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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-12- 9�i TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWNROARD =ETING DECEMMER * 2004 Present. Cl Stephen Stelickp Jr_, Doputy Supenpisor, Cl Martin Christofferson, Cl Christopher Michaels, Cl Michael flattery Elected Officials. Baynbi I,_ Hallenbeck, Town Clerk Other Town Staff: Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Henry Slater, Zoning Officer Dave Puilnom, TG Miller Engineers Debbie Grass, Environmental Planner Jennifer Staton, Recreation Coordinator upv Trumbull opened the meeting at 7;03 p.m_ and led board members and the audience in the pledge of allegiance. CUI EAS PRxVUeECxE Cherrill Wallen has previously provided a memo to the Board and is asking that the Town consider some type of legislation to prohibit hunting and trapping on or near the Jim chug trail for the safety of the people who use the trail. She said the trail is used by a lot of people and is one of the nicest things the Town has to offer. She has enuntered hunters and has picked up shells off the trail, and has been told that someone saw a trap actually set on the trail. She said she realizes it is complicated because of the different property owners along the trail_ Atty Perkins said the 'Town could restrict what kinds of activities occur on the property owned by the Town, but could not extend a prohibition bi�yond that, and that is pre- empted by the NY DEC laws. With respect to the part of the trail that is used by liccrrs . With the S ia.te of New York, because there it is specifically understood that the Town's license to use the park and the trail through the area was not to be inconsistent with its use as a multiple use area, including hunting {from Chaffee Road to Lake Road }. There are prohibitions about not discharging arrns within a certain distance from a dwelling, Joyce Oerbasi said the trapping situation has come up before and the DEC previously said that the Town could impose trapping rules, but would have to work with DEC on that and they would have to enforoe it. D Gross said there could be signs advising dng owners that there may be traps off the trail. She has done some research and spoken with someone at DEC who is checking on the trapping and hunting questions. Feedback from the Conservation l3oard varied with some responses indicating there should be some sort of set back, or perhaps the trail should be closed during hunting season as the Town of Ithaca does, 0 Grass suggested a map could be made of the trail showing where there is private land and hurting is allowed. She also said we need to be careful because there is private land along future trails and we don't want to set a precedent of doing something that wolQld prohibit hunting rights there. The board will do some investigation and consider the matter further, Ron Flynn, Chief of the Dryden Fire Department, recognized three individuals from two Fire departments in the Town who received awards presented ovOr the summer_ The Ithaca Journal sponsors awards that focus on the recognition of volunteer firs and EMS providers in Tompkins County. There are over 300 fire and EMS providers in Tompkins County and this year three of the four awards were presented to volunteers in the Town of Dryden. He said the Town Board and the residents ref the Town of Dryden should be proud rif these individuals, Page 1 of l 5 0 T13 12 -9 -04 • Roy Rizzo, Chief of the Varna Fire Department, was presented with the Award of Valor for his heroic actions at the scene of a structure fire in Slaterville that took the life of Bret Neff, Deputy Chief of the Harford Fire Department. Ken Vorstadt, Captain of the Dryden Fire Department, received the Firefighter of the Year Award for his outstanding commitment and leadership in the organization and his tireless involvement with the local cub scout, girl scout and boy scout troops in Dryden. Jennifer Wildridge, received the Volunteer of the Year Award, and R Flynn said that she has extraordinary• efforts behind the scenes in helping the organization run smoothly and is a great supporter on the fire ground. Mike Raffe, of the American Red Cross of Tompkins County, spoke to the board about the Dryden Disaster Partnership Group. He said it is very important that municipal government, both elected officials and employees, are involved in all phases of emergency management and have an awareness of what goes on because the local government has responsibility under Article 2(b) of NYS Executive Law. Incident command will be given to the chiefs of the fire departments because they are used to running it, but local government needs to be involved in the human needs issues and urged the board to designate someone to be involved. Aspects include preparedness and planning, response, recovery and mitigation. This group evolved through the ongoing efforts of Project Impact, the Pre- disaster Mitigation Programs, and a fire that occurred in October 2003 in the Town of Ulysses. That incident made it evident that there was a need to become more involved in geographic -based human needs response and engaging a variety of partners within the communities and helping address the immediate verified emergency needs of both residents and employers and employees in the community. There is a need to develop relationships before disaster strikes so that the response goes smoother and more cohesive. There is a need for volunteers in both the human needs side and the administrative side, and that needs to be dealt with locally. The first meeting of the Dryden Disaster Partnership Group was July 14, 2004 at the Dryden United Method Church. Representatives include the local Red Cross, Salvation Army, TC3, local churches and clergy, Dryden School District, Dryden Kitchen Cupboard, William George Agency for Children's Services, Neptune Hose Company, Sertoma, Serteens, and others. Next to nothing gets done with all the visiting done here. The aims are to increase communication, information and collaboration. They want to help implement more volunteer programs. One of the programs they want to support is Community Emergency response Team (CERT), and M Raffe provided information on that program. A long -term goal is to form an "Emergency Club" at the Dryden Schools and encourage students to recognize the potential for a career in uniformed services. They have identified a need for more local government involvement. The group held a brief overview of the Incident Command System on November 17, 2004 for the partners so they understand their role in relation to first responders' roles. An AmeriCorps member in service to the Red Cross is attempting to compile a local resource list for distribution to the group, which would aid in communications in an emergency. They are building relationships between key players, and TC3 has held Red Cross shelter training courses where students included TC3 staff, Red Cross volunteers, local clergy and a representative from the Kitchen Cupboard. M Raffe asked the Board to identify someone to be involved and be a point of contract and/or be involved in moving the group forward and stated again that it is important to have government representation in these partnership groups. The Town also needs to decide who is in charge under Article 2 -B and how they fit in with the 'town's emergency plan, and how to Page 2 of 15 TB 12 -9 -04 Isinteract with law enforcement, fire and EMS, and public works, department of health and emergency management. M Raffe thanked the board for the opportunity to speak, and congratulated Ron Flynn and the Town's fire departments, saying they do the Town an honor. Supv Trumbull said they would discuss it and appoint someone. No report. COUNTY BRIEFING Martha Robertson said the County passed it's budget: on Tuesday. The levy is increased 6.59% over 2004 and the rate is going down 3.9% ($7.17 per thousand of assessed value). More than half of the increase in the levy is due to capital projects, primarily highway reconstruction and public safety communications system. The legislature voted to cease design work on the jail expansion project. There had been $250,000 set aside for 2005 for design work and they took that out and moved $400,000 into the contingency for board out of prisoners. M Robertson said they had a presentation on the County's Comprehensive Plan and said she hoped the 'Town would adopt a resolution supporting the plan. Joan Jurko «rich of County Planning has made a presentation with the Town's Planning Board. The County Legislature will consider adopting the plan on December 21, and they have resolutions supporting the plan from the Town of Lansing, Village of Lansing, City of Ithaca and the Village ® of Groton. Supv Trumbull asked M Robertson if she had any information on the progress of the relocation of the NYS DOT facility to Ellis Drive. She said she understands it is held up between the Syracuse and Albany DOT offices, and that the arrangement with the National Development Corporation is sort of unusual. The plan was that they would develop the project and lease it back. Cl Hattery said he was in support of the project because of their involvement and that they would be subject to site plan review, which he thinks is important in this case because there are a lot of citizen concerns. Cl Hattery said his concern is that he heard that because of the trouble with DOT that representatives from the County were backing off from the project and he said that would be very bad, given that the City of Ithaca now has the lake front property they want. He said it would be a very bad thing if after the Dryden Town and Village Boards acted very expeditiously on this that the County backed off. M Robertson said the County hasn't backed off, but it is hard to know what the County can do at this point, that the DOT really wants it to go ahead and the County wants it to go ahead. She said County officials were going to talk to Jim Seward. CI Stelick said he had spoken with Jim Seward and he didn't know anything about there being any problems two weeks ago. M Robertson said that last week the County was looking for an okay to extend a purchase option on the land and she will check into the matter. She said it is very frustrating, that the money is there, and it seems to be hung up with attorneys. Cl Michaels said that he had previously stated he had some concerns about whether or not many of the things that were anticipated would pass muster under review, and that seems to be the case. Pale 3 of 15 'r6 12 -9 -04 D Putnam reported that he has met with Henry Slater, Jack Kush and Jim Connors, and they are trying to get the Virgil Creek Project up and running again. They will have a further report and plan probably by the January meeting. The water and sewer lines on the old railroad bed between Route 13 and Monkey Run Road are being threatened by drainage problems due to natural processes and beavers. The ditches are plugged and D Putnam is working with J Bush on a plan to take care of that and stabilize a couple sections where overflowing water is starting to wash away the railroad embankment. It has been an ongoing problem. Cl Christofferson thanked Dave Putnam and Henry Slater and others involved in getting the funding restored for the Virgil Creek project and getting the project back on track. He said it took a lot of people, a lot of resources, some significant and some spearheading and he was impressed with how well it went. RECREATION DEPARTMENT Jennifer Staton submitted her monthly report and said with respect to the ball field on Wall Street, a grant has been received from Albany, and she had drafted a proposal for review. The Dryden Kiwanis Club would like to change the administrative fee that is given to the Town for work done by the Recreation Department collecting registrations and doing scheduling. Currently for each registration the Town receives $3.00 and they would like to decrease the amount. She will negotiation with Kiwanis with respect to that. 0 Club Dryden is tentatively scheduled for January 8 and the Dryden Youth Opportunity Fund will assist in the expense for that. ATTORNEY Atty Perkins has sent a letter to the board concerning his review of the telecommunications consultant's proposed contract, saying that he thinks it needs some work. Cl Christofferson said he pretty much agrees with the points made by Atty Perkins. One of the ones that concerns him the most is that this consultant has worked with providers of service before and if we have a need for a consultant in the Town, then this person will have to make a decision one way or the other, and it should be pretty clear who they are going to support or not support. Cl Christofferson said these points need to be worked out, and he said these concerns should now be sent to the consultant in order to resolve them. The amount of professional liability needs to be resolved, as well as who they will represent in the event a provider they have represented in the past comes to the Town for permission to locate here. Atty Perkins said with respect to the limits of professional liability insurance, there is a movement in the engineering Geld to attempt to limit their professional liability, either to the amounts of the contracts for which they are engaged, or the limits of their professional liability policies. They think they can control costs this way by limiting exposure. Atty Perkins said the first thing the Town needs to do is determine whether it wants to do business with someone who is concerned about limiting their liability to some number, and then whether that number is adequate. The consultant currently has two million for professional negligence and a four million aggregate, and Atty Perkins said that is probably adequate. Cl Christofferson said the committee had trouble finding someone who had any liability insurance, and thought the amounts were probably adequate also. He said he was concerned about who they would represent with respect to carriers they had formerly represented, and Atty Perkins said the Town could require disclosure from them on each particular application. Atty Perkins will contact the consultant and try and resolve the matter. Page 4 of 15 TB 12 -9 -04 0 ZONING OFFICER With respect to the infiltration in the Cortland Road Sewer District coming from TC3, ZO Slater reported that TC3 hired a consultant to do an analysis of their entire severer system. The report indicates that: their underground lines seem to be in pretty good condition, but that every one of their 13 manholes was defective in some way. TC3 is about ready to contract for repair of those 13 manholes and that should help to alleviate the overburden on the Village sewer plant. Cl Christofferson asked if an upgrade of the sewer plant will still be necessary and ZO Slater said that he believes the Village's position is that they need to upgrade for the future. TC3 will also take a look at other ways to reduce their contribution such as replacing their older toilets. ZO Slater reported that the pet cemetery matter, Jon King has gone to Florida for the winter and that gives them more time to consider things and form a recommendation. Now that the funding for the Virgil Creek project has been reinstated and the work season doesn't start until May 15, they will continue meeting to plan completion of the project. They may have to apply for some funding extension. He noted the project was costed out in 1998 and the work performed in 2002 and 2003 and now in 2005, and there have been some tremendous increases in costs. Scott Cook of Water Quality Management in Syracuse has seen the Lake Road embankment and said in his estimate, that is one of the best restoration projects he has ever seen. The unique thing about the project is that no staking and matting effort was necessary due to new technology of spray -on mats. Erosion has been negligible. Cl Michaels said he would be interested in seeing a report on construction in the Town for the year. ZO Slater said they will prepare an annual report. ® ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNER Debbie Gross said there will be a symposium and presentation on the monitoring project for Six Mile Creek on December 15 at 7:00 p.m. at Cooperative Extension. The test well drilling for the aquifer has been done. The well is located near Dryden Lake. The well is over 200 feet deep and there may be some funding left over. That could be used toward possible additional test wells. Todd Miller of USGS .vil.l be sharing the information gathered there. The Conservation Board would like to focus in the near future on developing a stormwater ordinance. This is something that is part of the requirements under the DEC regulations and is also something that the County Water Resources Council has been working on, to develop a model ordinance for the County. The Conservation Board thought that perhaps Dave Putnam could take a look at it as well in terms of the engineering aspects. Cl Hattery said it was a good idea for the Conservation Board to take a look at it in terms of concept and what they think would be useful and not useful. This needs to be done as part of the Town' s compliance with the new stormwater regulations. There are a lot of issues that come up about stormwater and this would help. Cl Michaels said that given the expertise on the Conservation Board, perhaps they could provide comments on implementation as well. D Gross said the Conservation Board could get things started, then bring it to the Town Board and Town Attorney for review and finalization. D Gross said the group of farmers that have been meeting to help make recommendations on the Town's Comprehensive Plan had a three hour meeting last night. Tom Hatfield of the Town of Dryden Planning Board attended as well George Frantz, the consultant working with the Planning Board. She said a lot of areas of some disagreement were resolved, and the few areas that need more focus and thought were more clearly defined. Page 5 of 15 T8 12 -94A At this point there is talk of aiming for a public hearing in February. The agricultural group is interested in hearing the Town Board's thoughts on a more permanent agricultural committee and George Frantz suggested looking at what; other communities have done and how their committees are structured. M Robertson asked what the things were that the farmers thought needed more work and D Gross said she thought the main question remaining is that there may be some benefit to identifying an area in the Town that is primarily for agriculture and trying to use various methods to direct residential development away from that area and allowing certain kinds of agriculture- related businesses in t:he area. The question is what strategies would be used to imply that. D Gross said there is a group at the County level looking at those types of issues, and Dryden can be part of those discussions. TOWN CLERK B Hollenbeck asked if there were any changes to the minutes and whether they could be approved. RESOLUTION #182 - APPROVE MINUTES Cl Christofferson offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the minutes of the meetings of November 4, November 11, and November 29, 2004. 2ttd Supv Trumbull B Hollenbeck explained that it was necessary for the board to approve an amount for postage for mailing the tax bills. The exact amount will not be available until the bills are sorted and ready to mail. RESOLUTION # 183 - AUTHORIZE POSTAGE FOR TAX BILLS Cl Hattery offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Supervisor to write a check to the Dryden Postmaster not to exceed $1,850.00 for mailing the 2005 tax bills on or about December 31, 2004, 2nd C1 Stelick Roll Call Vote DISCUSSION C1 Stelick Yes Cl Christofferson Yes Supv Trumbull Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Hattery Yes C1 Hattery asked Barbara Caldwell, Chair of the Planning Board, whether George Frantz had suggested other models for the agricultural group, such as making them an advisory committee to the Planning Board, and if the Planning Hoard wanted advice, then this group could be suggested. D Gross asked if they then would work only with the Planning Group, and said it had also been suggested that it be a group with a core membership of five or six people with invitations to others to attend at other times. B Caldwell said the Planning Board had not Page 6 of 15 TB 12 -9-04 discussed this. D Gross said they are asking to be an advisory group, not a derision- making board, and they are interested in feedback from the Town Board on how to proceed. Supv Trumbull said the generator is in place on Beam Hill, with a few minor details still to be taken care of. Supv Trumbull explained it was necessary to increase the water rates in order to increase revenues to cover expenses in the water districts. RESOLUTION #184 - INCREASE WATER RATES Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby increases its water rate to $0.95 per thousand gallons, combined with Bolton Point's rate making a total of $3.19 per thousand gallons, a minimum charge of $31.90 per quarter. 2nd Cl Hattery Roll Call Vote Cl Stelick Yes C1 Christofferson Yes Supv Trumbull Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Hattery Yes Supv Trumbull said the next item of discussion was moving the fire departments to a two year contract. Cl Michaels said he had a strong opinion, coming largely from the ® experience with Dryden Ambulance. He said the two -year contract is a good idea because of the time and effort that goes into negotiating it and putting it off the election cycle. He said a lot of damage was done to people who were donating a lot of their time and it was a very political process and things were held up because of an election. The major portions of the contracts are for equipment financing, that 90% of the budget relates to equipment for emergency services. C1 Stelick said both Neptune and Varna submitted requests for two year contracts with percentage increases, and when he spoke with Atty Perkins initially about the contracts he left that out. Cl Christofferson said he is in favor of the concept, but would to know what the Town is committing to before doing it. He would like to see it done for all the fire departments. Cl Stelick said Varna and Neptune put together a good package and they need to discuss it with Freeville, the Etna situation is a little different. Cl Stelick said that in discussing the proposed contract for 2005, they were fairly close, with a few points to be ironed out. They need to decide whether to have a two -yeas contract, the company would like an increase in the OSHA money. Cl Stelick they are relatively close and would like to discuss it with Freeville. Atty Perkins advised the Board that the public notices on the fire contracts did not reflect two year contracts (notice showed one year amounts), and he will have to look at that issue. Cl Christofferson asked whether the contracts could be done as one -year contracts, and the question of two -year contract be dealt with in the next few months. He also pointed out that an increase in OSHA fiends should have been noted in the budget request submitted. Atty Perkins said there could in fact be a contract for up to five years, but perhaps not beginning this year because of the way it was advertised. He will check into it. The board then discussed the Etna Fire Department. Cl Michaels said that whatever might be floating around, this really boils down to a volunteerism issue and they have about 10 Page 7 of 15 t`B 12 -9 -U4 to 15 volunteers that will show up to a structure fire, and a number of pieces of equipment to try and get to those fires. A very large percentage of their calls though are rescue calls during the day, and the group of volunteers have jobs out of the area. Some of the concerns are the percentage of calls they are able to respond to, and after reviewing some of those with the department, it was determined they were predominantly rescue service calls during the day that may be heavily mitigated by the fly car recently placed in Varna. Cl Michaels said he would like to make clear that whatever concerns there are in general, the volunteers that do show up are putting forth a tremendous effort. National statistics show that volunteerism is down, paid staff is down, and the population keeps growing. He said on the positive side they have some good new volunteers. Every department, though, has said that they can get lots of volunteers, but when they find out what they really have to do and the kind of work they are going to be doing, they have a lot of people leave. Roughly 80% of the calls are rescue calls. Cl Michaels said that another issue the board may be able to take some action on is that a good percentage of the calls that Etna responds to, and Dryden Ambulance responds to, are for people who are looking for a ride to the doctor, clinic or hospital. There are other services in the community that provide that type of thing, but require 24 -hour notice. He said it might be worth seeing if they can make an exception to those policies, and said there is work the Board can get involved in and encourage other community members to do to relieve some of the concerns in the department. Freeville has put a joint response program in place during the day for rescue calls. They are trying to coordinate a meeting among the chiefs and involving whoever might be helpful to work out some of these issues. Cl Michaels said these issues are not just coming up for one of the departments, but a lot of the volunteers are spending a lot of time doing various things. He said the Town could benefit here from having a consultant who could ® attack this and said he thinks there are lot of little things that could be done that could have big impacts in terms of relieving the burden on the already stressed volunteers. C1 Christofferson said in looking at the numbers for Etna, the total EMS calls were 66 and 37 of those had no response at all, and in the same period of time (8 months) there were 13 fire calls and for 7 there were no response. Cl Stelick said motor vehicle calls are also included in the fire numbers. He said on the surface the numbers aren't very good and there are a number of reasons why those numbers are the way they are. Sometimes the responses are being done, properly or improperly, in their own personal cars and they are not able to tone out and tell somebody they responded to the call. A lot of the calls are DSS issues, where they are going to the trailer park on Hanshaw Road where somebody is needing a ride to the hospital. Cl Stelick said certain locations are 80% of the calls, and the situation is unique compared to other areas of the Town. Cl Michaels said that according to Etna, the Chief of the Freeville Department purchased his own communication equipment so that he can respond and gone out their calls. He noted that Freeville had had a similar issue with pulled alarms at the Freeville school, etc., and they were able to substantially reduce the number of calls with management practices. Cl Michaels said his point is not that there isn't a concern, because there is, but the reason Cl Stelick is proposing the meeting among the chiefs is to say there are certain types of calls coming in and we might be able to solve that through the work of other departments and people who are able to respond. He said there is still a core group of volunteers that are putting in a tremendous effort and however few calls they show up on, if you take that and look at how many of the calls are answered by any one individual, there are a tremendous number of hours they are volunteering. Cl Christofferson said it sounds like they are working to find the best solution and that makes sense, but asked that in the meetings they find out who is responsible for all the different points, and make sure there are checks and balances. There were no improprieties found in the audit, but there is not a good checks and balances system in place. Page 8 of 15 TB 12 -9 -04 Cl Michaels said they also needed to have an o pe n discussion about what type s of equipment they have. For instances they have a total of 20 SCBA breathing appliances and recently upgraded seven of them, but they only have 3 people certified to go into a structure fire. Cl Stelick said they have a complex problem with a lot of issues. He came up with a five -point plan after their meeting to look at it. There are four fire departments that he refers to as being on different locations of an evolutionary track, some being further along. The evolution starts with a viable department and goes down to not being able to cover calls any longer, which is a recruitment/ retainment issue, and then it goes to absorption by existing fire departments and eventually into a pure paid fire department. He said in Etna's situation, they are further down the track than other departments. He has absorbed a lot of information from the departments in the last three years and each one is on the track going toward the same end at different rates. Etna's situation has been allowed to fester because they've had the 2% rule where every year they got their contract with a 2% increase, and he said the Town is partially responsible for this. Cl Stelick has asked Ron Flynn to schedule a Chiefs meeting. The point is cooperation and every department in the Town is going to buy into this. This issue is not limited to Etna; it's for everyone within the Town of Dryden. He said they will need a commitment from all of the departments. One of the areas that has been turned around is the lack of communication. There is a lot of pride out there and not a lot of communication. Cl Stelick said since Ron Flynn has been in place as Chief of Neptune they have started to turn that. The next meeting will be frank and open; the problems will be discussed and there will be no hiding anything. isThe other is education, and one thing that can be learned from Etna is that the Board can educate the other departments on what has happened with Ftna and how to avoid those pitfalls and continue to follow up. That will happen through the current Emergency Services Committee and the eventuality of having someone in place with more knowledge, but working very closely to save this and keep it viable. Cl Stelick said he wanted it clear that this was not about money- share. He said he is not going to the table to talk about who is doing what or not doing what, and who's going to get paid what. The issue now is to make sure there is adequate emergency services coverage, and we know that is not: the case right now. He is going to ask for and get, from especially Varna and Freeville, help and commitment to help with the situation. The flycar is relatively new, having only been in place for about a month, and one of the issues EMS coverage, and that flycar is there during the day when they are weakest in Etna. As far as recruitment and retainment, Cl Stelick has asked the Chiefs of the Fire Departments to get a plan in place that they can buy into that they figure will work. We need to come up with a plan where recruitment and retainment are going to happen. Cl Stelick said ultimately, he sees us going down the road, but in the meantime if we put that information together, and work together with Etna, we can cover it. He and Ron Flynn have come up with a temporary situation, a first alarm assignment, automatic mutual aid, that will cover the weakness that we have currently. This is only a short-term plan. The long -term plan is everybody at the table coming up with ideas, and he considers the Chiefs of the Departments the specialists. The will come up with something for long -term viability, and he said it is not going to be easy, but the most important thing is that it is out on the table, instead of innuendo, anecdotal information. Page 9 of 15 TIl 12 -9 -04 Cl Michaels said that a few volunteers that work in the area get toned out for two different fire departments as a way of helping out. Before the Town ever thought about worrying about these issues, individuals were volunteering to help back that up. He said we are not trying to assign blame, and the guys at the table are obviously the guys that are showing up. Cl Hattery, suggested this is a good time to be looking for a consultant. It is in the budget and he asked if there had been any feedback from the departments in that regard. Cl Stelick reaction had been minimal, mostly wanting to know exactly what it was, and was working on a first draft on what the Town would be looking for in that area, that a lot came out of their last meeting to give them some direction. He and Cl Michaels will work on an RFP for approval at the January meeting. Supv Trumbull asked how the board felt about giving Etna their money for this year. Cl Stelick said he felt that for 2004 the Town should abide by what was budgeted for 2004, but for 2005 there will need to be a lot of discussion as far as coverage goes, but one of the things they may be looking at is not additional funds, but moving funds from one department to another for the flycar coverage or other things, but there are a lot of discussion that have to go along with that, and they need to have a beginning, and he thinks that beginning is closing out 2004. Cl Christofferson said we ought to look at what the expenses and things were before we carte blanche handed over the money. Cl Michaels said he would propose that we ask them for their actual budget and expenses for 2004 and cover at least that, if not their entire contract amount. He said it needs more discussion, and he is not negative or trying to keep them out of money, but thinks we need to look at further. Cl Christofferson said if the money has been used and is needed, he has no problem with it, but if because they haven't been able to ® respond to calls, their expenses and other things normally provided isn't there, then he doesn't think they the Town should be padding their budget with extra. Cl Michaels said Etna has some relatively new equipment and didn't sell one of their old pieces of equipment. He said he needs some more information and understands that other departments are also called out for a structure fire, and Etna's trucks might be needed for water. He would ask the consultant to make a recommendation of what pieces of equipment that particular department should utilize. The biggest share of their budget is not for expenses, but to save for future equipment purchase, and he would like to see a plan for that. Etna does have one piece of equipment that doesn't. get a ton of use, but the reality is that that may be a necessary piece of equipment in some instances, and other departments have utilized that piece of equipment. Cl Stelick said this criteria has not been in place previously. We have four separate departments that have to be treated as similar as possible. We have no information from the other departments to see what percentages they cover, but that can be obtained. Cl Stelick said in the past we have received a contract request and paid them. Cl Christofferson said he understands that we have always had departments that responded to a majority of the calls. Cl Michaels said whether they responded to five calls or five hundred, the reality is there cost basis, their equipment purchase, and their savings for the future. In terms of the budgets and what the Town provides to them, it isn't so much what they are able to turn out. The big question for him is what the future looks like for the department, what future equipment purchases will be. We need to make sure they can fund the equipment purchases they already have. Cl Christofferson asked if the current contract addressed what would happen if the departments don't respond to calls or perform as expected. Atty Perkins said they are to provide fire protection. Cl Michaels said the 2004 contract was not signed and no funds have been disbursed. Cl Christofferson said he looks at it as if we are contracting for a service, and Page 10 of 15 TB 12 -9 -04 ® it doesn't feel right to pay something and not get the service back. He understands that the Emergency Services Committee is trying to make this better, so he'll go with whatever they decide. Cl Michaels said he thinks there will be more information and the Chiefs will work together to find a solution. Cl Stelick said he wants to see the reasoning for Etna wanting the money and if there is a real need; they recently got a new truck, and he doesn't want that to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. He said one of things that he hopes to see through this is more cooperation instead of four departments working independently (and there has been some change in that). Having a ladder truck in each department is not a necessity, but having generators at each department makes a lot of sense. These things need to be discussed and ultimately the board deciding what is necessary, and there is more accountability from the Town Board. Cl Christofferson said he understands what they are trying to do, but before we hand over the money, we should say here's the plan and here's what we would like to see accomplished. Cl Stelick said there are tough questions that need to be answered, and that's what they are going to do. Cl Hattery said if the new contracts do not have some more tight conformance criteria, we will be at the same place in 2005. Cl Stelick said this is something the consultant can deal with, and perhaps recommend a percentage. C1 Michaels said fire departments may end up going the way of the ambulance service, with a mixture of paid and volunteer staff. Volunteers are very committed and do a lot, but adding a little bit of staff in the right places can go a long way. He added that with the Chiefs working together, there has been a lot of creative work already and there is still work for that to reduce the load on the volunteers. The board will hold the money and contract for 2004 for Etna and discuss the matter again in January after the chief s meeting. ® Supv Trumbull asked if the board wanted to pass the County's proposed resolution on their comprehensive plan. Atty Perkins said he thinks the plan is approved, that in those circumstances that that the Town has to send notice under General Municipal law §239 to the County about proposed action, if the County doesn't like it they will be quoting their plan as reason the Town shouldn't do it, and if the County doesn't approve it, then the Town has to pass the project by a super majority (4 votes instead of 3). He said the document does refer to the planning function being at the local level rather than more centralized, but then goes on and has this plan. Cl Michaels asked if the Town's Planning Board has commented on it, and B Caldwell, Chair of the Planning Board, said the Planning Board has had two presentations and one meeting where they discussed it. Because they have recently had a new member added to the Planning Board, they did not take action after their last meeting, but have it on the agenda for later this month. She said in general the questions they had were answered by Joan Jurko «Rch of Tompkins Country Planning, Cl Michaels said he would like to hear from the Town's Planning Board, and perhaps the Conservation Board would want to weight in. Joyce Gerbasi said the Environmental Management Council did pass a resolution in favor of it, but one of the concerns some members had were exactly as Atty Perkins had said. It was explained to them that the County would not be able to do anything about anything within the Town's political boundaries, and the only the time the County would have any possible authority to act would be if it crossed town lines, and that they could not actually do anything to prevent the Town from doing something within its own boundaries. Cl Hattery said he thinks these things provide a template for County action on totally County purposes, as well as the issues mentioned by Atty Perkins, and that municipalities did not have sufficient opportunity to comment. He said there are some specific areas where he disagrees with the objectives of the plan, on transportation and housing. He is not in favor of supporting the document and encouraging the County to act on behalf of what the document says. He was unhappy by the process with which the plan was developed. Cl Stelick said the Page 1 I of 15 TB 12 -9 -04 Town of Dryden was referred to in the document four times, and it is a pretty big part of the County and recreation, which he is a big proponent of, has one paragraph. He said there is a lot of fluff in it and it contains a lot of nice information in it, but he doesn't know how it pertains to the Town. Cl Michaels said he did not want to move the resolution tonight, but asked that it be added to the agenda for January, and that the Planning Board provide its comments prior to that time, as well as the Conservation Board if they would like to do so. Joyce Gerbasi said she disagreed about municipalities having input; that when the focus groups started several years ago, municipal participation from every town was requested, and there were a lot of public meetings with citizens, developers and municipal representatives. She said Dryden in its prior administration did not become very involved, but there were opportunities to do so. She said this is not meant to be a plan to be followed line by line, but meant to be a general plan that hopefully the County will choose to follow in order to have open space and less sprawl, with more dense development, more public transportation, etc. It is not a definitive set of orders. Cl Hattery said he agreed there has been no lack of public meetings. Mike Raffee said there were clearly invitations to participate. Cl Hattery said the County takes a lot of initiatives on behalf of the County as a whole, and they don't deal with the reality that the county is made up of constituent and there is no County without cities, towns and villages. He said there is a series of ways that there is some useful activity for the County to do to actually help with real cross - boundary issues, and it has something more to do with dealing with the municipalities as entities and the leaders as leaders and not just inviting a lot of people to a lot of public meetings. Cl Michaels apologized for not attending the meeting inhere the amendment to the union contract where approved. That will save the Town quite a bit of money in health insurance premiums. He said in general the Town tends to look at its employees, both union ® and non - union, as a whole and try not to treat those employees with disparity. The reality is that they are seeing savings because all the employees in the Town are beneficiaries of that health insurance. He had assumed that all employees would be treated the same in terms of the bonus. Cl Christofferson said that there are pending resolutions for adding personal days and holidays, and sometimes it is not tit for tat. One group pays union dues and one does not and it is a fine line to try and keep both groups happy when there are some differences. He said some people were receiving nice raises for next year where there were some inequities that normally would not have been done without some serious negotiations with the union, if there was a union for that group. He said he doesn't think that everything has to be exactly the same and the Town should be careful about setting a precedent for that. Cl Michaels said that it was worth pointing out that largely the bonus contingent was entirely a town development. In the union contract their proposal was basically to have all of the benefit they were asking for received in the wage agreement a few years out. They took a similar amount of money and provided it as a bonus to the people currently in the union. The concept at the time was that for all of the employees that were receiving these benefits that the Town committed to pay for, the union was willing to give a reduction in those costs. Because there was a reduction in cost for all employees, not only those in the union, they took some of the money that would otherwise go to the union, and they agreed to lower some of that because they understood the contribution. Cl Michaels said it didn't occur to him that the Town would provide the bonus to the Town employees also. Cl Christofferson said some of the personal services for this year and the benefit increases that were being given to staff, they are significant. Employees do not contribute financially to those. He said it has not been fully processed in the Human Resources Committee as a whole package. They have recently added a couple of personal days and a floating holiday to try to help. Supv Trumbull said this is a one -shot deal, and they will receive money enough to cover all employees. Cl Stelick said even after they have given this one -time stipend to the non- elected, non -union employees there is still a substantial savings to the Town ($130,000). Page 12 of 15 01113 12 -9-04 Cl Christofferson said the Human Resources Committee had looked at what other agencies have for holidays and tried to set up what they felt was appropriate. Board members have a copy of the resolution. RESOLUTION #185 - AMEND PAID HOLIDAYS Cl Christofferson offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: WHEREAS, most government: employers have at least twelve paid holidays per calendar year; and WHEREAS, the Town of Dryden currently only has eight paid holidays per year, and the Town of Dryden desires to offer this same benefit to its employees, therefore be it RESOLVED AS FOLLOWS: The Town Board does hereby change the paid holiday policy for employees of the Town of Dryden to include the following days (excluding the Town Highway /DPW bargaining unit employees, Deputy Supervisor, and Highway Clerk - they must follow the holiday schedule set forth in the Labor Agreement with Teamsters Local 317: New Year's Day Martin Luther King Jr. President's Day Memorial Day Independence Day Floating Holiday _ .. =4 Day Columbus Day Veteran's Day Thanksgiving Day Day after Thanksgiving Christmas Day * Must be approved in advance by supervisor. Day does not carry over to next year. The employee handbook will be amended to reflect the same effective January l , 2005. 2nd Supv Trumbull Roll Call Vote C1 Stelick Yes Cl Christofferson Yes Supv Trumbull Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl 1-lattery Yes Cl Christofferson explained that presently employees are able to take some of their sick time as personal time and that is a record - keeping nightmare. The committee looked at what other municipalities were getting and based on that decided it was fair and equitable to give employees a couple of personal days in addition to what is allowed for sick days (12 per year). For those employees who are maxed out on sick time (960 hours accumulated) and losing time, they will now be able to convert sick time to an additional two personal days per year. Cl Michaels said one of the things they try to get their clients to do in labor management is move to a set number of total vacation, sick and personal days, thereby eliminating any record - keeping nightmare. He said all you have to do is keep track of the number of days and eliminate any distinctions between them other than the expected notice. There is usually a decreased cost in terms of record keeping expenses. Cl Christofferson said he understands, but the employees are used to the current system. Cl Michaels said he won't oppose this, but wanted to offer those ideas. Page 13 of 15 TB 12 -9.04 ® RESOLUTION # 186 - AMEND THE PERSONAL TIME POLICY Cl Christofferson offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: WHEREAS, the Town's current Personal Time Policy allows eligible employees to use up to 24 hours from their sick time per year for personal reasons; and WHEREAS, the Human Resource Committee has researched the Personal Time Policy in place with other municipalities to compare our policy with theirs. The survey showed that other municipalities granted personal time in addition to sick time, and the Town of Dryden desires to offer this same benefit to its employees, therefore be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby change the personal leave policy (the sick time policy shall remain the same) to grant eligible employees 2 days of personal leave time per year to use for personal reasons. Employees that have accumulated the maximum amount of sick hours allowed will be able to convert 2 sick days to personal days every year. The employee handbook will be amended to reflect the same, effective January 1, 2005. 2nd Cl Stelick Roll Call Vote Cl Stelick Yes Cl Christofferson Yes Supv Trumbull Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Hattery Yes Cl Christofferson moved the resolution providing for a bonus for town employees and explained that the union employees had not asked for an egregious amount for the raises, and was leaving the town with a substantial savings. The math they did was to say it was a reasonable amount they got for the savings and what we got for the savings. They didn't have to give it to the 'Town at all. The committee's strategy was so that they started from a different wage at the end of the contract and give some of the amount as a bonus which lowered the amount of the wages. Cl Michaels said he thinking at the time was remove some of the money and, since the savings was corning from union and non -union employees, apportion it between the union and non -union employees. He said it never occurred to him that they wouldn't give the bonus to all employees, and didn't know how he would have felt about it then. *15 t IMP Cl Michaels offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: WHEREAS, the Town of Dryden has executed a Memorandum of Understanding with Teamsters Local 317 and said Memorandum provides for a $1,000 bonus for employees covered under the bargaining unit, and WHEREAS, the Town of Dryden desires to treat all its employees in an equitable manner, Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the payment of a $1,000 bonus to each of its permanent, full time employees not covered under the bargaining unit. 2 ^a Supv Trumbull Roll Call Vote Cl Stelick Yes Page 14 of 15 TB 12 -94A Cl Christofferson Yes Supv Trumbull Yes Cl Michaels Yes C1 Hattery Yes Cl Stelick thanked the people on the Human Resource Committee for the work that has been done so far. He asked for this some time ago, and we are finally getting there. Cl Christofferson said the bonus was well deserved by everybody, and the places he's worked have sometimes had people represented by different contracts for different reasons, and things are not always the same for everybody. Supv Trumbull said he thinks he has someone who may be interested in the Town Historian position and would like to raise the stipend from $200 per year to $400 for the coming year. The board is in agreement. The organizational meeting will be held Tuesday, January 4, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. Supv Trumbull asked the board if they had ideas for the signs to be put up by the Chamber of Commerce, to get them to him as soon as possible. On motion made, seconded, and unanimously carried, the board moved into executive session at 9:43 p.m. to discuss the potential purchase of property where public disclosure would substantially affect the value there. No action was taken, and the board moved back into regular session at 9:58 p.m. The board is concerned about one voucher for business cards for Justice Valentinelli, and will remove it from the abstract for payment this month, until the supervisor checks into it. RESOLUTION # 189 - APPROVE ABSTRACT # 112 Cl Stelick offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves /Abstract #112, as audited, vouchers # 1135 through 1213, excepting # 1140, totaling $188,886.38. 2nd Supv Trumbull Roll Call Vote Cl Stelick Yes Cl Christofferson Yes Supv Trumbull Yes Cl Michaels Yes Cl Hattery Yes On motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 10:12 p.m. Respectfully submitted, �Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk Page 15 of 15 • �V 12 -9 -04 SPEAKER SIGN IN SHEET If you wish to address the Beard under citizens privilege of the floor please sign in below. Speakers will be limited to a maximum of three minutes. Please provide the Clerk with a written summary of your statement. Name Address ,r--� Town cf Dryden Town Board Meeting December 9, 2004 Name - (Please Print) C 1, Plust r Address R� ( un 4 o L�-�-