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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-13-1999 MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1999 AT 7:30 P.M. Those present: Teresa M. Robinson, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Daniel J. Carey, Councilman Donald N. Palmer, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Don Armstrong, Attorney Also present: Bob Ellis & Angela Leddy - Cortland Standard, Rick Case, Liz Brennan, Mark Gunn, Clfford Norte. Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Scheffler to accept the minutes of the June 8, 1999 meeting and the June 24, 1999 special meeting. Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. Claim Nos. 142 - 169 of the General Fund in the amount of $8,971.69 and claim nos. 114 - 135 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $73,609.00 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Sovocool to approve the General and Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. Claim Nos. 159 - 161 of the Special Grant (HUD) Fund in the amount of $27,741.83 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Palmer, to approve the HUD bills for payment. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON invited privilege of the floor. There was no response. LIZ BRENNAN, BOOKKEEPER- First, I want to say thank you for your understanding and patience until I got myself back to some sort of routine. I have a couple of things to go over budget-wise that I haven't had a chance to talk to you about. First I need a transfer of funds to cover attorney fees for Sirens. RESOLUTION #28 - TRANSFER OF FUNDS Pg.2 - Town Board Meeting - July 13, 1999 Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Carey. Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize the following budget transfers: For the General Fund: From Contingency A1990.4..............$2729.90 Attorneys 1420.41.....................$2729.90 I understand that you are going to be talking about youth workers later. This year we are not going to be getting as much reimbursement from the County. We are only scheduled to get $566.00, which would allow for three workers, two at $4.75, which is a training wage, for 80 hours each, and one would be paid the minimum wage, because he would be returning. So we would be paying him $5.15 an hour for 72 hours. So, it won't be as many hours as we originally planned. Councilman Carey asked what the Town received last year and Ms. Brennan said that it was about the same amount. There is just one other item that I would like to get straightened out and it has to do with the Deputy Clerk's hours. I'm always getting time sheets that show seven hours for vacation, holidays, and sick time. I would like a clarification from the Board on that. It is my understanding that we have a 6 hour day, yet I continually get time sheets that have 7 hours for vacation, sick and holiday. COUNCILMAN CAREY- So you are paying for the 7 hours or the 6 hours? LIZ BRENNAN- No, I change it to the 6 hours. But I would like it clarified so that I don't have these time sheets that keep saying 7 hours. COUNCILMAN PALMER- Did we define.... LIZ BRENNAN- The standard day being six hours. COUNCILMAN PALMER- .... the standard day being six hours. That should be the holiday rate then. LIZ BRENNAN- Right. Holiday, vacation, sick and as far as retirement goes. We discussed it quite a few months ago and I thought passed a resolution stating it, but I continue to get the timesheets. Consensus of the Board seemed to be that six hours had been decided on as a standard day. LIZ BRENNAN- Another thing we were discussing was the computer purchase and July 13, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.3 whether or not we had money in the budget. If you remember at budget time we had a really tight budget. In fact we only put $5000 in the contingency to begin with and that's getting eaten up already and I'm not sure if we're going to be getting some more attorney bills. My only suggestion would be that if, say in the Clerk's account if there was something that we had budgeted for that we didn't get, and you got the computers, or you waited until the end of the year and ordered. We do have money that we moved over from last year for one computer and a printer. So, there's money for at least one. But I would look at it that you just wait until next year to get the other two or you exchange something that you budgeted for and not purchase it and purchase the other computers. COUNCILMAN PALMER- I'd just like to ask the status of the audit. LIZ BRENNAN- They've left. It was fine. They have left and as far as I know they are writing the report up. I haven't heard anything. I imagine once they get the report written up they will come to a Board meeting, I would assume by August or September. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- They did the Highway, General, and the Court, so we are all done. They didn't say that anything was amiss. MARK GUNN, CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER- The permits for this year for June are 14 as compared to 8 last year. Mobile homes being the biggest thing going in, and remodeling, and pools. I have made a call to Marty Luster's office with the problem I have been having with the swimming pools in the area. You have probably seen the little Walmart pools that are being thrown in all over Town. They are less than 48 inches. The State law requires not only a building permit, but a fence all the way around it. I am having a hard time with this. Stores are not telling the customers that these things are required. I am trying to get Marty Luster's office involved so that he can do something statewide because customers are unaware of this. I am having a heck of a time with this. They go in overnight and people fill them with a garden hose or something and they go in so fast that I don't even see them go up. That's a big part of our building permits for this month and I'm sure it will be a huge part for July as well. You'll be happy to know that the final round of zoning violations is over with. The same as last month, I have 2 people out of about 130 that have actually gone to court over it. There has been a big dent made in my worse case already, and he's doing as much as he can to get his part taken care of. So, that's taken care of for '99. Now that the court cases are over with, I'd like to put an ad in the paper and tell the Town "thanks" because the citizens did a great job doing what I asked them to do. COUNCILMAN PALMER- Who were the two that you had to take to court? MARK GUNN- Ed McKane on Smith Road, and Sherri Trinkle, it's her property on Pg.4 - Town Board Meeting - July 13, 1999 Smith Road, but her son lives there. That is kind of still in the works as well. I talked to Judge Alexander today about that case. They went to court last Wednesday and they were supposed to contact me, and I have heard nothing from them yet. It is a small problem, and I think it can be resolved without any more conflict. Thanks to the judges, I thought it was only going to be a slap on the hand, and they have thrown some stiff penalties at whoever I have taken to court so far, and they have really stood behind me 100%. I really appreciate that. I hope the Board has seen a huge change around Town because people have cleaned up a lot. Ward Harrison and Doug Brown have made major profits with dumpsters and steel and stuff like that. Superior was backed up and had no dumpsters left because they were all over here in the Town of Groton with people filling them up. COUNCILMAN PALMER- You sent us a copy of a letter to Doug VanBenschoten. Has anything become of that? MARK GUNN- Doug has quite an extensive business going on down there on Locke Road. I had requested from him, quite awhile ago, because there seems to be more heavy equipment, trucks, tractors, and that sort of thing. I had stopped by a couple of times without being able to contact him, so I wrote him a letter, in the fall I think it was, requesting him to come in for a site plan review, because we didn't even have him on the books as having a business down there. I spoke with him about it tonight on the phone. He has made an application for a junkyard license. I called him up and he felt I was kind of forcing him into a junkyard permit. I said I was not trying to force him into that, but he does need a special permit to have a business running down there. He's got another barn going in, which he has the proper building permit for. He's doing a lot of storage, buying and selling of heavy equipment, repairs for other people, plus he sells a few used cars. I have got the paperwork and I have an appointment with him tomorrow night. I am going to tell him that I don't think the paperwork can be accepted with just him saying that he's using the property as just plain old storage. I think it should be storage/agricultural and heavy equipment sales and service because that is exactly what he does down there. He asked me to come down and look around and tell him what he can and can't have. Hopefully everything will be alright and he can be on the agenda for the Planning Board for next month. He told me to disregard the junkyard application for now and I think that's a plus. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I showed you the letter I got in the mail. I think all the Board got one too. It kind of put Mark on the spot, but I think Mark was doing his job. (The letter referred to was from Lorraine Faucette, owner of Patchwork Riding Stable, complaining about the no parking signs recently posted on Old Peruville Road.) MARK GUNN- It hammered me pretty good, for what I think was more than my share. There was supposed to be petitions from what she told me on the phone. There was supposed to be petitions and paper work that she had done through Marty Luster's office as well. I don't know what her side is as far as what's going on. Rick can vouch for the fact that that's a bad area. I explained to July 13, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.5 her on the phone as best as I could that she is allowed in the no parking zone to load and unload, but no parking for an extended period of time. There was some more discussion on the subject. Supervisor Robinson expressed her and the Board's support. RICHARD CASE, HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT- At this time the Town Highway Department has completed the paving on Elm Street and Stevens Road. While the asphalt cures, shoulder material is being manufactured in the Town's gravel pit. In the past month all intersections have been power broomed. The first round of roadside mowing has been completed. I attended the Cornell/NYS Association of Towns Highway School held for 3 days at Ithaca College. This event annually enrolls 700+ Highway Superintendents from throughout New York State. The Summer Youth Employment Program is tentatively scheduled to start the last week of July. Presently the Town has 3 employees that I would like to have raised in job classification. They were hired as laborers and through their time as employees of the Highway Department have progressed well beyond that level. 2 of the 3 are presently operating equipment daily that would be classified as heavy construction. The other employee operates lighter equipment daily that without question fits into the current Motor Equipment classification. Gary Schutt, Joe Graham and Pete Carr have displayed to me that they have the required knowledge, skills and abilities to safely perform within the requirements of a Motor Equipment Operator. Along with this classification change an increase in wages should be considered. COUNCILMAN PALMER- Do you have a recommendation in mind? RICHARD CASE- In their contract they get a 15 cent increase for five years. I was going to suggest Pete Carr and Joe Graham are doing a lot of the heavy equipment work now, and I was going to suggest 15 cents an hour for each one of them. I hate to give a man a promotion without some kind of wage increase, so I was going to suggest Gary at at least a nickel an hour. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- That puts them at Motor Equipment Operators? But that's not the top of their rate? RICHARD CASE- They would have more, I think, Joe and Pete..... I'm not sure how your increment system works here........ SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- We give them an incentive after five years. There was some more discussion on the subject. (Some people in discussion were not using microphone). Richard Case indicated that the three would still Pg.6 - Town Board Meeting - July 13, 1999 be earning less than the other Motor Equipment Operators. He also said that all the employees would then be Motor Equipment Operators. Supervisor Robinson indicated that the Highway Superintendent had the option to promote people every six months. RESOLUTION #29 - PROMOTION AND INCREASE IN PAY FOR PETE CARR, JOE GRAHAM, & GARY SCHUTT Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board, upon recommendation by Highway Superintendent, Richard Case, does hereby approve the promotion of Pete Carr, Joe Graham and Gary Schutt from Laborer to Motor Equipment Operator. AND BE IF FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize an increase in pay to Pete Carr and Joe Graham of 15 cents per hour, and to Gary Schutt of 5 cents per hour. COLLEEN D. PIERSON, TOWN CLERK/TAX COLLECTOR- Submitted her Town Clerk's monthly report for the Board's review. CLERK PIERSON- A couple things, after hearing what's transpired tonight. Number one, we don't have any money in the budget for equipment to run my office, but we have the money for raises. What am I supposed to do with my office? How am I supposed to run it without any computers? That's number one..... SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Just a second. Theirs is highway and this is general. They're two different things. CLERK PIERSON- It doesn't matter. It's the Town's money. If we don't have any money, we don't have any money. I need to run my office. I need the equipment. I budgeted for the equipment for this year's budget. You took it July 13, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.7 out. You also took it out for our Code Enforcement Officer. So that's gone too, and here we are. We need $6600 to keep me up and running the first of the year. What are you going to do about it? Everyone else finds money in that budget for some purpose or another. How come the Clerk's office can't have any money? Does anyone have an answer? The Board members looked over the letter from Bill Casolara with his recommendations for equipment needed in the Clerk's office. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- He seems to think you've got to have this stuff? CLERK PIERSON- I have to. We have new software. My computers are outdated and not large enough to run the software for the Town Clerk's package and the tax program. I did call our software supplier and they intend to install it by the first of the year. In order to do that I have to have Windows 95 or 98 and I don't have that. I have the old 3.1 in all the computers. LIZ BRENNAN- You do have money right now. You could buy one computer. CLERK PIERSON- The money that was encumbered? LIZ BRENNAN- Yes, it's been there since January. CLERK PIERSON- That's $1600. His whole proposal is $6600. It's all networked together. How do you just run one? LIZ BRENNAN- Well, you could just run one with your "bandaid" until January. Or..... CLERK PIERSON- He didn't think much of "bandaiding". In fact it would cost the Town money if he "bandaided." Two you can't upgrade. One you can because it's a Pentium. Then you could go through the whole system and kick out the 99s so that it would switch over to the year 2000. But, he said he would be wasting your money. Isn't that what he said the other day when he came in to talk to us? That's basically what he said. He felt it would be a waste of the tax payers' money to make it ready for 2000 because they're not large enough to start with. LIZ BRENNAN- If we had it in next year's budget, by January 1st you could be making the payment to have new computers. You can go through the motions of getting it all together by then. Or if there's money in your account to re-do the minute books. I don't know how much exactly you have for that. That might buy you another computer. Two computers could get your network going. CLERK PIERSON- Re-do the minute books, what's that? Oh, you're talking about the records management? No, they're gone. That $5000 will be gone. The books have already gone to Vermont to be done. I have in my budget around $1500 for my records management software. That's what we encumbered from last year because we didn't use it. I could put that off for another year and use that towards it. Pg.8 - Town Board Meeting - July 13, 1999 LIZ BRENNAN- The two computers would get you going with your networking and wait until January 1st for the third one. That would get you organized for the first of the year. CLERK PIERSON- He might be able to do part of it now and part of it later. I could get by. But it's not very handy to have your taxes come in on a new Windows 95. It's all new to you. We're not using the Windows 3.1 that's in there now. It's all in DOS. It's going to be a whole new ball game for everything we've got and I don't think January is the time to be doing that. We should be doing that ahead of time. LIZ BRENNAN- Well, order your computer tomorrow and you can be working on that....... COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- How much did you say we have, $1600? Is that what a computer costs? LIZ BRENNAN- That's what mine cost......(not using microphone) COUNCILMAN PALMER- If you look at his proposal, he's got three Pentium II's in here for $4000. That's about $1300 per computer. So, you could easily cover one right up front. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- I would take her software money and get the other one. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Those two and the network box. And then budget for the rest of it so we can get it all done and all the same. I really think we should do that, if it takes us till January to get it all in one package. COUNCILMAN CAREY- Could you get the third one on a lease with an option to buy at the first of the year? Are those deals out there? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Are these under State bid? CLERK PIERSON- I have no idea. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- You say you've got $1500 and she's got $1600, that's $3100. If you come up with another $200 you could almost get your third computer. CLERK PIERSON- Well, I haven't seen what was left in the accounts. This is the first time this year that we've had a report. We have some left in other accounts that is sort of mine, taxes or whatever that we could transfer and put towards purchase of this equipment, right? LIZ BRENNAN- If you don't have anything specific for those things..... July 13, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.9 COLLEEN PIERSON- Okay. Now that I can see this tonight, maybe there is something there that we could come up with and get them ordered. I don't usually use all my contractual. Is there any reason why I can't put some of that towards it, just to cover and get this thing done so we're ready? LIZ BRENNAN- Just realize that when it gets to the end of the year....maybe your cushion there.... COLLEEN PIERSON- What do I need a cushion for? I don't spend any money. It just gets transferred the following year. Why don't we do it now? If the Board agrees that I can do that, take it out of the other things that I have left.... COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- You may not be able to get all of it, but if you could get enough to get rolling. The only other question I have and I think we talked about it, and I don't know what the answer was, but the other computers in the building, whether they need to be or not, will they hook to this network? If a year from now you need to get on the internet or you don't have enough room or something, will your computer network with this? CLERK PIERSON- Under notes (a) he said that it could be. Two or three additional computers could be added to this system. COUNCILMAN PALMER- Liz did you have any dialogue with Bill about your needs? LIZ BRENNAN- No. COUNCILMAN PALMER- I think it's important before we get too far down that road that we look at the total needs of the building. I tried to stress that with Bill when he was here, that we may not have that immediate need now, but we need to have equipment in place and hardware, software that would allow others to be tied into this when the time is there, whether it be to get onto the internet, networking of software that all computers can use. We should think this process through before we jump out and buy a lot of equipment that might not be the appropriate move. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- The other thing is, and I don't know anything about this, he was talking about one server that they would be working off of. Is that going to be in this deal? COUNCILMAN PALMER- I can't tell from here. But that server, you can also purchase a network version of software that can be used by all, so that the individual computers do not have to purchase their own software. I'm just saying we should look at all of these options before we go too far down the road and spend a lot of money until we're sure that it's going to meet our needs, not just this year but at least a couple of years down the road. More discussion was held on the subject of a server and how it would benefit the whole building. Departments with confidential information would have passwords to prevent access by other departments. There seemed to be some confusion as to how Bill Casolara had represented a server on his proposal. Pg.10 - Town Board Meeting - July 13, 1999 Consensus was that Clerk Pierson should meet with Bill Casolara again and also look over the funds to see how much money was actually available before the next meeting. ARLAND HEFFRON & ALTON ALEXANDER, TOWN JUSTICES- Submitted their monthly report for the Board's review. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Announced the Municipal Officials meeting on July 27th at the Lehigh Valley House. Guests will be Rick Erb and David Squires from the Tompkins County Budget and Finance Department to answer some of our questions. Carl Heck is not going to be Tompkins County Planning Department. He has been very helpful to the Town of Groton and we appreciate his efforts. Diversified is up to date on its payments. Supervisor Robinson read a notice from the New York State Retirement Program explaining special retirement incentive plans for regular retirement plan members. Norma Neville is president of the Ladies Fire Axillary (LAFASNY). They are having a booklet that goes out every year. We put this ad in last year for her and she has one more year and we should be very proud that she represents the Town of Groton in the whole of New York State. I'd like to do it again. It costs $100 and I'd take it out of my funds if you'd like. (Board did not take action.) Supervisor Robinson presented a proposal from NYSEG Solutions, Inc. as the selected natural gas supplier for the Tompkins Tioga Counties Electric and Gas Alliance of which the Town of Groton is a member. To receive the best possible price, documents must be returned by July 20, 1999. RESOLUTION NO. 30 - AUTHORIZATION TO PARTICIPATE IN COOPERATIVE PURCHASING OF NATURAL GAS Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Councilman Sovocool, Councilman Scheffler, Councilman Palmer, Councilman Carey, Supervisor Robinson WHEREAS, the County of Tompkins and the County of Tioga entered into an agreement for the purchase of natural gas with NYSEG Solutions, Inc. and WHEREAS, the contract provides that political subdivisions within the counties may obtain natural gas under the contract, and July 13, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.11 WHEREAS, the Tompkins County Board of Representatives adopted a resolution providing that political subdivisions within the County shall be included in such cooperative purchasing agreement upon the submission of a resolution approved by its governing body to the County Department of Finance, now therefore be it RESOLVED, that the Town of Groton shall participate in the cooperative purchase agreement and may, thereby, purchase natural gas under the contract with NYSEG Solutions, Inc., RESOLVED, further, that a copy of this resolution shall be sent to the Tompkins County Board of Representatives and the Tompkins County Department of Finance. There being no further business, Councilman Carey moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Sovocool at 9:05 P.M. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk