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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-02-13 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, FEBURARY 13, 2007 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Richard B. Gamel, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Victoria Monty,Attorney for the Town Also present: Barbara Clark, Lyle Raymond, Tom Tylutki, Dennis Toolan, Chuck Rankin, Robert Walpole, Tina Wright, John Norman, Richard C. Case, Jr., April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the minutes of the January 9, 2007 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbersl4-62 of the General Fund in the amount of $250,013.04 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 2-15 of the Highway Fund in the amount of$26,420 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Gamel, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 57-63 of the Special Grant (HUD) Fund in the amount of $26,420.05 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the HUD bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Town Board Minutes Page 2 February 13, 2007 Privilege of the Floor: Lyle Raymond, Chair ZBA — I have Tom Tylutki with me here tonight, a member of our Board. He has been engaged in a very interesting endevour that relates to the possibility of in- service training for the Planning Board and the ZBA. We discussed it at our meeting that we had last week and we thought we should bring it before you to explain what Tom is doing. So, I think with that, I will turn it over to Tom. Tom Tylutki — I've been on the ZBA for a few years now and due to scheduling conflicts, was not able to fulfill my training obligations last year. At the end of December I did start looking around on the New York State Planning Federation website for some potential online training courses and I actually downloaded it in December to start looking through it. For those of you who are not aware of it, the State passed a new law last year that went into effect the first of January this year requiring all the ZBAs and Planning Boards to have continuing education annually, four hours, with exceptions for municipalities greater than a million inhabitants and local municipalities could still override that with their own requirements. So, we think because of that new law this is actually a joint development between the Planning Federation, the Land Use Law Center at Pace University and New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal that developed a pretty intense online training program. It actually consists of ten tutorials of which there are quizzes attached to each one. To get the answers to the quizzes you actually have to register on the website so that they know who is participating in it. The total is up to ten continuing education units. Mr. Tylutki and Mr. Raymond thought that this could be used as an in-house training session for the ZBA and Planning Board with Mr. Tylutki being the trainer. He brought a few tutorials to show the Board. Supervisor Morey asked what the cost is and Mr. Tylutki said that there was none. The Board thought this would be a good idea and told Mr. Tylutki to coordinate with the Planning Board and that it would be the decision of both boards themselves. Mr. Raymond explained that he felt it was time to step down as Chair of the ZBA after serving for over 20 years. It had been discussed at their meeting and was decided that perhaps for this year he and Steve Thane could co-chair the ZBA. Supervisor Morey expressed the Board's gratitude to Mr. Raymond for his help, volunteerism and dedication to the Town. RESOLUTION#07-015—APPOINT CO-CHAIRS OF ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby appoints Lyle Raymond and Steven Thane as co- chairs of the Town of Groton Zoning Board of Appeals. Town Board Minutes Page 3 February 13, 2007 RESOLUTION#07-016—APPOINT CHAIR& VICE CHAIR OF PLANNING BOARD MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Morey Abstain—Clark RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby appoints Barbara Clark as Chair and Edward Neuhauser as Vice Chair of the Town of Groton Planning Board. RESOLUTION #07-017—2006 BUDGET TRANSFERS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2006 Budget Transfers: General Fund Town Wide: From: Contingency A1990.4 .$2,144.41 Engineer, Contractual A1440.4 710.62 To: Insurance A1910.4 179.00 Justice, Equipment A1110.2.1 139.93 Building, Contractual A1620.4 .1,536.10 RESOLUTION#07- 018—ENCUMBRANCES PLACED IN 2007 BUDGET MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the following encumbrances to be placed in the 2007 Budget: General Fund Town Wide: Engineer, Contractual A1440.4 .$15,000.00 (For Consultant Fees) Highway Fund Town Wide: Machinery, Equipment DA5130.2 $75,684.00 (Snow Plow Equipment) Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer — Was absent but had submitted his monthly report for the Board's review. Town Board Minutes Page 4 February 13, 2007 Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent—We're dedicated to snow and ice removal in the Highway Department. Repairs and painting has been taking place in the Town building. I met with the County Engineer, John Lampman and County Superintendent, Bill Sczesny, in regards to Spring Street Bridge. The headwalls were going to be checked to see if we can use them. They will need some restoration, which will add to the total cost but it is still considerably cheaper than the removal of the complete headwalls and the replacement. Right now the cost is $530,000. The last time they were here, if we didn't have to do anything with the headwalls, it was $475,000 and previously to that, with total removal it was over $700,000. So, it's still a savings. I've been assured by Bill Sczesny that the structure itself, even though it is old school, it exceeds what would probably be put back in there. The Town's portion of that would be $53,000 and the County hopes to put the project out to bid in April with a 2007 completion. I have a copy of the municipal agreement that they would like to have signed before they go any further. I see no problem with it except on the back page, the sidewalks, those are the Village's responsibilities. Mr. Case thought that John Lampman was going to be at the meeting to present this but he was not. Mr. Case thought that as soon as the agreement was signed, they would move forward. Supervisor Morey asked for clarification of what parts of the bridge would stay. Mr. Case explained that the headwalls would stay. They would re-form around the top portion of them and drill into the existing headwalls to tie the new concrete into them. The new decking would then set on new concrete. There was no plan to dredge the creek because of gas, water and sewer lines. Councilman Gamel questioned the strength of the headwalls and Mr. Case explained that they had already been drilled and tested and the existing structure is sound. The additions to them will pretty much guarantee a 30-year structure. It will be closed off through the summer. Attorney Monty was given a copy of the agreement to review. The Highway Department had received and award from the Groton Fire Department in appreciation for services to the Fire Department during 2006. Mr. Case wanted to express to the Board that this was also their award for without the support of the Board the Highway Department could not provide these services. April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector — Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. First installments of taxes had been returned to the County. The Village Clerk had talked to Clerk Scheffler and Judge Dawson about the Village of Groton Court records. Since there no longer is a Village Court he wondered if the Town would be willing to take over these records. As Records Management Officer, Clerk Scheffler felt that it would be appropriate for the Town to take custody of the records and have all Groton Court records housed in one location. Supervisor Morey asked how many records there were and if we had room for them. Clerk Scheffler said there were 10-12 docket books and about 20 boxes, but there were a lot of contents of the boxes that could be destroyed. The Board decided to wait to make a resolution until they had a formal resolution from the Village. Clerk Scheffler told the Board that information had been received pertaining to the 2010 Census and that the Clerk's Office will be participating as they did in 2000. She would be attending a training session on February 28. She also asked for the Board to approve payment of expenses for the annual Town Clerks convention. Town Board Minutes Page 5 February 13, 2007 RESOLUTION#07-019 —TOWN CLERK TO ATTEND CONFERENCE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves paying expenses for the Town Clerk to attend the Annual New York State Town Clerks Association Conference, April 29 — May 2, 2007, in Rochester,New York. Victoria Monty,Attorney for the Town—Had nothing to report. John Norman, Town Justice — Town Justices had submitted their monthly report for the Board's review. Justice Norman inquired as to whether the Board would approve additional hours for June Shepardson, who is working part time while the Court Clerk is out on medical leave. Consensus of the Board was that this would be okay. RESOLUTION #07-020—EXTEND FULL TIME HOURS FOR COURT CLERK MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby extends the full time Court Clerk hours to 7 hours a day(35 hours a week). Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator — Winterfest is this Saturday, February 17 for 10 to 4 at the Elementary School. There's a lot of activities going on and will be a fun day for everybody. I'll be again doing the chicken barbeque with marshmallow chickens and Home Depot will be there. Supervisor Morey asked about the public hearing fees for the coffee house. Barb Clark, Planning Board Chair, explained that it was advertising fees for the public hearing on the drive thru coffee shop. Since the applicant had already paid advertising fees for a public hearing and then were required to come back for a second hearing, the Planning Board felt that they should not have pay another advertising fees. RESOLUTION#07-021 —WAIVE PUBLIC HEARING FEES MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby waives the advertising fee for the second public hearing dealing with site plan review submitted by Dawn Little for a drive thru coffee shop. Town Board Minutes Page 6 February 13, 2007 Robert Walpole was there representing the McLean Fire District. They are in the process of applying for a boundary line change to combine three parcels of property into one. He was asking the Board to waive the fee for this since both the Fire District and the Town are taxing authorities. RESOLUTION#07-022 —WAIVE APPLICATION FEE FOR MCLEAN FIRE DISTRICT MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby waives the application fee for the McLean Fire District for a boundary line change. MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to enter into Executive Session with Bob Walpole, Mayor Toolan, Chuck Rankin, Clerk Scheffler, Rick Case and Victoria Monty, to discuss real estate transactions, at 8:08 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel to return to Regular Session at 8:26 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Supervisor Morey—Let the record show that this was just for information only and no decisions were made. Announcements: ➢ Planning Board, January 18 at 7pm ➢ Zoning Review Committee, March 1 at 7:30 pm ➢ 2007 Association of Towns Training, February 18-21 in NYC ➢ Winterfest, February 17, 10 am—4 pm There being no further business Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:27 pm. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk