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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-10-2004 TOWN OF GROTON – MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2004 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town Absent: Richard B. Gamel, Councilman Also present: Colleen Pierson, Tena McClary, Rosemarie Tucker, Terry Donlick, Don Palmer, Peg Palmer, Steve Howard, Kathy Howard, Gary Coats, John Norman, Liz Brennan, April Scheffler, MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the July, 13, 2004 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. General Fund Claim Numbers 207-230 of the in the amount of $11,157.42 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Highway Fund Claim Numbers 139-155 of the in the amount of $73,734.61 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Special Grant (HUD) Fund Claim Numbers 358-363 of the in the amount of $9,310.91 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the HUD bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey. Town Board Minutes Page 2 August 10, 2004 Supervisor Morey offered privilege of the floor. No one wished to speak at this time. Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk - Submitted her monthly report for the Board’s review. There were no transfers. She had not yet heard from the auditors as to when they were coming. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent – Was absent. His report was read by his Highway Clerk. At the present time, the Highway Department is busy with a variety of projects. With Lester Coit being out of commission and vacation scheduling, work crews have been interesting to say the least. The summer youth program is in full swing. Jacob VanAlmelo and Joe Randall are the returning full-time youth workers. Both have been instrumental this summer in the day-to-day operation. Joe Randall was injured in Pennsylvania last weekend and won’t be back to work this summer. McKenzie Lewis has filled Joe’s spot for now. We had so many applications this year that Bob Bogardus has graciously accepted the group leader roll for a small work crew of youths. Robert’s Raiders will work 3-4 hours for a couple days to help clean up for the Groton Old Home Days and other small maintenance jobs that need to be done. Bob has my thanks for this undertaking. The Town of Groton Highway Department took delivery of one of the new trucks. The cab & chassis unit is in the shop and fabrication and mounting of the snowplow equipment is taking place now. Rick Neville has his hands full with this project even though everything is falling into place. The other truck is in Watertown and I expect to take delivery soon. I have contacted Rich Coriale, NYS DEC, to give him an update and request permission to proceed with the seeding of the remaining portion of the gravel bank reclamation project. NYSEG has replaced the pole that was in the way, but now we are waiting for Verizon to move their wires over to the new pole. Once Verizon is done, the final grading of that portion can be completed. Craig Scutt from Tompkins County Soil & Water Conservation has monitored the seeding that was applied earlier and is pleased with the growth and stabilization. Craig will be ready to seed the remaining unvegetated area upon approval of DEC. Drainage has been the topic of the year this year. We have received shoulder and ditch damage, primarily in the southeast and west portions of the Town. Sharpsteen Road, Cemetery Lane, portions of Nubia Hill, Davis Road and Ogden Hill have had to be repaired. This damage has put us behind on replacement of crossover pipes and gravel road maintenance. The hot water tank in the Town building blew and has been replaced. Stan Woolever has been doing a good job and is working on a couple of other problems on the building and grounds as time allows. Tompkins County news: The highway manager has been relieved of duty and temporarily replaced by engineer John Lampman. The County bridge crew has been in McLean working on the Cemetery Lane and Stevens Road Bridges. John has informed me that their intentions are to move to our Stevens Road Bridge next. The County has increased the scope of this project, both their and our sections. The Town portion is the bridge deck, including rails and approaches. At present, the plan is to widen and raise the elevation of the bridge. I advised John that our bridge fund is limited and requested that he get an estimate as soon as possible. Equipment bids: One way plow – Tenco - $4,304.00; Viking Ciues - $5951.75 Side-wing plow – Tenco - $2,270.00; Viking Ciues - $2,337.00 Town Board Minutes Page 3 August 10, 2004 RESOLUTION #80 – PURCHASE ONE-WAY SNOWPLOW MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the purchase of a one-way snowplow, manufactured by Tenco and sold by Cyncon Equipment, Rush, NY in the amount of $4,304.00. RESOLUTION #81 – PURCHASE SIDE-WING PLOW MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby approve the purchase of a side-wing plow manufactured by Tenco, Rush, NY in the amount of $2,270.00. Gary L. Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer – If you’ve driven the Town you’ve probably seen a lot of stuff going on. This month we issued 3 building permits for new houses and an additional one for a manufactured doublewide, for over half a million dollars total. Some of them you can’t see from the road. They sit way back in. They’re all brand new houses; all three are stick-built. We issued 4 certificates of compliance or occupancy. We did one Life Safety Inspection. Orders to remedy this month, there were 11 of them. The majority of them were for swimming pools, junk cars and trash. Two or three of them are on going. Insurance companies are tying up one house from being torn down because of a fire. That’s the house on Davis Road. There’s another house on Lick Street that we’ve tried to get torn down. The guy that bought it had a demolition permit but then he had a bad motorcycle accident and couldn’t do. He came in this week and got a new demolition permit. We had 3 court cases this week; all have dealt with junk vehicles. One guy is going for a motor vehicle repair station. Another guy is correcting the problem. Another situation is an elderly lady who is being dumped on by her family and we’re trying to work with the family because she’s the innocent victim but unfortunately she’s the property owner. We’re working on that. April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector – Submitted her monthly Town Clerk’s report for the Board’s review. I had a letter from the McLean Fire Department informing us of their intention to renew their liquor license. We need the usual consensus on that. Hunting licenses go on sale next Monday so we’re getting all geared up for that. Old Home Days, we’re going to have a booth and be in the parade. The SPCA is going to be here. We’re all going to be out front this year. I think it will be a lot of fun. I gave you all some copies of the spay/neuter program that I’ve been working on. I’ve talked to the vets. They’re agreeable with it. They think it’s a good idea. We can go over it but I think it’s pretty much self-explanatory. Supervisor Morey – Do you want to do that $40.00 value now? Clerk Scheffler – I’d like to get it in place. I think it would be nice, since I’m doing the whole “dog thing” this weekend, to present it this weekend. Town Board Minutes Page 4 August 10, 2004 Consensus of the Board was that they had no objections to the liquor license for the McLean Fire Department. Clerk Scheffler – Vicki sent me a copy of the draft agreement for enumerator that she worked on. I don’t know if that meets your approval or not. Supervisor Morey – I haven’t read it. Clerk Scheffler – I talked with the SPCA. They do not have enough staff to do it. They would advertise the position on their website. At least you might get dog-oriented people. Dryden is still in the process. They started in April and haven’t finished yet. They are paying $1.75 a dog plus mileage. Lansing paid $2.00 a dog plus mileage and it took about 2 years to finish it. They had no contract. They just paid the person on a voucher. The Town Clerk was reasonably satisfied with the results. She wasn’t happy with how long it took but they picked up over 600 dogs that were unlicensed. So that was a big increase in income for them. Supervisor Morey – What time frame are you thinking about hiring this person? Like, do you want to start in April next year? Clerk Scheffler – I would just as soon start as soon as possible. It’s probably easier not to do it in the wintertime. We did have a class on it at convention and they said there’s no set time for an enumeration. They are basically open-ended. They could be a continual thing. Like, theirs lasted two years, you could just go as far as you can and take it up again next year. I don’t know. It’s not a nice job and, as one of the clerks I was talking to said, we should not be surprised if the person quits or says I just don’t want to do this anymore. Councilman Sovocool – Well it’s got to be done. Like April says, I’d let the SPCA advertise on their website and see if we can find somebody. I would suggest that we interview them before we hire anybody. Supervisor Morey – What time frame were you thinking of? Councilman Sovocool – I think spring would be better because you’re not going to get it done between now and fall. Councilman Scheffler – I would think start it after the first of the year, springtime. And this agreement looks good to me. It says attached job description. Do you have a job description yet? I’d like to see the insurance on it though. Clerk Scheffler – I had some things that I would require such as how often I would need them to report back to me and the forms they would use and that sort of thing. We would need the list back almost daily so we could keep up with it. Supervisor Morey – April, since this is going to be an independent contractor does the County have to get involved with the job description? Clerk Scheffler – No. Supervisor Morey – Okay, do they have one? Town Board Minutes Page 5 August 10, 2004 Clerk Scheffler – I think there is a job description because there’s a position. When we were talking about it before I think I had written up a list of things that I thought we would need from an enumerator. Attorney Monty had a copy of the list and gave it to the Clerk, who read it to the Board. Supervisor Morey – I have a question. What about trespassing laws and things like that? How’s this enumerator different from the code enforcement officer, who can’t go on the property unless he’s invited? Clerk Scheffler – They can walk up and knock on the door. They can’t walk around in back. They can report what is visible from the front. Councilman Clark – I guess I would like to see it start, you know, getting out and getting the legwork all done. If we wait until spring to do the legwork it’s going to take way into the summer isn’t it? Supervisor Morey – Oh no, we pre-advertise. Councilman Clark – Start before too long with advertising? Councilman Sovocool – Start now advertising. Councilman Scheffler – We might get a college student too. Supervisor Morey – So the advertisement will say that we’re hiring in the spring of 2005? Can we do that? Clerk Scheffler – You don’t think it’s too early for that? I think it’s too early if you’re not going to do it until spring. You can’t hire somebody in September to work in March. They may not even be living here by then. Maybe wait until January or February if you’re going to start in March or April. What do you think? Councilman Sovocool – Yeah, it’s probably too early. There was some more discussion on the subject as to what to pay. Most of the Councilmen agreed on the idea of $2.00 a dog. Supervisor Morey – Let’s go back to the $40.00 value of the Town of Groton spay/neuter. I asked April to email everybody to discuss what she’s proposing. Basically, it’s a spay/neuter program for dogs only, available to the Groton City Animal Hospital as well as Wallace Holmes. These are the local vets. This is only for participating Groton residents. This will be coming out of a reserve fund specifically used for just dog control, so we do have the money for this. I would suggest $2,000 to start off. We don’t know how many will sign up. But this is to support the local veterinarians as well as an incentive to take care of dogs. Town Board Minutes Page 6 August 10, 2004 RESOLUTION #82 – AMEND 2004 BUDGET MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby amend the 2004 Budget to set up an new account, A3510.4R, Dog Control From Reserves and be it further RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve a debit from Appropriated Reserves, A511 in the amount of $2,000 and credit Appropriations, A960, sub-account A3510.4R, Dog Control From Reserves in the amount of $2,000. Clerk Scheffler – I did talk to the vets about possibly doing a rabies clinic too, which they were very much in favor of. But one thing that Heather Sawyer, from the Groton City Animal Hospital, mentioned is a problem they are having with distemper and parvovirus, especially in the Cortland area, which is very close to us and we have a lot of dogs being adopted in from Cortland. She pointed out that people get the rabies shots because they are required to and there are a lot of dogs getting sick and suffering. It really is a terrible disease and it is a relatively inexpensive vaccine. She suggested that maybe we consider doing a program for that rather than the rabies since the Health Department is already involved in doing rabies clinics. I didn’t get any prices but I can do that. Supervisor Morey – Why don’t you move forward on that too? Basically what they do is set up the garage for them to come in and do it and that would only be available to Groton too. Clerk Scheffler – We’d have to advertise it that way, only for dogs and only for Groton residents. I’d also like to see it for licensed dogs and we could be set up to license dogs at the same time if people want to do that because our goal also is to get the dogs licensed. Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town – Had nothing to report. John Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices – Submitted their monthly reports for the Board’s review. Justice Norman - I think Glenn got the e-mail from Dewey. There were three things that we want to just touch on. Most important is Peg becoming full-time, 30 hours a week. That’s because there’s an increase in the cases going through the court. She has worked hard keeping it down to 27 hours a week but she’s always playing catch-up. So, we’ve all talked about it and we thought it probably would be a good idea to have a full-time clerk at 30 hours a week. Supervisor Morey – You won’t get any argument with that. I sit down with Peg every year and she makes the decision and if she wants to go full time it’s up to her. I whole-heartedly support it. I’m sure the Board will too. It will cost a little bit more in salary and benefits that we pay but I think it’s well worth it. Justice Norman – Everyone has a handout on credit cards. I’m going to just try to skim through this a little bit. On the second page are the following key points of this program. The contract Town Board Minutes Page 7 August 10, 2004 with the Unified Court Systems is with Nova/Key Merchant Services, which electronically processes all transactions entered by the courts. It’s the only game in town. Courts don’t need to change banks. Each credit card machine can handle two bank accounts, one for each judge, even with different banks. If each judge is using the program for fines only, one machine is sufficient. You can also have one machine for the office and one for the court. Only Visa and Mastercard are accepted. Debit cards can also be used as long as they have the Visa or Mastercard logo. Transactions settled by a credit card are deposited in court bank accounts within 48 hours. Now, you are asking what this is going to cost. Supervisor Morey - Should be nothing to the Town, just to the bank, right? Justice Norman – Well the fee for the machine is $15.00 a month, $180.00 a year. One unit will handle what we want to do. There is a $2.00 monthly maintenance fee for both Visa and Mastercard. In addition, Visa, a per transaction charge of 2.11% plus 5-cents. Mastercard is 2.02% plus a 10-cent fee for each transaction. All supplies are free and a $25.00 set-up fee is waved. What this is going to do is speed up the municipality’s portion of the moneys they receive from the justice courts. A dedicated phone line is not necessary. It can run off a shared existing line. It converts all moneys into U.S. funds. Supervisor Morey – Peg, did the Village have Mastercard? Peg Palmer – Not for Court. Supervisor Morey – And I thought that there is a program someplace, at least that’s how they used to offer it, that there was no charge to the Town for using a credit card, or the bank would invoice something else. Peg Palmer – Not that we know of. As John said, this is the only game in town, the contract that the Unified Court System made with Key Bank to handle it. The fees are minimal to what normal credit card fees are. For the total yearly amount on that, it would probably cost about $210.00 a year. Supervisor Morey – Add it onto your budget right? Councilman Sovocool – Can you insist that they pay when you fine them? Justice Norman – No, we can’t. Councilman Sovocool – So, why, if they don’t do it with a credit card then, they may do the same thing they do now and just not pay for a couple of years. Justice Norman – Right. Peg Palmer – Right, but if they’ve got a credit card, you’ve got it right there. Councilman Sovocool – If they have it, but you can’t insist that they pay. Justice Norman – By credit card? No. Town Board Minutes Page 8 August 10, 2004 Peg Palmer – No, you can’t insist that they pay, whether they have a credit card or not. But at least once a night at court, somebody will ask, do you take credit cards, and we have to say no. Supervisor Morey – What’s Dryden doing and Lansing doing and Ithaca doing? Justice Norman – I’ve got that survey. Caroline Court is not taking credit cards. Cayuga Heights is not taking credit cards. Danby is not taking credit cards. Dryden is not taking credit cards but they have been talking about it. Enfield doesn’t and I didn’t get anything back from Freeville. Ithaca City Court does, plus ATM outside door. Ithaca Town Court does not. Newfield does not. Ulysses, they’ve been doing it for three or four months and say it works out very well. Supervisor Morey – If a person that you are judging had the choice of either walking out or paying by credit card, do you think the option of him paying by credit card versus walking out, that he’d pay for it with a credit card? Both Justice Norman and Peg Palmer said yes. Peg Palmer – Besides it saves us the three letters I have to mail him for the next three months to remind him to pay, which my time, postage….. Councilman Sovocool – That’s what I’m getting at. If they can go out without paying, even though they’ve got a credit card, why are they going to pay it anyway? Peg Palmer – Well, the Judge asks them, are you able to pay this tonight, and they will say, do you take credit cards? Councilman Sovocool – Well, it would be a lot easier and faster. Justice Norman – This is something we can try. Councilman Clark – That’s what I say. Why wouldn’t we try it? Some more discussion took place with everyone in agreement that it should be tried and the justices should present it at budget time. It was also discussed that the cost could not be passed on to the defendants. Supervisor Morey – The next one is the telephone system and Road Runner? Justice Norman – I can’t present anything on Road Runner. I’m not the one who did the research and Judge Dawson isn’t here. The way I feel about it is that we need a speedier Internet service, whether it be a faster service or Road Runner or whatever. I’m not a computer person. Discussion took place on the current use of the Internet and how much more will be taking place in the near future pertaining to filing reports, receiving information from various agencies, communication and research. The telephone system was also briefly discussed and the need for updated phones. Supervisor Morey warned that coming into the budget workshop with a request for Road Runner would be turned down because of the expense - $378 for one line a month, commercial. Peg Palmer said that the quote they received was $130 for 10 hook-ups, municipal rates. Town Board Minutes Page 9 August 10, 2004 Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator – We met last Tuesday. I don’t have a whole lot to report other than we’re still having trouble with the office in the school with the computer, the email, the phone system not working and you can’t communicate. I made an attempt to get on the agenda at the school board about it but you have to fill out a form now and be approved before you can speak to the board and I filed the application with the superintendent and then they review it and then they let us know if we can talk to them or not. That’s the new plan. So, we’re in the process of dealing with that. One of the concerts was cancelled due to the rain and is rescheduled next week. Terry Donlick, president of the Groton Business Association, was present to show advertisements that have been created by the Groton Business Association and produced by Time Warner Cable. The ads promote the Town and Village of Groton and show about 15 times a week on 7 local cable TV stations. After watching the videos and having some discussion it was the consensus of the Board that they would like to sponsor one month of ads. Supervisor Morey – We were going to have a discussion on a request from the McLean Community Council for school zone signs but I asked Joe and Julie Graham to write me a letter explaining what they wanted. The last meeting that they had over in McLean they had a discussion about street signs announcing the speed limit for the school because the cars are coming too fast with no regard whatsoever. We do supply a school crossing guard but she is only there during the school hours when the kids are going home and back and forth. I was hoping that they would explain exactly what they want. I think it’s a great idea if we do have something there on the Groton side to announce that there is a school there. I’m sorry I don’t have anything else other than that. Budget Workshop Session for the 2005 Budget The first was set for Thursday, September 9, 7:00PM. RESOLUTION #83 – APPROVE ZBA MEMBERS’ ATTENDANCE AT CONFERENCE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board does hereby approve the attendance of Lyle Raymond and Steve Thane, from the Zoning Board of Appeal, at the New York Planning School Conference, September 19-22 at Lake Placid, New York. RESOLUTION #84 – SUBORDINATION AGREEMENT FOR CONKLIN/ELLIOTT MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Clark, Morey RESOLVED , that the Town Board does hereby agree to a subordination agreement for the HUD Loan given to Joseph Conklin and Robin Elliott so that they may refinance. Town Board Minutes Page 10 August 10, 2004 Announcements: Groton Old Home Days – August 13-15 Groton Youth Commission Carnival – Groton Memorial Park – August 12 McLean Community Council – September 15, 7:30PM Thank you note from Bob & Christy Walpole for the use of the Town Building & Boulevard for Bikes & Blues. Pizza Fun Day – September 18 – sponsored by Groton Youth Commission – Town Board will challenge Village Board ZBA – August 10 Planning Board - August 19 Groton Business Association – September 15, 6:30PM – Elm Tree Inn – speaker will be Lee Shurtleff on 911 communication system. Next Board Meeting – September 14 There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:41PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk