have and figuring out that amount which is dedicated to sustain the dog control function . We then went back and looked at the various portions of the dog control function and how that interacts with the municipalities . All of that is governed under the Ag and Markets Laws of the State of New York which provides that there be a set minimum State fee which is divided between the municipality and the State and in addition to that the municipalities have a . right to attach a license fee over and above that which they get to keep . For example , the amount that can be added , a total of $ 10 . 00 . The Town of Ithaca being the lowest in the County adds only $ 3900 . An increase of $ 7 . 00 on your licensing fee alone would account for a substantial portion of the increase we have talked about , about $ 7 , 000 . .Also , the enumeration that is performed by the municipality will determine the license fees . Again , the Town of Ithaca has not had an enumeration in over three years and as a result of 1-hat is well behind all other municipalities in terms of the numbers of dogs on a percentage basis for the number of residents . We estimate that if you were in line with the rest of the County that you would double your enumeration and you would , therefore , double the amount of fees that would cone to you . But for the purposes of actually doing our calculation on the budget we took into account not license fees or licenses per say , because that depends on your enumeration , but we took into account two things . We took into account the number of strays that we collect from the Town as opposed to the other municipalities and we took into account the number of dogs that we impound . That ' s kind of a direct application of what our resources are . What you get when you get dog control is , the picking up of stray animals and the impoundment: of animals and the collection of fees . It is again , with the regard to impoundment , the fees are those that are set by the municipality . We collect them for you and we turn them over to you but it ' s your job to set the fee . In the Town of Ithaca it is $ 10 for the first offense , $ 20 for the second offense and $ 30 for the third offense . That ' s the minimum , there is no maximum that the Town is entitled to set . But to give you an idea , the City for instance charges $ 15 for the first offense , $ 40 for the second Town Board Minutes 8 September 10 , 1990 offense and $ 60 for the third offense , or almost twice what the Town does „ Mr . Knappen went on to say that if the Town increased their license fees by $ 7 . 00 per dog , which the Town is entitled to do under the statute , that would generate an additional $ 6 , 900 and if you increased your impoundment fees to just the level the City has and nothing more than that you would create another $ 1 , 760 . If your enumeration were in line with statistics we have with the rest of the County , you would increase the fees that are available to you by somewhere in the neighborhood of $ 17 , 000 . That ' s a lot of money for a few fees . So that you also know , in trying to figure out what you are paying for , we have tried to rationalize this again among all the municipalities , they are getting basically the same services and we have gone to everyone of the municipalities on the same percentage breakdown . That is , you have a rate that is your percentage of strays that we pick up , you have a rate that is your percentage of impounded animals and we mix those two percentages together , they are very close , and we cone out with 17 . 6 % . The City , for instance , is at substantially more than that almost twice that . What you get for that is that the SPCA maintains three licensed animal control officers , we provide week day service for all calls and we also provide 24-hour per day emergency service for dangerous animals . We have vehicles , vans that are operated for those animal control officers . We provide you , we think , with effective dog control and that means a reduction of strays . A reduction of strays has a number of immediate benefits to the community . There are less problems with accidents , property damage and unsanitary conditions , which all occur when strays are not controlled . Another thing that we do that most people don ' t realize ic.; that we perform a pretty important health function . Every animal that is redeemed or adopted out of the SPCA , that is every animal that is not destroyed , is vaccinated against rabies . We require that so even if an owner shows up before they can take their dog they have to show proof that it has been vaccinated . You may or may not know, but there have been two confirmed cases of rabies in Chemung County , that is the closest it has been now . Obviously , if you control the stray population and if you increase the number of vaccinations into the population you increase the resistance of having rabies in Tompkins County . Frankly , we believe that we may face , in 1991 the year we are talking about , we may face a. substantial increase in the number of calls that are going to be associated with dangerous animals . Even if it is not actually a rabid animal , as public awareness of the possibility of rabies increases the number of calls that we will have to respond to on an Emergency basis is going to increase dramatically . You all get the use of our animal shelter . He did not know how many people had actually had the chance to see it but it is up on Hanshaw Road , we maintain separate kennel facilities and runs , they are weatherproofed , we have an isolation ward , we have sanitary facilities ,, we operate even a computerized lost and found service for all animals so that when an animal comes in we can match its license and call the owner without them having to first think about where it might have been taken . The fifth thing you get is the collection of the fines and fees and the issuing of tickets . As animals come in and are identified , if their license fees have not been paid , tickets are issued which results again in fees that will come back to the Town . We charge and collect the impoundment fees before people take their animals away and we account for and turn over those funds on a quarterly basis to the Town . There have been in Tompkins County other people who have offered to perform the dog control function and when we have taken back municipalities from people who have been dissatisfied with those services , we find that those operations which are for profit somtinles don ' t bother to return the fees over , they collect them and view that as a form of their fees . The bottom line is really this , the dog control Town Board Minutes 9 September 10 , 1990 function is a State mandated function , it has to be performed by the municipalities . So if the municipalities were to do it themselves they would have to have , by statute , the dog control officers , they have to have a pound where animals can be contained . Obviously that means they would have to have the other things , the vehicles , the equipment , kennel help , the administrative staff and all of those things . In essence , we provide that service to the Town and the other municipalities on a per dog basis , it ' s really a user fee and we view it as a user fee and think that if the enumeration is properly done and if the fines are raised to the levels that other municipalities are doing that in fact , the Town would suffer no loss in revenues to the Town as result of the increase . But this basis that we are using , we are using for every municipality . You may ask one last thing , you may ask how did you get by on half as much last year . Well , guess what we did because we get donations to the SPCA and instead of using those on educational functions or public health functions or anything else , we have to use those donations and indeed cut into our capital for the purpose of paying for the municipal services that the municipalities are mandated to have . What we really would like to do , we would like to get back to a situation where all the municipalities pay their fair share and to that end we have tried to work with the courts in each municipality to make sure that the tickets are issued , collected and paid and that they are followed up on . III the City of Ithaca , for instance , who got us started down this road two years ago , in fact that now the single most successful item of things that they have on the City court calendar . It ' s the highest return for appearances and for payment of fines . In any event , we believe it ought to be on a pay as you go basis . That the donations we receive ought not to be used to pay for the municipal services that the municipalities , by State law , are obligated to provide . Councilwoman Valentino remarked , on your neutering of your animals , do they go over to the Cornell clinic ? Stephanie Schaff replied , when animals are adopted from the shelter the person adopting is required to leave a spaying or neutering deposit if we have no good indication the animal has not already been spayed or neutered . That money is returned to the person when they can :provide us with proof the animal has been spayed or neutered . The Veterinary College does provide us , during the school year , the service of altering three dogs or cats , our choice , each week during the semester but we don ' t require persons adopting to take their animal to any one veterinary . We have one other fund that we use for spaying or neutering of strays or owner surrendered animals call the Lilac Fund which is used for spaying and neutering older , somewhat less attractive animals that no one might want . Councilman Valentino stated that someone had told her that when they call now for a stray dog that is wandering around , that they are told that they are supposed to catch and contain the dog . Ms . Schaff replied , people at the desk might ask if it is contained but if it is not we will just do what we call a special patrol or a patrol by .request . We will go out to the area where the dog was spotted , once or twice a day and see if we can catch it . They are not required to catch the dog . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked , since you obviously have these statistics she felt it might be helpful to the Board if the SPCA would be willing to share those comparable charges for services you went through rather rapidly , what the City charges , what other municipalities charge . We would also like to have some idea of the charges to other municipalities . Also , we will need a new Town Board Minutes 10 September 10 , 1990 contract . The Supervisor went on to say that she found it interesting that they felt the Town was under enumerated , if you have those statistics they would be helpful also . Ms . Schaff noted that the Town of Lansing had just an extremely accurate Enumeration and they found out they actually had more dogs than we estimated they would have . She felt they were dealing with a similar population to the Town of Ithaca in terms of population increase . Councilman Klein asked if the enumerators got a fee to do that? Ms . Schaff' replied yes , it is worked out by the Town and is usually done on a dog counted basis . Mr . Knappen remarked that he did not have the figures for all of municipalities but Lansing has 13 , 083 dogs for a census population in 1990 of 9 , 200 people . The Town has 17 , 700 people and it is presently enumerated with 987 dogs so it is obviously out of whack . He felt a good enumeration could produce roughly one dog for every eight people . Presently the Town of Ithaca is showing one for every twenty people . Our estimate used on one in ten would take the enumeration to 1 , 700 which is almost twice what you presently enumerate . He noted that in addition to the dog control they did have a contract with the County that handles cats , bats and livestock and that represents the balance of our budgeted funds . Councilman Niklas remarked that some of the other figures he felt the Board needed to see was the raw data upon which the 17 . 6 % is based . He stated that he would like to see the total numbers of activities in terms of dog impoundments and he would like to see the numbers for each of the municipalities that are listed to double check to see if the 17 . 6% is actually reflective of what the Town of Ithaca ' s share is . If we are going to get into a contract we might as well check the raw numbers . Both Ms . Schaaf and Mr . Knappen agreed it would be no problem to provide these figures and they would be more than willing to come again and discuss this in greater detail . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked , let ' s get the information in that we requested , if you don ' t mind doing that , and then as a Board they could decide whether or not it would be necessary for any of thenn to cane back to explain any of the materials . Town Attorney Barney asked , what is the $ 21 , 700 capital improvements in your budget? Ms . Schaaf replied , we have a rapidly aging shelter , we have two roofs on the facility , one unfortunately that was put up in the 1940 ' s that is in the process of failing and about a 15 to 17 year old roof that we think we can repair . We have cement floors that have been coated with material called ( corlinall? ? ? ) that in one case needs to be repaired and in the other case totally needs to be replaced , :in the cat room and in the office . We have a number of other physical plant projects . We have two vans that have in excess of 1. 00 , 000 miles and we are anticipating their life will not be that much longer . AUGUST FINANCIAL REPORT RESOLUTION NO . 220 Motion by Councilman Niklas ; seconded by Councilman Liguori , Town Board Minutes 11 September 10 , 1990 RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approve the August Financial Report , as presented . (Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . LOCATION OF PROPOSED ROAD AND OTHER PUBLIC UTILITIES FOR PROPOSED TILITZ SUBDIVISION Supervisor Raffensperger stated that this item has been removed from the agenda . CODES & OF'DINANCE REFERRAL WITH RESPECT TO SPECIAL APPROVALS Councilman. Niklas stated that on page 49 of the Consultant Planner ' s Report that came before the Town , it was recammended to shift the granting of special permits from the ZBA to the Planning Board . On March 27th , he stated that he received a letter from Councilman Klein pointing this out and asking the Codes & Ordinance Committee to begin a discussion about this issue . It was followed up by a memorandum dated June 12th from the CAC in which three issues were asked to be discussed by the COC . But , number one on that memorandum is in particular reference to the Consultant Planner ' s :Report and recommendation . Councilman Niklas stated that he called Ron Brand and then received a letter dated July 31st , asking for clarification and rationale for his recommendation . His rather lengthy response , at least two pages , is copies for you . Also today , it wasn ' t in the original package he did not think , but there is a copy of a memorandum dated September 8 , 1980 which shows that historically this issue has come before the Town at least a decade ago . There was a memorandum that bears the names of a number of people like Henry Aron , who are currently on the ZBA and were on the Planning Board at the time . If you look through that memorandum and the page number , he believed , is actually missing but it is page 86 , XVI , in which it essentially is being recommended that special permits be authorized by the Planning Board . If you go on to the next page , page 87 , towards the middle it says , " the application shall be considered by the Planning Board at a public hearing" . So it ' s fairly obvious that at that time there was a recommendation , 10 years ago , that special permits be dealt with by the Planning Board . It has become a continuous issue at C&O , there is disagreement as to what we should do . There is the opinion that we should retain the present configuration of granting special permits , there is obviously recommendations from CAC , the Consultant Planner and even a historical recommendation dated 1980 ,, also a recommendation from a current seated Town Board member that special permits be granted by the Planning Board . He stated that he has even recommended at COC a compromise , which he would be happy to explain but he felt they might as well get the arguments pro and con out right now and since the Town Attorney is one of the! people who is not now with altering or tinkering with our current state of affairs , he stated that he would let the Town Attorney give the arguments for retaining the current state of affairs . Town Attorney John Barney stated that he always articulates his views as his role of attorney at these meetings and obviously the policy decision as to where the power should lie will be a Board decision . He went on to say that there are three reasons why he thought there was no reason to change . First , he felt a number of Mr . Brown ' s assertions were flawed , he did not want to take the time to go through them but the principal one where is says there is not criteria established for the granting of special approvals . And in fact , we have a fairly exhausted list of about seven or Town Board Minutes 12 September 10 , 1990 eight criteria which are in place in our Zoning Ordinance now, granting of special approvals which the Board of Zoning Appeals plays a minimum of lip service to . He stated that he was puzzled over some of the comments which does not show his comprehension of what our current law is . But leaving that aside , the vast majority of Counties or Towns over the years have placed the granting of special approvals power with the Boards of Zoning Appeal . There are legions of litigated cases involving the granting or denial of special approvals . He felt it was a gold mine for lawyers . When you read the titles of the cases you will read more often than not , so and so against the Board of Zoning Appeals . The vast majority , historically , of the places where the power has been laid is with the Board of Zoning Appeals . Now does that mean it should be there necessarily in our particular situation? He stated that he did not think there was anything magical that says it has to be with the Zoning Board of Appeals . Legislatively , the Town law authorizes both boards to have it , there is a provision that specifically says the Town :Board may delegate to the Board of Zoning Appeals the authority to hear and decide such matters as may be referred to it under it ' s ordinance . That has been generally construed over the years by the courts to say it includes the special permit process . There is also a provision in Section 274 ( a) of the Town Law which is more recent which specifically says it can be given to the Planning Board . Although it said there , he thought in a more confining way than the Town tends to use special approvals in the Town ' s Zoning Ordinance because it seems to really be related to site plans in that section and in dealing with the Planning Board . The Town Attorney went on to say that probably the most , in his mind , from an observer of the Town ' s activities over the last four or five years , he would suggest you may not want to change it for two reasons . First , he felt in terms of relative work loads , right now the Town Planning Board has a phenomenal amount of items on its plate . when he goes to a Town Planning Board meeting the midnight , twelve thirty , certainly eleven to eleven thirty is pretty regularly the adjournment hour because of matters that are coming legitimately and must cane before them . Development review being the most crucial , but there are other matters involving the Comprehensive Planning process that is going on , the review of some of the statutory changes to the Zoning Ordinance which must ccmne before the Planning Board for review . But they have a very , very heavy agenda . They are meeting two and in same cases , three times a month . They are long meetings and they are fairly involved . On the other hand , the ZBA for whatever reason , is now meeting only once a month and their meetings tend to run , he could safely say he was usually out of there by 9 : 30 or 10 : 00 P . M . . It could be partly due to the different approaches of the chairperson but he did not think it was all related to that . There are not that many matters that the ZBA is involved with on an ongoing basis where the Planning Board is heading for a relative load situation . You are putting a heavier load on the Planning Board should you choose to change this . Finally , he thought , the argument that he would make and had made with Councilman Niklas was that our system seems to be working , there may be an occasional disgruntled citizen who did not like the results of a decision but he did not think that in and of itself was a basis for changing a board . The decision that one board made may very well have been decided the same by the other board . He thought the issue really was is the system working generally well and in his view as a fairly disinterested observer of it , it seems to be working well here in the Town and he guessed that if it ain ' t broken why fix it and guessed that is what he would pass along for the Board ' s consideration . All of that being said , that is all largely policy and he knew he had moved over into the Board ' s providence on that and he would say from a purely legal standpoint there is no reason why you can ' t leave it where it is Town Board Minutes 13 September 10 , 1990 now or put it with the Planning Board , it ' s just a matter of drafting the legislation . Councilman Niklas replied that he would like to give the arguments for changing the systems . He went on to say that it is true some aspects , lie was going through the points in essentially the same order the Town Attorney did , essentially for arguments . The rationale provided by Ron Brand is flawed , second , that there is an historical. basis of perspective and that is that most other municipalities provide their ZBA ' s with the authority to grant special approvals , the third is relative work loads and the fourth argument is if it ' s working why tinker with it . He stated that he agreed that sane aspects of Ron Brands letter are flawed but he thought the principal argument as he reads it , which is in the letter and which is not flawed is that special permits are essentially a planning function . That really has to be dealt with in terms of our Planning staff and the Planning Board . Two , the historical perspective , in other words that other municipalities have their- ZBA ' s granting special approvals rather than Planning Boards . He stated that he did not find that particularly compelling in light of number one , and the question is who is essentially doing the planning in this Town , is it the ZBA or the Planning Board and the Planning staff? The third is relative work loads , he stated that he should point out that special permit approvals involve the Town Planning Board anyway . Essentially review aspects of the projects before they end up going to the ZBA so he did not see where this is going to be particularly lightening the workloads of our Planning Board . He stated that he agreed that it is right now very heavy but he felt when the Comprehensive Planning document is fully drafted and we get a much more stabilized view as to what the Town ' s objectives are with regard to growth and development and organization , he stated that he was optimistic that the work loads will diminish and that there will be greater efficiency . Fourth argument is that if it is working why tinker with it , not to be glid but if that logic was used throughout the history of mankind we would probably still be fighting rabies by putting a hot branding iron on the spot that the dog bit . We would not have innovation , we would not have experimentation , we would not get improvement . Therefore , he was of the opinion that the system should be changed , and that the Board should grant the authority of special permits to the Planning Board . Councilman Niklas went on to say that he had mentioned that he had a compromise in mind , and he would mention it now so that all possibilitLes are at least explored here . Since the Planning Board and the ZBA are already involved with dealing with the issue of special permits and since Planning Staff is involved , it was recommended and he stated that he would endorse it , that if want not to polarize the issue , that is if we want to reach a compromise it might be that the compromise would be that something , a special permit would have to be approved by the Planning Board before it got to the deliberation of the ZBA . Essentially , he believed that special permits were so important an aspect of the Town ' s growth and development , so important in terms of what we do for our future , that it would not be inordinate to require these two Boards to pass judgement . He felt it should be first the Planning Board because it is primarily a planning function and that once it was approved at that level it goes to ZBA because he thought their purview was more with the expertise of the legalities of the situations and he would like to see sane judgement at that level as well . Town Planner Beeners stated that she was sorry she had missed the Codes and Ordinance discussion of this , however she had been interest in this for a few years and she did include a little part Town Board Minutes 14 September 10 , 1990 of the proposed work plan that she had submitted back in November and February to the COC . She went on to say that Mr . Brand did not indicate in his letter of recommendation that one of his additional recommendations was that the Town have institutional use zones . She thought that the intent of that , actual institutional use zones were something that was looked at in the proposed 1980 zoning ordinance as well . She stated that she did not have any specific feelings pro or cons to them except it was one of the consultants recommendations and what she sees as a pattern is that as Cornell and IC develop their generic environmental impact statements and their master plans that what would be looked at as an end result of that would be the setting out of specific criteria for their uses and a way we could expedite the review of their project . If they are really simple projects then it would be an easier matter to get through than one that went above some thresholds . So , she would imagine that they might be looking at , in the comp plan , if Mr . Brand is consistent , a use zone , which would be sanething that would be considered by the Town Board and might be something where the Planning Board , working with sane very specific criteria , would be doing ;site plan approvals for Cornell and IC uses and perhaps even for such things as the Biggs Center area . Mr . Brand was also a little upset about our special land use districts , why do we have so many . So she guessed that she was basically trying to say that we might see some rezonings coming out of the plan that would expedite the process and set forth sane more rigid standards for the major special abuses which are now special approvals . If that happens then where she would see the Zoning Board as perhaps being very important would be deciding whether a school or a hospital was appropriate in sanething that was zoned R- 15 or R-9 , a zone that is predominately residential . We have sort of a troublesome or nuisance use such as a school , hospital or golf course canes along and wants -to plop itself down in a R-15 area the decision could be , let ' s zone that institutional or an alternate decision could be let ' s make that samething that both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board have to look at very carefully , with the Zoning Board granting special approval . You would have institutional use zones , possibly special approvals by the ZBA for institutional uses in non-institutional areas and then you would have a whole third area which would be the minor special permit . That would be for such things as increased occupancy in R-9 Districts , that is now sanething that you have to go to the ZBA . Right now there are a few very minor special permits things , building heights for garages on sloping sites or set backs for garages on sloping sites where they want to build it right close to the road , that ' s a special permit right now. That ' s the kind of thing the ZBA should not have to deal with . She felt the bottom line of Mr . Brands letter is that no matter what board is involved , the criteria should be approved belt she felt in his making that kind of a recommendation to the Town he should also acknowledge his recommendation about institutional use zones and no special land use districts . Councilman Niklas remarked , the particulars of how we would deal with this he felt could be thrashed out at COC . He felt what he was looking for right now was just an arrow to point them in the direction because he did not as Chair of COC want to essentially misrepresent the desires of the Town Board as to what it really wants so that is why they came back to you . If you will give us a feeling for what you like then COC will thrash out the details and cone beforE! you with a recommendation . If you desire not to change things then this issue will be over with here . Supervisor Raffensperger replied , that is what she was going to ask . What do you want from us ? Councilman Klein remarked , just to touch on a few points that Councilman Niklas raised , he thought the ZBA ' s function , in his Town Board Minutes 15 September 10 , 1990 opinion , :really should be for variances . He thought the expertise and the review of site plans really rests with the Planning Board . He thought that that was why when you tie special approvals , which really isn ' t a variance function , because the Zoning Ordinance say yes , this , this and this can go in a district subject to a site plan approval . He really felt the Planning Board was the appropriate body to review that site plan . He went on to say that as he recalled over his tenure on the Planning Board there were instances where it wasn ' t simplified because the BZA got a request and they referred it to the Planning Board . So actually it involved both boards and obviously another four to six weeks while it was being kicked around . He thought , although he sympathized with the work load of the Planning Board , he thought it might be a little bit. streamlined to put that power within the Planning Board . He thought: it was a little less confusing to the public as well in terms of authority and in terms of what was going on . The BZA really doers variances , hardships , those very specific criteria that they deal with and they did not really have the expertise and the experience to deal with special approvals . He kind of would like to have the Planning Board have the power to issue the special permits . Councilman Whitcomb asked Councilman Niklas what was the feeling of the membership of Codes & Ordinance Committee , is it sort of a majority opinion or are you at an impasse , divided or ? Councilman Niklas replied that he would say it was basically John and himself arguing . Town Attorney John Barney remarked that actually the meetings have not been overly attended as we might have liked it , so there have been times when you could say it was divided . Councilman Niklas was on one side and he was on the other side . Councilman Niklas replied , that was another good reason for bringing it to the front and also as a courtesy to John we were not going to discuss this until he was in attendance . Building Inspector/ Zoning Officer Andrew Frost stated that generally , except for the month of August , the Zoning Board of Appeals has two meetings a month . He stated that he would not say that they have more time on their hands than they like , he had also attended Planning Board meetings and had set there until twelve o ' clock at night . Planning Board meetings take much more time than the Zoning Board , but typically the Zoning Board does meet twice a month . He stated that he would try to be objective because in the end if this moves onto the Planning Board it would mean less work for him, so he really didn ' t have sides . But , when we talk about variances , a use variance is a very major change . Someone can crane to the Zoning Board for a use variance without ever going to the Planning E;oard and ask for something which is perhaps a very dramatic change of use in a residential zone , for example . So when you bring -up that they should only deal with variances he assumed the Board was aware that the Zoning Board does deal with variances . They are dealing with a very major change in use in a site plan which perhaps the Planning Board would perhaps deliberate until two o ' clock in the morning . So he felt the responsibility , even just with variances the Zoning Board has , is significant . Within the Zoning Ordinance he did not think there was a use of the word special permit which everyone has talked about . They talk about Special approval which is essentially special permits . With non-conformung uses , Section 56 of the Zoning Ordinance there is nothing for the Planning Board , the extension of non-conforming use is solely :by terms of the Ordinance , authorization by the Zoning Board . Town Board Minutes 16 September 10 , 1990 Supervisor Raffensperger remarked , but we are not talking about non-conforming uses . Town Attorney Barney replied , but that is one form of special approval that is currently in our Zoning Ordinance , Mr . Frost replied , it is either a variance or special approval . Town Planner Beeners added , or a special permit . Mr . Frost replied , which is special approval . Councilman Niklas remarked , needless to say we will go through these definitions very carefully . Mr . Frost remarked never the less the Planning Board , he stated that he could provide statistics in terms of how many special approvals specific to Cornell , how many authorizations , special approvals , special permits , however you want to label it , have been for extensions of non-conforming uses . With any special approval process which is virtually anything other than use in a residential zone , that is a permitted use , you are talking about specifically a recommendation by the Planning Board to the Zoning Board . There is no reference to the site plan but in essence that is what the Planning Board is doing is doing a site plan , making a recommendation to the Zoning Board . It was a little unclear to him , even if the Board were to come up with what was termed an industrial or institutional zone it still seemed consistent , at least if applied the same way that the ordinance now deals with things other than residental that we would still be going to the Planning Board/ Zoning Board even if it were an institutional zone . He stated that he knew for himself , in some cases , he feels safer in referring something to the Zoning Board for a decision often than making a decision for himself . Town Attorney Barney remarked that he probably should have introduced the topic a little bit by saying what is it we are dealing with here in terms of a special approval because he thought it was important . He stated that he recognized what Councilman Klein was saying in terms of planning process and the importance of the process . But when you talk about a special approval you assume a planning process has already occurred because the assumption is that the use you are taking about is a permitted use in a zone . For example , in residence zones we do allow a hospital , he thought , but only on special approval . Now, the thought of allowing the hospital v1 the first place is really where the planning has come in . We take a look at it and we said in general hospitals are not an inconsistent use in a residential zone . He stated that that holds true . . . . Susan did a very nice sketchy kind of an outline . . . but on the third or fourth page where we have churches , schools , parks , fire stations and golf courses , all of these , by the terms of the Zoning Ordinance , permitted in the various uses subject to obtaining special approval . Why have them obtain special approval ? Well because you want the ability to put some conditions on it if necessary to prevent something from happening , to basically protect in a given particular circumstance in the surrounding areas . He went on to say that a large majority of the variances we see will have one or more conditions , of one sort or another . That is basically what you are doing with special approvals , in the overall comprehensive plan for the Town as reflected in our Zoning Ordinance we are permitting in residential zones , parks , hospitals , golf courses , rooming houses but somebody has to look at them and say okay , in this particular circumstance these criteria must be met and these conditions if necessary imposed . But if that should be the Planning Board or the ZBA he thought they were both equally capable of making those decisions Town Board Minutes 17 September 10 , 1990 and he did come back to his and Councilman Niklas ' terms , tinkering . The BZA has done an incredible job over the years , why change it ? Councilman Liguori remarked , what you just said , he felt , was the crux of the whole thing in his opinion . These are uses which the Town has recognized as being legitimate uses within the Town of Ithaca within certain zones and as such each one of these cases it is not necessary to review it in terms of doing a comprehensive plan and see whether this particular thing is desirable or not desirable . He stated that he had been through this with the hospital and also with the County buildings up on Trumansburg Road and he found that the ZBA handled these things in a very business like fashion . It was not a debating society . They looked at the thing based upon what the requirements were and if you could meet the requirements within reason they decided usually that it was okay . But. you had to meet the requirement . Councilman Klein remarked , you were before the Planning Board he thought . Councilman. Liguori replied , no . He went on to say that it is the Planning :staff who really does the site plan review and tell you what the requirements are and do the review before it ever goes to the ZBA . He stated that he thought the system was working very well the way it is and he was not sure he understood why the change wants to be made . He stated that he had not heard a decent explanation as to why it should be changed . Councilman Niklas replied that he could repeat the ones that he thought were most compelling and that is , that these issues are merely a planning function . Councilman Liguori replied , you have said that several times . Tell me why ? Councilman Niklas replied we can permit , for example , the construction of a hospital in a residential area but as we have just heard , the fact that we permit it does not mean that we should not evaluate imposing some control over how large that hospital is , how it is configured , where it dovetails into the community , neighboring residential areas . Now , the real question is , where is the expertise best in the Town to provide some stipulations , some regulations , some evaluations of something that we all agreed generically is permissible but in each particular case has to be evaluated in context . He stated that his argument was that that expertise best resides in the Planning staff and the Town Planning Board . This suggestion to change the system is not a criticism of the ZBA , it ' s simply a simple question of logic and that is where is our expertise in this area ? To him , the Planning Board by the name and its experience is the place to reside that authority . Councilman Liguori replied that he would take issue with Councilman Niklas ' last statement . That is a conclusive opinion that the Planning Board has more expertise than does the ZBA . Councilman Niklas replied , you are right it is subjective . Councilman Whitcomb remarked that he thought that just because a use is permitted in a given zone , an R- 30 zone or a R-15 zone does not mean that it should be allowed to happen just any where in that zone . There is a tremendous variation in topography , in highway systems and adjacent density , etc . , and he thought it was appropriate that a site plan approval ought to take place at the Planning . Board level in those situations . It may legal , but Town Board Minutes 18 September 10 , 1990 whether or not it conforms to other types of planning issues and planning criteria should be decided by the Planning Board . Town Attorney Barney replied that once you put it in the ordinance and say that it is there you had better be careful about turning it down and carefully regulating it because you have made the legislative decision to do it and then if you withhold it , in fact we had one of these cases in the City where the City had it zones for a couple of two family houses and a client of our went in and made application and everything and the City for reasons that were unrelated to the zoning , said increase density , said you can ' t do it . The Courts said that is a consideration you made when you zoned it for two family houses , you can ' t now go back and hold that back , it has to be there legally and legally they have the right to do its &:) you have to be careful about what the regulations are going to :be was all he was saying . If you don ' t want hospitals there at all then you don ' t allow them but once you say a hospital can be there and you establish a criteria , a person can come in and say we meet these criteria , it ' s an Article 78 Proceeding and probably an indefensible one if it is turned down . Councilman. Whitcomb replied , but who can better impose those conditions ? Town Attorney Barney replied , as long as those conditions bear some resemblance to , . . . . she stated that quite frankly , his experience with the ZBA , the ZBA has probably been a little bit more aware , legally , over the years than the Planning Board has . He stated that he would not say that as a general statement because he sits at both meetings but the ZBA has three lawyers now and have a fairly goof idea of what legally can and cannot be done . Councilman Liguori remarked that the real competency in planning is the Planning staff and he felt that if the Board did not recognize that they were all in trouble . It is the staff that really gives the information to whatever board is involved , or body is involved and they in turn can make the decision based upon the information received . You can ' t expect the lay boards to be the experts in terms of identifying potential problems and impacts and how best to solve them . It is the staff that does that and they do it just as well whether they are serving the ZBA or the Planning Board , Councilman Niklas remarked , that was his point precisely . Councilwomen Leary remarked , the Planning Board even as a lay board has more experience in dealing with planning issues and making those kinds of decisions . Councilman Liguori replied some members do , yes . But he felt the Board also had to recognize that there are neighborhood politics involved and all of these things and sometimes these neighborhood politics begin to bear more influence perhaps than is necessary to make those decisions that have to be made . Councilman Niklas replied , by implication you feel that the Planning Board is more susceptible to that? Councilman Liguori replied absolutely , he would say that was true . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked that if there seemed to be consensus of the Board that we want Codes & Ordinances to proceed to look at the possibility of the Planning Board issuing special approvals , that seems clear that the Board in general feels that way , and she felt that probably how the Board would eventually come down has to do with the system you set up . The definitions and that sort of thing because this is a very broad discussion of Town Board Minutes 19 September 10 , 1990 special approvals which in her mind falls into a lot of different categories , some more or less appropriate for different boards . She went on to say that she , at least , would like to see that sort of thing . We have only had these so called special approvals for a little whale . SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER PROPOSED CHANGES BY CODES & ORDINANCE OF SECTION 70 OF THE ZONING ORDINANCE RELATING TO THE EXTRACTION OR DEPOSIT OF FILL AND UNRELATED PRODUCTS Supervisor Raffensperger noted that the Board had two different versions of this because the Planning Board looked at it the other night and made scene recommendations for change . Councilman Niklas remarked that in scanning both copies it looks like the major revision was on page 2 with the addition of item 4 and that :is the removal , movement or deposit of not more than 500 cubic yards of fill in an Agriculture Zone , etc . , etc . . Town Attorney Barney noted two additional changes , one on the first page them was a discussion of the adverse consequences to the visual effect . Then on page two , we had talked about removal of fill of 500 cubic yards from on site to off site and it was raised at the Planning Board that it might be worthwhile to regulate even in the conjunction of a normal building permit , importation . Councilman. Niklas remarked , the Planning staff and our Engineer felt that modification of Section 70 was most desirable because there was soil moving activities that currently are permitted that our Planning staff and Engineering staff would like to be made aware of . He went on to say that happily Codes & Ordinances was in full consensus . Councilman Liguori asked where the figure of 500 cubic yards had come from as he felt it was a very small amount to be worried about ? He remarked that he would like to hear some discussion on that and he would like to hear some discussion on a possible nuisance . There are always people who will consider any kind of earth movement as a possible nuisance and he felt the Board needed to define what is meant by that . The same way with adverse drainage , he thought they were talking about unmitigatable drainage problems . All of these have some potential for adverse drainage if you don ' t do the job right . During construction there is going to be nuisance , there is going to be a visual problem . Councilman Niklas replied , that you have to read a little further up , starting with "The Board shall not act until the Town Engineer has reviewed such plan and advised the Board in his professional opinion " . In other words essentially what we are doing is , we are authorizing the Town Engineer and his staff to look at a site plan in terms of these criteria and he thought that the definitions and the extent to which nuisance or adverse drainage is defined will be done so under the professionalism of the Engineer . This is just a wording as to the types of things that the staff would look into . What we would be saying is , how do we define nuisance.? We define nuisance on the basis of the professionalism of our staff . Councilman Liguori replied no , you define nuisance according to the public who are going to be coming to these hearings . Councilman Niklas replied that may be true but the point is that at least in the terms of how this is structured we are asking the Town Engineer to review any plans and to advise the Board . There is nothing ever to prevent the public from coming and complaining about whether or not an activity like this is going to be Town Board Minutes 20 September 10 , 1990 authorized by the Town Planning Board . And , that is not what we are tying to legislate against or for . We are simply asking that when something like this is being planned , that our Town Planning staff have an opportunity to be aware of it and to evaluate it . There is nothing here about suppressing or fostering of public activities in regard to a site plan approval . That ' s not what is being planned . Councilman Liguori asked the Town Engineer if he had any trouble in saying that this will not cause a nuisance ? Town Engineer Dan Walker replied that as he read the intent of the nuisance and visual disturbance with the effects of the project after it was completed and the plan , to him, would have to show provisions that it would be colleted and that it would be protected as far as erosion control . He stated that he would consider a nuisance as sediment running into the Town ditches or running across a neighbors land or flooding someones land . There will always be some amount of nuisance during construction , there is going -to be noise maybe some dust but again adequate provisions to minimize that disturbance would have to be included . Councilman Liguori replied that he would like to see those kinds of words in the legislation . We are talking about minimizing nuisances ,. minimizing visual impact and recognizing that during construction there may well be visual impact . There will be visual impacts if anybody is near by , there will be scene dust . These need to be recognized as part of the operation and after the job is completed then you would be certifying that the drainage would be proper and erosion would be controlled according to what is proposed . He went on to say that what he was afraid of was that people will look at this and attempt to use the wording that is in here to oppose a particular project that is involving some earth moving . " our own sewer projects are a nuisance to everybody within the immediate area . Councilman. Klein remarked , you will notice that those are exempt . Councilman. Liguori replied oh sure . Earth movement is a nuisance , it is a visual impact . Councilman Niklas remarked that it did not just say the Town ' s septic field or septic system . There is some equitability here and he wanted to point out that somehow this piece of legislation is being described in polarized terms which for the record , he objected to . Councilman Liguori replied that for the record he also objected to the way it was written now . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked that she wondered if it was possible to take into account the concerns . First of all where we have nuisance or detriment she wondered , if the word "possible " could be deleted? That does seem sort of indefinite but she did not know if that was any kind of a solution . Then , up above where it says "adequately protects the property and surroundings properties from adverse consequences " , she wondered if that could be modified in some way to exclude short term adverse consequences , which there always are . But if we could say long term or . . . . . Councilman Niklas replied that he thought all of that could be changed with one phrase and that is to stipulate that the final site , after the completion of the construction . He stated that he agreed with what Councilman Liguori was saying and that was that during site activity you are going to have some erosion , you are going to have some drainage problems , you are going to have some Town Board Minutes 21 September 10 , 1990 nuisance but he thought the point here is that when it is all finished these activities should not be a permanent detriment to the property or the surrounding properties . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked , if you say the final plan adequately protects the property and surrounding properties from permanent adverse consequences or such deposit or removal . Town Attorney Barney replied , you still don ' t want to have unnecessary obnoxious activities during the course of the work . There is no reason to pile a whole pile of mud on somebody ' s boundary :Line where it is going to cause a tremendous inconvenience when it could have been piled in some other location . He felt it should cover both aspects , the final situation as well as the interim . Councilman Niklas remarked , how about where it says surrounding properties from adverse consequences , could we change that "adverse " to "unnecessary consequences " , we already have adverse drainage , erosion or other visual or other adverse impacts and he felt the issue here was unnecessary or necessary and avoidable consequences . Supervisor Raffensperger replied that down below that where it talks about , that the Board may include a time limit upon operations , in that section if you would say " a time limit and performance standards " , she wasn ' t exactly sure but that sentence kinds of deals with the process of doing as opposed to the eventual . Town Engineer Walker remarked that in the requirements in applying for the approval , submitting the report or plan , he thought that we should have a statement about erosion control plan and construction schedule or something along that line that would fit in with the statement on the bottom, completion within a reasonable time and conditions . The plan needs to include the erosion control plan and a projected schedule of work or plan of work . This addressed the final project but also the interim . Under these other items that are larger, and are exempt from this legislation are requirements under site plan approval already included requirements , this was meant to catch those that are falling through the cracks . Councilman Niklas replied that essentially he felt the Town had adequate control about the activities where a site plan approval is required before a building permit is issued , this really addresses the activity where soil activity , soil moving , filling can be instigated currently without a site plan approval and without a building permit . The staff really feels beyond a certain limited activity the Town really needs not only to be aware of it but to also be able to control unnecessary nuisance , drainage and erosion and other things . We are having situations right now within the Town and probably will see situations where no site plan approval is required to dump the fill from a spot where a site plan has already been approved and we really ought to have some control of that as well , so that is what this essentially deals with . One of the comments that was made earlier which he felt was not addressed , was the 50 cubic yards . We have on the Codes & Ordinance Committee , Harrison Rue , representative of the Ithaca Builders Association , and all these numbers were essentially selected for normal building activity on a site and it comes with his approval . He stated that he did not know if 50 was the magic number but it seemed reasonable to him and to the Committee so that was why the picked 50 . Councilman Klein asked what was in a standard dump truck , 70 yards ? Town Board Minutes 22 September 10 , 1990 Town Engineer Walker replied 10 yards so that ' s five dump truck loads . Councilman Niklas replied , but five loads dumped on a site and just left there can produce quite a mess , even for the Town in terms of erosion into neighboring culverts . We should have some understanding of where these activities are . Councilman Klein remarked that there have been some instances that prior to site plan approval somebody has started doing that on a site . A person expecting site plan approval is going ahead and filling the site . Councilman Liguori remarked if a person just wants to fill his lot that is a low lying lot or whatever , or even the Elmira Road thing , at the time they are having it filled all they have to get is a permit under this provision , they don ' t have to file a site plan as to what they are going to do with the property after it is filled? Councilman Niklas replied , no . And the wording is deposited or removed for sale from a site and essentially if you are moving around on a site you are not depositing or removing . Councilman Liguori asked , how about the DEC Mining Permit ? Do we supersede that ? Supervisoz• Raffensperger replied , that has a fairly large number . She went on to say that with the understanding that we have made some changes to this and that the Town Attorney will incorporate those into the document we have and that we will receive ten days in advance of the public hearing the revised document . RESOLUTION N0 , 221 Motion by Councilman Niklas ; seconded by Councilman Liguori , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will meet and conduct a public hearing at 7 : 00 P . M . , on October 1 , 1990 to consider proposed changes to Section 70 of the Zoning Ordinance relating to the extraction or deposit of fill and related products . ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER PROPOSED CHANGES BY CODES & ORDINANCE OF LOCAL LAW N0 , 71 1988 ( SPRINKLER LAW) Supervisor Raffensperger remarked that there was no recommendation from the Planning Board as this , appropriately , did not go to the Planning Board . Councilman Niklas noted that at a previous Town Board meeting we discussed the desirability of exempting day care facilities from our Town requirement for installing sprinkler systems in compliance and parity with the State legislation dealing with this . He thought that this legislation is a very nice way of dealing with it and there were no descending votes at Codes & Ordinance Committee , Essentially what we are suggesting is that day care facilities that are exclusively dedicated to the dealing of child care can dispense with the sprinkler requirement provided smoke detectors are installed in all the roans . Twelve children are the limit and that is in compliance with State law . Building Inspector Frost remarked that just to clarify matters , there is a day care operation that if it is provided in the hone Town Board Minutes 23 September 10 , 1990 where the day care provider resides in that home it canes under a variety of things from group family day care to family day care , etc . There has been a clear effort on the State level to try to provide for more of these types of situations where you have a small number of children with care being provided in the home . Not to be confused with institutional type day care where day care is being provided in a building which is not a residence or more specifically the day care is not being provided by the occupant of the building . This does not exempt an institutional day care center where it ' s more than a day care setting . Councilman Niklas stated that he just wanted to point out that the rationale was important here and that was that these facilities that we are dealing with are in operation during day time hours and the logic here is that these children are not sleeping through the night , the adult supervisors are not asleep . Essentially if a fire were to break out it would not be allowed to progress unnoticed for a long period of time . Another thing is that under section 12 , mixed use buildings , this is an important part of the legislation and without it we could have people slipping through the cracks of the law . Town Attorney Barney remarked that he could not remember why kitchens had been excluded . Mr . Frost replied because in kitchens you can have false alarms from steam and cooking . RESOLUTION' NO . 222 Motion by Councilman Niklas ; seconded by Councilman Whitcomb , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will meet and conduct a public hearing at 7 : 15 P . M . , on October 1 , 1990 to consider amending Local Law # 7 , 1988 ( Sprinkler Law) . ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER PROPOSED CHANGES BY CODES & ORDINANCE IN THE ZONING ORDINANCE TO ELIMINATE ADDITIONAL YARD REQUIREMENTS ON IRREGULAR LOTS Councilman Niklas stated that basically he thought that the provicatiori for Codes & Ordinance looking at this was the fact that we received a letter from Henry Aron and the ZBA indicating that they were receiving lots of requests for variances based primarily on the current restrictions under irregular lots , setbacks and side yards , etc . We and the staff reviewed the rationale for this and actually one of the most compelling arguments for revoking essentially these stipulations was why should an individual who owns an irregular lot be required to have more stringent setbacks and side yard requirements than someone who happens to own a rectangular lot . In addition , a number of other requires in terms of building sites have been woven into the fabric of the Zoning Ordinance , that should these parts of the current Zoning Ordinance be removed ,, we feel we will still provide adequate protection from adjoining lots in terms of setbacks and yardage requirements . And so with the advise and consent of staff it seemed reasonable to removed these from our current Zoning Ordinance , Town Attorney Barney remarked that he thought it had been found from experience that a large number of lots in the Town are tossed into a non-conforming status . That in itself is not a problem except when anyone comes in to get a building permit to , for Town Board Minutes 24 September 10 , 1990 example , extend a deck on the back , put a room on or a garage they now are forced to go to the ZBA to get an extension of a non-conforming use because they have a non-conforming lot and their house even though it was ten feet away from the side yard for 100 years is a non-conforming house and that coupled with what Councilman Niklas talked about , why treat an irregular lot different than a regular lot . Councilman Niklas remarked , . just for the record , historically , when these original zoning ordinances were being presented to , incorporated , into the Zoning Ordinance he was in the audience and he stated that he was arguing for even more stringent setbacks and requirements . He stated that he was merely pointing this out , that as Chair of Codes & Ordinance , he did not thrust his vested interest into deliberations . Supervisor. Raffensperger remarked that perhaps there should have been a distinction that this was for new lots and new subdivisions but it wa;D not done at the time of enactment . She stated that she could still make an argument for this additional ten feet but she was not going to do it . RESOLUTION N0 , 232 Motion by Supervisor Raffensperger , seconded by Councilman Niklas , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca will meet and conduct a public hearing at 7 : 30 P . M . , on October 1 , 1990 to consider F¢nending the Zoning Ordinance to eliminate additional yard requirements on irregular lots . ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . PERSONS TO BE HEARD No one in attendance wished to be heard . EAST ITHACA WATER AGREEMENT Town Engineer Dan Walker stated that he did not have a final agreement , they have revised it scene . There have been discussions with Cornell over the one issue that we have taken as a major problem and that was an agreement that we would not set our water rates any higher than what Cornell ' s water rate is . We are standing pretty firm on that . The ownership of the lines will be under the Town of Ithaca ' s control and we may end up owning it jointly with the State of New York in certain areas . The Town of Dryden is going to buy a valve for $ 50 , 000 and the right to keep it open so they can put their money in and get something for it without having to own the pipe . The Town Engineer stated that the Town of Ithaca was being well protected , that is the main thing . JOINT STUDY REGARDING AGMHly IT TO DETERMINE OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE' COSTS OF JOINTLY (CITY AND 'DOWN OF ITHACA) USED SEWAGE TRANSMISSION LINES Supervisor Raffensperger noted that this item has a fairly long history . For scme time the City of Ithaca has asked the Town of Ithaca to complete an agreement which is left over from the Ithaca Wastewater Treatment Plant negotiations . It was never settled as to how the Town of Ithaca and to what extent would pay for the operating and maintenance costs of joint used sewage transmission Town Board Minutes 25 September 10 , 1990 lines . In other words , the sewage comes to the edge of the City and when it gets to the City it uses City lines to get the rest of the way to the Plant . The Town of Ithaca was committed to negotiating an agreement for these operating and maintenance costs but it just has never been done . It is at least two and a half years in arrears at this point . So the City of Ithaca got somewhat impatient and one of the reasons this happened was because the Town of Ithaca has had a number of engineers in the past few years and one engineer would get going with it and looking at the transmission lines and then kind of get up to speed and then we would have a new engineer . At this time , our Town Engineer is relatively new, he has a great deal of work to do with our capital projects and the City has contacted her to ask if she would be interested in then finding out what it would cost to get a consultant to look at the whole problem . She stated that she thought the Town should look at what it would cost with no commitment to do it . Stearns & Wheler who have been involved in the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant has come up with a proposal which would cost us jointly $ 4 , 000 to make this assessment and come up with an equitable basis on which we would sign an agreement . She stated that she had run this past the Town Attorney and he made some changes in the scope of services , which she had suggested to the City . They have no problem with the change in the scope of service as far as she knew . But , they did not get the revised forms over here today so she could pass then out to the Town Board . The Supervisor went on to say that she would like to get the Boards authorization to commit up to $2 , 000 as the Town ' s share of doing this as she would hate to wait another month to start proceeding with this . The City is going to start charging us and she stated that she would like to know on what basis . She stated that she could not blame them for deciding they are going to start charging . She stated that she would rather be a partner to the decision than just have it thrown upon us . Basically what we are going to do is ask Stearns & Wheler to determine the length , size of sewers and number of pump stations need by the Town of Ithaca as transmission lines as well as the total length and size of sewers being maintained by the City . Determined from the existing flow data , the Town of Ithaca ' s contribution at each entry point into the collection system , estimate the percentage of flow that comes from the Town of Ithaca and from existing data provided by the City and the Town , determine or estimate the total cost relating to the operation and maintenance of the City sewer collection system and Stearns & Wheler would then prepare a letter report summarizing the basis of the analysis and the findings of the study and present those study findings to the City and Town of Ithaca . At which point , she stated , she would bring this information to the Board . RESOLUTION N0 . 233 Motion by Supervisor Raffensperger , seconded by Councilman Niklas , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby authorize the Supervisor to entering into an agreement with the City of Ithaca at a cost not to exceed $2 , 000 for the firm of Stearns & Wheler to make a study of the City of Ithaca ' s wastewater collection by the Town of Ithaca for transmitting the Town ' s sewage flow to the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant . (Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none) . TOWN BOARD MINUTES Town Board Minutes 26 September 10 , 1990 Councilwoman Leary noted that on page 17 of the August 13th minutes under revisions to the Personnel Manual , she stated that she was one of the seconders of that . On page 19 it says Councilwoman Leary remarked that she wanted to be recorded as one of the seconders on the new Hiring Policy Statement . She stated that she was not recorded as one of the seconders . Councilman Niklas stated that he would withdraw his second . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked that that would solve the problem and Councilwoman Leary will be recorded as the seconder for that portion . RESOLUTION N0 . 234 Motion by Councilman Niklas ; seconded by Councilman Liguori , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approve the August. 13 , 1990 Town Board minutes as corrected . (Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . RESOLUTION N0 . 235 Motion by Councilman Liguori ; seconded by Supervisor Raffensperger , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approve the August: 28 , 1990 Town Board minutes as presented by the Town Clerk . ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none . Abstaining - Leary and Klein) . SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING TO REVISE LOCAL LAW # 21 1970 (ETHICS ) Councilwoman Valentino stated that the committee to revise the Ethics Law was not ready to set the date for a public hearing . Supervisor Raffensperger asked if the Board could expect some material b=fore the next Board meeting? Councilwoman Valentino replied , yes . REPORT ON THE SOUTH HILL TRAIL LITIGATION Town Attorney John Barney remarked , as you may recall the Town was successful in the litigation , a petition was brought seeking a permissive referendum on the decision to establish the South Hill Trail . That decision was appealed , no action was taken on the appeal itself for 90 days and that provoked us into making a motion to have the appeal dismissed for a failure to perfect it . That motion wa.s; conditionally granted , the conditions being that the group that brought the petition . . . . . perfect our appeal within 30 days . . . . . he stated that he was advised that they have almost perfected the appeal . They have submitted a record and a brief which used. to be enough to perfect an appeal , however , we have never received official notification from the Appellate Division and that would suggest that they have not filed the $ 200 that is supposed to go with it , we are guessing . The Appellate Division is a little brit lenient on that , if they get their $ 200 within two or three days they will accept the record and accept it as being filed . If they don ' t get the $ 200 it will be dismissed . They may have sent their $ 200 in , there may be some other reason we have not Town Board Minutes 27 September 10 , 1990 heard . Eut he felt , fortunately or unfortunately depending on the view point , we have to treat the appeal as now having been perfected . We are in the process of putting together very quickly a responsive brief , Nelson Roth from our office is handling it . He feels that items raised by the petitioners are not items that should reverse what the court initially decided , but we have all been around the block enough times to know that you cannot predict 100 % what a court is going to do . We expect to get our brief in as fast as possible . We anticipate the matter will be orally argued probably in November and the court usually takes 60 to 90 days to render a decision . He stated that he did not expect a decision on this , finally , until January . Councilman Niklas asked , orally or verbally argued ? Town Attorney Barney replied , we call it oral . We may consider not arguing it: orally , it depends on what they ask . Councilman Niklas remarked , but the argument is not written it ' s presented orally? Town Attorney Barney replied , it ' s both . You do a brief in an argument and then you go up to Albany and you basically try and highlight the most important things . Sometimes the case does not merit the expense of the trip to Albany . You are basically taking a day , you drive up , argue for 20 minutes and then get in the car and drive home . He went on to say that they would take a look and if their assessment was that they were reasonably ccnfortable the way the brief came out and if neither side is going to appear then we may not: make the effort . But at the mcgnent we are planning on presenting the argument orally . Councilman Niklas asked what was the basis for the courts accepting the appeal. provision? He stated that he remembered the argument which was that they did not file their request within the time line and , therefore , what was the basis for the court allowing them to be heard? Town Attorney Barney replied that he was not sure he understood the question but the argument on their side was that they should have been able to extend the time , that the Town somehow or other did not provide them with the information they needed on a timely basis to prepare their application . Judge Rose , here locally , after a relatively brief hearing ruled that the Town had done nothing wrong , that they had basically just blown the 30 days . As a result , the petition was thrown out . They have appealed Judge Rose ' s decision claiming that they . . . . basically making the same argument that they made that the Town did not give them the appropriate provisions of the copies . Councilman Niklas replied that he guessed his question was , why was the appeal accepted? Town Attorney Barney replied , it ' s an appeal of right . They have the right to appeal . The next level is a discretionary appeal . If you go to -the Court of Appeals there it is a determination whether the court will hear it or not . He did not think , if they lose here , that they will proceed to go any further . We could , the way the law is written , we can appeal if it is reversed . AUrHORI ZE 77HE COLLEC'T'ION OF TOWN TAXES IN INSTAT Mr7'S Town Supervisor Raffensperger remarked that she thought the Town Board was all aware that the County Board passed , in spite of our fine resolution , passed their resolution authorizing the collection Town Board Minutes 28 September 10 , 1990 of taxes in installments . Now we have a choice , which is not much of a choice , She noted that the Board had received a letter from Kathy West which says that in the event the Town does not pass the resolution the Town will be responsible for preparation , distribution and collection of Town taxes independent of the County . Each Town would be responsible for generating their own bill and collecting all of the taxes which include the full enforcement of delinquent taxes . Supervisor Raffensperger noted that the only thing worse than the installment taxes would be for this to happen to us . She felt the Board did not have a choice . She noted a sample resolution to be passed by October 1st . Supervisor Raffensperger remarked that she considered making some small ch&:iges to it where it says , " the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca wishes to . . . . " but she had decided against it . She went on to say that she was reluctantly going to move the resolution to collect taxes in installments . Councilman Whitcomb remarked that he found it rather extraordinary that every Town Clerk in the County , every Town Board in the County voted against this resolution and the County went ahead with it anyway . In fact , his understanding was that there weren ' t that many County legislators that were in favor of it . He asked the Town Supervisor how it had passed . Supervisor Raffensperger replied that she had asked the Town ' s representatives that and actually what happened was that a large number of people representative of a number of groups , Social Services , Displaced Homemakers , a lot of groups came and made the case to the County Board of Representatives that they wished to have it passed . It was on that basis that our County Reps proceeded to vote for it even though the Town Board had not encouraged them to do that . Councilman Niklas remarked , there is actually something sad about that entire history because in the final analysis there is nothing on the record that convinces him that this is going to benefit the taxpayer in terms of how they can actually pay their taxes and indirectly there is evidence that it will hurt the taxpayer because of the cost of this collection system . He stated that he was just kind of hoping that the Supervisor would remove from the resolution the phraseology such as wishes desires and 11wantsil . Councilwoman Leary suggested that instead of saying "wishes " say " the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby agrees to . . . . . " . Town Attorney Barney remarked , how about "believes it is now necessary " . RESOLUTION No . 236 Motion by Supervisor Raffensperger ; seconded by Councilman Liguori , WHEREAS , the Tompkins County Board of Representatives on August 14 , 1990 adopted Local Law # 8 which provides that the County of Tompkins shall become the tax collection agency for the purpose of collecting real property taxes and special assessments in installments , and WHEREAS , Tompkins County Board Resolution #315 directs payment to the Town as compensation for costs associated with the achninistrat.ion of the installment option in the amount of $ 1 . 00 per installment: payer , and Wes , the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca believes it is now necessary to include payment of Town taxes subject to the conditions and terms outlined pursuant to such local law , Town Board Minutes 29 September 10 , 1990 NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca dces hereby adopt the installment option in accordance with Tompkins County Local Law # 8 of 1990 , and RESOLVED FURTHER , that the Town Clerk shall , upon receipt of the Collector ' s Warrant , collect the first installment of such installm at taxes , in addition to the normal collection of taxes as directed :by the Warrant for those taxpayers who do not select the installment option , and RESOLVED FURTHER,, that the Town Clerk is directed to forward a certified copy of this resolution to the Clerk of the Board of Representatives as soon as reasonably possible . (Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . TOWN OF IZ'HACA WARRANTS RESOLUTION N0 . 237 Motion by Councilwoman Valentino ; seconded by Councilwoman Leary , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby approves the Town of Ithaca Warrants dated September 10 , 1990 , in the following amounts : General Fund - Town Wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 48 , 805967 General Fund - Outside Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 36 , 420 . 57 Highway Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 36 , 022 . 71 Water & Sewer Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 167 , 067 . 39 Lighting District Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 461 . 94 Capital Projects Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 41378 . 53 ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . BOLTON PODgT WARRANTS RESOLUTION NO . 238 Motion by Supervisor Raffensperger ; seconded by Councilman Niklas , RESOLVED , that the Bolton Point Warrants dated September 10 , 1990 , in the Operating Account are hereby approved in the amount of $ 582 , 220 . 01. after review and upon the recommendation of the Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal Water Commission , they are in order for payment . ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . EXECUTIVE SESSION RESOLUTION N0 . 239 Motion by Supervisor Raffensperger ; seconded by Councilman Niklas , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby moves into Executive Session to discuss Park Lane easement , Cayuga Cliffs litigation matter , McDonald ' s litigation matter , possible litigation of Sapsucker Woods , acquisition of easement and possible eminent domain proceedings . I Town Board Minutes 30 September 10 , 1990 (Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . OPEN SESSION RESOLUTION NO . 240 Motion by Supervisor Raffensperger ; seconded by Councilman Niklas , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby moves back into Open Session . ( Raffensperger , Whitcanb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none) . RESOLUTIONI N0 . 241 Motion by Councilman Whitcanb ; seconded by Councilman Niklas , RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby authorize the Attorney ' s for the Town to defend the Town of Ithaca in the McDonald ' s and Cayuga Cliffs litigation , and FURn M BE IT RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Ithaca hereby ratify the actions that have already been taken in the Cayuga Cliffs litigation . ( Raffensperger , Whitcomb , Leary , Klein , Liguori , Valentino and Niklas voting Aye . Nays - none ) . ADJOURNMENT The meeting was duly adjourned . Town Clerk mile I