Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-14-1999 MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1999 AT 7:30 P.M. Those Present: Teresa M. Robinson, Supervisor Daniel J. Carey, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Don Armstrong, Attorney Absent: Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald N. Palmer, Councilman Also Present: Richard Case, Mark Gunn, Liz Brennan, Norma Neville, Rick Beals and Hector Mayo Moved by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Carey to approve the minutes of the August 9, 1999 meeting as presented. Ayes - Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. Bill Nos. 149 - 170 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $10,430.25 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. Bill Nos. 199 - 223 of the General Fund in the amount of $20,500.74 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Carey, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. Bill Nos. 165 - 166 of the Special Grant (HUD) Fund in the amount of 10,621.58 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the HUD bills for payment. Ayes - Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. Rick Beals and Hector Mayo from Kirby, Beals and Maier, Certified Public Pg.2 - Town Board Meeting - September 14,1999 Accountants, PLLC were on hand to present the Town of Groton financial audit for the year ending December 31, 1998. Mr. Beals explained, for benefit of the Board Members, highlights of various sections of the audit, as well as answered any questions asked. Mr. Beals said that when comparing the budget to the actual expenditures, revenues over expenditures in the General Fund were a positive $81,000. There had also been an Appropriated Fund balance that was not used. This indicated a very good year compared to what the budget was and a positive surplus for the year. The audit indicated that the Town had complied with all provisions of the laws, regulations, contracts, and grants. No noncompliance issues were noted. In terms of the internal control system, there were no material weaknesses. The bottom line was that the Town had a good year, had a surplus in all funds, and the financial records were kept accurately and neatly. It was the opinion of Mr. Beals and Mr. Mayo that the Town was probably doing better than the average town of this size. The only comment that the auditors had for the year was for the Town to make sure that it is compliant with the Year 2000 issue. Justice Court records, maintained by Peg Palmer, were also audited to determine whether the Court was properly collecting and recording bails, fines, and other charges, as well as reporting and remitting these funds to New York State in an accurate and timely manner. There were no exceptions to the above criteria. The Justice Court records were found to be in excellent shape. LIZ BRENNAN, BOOKKEEPER- Presented her report for the Board's review and requested an amendment to the budget to show additional revenue from sale of equipment at the Municipal Equipment Auction on September 11th. RESOLUTION #34 - AMENDMENT TO BUDGET Moved by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Carey. Ayes - Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. September 14, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.3 RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby authorize that the Town Budget be amended to reflect the additional revenue created from the sale, at auction, of the 1988 Chevy Pickup. The total amount of $900.00 to be deposited into the Equipment Account - DA5130.2. MARK GUNN, CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER- Mr. Gunn handed Supervisor Robinson a copy of the thank you that had been printed in the Shopper. Supervisor Robinson read it as follows: "A special thank you to the residents of the Town of Groton. My sincere thanks go out to all of you who complied with the local ordinance and rid your properties of trash, rubbish and junk cars. Thank you also to Doug's Trash, Country Auto, Wallace and Superior for supplying dumpsters and junk car removal. You have all helped to help the Town of Groton look great. Mark D. Gunn, Code Enforcement Officer" MARK GUNN- That was actually in the paper a couple of weeks ago. The building permits for August have skyrocketed. Last year there were five, this year there were fifteen. It was a real busy month. Four of those permits were a direct result of the article that went in the newspaper on the swimming pools. I've corresponded with Marty Luster's office and also Senator Seward's office and hopefully there is going to be something done about that on a State level too. I had a court date for a trial on a zoning violation that went real well. Fran Casullo was up and he helped out with that. That should be pretty much over with. I did another zoning check Saturday and Sunday of this week. I have one more portion of town to do. I did a check on how the spring zoning violations went and it went real well. I was showing the Deputy Clerk tonight that there's about twenty little items that we can take care of with a couple of letters, I think. So, August was pretty busy. RICHARD CASE, HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT- The Highway Department has been active in summer road maintenance projects. Elm Street and Stevens Roads now have shoulders in place. The Town of Cortlandville was kind enough to lend the Town of Groton their loader-mounted shoulder machine. This completes these two paving projects for 1999. Lick Street, from Clark St. to Sears Rd., has been grader-true and leveled and the chip-seal has been applied. Frank Satterly allowed the Town to have some of the grindings that the Village has acquired. These asphalt grindings were used for a good portion of the T & L work on Lick Street. This section of roadway was deteriorating to a point where turning it back into a gravel Pg.4 - Town Board Meeting - September 14,1999 roadway would soon have been necessary. Clark Street, from Lick St. to Salt Rd., has been T & L'd and chip-sealed. Stevens Road, from Rt. 38 to the bridge, had an approximately 200 foot grader patch applied where the asphalt and gravel base had deteriorated. From Stevens Road bridge east, the roadway was grader-honed with the addition of Item #4 gravel on the lower section. As time and material allow, it is my intention to build the roadway elevation to the point that it does not regularly go underwater. As of August 27, 1999, Tompkins County Highway has posted Stevens Road bridge at 14 tons. At this time it is my understanding that a Level 1 load-rating study is to be performed on this structure. The results of this study will determine the weight limit required and will be posted. I have requested that John Lampman, Tompkins County Highway engineer, stay in contact with the Town on this matter. This can have an effect on snow removal, school bus travel and emergency access to properties on this road. I have received notification that Tompkins County Highway Department now has the bridge steel needed to start the Old Stage Road bridge project. At this time, I am leaning toward postponing the project until next year. Weather, needed farm travel and access to blacktop are my concerns. The Municipal Auction held in Lansing on September 11, brought in $900.00 for the 1988 Chevrolet pick-up. We already have a resolution to put that back into the machinery account. Time did not allow for Deputy Holl and myself to attend the Eastern Winter Maintenance Symposium. After reading my notes, I have noticed this report only touches the edges of the Municipal cooperation that has taken place with several different Towns and our own Village. Many shop projects have been completed and are presently underway that go sometimes unnoticed, but certainly reflect saved dollars. I find I have neglected to give the Highway Employees credit, which they are certainly due, for a very productive season. COUNCILMAN CAREY said that he agreed with postponing the bridge project on Old Stage Road but asked if the steel might get used somewhere else by the County. Superintendent Case said that he didn't think so as it was specifically milled for this bridge. He said that he would offer to store it in the Town of Groton. RICK CASE- Colleen asked me to show Mike Fahey, and another gentleman, I don't remember his name, from Simplex, through the build last month to talk about bringing the building up to code as far as your fire warning devises and hooking them to the proper authorities as well as a possible security system. Mike has done pretty excessive job and has offered tonight to come in and speak on it. September 14, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.5 MIKE FAHEY- I'm with ADT Security. I'm what they call a commercial sales representative. I do larger systems. I don't do residential. I don't do the Mom and Pop Corner Store. I do municipalities, organizations, corporations. Colleen called me a couple months ago to review the status. It had been brought to their attention here that being a building which is technically a place of gathering, under NFPA Code you are supposed to have fire inspections where a third party comes in and tests and inspects every piece of equipment relating to life safety. We came through and talked and did an analysis of what devises are in the building. What we found was that it is very limited. It is only this section of the building that has any coverage at all. The Highway Department has nothing. I guess that portion of the building was added after the fact. Shortly after that she called me back and asked me to get together with Rick and discuss adding the fire system to that end of the building and any recommendations I might have as far as what to do that way and also going with a form of a security system in certain parts of the building. Copies of Mr. Fahey's letter to Superintendent Case which included the proposal and a spread sheet had been distributed to Board Members. Mr. Fahey explained that the new control panel that he proposed would be the secret to the whole system. The system we have now is a zone system. In a zone system you only are alerted to a problem within a certain zone. With the addressable system proposed, you would be alerted to exactly where the problem is within that zone (specific door, window, etc.). Mr. Fahey explained his proposals for each section of the building and why certain areas would have specific needs and varying methods of detecting fires as well as different kinds of alarm devises. His proposal for burglar alarms was such as to not unduly change the "present life-style" of the Town Hall. Key pads would be used when accessing the building as well as specific areas within the building. Special needs to be addressed would be a "hold-up button" in the Judge's office, at the Judge's bench and in the Town Clerk's office. Mr. Fahey's system would replace the present Simplex panel but absorb all of the existing detection devises presently in the building. He assured the Board that it could be tailored to meet their wishes by scaling back or adding to any areas desired. Discussions took place between Mr. Fahey, the Board, and Superintendent Case. The Board thanked Mr. Fahey for his presentation. More discussion was held on the subject after Mr. Fahey left. The Simplex company had also been asked for a proposal but had not provided one in time for the Board Meeting. COLLEEN D. PIERSON, TOWN CLERK/TAX COLLECTOR- Monthly Town Clerk's Report was submitted for the Board's review. Pg.6 - Town Board Meeting - September 14,1999 ARLAND HEFFRON & ALTON ALEXANDER, TOWN JUSTICES- Monthly report was submitted for the Board's review. CORRESPONDENCE: Letter from Gordon Klumpp, Superintendent of Schools, concerning the use of the Elementary School in case of an emergency situation that might arise with the year 2000 change-over. He indicated that he did not yet know if the school would have a generator in place by this time. Municipal Officials Association Meeting will be held September 21, 1999, at the Lehigh Valley House in Ithaca at 6:00 PM. APRIL SCHEFFLER, DEPUTY TOWN CLERK- Provided the Board with a list of computer price quotes that she had received from Gateway, Dell, Compact Direct, and the Computing Center. Quotes were for three computers and a printer for the Clerk's Office. Councilman Scheffler asked what a tape back up was. Deputy Scheffler explained that this was used to back up all information on the computer at the end of each day and was placed in the vault over night. A tape back up holds more information than a disc. DEPUTY CLERK SCHEFFLER- Gateway and Dell will put a tape back up in. Compact doesn't. You have to buy it separately and put it in yourself. Gateway and Dell, the way theirs are set up, they don't really like the peer-to-peer network, which is what we are doing. They want you to have a server. The way their computers are configured, they don't recommend that one computer have one tape backup. They want each one to have a tape backup. But from what Compact, and the Computing Center told us, and from what Bill Casolara understood, that you could backup all three from one computer. Since we don't really know what we're doing, we have to go by someone else's recommendations. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Which one is the better computer? DEPUTY CLERK SCHEFFLER- I can't tell you that either. The Gateways we have, we've never had a problem with. They are great computers. Dell, I am told, is as good or better than Gateway. There's a lot of Compacts out there. My daughter works at DHI. All the laptops that the technicians use in the field are Compacts and they don't have problems with them, and they get a lot of hard use. Councilman Carey asked about leasing options. Deputy Clerk Scheffler said that all three companies had leasing options that were basically all the same. She explained that option #1 had the lowest monthly payment, with a buy out price at the end of three years at fair market value. Option #2 has a buy out price of 10% of the original price. And option #3, has the highest monthly payment and a buy out price of $1.00. No extra services were provided with a September 14, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg.7 lease. She said that she had computed monthly payments over a three year period plus buy out price for each option and total cost of the three computers would be between $800 to $1000 more than if purchased outright. She did not feel that the Town would benefit from a lease since it would not be a tax write-off like it would be for a private business. Attorney Armstrong asked if the prices included installation. They did not. Attorney Armstrong asked about the networking plans and some discussion followed concerning this. Richard Case said that he did not see a reason to network all offices in the building together. Deputy Clerk Scheffler agreed with him. COUNCILMAN CAREY- I guess our goal is to get this in place by January 1st? DEPUTY CLERK SCHEFFLER- No, we have to learn it before January 1st. We can't learn it the day we have to start doing taxes. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- We should shoot for December 1st, or something. Deputy Clerk Scheffler said that the Clerk's office could get by with two computers at this time, if necessary. This would be replacing the two computers presently networked together which are used for taxes. She again stressed the importance of being ready to collect taxes. The Board said that it would make a decision at the October meeting. SCHEDULE HIGHWAY NEGOTIATIONS- Discussion was held and it was decided to hold negotiations with the Highway Department on Tuesday, September 28 at 3:30 PM. The Board would meet prior to that at 3:00 PM. SCHEDULE BUDGET WORK SESSIONS- Budget work sessions were set for Wednesday, October 6 at 7:30 PM and Wednesday, October 20 at 7:30 PM. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON stated that she had a copy of the Northeast Subarea Transportation Plan prepared by the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council which outlined planned highway projects. It is available at her office if anyone is interested in seeing it. COUNCILMAN CAREY asked about snow removal in McLean if the planned project there should include a square in the middle of the street. RICHARD CASE responded that it was his understanding that the Town would be responsible for the square as well as for the snow removal and upkeep of any sidewalks constructed. He said that Attorney Casullo was researching the law concerning this. He also felt that this might be a negotiable item in the annual contract for snow removal with the County, should a square actually be built. Pg.8 - Town Board Meeting - September 14,1999 SUPERVISOR ROBINSON commented on the fact that a square would require more lighting which would have to be paid for by the residents of McLean. FROM THE TOWN CLERK'S OFFICE: A letter from Time Warner Cable saying that AT&T had purchased a company which held 25% of Time Warner stock. It was explained that this was not going to have any impact on the franchise with our community or services provided. Attorney Fran Casullo had spoken with Town Clerk, Colleen Pierson about the recent Sirens appeal that took place in Albany on September 1st. He said that he expected a decision some time around mid-October. Simplex had completed testing of the fire alarm system in the Town Hall. Everything tested okay. Batteries needed to be replaced. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON said that complaints by George Eberhardt had been heard by the TCAT people and that some of the buses had been re-routed to accommodate riders in a better way. There being no further business, Councilman Carey moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 9:52 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Deputy Town Clerk