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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-08-1996MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1996 AT 7:30 P.M. Those present: Teresa M. Robinson, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald N. Palmer, Councilman Arrived late: Fran Casullo, Attorney Absent: Daniel J. Carey, Councilman Also present: Liz Brennan, Leland Cornelius, Joe Vitale, Linda Foote, Shawn Reese, George Senter, Sr. Supervisor Robinson said the Town Board, Town Highway men and all the Town Employees wish to show their condolence to the Carey family and to people in the family and that we would like to express this to Danny our Board Member. Moved by Mr. Palmer, seconded by Mr. Sovocool, that the minutes of April 8, 1996, be approved as mailed. Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson. Claim Nos. 38 to 52 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $10,479.19 and Claim Nos. 68 to 89 of the General Fund in the amount of $2,887.75 were presented for audit. Moved by Mr. VanBenschoten, seconded by Mr. Sovocool, that the bills be approved for payment. Ayes - VanBenschoten, Sovocool, Palmer, Robinson. Claim Nos. 42 to 45 of the Special Grant Fund (HUD) in the amount of $11,541.51 were presented for audit. Moved by Mr. Sovocool, seconded by Mr. VanBenschoten, that the bills be approved for payment. Ayes - VanBenschoten, Sovocool, Palmer, Robinson. TROOPER JOE VITALE - NEW YORK STATE POLICE DEPARTMENT - Trooper Vitale was present to meet with the Board to see if they have any problems with their service or if there is something in particular that the Board would like to have addressed. What way can the NYS Police Department better serve the town? Is there any problems -- a lot of times the Highway Department has problems with weight limits and so forth, flooding has been a problem in communities and we directed traffic; sometime they have problems with kids outside the village doing damage or something and we address those kinds of problems. We're just here to hear any complaints or suggestions or anything you want to do to improve our service. Supervisor Robinson said our biggest problem was with the salt trucks going through McLean but most of that has been rerouted. The McLean bridge was one of the problems. Supervisor Robinson said the Troopers were doing a fine job. LINDA FOOTE & SHAWN REESE - MCLEAN BICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE - Letter dated 1 February 9, 1996 to Town of Groton Supervisor: "On behalf of the hamlet of McLean, the Bicentennial Committee would like to extend an invitation to you and the Town of Groton Board to attend our 200th year celebration to be held on July 13 and 14, 1996. The hard working group of volunteers from the Towns of Dryden and Groton that make up the committee are finalizing plans for what we believe will be a very successful celebration. The committee has already held several well attended fund - raising events and more are planned. The committee is seeking the political and financial support of the Town of Groton. It is the hope of the committee that the Town Board will pass a resolution to officially recognize the celebration of McLean's 200th year and take action to provide a grant of $2000.00 to help underwrite the cost of an event that will have a beneficial effect on our community. Sincerely - Committee Chairs We got word back that you wanted to hear more about what was going on. Supervisor Robinson said that it is easier when you are dealing with a municipality if you have some thing which you back -- a tent, a booklet or something that we can say we put our money into and not something that we don't know what it's going for. We just wanted to identify more or less what we were giving to. Do you have need for a tent in the event it rains or snows? We have a lot of little expenses, the biggest being the printing of the history book which is around $1,000. Each crafter will be providing their own tent. Some of the different estimated expenses are 1) Monument in the cemetery with a time capsule on it for $350.00; 2) Permanent road markers stating that McLean is celebrating its bicentennial for $125.00; 3) Two bands for $700.00; 4) A lot of it is to pay speakers ($300), advertizing costs, trophies, etc. People are working on fund raisers (3 dinners to date) . We have $3700 in our general fund. We estimate that the total cost will be $9000 to $10,000. That leaves around $5000 to raise. Time is getting short. Supervisor Robinson: I think the Board would consider paying for the printing of the book, cost of the five signs and the Monument with time capsule. Councilman Palmer: For the record, I have to raise a question at this point. If we're going to allocate a certain amount of money for this project, I don't think that it was something that was discussed at the budget for this year so that means that somewhere else we're going to have to cut back to make this happen. I think we need to realize that up front. I don't recall that being a discussion last fall. Supervisor Robinson: No, it was not. We tried to figure it out and we need to go to the contingency fund. We still have to have a motion from the Board. We need to specify an amount not to exceed "X" amount of dollars in the resolution. 2 Councilman VanBenschoten: If we spent $1500 or $2000, how is our cushion? Supervisor Robinson: Not depleted, but tight. Clerk Pierson: I think we have to remember that there is only $5000 in the contingency account which is for the entire year. Should we happen to need something else, that is the only place we can get any money from. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON: We have a very very very tight budget. But this only happens once. I think Groton has something coming up next year. 1960 was the bicentennial here I believe. McLean Committee: Do you know who we would contact to close off Stevens Road up to Cemetery Lane that day? Trooper Joe Vitale advised them to contact Sheriff Guest. Moved by Mr. Sovocool, seconded by Mr. Palmer, to table making a decision on the McLean Bicentennial Committee's request until later in the meeting. Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson. LIZ BRENNAN - BOOKKEEPER - I have the monthly report and the report on revenues and expenditures. There is no transfers. Yes, we do have $5000 in the contingency fund. Any questions. COUNCILMAN PALMER: Normally, are the reports available in advance of the Board Meeting so that they could be made available for review. I can't go through this whole report now and make any sense out of it without some time. If it were available, I'd like to be able to read through it in advance of the Board Meeting if I could. Bookkeeper - Sure, I could send you a copy. It's all according to when the month ends. GEORGE R. SENTER, SR. - CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER - Building permits issued year -to -date: 1995 14 3 houses 4 mobile homes 7 misc 1996 13 1 house 0 mobile homes 12 misc. Life safety inspections are current thru April I had a call from Dan Snyder of FEMA who is coming down to check on our ordinances and any flood damage that we have in the Town. Supervisor and Highway Superintendent hasn't seen any one yet. Supervisor feels that some of the streams around here should be cleaned out. The Village sewer line goes down the middle of the creek by the Senior Citizen complex. From Agway south there is a lot of trees down and also there are beaver dams down there. LELAND CORNELIUS - HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT - We haven't done much but plow snow. We need to schedule our annual road tour. Road tour will be taken on April 23. Those that will be going during the day are Dan Carey, Dutch VanBenschoten, Teresa Robinson and Leland Cornelius. The Local Advisory Board of Assessment Review will meet from 3PM to 6PM on Monday, May 20, 1996, at the Town Hall. Supervisor Robinson will serve with 3 the assistance of Councilman VanBenschoten from 3PM to 4:30PM and Councilman Sovocool from 4:30PM to 6PM. Clerk will notify Assessment Department of those serving. Moved by Mr. Palmer, seconded by Mr. Sovocool, that Colleen D. Pierson, Town Clerk, be authorized to attend New York State Town Clerk's Association Annual Meeting in Saratoga on April 21 through April 24, 1996. Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson. Supervisor Robinson presented quotations for performing annual audit of financial records. Our regular auditor, Ciaschi, Dietershagen, Little & Michelson, sent a letter back informing us that they would not lower their quotation of $3600. We received another quotation from LaVigne, Nolis & Beal for a total of $3100 to perform this audit. The Town of Lansing has the latter firm. RESOLUTION NO. 16 ACCEPT QUOTATION FROM LAVIGNE, NOLIS & BEALS, CPA'S Moved by Mr. VanBenschoten, seconded by Mr. Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the quotation of $3100.00 from LaVigne, Nolis & Beals, CPA's to perform the 1995 annual financial audit of the Town. KARL HECK - COMMUNITY /ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR - Karl was unable to attend meeting but submitted the following: Consolidation Plan: Dated: April 4, 1996 Submission of Abbreviated As part of the 1996 renewal of the Town of Groton Housing Rehabilitation Program, the Town was required to submit an Abbreviated Consolidated Plan to the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) . The Abbreviated Consolidated Plan is a new HUD requirement, which replaced the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) that was used in previous years. The Abbreviated Consolidated Plan document is required by HUD statute for all 1996 Small Cities grants, both new projects and renewals of existing rants. The Abbreviated Consolidated Plan is somewhat different from the CHAS in that it includes non - housing needs, and also has spaces for dollar amounts in a variety of categories, not all of which is fundable through HUD programs. It is our purpose that the checklist for the Abbreviated Consolidated Plan is primarily as a document to justify the continued existence of HUD, given the short time -frame available to people to complete the document, and that the listing of projects should be considered a "wish- list" of potential fundable projects. HUD will not require the municipality to implement the projects listed in the Abbreviated Consolidated Plan. 4 Our office therefore prepared Abbreviated Consolidated Plans for each municipality that was applying for Small Cities funding in 1996, trying to take into account the various local needs in each of our municipalities while meeting the three -week time frame for the completion of this document. Instructions from HUD indicate that pretty much any Plan will be accepted for the 1996 round, because all municipalities had the same short time -frame to complete the Plan. If there are further questions regarding the Abbreviated Consolidated Plan, please contact me. I will be able to come to the May Town Board meeting, should you wish a complete explanation at that time. Karl Heck Supervisor Robinson received and invitation to Carl's (Haines) Inauguration as the President of Tompkins- Cortland Community College on April 27th. If I can't go, maybe one of you guys can. I also received an open invitation to Congressman Amo Houghtons second annual 2000 tour. Is anyone interested? COUNCILMAN PALMER: Can we go back to make sure we don't loose track of this Carl Heck who wasn't able to make it tonight. I think we ought to extend him an invitation to come to the May meeting and explain that HUD program. We had a lot of questions last month that we didn't understand. (Supervisor Robinson had just passed around a memo from Karl Heck giving the Board a synopsis of program. Supervisor Robinson will call Karl.) Tompkins County Youth Bureau - 1996 Municipal Jobs Program. Supervisor said we were already