Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-06-13TOWN OF GROTON — MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, JUNE 139 2017 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Those present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Richard Gamel, Councilperson Kelly Smith, Councilperson Randy N. Jackson, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town Also present: Lance Coit, Isabella Cueller, Hanna Grisnoue, Glenn Morey, Laurie Konwinski, W. Rick Fritz, Richard Case, Jr., April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilperson Smith, seconded by Councilperson Jackson, to approve the minutes of the, May 9, 2017 meeting as presented. Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler. Vouchers numbered 230-281 in the total amount of $325,419.79 were presented to the Board for their review. Vouchers for the General Fund in the amount of $55,884.33 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Smith, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler. Vouchers for the Highway Fund in the amount of $269,535.46 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Jackson, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler. Supervisor Scheffler - Before we have monthly reports I do want to say thank you to the Bicentennial Committee, April, Kelly, and everyone who was involved in it. It was a fantastic program; you did a great job; and thank you very much. Monthly Reports: Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper - Was not present, but had submitted monthly reports for the Board's review and requested a budget transfer. Town Board Minutes Page 2 June 13, 2017 RESOLUTION #17-035 - 2017 BUDGET TRANSFER MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby authorizes the following 2017 Budget Transfer for the purpose of adding the 2017 Cat Excavator and 2017 Chevrolet to the insurance policy: General Fund - Town Wide: From: Contingency, A1990.4 ......................................$2,071.00 To: Unallocated Insurance, Contractual, A1910.4 ............ 2,071.00 Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #17-036 - 2017 BUDGET TRANSFER MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Jackson RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby authorizes the following 2017 Budget Transfer for the purpose of paying the annual service charge to Tyco for the alarm system: General Fund - Town Wide: From: Contingency, A1990.4 ........................... $2,611.46 To: Buildings, Alarm System, A 1620.41............ 2,611.46 Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Everything is going pretty good. With the rain letting up, people are able to get some work done out there. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent - I want to report that Gary Scutt has retired and Joe Graham will be retiring within the next few weeks. As of July 1, Luke Kniskern will be the Deputy Highway Superintendent, and I would like a resolution in support of that. Chuck and I have talked and we have not updated our job classifications and we are working on getting them from the County. With Joe and Gary retiring, I want to move some of the younger guys up but I want to make sure that the classifications that they move into are updated. The NYSDEC fuel tanks have been recertified. This is done every seven years and there is a $500.00 fee, which you saw in the vouchers. Luke worked with the PESH inspector and corrected a few things that they saw at their previous inspection. The paperwork is updated and on file. I'd like to do the highway tour for those of you that have time to show you last year's projects and what we have coming up. After some discussion, it was decided to do the highway tour on Monday, June 19, at 8:30 am. RESOLUTION #17-031 - APPOINT DEPUTY HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby supports the appointment of Luke Kniskern as Deputy Highway Superintendent of the Town of Groton Highway Department. Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Town Board Minutes Page 3 June 13, 2017 April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Our event on Saturday went pretty well. We have a lot of people to thank, including you guys, for supporting us in everything that we've done. The Village DPW, Village Police, Fire Department, school, church, etc, a lot of people who helped out. We have a lot of people to thank and send notes out to. I think that everyone who came enjoyed it. I have to do the grant report and get that sent in. Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report. John J. Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices - Were not present. Councilperson Kelly Smith as Representative to Joint Youth Program - Audit binders are ready for distribution. We moved our July meeting to the July 31 St and will combine the July and August meeting. Spring sports are winding down. Spring track kept getting rained out so they never got to have their youth track meet with Dryden and Trumansburg. After three times, they decided to cancel. Youth softball and baseball is ending and the summer travel season is beginning. That is a competitive league so there are tryouts and sometimes we have complaints about that. There will be the new fire academy which is really popular and looks like it is going to fill up. Basketball camp is down this year. One of the summer concerts has changed and on August 4th they will have "New Cross Country" instead of "Prison City Rockers." On the 4th of July they are having "DJ Kelly." All the lifeguards have been hired at the pool. The pool inspection was yesterday and if they passed they will open on June 22nd. They installed the new grates in the pool and the park is looking really good for this year. Glenn Morey, County Legislator - I'd like to thank April, Kelly, Rose, Robin, and Betty for putting on a magnificent event on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, a great sunny day, and I couldn't ask for anything better than what you did. Clerk Scheffler - Thank you for volunteering your help. Mr. Morey - We did have a Facilities and Infrastructure meeting today and Sheldon's Groton City Road is going to be done this year. Champlin Road has gotten the drainage done already, so everything should be paved by August. I did talk to Jeff Smith and when he is checking the Red Mill Bridge in Freeville, he is going to take a ride down Salt Road and check it. Supervisor Scheffler - I promised I would report on the shared services initiative. We've been meeting two times a month and we're looking into possibly training schools for the boards that we could do so we don't have to travel so far and we can get some classes locally. We're petitioning to try to get some credit for the Health Insurance Consortium. We're saving $5 million a year countywide and we don't get any credit for that because it was started before the Governor's proposal. But it doesn't seem fair that any new town that joins gets credit for it. We did the work, but they get the credit for it. So, we're having talks with the State on that. We have to have three public hearings and the first one is June 21St at 5:30 pm in the County Legislator chambers. If anyone has any suggestions, please come and bring them up. Mr. Morey - Yes, there are a lot of things being looked at: sharing software, etc. There's another one, April, and that's hiring BOCES to do the taxes. When Joe told me about that, I told him he should make a presentation to the Town Clerks before doing anything. He hasn't yet. Supervisor Scheffler - We talked to BOCES and they came and told us how they do different things, like taxes with the schools. We discussed that some. My comment was that there would probably be violence if we did the taxes. Mr. Morey - That's why I brought it up. I thought you should know Clerk Scheffler - They've brought it up before, that's why they don't dare contact the Town Clerks. Town Board Minutes Page 4 June 13, 2017 Mr. Morey - When we got together and formed TCCOG, there was list of things we wanted to do and one of them was health insurance and because our health insurance at that time was around $135,000.00 a year and after we joined it, it was $85,000.00 for the exact same plans. We got equal for less. So, we've been doing this. We've been sharing. I know Rick shares equipment throughout the County and that's a saving. We don't have much else to look at. Supervisor Scheffler - We've determined that there's not a whole lot left that we can do. We've been doing it for years. Mr. Morey - And the software issue is three years old but no one wanted to move on it. Clerk Scheffler - I can tell you that from our experience, the public is not real thrilled with the BOCES tax collection. There is no one that will answer their questions, so we end up going online and looking up things and trying to answer their questions for them. BOCES doesn't answer questions and if you want to pay in person, the bank doesn't answer questions. It's hard on the public. We're supposed to be public servants. Supervisor Scheffler - I suggested that maybe we could collect the taxes here and save the school some money because they pay BOCES for it. Clerk Scheffler - Technically, I think that's what the law says, that if the school doesn't want to do it that the Town Clerk has to. Not that I want more work, but at least we would take care of the people. Discussion took place on commercial green energy production, which is listed as allowed in our land use code, but with no guidelines to govern the installation of these facilities. A moratorium of 180 days was proposed to give the board time to decide how they would like to update the code to include commercial green energy. The intent is not to block commercial green energy facilities, only to have some control over where they are placed, their size, what happens when they live out their usefulness, etc. Councilperson Smith thought that they should not just target commercial green energy, but address all commercial energy production. The Board agreed with that and the needed edits will be made to the proposed moratorium. RESOLUTION #17-038 - SET DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED LOCAL LAW #3 FOR THE YEAR 2017 MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby sets a public hearing for July 11, 2017 at 8:00 pm as part of their regular monthly meeting for the purpose of receiving comment on Proposed Local Law #3 for the Year 2017 entitled, "Moratorium for the Establishment of Commercial Energy Facilities in the Town of Groton for a Period of One Hundred Eighty (180) Days." Ayes - Gamel, Smith, Jackson, Clark, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Privilege of the Floor: Laurie Konwinski, Deputy Director of Catholic Charities for Tompkins & Tioga Counties - This is Catholic Charity's 20th anniversary in Tompkins County. Ms. Konwinski was there to let the Board know what services they provided. They are currently serving 66 households with Groton addresses in one way or another. They also provide support for the Groton Food Pantry. She invited everyone to an open house on July 18th from 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm at their offices at 224 West Buffalo Street in Ithaca. Town Board Minutes Page S June 13, 2017 Lance Coit, Fire Chief - Thanked the Board for their support of the Groton Fire Department and also thanked the Bicentennial Committee for the job they did on the recent Bicentennial event. He said he understands what goes into an event like that and that they had put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it, and pulled off an amazing event. All of the history on Groton was great. Calls have remained steady with more crime related calls than they used to get. They have just recently graduated one refresher, himself, and two new EMT's. It was a 6 -month process, 212 hours of classes. They all graduated at the top of the class with scores in the 90's. July 1 St is the annual fire works at the Elementary School. The Fire Department might have something new that we do this year, but will keep it hidden until then. They will be doing a Junior Fire Fighting Camp for the Recreation Department with no charge to the campers as a way to give back to the community. Starting on July 17, Monday will be a scavenger hunt dressed like a firefighter and ropes and knots; Tuesday will be smokehouse bucket brigade drill; Wednesday will be Tompkins County Dispatch, how to be a dispatcher and trucks and equipment; and Thursday will be a water ball tournament and dinner with the firefighters. They are planning on about 100 kids and will supplying a Groton Fire Department T -Shirt, bracelets that will identify one of the three companies, and a water bottle. A week later they will be participating in National Night Out. They will also be doing food at the Legion during Olde Home Days. Announcements: ➢ Planning Board - June 15, 2017 at 7:30 pm ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals - June 21, 2017 at 7:00 pm ➢ Shared Services Public Hearing - June 21, 2017 at 5:30 pm in the Tompkins County Legislature Chambers ➢ Barnstormers Concert - July 8, 2017 at 7:30 pm at Groton Community Church ➢ McLean's Mystery History Series - Rural Schools - July 11, 2017 at 7:00 pm at McLean Fire Station ➢ Next Board Meeting - July 11, 2017 at 7:30 pm ➢ Highway Tour - June 19, 2017 at 8:30 pm There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Clark, at 8:42 pm. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk