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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-02-06TB 2-6 -02 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN END MEETING February 5, 2002 Board Members Present:; Supv Mark Varva�y.�nis, Cl Stephen Stelick, Jr., Cl Christopher Michaels, Cl Deborah Grantham Absent: Cl Charles Hatfield Other Elected Officials: Bambi L. 14ollenbeck, Town Clerk Jack Bush, Highv ay Superintmdent Other Toum Staff- Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Henry Slater, Zoning Officer David Putnam (TG Millers), Town Engineer Dr. Patricia Archambault, upei'mi tendent of Dryden School District, and Chair of the r,hool District Safety Committee, introduced some membexs of the Safety Committee= John Bailey, represents the school's insurance carrier, Tom Jackson, represeridng the transportation department, and Jahn Curatolo, a board of education member serving on the safety committee. Other members include Ron Flynn, representing the Fire Department, Margaret Ryan of the Dryden Police Department, and staff from various .school departments. They discuss safety issues in the school district and one that has been on the agenda for the last year as they revisit their emergency and evacuation plan is the ccmcern of the committee that the campus at the Middle, Schoolf High School just has one access road (from Route 38), if it was necessary to evacuate students and Route 38 was blocked for some reason there ❑ ould be no way to accomplish an evacuation. That has led to discussion.; of connecting to Mott Road as an alternate means of ingress and egress. Dr Archambault distribixted a letter to board members from Rick `young, Dryden Fire Chief, expressing his concern with only having one entrance to the school campus. John Bailey said as a former Dryden High School student, now the insurance representative for the school, and as a community member_ he think, serious consideration should be given to another exit from the school, potentially an exit on to Mott Road and /or another area to gi %e access to the building in case of an emergency. There are safety issues with the current exit and the masses of people trying to get in and out of the school at dZerent times of the day, There i$ a group of vouthful drivers going in and out of the school who may not be patient at Mmes because over time there is a lot of congestion in the area, including school buses_ It is a major safety issue. From an insurance perspective, in regards to au emr geTicy situation, they higWy recommend another entrance /exit for the high school. He understands that it has been talked a_baut in the past, and the safety cox mittee is here to support that tonight, Toza ,Jackson, representative of the transportation departments', said they have a pTablem with the buses exiting Lhe campus_ In the morning they sometimes wait for 8 to 10 minutes to exit. Mute 38 is very busy in the morning with normal commuter traffic, school traffic and salt trucks. It gets quite dangerous and they feel it will be safer if they can put the buses out on Mott Road, probably three- quarters of the buses could exit that direction and save time on the roads. There are about 0 buses servicing the campus in the mor�i � and in the aitermoon. John Curatolo, school br)ard remember and police officer in Dryden and Ithaca.. He stated that having an entrance/ exit to Mott Road woulcl enhance handicapped accessibility for Page I of 13 ME TB 2-6 -02 members of the community who like to enjoy sporting events. He has witnessed the difficulties handicapped people have in accessing the fields. A lady on crutches got stranded in the fields because her crutches got caught in the soft ground in the spring and she had to be retrieved by someone in a vehicle. He explained that during a SWAT training exercisAv at the High School (a mock bank robbery in Cortland with a vehicle stop in the driveway of the High School) it became readily apparent that there was no way to gain access to the High School except through the main driveway. All agencies present: realized the difficulties this presents. Vehicles would not be able to use the path from Mott Road during wet weather because they would sink. He believes it is a huge safety factor not to have a second way in or out for whatever emergency that could occur or whatever situation may arise. Dr Archambault said that the situation has been briefly discussed at the board level and there are also concerns about if it is a public road what the implications for the district would be. There are many things to talk about., but they wanted to open the matter for discussion and hope that there could be a resolution acceptable to both parties. Supv Varvayanis asked if they want a public road and Dr Archambault said she thought there would be some concerns of the board for opening it up to public access and the road being open 24 hours a day, but some kind of a road that would be able to be used mutually. They are open to discussion. John Bailey said he thought: the school district would be willing to maintain it as far as plowing, etc. Tom Jackson said that quite a bit of the work has been done as far as clearing the area. where they would like the road to go. Cl Stclick noted the road would be going through existing sport fields and asked what would be done to protect the children using the fields. John Bailey said there would probably be some fencing and some speed bumps. John Curatolo said there were a variety of ways to control speed that could be utilized, and he was not sure what the surface of the road would ' be. Dr Archambault noted that the road would need to support buses, fire trucks and other emergency service vehicles. In response to a question from Cl Stelick, Jack Bush stated that an oil and stone road may be sufficient for short term use. Cl Grantham said that the issue that needs discussion long before the design the road is discussed is the benefit to the Town. The School District isn't fully within in the Town of Dryden and serves people in other towns. If there is not a quantifiable benefit to the Town for paying for part of the road, then it should not: even be discussed. if the Town were to share facilities (a. building) there is a quantifiable benefit to the To«m; there are shared grant revenues to be applied for, etc, and then there would be space to be shared. She does not see that in the road; the road will benefit the school district only, not the Town, and she doesn't see how we can justify spending taxpayer money on it. Is there a. shared resource there? Is there some way that we are getting funding that we wouldn't get otherwise to be able to do something that we need to do anyway? If the answer is no, then we can't help with funding the road. That discussion has to happen before any discussion of design. She thinks that the issue of a public road into the school district is a very serious issue. Who is going to keep people from being on the road if it is a Town road? Anyone could use it. Supv Varvayanis stated that he agrees about 90` %,. He thinks a discussion of the design is important because what: he has heard so far makes him believe it is basically a school driveway and not a Town road. If the Town is going to do what is basically a driveway, then the Town needs some benefit. But we need to know what we are building before we can start talking about whether it is a Town road, and does the Town need the road or are we building a driveway. And if we are building a driveway it would be something done under contract and the Town would need to get something of value in return. Dr Archambault said that there are some benefits aside from the school use. The ' school's fields and facilities are used by the Town and Village community members of all ages Page 2 of 13 T8 2-"2 for a variety of programs. The larger percentage of the residents of the Town do go to the ® Dryden School District.. Eight to eighty -five percent of the residents of the Town send their children to the Dryden School District and would benefit from better access and increased safety for their children. John Bailey stated that a. valuable asset of the Town is the children who reside in the Town that use the school for their education, etc and the safety of the children is something that the Town should be concerned about, not just gaining some benefit to the Town from the road. The ultimate benefit is the safety of the children should there be a serious event at the school. Supv Varvayanis said that he is a taxpayer to both the Town and the school district and safety is a big concern, but the question that Cl Grantham is raising is not whether as citizens we are concerned it is which taxpayer pool pays for it. The school district is its own taxing entity and there are very strict rules on which pools of taxpayers pay to what fund, and the State Comptroller pays attention to that. J Bailey stated that the School and Town need to work together for the benefit of the children and the taxpayers as a whole, because the benefit is the safety of those who attend the school and use the facilities. J Curatolo stated he witnessed an event at a soccer game where a young lady broke her leg, the ambulance had to drive out across the fields and got stuck in the mud and people had to push the ambulance out. He thinks it is healthy to start the conversation now because it will take time to plan it, but it will be there for future generations. Safety is high in people's minds now because of the events that have gone on in the world and there needs to be some investment in that safety. He understands part of the residents attend Ithaca Schools, and they do have two driveways and different ways in and out, and their school is configured in a ® number of smaller buildings. Cl Grantham stated that her point was that for the Town Board to agree to help fund, in part or in full, a project like this there has to be a quantifiable benefit to the Town, and if any other school district came to the board for help building a road, it would be same response. What is the benefit to the Town? Without an answer to that question, it can't be done. When this discussion happened a few years ago, no one ever carne up with an answer to that question. The school districts collect their own taxes and they need to build their own roads. J Curatolo said the town taxpayers do want some of this to happen. Supv Varvayanis said it's 80''' /o of the taxpayers, which is a large number, but what Cl Grantham is talking about is State Law. You have to have 100%, or you set up a special benefit district, which is basically the Dryden School District. The District can tax it's own residents. Kathy Zahler noted that the Ithaca School District has commissioned a traffic study to discuss what is going on with traffic around some of its schools, and the school district is paying for the study, but she is fairly sure that if they find that the roads are not wide enough that the school district will not be paying to widen them. Supv Varvayanis responded that if the school built a driveway out to Mott Road and then Mott Road isn't safe, the Town would have to improve Mott Road. Atty Perkins said he believes Supv Varvayanis and Cl Grantham are right; there has to be some kind of a quid pro quo. Supv Varvayanis said using the fields would work, but there would have to be some kind of contract detailing the agreement. Atty Perkins said the Town is not in the business of building roads; the Town rehabilitates roads, it takes title to them when they have been dedicated according to Town Law and Highway Law for public purposes and then assumes responsibility for them. Traditionally, the Town is not in a position to build ® them from scratch unless there is some kind of quid pro quo that the Town, if the Board was willing, could participate in. Page 3of13 TB 2 -6-02 Donna Mott wondered what would be an example. She sees a benefit in safety for $00% of the Town residents, less hazard on the present roads, better use for Town residents of the fields and facilities. 40 Cl Grantham said that there is lot of people in Town who say that we need more soccer fields. If it would cost the Town $XX to build the soccer fields, and if the Town built the road for the school for $XX and the School gave the Town an equal value in soccer fields, then there is a. benefit to the whole Town, because every child in the Town has access to the fields for a given number of hours for the same price as if the Town had purchased land and built soccer fields. You have to say exactly what the benefit is and what the value of the benefit is. Paul Streeter stated that there is tremendous use by the Town already, for example soccer. All the youth in the youth sports are not part of the district. The sports activities up through sixth grade have nothing to do with the school and all are using the school fields. That is where they are seeing the benefit to the Town. Supv Varvayanis said there would have to be some kind of contract regarding the number of fields, number of hours, etc. Cl Grantham said the kids are already using the fields and if the Town builds the driveway the same number of kids are going to be using the same number of fields for the same number of hours, and at any time the school could say they need the fields for longer hours for the school teams. Dr Archambault said those arrangements can be worked out because they are currently doing those things, and charge a minimal fee. They would be open to looking at that and quantifying that. use. J Bailey said if there is a need in the Town for additional soccer fields, in the spirit of cooperation something could be worked out that would be beneficial to both parties. Dr Archambault said they have a lot of land yet to be developed where fields could be built and they have maintenance and grounds crews that know how to develop and care for fields, so the Town would not have to do that. She thinks there is a quid pro quo. 0 Cl Stelick, having run Dryden Youth Sports, the Town is not like Lansing who has its own Parks and Recreation area to use. Without the school the youth programs in the Town of Dryden would not exist the way they are today. The football program just paid the school $100 for use of the facilities. if there were a. dollar figure placed on what the sports programs do at the school, it would be substantial. For example, the Dryden Youth Wrestling Tournament was last weekend, and the fee was almost nothing. The amount of money generated from the tournament pays for the wrestlers (30 +) to go to wrestling tournaments around to state to make them better so they can participate at the upper levels. In addition, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, cheerleading and basketball uses almost exclusively Dryden Central School District property. There is no property anywhere used to the extent the school's property is used (990/4-)). Cl Grantham said if the Town were to build the road, we would have to see an increase in benefits to the Town. Legally and responsibly there needs to be an increase in benefits to the Town. Supv Varvayanis said that would be done just by having a contract: because right now whatever is being done they could stop tomorrow. If there were a contract saying this is exactly what we are going to do (no increase) and they quantify if, we'd be okay legally. Cl Grantham stated it would be a good idea to look for grant funds such as Rural School District/ Rural Town. Cl Michaels noted there are questions that would need to be answered at some point. Would it be a good idea to have students exiting from various locations? Will there be parking spaces for handicapped persons, and places along the road for teams to be able to drop off students. He said if the Town of Dryden were to fund this, it is coming completely from local taxpayer money, but his understanding is that the school district's budget is largely funded from multiple sources, including state finding. He believes it is much more expensive for the local community if the funding came from the Town's budget, but if it was funded from the 40 school budget and the school %vas able to get state funds for it, the local cost would be quite a Page 4 of 13 TB 2 -C -02 bit different. He is not convinced the Town's budget is the best place for the money to come is from. Dr Archambault said that this would not qualify for building aid because it would not contain instructional areas. The school district tax base is quite small, and the school does not get a lot from the State. They do vote on the budget and it gets harder and harder and if you put something in there that takes away from the instructional programs is probably not something that would get support. She would like to fund some mechanism to share some grants and they would like to find a way to cooperate on the project. Paul Streeter, President of the Board of Education, said that the school budget when presented to the community for a vote last year, passed by 8 votes. The state revenue is not increasing anywhere near the cost of the schools' most critical needs and this year the ' projection is that it %will be flat, and that' means probably decreasing in several areas. This puts an increasing burden on local taxpayers. Dryden currently has the highest school tax rate in the County. That doesn't mean they are the highest spender. On a per pupil basis, Dryden is mid -range on total expenditures and on instructional expenditures. The highest tax rate is due to the fact that Dryden has a lower tax base than surrounding districts and most similar size districts the same size in the State. P Streeter - Since we know you are in the process of revising the Master Plan for Dryden, the Dryden Central School District would like to go on record as supporting planned development in the town. We would like to see active recruitment of tax - paying businesses and housing to areas within our school district that have the existing infrastructure to support such development. Since our district is faced with decreased state funding; increased mandates; and increased, required expenses in all areas, we see no way of holding taxes down in the long run without enlarging our tax base or seriously reducing and eroding quality of the educational programs. We believe that: diminishing the quality of the education program will ® result in Dryden becoming less attractive for development in the long run. We will do anything we can to help in this endeavor. Be stated that Dryden is just not attractive because of the tax base on the school side, to bring kids in. It is a serious problem for the School. They are not here to ask anything specific other than to encourage to the Town to look at development in looking at the master plan. Cl Michaels asked for a copy of Mr. Streeter's statement and will forward it to George Frantz who is working on the master plan and to the Planning Board, P Streeter also presented the board with a copy of information obtained at a conference regarding the impact of September 11 disaster on the state budget and funding. Martha Robertson pointed out that more development doesn't necessarily equal higher net tax revenue. John Bailey said that neither does keeping businesses out of towns and villages; that there needs to be some progress and that working together can make it happen. Dr Archambault will be notified of planning board meetings and the school can send a representative. Supv Varvayanis noted that the site distance coming out the main driveway at the high school is not good and asked if they had complained to the NYS DOT. Tom Jackson said that the school had years ago. The State did not want to put the driveway where it is now although he did not know why. The School had asked for a traffic light at one time and that request was denied. Dave Putnam suggested that perhaps they could ask the State to remove the hump between the two driveways or to fill in the low spot on the Freeville side to improve the site distance. Dr Archambault thanked the Board for listening and discussing the matter. Supv Varvayanis asked the Highway Superintendent if an agreement was reached with the school whether he had the manpower and time to do the work. J Bush said he supposed anything is possible. Supv Varvayanis said he had spoken with Dr. Ross at TC3 who said that Page 5of13 TB 2-64)2 if he could get some assistance with putting in the soccer fields (drainage, leveling, etc), he will have Thomas & Associates do the engineering, but he doesn't want to spend the money on engineering unless he's got some idea that the work might actually get done. J Bush said he'd like to stay open minded about it, and he can see both sides, that the Town needs to benefit in some way. J Bush - There is an assumption here I think that the Town Highway Department is going to do this work, and I guess what I'm looking at is I don't think you have the ability to do that. It sounds to me like this is something the Town Board is deciding on and the Town Board is going to have to foot the bill for it moneywise, but to think that we just have manpower standing around doing nothing and equipment that is sitting around doing nothing, I think there's definitely a myth. Cl Grantham asked if there was as project like this the Town would either have to contract it out or the Highway Department would need to add personnel. J Bush said that he didn't want to say it isn't possible, but: they are already looking at a project on Lake Road that they are supposed to be a part of and that's a big project, and that has nothing to do with the work that the Highway Department needs to do just to maintain the roads that they have now. Supv Varvayanis said they are all aware that the projects involve real money and that the Highway Department has work to do, and that the board will not commit the Highway Department to anything without talking to Jack and making sure they can do it. Cl Grantham asked if there were standard costs for building a road. Dave Putnam said it would depend on what type of road you want to build and where you want to build it. An engineering estimate can be made once you have a project; it could be $75 /foot to $300 /foot. An interstate could be a million dollars a mile. J Bush stated he didn't believe Mott Road was built to handle that kind of txaffic and the road would probably have to be improved and would be an additional expense to the Town. Supv Varvayanis said he had discussed issues regarding Time Warner with Dean Ross, and he will go over the contract and take a look at that. TC3 would like to establish a light district: at the intersections of Livermore and Bahar Road and Livermore and Farview Drive. Atty Perkins - Aside from the fact that you've got two quite rural roads, I'm not sure that traffic really justifies it, but the procedure would be to form a lighting district, special improvement district, just like we have at Leisure Lane and other areas in the Town. You would assess the cost of the installation and the annual cost of operating the lights to the benefitted properties, which presumably would be the Christmas Tree farm and woodlot. Supv Varvayanis said that streetlights could placed at the intersections of Livermore and Farview and Livermore and Bahar and Dean Ross thought that the college would pay for it. Atty Perkins said that was certainly possible, and the Town could determine whether to allow the road to be lighted. There would be no expense to the Town. Cl Grantham said she would have no objection to the college installing the light and paying for it. Cl Michaels said he wasn't sure it was necessary. Petry Walbridge said she hoped the lights would shine down more than up and not shine on to neighboring properties. She wondered if the Town could adopt some ordinance with respect to lighting, and said that often people think if it is brighter it is safer, when frequently it just makes more glare and people can lurk in the shadows because your eyes don't adjust to the difference. Supv Varvayanis asked Ms Walbridge to provide him with whatever information she had regarding that, and Cl Michaels said it might be addressed in the master plan. 0 Page 6 of 13 TB 2 -6 -02 Martha Robertson, County Board representative, said that she would not be able to come next week and was present to give her report. She has given the Town Board's resolutions for an area speed limit in the Ellis Hollow area and stop signs to Marty luster and Pete Messmer at the County Highway Department. She said Mr Messmer is very interested in seeing that the area speed limit request is successful, and has sent his own package in support of the resolutions to DOT. A representative of NYS DOT will be meeting with area residents to discuss the matter. M Robertson will be serving as a county representative to the Recreation Partnership Board and the Cooperative Extension Advisory Board, The County Board approved the agreement for the recreation partnership last night. Partner municipalities are to approve and execute the agreement by some time in March. Cathy Valentino addressed the County Board last night as the first Town Supervisor to take a formal slot on the agenda in the county's efforts to promote communication between the County and the Towns. M Robertson reported that the Town of Ithaca has decided not to pursue the lawsuit on redistricting. Supv Varvayanis reported that the contracts for fire service were mailed to the Fire Departments and have not yet: been returned. He has not heard any official reports. Dave Putnam stated that he believed the Supervisor would be receiving a reply shortly. Cl Michaels reported that he and Cl Grantham visited the Varna Department. He wanted to get some information on what they do, the services they perform and some of the ® requirements necessary for them to train and serve the community. In the fire contracts there was a request for specific pieces of information that had caused some concern. Part of his inquiry was what kind of information were they keeping now as part of their requirements with the Stale. Cl Michaels stated that they are already keeping the information that the Town had requested in the contract, and more, as part of the requirements that they have to submit to the State. He said the form that is sent to the State contains two to three times more information than the Town had requested. He said that the State's only remedy is that information is not: filed is to shut down the department and he doesn't think there is a fining mechanism or anything along those lines. He said that our contract should ask them to meet the requirements of the state because we have the most direct ability to withhold funds to try to get them to comply. It: is the most likely way to remedy what may become a serious enough infracture for the State to want to shut them down. The information required by the Town is already kept by the fire department, and in Varna they are putting it into a software program after the reports are handwritten. The Varna Fire Department is under the impression that other fire departments in the Town are also using the same or similar software to keep track of the information. They discussed trying to facilitate the various departments in the area using the same software (or compatible) and potentially finding ways for them to more efficiently enter the information, such as creating a form to be carried around in some form of tablet pc for automatic entry. It seems to be the grudgework of the department to complete the form and the process. It seems there could be a relatively low cost way to reduce the work and record keeping of the department. He suggested that someone in the department with some computer science background could do the work, or see if any local schools or colleges have students who could help out. Cl Michaels reported that: the software they use provides a lot of information and several reports can be generated from it. He encourages the use the software and said that it is only a fe%T.T hundred dollars and perhaps the Town could support it as an addendum to their contract. Page 7 of 13 T13 2 -6 -02 He reiterated that the information on the forms that the State requires is exactly the information the Town needs. 0 Atty Perkins provided the supervisor's office with a memo to be sent to the fire departments that had received the contracts that encouraged the departments to contact the Supervisor with the form of information collected by the departments as it may be sufficient. Supv Varvayanis stated he had not heard from any of the departments. Cl Grantham said that the Supervisor did send out a letter to the departments offering to help find funding for assistance with software to aid in reporting. Dave Putnam said that the software is not cheap, costing about $600 a year to maintain it. It is very proprietary and it sends it in a form that the State and Federal governments will accept. He said that having an electronic pad may not be a good idea because of the harsh environment they would be used in. Atty Perkins said the board had heard a long presentation about how onerous these reporting requirements were urith respect to the ambulance and it turns out they already had the capability, they only had to print the report. -He is not very sympathetic about the complaining now, especially if the reports are already being prepared and they are satisfactory. The Town's position was "show us what you've got, if you think you've got the stuff". Supv Varvayanis said they haven't officially complained yet. Cl Grantham agrees with Cl Michaels that from what they saw in Varna, it is more than sufficient. They may have to block out the personal information. Peggy Walbridge said perhaps the Town should offer some training to the volunteer fire departments on how to be effective with the software. Supv Varvayanis said that was included in the letter he sent out. Cl Michaels noted that the Chiefs are responsible for reporting the information and it may be that a large part of the rest of the department are not aware of it going out, and if it is sent electronically they may not: realize it is kept on paper. Cl Michaels reported that he has visited the Highway ]department and spent several hours with the Highway Superintendent. He found the Cornell Local Roads Program helpful in analyzing the information J Bush had provided on equipment: and specifically with respect to what he is proposing in not keeping equipment when the repair costs start to escalate. The average per hour cost (in terms of use of equipment) of maintaining the older pieces of equipment (10 years plus) averaged between $11 and $12 an hour for repair costs, and the newer equipment was running about $5 to $6 an hour. For equipment used on an hourly basis that: amounts to $5,000 to $6,000 a year in terms of differential maintenance costs. It is the same or cheaper to look at new equipment than it is to keep it in its older time in the life cycle. By having newer equipment and by the way Jack outfits the equipment he has been able to use it for longer periods during the year and make it more accessible for various uses, and the fleet has reduced over the years because of that allocation of resources. Cl Michaels complimented J Bush and stated it is clear that he has been following the recommendations put forward by Cornell on how to run the Highway Department and he has been keeping track of things in a very detailed way. Because of the State bid process, he has been able to use equipment for a year and sell it for more was paid for it. RESOLUTION 1187 - AUTHORIZE HIGHWAY EQUIPMENT TRANSFERS Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Highway Superintendent to purchase two 2002 new and unused ten wheel dump trucks with snowplow equipment through state bid, not to exceed $229,677.80; and it is further 0 Page 8 of 13 TB 2=6-02 RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to purchase one 2002 new and unused cab & chassis, 4 x 4, regular cab truck through state bid, not to exceed $43,000; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to purchase one 2002 new 4 x 4 pickup truck for the Highway Department through the state bid, not to exceed $25,000; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to purchase one 2002 new 4 x 4 truck for the Department of Public Works through the state bid not to exceed $25,000; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to purchase one 2002 new and unused law tractor with 54" mower through the state bid not to exceed $7,500 and to sell a 2001 John Deere 425 lawn tractor with 54" mower, serial #M00425A091754 at a surplus auction or by advertisement to bid or to a public entity or private individual, minimum bid $5,800; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to sell a 2000 Ford 550 regular cab, ,4 x 4, single axle dump truck with snowplow equipment, VIN# 1 FDAF57FXYEE08266 at a surplus auction or by advertisement to bid or to a public entity or private individual, minimum bid $30,000; and it is further RESOLVED, that the I•Iighway Superintendent is hereby authorized to sell a 2000 GMC 4 x 4, 3/4 ton pickup truck VIN #1GTGK24R1YR168931 at a surplus auction or by advertisement to bid or to a public entity or private individual, minimum bid $19,000; and it is ® further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to sell a 1996 Dodge 4 x 4, 3/4 ton pickup truck VIN #187HF16Y8 rS689007 at a surplus auction or by advertisement to bid or to a public entity or private individual at fair market value; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to sell a 1989 Mack 4 x 4, single axle truck VIN #2M2S141C5KC001089 at a surplus auction or by advertisement to bid or to a public entity or private individual at fair market value; and it is further RESOLVED, that the Highway Superintendent is hereby authorized to sell a 1985 GMC tandem axle truck VIN# I.GDT9E4J0F1,1503909 at a surplus auction or by advertisement to bid or to a public entity or private individual at fair market value. 2nd Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote CI Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes Cl Grantham stated that the County has talked about conducting a county-wide aquifer study with the US Geological Survey and the Towns and they are not doing that this year, and the Town has talked about doing it's own and appropriated $30,000 in this year's budget to do it. She has spoken with Ed Bugliosi who is the chief of the Ithaca sub - district office of the USGS and they have right now cost -share funding available and in the next couple of months will have to be locking in cost share rates for the next: few years. If the Town wants to go ahead ® with an aquifer study we should meet with him and come up with a plan now so that we don't lose that 301/6 cost share from the Federal government. It has been decreasing and will Pagc 9 of 13 TB 2-6 -02 probably decrease again next year. If it is locked in this year it can be locked into a multi -year program with them. She believes the Town of Caroline is also interested in proceeding and it may be that we could work on the same valley fill aquifer together, or we may have our own separate work done. Cl Grantham thinks it is important to go ahead with an aquifer study. We are heading into drought for this year and all of the bedrock wells on the hills have a lot of problem in drought years (Snyder Hill , Ellis Heights and some other places in Town. The valley fill aquifers take longer to respond. She thinks there are immediate quantity issues that never get addressed that we need to know more about and there is also vulnerability to contamination that we need to know more about, in some cases from septics. She would like to open a conversation with USGS about what it would cost, what plan of work we could get into and hopefully be able to come back next month with some sort of work plan, costs, and proposed contract. Cl Michaels asked what the original proposal with the County was, and Cl Grantham said that when they first: started talking about it the Federal share was stall 501/o and the County was talking about paying 90/0 of the other half and the Towns chipping in 101/6. Then that ratio changed a few times until of was 30% for the Federal share, 35% for the County, and 35% for the Towns. There was never really a written proposal or draft contract. USGS says it will take about 10 years to do a basic aquifer study for the whole county, and so the cost of the program would be spread out over that length of tame. They estimate $100,000 to $150,000 per aquifer. If we look at valley fill there is Six Mile, Cascadilla and Fall Creek, and Fall Creek is probably close to the biggest one in the County, so we would have been looking at a bigger cost, though that would be shared with the Town of Ithaca if it were County - wide. Cl Grantham will try to talk to the Town of Ithaca about sharing that and expects it would be spread over several years. Supv Varvay anis said the Town of Ithaca is interested, but they don't have any money in the budget this year, and Caroline may have around $10,000. USGS has around $30,000 for this year but doesn't have the personnel to make the time commitment, so they will probably commit about $5,000 this year and perhaps do some really preliminary work this summer. Most of the work would start happening next year. Cl Michaels asked if we could do an aquifer study that would have much meaning without getting other Towns involved. Cl Grantham said we should have the Town of Ithaca involved in the Fall Creek one, but we could get: a lot of information about: the vulnerability of the aquifers to contamination and the extent of it within Dryden and the estimated volume within Dryden. The bedrock sources are harder to study because the water is contained in fractures in the rock and they are practically impossible to map. Cl Grantham wants to talk to them about it because there are a lot of people on the hills (Genung Circle, Snyder Hill Road, Ellis Heights) have water problems in dry years and those are also not the greatest soils for sept:ics. Cl Grantham would like permission to start a dialog with USGS about what they could do for the Town and how much it would cost, and also to talk with Ithaca and Caroline about. sharing. There needs to be a contract in the next: couple of months to lock in the cost share rage, and if the Town does that. and commits to spend the money over three years, the length of the contract could be extended next year to five years. Atty Perkins said we should bear in mind that if the Town of Dryden, Town of Caroline or Town of Ithaca decide to go it alone, that may well be the end of involvement by the County. They may want the data but won't be willing to help pay for it. Supv Varvayanis said he realizes that, and asked M Robertson if there had been any conversations at the County level. She said they had had one planning committee meeting, and they were hoping this year to go to the different Towns and get a better sense of who would like to be involved. Cl Grantham suggested that the County come to the discussions with USGS and plan the cost year for these aquifers (Caroline and is Dryden and possibly Ithaca) for next year. Page 10 of 13 Tip 2 -6=12 Cl Grantham has submitted an application to the Department of Environrnen al Conservation for funding for some of the Cayuga Lake Watershed Intermumcipal Organizatio -o work. The application iti for a little over $400,000 in funding and there is around $130,000 in mal'ch which is basically in kind from the participants. Because Cl Grantham is the chair of the 10 now that means that Dryden is the fiscal agent for the organization so there is a trust and agency account with The First National Bank of Dryden and so there will be money going its and out of that account, and ill will be in the general bills portion of the abstract each month. There was wme material distributed to the Board from Rachel Davis regarding the dog bite incident on Quarry load and the SPCA- Cl Grantham has been talldng with her about the I and has agreed to get a meeting set up with Ms Davis and the SPCA regarding some Procedures that Ms Davis would like to see changed. Ms Davis has aka contacted Martha Robertson and Dan Winch. Cl Grantham will contact A4x- Winch regarding attending the meeting with the SPCA. The Space / Facilities Needs Study for the Town Ball huz� been received and was distributed to Board mcmbers. An electronic version will also be obtained. C1 Grantham will write an RFP for building design. Cl Grantham has spoken with C1 Steb ck abou Il adding a resident from the other end of Town to (be ambulance committee and Supv Varvayanis has spoken with Dan Hartman on Quarry Road and he has agreed to do that. Supv Varvayanis proposed that the ambulance committee be combined with the RTe committee mittee and far a general emergency services r-on uiittee. Cl Stelick and Cl ] ZEcha.els support that idea and Cl Michaels said he thought all the departments would benefit from *Dzue fozznal coordination. Applications will be sent to Dan Hartman and Brian Wilbur- The committee will consist of Cl Stelick, Supv Varvayanis, citizens, the ambulance chief, and afire chief. Jack Binh reported that he had had a complaint again, about rmud on Quarry load and Paolaugeh's trucks were driving in and out there- He has spoken with Mike Paolangeh who has assured us that he will keep track of the situation. upv Varvayanis explained that some time in the eighteen sixties someone named McArthur made a small endowmf nt to benefit area schools. The endowment never grew large and the interest is given annuaUv to the Dryder School District and the George Junior Republic, RESOLUTION #88 - DISBURSE McARTHUR FUND INTEREST Cl Gran tha.m offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption, RESOLVED. that this Town Board hereby authorizes the disbursement of $66.87 to Dryden Central School and $4-27 to the George Junior Republic from the McArthur Fund representing interest for 2001 (total $71.14) - 2,,d Cl Michaels Roll Call Vote Cl 8tchck Yes upv Varvayards Yes Gl Michaels Yes G1 Grantham Yes Dave PI-Itnam distributed a report on the Virgil Creek Stabilization Project Pa ,e 11 of 13 On Morzda T6 Z -6-02 Heniry Slater, Dave Herrick and Dave Putnam met wild Doug DeXoskie, a representative of Rives Solutiori% to look at the project and go over it. He agreed that it was a viable natural stream bank stabilization project. ' Ehere is a problem with the time line for design and getting the project done in one year. There art two possible approaches to that- .Mr. DeKoski works for Greene County and does tbz4,4 on the side. Greene County is a leader in natural stream, bank stabilization in the east. In Greene County they Have a nationwide permit t'bey get their projects bLdl t under. Air De Koski is mi hopes of doing that here and we can reduce the permitting period from around 100 days to arc Lind ,30 days so the project can be completed in one year. If we can't get it done in one }Fear, and if SEMO will allow it, he is propab-i that we i5tabiliz�e die bank where it iii and use material that can be reused m the natural project the fallowing year. +lore information will be avaiJoble next week regardit g M the details- The ate Historic Preservation Office has signed off on the project and Fish & Witdtife say there are no endangered species in the creek. SEAR has to be done and D Putnam suggests we do a coordinated review. It is an urilisted action and the Tawas should gas through Part I, then declare the Town lead agency and send it off to the involved agencies, Fish & Wildlilfe, DEC, Corp of tzigineers, SEMO and Tompldns County- The Board briefly reviewed the Full Envirou mental Assessment Form prepared with respect to the Virgil Creek Stabilization Project. After the Board declares lead agency status there is a. 30=doy comment period, and it can he acted on at The sec.€ }rid board meedng next month. Atty Perkins asked irwe needed to comply with the National Environmental Protec6an Act. T) Putnam said. if there is a Mate Environmental Study done }POLL d{m'ti need to do a Federal one, and said the Town did not have to comply with the National Environmental .Protection Act because the State is mastering this for FEMA- O Slater stated he had a conversation today with the Amy Carps of Engineers today and was advised that they would do whatever they could to rush the permits through in 30 clays- 71-iey represent Fish & Wildlife as well as DEC inn the permitting process. RESOLUTION #89 - DECLARE LEAD AGENCY STATUS - VIRG<IL CREEK STABILIZATION PROJECT 1 Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby declares lead agency status in the Virgil Greek Stabilization Project, and the caning Officer shaft distribute copies of the Full Environmental Assessment Farm to involved agencies. 2nd 1 Michaels Roll Call Note Cl Stelick Yes Supv VarvaL ariiis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Grantham Yes Supv arvayams a €plain-ed that County funding for the Mouth C urn mi sion will be $900 less than they had been anticipating. The Town has always matched what the Bounty did. Last year the County came up with more money and the Town increased its funding- `['.he hoard discussed whether to decrease its share of f mdi ng this year in keeping with current policy, or to leave the auoaouni: the same as budgeted. Supv Varvayanis stated That as Atty Perkins has poiinted out in the past, one you break the dollar for dollar deal with the County, it could present difficulties in the future. After discussuon, the board decided to also reduce it' funding by $900,00- RESOLUTION 490 - REDUCE YOUTH COMMISSION FUNDINGr Ftlgc 12 of 13 3upv Varvaatiis RESOLVED, that Cormaission by $900 for appropriated ley Tompkii 2nd Cl Mchaels TB 2 -"2 offered the following resolution aT�d asked for its adoption: this To-tom Board hereby reduces the amount budgeted for the Youth the year 2002 in keeping with its pahey of matching t1ie funds is County for that purpose - Roll Call Mote Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayams Yes CI N icha►els Yes C.1 G- rantham Yes Supv V arvayan s rioted there is a vacant seat an the Youth Co m ssian and asked board members to try and Iocate a volunteer for the position. On motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 9.37 p.m, Respectfully submitted, A/X 41, 1A ef14L-&ee /� Pa,ibi L. Hollenbeck i Fags 13 of 13 Town off IDF,,Yden Town Board Meeting Fobruaty 6, 2002 Name - IPlese Print) f " ctC. Address 6'-u�� C4� ct A S+ �