signed up for this program. All we had to have is doubled and I think we pay $1000 and they pay $1000. When we were working out program for Fredie Shapero, Community Links, we were talking about working together for this Main Street project and if we didn't have the people to work on it they would provide as many people as they could as would the Village and the Town also. It would be approximately four people that we would be having this year. We also need some painting done on the blue trim and pillars and also fix the eaves trough. The Tompkins County Ag & Farmland Protection Plan Meeting will be held April 9, 1996 at 7:30PM. OSHA inspector was here. We have some minor things to attend to or get fined $500 or $1000 for every day we don't comply. We needed exit sign in the kitchen, drill press needed cover over shaft, work light over bench had to have conduit and switch, Right to Know needs current data sheets, needs safety class every year. We have to keep log of lock out when machine is down. We had some fuel filter additive in a windshield washer container that was not labeled properly. Info from FEMA - Technical Assistance for 404 Grant Application. This does not apply to us. We don't have any problems. Leland has all the information on our expenses and where we worked due to the flood. k, RESOLUTION NO. 17 - DESIGNATE POLLING PLACES Moved by Mr. VanBenschoten, seconded by Mr. Palmer Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson RESOLVED, that the following locations be designated as polling places: District #1 - West Groton Church District #2 & #3 - Groton Town Hall District #4 - McLean Fire Station Tompkins County Board of Elections did not reply to Town Clerk's request for information regarding Local Registration Dates nor whether we could combine districts for registration. COUNCILMAN PALMER - I have two or three things that I'd like to quickly cover if I could. We had talked last month about going ahead and getting a Web page which is a joint project with the Village and the Town. The first step has taken place and here is a copy of what is on the Web. This reserves our space. There was some interest in maybe having a joint committee of somebody from the Town and the Village to push it on forward. The Web can be accessed from the Library. There is some other information in the packet from other Towns and what they have put on the Web. Chuck Rankin has been appointed the lead person for the Village end of it. If there is someone from the Town, they could work with Chuck. There is also people in the community that would like to do it. John Pachai would like to play an active role in it. Some Towns have put in laws and fees. This saves people calling the Town Clerk for this data. We need to get the information out. Calendar of events are listed for many towns. An ad in the Shopper would be good. This letter from Marty Luster that Colleen had sent out with the minutes that the County Board is pushing or is in position to possible have solid waste fees collected along with the property taxes. I know this Board took action a year ago not supporting that. Colleen - The letter from Marty Luster was the first any of us had heard about this since last year. At that time the County wanted to add the SWF to the tax bill and have the Tax Collectors collect same, keeping additional records, etc. At that time it wasn't legal for the County to add this fee to a tax bill. Now the County apparently has a request before the Legislature which, if passed, would allow the County to add the SWF to the Town and County Tax Bill. They have not notified the Towns and /or Tax Collectors of how they intend for this to be handled. In 1995, the County did not negotiate in good faith with the Towns hence all Towns in the County did not support this added expense at the local level. I, as Town Clerk and Tax Collector have no problem with this fee being on the tax bill as long as our tax collection remains as is. If there are additional records, forms, n collection procedures, costs to Town, etc., I feel the County should be negotiating with the Town to cover these additional costs. Consensus of the Board was to stick with our original resolution of not collecting the SWF. Colleen asked the Board for permission to purchase a new computer for her office. The current computer is driven by a disk drive instead of a hard drive. Sharon, our computer lady, has suggested that we purchase a separate computer but it still will be network from the main computer. This computer will have a built in modem to handle transmitting data to Ag and Markets and also to DEC when they go on line. The total cost will be around $1500 to $1600. I plan to use the $1000 that was budgeted for my Records Management software program. The additional monies could come out of tax collection monies or my records restoration monies. RESOLUTION NO. 18 - AUTHORIZE TOWN CLERK TO PURCHASE r(1MDTTTV-'P Moved by Mr. Palmer, seconded by Mr. Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize the Town Clerk to purchase a new Gateway 2000 computer including modem for the Town Clerks Office at an estimated cost of $1500 to $1600. There is a Transportation Committee Meeting Tuesday in Ithaca. Mr. Palmer will not be able to make it. If the meetings are scheduled during the day, Mr. Palmer is working. Supervisor Robinson has an invitation to go to Albany for Cable Television. Board discussed what they wanted to do for the McLean Bi- centennial. RESOLUTION NO. 19 - CONTRIBUTE $1,000 TO MCLEAN BI- CENTENNIAL Moved by Mr. VanBenschoten, seconded by Mr. Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, VanBenschoten, Palmer, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby contribute $1,000.00 to the McLean Bi- Centennial Committee to be earmarked for printing of their brochure. There being no further business, Mr. VanBenschoten moved to adjourn meeting, seconded by Mr. Sovocool, at 9:55PM. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk 7