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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-12-2001 TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING – JUNE 12, 2001, AT 7:30 PM Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. 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, Liz Brennan, Arthur Dawson, Arland Heffron, Robert Walpole. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the May 8, 2001 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Abstain - Randall General Fund Claim Numbers140-166 of the in the amount of $9,432.78 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Randall, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. Highway Fund Claim Numbers 87-108 of the in the amount of $11,582.17 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. Special Grant (HUD) Fund Claim Number 207 of the in the amount of $434.24 was presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Randall, to approve the HUD bill for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. Town Board Meeting Page 2 June 12, 2001 Supervisor Morey – Robert Walpole is here tonight to talk a little bit about the Groton brochure. Bob? Mr. Walpole – I think everybody has a copy of the proposal that we are working on. Just to give you a little background and history, the last time we had a brochure, a lot of you do remember it, was probably 10 or 12 years ago. We’ve been the last 5 or 6 years going to do something but obviously nothing’s got done. This year we did work on it with the GBA, Groton Businessmen’s Association. We have put together a rough draft of a brochure. It’s not going to be a perfect brochure, but it’s going to have the Village and the Town, copies of the maps and stuff on it and broken down to different individuals. We have canvassed the Town, McLean, Groton City and the whole works. We realize we don’t have everybody on there. And there are going to be, obviously, people who are not going to be happy, but November and December of this coming year we are going to update it with a new current events of 2002. We’re working on terminology. We’re hoping to finalize this thing Thursday. Tyke is, from my understanding, you are doing some drafting of the final terminology. The reason I am here tonight is to give you a brief outlay of it. I’m also here to request a couple hundred dollars. The total printing cost is going to be probably a four or five unit folded. We were going to go with two-color. We may be able to with four-color and get it out here before the first of July. We’ve got a total cost around $800. We’ve been to the Village. They are going to give us $200. The Groton Bank is going to give us $200 and the GBA is going to endorse $200. So, we’d like to have the Town do us a favor of a $200 advertisement or whatever you want to call it. Basically, I was amazed myself that we covered as many places of services and stuff throughout the community. I think we had a list of about 138. Even myself, I was surprised at the amount of stuff that’s out there that I was unaware of and I was born and raised here like a lot of you. But we’re pushing to satisfy this thing Thursday night and get it to the press and get it out there th before the 4 of July weekend. We realize that not everyone is going to be happy with it We’ve already got people wanting to make changes. But we have to get it printed and get it out. Tyke will be working on some of the final………(not using microphone)…… I’d be glad to field any questions. We have people on the committee that think that everybody in the Township should have it. Well, that’s fine. Then the Village………getting into mailings and stuff and we may address that issue later on. But it is handy. It’s amazing how many people stop, looking for where’s so and so. We get a lot of people who stop in and I’m sure that Colleen gets them in here. It would be just nice to be able to hand them something like that. It’s not going to be a final thing but more than we’ve had in the last 10 or 12 years. Councilman Randall – How many are you going to print up? Mr. Walpole – Probably 2-3000, maybe more. It depends on the final cost. It will depend on whether we go with the four-color or the two-color. I think Gary Bush was working on that. But initially up to 2000 or 3000………(not using microphone). Supervisor Morey – Who’s going to print this up? Mr. Walpole – I don’t know who they got the quote from….Graphics…does that sound right? Councilman Randall – Graphics Plus? Town Board Meeting Page 3 June 12, 2001 Mr. Walpole – Graphics Plus Printing, maybe. I know they talked to the Shopper and stuff. This guy can do it two-color………. Make it simple so people will refer back to it. Councilman Randall – Where are you going to circulate these? Mr. Walpole – Oh, we’re going to circulate throughout and they’re going to be in the businesses. Councilman Randall – They’re going to be in the local businesses? Are there going to be any mailings or anything like that? Mr. Walpole – Well, we’re going to cover everyone on that list and get them in the Clerk’s Office and the Village Office. And like the Clerk’s Office, for example, …………(not using microphone)…. That’s what it’s for, for people to pick up. You know we haven’t had one in so long and we do get people who stop in and will look at it just for a guide and tell you what is out there. Clerk Pierson – How did you contact the people in the Town? Did you contact them all? Mr. Walpole – We went down through and rode around and picked the names that had signs up. Clerk Pierson – I know of some that aren’t here. Mr. Walpole – There’s a lot of in-house occupations that may not be registered, may not have a sign out. Clerk Pierson – We do have a list of them here. Our Code Enforcement Officer has a list of all the businesses. Mr. Walpole – Some I think…we just basically took it that if there was a sign out there was a little business. Obviously, we’re not going to get everyone the first time. We figured we have a meeting in November or December and update it more because a few of them….we ran some advertisements and we did get a few from outside. But I think like anything else, once it gets out there, that’s when you’ll see further involvement. I know that Skaneateles, when they came down to talk to us about 3 months ago, they have a big one, but it took them 6 or 7 years to get to where that brochure is. Supervisor Morey – They also have a Skaneateles phone book that started off with four or five pages and now is an actual book. So, this is the type of thing that we are trying to start off small and work into it. But there will be a re-printing in the November – December time period. Mr. Walpole spoke some more about the subject but was not using microphone. Councilman Scheffler – It looks like it’s like 99% Village businesses. I don’t see a lot outside the Village. Mr. Walpole – Well, we got the ones that were in McLean and, you know, West Groton, where they have signs up. Obviously, if there’s more of them, we can add them as this thing grows. Town Board Meeting Page 4 June 12, 2001 Councilman Scheffler – I was just adding up here and I can come up with like 24 in my neighborhood that aren’t on the list here. There’s a lot of small businesses around that would benefit from it if they were on the list. Mr. Walpole – I fully understand that. Councilman Scheffler – And a lot of people don’t put signs out, for whatever particular reason. Mr. Walpole – You know, it’s something that we’re trying to get started and you know at least get it started and then make changes later on as the thing progresses. To go off that just for a second, John Watkins and myself attended a meeting in Albany in reference……Association of Towns were there, the Village and Mayoral Conference was th there….how to bring small retail back to your community. We went on March 17 and attended an all day session and met with the people who own malls and stuff and was a major conference. A very good program. One of the most interesting, I’ll just touch on it, was a recent real estate general sales manager for Price Chopper. Their indication was you can compete with big retail. And they had a 60,000 square foot store, I can’t tell you exactly where the town or village was, but they had a 200,000 Wal-Mart Super Store come in and build next to them. They watched it very closely and the 60,000, they made some changes in their retail and have added, obviously, the Cortland operation, and they have never lost any gross income of sales when the 200,000 square foot store opened up. You can compete. We’re in the same position here in the Village and Town of Groton as every other person was in the State of New York. We have empty commercial and are trying to bring it all over the State, not only here. As a matter of fact, the gentleman that’s the secretary for the Association of Towns apparently sits on a board where he is from and they have a beautiful planned development unit park. And they have been trying to sell space or lease space for the last 7 years. He was asking questions of this Price Chopper man. This guy fired four or five quick questions back to him. There’s hundreds of these empty around the State. So, when we came back, we decided, as we met with the GBA, that we should have something that shows ….. ………(not using microphone)…. But even driving around for 3 or 4 hours we picked up 136 signs. So, there again, it’s like everything else, there’s only so many hours in a day to really investigate to how big you’re going to get, you know this brochure. I think one of the reasons we’re going to have to go back to it in November or December was then see how it could be added on to, see how many people wanted to opt to get in….. Councilman Randall – What’s your main focus? Are you trying to get more of the community members to shop these businesses or outside the community? Mr. Walpole – I just think that, for example, Bill Beck was in my office last night, and he’s working for Lowe’s. And yesterday there were 14 people…..(not using microphone)… We can not, Baker Miller and all these people, we can not compete with these big guys. I think that we need to tell them what we do have in the Village. It’s just like myself, I went out and found there were 125 to 136 people with signs and services that I didn’t even know we had here. We do get people who are coming through asking, where’s this, where’s that, so sometimes, if this is sitting someplace and somebody happens to stop in, so, here’s how to get there. It’s only a small tool to promote your community. To be honest, Liam Murphy, who is a new attorney in Town, sat down to the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, I don’t know if the Town is a member of it, the Village of Groton is, and there’s nothing, nothing on our community of the Village or Town of Groton in the Chamber of Commerce down in Ithaca. I think it’s at least time that we show that we are up here. So, some of the stuff will go down in these places for tourism. The Town Board Meeting Page 5 June 12, 2001 wineries put a big draw in. Here’s an attorney who went downtown Ithaca looking for ideas because he happened to sit on a committee and he found everything else except Groton. If you go through Newark Valley on Route 38, I went down to a meeting in Owego to …., and Newark Valley has now put up a sign right in the four corners where the red light it, listing 40 some businesses in their community, which includes the colleges, and showing it on a map. So, we just felt if we should have something even though it’s not going to be perfect, just to get it started this summer. We can always make changes as we go. Supervisor Morey – We don’t have much time, but we do have time. Is there any way that you can call Mark Gunn and get a list of all the businesses in the Town to add on to this? Mr. Walpole – If you can bring them to the meeting…… Supervisor Morey – All right. Any other questions or comments. We have to find out where the money is coming from. Can it come out of my contractual? Liz Brennan – We’ve got that publicity account. And you don’t need the whole thing for the Town. Clerk Pierson – No, we use our own. RESOLUTION #43 – DONATE $200 TO GROTON BROCHURE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby agree to donate $200.00 to help with the cost of producing the Groton Brochure. Liz Brennan, Bookkeeper – Hello, I’ve handed you the revenue and expenditure reports, up to date. Still waiting for the auditor to get back to me and give me a date on when he can start. Other than that I really don’t have anything. Everything else is just going along smoothly. Do you have any questions on anything? No one had any questions. Supervisor Morey – Mark said he was going to be here because I think we have some things to talk to him about, but he didn’t make it, yet. But he does have a report there of building permits issued for this month. We’ll hold off for that. Rick, you want to come up? Town Board Meeting Page 6 June 12, 2001 Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent – At the present time the Highway Department is engaged in summer highway projects. Shoulders and ditches are being repaired and cleaned daily. The majority of the Town’s Item 4 gravel that we will use has been manufactured and stockpiled. Roadside mowing is just getting underway this week. Confirmation on the one-ton dump truck ordered on State bid has been received but there is no delivery date yet. The new excavator has not been delivered but as per our bid specs Syracuse Supply has provided the th Town with a machine and we took possession of that May 10. Just for a general note, we’ve put in six driveway pipes since it’s been here and installed several hundred feet of ditch and ththth right-of-way maintenance has taken place. On June 4 , 5, and 6, I attended the New York State Association of Towns Highway School held at Ithaca College. That was hosted by Cornell Local Roads Program. As always, it was well attended by over 700 highway superintendents. Any questions? Supervisor Morey – Couple comments though, McLean-Cortland Road and Bridge, everything has been approved and contract letting will be August 2001 with the completion date of December 2002. So, that’s tentative, still. I think everybody has a copy of that. Also, you have a copy of the drug and alcohol testing program and the Tompkins County Consortium that we are members. And these are all the updated prices for everybody. Any other questions for Rick? Comments? Okay, let’s move on to Colleen. Colleen D. Pierson, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Submitted her monthly Town Clerk’s report and Final 2001 Tax Collector Report for the Board’s review. Clerk Pierson – I only have a couple of things. The taxes were all settled up with the County. We were a penny off. I was a penny off in my account and had to make a deposit today. We are looking for a dog enumerator, which I haven’t been able to find yet. Anyone want to volunteer to do it? We have received our franchise fee from Time Warner Cable: $1,138.39. And I guess that’s it. Supervisor Morey – Any questions or comments for Colleen? Okay. Francis Casullo, Town Attorney – Had nothing to report. Arland Heffron and Arthur Dawson, Town Justices – Presented their monthly report for the Town’s review. Justice Dawson – I am not going to talk about the door and the window. Arland doesn’t know this yet but I was contacted by the Tompkins County Coalition for Domestic Violence and in either December or February they are sending five judges to a training seminar. If it’s in December it is in San Francisco. If it’s in February it’s Santa Fe. They are picking up the tabs. It is put on by the National Justice Association for Domestic Violence in the Courts. They are going to be sending John Rowley, the County Court Judge, and Judge Rossiter from City Court, the president and vice-president of the association and myself. So, it is something that we are able to get involved in and an all expenses paid type deal, so there is nothing coming out of the Town’s budget for it. I thought you guys would like to know. Town Board Meeting Page 7 June 12, 2001 Supervisor Morey – Congratulations, Dewey. Arland? Justice Heffron – There was really no need for my coming tonight. I don’t have anything to add. As far as I’m concerned the Court is happy with the way things are going. We are glad to know that we’ve made some progress on our security, which I understand is forthcoming. That’s going to make everybody out there happy. As far as I’m concerned we’ll get along in good shape. Any questions from anybody? Supervisor Morey – Nope. Thanks for coming. Going on to the teller window, because this part of the Court business, is I finally got a response from George Senter. He has approved the fireproofing so Rick will be able to order this in the next week: the teller window, the fire blanket and so on and so forth. So, that was the other thing I had to tell you about, Rick. All righty, any more questions for the Court? Clerk Pierson – Glenn, there’s just one thing on this window that someone asked me to bring up. Have we contacted ADT so we make sure it doesn’t interfere with their system? Supervisor Morey – No, it won’t be. What they have to do is they have to tie into the fire system. And ADT will be involved in that because they have to do it. Clerk Pierson – So, you have contacted them? Supervisor Morey – No. Councilman Scheffler – Probably should, make sure it’s going to work. Supervisor Morey – Before we order this stuff I’ll contact ADT. I don’t think it would be that hard for them to do that. It’s just a sensor. Okay, good. RESOLUTION #44 – ACCEPT BYLAWS OF JOINT RECREATION COMMITTEE MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Randall Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby accept the bylaws for the Joint Recreation Committee entered into by the Town of Groton and the Village of Groton. Supervisor Morey – Colleen brought something very interesting to me about exemptions for the senior citizens as well as disabled. It appears that we haven’t done anything about this since 1993. In 1994 we did a sliding scale. (Supervisor Morey asked if he had given copies to the Board and they had not received any) We’re going to discuss this next month and I will give copies to everybody. We also have to discuss indemnification next month too. So, there’s two items we have to discuss. I’m sorry you didn’t get a copy of this. I thought it was distributed to everybody. So, I’ll table this right now. Town Board Meeting Page 8 June 12, 2001 Let’s move on to the resolution to hire three summer youth workers. Rick, you want two, correct? And one youth is going to be put on full time and not through the program, right? All right. And Colleen would like one person for the office. So, there would be three people on the youth services program and this is reimbursed 50% through the County. So, it’s the same thing as we did last year. Any questions? Comments? RESOLUTION #45 – HIRE SUMMER YOUTH WORKERS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Randall, Clark, Morey. RESOLVED, that the Town Board does herebyauthorize the hiring of three Summer Youth Workers; one for the Town Clerk’s Office and two for the Highway Department at the rate of $5.15 per hour. Announcements: Application for Small Cities Development Block Grant has been completed with a copy in Supervisor’s office for review. Letter was sent to Senator James Seward telling that Town had sent grant application. Town Hall will be closed the first week of July and the Highway will be the first and second week of July. th Municipal Officials Meeting, June 19. Preliminary Census information received. th Terrance Graves Memorial dedication, July 7. th Public Meeting June 18, Village of Groton amendment to zoning regulations. Supervisor Morey – Any other news, comments, questions? Councilman Randall – Actually, the John Anderson thing. I know Mark’s not here, but I just wanted to make a comment that he condemned the property and we all got letters. But he also sent John Anderson’s letter, he gave it to me to give him, and I’m not doing that. And I would like to just publicly say that timing really stinks, that’s all. I mean we are at the Church trying to work on some other alternatives and now that puts it in a completely different light because you’ve got somebody’s back against the wall. I realize there’s rules but we need to keep the Town Board Meeting Page 9 June 12, 2001 community in mind. You know, any one of us could be in that situation sometime and a little bit of leeway to get things straightened out would have helped. I really would hate to tell him that at this point because there is some alternatives that we are trying to get worked out and I think that we can solve this whole problem. But the timing was just bad. Supervisor Morey – That’s why I tabled it. Mark’s not here to discuss it with us so…….. Any other question? Councilman Sovocool – Did Diversified pay up? Attorney Casullo – Since I got involved about three weeks ago, they’ve made $3,500 worth of payments. What can I say? I think I’m going to call Bernie at Thoma Development and say that they have to… I had quite a conversation with Annelle today and I told her that I had to have a $1,500 payment by this afternoon and they did it. But my biggest problem is that I can’t every month be watching to make sure they pay. I mean, that’s what we had Bernie for. But I will call him. To be honest with you they have made a little over $7,300 worth of payments in the past year and a half, forgetting about the time limits, and they are supposed to be at this point around $9,000. So, they’re about $1,600 short. But it’s not like they’re way behind. They are behind, but not way behind. That $1,600 is about three months. Councilman Sovocool – So, in other words, if someone speaks to them every month, they pay. Attorney Casullo – But you’ve got to understand this, I inherited this. This thing has been going on since 1991. I jumped into the middle of it. To be honest with you, and I think Colleen will tell you this, I didn’t even know it existed until about 1996 or 97 when it just popped up out of the blue. So, I have been trying to do the best we can to get the money but I can’t guarantee it. Clerk Pierson – There’s no reason someone couldn’t be appointed right from here to go to the bank and see if they’ve made their payment for that month. I went over there and got those for tonight. Attorney Casullo – I think the one thing, Colleen, and if you could help me with this, I would greatly appreciate it, you’ve got to get a figure on what is the balance owed on this as of June of this year. Clerk Pierson – Do you want to do that, Glenn, or do you want me to do it? Supervisor Morey – Go ahead, Colleen. Attorney Casullo – If you can find out from the bank what balance is owed that would be great. And I will call Bernie and say, Bernie, we want you to monitor this thing and make sure we get payments every month. But I will tell you this, the only thing that I can tell you, is that since I’ve became aware of it they have made $3,500 worth of payments in three weeks. Councilman Sovocool – But that’s all through you, not through Thoma? Attorney Casullo – What I instructed Bernie to do when Glenn called me, I got on the phone with Bernie and said I want a letter out to them. He did the letter and then she paid. I think, to be honest with you, I think we are going to be, hopefully, all set. We’ll just see what happens and just go from there. At this point they are not seriously behind. Town Board Meeting Page 10 June 12, 2001 Clerk Pierson – I do banking over there all the time and at the end of the month or the first of the month, I could ask for a print-out of payments that have been made and give them to Glenn or whoever, so you know. That way you wouldn’t be getting behind again. Attorney Casullo – I’ll tell you this, to their credit in the past three weeks they have made every effort that they could to straighten it out. She also tells me too, in fairness to her, she tells me that she is away a lot and it’s usually her responsibility to make sure the payments are made. And when she’s away it just doesn’t get done. I’ve spoken to her twice now and she’s done everything I’ve asked her to do. That’s to her credit. th Next Board Meeting July 10. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Clark at 8:12 PM. Colleen D. Pierson Town Clerk