HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-01-04TB 1-4 -01
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SPECIAL TOWN OF DRYDEN
. TOWN BOARD MEETZIVG
January 4, 2001
Etna Community Association
Board Members Present: Supv Mark Varvayanis, Cl Ronald Beck, Cl Thomas Hatfield,
Cl Charles Hatfield, Cl Deborah Grantham
Other Elected Officials: Bambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk
Jack Bush, Highway Superintendent
Supv Varvayanis opened the meeting at 7:10 p.m. and thanked the Etna Community
Association for the use of their building. He stated the purpose of the meeting was to choose a
person to complete the term of Charles Evans on the County Board of Representatives and it
was appropriate to hold the meeting in the district to be represented. He said it was a rare
opportunity for the Board to be able to choose the representative and that there were three well
qualified persons to choose from. Those interested in the position are Joseph Lalley,
Christopher Michaels and Martha Robertson and each will have an opportunity to address the
board and the audience.
Joseph Lalley - I live on Snyder Hill Road. I first came to the area in 1974 as a
freshman at Cornell and have been living on the hill since I first bought a house there in 1981.
When I was going to Cornell I worked at the airport and eventually became chief pilot of what is
now Taughannock Aviation. I left there to work at Cornell in 1984 and have been there since.
. I am currently a manager of Administration and Operations Support in a Department called
Planning, Design and Construction which I like to refer to as Cornell's design and build
operation. My work experience at Cornell is a bit of finance, human resources, operations
support, and very broad other duties in the design category. I've been involved in the Town
since about 1989 or so. I took the opportunity to become involved in local government and
have been on the Town of Dryden Planning Board since about that time. I've found it to be a
really enjoyable and wonderful learning experience and helped put the Town through its first
environmental impact statement with the development of Snyder Hill. I've been involved in the
long range planning activities of the Town. When I learned of Charlie's decision to retire from
the County Board, he and I had several discussions about that. I did some investigation about
what the time commitments would be and what was involved. I understand the commitments
involved and what it would take to serve the Town and what the possibilities are for
involvement. I think my work experience and financial background along with living in town
are things that would help me represent not only the Town, but the County as a whole. I've
also been involved in the Ellis Hollow Community Center since we've been in the area in
various capacities. I enjoy serving and giving. I am also a co- founder of Clarity Connect. There
is an issue I do want to bring up tonight. That is questions around whether or not this would
be a conflict of interest. Clarity Connect currently has a contxact with the Tompkins County
PEF (Public Electronic Futures Comn,;rsion). The legal entity we contract with is Tompkins
County, although the PEF consists of school districts, the City of Ithaca, and others. The
contract was entered into prior to my interest in this position, and if I get appointed. Any
questions there can be dealt with. 1 am married and have two children, and enjoy living in the
Town of Dryden.
Christopher Michaels - I've lived in the Ellis Hollow Community for the last seven years,
and been in Tompkins County since 1989 when I moved here with my wife. We have a new
child at home. The area has been good to us and we plan to be here for quite some time. We
have renovated a farm house on the corner of Ellis Hollow and Genung Roads. I am a patent
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attorney with a firm here. We represent quite a bit of the local community in the high tech
business. We represent a high tech company and any needs that it might have, but we don't .
generally practice other types of law. More than 5(Y-Yo of our practice is in national and
international clients. We have a professional staff and that is part of what gives me the
opportunity to serve the community in this way. Contrary to what: was in the paper, I am a
Republican. I am strongly committed to that and I think more on a local level are my views
and what I'd like to see our community develop into. I am committed to our community mainly
in the areas of housing. I presently serve and have for a number of years on the Finance
Committee of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services. They are active in the development of
neighborhoods and also do quite of bit financially in that they operate a very large budget for
such a small community. We look for loan programs for first time home buyers and also do
mini grants and mini loans that a lot of banks wouldn't be interested in for senior citizens or
anybody in need of doing renovations, especially on an emergency basis. I'm also on the board
of Ithaca Community Childcare. I believe that especially for working families, daycare issues
are important in the community. I will generally support this County's economic growth and
be very supportive of business development initiatives. Quite frankly, I would concentrate
those efforts on high tech businesses and expanding the businesses that are here. I'm also
going to be relatively fiscally conservative. I believe in investing in projects now to avoid
ongoing continued costs. That becomes relevant when we look at issues concerning our
County jail, infrastructures, roads. I'm very interested in long range planning and what we
want our community to look like going forward. With respect to this particular district, there
are things going on relative to the quality of life and a couple of road projects that are under
consideration. I'm going to wank to see an increase in the participation of residents in the
process of deciding those issues. Recently an issue came up on Genung Road and Jack Bush
and Mark Varvayanis came out to meet with residents. The mood was pretty hot prior to the
meeting, and tensions calmed during the meeting quite favorably. A large part of that was
understanding what the Town's concerns were regarding safety, snowplowing, etc and why they
wanted to took at improvements to the road. At the same time the residents got to voice their ,
concerns and uffia:t they perceived as the issues. I'd like to see that happen with County
issues. It's important to spend the time up front: in making sure the community is behind
whatever expansion is there. It's very important to resolving issues and making sure things go
through.
Martha. Robertson - I came to Ithaca., was transferred here, in 1972, and stayed longer
than I needed to for my degree, teaching, and was here for most of the seventies. Then I
followed my husband to Cleveland where we stayed 11 years. We came back in 1988 and
moved to our house on Ellis Hollow Road. Since then I've had quite a bit of experience in the
community. My kids went to Caroline School, Dewitt Middle School, and my daughter is at the
High School and my son is in college now. I worked in the schools with school district issues
for some time. I volunteered in the school. I've been active in the development of the Science
Center here, being a board member and co- coordinator of the project to build a permanent
Science Center downtown. I've stayed active with them. I'm also on the Board of Aids Work
and I've been active in the Chamber of Commerce as well. Professionally I've had experiences
in exhibit design. From teaching I went into museum exhibit design. 1 did that in Cleveland
and brought: it back to Ithaca and started an exhibit: design business out of Ithaca. There came
a point where I had to invest lots of money or find something else to do, and that was the point
at which I began doing fundraising for local community non -profit groups. I've worked at the
Reconstruction Home as Development Director, as well as Planned Parenthood of Tompkins
County. I have quite a bit background in the community through that role which really puts
me in touch with a lot of people. 1 feel like I know the area quite well. I now work at Cornell in
the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development. I am the Director of the President's Council of
Cornell Women which brings together women alums from around the world and supports the
quality of life for women on campus, faculty, staff and students as well as alums.
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I got especially interested in County issues and Town issues stimulated by the NESTS
project which was going on a couple of years ago. I became concerned about the impact that a
major new road would have had that would have gone through a large part of the Town of
Dryden. Through that process I educated myself about how decisions were made at the official
level and how citizen input can have an impact on how decisions are made. I was instrumental
in collecting signatures on petitions against the road. Of the 569 signatures, a third of them
were from Dryden. Out of that grew something called Advocates for Sensible Area Planning
( ASAP), and that grew into a group that now has more than 300 on the e-mail list that I
manage. There are formally 180 members; half of those are Dryden residents. It's not just
something I've done, but a lot of people have contributed to this group that has put on a few
programs recently. The Planner for Onondaga County recently spoke to us about Syracuse's
experience in county -wide planning and it was very enlightening and useful, a great model for
us to think about in Tompkins County. I've been involved in other things as well from the
concerns about County spending and how the County was going to use the revenue from the
tobacco settlement. I talked to a number of representatives and then got involved in the day-
long seminar they had in the Fall. We talked about the pros and cons of securitizing the
money or just accepting yearly payments and what are the issues. What I learned is there is
usually no single right answer to anything. You usually can find a good explanation to go one
way or another and the real job of a legislator or any land of official is to weigh all the different
sides and try to figure out what is going to be the best for the most people. I was also involved
in the vital communities workshop with the County Planning Department in December. People
all over the County came together to start to wrestle with some of the issues behind a county
wide plan for growth and development in Tompkins County. I'm very interested in those issues
and very interested in seeing citizens have a real chance to develop ideas, learn about the
issues, and inform the officials who have to make the final decisions about what really is going
to work best in the community.
Cl Beck - I can see there are no wrong choices here tonight.
C1 T Hatfield -The level of education that each of these folks represent and the
commitment in their own lives is excellent. I hope we're not raising the bar for elective office. I
think every one of you has graduate degrees and are very thoughtful people, very articulate and
have expressed yourselves well. As Ron says, there are no wrong choices. I'd like to ask each
of you to tackle from the perspective of the pros and cons and how you would have weighed
those in determine a vote had you had the opportunity to make one on the issue of solar
heating panels at the new library. That was a County Board decision made recently and I'd like
you each to take a shot at that.
J L Iley - I followed that with some interest because in 1980 I built a solar panel and
was using it during the summer to heat the hot water for our house. 1 would say that when I
approach problems like this I try to approach first from a business perspective. Does it make
economic sense? And when you are weighing whether you are going to spend money here or
there, you apply the standard financial tests. But to go beyond that, I think there are times
particularly depending upon the size, the position and the entity that you are dealing with that
you may have an opportunity or sometimes even an obligation to do what I call a little risk
taking and perhaps set a standard. One of the thongs government can do is be out there to
take that risk and perhaps set a standard and demonstrate that this is either viable or not
viable. I don't know how I would have voted on the particular library project, but I certainly
was interested in it, and would have weighed the options and given what the other competing
resources were, I'm unfamiliar so I can't say that: I would have voted yea or nay that it was a
good decision or a bad decision. I'm not really answering the question, but I certainly would
have taken a long, hard look at it. I wouldn't have been driven entirely by economics. I think
whenever you look at this one of the advantages of approaching it from a business perspective
® is that you can plug variables in because at the time natural gas was cheap and people were
comparing to that. My own personal perspective is to try to find a way to make it work because
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it's a renewal resource and you try to exhaust all the possibilities to make things work. You
weigh that versus what the other demands for capital are or what other priorities are
competing for the resource. If it was up to that par then I would have certainly voted for it. I'm IV
just not familiar with the particular details. I would have probably tried to find a way to make
it work.
C Michaels - I watched some of the debate on the solar panels on the government
access channels. I should mention some of my background is in home construction and
renovation and I've done quite a bit of work in energy methods. There are homes today that are
built: today with such energy efficiency that you can actually do better for the environment by
putting in an extra layer of insulation than looking for ways to supplement with solar energy.
It wwas very frustrating that the budding itself is relatively solar inefficient in terms of the way it
is oriented. It's heavily shadowed. I think that if the County was looking to look at solar
energy and try to create initiatives for it there were probably much more promising ways than
to by to cram something into a building that's, largely depending on what happens with future
construction, that's going to be a relatively poor candidate just in terms of shadowing.
Secondly, without even looking at ways of creating passive solar emissions through windows,
sunlight, etc. So I don't discount entirely and I agree with Joe that I would not have looked at
it entirely in an economic standpoint:, and I would have spent more originally for something
where you don't: have the ongoing increase in expense, and it isn't just what energy costs today,
but: what it's going to cost ten years from now. There will be increases in the cost of oil and
natural gas, and there will not be in the cost: of the sun. Those things play heavily in terms of
an economic fashion. I would have gone to: Is it something that the government has an
opportunity to set an example for? And for reasons I've stated 1 don't think that was a
particularly good example. I think the County also has gays of creating initiatives in various
programs if they wanted to create some type of credit program for people who are looking at it.
It would take a relatively modest amount of money, probably less than the amount of money it
would have taken, the differential in cost, for a project as large as the library, to look at
residential uses of solar energy. And if they were really interested in taking the issue on in a
local fashion, in Ellis Hollow, I can tell you that you'd be far better off looking at wind power
than solar. My wife and I have talked seriously about looking at either a combination or some
other energy source.
The other issue you brought up was what to do with the tobacco settlement. I'm quite
concerned about that. f see a very large sum of money coming in, whether it's a lump sum or
spread out over years, and I'm very concerned. It's not an ongoing revenue source. It is a one-
time reimbursement and I would like to see that not get spent so quickly and readily as it's
going to, and really hone it to projects that will really benefit the community. I am very
concerned about it getting mixed in with the regular budget and beginning to rely upon it such
that in years to come we are looking at a massive tax increase to sustain the programs that
we've started. There seems to be a. real problem in killing government programs once started,
no matter how inefficient they've proven to be. That is something that I would try to address,
but there is a bit of realism here that I think supporting programs out of that money is a real
mistake. I would look to not support ongoing programs and one of the suggestions that I really
liked to hear was the use of the funds for education such as anti- smoking campaigns. There
aren't too many adult smokers who start up and looking at improving education and
decreasing youth smoking is a long term solution to the problem. If you get rid of youth
smoking you won't have adult smoking and I would love to see the funds applied that way.
In terms of the question as to whether to take it on as ongoing payments or lump sum, I
would have to look at the exact monetary amounts. There are reasonable ways to estimate the
viability of these entities. The tobacco companies are largely supported by Nvo product groups
associated with them, or their sales from oversees markets. In fact, they are gaining quite a bit
of profit from the increase in cigarette prices. The profit margins have skyrocketed in this
country because they have quite a bit of addicted population. I don't know that they are a good
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long term investment. It's only a matter of time. The rest of the world seems to be 20 years
® behind us in terms of what their legal staffs can do. 20 years ago lawsuits of that type were
lost. The rest of the world will follow, especially when they see how the governments can cash
in on the tobacco companies. I would be very concerned about taking ongoing payments,
looking at the liability of these companies.
Martha Robertson - There's not that much I can add to the discussion of the solar
panels. I. would say in looking at that decision I would look hard at the long term costs of the
different ways of heating the building and the maintenance issues that might be involved. I
think that taking the risk is sometimes a good idea. You first want to make sure that the
particular technology is tried and true. You really want to pay attention to what the long term
costs are even if it means spending more up front. If you are going to spend half a million extra
on the solar panels, but you expect the building to last 50 years, what's the difference there
versus how much extra you're to spend due to the lack of control you have over other energy
prices.
On the tobacco settlement money, I went into that workshop convinced that the County
ought not to securitize any of the money, and I left thinking probably a mixed bag is the right
thing to do. In particular, because if the money were to be taken all at once it had to be spent
on capital projects within a five year time period. I was concerned that if the County saw that
as way to answer all of our capital needs, I was concerned that would mean that people would
vote for projects that otherwise wouldn't: stand the test of can we really afford it and is it really
worth people's tax money. I do understand the risk involved in the tobacco companies going
under. I don't think they're going to go under. I think their lawyers will find ways to move the
money around and we can be sure they are working on it now, so that it will somehow be
exempt from tobacco settlement payments. The end result in any case is that the payments to
the states are probably going to go down. I think that securitizing some and taking some in
® annual payments is probably a very good idea. I am very disappointed that this County, as
well as most of the Counties in New York State, have not spent any money on tobacco
cessation programs or education to keep kids from smoking. If I were on the Board that would
be something that I would be committed to changing. There has been quite a bit of research
done showing that marketing does work to young kids. That's why you see so many ads
around aimed at teenagers. It works not only to sell tennis shoes; it works to sell birth control,
safe driving, and not smoking. There is research showing that you really can get that message
across and other States have done that. It wouldn't be an experiment. It's something that we
know how to do and in terms of long term cost, it could just take off a hundred ways. It would
be better for each individual as well as for the County financially. I'd like to see that changed.
I am pleased that the County has put some money (I don't know if it's specifically from
the tobacco settlement money) toward the dental clinic that they've started to look at. It's
something for medicaid patients. There's a huge gap in the kind of service that's available to
them. It did come out as a need that could be met by the tobacco money. I think that's a real
plus.
C Michaels - To come back to the tobacco question, one other factor in deciding whether
to securitize or spend the money right away, would be to look at the discussion record and
between the work that Comell's putting out and the work that's already out there with the
school bond money, night now is a very expensive time to be buying capital projects and that's
why I was hoping they would securitize more, even understanding all those risks. The timing
now is pretty poor. The idea to fund cessation programs is a good idea.
Cl C Hatfield - I'd like to say that I think we've got three real good candidates and I'm
sure whoever gets picked will do a good job. I guess I'll just listen to the comments.
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Supv
Varvayanis -
I guess I
might as well ask. Joe,
you said you thought you had a
way around
the Article 18
problem.
Could
you explain to me what that is?
J ].alley - Sure I think that what: you're questioning is Municipal Law, and under
Section 802 in particular (h), the exemption from a conflict of interest is a contract in which a
municipal officer or employee has an interest if such a contract is entered into prior to the time
he or she was elected or appointed as such an officer or employee. But this paragraph shall in
no event authorize a renewal of such contract. So the contract has been in place for about
three and half years now. I think the issue becomes should the County decide to renegotiate
the contract or readvertise the contract it is going to be up to the County Afforney to, or
number one, to whoever the team is that's going to go out and represent the PEF to decide who
they are going to invite to bid on it. And if they choose to invite Clarity and the County is the
legal is the entity that is going the contract, then I think it will be up to Clarity to decide,
number one, if they'll even respond to it, but it: will also be a decision of the County Attorney to
decide whether a conflict of interest exists at that time. It's my obligation to declare the
interest and that's what I would formally do under Section 803, and publicly have done in my
application and also done here tonight.
Supv Varvayanis - And if a conflict does exist, what do you plan on doing about it?
J Lalley - I think the issue is certainly to make sure a conflict doesn't exist. I think you
have to put these things in perspective. Clarity has about seven or eight thousand customers.
The County is one, and I don't mean to demean any customer by any means. Also in terms of
the revenue screen, it is a relatively small contract. If it's not the County that's doing the
contracting, the legal entity, say for example the City of Ithaca, there may be ways with the PEF
to approach this so that a conflict doesn't exist. If one does exist, then 1 think that Clarity will
respond in the appropriate way, which is probably we wouldn't respond to the bid. But the
main thing is to make it known, and at the moment I committed, if appointed, to serving this
Toum. is
Supv Varvayanis - When does the contract come up for renewal, do you know?
J
Lalley - In August,
I believe.
I'm
not: involved with negotiations. I did execute it on
behalf of
the Company this
year, but
that
was mostly because I was the only officer in Toum.
Barbara Skoblick - I'm curious how long the term is that the appointment is for.
Supv Varvayanis - We'll have the election next November, and it will be January 181.
Cl Grantham - I had a follow up on Mark's question
and that's, it's not clear to me from
Article 18
what happens if something comes up related to the Clarity
contract other than
renewal.
I don't know anything about the contract or what
the terms
are, but have you
thought
about what could be done to make sure there's not
a conflict
in that event?
J Lalley - They have not done committee assignments at the County yet. They are,
among other things, hoping to wait and see what this decision is, and it's my intention to not
be on the Information Services Committee, which is a special task force. That's been the
committee that's been representing the County on the PER I don't intend to be involved in any
of those discussions.
Cl Grantham - I guess for the other candidates, do you perceive any potential conflicts?
C Michaels - We don't do any business with the County. No, I'm not aware of anything
that would create a conflict. 0
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M Robertson - I don't know if working for Cornell has any... No, none.
Supv Varvayanis - Do any of the Board members have other questions?
J Lalley - I did talk to the Town of Dryden attorney and I've also talked with the County
Attorney and been as forward as I could possibly be about the questions like those that you
raised tonight and Mark raised tonight. To the best of my belief there is not a conflict of
interest that exists now and it really depends on how the renewal of the contract with the PEF
is approached. My partner in Clarity Connect also has the same issue because he's the
President of the School Board, and that's one of the PEF members. So we've done a fair
amount of research in this and the main thing is to make public the fact that: that interest
exists and I believe that there is not a conflict of interest at this time. I.f one were to be created,
I'm aware of what the parameters are and I would take whatever steps are necessary so that it
won't occur to the best of my ability. That's all I can say.
Supv Varvayanis - I have to say I agree. I don't think there is a legal conflict, that there
would be any violation of the law by putting on now, but the question does arise about August.
And as a follow up, you mentioned there was a small revenue. Could you give me a rough idea
what the percentage is?
J Lalley - I think it's public record. The PEF's contract is valued somewhere around
$8,000 a year. That's in a revenue stream of about two and half million. But again, I don't
want: to demean the importance of any customer. But it might help you to have some
perspective. Every customer is very important to us. We want them all. We won't go under if
we lose the contract. .
Cl Beck - These conflicts very necessarily need to be disclosed, but it seems we like
dwell on these things that could potentially be a problem and automatically assume that
there's going to be favoritism and lack of integrity on the part of the people involved. Although I
certainly understand the legality of having everything disclosed, it seems to take an inordinate
amount of time and we do a lot of wheel spinning for something that I don't believe has any
merit for the time we spend on it. Get it disclosed, and the people can take the appropriate
action when it's necessary. I thought I had to say that..
I guess I'd like to ask each of you how you see the relationship changing between the
Towns and the City, which always becomes an issue. There's a lot of votes that are pretty
much city- oriented. The population shift is changing. Do any of you have any thoughts on
how you see the City versus the Towns and continuing to work together in areas where we need
to and what are your thoughts about keeping the economy of the Towns in relation to the City.
That's pretty broad. City versus the Towns, and ways we can work together, and ways we
shouldn't.
J Lalley - I think the City right now relies a fair amount on the County, especially
fiscally in many ways. I think that one of the bright spots right now is the commitment that
Cornell has made to move offices downtown. I think that in many ways is going to set up a
situation where you are going to have to revitalize downtown and to revitalize revenues. I think
it's good and perhaps making it so the City is probably less reliant on the County for some of
its fiscal needs. I see that as sort of a bright spot coming up. As I talk to my colleagues
around the neighborhood and the community, I don't hear anyone crying out for larger, bigger
County government and I think the flavor of the rural areas of the County are very different
than the flavor of downtown Ithaca. I think that's probably one of the nicer parts about being
around here, you can be out in the country in about four minutes and have sort of enjoy both
lifestyles. Where there are opportunities to leverage investments and resources, we should
explore those opportunities and there's always politics and power bases and turf battles that
need to be considered, but to encourage people who are really involved with the front lines to
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try and explore those opportunities I think is going to be important.. To me one of the bigger
concerns facing residents in the County in the next year or so is going to be the budget. As I •
see things now, there is a lot of stuff in place that has very short term funding. I think a tax
increase as I see it right now is pretty scary right now. I think that's going to be one of the
biggest challenges, especially given the fact that the City I think is somewhat reliant on sales
tax revenues and the County for certain things. That's going to be a challenge to deal with
those budget issues. I don't see residents saying we want bigger County government. And I
don't think the Town wants it either, other than to see that we have reasonable representation.
C Michaels - I think that I'm similar to a lot: of people in that my business is located in
the City of Ithaca. I live in the Town of Dryden. Even if that's not the case for a number of
people because I know that there's quite a bit of business in the Town of Dryden and Lansing.
A lot of my clients are in the technology park, but most of the people in the room would be
surprised at how many high tech businesses are located in garages. There's an environmental
testing lab that's part of somebody's house, a very dynamic high tech business, actually
located in the Town. I think %ve all feel a. certain connection with the Country. I don't
necessarily feel that there's a huge tension. Other than in a couple of areas, and I'm quite
familiar with some of these areas from my role with Ithaca Neighborhood Housing, there are
quite a bit of government monies, both Federal and State, that: flows almost entirely within the
County, which the County has a piece of the allocation of those funds which flows entirely in
the City. Ithaca Neighborhood Housing is looking at partnering with Better Housing of
Tompkins County and Better Housing may in fact get that money directly. I agree with Joe
that they are mainly financial issues where those funds flow, and having it all flow to the City
which may or may not need it: for whatever reason, that type of assistance creates some
animosity. If we look at it more globally, what kind of projects can be done, it really doesn't
take very long to get outside the City. I don't think there's any danger of the Towns losing their
autonomy. I think there is a decent flavor of the communities that is present and people know
the difference between living in Dryden or Lansing or Trumansburg, and 1 think that will •
bemaintained for some time. I don't see a huge amount: of animosity and I think we really need
to look at it really as County issues, not City issues. I think that needs to be addressed in a
more direct fashion. But I think they are doing a pretty good job of it right now.
M Robertson - I'm going to take a little bit different tack if I heard your question right. I
heard Alan Cohen on the radio this morning talka.ng about it seems like it looks as though the
City will probably lose a seat on the County Board in terms of the proportion of our population.
So if your perception is that the City calls the shots, maybe that will be a little less so after
things get reshuffled. Alan was saying it doesn't necessarily mean that the City has lost
population, but rather that most of the growth in the County has happened outside the City in
the last ten years. I think we are also constrained by State Law in that Home Rule gives
municipalities certain powers and that's how it is until we change State Law. There are certain
things that the Villages do, certain things that the Towns do, and different things that the
County and the City does. I think though, that we're seeing a lot of things cross those
boundaries, and concerns cross those boundaries. The salt trucks that come from Cargill go
through how many municipalities before they leave Tompkins County. The water that flows
from one end of the county to the other; the water doesn't care where the municipal boundaries
are. So those are things that there is really legitimate if not county -wide concern, certainly
cross - municipality concern, and a real need for municipalities to talk to each other, to work
together. I've seen the mood improving I think toward that in the last few years. I think there
needs to be a healthy respect on both sides that we are part of a whole and that the quality of
life in Dryden is in many ways dependent upon how viable the City of Ithaca is. On the other
hand the quality of life for people who work in the City of Ithaca, but live somewhere else is
very dependent upon how those outside municipalities run things. So I think that the efforts
I've seen that Barbara Mink started in trying to get negotiations going, discussions going, about
intermunicipal resource sharing, I think that's one thing that we ought to pursue. Alan Cohen
had a piece in the paper the other night about looking at open space preservation and trying to
Pagc 8 of 17
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develop a plan that each municipality would buy into. That has the benefit of starting with
• each municipality and the Town of Dryden saying that these are the pieces of land that we
really want to preserve, whether it's existing farmland or open space or forests or whatever, and
then bringing all those municipal maps together and looking at that at the County level. So
preserving local initiative, local control, but also coordinating among the municipalities. So I
think that I would really like to encourage that. That would be one of the things that I would
try to help facilitate if I were on the board, a conversation among municipal leaders at all levels
between municipalities, and as a whole with the County and with the City. And by the way, on
the issue of big government, I just want to pick up on one thing. One of the big increases in
the County budget this year uvas, aside from new staff for Alternatives to Incarceration
program, new staff for the library. I think that's something that all of us can truly appreciate.
When you go in the library and you're looking for a reference librarian or your kid's looking for
a certain video or book or whatever, you want that service. And if you don't see somebody
there, you don't find a reference librarian, or there's a long line, you don't necessarily say "Well,
that's okay because I don't like big government." You say "They don't have enough people
working at the library ". I hear people against big government change their mind when they
have Firestone tyres. Somebody hasn't been regulating carefully enough. So i think there are
real values to the things that governments do, and I think it's important that we get what we
pay for. It's also important that: we want what it is that we pay for. I think that there's a
balance there, and the County does have a real responsibility to make sure that municipalities
are heard.
Supv Varvayanis - Anybody else? Any citizens with questions?
Barbara Skoblick - My comment is first of all, if we hadn't caught the local news we
wouldn't have known that this was happening. 1 get really frustrated with the Town and the
County when there are elections and everybody is campaigning and we get flooded with junk
mail that we don't really want, and then after the elections, we never get anything in the mail
anymore. If we don't read the newspaper or watch the television or listen to radio we are not
informed. We don't always have lime for all those things, so I'd like really like to get more stuff
in the mail about what's going on, especially with things like this. My question is, you all live
in Ellis Hollow, I live in Etna, two doors away, and when we have Community Association
meetings here in this building which is kind of cold because the heater doesn't work very well,
there are two issues that come up all the time. One is how to maintain this building because
we don't have the money and the other is traffic. People hate the traffic. They hate the
speeders and people cutting through. They don't stop, they don't pay attention. Everybody is
trying to figure out what to do about it. We can't get any help from the Town or the County
and it's really frustrating in light of the fact that the City has put up all these barricades and
you can't drive anyplace in the City,, but anybody can drive anyplace here as fast as they want.
I'd like each one of you to address the traffic issues, and how can we maintain places like this
for the community.
Supv Varvayanis - The legal issues that Villages and Cities can do an awful lot that the
Towns can't. We have to get permission from the State to do anything, even on a Town road.
That's one of the big reasons you don't see us doing nearly as much as we ourselves would like
to be doing.
B Skoblick - But is anybody trying to get permission.
Cl T Hatfield - We adopted a. resolution brought by this association not too long ago and
passed it on to the County and to the State asking them to address those exact issues, and
also with respect to the hamlet of Varna as well. It's very much an issue, and we haven't given
up.
Page 9of17
TS 14# 01
B Skoblick - You brought up the issue of the solar panels. I had never heard that and I
could really care less because it doesn't affect my quality of life, not enough for me to worry •
about.
Cl T Hatfield - That's why I brought it up. There are two sides to the coin.
B Skoblick - I think it's interesting. The things that you brought up and the things that.
we care about living here are not the same.
M Robertson - I think you are absolutely right about publicity on this meeting. I guess
it was on W14CU Monday or Tuesday. It was in the newspaper, but didn't get on Charmel 7
until last night. I don't know. 1 also know that I've had a lot of experience trying to get things
in the newspaper and I think Town government: should have a little more clout than a non-
profit agency, but it takes some communication and sometimes the news media doesn't give
the response we would like.
B Hollenbeck - They were all notified well over a week ago.
Larry Chace - In terms of Etna, this building is the center of the community, and a sign
in the entryway gets everybody's attention because we all have to come here to get our mail.
We can't get home delivery, so a sign in the entryway gets at least Etna. It doesn't get the
district we're talking about.
M Robertson - About traffic, it's an interesting issue and it is countywide. Trust me, on
Ellis Hollow Road it's an issue. I can speak from that experience. There was a group that
worked, I don't know if you know the hollow, but it's toward the end of the hollow near where
Ringwood Road comes in. They worked vigorously for about a year and a half and Jack, were
you involved in that at all, trying to get the speed limit lowered?
J Bush - 1 wanted to see the speed limit carry on all the way through to Turkey Hill
Road. Unfortunately that's not what happened, but they did accomplish that little area.
M Robertson - They did get it lowered. It takes a huge effort lobbying the State. The
other thing is getting the Sheriffs patrols to enforce the speed limits. There's been a lot of
controversy over,widening Ellis Hollow Road and what should be done with the shoulders. I
won't bore you with details, but we did have a community meeting last. June and Jack was
there and Ward Hungerford and lots of other people in official positions. It feels like when
people in the County department hear from the community they will set up a meeting, Ward
will come here, bring his engineers here, and they will talk to you about what can be done.
There are a lot of communities that are doing some interesting traffic calming, not necessarily
putting up a traffic barrier, but actually narrowing roads for example, and that slows down
traffic. Drivers tend to slow down when there's a safety issue. It's a good thing. If you actually
narrow the roads, maybe put sidewalks separate from the road or make less of a shoulder,
there are a variety of solutions that sometimes can be applied. Another issue though is why are
people driving. Are people driving more because 50 years ago they used to work right around
F,tna or right around the Village of Dryden or right around Varna, or on the farms, or cottage
industries, or they're working at home more, and now all these Towns are bedroom
communities to Ithaca. So they're driving longer distances. Also, are the kids going to school
nearby or are they getting shipped long distances. I know that County and Town governments
don't have anything to do with school districts, but maintaining the elementary schools in the
Dryden School District would be I think a real strong reason so that people aren't driving as
much. Every time you move a land use, every time you move a reason to get somewhere
farther away from where people live, the more they have to drive. So I would like to see more
conscious efforts to maintain Village businesses and help people have businesses in their
homes or garages, doctors offices in people's home, in residential neighborhoods. Regulations
Page 10 of 17
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are now being considered in the City of Ithaca So that you have mixed uses and a variety of
• services within walking distance so that people can get around without cars. I think there a lot
of different ways to attack the problem.
C Michaels - We face many similar issues where we are. I'm looking at the map here
and there aren't that many people in this district that aren't looking at something similar, with
very few exceptions. Most of these roads that are getting a lot of traffic, whether it's Slaterville
Road, Route 79, which is intended to see a decent amount of traffic, and Route 13, but between
that ,we have Ellis Hollow, and more locally you have 366 which sees a lot of traffic and
probably will for a long time to come. But people travel pretty fast on Lover and Upper Creek
Roads as well, looking to cut corners and cross, which they do on Ellis Hollow Road. I have the
benefit of living right on the corner of where our community center is, where they have the Ellis
Hollow Fairs, and there's a large pool and all summer long you hear kids' laughter. To hear
those sounds are great, but a couple times a summer it's also accompanied by some very heart
sickening sounds which are cars screeching to a halt because there's a small child who is just
learning to ride a bike coming out of Genung Road and doesn't know how to turn fast enough
to avoid a car that's going 65 miles per hour and didn't see the child coming out. We've lost
four cats on the road, and we just built a. fence to prevent our son from running into the road.
I would love to see a county wide effort to look at that. I mentioned in my opening remarks
community participation, and my last experience was Jack's discussing some of those issues
with my neighbors on Genung Road, and although that didn't affect me, I was very impressed
with his willingness to subject himself to a pretty hostile mob that came out. I think he did
quite a bit to calm fears and discuss different ways of looking at those issues. They were quite
clear. They wanted a very narrow road, they like the little lane and they were looking at
various options to address the safety concerns. I agree with Mark that there are different ways
to look at things. I would love to see a stop sign at Genung Road, and it would probably in
some ways increase my noise level. I guarantee that for anyone who had to stop at that stop
sign on their way home, it: would be a great annoyance, but what's the cost? I think there are a
lot of roads in our community, this is a rural community, where you are likely to hit a deer
more than anything else. Your risk to life and limb goes up during deer season when they are
being spooked. I agree in a realistic sense there's a relatively minor amount of things that the
County can do, but I think looking at getting a group of citizens together is one of the most
direct things. When work is going on in the area such as widening the road or improving the
shoulder is a perfect time to address those issues. Most of these are bedroom communities.
The traffic on my road is really just people trying to get home. It isn't a matter that you will
permanently decrease traffic flow if you reduce the speed on that road.
J Lall.ey - I think one of the great frustrations is the inability to do things like reduce
speed limits or put in stop signs and traffic lights. I remember how long it took us to get the
traffic light at the intersection of Caldwell Road, Palm Road and Route 366. That was a seven
year effort. I think that laws that govern that are arcane at this point. It's not within our
purview. One of the things that happened when Route 79 was being rebuilt was Ellis Hollow
Road turned into a big highway and after 79 was done, I think it was a series of things, not the
least of which was the presence of State Troopers and Sheriffs cars at rush time, that finally
convinced people that 79 was the better road to use. One of the things that the county has
done on the section of Ellis Hollow between Pine Tree and the Town of Dryden line when they
recently renovated is color the shoulders green. I think there may be some opportunities to
explore mitigation measures that are not necessarily traditional, and that's where I think we
may want to encourage some creativity or at least some experimentation. I actually more
noticed the policeman setting up by the barn on Snyder Hill occasionally and that encourages
me to make sure that I know what I'm doing. It is a great frustration and I don't think there's
an easy answer. Citizen involvement is probably the best way to get it going.
Tony Hall - Martha mentioned the NESTS study. I'm wondering what direction
you think the County needs to go in the long term to make Village lives return to, obviously
Page I l of 17
TB 1 -44)1
we're not going to go back 100 years, but that's where the design of the rural communities
comes from. What would you like to do there? Revisiting the NESTS study and the new
corridors or is that something that we're going to walk away from, or are there other solutions? 10
M Robertson - I think there are other solutions. The City police force bought a special
scale that you slide under truck wheels, bought some technology that made it possible for them
to check the weight of trucks on the roads, just anywhere they were, pull trucks over and
check weight. They found some huge percentage of them overweight. So I think that if
Tompkins County became known to truck drivers as a place where you're likely to get caught if
you have bad brakes or if you're overweight, then truck drivers that are just using us to go
through are going to find somewhere else to go. Just like the policeman sitting behind the
barn is a relatively innocuous way to slow traffic down. I think you can with a minimal
investment create a real change in behavior among truck drivers. That's one thing. The
Transportation Council is in the middle of doing a study on freight traffic and that includes
railroad traffic as well. The results should be put together pretty soon. They are looking at
where trucks are coming from and where they are going to. What we need is some real
information. How much of the truck traffic is really just using Tompkins County to avoid
thruway tolls. It seems a long way to go to avoid thruway tolls, but I think they do that. And
hove many really are coming to make deliveries or do a pickup in Tompkins County and need to
be on the roads. That's available information and the County is in the process of finding that
out.. Once we get that kind of information we can make some more logical stabs at mitigating
the trade.
C Michaels - I am not in support of the corridor as it was proposed for a very long list of
reasons. I would start with I think it is a major expenditure by the County to look at that. The
various proposals to get across that geography, again this comes out of my construction
background. I don't think anybody has any concept of how incredibly difficult that would be.
Ithaca is gorges. Well, for a road it's valleys and hills and massive landscape. It looks a lot
different on a flat road. Freese Road has these jogs back and forth which are cut backs
through that same area. I'm certainly a. resident out there, but 1 wouldn't support it anyway.
Even if they told the they were going to go up Snyder Hill as opposed to Ellis Hollow, that's not
a position that's going to change. I just don't think that that's an appropriate use of those
residential areas for those roads. And I don't see the need for it. I really don't see our economy
or our local growth being reliant on that type of traffic. If you want to create a manufacturing
center, you are not going to do it in Ithaca, New York. It was a huge problem for our railway
industry and going back historically for our community, you had to take three switchbacks just
to get up what is now Route 96. It severely limited our growth, just pure geography. This
hasn't gone away for us and we'd be throwing a lot of money array. That's something that
would really decrease the quality of life. I think our economy is going to grow quite
substantially because there is going to be more and more room for what Martha was referring
to. We do a lot of new business development and the companies that I start are not major
manufacturing concerns. That has traditionally left the Upstate New York region. Syracuse
has quite a bit of high tech industry. I think high tech industry will continue develop
throughout this region. 1 really think that we could have done to try to get better access to
various industry is a mistake. So I'm not going to support those types of corridor extensions.
I'm actually going to go the other way and try to keep these communities that we've decided are
residential by zoning, and looking at it a different way, the market has decided it's .residential.
I would support the character of the neighborhood and try to bring it back looking at reduced
speed limits. We talked about citizen involvement. When I travel the home, I travel the speed
limit or Linder it pretty religiously, and 1 usually get a pretty long line of cars behind me. But
just a few people doing that is a pretty dramatic increase. That's a type of community
involvement. We've contacted the police force, and they come out for a little while, but they
have limited budgets, too. When they have come out there's been a very dramatic change. The
road calms down for a while, and then speeds up again. But these corridor proposals are a
bad idea.
Page 12 of 17
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J Lalley - I think the NESTS corridor is scary to me. I agree with you from a
construction standpoint. There are huge challenges and it's going to require a huge
commitment of resources that I think might be best put elsewhere. Just on that basis I have
lots of questions about it. I wouldn't feel comfortable supporting it. One of the things in my
time on the Planning Board I found is that it's very difficult to prevent things from happening
that are permitted by existing zoning and things like that. But one of the opportunities you
have when you serve on a body like that I think you have is to encourage behaviors that you
want. So the Planning Board for example is currently reviewing some planning studies. We
hired a class from City and Regional Planning at Cornell and one of the areas, certainly the
Route 13 area, was identified as a "corridor'. One of the deliberations going on right now is do
we want to identify this and encourage or incentivize certain kinds of activity because there is
only going to be a certain demand for that and if you can focus it in that area and serve the
needs and set up the right set of circumstances, then maybe that is how you get things to
happen in a way that makes some sense for everybody. At the last Planning Board meeting
Deb Grantham was sharing with us what they've done with cell towers in the Town of Dryden.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Deb. If you want to set up a tower that will allow co- location with
other companies, it's a lot easier process to get through the Town than if you want to build a
tower that's going to be exclusive for your use. 1 think one of the opportunities legislatures and
bodies have to do is incentivi.ze behavior rather than prohibit it. I think there are other creative
things. I understand the County is either about to or has purchased, one of the speed boxes
that displays your speed to the world as you go by. From what I've seen they seem to have
some effect, so there are things like that. to be done. At a county -wide level, until now I've only
seen the cities or the villages have these. So there are lots of things that can be done. Maybe
there are other opportunities to explore, but those are some of the things that can be done.
Larry Chace - I also live right here on the mad. A number of you are uncomfortable
sitting here in the cold. The last time a bunch of us did that was in the dark days of DR -7, the
landfill. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank the Board, some of you I think were here in
those days. Jim Schug was the Supervisor then. Michael Lane from the Village, Bob Watros
and Charlie Evans, who were tremendously helpful to us in what was a pretty awful, terrible
five years experience. I want to thank you all for that. Charlie and Jim and Mike and Bob
Watros on numerous occasions appeared in Etna for some of our perhaps less than totally
exciting social get togethers, ice cream sundaes, soup and salad dinners, or whatever it was.
We have a strange situation here in Etna. We are not incorporated. This community
association is a private organization. We run a playground which we maintain out of private
initiative here, and we will from time to time want to come to the Town for some assistance
because it is extremely difficult to do this privately. I was surprised very much to hear that
Charlie was resigning. I worked for him at Cornell before he retired and went to work on the
Board. The three of you are of course auditioning before this Board, but you are not
auditioning before us, and that changes perhaps the way you respond to things. If I were
trying to choose right now, I would have trouble distinguishing among the three of you. You
are all very similar. You are all from Ellis Hollow. Of course, Charlie was too. You all have the
same kinds of responses to things. You all talk at great length. Charlie never did. Charlie was
succinct. When you come to Eliza, talk briefly. Speak 1:o the point. It is cold here. It is
interesting I think, the main topic we spent the second half of the meeting on was one raised by
a resident, not one that any of you addressed. 1 realize you've probably not had much chance
to get around, especially in this season, to meet the people in the other part of your district,
beyond Ellis Hollow. There really is two separate things. It's almost like the Cornell, the rest of
the County dichotomy; the City of Ithaca, the rest of the County dichotomy. Within this
district it's Ellis Hollow and the rest of the district. It's very different. At some point in a year
there's going to be an election. Whichever one is selected I assume will want to run again.
You're going to have to go out and visit the rest of your District then. Be succinct.. 'Thank you
® for coming and talking to us.
Page 13 of 17
TS 1-4-01
M Robertson noted that: County Committee meetings should sometimes happen outside
of normal working hours because it is difficult to get citizen input. Larry Chace stated it is also so
difficult for County Board Reps to meet very often in the evenings because of the number of
committees they serve on.
Robin Seeley - Follouing up on that theme of citizen input and time of involvement, I
wanted to as Joe, you're real busy. It sounds like you have full time job with Cornell and it
sounds like you have a pretty big job at Clarity although I don't know what that is, and I know
on the Planning Board, as a citizen I'm most interested in having a representative that doesn't
lose touch with the people they are supposed to be representing. 1 know a couple of times
when you were on the Planning Board I called you about some stuff, and not because you are
rude person, but because you are extremely busy, and clearly had no time to talk to me about
what: I'd called about. So I was wondering, how are you going to manage all this in terms of
time spent in committee meetings and county board meetings and how will you make an effort
to still have the time to listen to citizens like me who like to have input?
J Lalley - In keeping with Larry's theme, I will manage the time caref wy. I've spent a
fair amount of time quizzing Charlie about what the time issues were, and my role at Clarity
has changed since the founding days starting with two people. We have a staff of about 20
now, so my role has changed. That was one of my major concerns in applying for the position.
I think there are lots of ways to stay in touch. I've been surprised by the e -mail I've gotten over
this in the last few days and that's actually one of the better ways. Being on the Planning
Board we have gone out and met at community centers, although the disappointment is that
the attendance has been very sparse. &laybe we can figure out a better way to publicize it,
because I thought this meeting was well publicized. I'm just surprised to hear that you think
othem*ise. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. And 1 think sometimes when you're trying to get
the kids to bed, sometimes a phone call is not the easiest way to do.
R Seeley - But there are a lot of people I know, because I have tried to help citizens stay •
in touch, there are a lot of people that don't have e-mail who are very interested, especially
older people. And it's important to reach out to them.
C Michaels - Besides just e-mail, one of the things that I addressed tonight and
mentioned to Mark was community involvement, and I dropped him a quick note. In fact I
have on my desk that I was reading a couple of community people actually wrote me by regular
snail mail. Like e -mail it's very effective in a number of ways. I can read a. letter faster than I
can have someone read it to me and there's no way I'm going to mess up what they've said. It's
a very effective way. I would like to address one thing that you said very early. We're malting
our comments and being selected by the Town Board. Entering tonight I had no idea ghat the
fellow people who were seeking this position were going to say, or what the community or the
Town Board wanted to hear. In a sense, from my ignorance, I have no other course but to
answer honestly and very directly. We were talking about road issues. I had no idea the
Town's position on that road, and I may have tromped myself on the foot coming out so
dramatically against the corridor. I actually get Martha's newsletter and I was one of the
people she got to sign the petition she was referring to. The work that she did on that really
galvanized the community, and as far as that goes, her comments tonight haven't deviated at
all.
L Chase - So you all haven't done this before?
M Robertson - Oh, I have a distinguishing feature, besides being a woman. I'm a
democrat if that matters to anybody.
L Chase - We weren't concerned what party Charlie was in. I don't think anybody paid .
any attention.
Page 14 of 17
T13 1-4 -01
• B Skoblick - He was a friend, he was a nice guy, and we could trust him. Those are
more important things than what party. Who cares what party?
L Chase - Have any of you held elective office before?
C Michaels - Yes, years ago on the school board in the community that I was, there was
an elected office, not just from the local high school, but from the community beyond the
school, back in New Jersey, thirteen years ago or longer.
M Robertson - I haven't. I've kind of participated from the sidelines for a long tinge. I
feel like now that my kids are both almost out of the house, that I can take a more active role.
So I felt like it's sort of my turn. My turn to volunteer.
J Lalley - No.
L Chace - So you haven't been through the agony and defeat of campaigning and that
whole business.
M Robertson - I've worked on campaigns, including some agonizing ones.
Supv Varvayanis - I'd like to point out how well Joe learned his lesson.
J . Lalley - I'm paying attention.
L Chace - Let's see how long it sticks.
Supv Varvayanis - Any other questions? Any board members with other questions? Is
there a motion?
Cl T Hatfield - I'll make one if you'll allow me to. In listening to these fine candidates
very carefully, I agree, there aren't very many distinctions, but there is one that I'd point out.
And based on that, among all the other issues involved, Mr. Lalley has served this Town loyally
and faithfully for twelve years on the Planning Board. I think that means when it comes to
understanding the Town of Dryden, understanding the issues that our Planning Board has
been wrestling with and the growth of our community, the issues of preservation, allocation of
resources, a lot of issues that this community has been looking at and is beginning to look, I
think that's probably the one distinguishing feature between three very fine candidates. Based
on that strength, I'd like to move that this Board appoint Mr. Joe Lalley to continue with Mr.
Evans' term.
Cl C Hatfield - IT second that motion.
C1 Grantham - I'd like to comment on that. I think all three candidates offer a lot to the
Town and I really appreciate all three of you applying for it and also for coming here and sitting
on the hot: seats for all this time. My support would go to Martha Robertson at this point:. I
know Martha and the work that she's done on planning issues in this Town and at a County
level. I'm really impressed with that. I'm really pleased to have that kind of citizen involvement
and I'd like to see it on a County level too. I think that planning issues town -wide and county-
wide are one of the most pressing ones that we have before us right now because it affects the
quality of life across the board. So for that reason, I support Martha in this, but as I said, we
also have two other candidates who are very impressive.
® Cl Beck - I think we've got a difficult choice and we said there are some good candidates
there. I assume that Joe will vacate the Planning Board seat if he takes this one, which is a
Page 15 of 17
TB 1-4-01
position that may be a loss to the Town of Dryden that way. I was interested in the comments
over here about this is kind of an Ellis Hollow group, and I guess I'd have to say that there may
be some more llis Hollow ini
E tiatives expressed rather than maybe county -wide issues, but
there again, l think any of you would do a fine job on the board.
Supv Varvayanis - Before the vote's taken, I think Joe will do a fine job, but I do feel
hinny about when you have two other obviously also qualified candidates and there is going to
be a legal question in August. I don't want you to think that I'm voting or will vote against you
because I don't think you'll do a fine job. That's not true. When there are other options, I
would rather pursue one of those. I hope you understand where I'm coming from on that, and
don't take it personally.
Cl Grantham - I think that's well said and I appreciate you looking into it carefully.
Cl Beck - I'd also like to say that there will be an election in less than a year, so all of
you will have an opportunity again if you so desire, which will be a much wider group to make
the selection than you see at this table tonight.
Cl T Hatfield - It will be in the hands of the people, where it belongs. Just like Mark
said when we started out, this is a unique opportunity when the Town Board gets to appoint a
County Rep. I'm pleased to see the involvement.
RESOLUTION #69 (2001) - APPOINT JOSEPH LALLEY TO COUNTY
BOARD OF REPRESENTATIVES
Cl T I-Iattield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
WHEREAS, Charles Evans has resigned his seat on the Tompkins County Board of
Representatives representing District 13 in the County, encompassing a portion of the 40
Town of Dryden, it is hereby
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby appoints Joseph Lalley to the County Board
of Representatives to fill the unexpired term of Charles Evans, which term ends December 31,
2001,
2«d Cl C Hatfield
Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Yes
Cl T Hatfield Yes
Cl C Hatfield Yes
Supv Varvayanis No
Cl Grantham No
Cl Grantham - I would like to make a couple of announcements in response to some of
your concerns, even though this isn't what this Board meeting was about. I represent: the
Town Board on the Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Council policy committee and we
have also two representatives who are citizens on the planning committee of that
Transportation Council. One of the things that's going on right now, as Martha pointed out, is
that one of the recommendations made in the NESTS study was a freight study county wide
and that freight study is ongoing now. There's a questionnaire survey that was recently
released by the consultant that was hired to do that study. I believe that there may be
electronic versions on the county web site. I just learned about this today and the person I
learned it from wasn't sure if they were there yet. Also I'm betting copies of that questionnaire
this weekend and I'll be bringing some to the Town. There is an opportunity there to provide
whatever you know about freight transportation in your neighborhood. The idea is that that
study would help us determine how to help contxol traffic patterns, particularly truck tra iic in
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the County. They are looking at; every kind of freight, from tractor trailer trucks down to the
FedEx trucks and contractors with their pickups. So they are really interested in knowing how
much of it is local, how much of it is through traffic, where they are going to and coming from.
So that's one thing, that they want that data by January 19, which is kind of short notice. So
it sounds like Bambi has some, and 1 should have some this weekend if you want to get some
from me.
The other thing is that we have a Town website, and I know that's not helpful to a lot of
people, but Bambi posts the minutes on it, meeting dates, announcements, all kinds of Town
news is posted on that website. So if you do have access to internet, that's one way to find out
some of the things that are going on. But we can also start maybe mailing some
announcements to the community centers.
B Hollenbeck - Call us.
CI Beck - I can't
see
that we can mail to the
whole town every time we
have a meeting,
but is there somebody
here
in the community, that
if we mailed a couple to a
person....
L Chace - The Etna Community Association has a post office box and if you just say
"Etna Community Association', that's good enough.
Cl Beck -That's something we could do for all the community centers if there is a
person who could take charge of getting it posted.
Cl Grantham - The only problem with that you realize is that on this it's pretty short:
notice, and it probably wouldn't have gotten in your newsletter.
0 B Skobhck - No, but we could have posted it.
Supv Varvayanis - I'd like to thank all three of you. I think you all did very well.
On motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at
9:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
IS Avial
Bambi L. Hollenbeck
Town Clerk
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