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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-09-2009 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2009 AT 7:30 PM PUBLIC HEARING - DRAFT ZONING - AT 7:45 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: Dewey Dawson, John Norman, Gary Coats, Janice Haines, Rosemarie Tucker, Donald Palmer, Chris Norman, Terry Donlick, Matt Cooper, Lyle Raymond, George Frantz, Monica Carey, Mary Gloster, Charles Westlake, Phil Martinez, April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the minutes of the May 12, 2007 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 81-104 of the Highway Fund in the amount of$93,482.33 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 151-181 of the General Fund in the amount of$20,588.67 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Supervisor Morey offered Privilege of the Floor but no one wished to speak at this time. Town Board Minutes Page 2 June 9, 2009 Monthly Reports: Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/ Highway Clerk - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. There were no budget transfers for this month. Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. There had been a lot of complaint work. The Perkins house has been burnt down by the Fire Department and they have a permit to rebuild. There will also be a new house across the road from the Perkins house, on the triangle lot. Richard C. Case,Jr., Highway Superintendent - Was not present. April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's Review. I would like to thank everyone here, Glenn, the Board, all of the office people and the highway guys for their support and caring during Debbie's illness and passing. I have appreciated it more than you can know. Gary and Debbie also told me many times how very much it meant to both of them. Stacie Vance, a former summer youth worker, came in and worked for the month of May. She was a big help for both my office and Gary Coats and our thanks go out to her. Robin Cargian started working last Monday and hit the ground running with a barrage of dog licenses from the moment we opened until almost noon. She stepped into a rather difficult situation, during a really bad week, but has not flinched and met every challenge with a smile. She has already proven to have ample ability, good ideas, lots of energy and is a good fit for our team. I have appointed her as Deputy Clerk and I am asking that you pass a resolution to pay her. We have issued 316 new dog licenses since the beginning of the enumeration. The Enumerator is wrapping things up. We have mailed letters to most of the people who were found to have unlicensed dogs and will be doing the follow-up and ticket writing as soon as we start to get caught up with some of the other office work.. Supervisor Morey congratulated Clerk Scheffler for being nominated to the General Code's Municipal Clerks Honor Roll for 2009. RESOLUTION #09-041 -APPOINT DEPUTY TOWN CLERK MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the appointment of Robin Cargian as Deputy Town Clerk and sets the wage at $13.00 per hour, effective June 1, 2009. Victoria Monty,Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report. Town Board Minutes Page 3 June 9, 2009 John Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Judge Norman told the Board that they remained busy. Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator - The summer programs are planned and the brochures are printed. We are sponsoring archery, tennis, golf, basketball, horseback riding, soccer, karate, musical instrument fundamentals, scrapbooking, dance and arts and crafts at the pool for the kids and a scrapbooking class for adults and a photography class for adults. The Memorial Park pool opens June 26th; swim lessons start June 29th. The summer concerts are all set and scheduled for Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 pm from July 9th to August 20th. We're also sponsoring a band at the Firemen's fireworks show at the Elementary School, Friday July 3rd. There are some ads around Town that had the fireworks at the High School but they are at the Elementary School. Announcements: ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals, June 24, at 7:00 PM ➢ Planning Board, June 18, 7:30 PM ➢ Emergency Preparedness meeting, June 10, 4:00 PM at the High School District Office ➢ Auditors will be here the week of June 15. Discussion took place on the proposed Tompkins County Health Care Consortium. Supervisor Morey pointed out highlights on how the Consortium would be administered. There would be an estimated 27.8% saving on health insurance for the Town of Groton. Savings would vary among the municipalities, depending on their current plans, and some would actually be paying more. Full participation is needed for the process to continue and it is not known at this time how many municipalities will agree to join. RESOLUTION #09-042 -AUTHORIZATION TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE GREATER TOMPKINS COUNTY HEALTH CARE CONSORTIUM FOR NEW YORK STATE SHARED MUNICIPAL SERVICE PROGRAM MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey WHEREAS, the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) is comprised of all the municipalities in Tompkins County, and WHEREAS, the Town of Groton is a member of the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG), and WHEREAS, in 2007, the County, on behalf of TCCOG, accepted an incentive grant award under the New York State Shared Municipal Services Program, and WHEREAS, the grant's purpose is to assist the municipalities in Tompkins County create a local municipal health insurance consortium, and Town Board Minutes Page 4 June 9, 2009 WHEREAS, the Health Insurance Consortium will develop health benefits coverage for all participating municipalities with the intent to provide a net savings to the taxpayers of Tompkins County, and WHEREAS, TCCOG encourages the signature of an inter-municipal agreement by TCCOG members, now therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Groton hereby authorizes, Glenn E. Morey, Town Supervisor, to execute an inter-municipal agreement, effective January 1, 2010, with the Greater Tompkins County Health Insurance Consortium for the New York State Shared Municipal Services Program, contingent upon the Town Board's review and approval of the final draft of said agreement. PUBLIC HEARING DRAFT TOWN OF GROTON LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT CODE OF 2009 Supervisor Morey opened the Public Hearing at 7:45 PM. The Legal Notice was read by the Clerk as published in the Town's legal paper, the Groton Independent, on June 3, 2009. Supervisor Morey invited people to speak. Lyle Raymond said he came to listen tonight to see what other folks have to think about it. Matt Cooper asked if anything had changed since the last time he had seen it. Supervisor Morey - I believe the Town Board started off on page one and ended up on page 151 with what we did. I know George brought up some issues and is going to write a letter to the Board.....about special permits... George Frantz - I will I apologize for that. I transferred the "SP" from the original table to the new one. Supervisor Morey - The special permit issues that we have are junkyards, cemeteries, sexually oriented business, manufactured home parks and mining, which we had before. I think the only thing we added was high density housing. George Frantz - My problem was, in the draft zoning ordinance submitted to the Board, "SP" stood for special permits. In the new table "SP" stands for site plan approval and the source of my confusion. Matt Cooper (not using microphone) asked something about changes. Supervisor Morey - I don't believe so, there have been changes from the original 1992 document. We could start off on page one but I don't think anyone really wants to do that. There is a colored map in here to show what we are doing. I hope all the section numbers are correct and the references back to the sections are correct. Board, do you have anything to say? This has been probably a three-year project right now. Town Board Minutes Page 5 June 9, 2009 Monica Carey - Could you tell me a couple of things that the Board did change in there? I haven't really had time to really go through the whole document. Supervisor Morey - You know, Lyle also asked if I could show the changes from the original that the committee came up with and what we did. I wish I had thought about it before, but I didn't. Ms. Carey asked a question about the difference from the first draft, but was not using microphone. Supervisor Morey responded that he wished he could remember that but just couldn't do it. He asked the Board if they could remember anything specific. Councilman Scheffler said there was nothing specific, wording here and there. Ms. Carey - I see you put in different types of subdivisions, a level one and level two. I mean, we didn't even, on our board, we didn't even discuss anything on subdivisions. Gary Coats - We spent a lot of time (not using microphone) our basic goal in all of that was to go over it and write it so it's exactly how the Planning Board operates. There were some procedural things in there, for example, we cut out a meeting where a site plan conference would come in. The way it was, the applicant would come to the Planning Board to find out what kind of subdivision it would be. That was changed to eliminate that meeting and throw it back to me to determine the type of subdivision and then go to the Planning Board. That was just to speed up the process. Ms. Carey- So are we going to have new applications? Gary Coats - We will have to alter some of the applications. We did add another section on operating permits, which is a fairly new requirement from the State. It deals with any place of public assembly with more than 100 people. It deals with storage of hazardous materials, pyrotechnic shows, and things like that. We will have to come up with a form for that. Supervisor Morey asked if there were any other comments. He said that there would be a second public hearing in July as well as the State Environmental Review procedure. Then it would be approved and become our code. Someone asked if Mr. Morey thought the second public hearing would be as well attended as this one. Mr. Morey said he hoped so. This first one was to find out if anyone had any problems or issues. That was why he had emailed copies to everyone and had the draft printed. Copies had also been given to local real estate people and the Groton IDA. They did not want it to be the Town Board's code regulations but to have as much input as possible because this is going to be the Town's code regulations. Right now our Planning Board and ZBA work like a fine tuned watch. The procedures that they have worked out over several years are very smooth. When people come into meetings with the Planning Board or ZBA, they know exactly what's required of them to get things passed and move forward. We really didn't want to hurt that process and we wanted to keep on supporting our boards. Some of the issues we had with the special permits, we took that away from the Planning Board, because it's more an issue that might be a political issue that you shouldn't be involved with, but you should pass it on to the Town Board. That's why we added high density housing and things like that. Lyle Raymond - I might say that looking at the land use table here, you can't help but be impressed with the "SPs" splattered all over the pages. Whatever they stand for, whether it's Town Board Minutes Page 6 June 9, 2009 special permit or site plan review, someone is going to be awfully busy.....(not using microphone).....some of them just being allowable by right and be taken care of by Gary. If all of this goes through, sometimes I wonder, what are you trying to do, put Gary out of a job or something? I think what we need is a clarification of the use of the term"SP" on here. Supervisor Morey - There is, right here. It says site plan and special permit is "TBSP"; page 58; right after the map. Monica Carey- So the Planning Board won't be doing any special permits,just subdivisions? Councilman Gamel - There are very few special permits listed here: cemeteries, commercial excavation/mining,junkyards, high density housing. Everything else is a site plan as opposed to a special permit. Page 58 and 59, and then there's also sexually oriented businesses on page 60 that goes to special permit. Honestly, that was the goal of this, so that you wouldn't be put in a position where you had to make a decision on those kinds of things. That's why there are very few special permits listed. On page 52, as well, Section 302, Land Use Activities, each one is listed and defined. Mr. Morey asked everyone to "do their homework" and said that if they had any questions they could contact him, the Clerk, Mr. Coats, or any member of the Board. Supervisor Morey moved to close the Public Hearing, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, at 8:05 PM. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Supervisor Morey moved to schedule a Work Session on the Draft Code, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, for Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 6:00 PM at the Town Hall. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:06 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk