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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-10-2010 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010 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 Fran Casullo, Attorney for the Town Also present: Robert Eckert, III, Sandy Swearingen, Sue Bennett, Joe Bennett, Frank Satterly, Floyd Kyes, Gary Coats, Elizabeth Brennan, Richard C. Case, Jr., April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes of the July 13, 2010 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the minutes of the July 13, 2010 emergency meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 219-241 of the General Fund in the amount of $16,557.36 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Clark, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 132-151 of the Highway Fund in the amount of$11,646.03 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Town Board Minutes Page 2 August 10, 2009 Monthly Reports: Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. There were no budget transfers needed this month. Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Explained that the roof permits, talked about last month, seem to be going well. People were at first against them but after hearing the explanation agree that they were needed. April and Robin have made a special form. Advertising has been done in the Shopper. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent - All Town intersections have been power- broomed for the second time this year. Roadside mowing is taking place daily. The drainage on Spring Street Extension has been addressed as well. The trees and brush have been cut and trimmed. This section of road had been overgrown with box elder,poplar trees and brush. Sight distance now has been greatly improved. The second portion of the Town's paving program started yesterday. Both Spring Street Extension, from Cobb Street to Townline Road, and Brown Road, from Cobb Street to Scofield Road, have been paved. Shoulders will be applied after the asphalt has had time to cure. At this time, I have two equipment purchases that require your permission and resolution. Mr. Case said there had been a request for a speed limit sign on Stevens Road. The Highway Department had put up their electronic speed monitoring sign and found that about 75 cars per day traveled the road with an average speed of 35mph. The speed monitoring sign had also been set up on Chipman Corners Road as a result of a recent accident. There is a sign located near the accident site with a suggest speed of 45mph. The average speed measured was 44mph. RESOLUTION#10-041 -APPROVE PURCHASE OF 2011 PICKUP TRUCK MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the purchase, on New York State Office of General Services Bid, a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 heavy duty pickup truck with 8-foot plow equipment for the price of$29,225.98, which will replace the 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck currently used by the Highway Department. RESOLUTION #10-042 -APPROVE SELLING 1999 PICKUP TRUCK AT AUCTION MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the selling of the Highway Department's 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck at the Municipal Auction to be held at the Lansing Highway Department on September 11, 2010. Town Board Minutes Page 3 August 10, 2009 RESOLUTION#10-043 - APPROVE PURCHASE OF MATERIAL SPREADER MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey WHEREAS, the Highway Superintendent has requested price quotes for one 14-foot air flow material spreader(sander body) with 6-foot sides, and no grates or cab hydraulic controls, and WHEREAS,the following quotes have been received: 1) From Seneca Supply Volvo for$7,220.00 2) From Tracey Road Supply for$8,145.00 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the purchase of the spreader from Seneca Supply Volvo for $7,220.00 April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly Town Clerk and Country Acres Pet Services reports for the Board's review. Olde Home Days will be August 20, 21, and 22. She and Robin are getting ready for the photography show sponsored by the Town; Country Acres will here with dogs; SPCA will be here with cats; and the Craft and Collectible Show will be in the garage. Clerk had received a letter of resignation from the Planning Board from Theresa Donlick and the Board indicated that she should advertise the position. She had given the Board copies of a resolution passed by the Town of Barker in favor of natural gas drilling. There will soon be a need to review and update the local law on dog licensing. Ag & Markets will be providing sample laws. Hunting licenses go on sale Monday, August 16. Fran Casullo, Attorney for the Town - Presented the Board with a request from Joan Portzline concerning an abandoned section at the end of Wickham Road that has not been use or maintained in decades. Ms. Portzline, as owner of the adjacent land is requesting that the section of abandoned road be turned back to them. RESOLUTION #10-044 - TRANSFER ABANDONED PORTION OF WICKHAM ROAD MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Groton has considered an application made by the law offices of Coughlin & Gerhart, LLP, on behalf of Joan M. Portzline, concerning a portion of Wickham Road which has been abandoned by the Town of Groton for well over twenty years, and WHEREAS, both the Town Highway Superintendent and the Town Code Enforcement Officer are not in opposition to transferring the abandoned portion of Wickham Road to Joan M. Portzline for no consideration , and WHEREAS, the Town of Groton's best interest would be served by transferring the abandoned portion of the road to Joan M. Portzline,now therefore, Town Board Minutes Page 4 August 10, 2009 BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town of Groton transfer the portion of real property which has been long since abandoned by the Town of Groton as a roadway, pending approval by the Attorney for the Town of all accompanying maps, descriptions and deeds, and it is FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Supervisor execute all paperwork necessary to complete this transaction. Attorney Casullo - Mr. Beck is on for a court appearance on Thursday at 2:00. Last Tuesday, Mr. Tavelli, Mr. Casullo, Mr. Eckert and Mrs. Eckert spent a couple hours at the Eckert property where an event is planned for September 11. Mr. Casullo had talked to Mr. Tavelli a little after 4:00 PM today and agreed to get back in touch tomorrow to hopefully work things out. The Town Justices were not present. Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator, had nothing to report. Privilege of the Floor: Floyd (Dusty) Kyes - I have property at 956 Salt Road, Groton, NY but I don't live there, I live at 456 Salt Road, Locke, NY. I've been in business at 956 Salt Road for 44 years. I'm now at a time when I've got to look forward to retiring because I'm of that age and I have found that the brutal truth is that I can't afford to retire and still pay the land taxes. So, instead of coming down here and crying and carrying on and talking about how tough my life is, I busted my backside and busted my chops and went ahead and tried my best to find an exit strategy. I found some people who were willing to buy my property and then invest millions of dollars on top of that to build a recycling facility that pretty much follows what I've been doing for the last 44 years and would immediately bring 12-14 jobs to Groton without any money from the Groton people, or no grants, or no special treatment or nothing. But, again, I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Board and the good folks of Peruville and especially their attorneys for figuring out a way to make one controversy everybody's controversy. Because of that, we haven't voted on the zoning that we should have voted on a long time ago. Because we haven't voted on that zoning and the zoning isn't finalized, probably my deal won't finalize either. So, when we're all done, I guess we can look at, I'll probably work until I die and Groton will look at what could have been a regional recycling facility that other towns would have come and looked and said, "wow, that's really cool, we should have had it in our town." Instead of having all those jobs, we'll be just kind of like TC3, well, really should have done that but I guess we just run them off I don't know what to tell you. I understand that the Board has a controversy and they're in a dilemma. But I guess all that doing was not my dilemma so I'll just go back up there and continue working and I won't say no more, but I appreciate you letting me speak this time. Thank you very much. Sue Bennett - I don't know what the issue is with Dusty but it makes me feel really bad that something can't be fixed, I guess, to accommodate whatever he's doing, that I don't see why the proposed code being held up is holding up something that he wants to do, but that would be between the Board and him. So, I'm here to ask where is the Board at with the draft proposal that our attorney sent last month, that it's my understanding from our attorney that he hasn't, at least this is my understanding, Fran, that he hasn't heard if the Board is in agreement and if that's going to.. Town Board Minutes Page 5 August 10, 2009 Supervisor Morey - I reported back to our lawyer to report to your lawyer. It's under litigation, Sue. Attorney Casullo started to speak but corrected himself and said that Ms. Bennett had privilege of the floor. Sue Bennett - So, the question is, is there ever going to come an agreement between the Board and the proposed proposal? Attorney Casullo - Well I, well, first of all, that's directed to the Board. I'm not going to get involved. I can tell you this, Glenn, I spoke to Mr. Tavelli as recently as less than four hours ago on this matter. We have agreed that, both of us have agreed on the course of action we should take. Now, I don't know, and quite frankly this is starting to get to be extremely frustrating to me because I'm telling you, we spoke at 4:00 this afternoon and we both agreed on the course of action to be taken. Sue Bennett - So, he told me that the course of action was that for this year's festival to do a stipulation and that you and he had talked about that, he's going to write something and get that back to you. That's my understanding. And then my understanding from him is that I don't know where you're at with the Board, if the Board liked what was written or not and if there's an agreement there. Attorney Casullo - I can tell you this. We've gone over it with Glenn. The agreement is to try to resolve this issue, with also having Mr. Eckert's input and then moving on to wrapping up this mass gatherings issue which is the only issue that is left in tying up this code. But it's a little difficult to try to handle both ends right now, when you're trying to work with the code because you have to understand something: even if we have this mass gatherings all put together we still have to deal with some procedures that are going to take a few months. We've had this discussion. Mr. Tavelli has agreed and Mr. Eckert, although he's not here but I believe his son is, that the better course of action is to wrap up this issue and then move on to the mass gatherings definition. Sue Bennett - So, what's this issue, because I'm not clear on the issue. Attorney Casullo - The issue is apparently trying to get some resolution with Mr. Eckert on this September 11th event. We had this conversation with Mr. Tavelli at 4:00. He agreed. That's the most I can tell you. He agreed that should be the path we should take. Sue Bennett - So, can I put it in lay-person's terms, see if I understand it. Mr. Eckert goes by whatever rules you come up with? Is that the lay-person's understanding? Attorney Casullo - I never said that. When did I say that? Sue Bennett - No, I'm trying to get an understanding of what this is. You said this and this doesn't mean anything without a definition. Attorney Casullo - Well, to be perfectly honest with you, Mrs. Bennett, one of the things, and I really don't want to get into it too much, but Mr. Eckert has agreed to try to meet with everybody to see if we could reach some common ground. I've always been more than willing to meet with Mr. Eckert. Mr. Tavelli went up last week and I thought, to be perfectly honest with you, we had Town Board Minutes Page 6 August 10, 2009 a pretty productive session. When Paul and I drove back down here, Paul drove me up and we met here, I thought we were moving along in the right direction to getting all of this resolved and then moving on to the mass gathering definition. That's the best I can tell you. Sue Bennett - Well, I don't understand then from you or then, obviously Paul, or from the Board, what do you think you're resolving? I don't understand Glenn. I don't understand where this is at then. Supervisor Morey - Well, Sue, we're not going to talk about this because it is handled by our lawyer and your lawyer. You took the course that you've hired a lawyer. That's your choice. And that's what we're paying Fran to do, is work for our benefit, as well as you hired your lawyer for your benefit. So, I have no comment. Sue Bennett - I would like to make the statement then to the Board, and to Mr. Casullo, that we're not against Mr. Eckert having a festival and you know that. That's been said here before. We just want it to be within the constraints of what everyone has worked so hard to come up with. That's what we've been working on. That's where I thought we were at. Apparently not. Thank you. RESOLUTION #10-045 - PLANNING BOARD MEMBERS TO ATTEND CONFERENCE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the payment of expenses for Planning Board Members Lyle Raymond and Steve Thane to attend the New York State Planning Federation Conference in Lake Placid, September 26 - 28, 2010. RESOLUTION #10-046 - COURT CLERK TO ATTEND CONFERENCE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the payment of expenses for the Court Clerk, Cindy Vicedomini to attend the New York State Association of Magistrates Court Clerks Conference in Albany, October 10 - 13, 2010. Supervisor Morey - There are no work sessions to plan. There are some issues though. Fran, can we put a limit on when we solve this mass gathering because it is holding up a lot of things in the Town? Attorney Casullo - Yes... Supervisor Morey- Because I'm ready to just throw it out of the plan. Town Board Minutes Page 7 August 10, 2009 Attorney Casullo - I was hoping that we were going to have this resolved this month and then move on. The biggest issue is once you get the mass gatherings the way you want it, then the code is in its final form. Then the code has to get noticed to the proper people and you have to notice it to the proper entities for the SEQR purposes. So, it's going take a couple months unless you have some special meetings. My goal is to get this thing squared away and get it done by, hopefully, the November meeting. Supervisor Morey-Everything? Attorney Casullo - Yes. Mr. Kyes - Is there any chance of severing the mass gatherings from the rest of it? Supervisor Morey - That's what I'm saying. If we don't resolve this by August 30th that we just take it out and go from there. Attorney Casullo - Yes, you could try to do that. It was the goal not to do that because the goal was to combine everything in one. You know what we have now. We have many different laws and the goal was to combine. Let me see what I can do by the end of the month. Supervisor Morey- Okay, then we'll make a decision next month. RESOLUTION #10-047 -MAKE DONATION TO OLDE HOME DAYS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves a donation to the 2010 Groton Olde Home Days celebration in the amount of$900.00 to help cover the cost of the port-a-johns. Announcements: ➢ Groton Olde Home Days - August 20, 21, & 22 ➢ Verne Morton Memorial Photography Show & Contest-here -August 21 &22 ➢ Planning Board-August 19 at 7:30 PM ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals -August 25 at 7:00 PM There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:04 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk