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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-05-08TB 5-8-14 Page 1 of 4 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING May 8, 2014 Present: Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner, Cl Gregory Sloan, Cl Jason Leifer, Cl Linda Lavine Absent: Cl Joseph Solomon Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Other Town Staff: Jennifer Case, Bookkeeper Jane Nicholson, Director of Planning Supv Sumner opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Supv Sumner distributed the grant recommendations made by the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission for this year’s funding. She noted that no organization got as much funding as they asked for, but each got enough to help with their projects. The board discussed the award recommendations. The amount available was reduced this year to $15,000 and it was noted that requests totaled four times the availabl e funding. The board will make a resolution at next week’s meeting and contracts will be sent to the recipients. Bruno Schickel said he has reviewed the annual update document filed by the town with the state. He noted there was reduced spending over 2012 by $192,000. This is good progress and a step in right direction. Income increased by $214,000 and expenses went down, so that nets out to around $400,000. So the amount that had to be taken from savings was reduced from $967,000 to $550,000. He asked the board when making decisions on spending through the year, to bear in mind to bring the budget into balance they would have to cut 10.6% in spending. He asked that they be cognizant of that shortfall moving forward. Supv Sumner said she has been working on an analysis. Sales tax revenue is beginning to recover, and is about twice what property taxes are. The unrestricted portion of fund balances of the four operating funds is 50% of our annual budget. That is a comfortable margin. B Schickel said that is good when the budget is balanced, but you are burning it at half a million a year, it is depleting it rapidly. The town can do some significant infrastructure things with our fund balances if it isn’t burned up. He asked the board to consider using some of the fund balance to establish restricted reserves. Supv Sumner said the board has been working on that and a policy for surplus allocation and what reserves to allocate that surplus to. Supv Sumner said of the 3.8 million total fund balance, 1.8 million is restricted. B Schickel suggested restricting more for major projects. Craig Anderson said he agrees that the town needs to keep an eye on the budget. He added that last year the highway department cut $300,000 and there are five miles of road that will not be paved this year, and he is trying to figure that data out. The board discussed a situation that has come up with respect to the dog kennel lease, and asked the board to approve the amount of $2,431.00 to be paid outside th e abstract when it is determined exactly how the check should be made out. TB 5-8-14 Page 2 of 4 RESOLUTION #78 – APPROVE ABSTRACT #5 Supv Sumner offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract #6, as audited, general vouchers #291 through #371 ($331,639.86), TA vouchers #6 through #9 ($6,389.49), and CD voucher #254 ($50.00), and further approves the payment of $2,431.00 for the kennel leas e. 2nd Cl Lavine Roll Call Vote Cl Sloan Yes Supv Sumner Yes Cl Leifer Yes Cl Lavine Yes The board recommends using the Southworth Library for a hotspot for wireless internet. Supv Sumner will make contact with the librarian. The Dryden Village Code Enforcement contract expires June 1. There needs to be a conversation with the Village about renewing and whether there should be any revisions. Jane Nicholson will review the time spent on village work and make a recommendation. It may be necessary to extend the contract from month to month until an agreement is negotiated. Supv Sumner will speak with the Mayor about this and also find out what the Village has budgeted for code enforcement. Tompkins County Hazard Mitigation Plan – Jane Nicholson made copies available for the board. She said she spoke with Ed Marx today. Basically, this was a FEMA approved plan that the county undertook for all municipalities to participate in. It replaces the old Hazard Mitigation Plan and can be adopted by any municipality. If towns want FEMA funding in event of disaster, they will need to have adopted this mitigation plan. The plan doesn’t commit the town to any course of action. There will be a resolution on next week’s agenda. Supv Sumner tentatively scheduled a field trip to the flood control dam next month an hour before the agenda meeting. She would like to have Craig Schutt present and will contact him. She will send a confirmation to the board after talking with the Highway Superintendent about access. Building permit fees schedule – Last year the board passed site plan, zoning, and subdivision fee schedules, but did not adopt the building permit fee schedule. They s tarted talking about it in February last year and it fell apart in October. The current fee schedule is based on square feet. People seem to like the value one pretty well, except there was a comment about changing the categories. Supv Sumner will rework the categories, but some things should probably be separated out, like sheds and a few other things. The other problem is the voracity of estimation of the value of the project. Solar projects can be an independent fee. There were 39 solar permits last year, and they expect more this year. There is a new fee for heating units. The residential code requires that heating units and replacement roofs and windows meet a certain residential building code. There was discussion about whether to require a permit and charge a fee for those items. Cl Sloan said the fewer things that require a permit the better. Supv Sumner will ask the code enforcement officers to speak with the board about these matters. Cl Sloan suggested the town get word out that the inspection service is available, but he doesn’t want more expense to public. Supv Sumner reminded the board that the fees should TB 5-8-14 Page 3 of 4 be justifiably related to the cost of providing service. The board discussed the pros and cons of square footage vs. value based fees. AT&T – Mt Pleasant recertification and amendment – Someone is applying for a permit to install a couple new microwave dishes on the Mt Pleasant tower. He may or may not be associated with AT&T. AT&T has some equipment on that tower, and it could be an amendment. Otherwise, it is a special use permit. Or it could be an amendment to the special use permit of the tower owner, but they would be exempt in our law because the owner is a broadcast company. Supv Sumner stressed the need for rewriting the town’s tower law. Cl Lavine said that it seems we inflict legal costs on things like these towers that are not necessary. Supv Sumner said she doesn’t agree; they are not legal fees; they are engineering fees. Engineering fees are passed on to the applicant, not attorney fees. Supv Sumner said there shouldn’t be much cost to rewrite the law, perhaps $1,000. It can be a simpler process for the applicant and the town. The board agrees Supv Sumner should move forward on this. Yellow Barn Water District – Supv Sumner distributed a letter from TG Miller. The bids for this project were over budget. The letter describes what has been done since bids were opened. It is necessary for the board to authorize increasing the amount of the bond and will require a public interest order and public hearing. They would like to schedule the public hearing sooner than the June meeting, perhaps May 29. Supv Sumner will check with Atty Perkins regarding the time requirements. Village Traffic Violations Bureau – Supv Sumner explained that at a Village Public Safety committee meeting that she and Judge Clauson attended, the village asked the Town to establish a traffic violations bureau that would allow the Village to collect the fines directly for their parking tickets. The Police Chief drafted an intermunicipal agreement. Atty Perkins determined that the correct way to proceed is for the Town to pass a local law authorizing the court to establish a traffic violations bureau. Atty Perkins has drafted a local law doing that. In the meantime, Judge Clauson has said he doesn’t want to do this. After discussion it was decided that Supv Sumner will invite Judge Clauson to talk with the board. Cornell Plantations is holding an invitation only opening ceremony for the Semmler property on May 24 at 1:00 p.m. Cl Lavine wants people to be aware of a Youtube video narrated by Robert Redford about Dryden as a function of the Golden Award for Helen Slottje . Energy Plan Comments – Cl Lavine read the Caroline resolution and recommends the same resolution for the Town of Dryden. Joe Wilson suggested the town reference the national climate change report in the resolution. That will be added and there is a second page with directions for distribution. This will be on the agenda next week. Corporate personhood resolution – Cl Lavine is drafting a new resolution and read the “whereases” for the board. Cl Sloan said he wasn’t particular about the details of the resolution because whatever Constitutional amendment is put forward will be argued over in the Senate when the time comes. Supv Sumner said she personally doesn’t support amending the Constitution over this; that there are other avenues for dealing with it, such as state corporate law. Cl Leifer said there is no federal law that establishes corporations; it happens at the state level. Cl Lavine said it seems that it is only necessary to express grave concern about the issue and congress should be aware of that. She will bring a proposed resolution to next week’s meeting. TB 5-8-14 Page 4 of 4 J Nicholson said her department has received a special use permit application for 478 Lower Creek Road. This is an existing warehouse and the applicant is proposing a recreation facility for strength conditioning and personal training. This is light industrial zone and requires a special use permit. The site was already being used for this and it has been inspected, so this application is kind of retroactive. The special use to be considered is for the whole parcel. Preliminary review has been done by the Planning Department. Board members were provided with the application. A SEQR long form is attached and the application will go to the County for their review. The applicant will be present next week for sketch plan review and the board will set a public hearing. Cl Leifer distributed a letter the Ag Committee sent to NYS Ag and Markets for comment and will present the response to the board. They are trying to determine whether what the Ag Committee is proposing fits with what Ag & Markets would recommend. The A g Committee would like to amend the zoning to reflect the comments made by Ag & Markets when the zoning was adopted. Craig Anderson is trying to get together business owners for a discussion about where the Town is, where it is going, etc. and see if there is any interest in trying to form a group to brainstorm development in the town. Cl Lavine suggested that TCAD would come and talk to the board in the future. Cl Lavine will attend this meeting with her neighbor. The meeting will be held Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Barbara Caldwell room. There will be a moot court by invitation only on May 21 at 1:00 p.m. at town hall. The Court of Appeals hearing is June 3 in Albany. Supv Sumner has briefs that have been submitted if anyone would like to read them. There being no further business on motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk