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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-10-1999 MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1999 AT 7:30 P.M. Those present: Teresa M. Robinson, Supervisor Daniel J. Carey, Councilman Donald N. Palmer, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Fran Casullo, Attorney Absent: Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Also present: Rick Case, Norma Neville, Duane Randall, George Eberhart, Clifford Norte, Bill Casolara, Angela Leddy - Cortland Standard. Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to accept the minutes of the July 13, 1999 meeting as presented. Ayes - Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. Bill Nos. 136 - 148 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $5,177.12 and Bill Nos. 171 - 194 of the General Fund in the amount of $6,734.73 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the Highway and General bills for payment. Ayes - Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. Bill Nos. 162 - 164 of the Special Grant (HUD) Fund in the amount of $28,512.49 were presented for audit. Moved by Council Palmer, seconded by Councilman Carey to approve the HUD bills for payment. Ayes - Palmer, Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. Supervisor Robinson invited privilege of the floor. GEORGE EBERHART- I am from here in Groton. This is actually a follow-up Pg.2 - Town Board Meeting - August 10, 1999 visit to December, when we had the TCAT representative here discussing their plans for instituting new runs. At that time we were promised that there would be no loss of service to Groton. The new runs are now out and going into effect as of the 23rd of August. We have lost three runs out of Groton, totally. As you can see, pages 1, 2, and 3 are petitions that are being passed around among the riders of the TCAT run and are being turned in, voicing our disapproval. Mr. Eberhart passed out packets to Board members explaining the problems with the new schedule. Many people who depend on the bus to get to work at TC3, Cornell or down town Ithaca can no longer get to work on time, have no way home, or can not make connections with other buses. Supervisor Robinson asked it anyone had talked to the people at TCAT. Mr. Eberhart said that they had and were told that this is the way it was going to be and nothing could be done. He said that he intended to go to the Village Board meeting also. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Well, we'll have to talk to them and see what we can do. You're right, they told us that they were not going to cut our runs. We'll see what we can do. GEORGE EBERHART- Thank you. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I passed out the paper that Liz had. She's sorry that she can't be here tonight, but they changed her medicine and she's not feeling up to getting up here today. MARK GUNN, CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER- Was not present. His report was presented by Supervisor Robinson. In July, 1998 there were 10 building permits issued: 2 mobile homes, 1 home, and 7 others. In July, 1999 there were 8 building permits issued, none of which were mobile homes or houses. Mr. Gunn would be returning to court Wednesday, August 11, on the McKane case. He also said that an article in the paper about swimming pools did really well at notifying people. COUNCILMAN PALMER- Could I come back to Liz's section again. I know we had progress billing in here for the audit. Do we have the completed audit report yet? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- No we haven't. I haven't heard anything from anybody yet. And I didn't follow through. I'm the one that's responsible for not following through. I know they did it and I know they're through and I know we didn't have any problems, but still, we should have a report. I'll do that. I'm sorry. August 10, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.3 RICHARD CASE, JR., HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT- At this time the Town Highway Department has manufactured the item #4 gravel needed to construct shoulders on Elm Street and Stevens Road. I have heard questions and concerns about the lack of shoulders on these roads. At the present time, the Town of Groton does not have a shoulder machine in our inventory. As soon as one is available for our use I can assure you the job will be completed (we are on the schedule to use the Town of Cortlandvilles's machine). The Summer Youth Employment Program is underway with one returning employee. His addition to our work force is very helpful. I would like to compliment the Town Clerk and her Deputy on the fine job done on the Town of Groton's directory. It proves to be very useful in the day-to- day operation of the Highway Department. On September 8 & 9 the annual Eastern Winter Road Maintenance Symposium and Equipment Expo is being held at Albany, NY. This symposium was organized by the Federal Highway Administration after the blizzard of 1996 which nearly paralyzed transportation in this section of the country. The intent is to present the most up-to-date equipment, materials and technology available to Highway Department Managers. One other goal is that the networking of Highway Managers, tried methods and resources available during emergency situations can be discussed, thus making for a more efficient recovery to any winter disaster. If time allows, and with the Town Board's permission, the Deputy Superintendent and I feel it would be a benefit to the Town if we were to attend this function. The annual Municipal Equipment Auction is being held in Lansing on September 11th. With the Town Board's permission, I would like to place the retired 1988 Chevy pickup in this auction. Last year during the auction I witnessed two tandem axle, snowplow dump trucks sold for between four and six thousand dollars. The core charges on the major parts of these vehicles were worth more than that cost. When I talk about the cores, I'm talking about the engines, transmissions and rear-ends. That doesn't include the dump-bodies and stuff that were on these vehicles. These types of parts are compatible with most of the Town of Groton's equipment. Also, with your permission, I'd like to be able to purchase for the Town, one of these vehicles if the condition and compatibility warrant. To do this, we'd need to transfer moneys that are already in this year's budget in the equipment from DA5134 to DA5132. I talked with the auctioneer ......I'd just have to submit a voucher instead of a line of credit..... COUNCILMAN CAREY- How much do you want to spend? RICHARD CASE- It would depend on the piece of equipment. I wouldn't say over $6,000. Pg.4 - Town Board Meeting - August 10, 1999 There was some more discussion on the subject. Mr. Case said that he would be able to check out the vehicles ahead of time to make sure of suitability. There was some discussion about the funds. Mr. Case said that there was presently around $30,000 in DA5134 and around $300 in DA5132. RESOLUTION #31 - AUTHORIZE HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT & DEPUTY TO ATTEND EASTERN WINTER SYMPOSIUM Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Palmer Ayes - Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize the Highway Superintendent, Richard Case, and his Deputy Superintendent, Jerry Holl, to attend the Eastern Winter Road Maintenance Symposium and Equipment Expo to be held at Albany, NY on September 8 and 9, 1999. RESOLUTION #32 - AUTHORIZE HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT TO SELL AT AUCTION 1988 CHEVY PICKUP Moved by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Carey Ayes - Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize the Highway Superintendent, Richard Case, to sell the retired 1988 Chevy pickup presently owned by the Town of Groton at the annual Municipal Equipment Auction being held in Lansing, NY on September 11, 1999. August 10, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.5 RESOLUTION #33 - MAKE FUNDS AVAILABLE TO HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT FOR PURCHASE OF USED SNOWPLOW TRUCK Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Palmer Ayes - Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize that funds up to $6000 be made available to the Highway Superintendent, Richard Case, for the purchase of a used snowplow truck at the Municipal Equipment Auction to be held in Lansing, NY, on September 11, 1999. Highway Superintendent to submit voucher to auctioneer and report to Board at September meeting for transfer of funds from DA5134 to DA5132 of the Highway Fund. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON had received a call from John Lampman of the County Highway Department who wished to schedule another meeting on the proposed road construction in McLean for August 24, 1999 at the McLean Fire Hall. Everyone thought the date would be fine. LETTER OF RESIGNATION FROM VERL RANKIN- To the Town of Groton Town Board and the attention of Teresa Robinson: I am resigning from the Town of Groton Planning Board as of 8/1/99. From Verl Rankin. COLLEEN D. PIERSON, TOWN CLERK/TAX COLLECTOR- Submitted her monthly Town Clerk's Report for the Board's review. ARLAND HEFFRON & ALTON ALEXANDER, TOWN JUSTICES- Submitted their monthly report for the Board's review. CORRESPONDENCE: Report for the month of June from the Tompkins County SPCA. Pg.6 - Town Board Meeting - August 10, 1999 Copy of letter from Pomeroy, Armstrong, Baranello & Casullo, LLP, Attorneys, to Kirby, Beals, Maier CPA PLLC, Certified Public Accountants, advising accountants about the status of pending or threatened litigation, claims or assessments against the Town of Groton. Discussed were (A) Randy E. Roades VS Town of Groton and George J. Blechinger, Jr. VS Town of Groton which has been settled with no liability imposed on the Town of Groton; and (B) an Article 78 petition by Kim and Jeff Langer against the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Groton which has been appeal to the Appellate Division by the Langers. Cayuga Lake Watershed Network Bulletin. CLERK PIERSON- George Senter did the inspection for the Town Hall and said that we had to have our fire alarm system inspected. I called to get prices from people to inspect our Simplex System, and very few people do that. I did get a quotation from Simplex of $415 dollars. The other one I got was ADT Security Services, who will do it, but if it needs parts, they will be unable to obtain them. Their proposal to check it out is $200. It is my understanding that this has to be done every year, which we haven't been doing. Discussion was held on the alarm system. The present system is not tied in with Fire Control and 911 Dispatch nor does contain security alarms. There are also no fire alarms in the garage and shop areas. Moved by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Palmer to have Simplex conduct an inspection of the present fire alarm system in the Groton Town Hall, and prepare a quote on additional fire alarms, intrusion alarms and connection to Fire Control. Ayes - Carey, Scheffler, Palmer, Robinson. "THE VILLAGE DOG": Supervisor Robinson reported that the "Village Dog" was picked up by the SPCA. It is registered to the Village and Chuck Rankin. They sent the Village Police to pick up the dog and refused to pay the $15.00 impoundment fee, and are asking us to forgive it. Clerk Pierson explained that the impoundment fee is required according to law and that it was not her place to make the decision. It was the consensus of the Board that the issue was not their responsibility, but was something to be settled between the SPCA and the Village. CLERK PIERSON- Bill Casolara is here. He has discovered computers that we could get at a more reasonable price and has made some suggestions to us. I asked him to come back because I wanted to talk to him on what some of the August 10, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.7 things were that he quoted. One of the questions that the Board had was whether the quote included a server. No it does not. BILL CASOLARA- We had talked about originally doing a server, but the most economical way to go with the three systems is to just do a peer-to-peer network. So, each machine would in effect serve as a server and you could still share information and add additional machines as you wanted to. It would be simpler. If you wanted to add a server at a later date, you could easily do that. The software loaded on one machine can be accessed by the other machines. With peer-to-peer everyone can share appliances and printers. Ms. Pierson and Mr. Casolara explained that the machines they were looking at now had more to offer at a lesser price. CLERK PIERSON- So, what I did, after talking to Bill, as far as money, that's what you told me to look for: I have my records management software (I can put that off for another year) which is $1500; I have an amount encumbered from 1998 which is $1600 plus another $250 for a printer; and then out of my expenses for attending schools and things like that, there is another $1000. That is $4350, which would cover these three units. There was some discussion on the possibility of also having a service contract. $1000 - $1500 would also be needed for installation. Leasing at $44 per month per machine was also discussed. It was the consensus of the Board that Clerk Pierson should look into the lease options. ATTORNEY CASULLO- explained that Clerk Pierson had contacted him about Dave Flang who is claiming water rights from a spring in the Town gravel pit from a 1984 land transfer. He was going to look into the issue. Attorney Casullo also reported that on August 30th the attorneys would be in Albany on the Sirens matter. Attorney Casullo had spoken with Bernie Thoma about Diversified Technologies and they were current on payments up to July. Attorney Casullo said that the Town should consider whether or not they wanted to continue paying $25 per month to continue the services of Thoma. After some discussion, it remained the consensus of the Board that it would be desirable to have Bernie Thoma keep on top of things. There being no further business, Councilman Carey moved to adjourn at 9:00 PM, seconded by Councilman Scheffler. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk