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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7-11-2000 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2000, AT 7:30 PM Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard E. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Francis Casullo, Town Attorney Absent: Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Also present: Colleen D. Pierson, Richard Case, Mark Gunn, George L. Totman, William Henkel, Tina Wright. Supervisor Morey – We’re going to scratch Number 8. I’ve got to get some more information from PERMA because I don’t know what they’re asking for. They’re asking for a notice of election and resolution to join PERMA. That had to be done ten years ago or even longer. So I’m not sure whether they…I’m going to call Chris (Dempsey) tomorrow and try to find out what’s going on. George, we got a letter on the jail proposal between Cortland County and Tompkins County. It says that we should write to them about our concerns. They’re not asking for a…… you never saw the letter? Aren’t you on the committee? Who’s on the committee? I don’t think they’re looking for a resolution, just a comment. Mr. Totman’s reply cannot be heard, as he did not go to microphone. He indicated that he did not know anything about the jail project. Supervisor Morey – I’d like to remind everyone to speak up to the microphones so everybody can hear. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Randall, to approve the minutes of the June 20, 2000 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. General Fund Claim Numbers of 183 – 201 the in the amount of $18,507.45 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. Town Board Meeting Page 2 July 11, 2000 Highway Fund Claim Numbers 92 – 106 of the in the amount of $50,410.16 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Randall, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. Special Grant (HUD) Fund No claimswere presented for the month. Supervisor Morey invited privilege of the floor. William Henkel – My address is 193 Groton City Road. I’d like to discuss the property at 201 Groton City Road, belonging to Mike and Mary Anne Reagan. I have information here also that I would like to give each one of you to show you the property. (Information was distributed to Board Members). The picture you are looking at is taken from the road, looking into their property. There is a letter on the back of this. This property has been in a similar state for a year and a half now. I’ve talked to Mark Gunn several times on this issue. I think he’s at the end of his rope in getting this taken care of. I’m tired of looking at it. It’s an eyesore and I think it has just gone on too long. I have spoken too Mike, the owner of the land, way back in May. He assured me that he’d get a machine in there to level the basement out and take care of the rest of the rubble. Nothing has happened since then. About every two weeks I’ve been in touch with Mark and so nothing’s happened. And from what I get out of him, I think he’s just at the end of his rope, just can’t make them move. They just don’t want to do anything. It’s not only the pile of rubbish you see there, they’ve also taken parts of the house, moved it up to the back of the property, down near the creek. They did this once before and they burned all the rubble that was out there. I believe their intent again is to burn rubble out there. I don’t care about that. Let them burn it. Let them get rid of all the rubble and bury the basement. That’s all I care about. Just get the place cleaned up. I just want it cleaned up. It’s been eighteen months now. The zoning law says 30 days for an abandoned structure. Supervisor Morey – Mr. Henkel, I think they are trying. I stopped out last night to see them. They do have a contractor ready to come in. What they’re trying to do is get some fill to fill the stuff in. The contractor can’t come because he’s got some additional jobs that he’s trying to finish up. But they are trying to clean this place up. They are going to take an active measure to get cleaned up in the recent future. I believe, Mark, that there are no zoning laws that they are against? Mark Gunn – Not really. They did get the place taken down. There are piles of wood that are there. Mike was under the understanding that he could save all the wood and build himself a garage. So, he took a lot of time to pull all the nails and all this stuff and make a nice neat pile. Then I told him that I have nothing labeled structurally for him to be able to build a garage out of it. So, he’s wasted a lot of time on that, unfortunately, and he understands where I’m coming from on that. He did make mention that he was going to have a burn and burn the wood up. But I spoke with him also a few weeks ago and he said that he’d work on it. Supervisor Morey – Okay. So, they are trying in the near future to get it down. Town Board Meeting Page 3 July 11, 2000 William Henkel – He’s told me since the beginning of May. I’d just like to see it resolved and I think if you look in your book, I have a copy of the zoning ordinance, page 42 and 43, one refers to junk and the other refers to buildings that have been vacated, you know, just left there. All right, he took most of the building away, but now there’s a pile of junk. I’ll be back. If nothing happens in a few weeks, I’ll be back next month. Supervisor Morey – That’s fine . William Henkel – I just want to see it cleaned up because it’s bringing down the value of my property. And to be honest with you I want to sell my house next spring and I can’t sell it if that’s next door because it just won’t sell. We had a problem across the street and he’s trying to come up to par, but these people don’t seem to care. Supervisor Morey – Thank you for coming. Any other people? George? Would you like to speak? George Totman, County Representative – Oh, I don’t know. You were asking me earlier about the jail. What you read in the paper is more than I know. I’m not chair of that committee and they’re meeting with the Cortland County committee. In that letter that you just read, it said that it went to the Board of Reps. I did not get a copy of it, so I’m sorry I can’t report on something that I don’t know anything about. When they make the reference to the jail possibly being located in Groton, three or four weeks ago, that was the first time I heard about it. I asked a committeeman about it and they said apparently where it came from was because it was decided that if they did ever have a combined jail, it would be somewhere in this end of Tompkins County or that end of Cortland County. And obviously Groton or Dryden would be the places it would go. I couldn’t report on something I didn’t know about. Other than that, there is a lot of things that come up on the County Board. Pretty near always any major decisions that are looked for to be acted on are always in the paper ahead of time. I hear a lot of my colleagues on the Board talking about people calling them about expressing their opinions on it, how they’d like to have them vote or not vote, and I think it would be appreciative on my side if people had some opinions on that, they would let me know. I really don’t get any phone calls from most people in the Town. I do quite a bit from the Village. But a lot of the things that are coming up, like the tobacco money, or the jail, things like that that are County issues, if you don’t hear from people, obviously you can’t go around and knock on everybody’s door, but if you don’t hear from people, you don’t know what they think and I really would appreciate it. Supervisor Morey – Okay, thank you George. Anyone else? Monthly Reports: Liz Brennan, Bookkeeper – Did not attend meeting. Monthly reports from the Supervisor were handed out for the Board’s review. Mark D. Gunn, Code Enforcement Officer – There weren’t any Life Safety Inspections last month. Building permits, we’ve had several mobile homes come in this year, several modulars. We’re real busy with probably six new structures right now. I had six other permits, pools, Town Board Meeting Page 4 July 11, 2000 electric, garages, that sort of thing compared to ten last year. I’m down a couple this month compared to last year for this month. I have court tomorrow night, hopefully to finish up the McKane case. Hopefully we come to a resolution on that tomorrow. I went up to the property that was in discussion last month on Route 222. There’s been some complaints on it. It’s kind of a spooky little place. I walked up to the window and there’s a coat hanging off the chair; there’s dishes on the counter; a lighter on the table. It’s like somebody just walked out. There’s a little trail going in. Somebody has been there. I don’t believe anybody’s living there. Structurally, I can’t site them on anything because I can’t tell how bad the structure itself is. I can’t site them on anything. I see that there’s some rotted fascia. I see that there’s a bare junction box hanging off where there was an outside light. I can’t really site them on that. The lawn is about four foot high. There is a section in the code that says that they have to maintain the property so as not to have rodents and whatnot. If I site them on that, I’m going to site people for weed eating all over Town. I’m kind of stuck there. I spoke to Fran about it. I’m going to get him the name and address of the homeowners and we’re going to see what we can do about getting it at least cleaned up. Maybe once the property is cleaned up I can get a little better look at the foundation and stuff from the road. But I really can’t just go walking on the property and staring at the thing because there isn’t a whole lot for me to look at right now. So, that’s where I am with that. Still working on it though. Supervisor Morey – Back off? Attorney Casullo – What I have asked Mark to do, Glenn, is get me the name and address of the person that owns the property and maybe if nothing else I can send that person a letter indicating that a number of complaints have been made relative to the property and I wish he would contact Mark Gunn so that they can talk about it. I think that’s the best we can do. Mark Gunn – Which I did in the spring and got no response out of it at all. Supervisor Morey – Any questions? Councilman Randall – Mark, I wanted to thank you for getting the ad in the Shopper because I think that clarified a lot of things for people. I have talked around and people did see it. Where do we stand, I know there are some pools that come up in a year. What are we doing with those? Mark Gunn – Our current building permit policy is that they get a year. I have two or three of those small pools that don’t meet code. I have a couple of them as a matter of fact, July, this month, is when their permits are up and I have yet to see their fences go in. So, I am going to be stopping by and speaking with a couple of families about that. Every pool that has gone in so far since the break of the weather, I’d say we’ve had eight, they’ve been real nice, high quality pools, and obviously, if they’re in ground they come with fences, and if they’re above ground they are tall enough so that they don’t have to have a fence. There doesn’t seem to be the problem this year as last year, so I think word’s getting out. Councilman Randall – I know that you sent a letter to Sherry O’Brien and I just wanted to say that it is obviously working because he did, it’s arranged in a nice orderly fashion in the last week. Town Board Meeting Page 5 July 11, 2000 Mark Gunn – I didn’t have too much of a worry that he wouldn’t take care of that. I’ve spoke with him several times when I do the Life Safety Inspection. To me, he’s real reasonable. I have never had any problem with the guy. I sent him one letter and he responded positively. Bernie Douka, he’s got until September. I have noticed a few cars going out, but he’s got a lot of work to do and he’s still working on it. Councilman Randall – Another question. Is there any way that we on a monthly basis, the people that you send letters too, is there a way of getting a report on that or a summary of it and who they are and what the problems are, just a basic synopsis of that so we all know? I think a lot of us are really unaware of where the problem areas are. We drive by a lot of them but I’d be curious and I think it’s something that would benefit the whole Board. Mark Gunn – Yes, that would be easy to do. I could do that for next month. Councilman Scheffler – What about Coit’s? Is anything happening on Coit’s? Attorney Casullo – To be honest with you, we start working on Coit’s and then we get two or three code enforcement issues, Don, that become a priority. We just had one on Lick Street that I had to meet with Glenn, talk with Mark, talk with Lyle Raymond, talk with the realtor and we finally got that resolved. It was an issue that has been going on for about three years. This happened between last month’s meeting and this month’s meeting. So, what you try to do is start working on Coit and get a little bit on it and then all of a sudden these issues come up. And we’ve had about two of them this month. I had to sit down with the realtor on this Lick Street one last week. We got it resolved, I think, to everybody’s satisfaction. The trouble here is that I wish we would have a lull on everything else popping up so that I can concentrate on this Coit. The trouble here is that this one cropped up because there was a sale and potential building of a home so you have to drop what you’re doing and do this. The short answer is that no, we haven’t done much on it and I apologize that, but we are trying to deal with other issues. Supervisor Morey – Anything else? Thanks, Mark. Mr. Case. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent – The Highway Department as you know is finishing up its two week shut-down. Prior to that we got everything mowed through the Town roads, roadsides. When we come back, we’ll start right back over it. We had several shoulder washouts that have been addressed. We still have more to do but the most serious are done. th June 28 we reopened Old Stage Road from Groton City to Champlin Road to traffic. There’s still some shoulder work to do there. I’m trying to make arrangements to borrow a shoulder machine. We still have some guide rail work do on the bridge, but that is open for traffic. Both approaches were paved and the whole section of road was paved from Groton City to Champlin. So, that’s up and running. Other than that, business as usual. If you noticed, we had a sizable bill on a roller. We had a cracked head in it and it dropped antifreeze into the base. It was a pretty extensive repair bill on that but it’s up and running. We’ve used it to roll our shoulders and stuff. The alarm system is up and running. We still have some bugs to work out but we’re all getting through that, I guess. Questions? Town Board Meeting Page 6 July 11, 2000 Councilman Scheffler – Do you remember on the alarm system, did we set up to pay them the service fee monthly or annually or….? Clerk Pierson – I think we discussed it but I’m not sure we made any final decision. But I’ll go back and look in the minutes. Richard Case – We’ve got an agreement…… Supervisor Morey - …for an annual payment. But you can check on that, Colleen. Richard Case – April and Colleen, naturally, had to work with it the most. They’re doing real well with it. Clerk Pierson – A few of us need a few more lessons. Richard Case – Myself included. They call, and I fumble through it, and Jerry’s fumbled through it. Also, April and Colleen gave me a copy, a couple of months ago, and I failed to thank them for the update on the Town Directory. I don’t know if you fellows get that but it’s very helpful to us when we’re clearing property and that type of things, it gives us the people’s address. So, I want to thank them. It was a very good job. Colleen D. Pierson, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Submitted her monthly Town Clerk’s report for the Board’s review. Supervisor Morey – I also added to the monthly reports, Fran (Casullo) because I think instead of having him talk in and out of our meeting, he could have five minutes to talk to us one on one. Fran? Attorney Casullo – I don’t have anything to report. Arland Heffron & Arthur Dawson, Town Justices – Monthly Town Justice Report was submitted for the Board’s review. Supervisor Morey – Set date for UNA presentation. What UNA stands for is Unique Natural Area. What that is is the unique natural resources that we have here in the Town of Groton. It’s about a 45-minute presentation and I would like to have them come in August, while it’s still semi-quiet. It’s a slide program and stuff like that. We hit a couple of unique natural areas that we have in the Town in our Comprehensive Plan, so, I will invite the Town Planning Board too. So, do you want to do it in August? (Board indicated agreement.) You do have the email that I th received, dated July 6, on the presentation, too. Number 7: Resolution for purchase of Dutch door for Justice Office. Tyke, can you expand on the $425.00 price? Is that a separate door? Town Board Meeting Page 7 July 11, 2000 Councilman Randall – Yeah. I went and looked at it. I’ve been in the trades a long time. I talked to George Senter and also contacted Frank Pierson about it. Basically, what George sent me was that to use the door that was there, it would basically have to be done at the factory to make the alterations with the Dutch shelf and all that. It would have cost a lot of money. It would have had to been done at the factory. Frank Pierson came up with an alternative that seemed feasible. I did run it by George. And that was to take a solid core door, mount it on the outside of the frame that’s there now, a half-door basically with a shelf and a knob, and it would swing out into the hallway. That seemed to be acceptable to him. I wanted to ask Mark about it too. I didn’t know if Fire Code wise if something that would swing out into the hallway, if that was a problem. Mark Gunn – To my knowledge that’s an exit pathway. I don’t think it’s legal to swing that out into the hallway. Councilman Randall – Yes, I wondered about that. Mark Gunn – It’s hard to say. If someone was going to be building a new building and it was something that I was inspecting in my jurisdiction, I wouldn’t allow it to swing out into an exit pathway. Supervisor Morey – Mark, what if we put a spring on it to shut? Mark Gunn – That kind of defeats the purpose of her having a half door. Supervisor Morey – I mean, what you’re worried about is if it swings out into the hallway people can’t get by in an emergency, right? Mark Gunn – Right. Supervisor Morey – What happens if you had a spring so when you open it, it automatically closes like a screen door on a house. Mark Gunn – Maybe I’m not following what Tyke’s saying. There’s going to be a half door on the inside and this on the outside? Councilman Randall – No, the half door would be on the outside. The door now swings into the room, the one that’s there. This would be in addition to that. It will be a half door mounted on the outside so it would swing out. He’s asking, basically, like a fire door with self-closing hinges on it, is what Glenn is saying. Mark Gunn – Yeah, I don’t see problem with that. It’s kind of self-closing now, isn’t it? Supervisor Morey – None of the doors are. Councilman Randall – The other suggestion was that you could have removable hinge pins so that it could be taken off when it’s not need, and stored inside the office so it wasn’t there all the time, like after hours and stuff like that. Supervisor Morey – I think that would defeat the purpose. Town Board Meeting Page 8 July 11, 2000 Mark Gunn – It’s really George’s call, since it’s going to be his thing to inspect every year. I would say, if it was in my jurisdiction, I would say no, they’d have to put it swinging in, but….. Councilman Randall – The only problem I saw other than that was if the jam was even with the face of the wall in the hallway, it minimizes how far that hangs out other than the knob. But there is probably ¾ of an inch of block past the frame, so it would really have to be padded out. Otherwise, it is going to be out in the hallway even farther, if you left it at that. Mark Gunn – It’s also Code that you don’t restrict the hallway to less than what the exit door is. So, the farther out you come, if you’re talking a couple of inches and swinging the wrong way, if somebody or a little kid comes running down that hallway and that door gets whipped open, somebody’s going to run right into the edge of that door. There’s a whole bunch of negative things from where I sit and say that it’s not a good idea but…… Supervisor Morey – What did Senter say, since it’s his jurisdiction? Councilman Randall – He thought it was a good idea, a good compromise. Price-wise, I know what the cost of materials and the time that it’s going to take to do it, and it’s not that bad, I don’t think. Do we need more than one bid on something like this? I don’t know that either. Supervisor Morey – Not for $400.00. Councilman Randall – I think we probably should get George’s approval on a piece of paper, in writing, before hand. But he tentatively said it was a good idea. Councilman Sovocool – I think you better get his approval before we go ahead and get it. RESOLUTION #55 - APPROVE INSTALLATION OF HALF DOOR FOR JUSTICE COURT OFFICE MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Morey. Abstain – Randall RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby authorize the Justice Court to have Frank Pierson install a solid core half door with self closing hinges to the door leading from the Justice Court Office to the hallway pending the judgment and approval of George Senter, Village of Groton Code Enforcement Officer. Councilman Scheffler – Is this going to make the Justice Court happy? Supervisor Morey – Number 8 has been struck until I get more information. Number 9, I’d like to set a date for the exit interview for the New York State Auditors either Monday or Wednesday afternoon of next week. And I’d like everybody to be here. Town Board Meeting Page 9 July 11, 2000 th A tentative date was set for Monday, July 17 for the exit conference at the Town Hall. Is there anything else that was not put on the agenda that the Board would like to talk about? If not I have some announcements: th In your packet you have an email dated July 10 about the Recreation Partnership of Tompkins County. If you do have any comments, can you give them back to me in the next couple of days? This is a preliminary copy of it. thst I’m going to be on vacation from July 20 to the 31, so Don will have to sign the checks, th Wednesday, the 26. Don do you have anything for Farm City Day? What are we going to do? Councilman Scheffler – I haven’t really talked to him. We talked about putting an ad in the Shopper or something. Supervisor Morey - When is it? th Councilman Randall – It’s the 12 (August). There are brochures out. I picked one up at Agway the other day. Supervisor Morey – Does the Board want to authorize an ad in the Shopper, say up to 3 inches by 3 inches? We can’t wait until the next meeting because the advertisement should be in beforehand. That’s what you were talking about, right? Councilman Scheffler – Yes, and advertisement. And, Colleen, you were going to talk to the GBA and I think that would cover a lot. Clerk Pierson – I didn’t make it to the meeting. We had our auditors here. Councilman Scheffler – Just to make everybody aware of what is going on is my main concern so that we look as good as possible. Yeah, I think an ad would be good. RESOLUTION #56 - ADVERTISEMENT FOR FARM CITY DAY MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Supervisor Morey. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Morey. RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby authorize that an ad be put in the Shopper for advertisement of Farm City Day to be held at the Dan Carey Farm on August 12, 2000. Councilman Scheffler – I’ll get with Dan to see what we should put in it and if there is anything else we can do. Town Board Meeting Page 10 July 11, 2000 Supervisor Morey – Also, the Groton Businessmen’s Association is going to have a golf th tournament and dinner on July 26. The copy has gone around for everybody to read it and I hope everybody has an application if they want to go to it. You also received tonight a handout that had the Assessment Review and also what they had about it, what their final actions were. You also got a thank you on behalf of the after prom party that we donated to…I did on your behalf. Also, you have an update on what is going to happen in McLean, the updated prices. They have gone up significantly. George, they’re still going to do that in 2001? The McLean road? George Totman – Yes, yes. Well, they’re still planning on it. I’m not going to say they’re going to do it. Supervisor Morey – Also, you had a letter from the County about the jail placement and they are looking for comments. So, please feel free to comment if you’d like to. Any other business? moved There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:12 PM. Unanimous. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk