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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-11-12TB I ] -12. -03 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD ]I METING NOVEMBER 12, 2003 Present= Supv Mark Varvayards, Cl. Ch4rleq Hatfield, Cl Stephen Stelick, Jr-, Cl Christopher Michaels Absent; C1 Deborah Grax7t1ham Elected Ofbcials= Fes': mbi L. Hollenbeek, Town Clerk Jack Bush, Highway Superintenderil. Other Town Staff; Henry SlaWr, 'honing Officer Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Debbie Grass, Environmental Planner r Supv Varvayanis opened the meeting at 7:05 p-m. Board members and audience • parlicipated in the pledge of allegiance. ' CITIZENS PRIVILEGE Dn,n Xarig, Chairman of the Conservation Advisory Council (CAC), said that the CAC was requesting that it be converted to a Conservation Board (CE) and given responsibility for SEQRType I actions. He explained that the way the State law flows, after the CAC had prepared an open space inven Cory and it was accepted, they could become a Conservation Board. He said more importantly the CAC is an advisory board and. the CS would also be an advisory board_ The Conservation board does not have the power to enact laws. They can recommend, but be aver -ruled ley the Town Donrd_ Re said what is important is the duality of their advice, and that advice depends on the quality of the people on the board. Unless a group has some prestige it will not attract gLLra lFy people, and they have had problems filling the positions on the CAC. They currently have a good group consisting of experts in agriculture and natural resources and physical resources, but eventually those people will have to be replaced- If the board has the responsibility of the SF QR rljype I actions, it will take that burden from the Town Board, though the Town board would have ultimate authority- He said Debbie Grass, the Environmental Planner, has a good understanding of the legal aspect%, m-ld the CAC understands the technical aspects. He said one reason they dvn'C wit to do more than the Type I 9EQR mutters is that they aren't ready far that yet, They have done the open space inventory, but it is only a data source, arxd before they can work at atl levels and be proactive is prindtize the land u&es in the town. He said the cha7ge to the Conservation Board should be to help the Planter Board in generating the comprehensive plan and prinritim the land use plan. Once the prinritization is complete, they will be ready to really look at land use in the Town of Dryden, The, C13 would be willing to advise on matters other than SEAR a pe I actions if they IkkTre asked and if they were capable. They would also rer{uest that applicants fir S F,QR Type I actions to meet with the CF3 before they put in a. formal application and spent any money or much time to go over the background conservation aspects (drainage, etc) and D Karig said that would be an efficient sway to save the applicants money and catch problems early, Page 1 of 9 TS 11 -12 -03 Cl Hatfield said that most open space is agriculture land and farmers may be concerned 40 that they won't be able to sell a parcel of land if they desire for development. Nancy h1unkenbeck said that wus what: the prioritization would accomplish and hopefully it would be worked out: while discussing the issues with the people who would be impacted. She is also a farmer and sees her role as watching out for the farmers and lceepin an eye oil things like that. Supv Varvayanis said to keep in mind this was an advisory board and they would not be able to way na- D Karig said they would point out where the best agrieultural lands are in the Town, the quality of soil, etc, N Munkenbeck said she expact'ed they would interact with the rsunty 6rroup chat has been working on buying the development rights of agricultural land- C1 Hatfield said he did not want to create somethir that would -make things cti icult for fanners in the future. ,O Slater said he had reviewed what the CAC was proposing and thought they would probably be hene�icial in revie%k6ng 7 rpe I SEAR projects, The issues discussed a few months ago the .massive work that would have been put on the CAC has been reduced by this suggestion, but they would still be available to assist with revievn large projcc #s. The work has been scaled back to a level that they can handle, and he supports the change- Atty Perkins said he wazzted to tape a s Jwwr look at the SEQR regulations and he wasn't sure haw the CBreview would fit in with the Town Board's review. He said there is certainly a place for there to act as an advisory board in S E R actions where referred to them, that it should not necessarily be that all Type I actions go to the CB. He cautioned we would need fu be careful in observing the time limits that are set forth in the regulaizons, and would have to take a look at hove that would work. D Gross said she did not believe the CE should be responsible for EQR, but provide input, do research and assist in the deci:;ion making. Milo Richmond said they have discussed the time luies involved and agreed as a group that they would modify their -me 'tJng times as necessary to accommodate deadlines - D Slater said that there have been two incidents in the Town that were Type I actions, but there are ether rnatrers, such as larger subdivisions, where their assistance would be helpFul- Craig Schutt said the group haq seen t a lot of time thinking about ibis and what they really could handle to start with and what was reasonable- They would like to begin work u n the prioritization a weU as assisting with review of the Type I actions. He �i]so shares the same concerns as C1 Hatfield and does not want to do something that is detrimental to agriculture. He said that some things that have been done izi the Town of Ithaca recently he feels are detrimental to the farmer, and he would never support thn= types of proposals- C1 Michaels asked if there was anything the Town could provide to applicants in advance of review by the CB and suggested there might be a something that could be added to the website. He said that f€rr projects that might not come under the pur�ricw of the Cl3, they might have information that would be useful to someone constructing a single family home (runoff. etc) - N Munkenbeck said they might lie able to come up MAb some sort of checklist of things ror consideration- C1 Michaels acdwd there to come up with snnue sUrt of recommendations for applicant, ; - C Schutt said he thought that was an excellent idea, because in his job he is often dealing with these things after the construction has been done. Cl Michaels said he }relieved these was generally board -wide support for this conversion, but he is concerned with adding time to someone's con€�truction schedule- upv Varvayanis said the vray it is v4Tnitten now, that would not be a problem, that SEAR provides guidelines, Atty Perkins will draft a local Law that incorporates these ideas- Pr ige 2 of 9 TB I I - 12-03 ® COUNTY BRIEFING Mike Lane said they have been consumed by budget: issues, cuts to services and increases in taxes. He said he has supported most cuts, including cuts in Alternatives to Incarceration (and would go deeper there), Human Rights Agency, Public Works Department, Health Department, Youth Services, Mental Health, and others because he felt they all needed to be cut whether we liked it or not. They have held a third public forum on the budget, with 50 or 60 people in attendance. There were many people interested in preserving services and many in seeing the tax rate go down. He said no one will be happy. M Lane said he would like to say something about the recent debate in the newspaper about: the Alternatives to Incarceration. He thinks the District. Attorney was incorrect in his attack and the way he has been going after this, especially praising it as some kind of championship for cutting takes when it was the District Attorney's office that came to the County four or five years ago and wanted to take over the prosecution of City misdemeanor cases. At that time there was no money for it, as there wasn't last year, and M Lane said he doesn't remember the District Attorney being concerned about the tax rate at that point. He said he has been interested in fuiding out how well the drug courts are working and they seem to be doing what they are supposed to be doing. M Lane distributed copies of an email he had received regarding a New York Times article having to do with a study done by the New York State Court system as to the effectiveness of ATI programs across the state, particularly drug courts and whether they actually are saving money and whether they are more effective in deterring people from falling back and committing drug crimes. It indicates they have been very successful and have deterred more people than jail has deterred with respect to recidivism in drug crimes. ® M Lane said he is concerned about cuts in the Public Works Department, particularly those having to do with bridges. Peter Messmer has been working very hard at trying to keep that program going at reduced costs and feels that presently the bridges are in relatively good shape compared to the condition of some of the County's highways and that more money should be placed on the county's highways than bridges. M Lane said that while that may work for a couple of years, there was no over target money approved this year for bridges and he is fearful that things may happen to move the County back to where it was ten years ago when there were six bridges closed in the County. The bridges have been improved to the point that very soon the Lounsberry Road bridge will be opened (the last of those that were closed). There is money in the base budget for some bridge repairs, but: not much bridge work will be done in the next: year or two. Martha Robertson said she is on the committee that is looking at the expansion and renovation of the new jail. Recent reports have reduced the original target capacity (196) by 7 %, because of the ATI programs. The consultants felt they had already been successful at keeping numbers down and she feels they will be more successful in the future. She said they are not only keeping people out of jail in a current year, but if you actually change someone's life then that: person is not in and out of jail constantly and preying on other people. To correct information reported by the District Attorney she said the cost of the ATI programs is not 1.2 million as he said (he was adding in other programs that are not ATI programs). The actual cost for the drug courts and the justice center is $731,000 and if you look at just the drug courts it is less than half a million. Cl Michaels asked how much the 7% reduction would save in terms of the jail. M Robertson responded the Commission of Corrections has the authority to tell the County how many cells it must build. The County is right now planning for 104 beds. That would allow them to operate without the variances they have been using for a number of years. They have O an extension of the variance until March 24 at which time County staff will meet with officials in Albany to discuss the progress made on the design. She said the State has signaled they Page 3 of 9 TB 1I- 12-()3 ® might not be comfortable with 104 beds and insist that they plan for a greater amount. They are planning certain things like laundry, kitchen facilities and program space (the chassis, or basic functions of the jail) for about 200 prisoners. It can be scaled back in the design. The plans to be presented in March will be for 104 beds, but the eventual planning capacity could grow to absorb a larger number. If needed, they could add more cells. She said in going through the process, the consultants are very serious about holding costs dol%cm, but 1 :hey understand they have to satisfy the Commission of Corrections. With respect. to how much difference the 7o will make, that is not really a question they can answer, but what their evaluation shows is that there is confidence that the programs are working and they are worth it. given if they have a jail of 104 beds, they don't have to fill it: and there will be savings if less than all the units are open. if they have excess space they can board prisoners from other Counties and have an income on it. She said it is not her preference at all to build a. new jail or expand the jail, but it is one more place where they have no choice. She said the consultants are people whose job it is to build jails and even they say that the ATI programs are helping and keeping the population down. M Robertson said she also wanted to touch on the highway issues. The state and federal aid that was available for this purpose may not be there in the future at the level it has in the past. The group "Pushbacle met with Senator Nizzolio on Monday, and he said he doesn't think the formula will go away all together, but there may be less money. That revenue source provides millions of dollars to the community. The formula for a County project right now is B00% federal, 159/6 state and 59/0 local for big reconstruction projects. This may be another place where they have to choose to fund something with more local cost. There will be a conference `Rishback" has identified that all and of that local taxes are higher is one of only two states in which isn't: paying the full cost of ii:, thei meeting November 20 from 7 to 9 attend. this weekend about state funding. The non - partisan group together New York State taxes are the highest in the country, than average, but it is because of state decisions. New York the localities pay anything for Medicaid. Because the State 7 have less pressure to rein their costs in. Pushback is p.m. at the Ithaca Town Hall, and everyone is invited to Supv Varvayanis said he thought what Cl Michaels was driving at was 7% of the 196 beds M Robertson was talking about: in 20 years was 14 beds and ATI is seven hundred and some thousand dollars. Over 20 years that is 14 million dollars and Cl Michaels would like to see a little more analysis on what that: 14 million goes to. 14 beds wouldn't cover it, but what are the other expenses in savings. Cl Michaels said it just doesn't cost justify. She mentions Pushback, but the Town just funded in its 2004 budget in the neighborhood of $12,000 to $1.4,000 that the County rut from our senior citizens and youth. What: is going to keep more people out: of jail? Giving youth something to do other than drugs, or people that are repeat offenders. "We'll help our seniors, but you`re got to get convicted five or six times of drug trafficking and then we'll pay for you to go bowling. On this issue I think the County Board is so out of touch with everybody I talk to about this issue as to where we would like to see our tax dollars go. $100 to a youth program seems to make more of a difference than hundreds of thousands to other things." M Robertson said she agrees that the continuum of taking care of people and keeping them out of jail begins with youth programs, but the benefits of the drug courts are far beyond whether someone is actually in jail or not. There is a study on the last two years and they are finding that the people who graduate from the drug courts are more likely to get jobs, go back to school, get off of public assistance for good, and that is big money. They are far more likely ® to actually support their kids and turn into tax paying citizens rather than a burden on society. She said the programs aren't perfect and they will keep working on them and use Page 4 of 9 TB 11 -12-03 those evaluations and tweak the programs and try to improve them. She said if the District. Attorney cooperated more, the programs would be mom effective- The judges are committed and the staff is committed to work as best they care, even with his recalcitrance. She is convinced they are worth the investment, and said if you went to a. drug rnurt ses%Nwyl, especially a graduation you would see something difference. This is the only way to change people. It is not a matter of it costs X or someone is in jail. If someone goes to jail they are not cured and don't change their behaviOr- 7(P/o is the t'ypicul re�r'u3avisrn rate for drugs ar alcohol, and drug courts receive less than 09/o recidivism.. That means those people are no lodger in the system and are not a threat to public safety- C1 Michaels amid he also understands the people gelecced imd given the option for drug court are also very ststir>ti�:O likely to came out 30% who wouldn't have been recidivism. whether they loot to jail or nut and he still has yet to sec anything that even comes close to having the lines cross on co is versus savings in these programs. He finds it a question of priority. He isn't saying it isn't a worthwhile program, but what are you going to fund first? Is it our youth who are going to have to scrounge arlound for money or repeat offenders in They criminal system- What he is reacting to is that &he gave the hoard a flyer about Pushback having laqt year thrown back at the Town Board all smrts of programs to fund, and he thinks the reason the County rind il-hat is because they knew the Town would fund it because the County knows where ihe'Town's priorities are. If the County had asked the 'Town to fund the AT program they wouldn't have gotten a dollar. . Robertson said County le=gislators met with Toum officials last week and asked what their priorities were and for suggestions on hntiti* to save money. They did come up with some ideas of how to cooperate and things to look at. The message from the 'Towns came back strongly that the'] owns want the County to cut. taxes, She said the $10,000 to the Town of Dryden was a relm ursement Mi lieu of the sales tax agreement reached wiCh the City. It was originally set up to reimburse the Towns lbr programs they alze;ady funded; it was not new money- Cl Michaels said the reality was the County wus providing funding for the programs, the Tawas ele axly identified whit' programs they were going to continue to fund, and the County got that information and used it to determine ills own cuts and slash programs that other people were going to fund. The County is pushing back itself and he said it is putting the wrong things first as far as priorities for a County Legislature, M Robertson said at public fonims the County has held on the budget, more people have spoken in favor of programs that people have spoken a ainst inemasi g the tax rate. She said they have cut every single department and the programs they hive tried to save are the ones that they are convinced save money in the short and long runs. PushWr e k is a response to that and they are trying to encourage legislators in the higher levels of gavernment to t this seriously and tare responsibility for their own }programs. She is not crazy about Che $10.000 they cut and the legislature has not had a chance to discuss it because it "got lost in the shuffle" but it is somewthmg that may come up at their next meeting. C1 Hatfield asked how max y graduates they had each year and M Robert ,on said that since 2000 in felony drug court Z53% have either graduated or are still M the program of 215 participants, C1 Stelick ,said most. of the participants were City of Ithaca residents and Robcrtson said the report published was not reMly accurate because zip Codes were used as the basis for determining residence, CI Stelick said that amounts to 1 50,000 per graduate spent Gn that program. M Robertson said jail fails, it doesn't work, Cl Steldck said it is obvious JUT fails too, and asked how much upas cut from the ATI budget this year. She responded about $100,000. 0 Cl Steelickasked how much eras cut from the Recreatio=n. Partnership, M Robertson said they funded $38,110 all 80°x, of last year's level. When aske =d what the plans for the future were with respect to the Rec Partnership, she said she had asked Cathy Valentino about the Page 5 of 9 TB 11 -12 -03 Rec Partnership. C Valentino said that if the County cut its funding, the Town's could deal ® with the $38,000, so M Robertson took that back to the County Board. Following that at a Rec Partnership meeting it was clear the other Town's were not aware of that, and voted to ask the County to reconsider that. M Robertson expects there will be a vote at the County to make that funding ongoing. Supv Varvayanis said she was misrepresenting somewhat. His position at that meeting was that he wanted to know whether the County was in or out of the partnership next year, because the County has not committed. The Town Supervisors had talked and decided that if they didn't know the County was in, they were going to assume they were out.. CI Michaels said the reality was that the Town of Dryden had indicated that if the County didn't fund it, they would probably find funding for it because the priorities here are for youth programs and senior citizen programs, and he thinks he accurately described what the County did with the information gleaned from that meeting. He doesn't think the County should set its priorities by cutting what they know other municipalities will fund and funding what they know no one else will support. M Robertson suggested the Board pass a. resolution asking the County to support the Recreation Partnership with ongoing funding and said she would be happy to take that back. Cl Stelick that was nice, but it was obvious when they fund $700,000 for ATI and are knocking back a number of other programs that they have already made up their minds. M Robertson said the Towns and the County have very different responsibilities, and she would like to fund youth programs at 150" /o, but they have responsibilities that they can't ignore. M Robertson said they may be able to lower the tax rate a little, but if they do much more to the budget they are going to lose the eight votes they already have, and if they don't ® have a compromise that eight people can agree on then by law it goes back to Steve Whicher's budget which is 26°0. The current proposed increase in the tax rate is 19.65 %. She said if you want to look at non - mandated funding, highway is a much larger budget. They could cut the Sheriff way back and rely on the State Police. The only place they have increased staffing is in emergency response. She said she doesn't know how much more they can do. She hopes they can reduce the rate more. COUNCIL PRMLEGE None. HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT Jack Bush provided the board with a proposed resolution designating seasonal limited use highways and asked that they pass it. RESOLUTION # 160 - DESIGNATE SEASONAL LIMITED USE HIGHWAYS Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby accepts the following list of seasonal limited use highways upon the recommendation of the Highway Superintendent. These roads will not be plowed or maintained from November 2003 through April 2004. The roads will be posted iswith the appropriate signs and the Town Clerk shall post such notice at the Town Hall. Page 6 of 9 T13 11 -12 -03 1, Hile School Road - from #147 Ed Hill Road west to within approximately 500 feet ® of Route 38. 2. Signal Tower Road - from Card Road north to the power lines. 3. Star Stanton Hill Road - from approximately 800 feet west of Dryden- Harford Road west for approximately 3000 feet. 4. Caswell Road - from West Dryden Road south for approximately .6 mile. 5. Beam -Hill Road - from the eastern boundary of tax map #50 -1 -18.2 south to the southern boundary of tax map #60.- 1 -6.1. 2r1d Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes ATTORNEY Atty Perkins submitted to the Board his memorandum and analysis of the second petition for annexation that was riled on October 28. Cl Michaels asked if there was anything prohibitive in the petition, and Atty Perkins said it depended on whether the board was willing to waive t :he errors and inconsistencies in the petition and go forward with the public hearing. He said it appeared they had inserted the wrong tax map number in paragraph 1, and Atty Perkins has provided a copy of tax map #38. -1 -30.12 which matches the survey provided and is assessed to the petitioner. The certification of the assessor refers to #38. -1 -30.12 and the description and survey describe that same parcel. The date for the joint hearing with the Village of Dryden is December 18 at: 7:00 p.m. at the Village Hall. Any resolution setting a public hearing should make it clear that that board is not waiving any rights to file objections. Objections must be filed at the hearing. RESOLUTION 0161 - SET PUBLIC HEARING FOR ANNEXATION Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this `Gown Board hereby sets the public hearing in the matter of the Petition for Annexation filed by Konstantinos Kat:siroumbas for December 18, 2003, at 7:00 p.m. at the Dryden Village Hall, 16 South Street, Dryden, and the board reserves its right to state any objections at that hearing. 211d Cl Stelick Boll Call Vote TOWN CLERK Cl Hat:field Yes C1 Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Town Clerk reminded the board there are still minutes to be approved and distributed changes requested by Cl Grantham. ZONING OFFICER ZO Slater said he may have a hearing for December 3. Board will have his monthly report in the near future. DISCUSSION Page 7 of 9 TB 11 -12 -03 ® RESOLUTION #162 - TRANSFER FUNDS C1 Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED that this Town Board authorizes the transfer of $25,371.00 from A1910.4 (unallocated insurance) to A9010.8 (retirement). 2nd Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes C1 Michaels Yes RESOLUTION # 163 - ADD DELINQUENT WATER & SEWER BILLS TO 2004 TAX ROLL Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the addition of the following delinquent water and sewer bills to the 2004 tax roll: Acct No. Name Parcel Amount K4353 William Reed 55. -1 -15 1,339.38 K5245 Nemcek & Atav 54. -2 -9 448.80 K5635 Nicholas Bellisario 54. -1 -9.5 193.60 L3446 Christine Carroll 53. -1 -7 498.74 L3452 Joseph Giordano 43. -1 -19.14 252.91 L3466 Joscoh Giordano 43. -1 -19.10 244.19 L3472 Scott & Kristie Lovely 43. -1 -12 211.20 L3490 Donald E Snyder II 56. -3 -7 182.60 L4025 Ellen Jewett 69. -1 -7 183.73 L4027 Vernon Gambrell 69. -2 -11 151.07 L5390 Sue Weaver 56. -4 -5.31 389.39 L5519 William Spoon 54. -1 -13 91.30 L5547 Cathy Vanderbuilt 55. -1 -15 91.30 606 Paul & Nancy Conklin 37. -1 -10.2 347.01 2nd Cl Stelick Moll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes ZO Slater said that last creek the board had put money in next: years budget for the Planning Board to do a mailing in connection with the comprehensive plan, but the Planning Board would like to do that this year. Public hearings are scheduled for December 9 at the Varna Community Center, December 11 at the Freeville Fire Station and December 18 at the Dryden Town Hall, ZO Slater has discussed with the postmaster what is needed to activate a postal permit. There is a total fee of $300 for the first class permit and indicia. A check will have to be delivered to the post office to cover that and the cost of postage when the mailing goes to the post office. He asked the Board to authorize a check to be cut for the exact amount due at the time of mailing. ORESOLUTION #164 - AUTHORIZE POSTAL FEES Page 8 of 9 TS 11 -12 -03 0 Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the expense of up to $2,000 for a postal permit and postage in connection with the Planning Board's mailing for the comprehensive plan public hearing notification, and the Supervisor is authorized to sign a check for the exact amount due at the time of mailing. 2nd CI Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes RESOLUTION # 165 - APPROVE A13STRACT # 111 Cl Stelick offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract # 111, as audited, vouchers #848 through #1007, totaling $451,995.59. 211(1 Cl Michaels Roll Call Vote Cl Hatfield Yes Cl Stelick Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Michaels Yes Ambulance reports were distributed to the board members. On motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk page 9 of 9