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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5-9-2000 TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING – MAY 9, 2000, AT 7:30 PM Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard E. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Francis Casullo, Town Attorney Also present: Colleen D. Pierson, Richard Case, Arthur Dawson, Tina Wright (reporter). MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes th of the April 11 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. General Fund Claim Numbers 114 – 142 of the in the amount of $19,280.46 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Randall, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. Highway Fund Claim Numbers 57 - 72 of the in the amount of $16,962.11 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Randall, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. Special Grant (HUD) Fund Claim Number 183 of the in the amount of $1,815.00 was presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the HUD bill for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. Supervisor Morey invited privilege of the floor. There being no response, the Board proceeded. Supervisor Morey – Liz couldn’t be here tonight so I’m going to do the report. Everybody has a copy of it. The first page, I need a resolution to transfer the money from the contingency fund to the Justice equipment. This is to pay for the copier for the Judges’ office. Town Board Meeting Page 2 May 9, 2000 RESOLUTION #37 - APPROVE BUDGET TRANSFER FOR JUSTICE COURT COPIER MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the following transfer for the 2000 Budget: From: Contingency A1990.4……………………….$274.99 Buildings, Equipment A1620.4…………….. $500.00 To: Justice, Equipment …………………………..$774.99 Transferred budgeted amount in the Highway Town Wide Fund to the Capitol Highway Equipment Reserve CD ……………………………..$ 52,500.00 Renewed CD Totals………………………………….$176,092.76 Supervisor Morey – The next one is a transfer of budget. We had $52,500.00 and we transferred it into a CD for six months because the truck is not going to be finished until December. So, it’s going to yield about 5.02%. If there’s no questions, we’ll move on. Mark is not here tonight, but Rick is. Rick? Richard Case, Highway Superintendent – At the present time the Highway Department is engaged in the changeover from snow removal to spring road maintenance. Shoulder maintenance and reconstruction is underway. Ditching and right-of-way clearing is also being worked at when weather and manpower allow. thth On April 20 and 26, all the Town of Groton Highway Employees attended the US Department of Labor Mine and Safety Course. All the employees successfully completed this 8-hour course and their certifications are on file. th The inter-municipal trash day went off smoothly the 29. The employees of both the Village and Town of Groton who participated are to be commended. They did a good job. We received about twice the trash that we had in 1999. I don’t know if that is going to relieve any of our dumping on the side roads, but time will tell. I think everybody got a new washer and dryer this year. Fran sent letters to the vendors who bid on the tandem axle snowplow truck, notifying them of th the results and thanking them for their participation. I believe the 18 of this month ends the permissive referendum requirement. After this date the project can move forward. Do I need to notify the vendor? Town Board Meeting Page 3 May 9, 2000 Attorney Casullo – All I would do, is when the 30 days are up, if we don’t have a petition on file, you can go ahead and notify them, and start the process. Richard Case – And I enjoyed the opportunity to provide the spring highway tour for the Board. The interest the Supervisor and the Board Members have shown to the Highway Department certainly is a benefit to the Town of Groton. In closing, I have two things that I believe need a resolution, and that is permission for me to attend the NYSAT Annual Highway School. It will be held in Ithaca. And I’d like to request a resolution to employ a full time Highway Department person. This is something that we discussed in the budget last year and the funding is in place. I haven’t brought this up before because I’m still looking at applications and I want to make sure that I get somebody who is productive and compliments the highway staff that we already have. RESOLUTION #38 - RICK CASE TO ATTEND NYSAT HIGHWAY SCHOOL MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOVED , that the Town Board does hereby authorize Richard C. Case, Highway Superintendent, to attend the New York State Association of Towns Highway Schoool, to be held in Ithaca, NY June 5 – 7, 2000. Supervisor Morey – Number 8 is a resolution to hire a full time employee for the Highway Department. It is in the budget. It’s mixed in within the expenditures. This category is a “dot 1”, so if you ever see a “dot 1” that means personnel services. So, it would be under the Highway Fund. Rick will start this person at $8.00 an hour. Within 3 months or 6 months….? Richard Case – It will be on a probationary period of three months, whether or not we want to keep him. I believe that the new employee contract reads within 6 months I have an opportunity to raise them 50 cents. Councilman Sovocool - This is a laborer, Rick? How come we need another one now? Richard Case – When we talked on the budget, I don’t know if you recall, Louie, we’re doing more; we need more manpower. Right now most of the employees, there’s only one that hasn’t been here ten years. They’re all getting three weeks vacation. Jerry, in fact, is getting four weeks vacation. With the sick time, vacation time, and holiday time, the window I’ve got to crawl through here is six months. For instance, the last two weeks we went to the 10-hour day. We’ve been on it six days. I’ve had a full crew two days. Now, this takes in some bereavement time and this sort of stuff, but I’m always coming up short-handed. A good example was when we took the tour, Sheldon and Tyke…… you know we’re stretched out as far was we can go in trying to keep some of this reclamation that I’m doing with the right-of-way, it’s just time consuming and I’m running out of hands. Town Board Meeting Page 4 May 9, 2000 Supervisor Morey – After the 3 month probation it will go from $8.00 to $8.50. What’s in the budget is also with an estimate of overtime of 200 hours. This is within the employee contract too. Any discussion? Councilman Sovocool – No, I guess I said all I……. Councilman Scheffler – I can’t think of any questions right now. Councilman Randall – I have nothing. Councilman Clark – I personally saw, the day we were there, a perfect example. He was short- handed. The guys that he had out working were really accomplishing a lot that day, and I’ve watched them up until that time. They’re really a good working bunch of guys and I can see where it’s hard to accomplish a project if you don’t have enough hands to go around. It’s not enjoyable to the guys. They can’t be productive out on the job. I support Rick and this venture. Councilman Scheffler – It does seem like when you’re doing ditches and stuff, you don’t have enough trucks running or you’re doing it without a flagger, or the ditcher’s sitting while waiting for a truck. Richard Case – I think one of you fellows asked that question, why we don’t use the excavator more than we are. One reason is that I am trying to save it, which is true. But that takes a minimum of three guys, and sometimes that’s short handing a flagman. In some situations where the vision is as good as possible we run two trucks and the truck drivers, as they’re waiting for a load, are getting out and flagging. So, that’s just one operation. To try to keep two things going at once, with the manpower we’ve got, is just not happening. Well, it’s happening but not as fast as I can crawl in this six-month window that we have weather to do it in. We are just completing getting out of the snow removal operation. We’ve had the window open a little earlier this year. Normally, I’ve waited until Mother’s Day, as you know, is the date that we still get snow. We stripped everything down except for one of the snowplows that we do keep harnessed year- round. That’s the only jump I can get is organizing it that way and trying to stay ahead of the weather. We are going to have to start that Old Stage Road Bridge. The State inspectors were in there today, as a matter of fact, and I got a call from John Lampman, the engineer from the County. I have to meet with Matt Whitmore, the general foreman. That project is going to tie up some labor. I’ve got too many things going on. RESOLUTION #39 - HIRE FULL TIME EMPLOYEE FOR HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Randall. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby authorize Richard Case, Highway Superintendent, to hire one full time employee as a laborer for the Highway Department at the rate of $8.00 per hour to be increased to $8.50 per hour after a three month probation period. Town Board Meeting Page 5 May 9, 2000 Richard Case – The ADT contract has been signed. Glenn passed that on. I will notify Mike Fahey. He said within probably two months of him receiving the paperwork he’d like to get that moving. That’s the only other thing that we’ve got going at this time. Supervisor Morey – And the emergency call list is………. Richard Case – The emergency call list is, I haven’t talked to all these people, but, myself, Jerry, Glenn, Colleen, and I was thinking of maybe one of the other Highway Department workers, like Lester, who is the Fire Chief and also knows his way around the building real well. And then after that’s established, I think probably, Colleen and I talked, if the calls don’t go right to her, if it involves each department such as the court room or the clerk, they should be notified by whichever one of us gets called down. That’s up for discussion, but that’s kind of what we outlined at this time. Colleen D. Pierson, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Presented her monthly Town Clerk’s Report and monthly Tax Collector’s Report for the Board’s review. Clerk Pierson – The only other thing I have is a letter from the McLean Fire Department notifying us that they are filing an application to renew there license to the ABC New York State Liquor Authority for Caterer’s license. We don’t have to vote on that, just indicate your consensus. If you don’t have any objections, I’ll put that in the minutes. Consensus was that there were no objections. Arland Heffron & Arthur Dawson, Town Justices – Presented their monthly report for the Board’s review. Justice Dawson – I know that you guys don’t usually get a report from us other than the report that you have there. What I have here is another sheet of statistics that you can just pass out. The reason why I’m giving you these, these are cases started per month since the first of the year. Supervisor Morey – Does this include both judges? Justice Dawson – Yes, Town Court. Actually what we’ve got is side by side comparison of Town Court and Village Court cases started since the beginning of the year. Now, if you noticed, the Town cases are more than the Village cases in each month and Peggy tells me that she can’t remember when the Town ever had more cases than the Village. So, we’re getting quite a lot of more business and that is going to tie directly into something I’m going to ask you about in a minute here. But those are the stats for the year to date, and I’ve been told that it’s quite an increase over Town Court activity last year. First thing I should advise you, maybe you know, we had an intruder in the Court office, but they got it in the mousetrap this morning. Arland saw it and told Peggy, and I don’t think she wanted to come to work until it was caught, but she made it. Another thing, for information, our web site is up and running now. Our web address is www.grotoncourt.com and it’s not costing us anything. The people at Lite Link, Homer Smith, Town Board Meeting Page 6 May 9, 2000 has donated the space and the site on his mainframe for us to have it without having paying the 200-300 bucks a year. I’m going to send him a letter, maybe have Glenn co-sign it, if that would be okay with you guys, thanking him. The grant that we didn’t get any money from last year, we’re automatically back in it, but we’re going to update it, because, obviously, we’ve got the copier now. That’s going to be gone. And also, we have the web site, so we don’t need to ask for that money. We’ve basically decided that we’re going to combine the Town and the Village Courts so that the statistics look higher and because both courts use all of the equipment that we’re asking for anyways. When that gets finalized, probably at the next meeting, Glenn has to sign off on it and the Mayor will have to sign off on it too, and I’ll bring it in and show you guys what we’re asking for and what we won’t get again. The thing I told you that kind of ties into this caseload stuff, is that Tony Z. saw Peggy and I over at the Post Office the other day and suggested that we get our own mailbox. He says that he’s noticed an increase in volume for us and that sometimes we’re sending out dated stuff that needs to get back and if it happens to hit on a date that nobody’s at the Clerk’s office, and we don’t usually get the mail, that could be a time factor, although that’s not real prominent. There is money coming through the mail and stuff like that and we feel that that would be a good thing to do. The box that we’re looking at is $32.00 for six months and we’re proposing that maybe next month we could have a resolution, if you are so inclined to do that. We’re going to ask the Village to pick up six months and the Town to pick up six months of the cost. Supervisor Morey – Dewey, what’s it cost now? Justice Dawson – It’s the Town box. Clerk Pierson - $32.00 for six months. But I concur with what he’s saying, in fact I have it right here for Arland to get his own mailbox. Ours is so overloaded that I can’t get the mail out and the Post Office has to get it every day for me. We have two options, and I thought single would be best, Court separate from mine. You can get a larger box, but there again, they can pick up their own mail whenever they what to. Justice Dawson – Yes, we’ve talked about that, and we decided that between the three of us there would be no problem. Clerk Pierson – And $32.00 isn’t that much for them to have their own mailbox especially if the Village is going share it. Justice Dawson – And we already have some envelopes and letterhead and stuff like that that has Box 36 on it for the Court. Tony tells me that would still be good, that as long as they know that anything addressed to the Court should go in the Court box, they’ll make the change-over there. So, we don’t even have to throw away stuff. Supervisor Morey – Colleen, you think we should do it? Clerk Pierson – I really do. In fact, I meant to bring it up and I haven’t. Supervisor Morey – Most likely it’s not in the budget…. Town Board Meeting Page 7 May 9, 2000 Clerk Pierson – 32 dollars? Supervisor Morey – For the Court, I mean. Justice Dawson – I’m sure it’s not either. Clerk Pierson – Well, I would think we could take that out of our A1620.4 fund for the $32.00. RESOLUTION #40 - POST OFFICE BOX FOR JUSTICE COURT MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Justice Court to acquire their own Post Office Box at a cost of $32.00 every six months and with the Village paying half the cost. Justice Dawson – The other main thing that I needed to talk to you guys about is the fact that we are running into a lot more people coming to the Court Office than used to happen too, basically because of the increased caseload, more people paying fines, and stuff like that. We have a real security problem, because the only way they can get in there is if they walk through the door. If you notice, we have a sign says, “knock and enter.” What we are proposing is have an estimate done on how much it would cost to have that door converted into a Dutch door, as George Senter called it, where it would be a top and a bottom. If it’s done the proper way it will still retain the fire worthiness of the door. I understand that this was talked about last year and at that time Mark said that that was a fire door and couldn’t be modified, or something, and he was basing that on what George Senter had told him. Well, evidently George Senter feels that if we have it done properly, it can work as the fire door still, as long as you have the molding and stuff to make it tight. He said that if we got somebody to give us an estimate and a plan and a list of materials that they were going to use, he’d look it over and approve it, if he thought it was proper. I’d like to be able to do that. I know a lot of you folks have worked in an office at some time and if you’ve got an office where someone comes in and they’re right on top of you, it’s really hard to control the situation sometimes. And to be honest, some people come in to the Court who aren’t happy. I don’t understand that. Supervisor Morey – Do you want to put that in your grant? Justice Dawson – No. Supervisor Morey – So, you want it in the budget next year? Justice Dawson – No. I want to see if we can do it this year, somehow through contingency or whatever you’ve got. Town Board Meeting Page 8 May 9, 2000 Clerk Pierson – Can I clarify that just a little bit? Last year George Senter sent the Town Board a letter saying that door cannot be cut in half. Mark had nothing to do with it. He’s the Code Enforcement Officer for our Town and George Senter is for the Village. And I have the letter. Apparently he’s changing his mind, but I just wanted the Board to know. Supervisor Morey – So we need a letter from George Senter and also some kind of quote before we can act on it. Councilman Scheffler – What about a window? Is there room for a window in that wall next to the door? Justice Dawson – Not really with the size of that office and the amount of desk and cabinets and everything else that we’ve got in there. I just can’t see how it could work. That’s a really small office for the amount of use that it’s getting now. It’s getting a lot more use. Councilman Randall – I have a suggestion: Maybe if you took your picture off the web page you’d lessen the traffic, I don’t know. Justice Dawson – If you like I can get a letter from George. Supervisor Morey – You have to. His first ruling was that we can’t do it. That’s what we have on record. Now we have to…. Justice Dawson – Well, this was a face-to-face conversation that I had with him. I’m sure he’d put that in writing for me. Then I don’t know who makes arrangements to get an estimate done or who we use or anything like that. I don’t think that this would be such an expense that it would be a bid process anyways, but I don’t know for sure. I’m not versed with that aspect. Supervisor Morey – Neither am I. Rick, do you know any carpenters that could modify the door? Richard Case - (Did not use microphone). Councilman Randall – There’s a few local people who could do it, definitely. Frank (Pierson) comes to mind. Clerk Pierson – Actually, Frank did the drop box that’s in there now. It’s spring loaded and sealed down to resist a fire going in there. He probably would be interested in giving us a price. Justice Dawson – Would you like to make arrangements to talk to him? Councilman Randall – Sure. Justice Dawson – Okay. Great. Councilman Scheffler – I think we have to get something from George first. Supervisor Morey – Yes, that’s number one. Justice Dawson – Okay. Town Board Meeting Page 9 May 9, 2000 Supervisor Morey – Fran, do you have anything for us? Attorney Casullo – Actually, what I’d like to do, as I talked to you about before hand, it would be nice if we could get going on this youth commission. What I’d like to do is get that going and then I want to work on this Coit property with Mark and try to get that wrapped up. I think those are the only two issues that are really, really outstanding as far as the Town goes. Then I think you are going to be meeting with these people on Thursday about a Comprehensive Plan and if you are going to do that, then that might be something, depending on how fast you want to move, it’s either something you can do in the later summer, I try to keep October and November out because of the budget. So, if you really don’t start it by the end of the summer, it’s probably just as well if you do it in January or March of next year. I’d like to keep going on this youth commission and I’d like to get going on the Coit property. Other than that, it’s been slow. I like it this way. Supervisor Morey – So, my expectation of the end of May is too soon for everything? Attorney Casullo – Well, to be honest with you, on this youth commission, if like I said, I told Peter Grossman, who represents the Village…. Supervisor Morey – It’s not youth commission, it’s youth recreation. Attorney Casullo – Yes. You know, you don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Once we know there is a formal agreement and there’s consensus between the Town and the Village, then I can work with Peter about putting together an ordinance that both the Town and the Village can pass, so that they’re not passing different ordinances and we just unify every step: You pass at your meeting; they pass at their meeting; and it goes smooth. So, once you get that consensus that we’re ready to go, it’s not going to be that difficult to do. I don’t anticipate any problems. Other than that, everything’s fine. I guess the Elm Tree Inn is open for business now. Supervisor Morey – It’s opening, the sign last night said opening soon. Attorney Casullo – They had a party there this afternoon. I heard it was for the realtors and stuff like that. Supervisor Morey – I think they do have some private parties scheduled, but I think like May th 18…. Attorney Casullo – I talked to a couple of people that went there and they said it was very, very nice and the people were very pleasant and everything. I wish them the best. Supervisor Morey – Anything else? Thanks Fran. Number 6 is Resolution, basically I mis- spoke; it’s Recreation Coordinator, that’s going to be the title. We can’t make a resolution tonight, but we can make a resolution to formally agree with the Village on three points, the financial distribution, the use of facilities, and the personnel involved. And we can also do make up the Board of the Recreation Coordinator. Town Board Meeting Page 10 May 9, 2000 RESOLUTION #41 - FORMALLY AGREE WITH VILLAGE OF GROTON FOR FORMATION OF JOINT RECREATION COORDINATOR AND BOARD. MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Groton does hereby formally agree with the Village of Groton on the following points concerning the formation of a Joint Recreation Coordinator and a governing board: 1. The first year distribution of financial support for the Town of Groton will be $8,000. 2. The use of the facilities will be shared between the Village and the Town of Groton. 3. There will be one person hired for Recreation Coordinator whose office will be located at the High School. 4. The Joint Recreation Board will be made up of one Town Board Member, one Village Board Member, one member of the Town at large, one member of the Village at large, and a School Board Representative (of School’s choice). Supervisor Morey – Last night we had Grievance Day from 3 – 6, and the review committee left here about 7:15. There were 17 property owners who came in, and basically they all had legitimate problems, I thought. Louie and Don and Tyke were there. Any comments? Councilman Sovocool – No, I think they were all very legitimate, well, one in McLean, I didn’t think was any problem, but…… Supervisor Morey – We found out the Assessment Department did make mistakes, didn’t we? Councilman Sovocool – Yes. Councilman Scheffler – But they still say that they don’t. Councilman Sovocool – Yes, especially on that lot up there on Pleasant Valley, that 4-acre lot. Now, they had that assessed way out of line for nothing on it and no access. Now, that goes down to the County and they will get back…… Supervisor Morey – Yes, it goes before the Board down there and they have to react to what we suggest, and we did have recommendations for everyone. Councilman Scheffler – I thought it went well. I appreciate people coming in instead of sitting home and stewing about it. I think we should encourage more people to come in or go down to the County. Town Board Meeting Page 11 May 9, 2000 Councilman Randall – Yeah, that’s my concern. I still wonder how many people never bothered to go complain when they had legitimate complaints. Just from a personal aspect, when I went down to talk to them about mine, there were things that they had included on my house, like a garage, that aren’t there. I’m sure that I’m not an exception to the rule. Maybe as a Town Board we need to try to get flyers out or something, somehow try to get more people involved in the process because it’s just hurting the little guy out there, really. I’d like to see us try to stop some of the misinformation. People are a little afraid of bureaucracy, I guess. Announcements: th Municipal Official’s Association Dinner, May 16, 6:00PM at the Lehigh Valley House. Everyone is welcome to come. It’s a very good meeting. th Training for Local Government Officials and Planning Boards, May 11 at 6:30 PM at TC3. Rebecca Lubin, from the NYS Department of Planning, has agreed to come to the Town of Groton at 5PM for individual training. I hope you can all make that. Supervisor Morey - Anything else? Councilman Scheffler – I read in the paper that we might have a jail coming to Groton. I was wondering, I don’t think we should be reading this stuff in the paper. It would be nice if we could get a report from our County Rep. every month. Supervisor Morey – I tried to talk to Mr. Totman last night at the Grievance meeting and he had to leave early. So, I tried to call him today, just before the Board Meeting and there is no answer. I do have the same concern that it would be nice to hear from him beforehand. Mr. Totman also is the chairman of the Safety Committee in the County, so…….. I share your same concerns. I’m trying to get some answers. Councilman Scheffler – Can we ask him for a monthly report, or…..? Supervisor Morey – That’s another thing I’m trying to get hold of him for. Councilman Scheffler – ….either here, or just write one up and send it? Councilman Sovocool – I didn’t read that. What is it a Tompkins – Cortland joint jail? Supervisor Morey – Yes, there’s a proposed jail for the sharing of Cortland and Tompkins County and they want to locate it in between and it was suggested in the paper that it would either Groton or Dryden. th Any other comments? Next Board meeting it Tuesday, June 13 at 7:30 PM. Councilman Clark – I had asked Mark Gunn about some property across from what is now the Pizza Barn on Route 222. It’s like an abandoned house or something. Has anyone heard if he has done anything about it? Clerk Pierson – It’s not an abandoned house. Town Board Meeting Page 12 May 9, 2000 Supervisor Morey – If you go up there, because I looked at it too, and I thought he got hold of you. You know where the Pizza Barn is on Route 222? Right straight across the street there’s a little tiny house with curtains on it. It does not look like it’s abandoned, I believe. But the person lives in Cortland. Councilman Clark – It’s just that it looks terrible. It’s never kept up. The lawn is never mowed. There’s weeds. It just looks terrible and the neighbors have been asking me, and asking me, and asking me, especially with the business going in across the road now. So, I just asked if there is anything that we can do to help. Attorney Casullo – I’ll call Mark. I hadn’t heard about it. Clerk Pierson – The people who own it, I can’t think of the name, but they do still live in Cortland. They used to live here and moved over there. I’ve had a lot of people come in and want to know who owns it. It’s been idle a long time. He (the owner) informed me that I needn’t bother telling anybody who owned that or where they live because it’s not for sale. Attorney Casullo – I’ll talk to Mark and get back to you and let you know what’s going on. Councilman Randall – I would just like to thank Fran: I asked him for a SEQR and the booklet so I could understand it and I got it very quickly and I appreciate that very much. There being no further business Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler at 8:14 PM. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk