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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019 Fall NewsletterTOWN OF ITHACA QUICK NEWS FALL BRUSH COLLECTION The Public Works Department will be picking up brush, limbs, and branches starting Monday, October 21st, and will continue throughout the Town until finished. All yard waste must be at the roadside by 7 a.m. on the first day of collection. There will be no second collection and no callbacks. The intention of roadside collection service is for residents of the Town of Ithaca outside the Village of Cayuga Heights to put a reasonable amount of yard waste, approximately a standard pickup truck load or what is basically generated during a normal year, out at the roadside for collection by the Town’s crews. Clearing of building lots and hedgerows is beyond a normal amount of material. Roadside collection crews reserve the right to not pick up excessively large volumes of brush and improperly piled materials. Brush you collect before the first day of the pickup needs to remain out of the rights-of-way until a couple of days before the pickup; this will assure your safety and that of your neighbors. WHAT TO DO WHAT NOT TO DO • Pile brush in neat bundles parallel to the road along Do not tie bundles of brush road shoulder or at end of driveway if no shoulder exists. Do not place materials in a ditch • Put out limbs no larger than 8 inches in diameter Do not put out metal, rocks, glass, • Limit brush piles to the size of a pickup load roots, stumps, or lumber scraps • Do not put brush out until a few days before collection FALL LEAF COLLECTION Leaf collection will begin at 7 a.m. on Monday, November 4th and will continue throughout the week until finished. Leaves should be at the curb by 7:00 a.m. on the first day of collection. Leaves may be raked to the shoulder of the road or bagged in biodegradable paper leaf bags (30-gallon bags are available at many stores in the area). Other debris such as pine needles, dead flowers, garden waste, grass clippings, etc., cannot be vacuumed and should be placed in bags. Please fill the bags and place them on the road shoulder, folding over the openings of the bags to close. Do not staple or tape openings. No plastic bags will be picked up. The Town’s crews will go around the entire Town once with the leaf vacuum. For the rest of the month of November, the crews will begin picking up paper-bagged leaves each Monday, which could extend through early week to encompass the entire Town. Please note that we may send out leaf crews earlier than November 4th to test our equipment and to pick up paper-bagged leaves before they get wet. You may drop your own yard waste and leaves off at the Public Works Facility at 106 Seven Mile Drive, Monday through Friday, from 7:00 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. year-round. If you have questions, call (607) 273-1656 between 6:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. or send an email to publicworks@town.ithaca.ny.us. We do recognize that not all the leaves will be off the trees by the first week in November and in fact we tried pushing the date later last year and it snowed 4 times! Since we use much of the same equipment for leaf pick-up as snow removal/salting, this caused major issues with getting the machinery ready for snow removal and then the leaves froze to the ground which made trying to remove them very cumbersome. Bagged leaves will be picked up as stated above to try and assist residents, but we simply cannot push the date later than the first week in November. WATER BILL WILL BE RELEVIED TO TOWN/COUNTY TAX BILL Please remember that any balance due on your water/sewer accounts that are not paid by mid-October will be re-levied onto your Town and County Tax bill. There is a drop-box located at the Buffalo Street entrance for your convenience. Online payments are also available but subject to the service charge by the company that provides this service. TOWN OF ITHACA WINTER CONSIDERATIONS It’s that time of year again, THINK SNOW!! Below are the Town’s guidelines for snow operations. The primary consideration for making the decision between snow/ice removal and plowing is traffic safety and allowance for emergency services (fire and ambulance). When the roads are lightly snow covered and begin to become a hazard, the crews are called in and salt is applied to the roads to provide de-icing. If the situation progresses to a point where the accumulation on the roads is 1½” to 2”, the roads and shoulders are plowed and de-iced together. Our regular service hours for snow removal are from 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. weekdays and as needed on nights and weekends. County roads and rural connector Town roads will be our primary priority and all other Town roads are a secondary priority. Of course, emergency vehicles and school bus routes will take priority as need arises. A typical plow route requires 4 hours to complete. Since snow plowing operations start early in the morning, parking on roads and shoulders is discouraged. If a vehicle hinders snowplow operations, the vehicle will be towed at the owner’s expense. Please remind your snow removal service that snow from plowing driveways should be completely cleared from the road. Snow left in and across roads from clearing your driveway can create a dangerous obstacle in the roadway and a liability situation for the homeowner. Objects, such as recycle/garbage receptacles, etc., should be placed off of the roadway shoulder and clear of snowplow discharge. Additionally, all objects should be removed promptly once services are rendered. During snow removal operations, snow discharge from the plows will hit all mailboxes. However, if a mailbox that is properly installed and initially in good repair and is damaged by a Town vehicle/equipment, the Town may replace or repair it upon timely notification being given to the Public Works Department. Repairs requiring a new mailbox will be made using a standard aluminum/metal mailbox. • Mailboxes that have been knocked down due to a deteriorated condition, repairs/replacement will be the responsibility if the property owner. • Repairs to plantings damaged in the rights-of-way will be the responsibility of the homeowner. • Mailboxes shall be installed according to United States Postal Service guidelines. The distance from the edge of pavement to the front of the mailbox shall be 6” to 12” with a 43” clearance to the bottom of the mailbox structure support arm. • Newspaper boxes should follow the same requirements for mailboxes and should not be placed under the mailbox due to the clearance requirements. Please plan extra time for travel and reduce speed on wet or snow covered roads. Remove snow, frost, and ice from all vehicle windows. Not only will you be able to see, but it is the law. If you have any questions regarding the Town’s snow removal operations, you can call the Public Works Department at 273-1656 or e-mail us at publicworks@town.ithaca.ny.us. TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR COMPLIANCE! OPERATING PERMIT FOR SINGLE FAMILY AND TWO-FAMILY RESIDENCES The Town enacted a local law in 2017 establishing a Rental Registry Program for one- and two-family dwelling units and other provisions associated with Accessory Dwelling Units. This affects owners of residential rental property by expanding the town’s current operating permit program to include rented single-family homes, accessory dwelling units (apartments) and duplexes. The law also establishes an owner-occupancy requirement for newly constructed accessory dwelling units (ADU’s) or any accessory dwelling unit that the town does not have a record of. There is a link on the Town’s website to the application form with further details and the timelines for complying with the local law. http://www.town.ithaca.ny.us/rental-registry The Code Enforcement Department has begun issuing citations to known properties/owners who have not complied with the law. Please contact Codes at 607-273-1721 ext. 2 for assistance with complying with the requirements of this law. BOARD VACANCIES PLANNING BOARD, ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS AND CONSERVATION BOARD The Planning Board consists of seven regular members with two alternates. The Planning Board is charged with reviewing land use and development issues and approving subdivisions, site plans and special permit requests. Planning Board meetings are generally held at 7 pm on the first and third Tuesday of the month. Zoning Board of Appeals consists of 5 regular and 2 alternate members who are appointed by the Town Board. The Zoning Board is a quasi-judicial board that is charged with ensuring that the zoning ordinances are complied with or that variances and/or special approvals are granted when certain criteria are met. Zoning Board meetings are generally held at 6 pm on the second Tuesday of the month. Some knowledge of the application of municipal law or other rules and regulations is helpful but not required. Both Boards have a residency requirement for members to live in the Town of Ithaca and both Boards’ members receive a small stipend. Members are appointed by the Town Board with Regular member appointments having a 7 and 5-year terms respectively and Alternate membership appointments having a 1-year term; a great way to try it out and see if regular membership is something you could commit to. Ethics Board consists of five members with a residency requirement of living in Tompkins County. There are some limits to the number of members from each political party, but we have a vacancy now and the new member could be any party. The Ethics Board meets once a year to review Ethics Disclosure forms submitted by Town Officials and upon demand if an inquiry is brought to them by the public or staff. Meetings generally occur at lunch time and last no more than 45 minutes to an hour. Conservation Board How do you share your passion for the environment? What do you do to make our community a better place to live? The Town of Ithaca Conservation Board engages both the Town Board and the Planning Board to make sure our community's environmental concerns are heard. If you are interested in land conservation, proposed development projects, water and energy consumption or invasive species control, come to one of our meetings, held on the first Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Ithaca Town Hall. If you enjoy the meeting, please apply for membership to the Town Conservation Board. Applicants must be Town residents and be interested in playing an active role in the Town’s planning and advisory process, as it relates to environmental concerns. Specialized knowledge is helpful, but not required. For more information about the Conservation Board and their current activities, please visit the Board’s website at www.town.ithaca.ny.us/conservation-board, find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IthacaConservationBoard, or join them for any upcoming meeting (all meetings are open to the public). Please contact Michael Smith, Senior Planner, at 607-273-1747 or msmith@town.ithaca.ny.us with any questions. Please contact the Town Clerk at 273-1721 or via email at prosa@town.ithaca.ny.us or visit our website at www.town.ithaca.ny.us for an application. COMING SOON Next month I will be sending out information regarding some significant legislation going through committees right now including: o Un-hosted Short Term Rental Regulations o New Ithaca energy Code Supplement Law (aka Green Building law) o Town of Ithaca’s Green Deal o Town of Ithaca New Neighborhood Code (Zoning) Contact Please feel free to contact me with any questions on any of the above. Paulette Rosa, Town Clerk prosa@town.ithaca.ny.us or 607-273-1721