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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-12-1999 MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 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 Francis Casullo, Attorney Also present: Liz Brennan, Richard Case, Jr., George Totman, Mark Gunn, Norma Neville, Tyke Randall, Mark Baxendell. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler to approve the minutes of the September 14, 1999 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Scheffler, Robinson. Abstain - Palmer (not at September meeting). Claim nos. 224 - 243 of the General Bills in the amount of $8,986.69 and Claim nos. 171 - 187 of the Highway Bills in the amount of $25,586.22 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the General and Highway Bills for payment. Claim nos. 167 - 169 of the Special Grant (HUD) Fund in the amount of $15,799.29 were presented for audit. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Palmer, to approve the HUD bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON invited Privilege of the Floor. There was no response. Pg2 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 LIZ BRENNAN, BOOKKEEPER- Presented her Bookkeeper's Report to the Board for their review. You have the report in front of you. Basically, we've been breaking down into sub-accounts in Planning and Zoning. I've changed them in the books that way. And we're going to need a transfer in General Fund Part Town from Contingency to Zoning for the typist for $567.33. COUNCILMAN CAREY- How much will that leave in the Contingency? LIZ BRENNAN- For Part Town, a little over $4000, because we haven't used any of the Contingency there. It was $5000. COUNCILMAN CAREY- There was $5000 and now you're taking $567 out? LIZ BRENNAN- Yes. COUNCILMAN PALMER- And we've already exceeded the budgeted amount for that line item? LIZ BRENNAN- Yes. By dividing it out to the sub-account, what is left is for the Boards, the Zoning Board and the Planning Board. So, we've already zeroed that out. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Can I have a motion on that? RESOLUTION #35 - AMEND BUDGET & APPROVE TRANSFER Moved by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Carey Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. October 12, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg3 Resolved , that the Town Board does hereby approve an amendment to the 1999 Town Budget as follows: General Part-Town: Zoning, B8020.12 was $5000. Zoning, Typist Salary B8010.12......$3500 Zoning, Board Salary B8010.13.......$1500 Planning B8020.1 was $3500 Planning, Typist Salary B8020.12....$1400 Planning, Board Salary B8020.13.....$2100 And be it also resolved , that the Town Board does hereby approve the following transfer of funds: General Fund - Part-Town: From: Contingency B1990.4...........$567.33 To: Zoning, Typist B8010.12.........$567.33 MARK GUNN, CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER- The first thing is the building permits for last month in 1999 compared to 1998, which are down six. We had 1 stick- built home in 1998, 5 mobile homes and 6 others. In 1999, we had no stick- built homes, 1 mobile home, and 5 others. My Life Safety Inspections are current for the month. I gave a couple of copies out to the Board. The first one that I'll go over is Local Law #1 for 1978 entitled Unsafe Buildings Law, Section 4. It basically gives a run-down of the law and a problem I've been having along with the Fire Department on some property up on Lick Street. And as you can see by the copy on the back of that, the Chief Deputy of the Fire Department has some concerns about it. The only thing I had left to do was give a report of what the local law said to the Board. I was going to make you each copies of the local law, but kind of ran out of time with everything that was going on today. The local law basically says that I have to make a report to the Board and then the Board is supposed to appoint someone to do an inspection of the property and at that point notify the homeowner or anyone having interest in the property to tear down, build, board up, or whatever the Board saw fit to do. If at that point the people did not adhere to the Board's wishes, I guess it's supposed to end up going to the Supreme Court or something. This is my last step in things that I can do. I have already condemned the property and the people with the house, the actual owner has died and there's some kind of medical bill, lien put on the property. From there, I'm not sure. I don't know if Fran can come up with anything more than that. Pg4 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 FRAN CASULLO- I think what we need to do here, is I need to look at this local law for the year 1978. If you're saying, Mark, that this is your report that you have to do, then we'll just take the next step. I'm assuming that if it's in this bad of shape, that something should be done with the property. It seems to be a fire hazard. I think we just have to make sure that we're doing it properly. I think that the owner of record is Maurice Coit, who is no longer alive, and the question is that we have to be able to site the proper person, who has an interest in the real property. It looks like also we'll have to contact the Tompkins County Department of Social Services that has an interest in the property as well. Why they haven't acted on it, I'm not too sure, but probably waiting for the Town to do something. I'll look into it and move from there. MARK GUNN- The second handout that I have refers to a request that I got over the phone and in writing for interpretations from our Land Use Ordinance on junk yards. It came to me from an attorney representing some people over the junk yard application that the Board has received. I've been asked to give an interpretation. I spoke with Fran about it over the phone. The interpretation has not been given to the attorney, Patrick Snyder, who is representing the Harringtons. I wrote up a brief little thing. According to our Land Use Ordinance it is up to me to give the first interpretation of the code as to whether or not they're allowed, and I will read it now: "I have been asked by Patrick M. Snyder, Attorney for Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Harrington, for an interpretation of the land uses in Rural Agricultural District. Specifically, he had asked whether or not junk yards are permitted in this district. The code specifically states in Section 302, that any land use not included in the categories of "Permitted" and "Permitted with Site Plan Review" is expressly prohibited. Section 341 does not list junk yards in either one of these categories. It is therefore my opinion that, according to the Town of Groton Land Use and Development Code, junk yards are not permitted." This is what I was going to do, just give a copy to their attorney. That's my interpretation, and that is what I was going to fax over to the attorney, with everybody's approval tonight. FRAN CASULLO- When did you get the request? MARK GUNN- October 6th we had the written request. I think he actually contacted me by phone on the 5th. FRAN CASULLO- May I suggest that the Board authorize Mark to do whatever they think is appropriate. But I think there might be a section of Town Law that also controls, I think when you make an interpretation, I think you're supposed to file that interpretation with the Town Clerk and within a certain amount of days send a written copy of that interpretation to the property owner as well as the person who requested it. I'll get together with you on that. I'll let you know what exactly needs to be done. October 12, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg5 SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- So there's nothing that we do right now, until this hearing? FRAN CASULLO- No, there's nothing you can really do. I think what I want to do is if that's Mark's interpretation, I'm not too sure that you need the Board's approval to do an interpretation. I think we just have to make sure how we send it, or communicate it. Then the Board just waits for the public hearing. GEORGE TOTMAN- I talked to Fran earlier about my thoughts on that, hoping that he would convey.......... FRAN CASULLO- We can do that on Monday night. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Mark, have you heard anything more about this place up on Rt. 222, the other side of Lick Street, the "Game Farm" or whatever it is? MARK GUNN- Yeah. Actually, I went up there and spoke with them. They were supposed to be coming in to get a building permit for a house. I have yet to see them do that. Right now, actually, he has an agricultural setting. Aside from him adding on in 10 foot sections to whatever that is there, his little stalls, stanchions, whatever, he's been doing that without building permits. I told him he had to stop doing that and come down and get the building permits. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Does he have water up there for those animals? MARK GUNN- He takes it up in the back of his truck. He's got holding tanks. SPCA has been up there. They have gone over the whole thing with him and the animals, to my knowledge, I haven't gotten anything back from the SPCA. I guess he's taking care of them because I haven't heard anything else. So far there's really not any zoning violation there. He doesn't have a house or a barn, just keeps adding these little pens on and on and on. COUNCILMAN PALMER- You started out talking about the building permits for the month. Do you have any feel for how it is for the year in terms of new structures and so on? MARK GUNN- Yeah, it was a pretty slow month for 1999. Are you talking about new homes? COUNCILMAN PALMER- Well, just in general terms, how's the building this year compared to last year? MARK GUNN- Pretty good. The rest of the summer was really good because of no rain. I could actually do a print-out for next month to show exactly. This month was really slow. The rest of the time we've been up a lot. August was a really big month. Pg6 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 RICHARD CASE, JR., HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT- I'm sorry I don't have a report to hand you tonight, but time did not allow it today, but from my notes: The Highway Department has been active in finishing summer road maintenance projects. Lick Street, between Old Stage and Clark Street, the Jacob's Ladder section, was grader honed with an addition of item 4 gravel. This raised the elevation of the bottom portion of that area about a foot. Fill material has been taken in there and we'll use that to slope it off so that it will be a more gradual slope when we finish the project. The project is far from being completed and we're doing it in stages, as time allows. Also, I don't want to put all of the fill in there at once. We're letting that work itself in. We continue to make Item 4 Gravel in our gravel bank. We use it in preparation in the shoulders that we had wash out starting this spring. Davis Road to Champlin Road has been chip sealed. A portion of Stauber and Stevens Roads that had patches, we applied some chip seal to also. The shop continues to be busy with the on-going PM Program and repairing sandboxes for installation. We have two trucks that are ready in case we do get any snow. COUNCILMAN CAREY- How'd you make out with the County on that bridge material? RICHARD CASE- They have the steel. I cancelled that project until next year......structurally I think it will get us through the winter and then in the spring.....We may have to encumber the funds. I've been assured the steel is here. I even offered to store it for them, so we'd know it was here in the spring. 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. RESOLUTION #36 - APPROVAL OF 2000 HIGHWAY NEGOTIATIONS Moved by Councilman Carey,seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Palmer, Carey, Robinson October 12, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg7 RESOLVED , that the Town of Groton Highway Employees be granted the following for the year 2000: 1) $ .30 per hour for tools for mechanic. 2) $ .40 per hour across the board for highway employees. Moved by Councilman Carey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the Special Town Board Meeting for Highway Negotiations held September 28, 1999 with the exception that on page 2, item #2 "$ .40 across the board" be changed to read "$ .40 per hour across the board for highway employees." Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Scheffler, Palmer, Robinson. Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to set the Preliminary Budget Hearing for Thursday, November 4, 1999 at 7:30 PM to be followed by the Fire & Ambulance Hearings. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- The Justice Court Assistance Program Grant Application is open until December 1, 1999. It's available for all the justice courts. If we give our permission, they would be able to apply for different things, equipment. COUNCILMAN CAREY- What is the dollar amount? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Everyone is going to get a little slice of it. It's not going to be an enormous amount. You're not going to be able to buy....but you might be able to buy a copy machine or something like that or whatever the Court happened to need. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Who's got to apply for it, you or the Town Justices? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Town Justices. It's for them, for the Court, but we have to give permission for them to apply. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Are there any restrictions on that? No matching funds, or anything like that in there, is there? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- No, it's a limited amount. RESOLUTION #37 - PERMISSION FOR JUSTICE COURT TO APPLY FOR GRANT Moved by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson Pg8 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 Resolved , that the Town Board does hereby give permission to the Town of Groton Justice Court to apply for grant money on the condition that no matching funds by the Town would be a requirement of said grant. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- We notified quite a few people about this junk yard permit that they're asking for, and we are having a hearing on Monday night. If anybody's interested, please have them come. It's at 7:30. COUNCILMAN PALMER- How about Diversified, anything new on that? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- They got broken into, and they were asking to have more surveillance around at that time. COUNCILMAN PALMER- How about their payment schedule, are they current on that? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Yes. There were four businesses broken into. And just for the record, we were broken into today. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Do I understand that the police in this community go off duty at 12 o'clock? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- One, I believe it is. Things have changed, or are going to change, I believe. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- I was going to say, did you talk to the Mayor and request them on all night? I can't see bringing them in at 7 o'clock in the morning and letting them drink coffee all day when they should be on at night, and they're not around. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Well, we weren't the only ones broken into. There was a lot of damage done. There was not much taken, but the damage was quite extensive. COUNCILMAN CAREY- I have one question on that. When Mike Fahey was here discussing the security system that he sells, Colleen, do you know if there's a monthly service charge with that? If we buy the system and have it installed, is there an ongoing service charge? CLERK PIERSON- I think so, or a total lump sum at the end of the year. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- It's a little like locking the door after the barn's been open, but... COUNCILMAN PALMER- Where does that project stand now? CLERK PIERSON- The proposal for the security system? Just waiting for you guys. You have the proposal presented to you for budget time. October 12, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg9 SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- That's the only one that came too. CLERK PIERSON- Simplex never came. I called and talked to them two or three times and had a hard time getting them here to even inspect the system that is here now, which is theirs. To my knowledge they never showed up. RICHARD CASE- Simplex sent a representative and I took him through the building like I did Mike Fahey and I told him that we needed some kind of proposal before the next Board Meeting, and they never came back. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- We should have more than one.... COUNCILMAN CAREY- This has to go to a bid, with this type of thing. CLERK PIERSON- Well, sure the complete system was something like $12,000. RICHARD CASE- The complete system was $15,000, I believe .....fire and intrusion. I think what scared these guys out of here last night, or this morning, was that smoke alarm, which we know how it functions, but obviously they didn't. They tripped the smoke alarm when they were cutting into the vault..... ATTORNEY CASULLO- I think it might be a good idea, especially this late in the year, and you guys are doing the budget, you might want to factor in how much you think you're going to have to spend on this thing. As a ballpark thing, you're saying maybe $12,000, maybe budget $15,000. Then you go out and bid it next year. At least you have the money in the budget to pay for it. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- That's what we discussed. ATTORNEY CASULLO- I imagine they wouldn't be able to put it in much sooner than November now anyway, but by the time you got everything all done.....the process...December possibly. COUNCILMAN CAREY- But this should go to bid though? ATTORNEY CASULLO- Oh, yeah, it's over $10,000, it should. But I just want to make sure, Dan, that you have the money before you go and put it out to bid. If you don't have the money, then you have to reject all the bids. This way, when you're this close to the budget, maybe factor this in as an expense that you will have next year, and then next year bid it. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- It's been put in. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- It's in next year's budget? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Yes. CLERK PIERSON- Who else around here installs those systems, or any system? Pg10 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 COUNCILMAN PALMER- I can get you the name of the one who does our firm. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Colleen, did you have something? CLERK PIERSON- No. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Where do we stand on computers? CLERK PIERSON- You guys are the ones who talked about them last. We gave you everything we had a month ago and you said you were going to decide what you were going to do this month. So, it's up to you to decide. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- We have to make a decision on this and get them ordered. CLERK PIERSON- I would think so, if you want us to be open January 1st. I thought we had gathered some pretty good information. A lot of calls were made, April made, I made. We talked with Bill Casolara and he's pretty knowledgeable. I thought we were pretty well set with the information you would need to purchase these. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Do you want to look at this, ah....see what it was.........do you all have these quotes? (Board agrees they have seen the quotes). But you do have to have permission, right? COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Was there a question about a back-up tape or something last month? CLERK PIERSON- We want to use the Colorado Back-up Tape. Some people told us we had to have it in each unit and someone else told us we just had to have it in one unit. I don't know, but I think Bill Casolara does. What we need to do is say, okay we have to have these, get Bill Casolara down here, look over the specks that we've got on those machines, find out which one suits our needs and go from there. I don't think Tom, Dick and Harry can say, oh, this is cheaper, you can have that, or you can have this. I think we have to get what we need, and I think Bill Casolara is the one to do that. He works with them all the time. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Would he do that? CLERK PIERSON- He's offered to do that. He did when he was here. He's been here twice. I think he could do it just as well as anyone else, and he's a local person. He said that he would figure out how it would save the Town the most money, and I can't do that. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I don't know if saving the Town the most money is as important as to get the right equipment. CLERK PIERSON- Well, he knows what equipment we need. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- He knows what we need, and what we don't need. October 12, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg11 COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- I think I would lean towards the Compacts. There's not a lot of difference in the price of the Compacts. CLERK PIERSON- There's not a lot of difference in any of them. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Don't the knew ones have tape back-ups anyhow, Colleen? CLERK PIERSON- Not all of them. Sharon recommended that we have them. It's nice, you don't have to replace the tapes hardly at all, where you do the disks, and they store a lot more. Going through the funds that are left in my budget, I came up with $5,321 there that's available this year. We're short $1,279. One is my records management software, which I'm willing to give up to get the computers. That's $1,500. I have some leftover fees. I haven't been on a trip for the Town Clerks. I've got $1,000 there. And Liz had incumbered from 1998, $1,600 for us with the printer $250. We have a little bit left in my tax collection from last year, $971. So, his proposal is $6,600 to install, all three computers, and the networking. So, that leaves the Town, if you are going to purchase them this year, to come up with $1,279. I didn't know whether you were going to do it this year or next year. I put it in on my budget next year. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Well, you've more or less gotta have them this year. CLERK PIERSON- Well, I have to have it pretty soon if I'm going to get it this year, because it's all new and I'm going to be collecting taxes and I don't know which end is up. We have to learn. It's Windows, and I don't have Windows now, just DOS. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- We might better try to do it this year, hadn't we? COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Do it now and get it done. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- I would say get Bill down here and...... CLERK PIERSON- Whatever you say.....I can have him down and he can start going over the specks and tell us what he thinks we need to have. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Yeah, he needs to go over the specks of these. You've got the prices of these computers, but it doesn't mean anything if the computer won't do what we have to do. CLERK PIERSON- Yes, we have the sheets where it's all printed out, everything that is on that computer. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Okay, so, they'll all do what we need to have done? CLERK PIERSON- Right. Like I said, on the ones that we have there, they are large enough so that we won't have to upgrade right away. Of course then he also said that in a couple of years, your computers are outdated, that's the way it goes. COUNCILMAN CAREY- What Liz gave to us was an update on that one that April Pg12 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 put together. She found it for $200 less with Gateway. CLERK PIERSON- Could be, but maybe it doesn't have on it what we got quoted. Everybody has a different quote, they have different things on it. That's for Liz's Freeville office. COUNCILMAN CAREY- I'm just saying that it's $200 less. For three computers that's $600. CLERK PIERSON- We could take a look at it, but I haven't seen that yet. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- This is the one that Liz got. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- And Bill's going to be ordering these and everything......? CLERK PIERSON- Right. And he installs them and instructs us on how to use them. As you recall, he said that you could add more units into that networking, if you wanted to do that. I really don't see any reason for that. Rick does different things than we do. Court, we don't want theirs and they don't want ours. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- How would we make a proposal, or a motion, to let him do this if we don't know exactly how much? CLERK PIERSON- He gave us an estimate of $6,600. You could say something like "not to exceed" the $6,600. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- What accounts would we get the rest of that money from, Teresa? SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Well, she isn't here, so I'm not sure. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- Would it be the Contingency Fund or..... SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I think we.................. COUNCILMAN CAREY- You had money incumbered from last year.... CLERK PIERSON- Yes, I read that off, $1,850 encumbered from last year. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Was that included in the $5,321? CLERK PIERSON- Yes, that was in there. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- So, we have to come up with $1,279. That's what I'm asking. Can we come up with $1,279? We don't want to spend money we don't have. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- Well, that's a good question. COUNCILMAN CAREY- How many printers do you need this year, Colleen? October 12, 1999 - Town Board Meeting - Pg13 CLERK PIERSON- Just one printer. We're going to run the three units off of one printer. COUNCILMAN CAREY- All in your office? CLERK PIERSON- Yes. COUNCILMAN SOVOCOOL- Do we need all three computers this year? CLERK PIERSON- If we're going to network them together you do. COUNCILMAN SCHEFFLER- If we don't get them now, you'd have to have Bill back to tie them in. CLERK PIERSON- My software for my clerk's package, they've gone to Windows 95, these will be Windows 98, but mine won't run the software because I have no computers with Windows. That's where everyone is going today, is to Windows. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I don't know. I can't tell you right off the bat what you're going to get it from. You've tapped everything you could get it from? CLERK PIERSON- In mine? Yes. COUNCILMAN CAREY- You'll use up all of your Contractual? CLERK PIERSON- I put $1,000 of it towards the computers. I figured about what I would need for the rest of the year. That's in the total that I just gave you plus the records management software. It's more important that I have those and get up and going. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- What else have you got in there, the management and the encumbered and what else? CLERK PIERSON- $1,500 records management, contractual, $1,000, encumbered, $1,850 and what's left out of tax collection, $971. That totals $5,321 towards the $6,600. SUPERVISOR ROBINSON- I might have a little in mine. I don't know what else there is. We can give it a try. There's money left from the trips to NY. I think we can come up with it. RESOLUTION #38 - APPROVE PURCHASE OF COMPUTERS FOR CLERK'S OFFICE Pg14 - Town Board Meeting - October 12, 1999 Moved by Councilman Palmer, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Carey, Palmer, Scheffler, Robinson. Resolved , that the Town Board does hereby approve the proposal from Bill Casolara for the purchase of three computers and accessories for the Town Clerk's Office plus set-up, not to exceed the proposed price of $6,600 inclusive. If actual costs are above $6,600, additional approval is required by the Board. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Carey at 8:50 P.M. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk