HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-02-09 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 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
Victoria Monty, Attorney for the Town
Also present: Steve Simons, Donna Simons,Nick Babel, Kurt Parker, Jay Franklin, Tom
Nyman, Pat Nyman, Sandi Swearingen, Sue Bennett, Joe Bennett, Dave
Kimbrough, Caralina Kimbrough, Robert Eckert, Tommy Lobdell,
Katherine Wolf, Peter Clark, Hugh Keegan, Carol Keegan, Lori Gardner,
Melody Scheffler, Barb Just, Gary Coats, Elizabeth Brennan, April
Scheffler.
MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the minutes
of the January 12, 2010 meeting as presented.
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey.
Claim Numbers 21-51 of the General Fund in the amount of $71,170.03 were presented for
audit.
MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the General
Bills for payment.
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey.
Claim Numbers 2-24 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $38,988.80 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.
Monthly Reports:
Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk - Submitted monthly report and requested
2009 Budget Transfers and Encumbrances. At the close of the 2009 books, $86,417 is still
Town Board Minutes Page 2 February 9, 2010
outstanding from the loan that was given to Diversified. The accounting books will show that
2% or$1,728 of the loan is deemed to be uncollectable.
RESOLUTION#10-013 - 2009 BUDGET TRANSFER
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2009 Budget Transfers:
General Fund- Town Wide:
From: Contingency A1990.4 $4,821.56
To: Deputy Clerk, Dogs A3510.12 50.63
To: Personnel, Personal Services A1430.1 60.01
To: Buildings, Contractual A1620.4 4,210.92
To: Attorney, Contractual A1420.47 ...500.00
RESOLUTION #10-014 - 2009 BUDGET TRANSFER
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2009 Budget Transfers:
General Fund-Part Town:
From: Contingency B1990.4 $30.38
To: Deputy Clerk, Planning B8020.12 30.38
RESOLUTION#10-015 - 2009 BUDGET TRANSFER
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2009 Budget Transfers:
Highway Fund- Town Wide:
From: Snow Removal, Sick Time DA5142.12 .$668.82
To: Machinery, Personal Service DA5130.1 ..668.82
From: Services Other Governments, Contractual Da5148.4....$98,999.00
To: Machinery, Equipment DA5130.2 98.999.00
Town Board Minutes Page 3 February 9, 2010
RESOLUTION#10-016 -ENCUMBRANCES TO 2010 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 from the 2009
Budget to the 2010 Budget:
1) Adjust encumbrance DA5130.2 for Tractor/Broom from $127,000.00 to $93,944.96
2) Place encumbrance DA5130.2 for Loader: $157,294.00
Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Apologized for not having a monthly report;
will include it with next month. Mr. Coats had sent a letter out to farmers offering to do a safety
inspection of their farming operations in an effort to help prevent fires. He had heard back from
one farm, the Fouts Farm, and had done an inspection for them.
Richard C. Case,Jr.,Highway Superintendent -Was not present.
April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for Tax Collector,
Town Clerk and Country Acres Pet Services.
Victoria Monty,Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report.
John Norman and A. D. Dawson - Town Justices, were not present.
Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator - Winterfest was held last Saturday
at the Elementary School. The dogsled rides and demonstration was a big hit and we thank Roy
Smith for coming down again for that. I would like to thank Rick Neville for bringing his
antique sleds and also Glenn and Rick for helping judge the toboggan contest. Attendance was
down a little from last year, we think due to the cold weather, but everybody had a lot of fun and
at least we had snow this year. Youth wrestling is just finishing up and girls youth basketball is
in full swing.
Jay Franklin, Tompkins County Department of Assessment - Mr. Franklin has recently been
appointed Director of County Assessment, following the retirement of Valeria Colgan. He has
been with the office from 1997. He introduced Barb Just who is the appraiser for the Town of
Groton. Tompkins County is the only true county-wide assessment department within New York
State. Based upon a 2008 study that was done, this saves the taxpayers of Tompkins County
overall about $300,000 a year as opposed to having an assessor at each town. Another advantage
is that the office is open every day whereas many town assessors are only part time jobs with no
set hours. Mr. Franklin presented the Board with a real property tax primer for elected officials
to explain what they do at the Assessment Office. He feels that they need more of a presence at
the town level and that they can be a resource for the towns if there are questions, need analysis,
want mailing lists, want them to do a talk, explore tax exemptions, etc.
Supervisor Morey asked when we would have another re-assessment. Mr. Franklin said they
would be mailing assessment change notices on March 12th but that there are not going to a lot of
changes this year. These values will reflect the values as of July 1, 2009. The big change may
Town Board Minutes Page 4 February 9, 2010
be for the 2011 assessment roll, which will reflect the value as of July 1, 2010. There are a
couple high-end subdivisions around the towns of Lansing and Ithaca that will be seeing
decreases in value this year.
Privilege of the Floor:
Supervisor Morey -Now we will have the Privilege of the Floor, which is something that we do
at every meeting. I want to say a couple things before we do this. It has been said that the Board
has not heard what the residents are saying. On September 8, 2009 a petition against large public
gatherings was delivered to the Board with 69 signatures. However, during the same time, a
petition of 58 signatures in favor of public gatherings was delivered to the Town Board with one
signature stating, "please discount my name from the Bennett petition." After receiving both
petitions the Board set out to write a mass gathering regulation. The Board, with the help of
April and Gary, reviewed several mass gathering regulations across New York State. We tried to
take into account the concerns of everyone without discriminating against the rights of others.
We can't pass biased or discriminatory regulations. Our job is to represent the whole Town of
Groton and not arbitrate disputes between neighbors. Some of the concerns we addressed in the
mass gathering regulations were sanitation issues, public health issues, parking issues, law
enforcement issues, fire prevention coverage and noise regulation. In fact, our noise regulation
of 90 decibels is OSHA regulation. When I asked last month if anyone had been to Bob Eckert's
house and express their concerns, no one had. However, Dewey Dawson contacted the
Community Dispute Resolution Center (CDRC) to help arbitrate this dispute. The last thing I
heard is there is nothing accomplished yet and the CDRC determined that there has to be a
willingness to resolve the issue before they can do anything about it. A regulation can't stop
people from having these events but I can promise you that the code regulation is a living
document that I will constantly have reviewed and improved. Tonight we have a very sensitive
issue dealing with neighbors' rights. I ask that everyone have respect for the person speaking
and give that person the right to speak. We have to remember that we are neighbors and will
continue to be neighbors after this issue. The public comment time is a privilege. I am not
compelled by law to have a public comment time. After last month's public comments there will
be some rules that will be complied with:
1. We will respect others' opinions.
2. There's no swearing.
3. Each person can speak only once.
4. No one can defer their time to speak to another person.
5. There's going to be a limit of three minutes to speak.
6. The Board is here to listen and may or may not answer any questions.
If everyone understands this, who is going to be coming up first?
Sue Bennett - I actually wanted to speak to something that you have on the agenda. I wanted to
ask about item 12 and 13. I wondered where you were in the entire zoning process.
Supervisor Morey - We're not going to set a public hearing date tonight. It's probably going to
be April before we do it.
Sue Bennett - I know that you have talked about publications. I brought a couple of what I
thought, interesting publications that are free, that I read about Dryden and their zoning changes
Town Board Minutes Page 5 February 9, 2010
and Trumansburg. They're getting free articles in the Ithaca Journal to get public input, so I
didn't know if you cared to just read those. They were well written and I thought they might
help you. The other thing I did was, I think that the bigger picture, and we're looking at the
entire zoning code, and that the principle is to protect the rural agriculture area, the peace and
quiet of Groton. I mean, I don't agree with the whole plan. But when I looked at other
townships such as Dryden, Moravia, Lansing, I've looked at those recently, yesterday and today.
Dryden seems to be, I don't know if you want to call it the most restrictive or the most
protective, but Dryden has 26 uses that aren't allowed, 23 uses that require special permit and 12
uses that are permitted by right. Then when I compare that to Groton, it just seems so
disproportionate. This is just the rural agricultural area that I'm talking about and there's only 3
uses that aren't allowed in the rural agricultural area for Groton. So, I find that very surprising.
There's 4 uses that require Board approval, so I'm assuming that might be what Dryden is
calling a special permit, similar, because Groton's doesn't read about the special permit process.
Then there's 52 uses that all require site plan approval and it's my understanding that anything
that requires site plan approval is almost a given that it's going to happen as long as they meet all
the criteria. So, I just find that, to me it's appalling that all of those uses are allowed in Groton
but nowhere else in our area, in Lansing or Dryden or Moravia. So, I just wanted to point out the
differences and I leave the sheets that I wrote too. I just don't believe that Groton's zoning is
nearly as protective as other townships.
Steve Simons - I guess the thing, looking at the overall zoning code rewrites, I have to wonder
how it's going to be addressed as far as the business aspect of these events. Don, I know you
have a business and you had to go through probably a variance or you had to go through some
sort of licensing or approval to get your business there. How is this going to be addressed with
these issues here? This is a business because there's actually money being charged to get into it.
It's got to be somewhat profitable. He's not a non-profit organization. So, I think that's one
thing that hasn't been addressed in any of this stuff You talk about mass gatherings, that's one
thing, but that mass gathering is for events where there's either, from what I gather, it's for
graduations, any kind of parties, reunions, that type of stuff This is far above and beyond that.
So, I can't see where you've really addressed that issue on this whole deal. I guess the other
thing that I'm really kind of disappointed in is when you look at what you consider mass
gatherings and you set the number at 350, which I think is a little bit high. That was one of the
things brought up; it might be a little bit high. Otherwise, I'm still quite disappointed that I don't
think you've done enough to really protect the rural agricultural environment here. Basically we
have nothing to protect any one of us. You people haven't been affected by something like this
but when you start looking at neighborhoods and what can happen in a neighborhood, noise
levels, it's kind of hard to get some kind of resolution either when you get a bunch of young kids
with a band or whatever. Any of this stuff can happen where your next door neighbor can
basically disturb your peace any time they want to is the way it looks right now. There's nothing
to protect us. I think that's one of the things we're trying to get is something to protect us for our
own basically peace that we like to observe out in the country.
Katherine Wolf - We moved into this area about 13 years ago and we moved into a rural
agricultural district area. I think we were prepared to deal with the occasional loose cows, noisy
combines from time to time, the manure smell in the air, this kind of thing. This is agricultural.
Rock concerts we hadn't been prepared for. Mr. Eckert, on one or two occasions has said, "I just
want everybody to have fun," and you know, we're not having fun. Other people who live
around here are not having fun and I think that should be respected by Mr. Eckert and also by the
Town in general. There's been talk about wanting to protect graduations and weddings, that
we're not being too strict about those things. There's been a lot of graduations in Peruville. The
Town Board Minutes Page 6 February 9, 2010
Eckert's had a graduation party and I didn't hear it. I don't think I've ever been exposed or
heard of anybody exposed to a graduation party that went on day and night for two or three days.
So, there's a difference. In terms of weddings.....?..many, many weddings take place at venues,
not, the receptions take place at venues. Occasionally people have it at their homes but if they're
going to have 350 people they tend to go someplace that's set up for it. There are venues that
people can have all kinds of things ? (not speaking into microphone) Cortland has a
fairgrounds. So, there are venues around for this sort of activity and it really doesn't have to be
in an agricultural area.
Tom Lobdell - I've been to all of Bob's events. For someone who goes to events and doesn't
drink because I help my sister serve foods. She has a local restaurant here. As far as the
accusation that they're all young kids, they're not all young kids. I'm 40 years old. There's
people there who are 20 years older than me. A lot of those guys don't drink either. They're
there to have a good time and listen to the music. To try to restrict this, I work in construction,
and you start running equipment at 8 o'clock in the morning and it might run all day. Nobody
complains about that but somebody wants to have a good time and have music, there's a big
problem with it. If for some reason they can't enjoy themselves and express themselves in their
music, next thing you're going to know in this town, we're going to have book burnings and
we're going to take all the blonde white people to concentration camps. I mean, when's it going
to stop? It's one time a year. Last year it was two days; he learned his lesson and it's not going
to happen again.
Sandy Swearingen - In regards to the last person that was speaking, I know Tommy real well;
he's done a lot of building for me and I have the utmost respect for him and his family. I
unfortunately don't enjoy the music when I'm not there because I didn't go to the festivals but I
had to listen to it. I don't think people understood how far it carried and I think that's where a lot
of the communication has broken down with everyone here is the fact that the people who are
there enjoying it, it doesn't contain itself, it amplifies and projects out and we unfortunately are
the barrier that it hits against and we have to listen to that. That's why we have the Cortland
Country Music Park, that's in a building. If you want to hear it and you are in a building, you
definitely aren't going to have it turned up as loud as they did. I don't think they're aware, they
do know now that there's a problem and I still say that it's going to continue. I believe in Mr.
Eckert's own blog, he was speaking about he would like to have two of them so if it's going to
be limited to just one time a year you have to also think of the length of time and duration that
you're going to subject everyone to.
Lori Gardner - I think one of the things you consider, in other words if someone has to come
for a license or a permit to hold an event like this, which is actually a business, in a rural
agricultural area and one of the things you would consider is how much it would disrupt the
neighbors and you would have to take into account how the noise travels. And in this case,
where it is situated is a terrible place because it does, it amplifies the sound. This is not a good
location for this kind of an event and it has to be taken into account. And I have nothing against
the Eckerts. They live across the street from me and I like them. But this is very disruptive to
the whole rest of the neighborhood and where they have chosen to be is not a good place for the
kind of event that they are trying to have. It should be inside or it should be in an area where the
sound isn't amplified and where the sound doesn't travel and annoy everybody else because the
rest of us aren't having a good time. And I'm not opposed to people having a good time.
Town Board Minutes Page 7 February 9, 2010
Hugh Keegan - I have a question. Is it my understanding that the County Planning Department
has recommended that the mass gatherings as proposed is not protecting the ag rights in the
neighborhood?
The Board Members, Supervisor Morey and Clerk Scheffler respond that they have not yet
received the report back from the County.
Hugh Keegan - You haven't been informed of that yet? Okay. Right now it looks like it's a
nonconforming use and it's my understanding that they say it's not within proper use in the
agricultural zone period. So...
Councilman Gamel- Where did you get that information from, Mr. Keegan?
Hugh Keegan - Sue sent some information to me on that because she checked into it.
Councilman Gamel- Sue,where did you get it, never mind,you're not up here, sorry.
Hugh Keegan - Well, the question is, if you're looking at it that way, it might be worth it to
contact them and see what they have to say on it, you know, because, you know, you've got your
regular use, your nonconforming uses and then if it keeps going down the road I can see
somebody saying let's look at reassessing all these properties around here because it's got a
business that's a nonconforming use. So, I would check with County Planning before I sat down
and actually finalized your zoning.
Supervisor Morey - Did Sue also share the temporary nature of the mass gatherings, that we
added another section that says, "...this section shall regulate mass gatherings of a temporary
nature. For the purpose of this section temporary shall mean the holding of no more than one
event in a calendar year. In addition for the purpose of this section temporary shall mean an
event shall last no longer than one day." And you think a business can operate in one day?
Hugh Keegan - Well, let's put it this way, if it's a business in an area that's not zoned for that,
you can't have it period, whether it's one day or one hour. It's just the way the laws written,
right? Secondly, over in Cortland, when you had anything like this
Supervisor Morey- Well, we're in Tompkins County, Groton,New York, Hugh.
Hugh Keegan - All right, but in other areas when you have something like this your code person
is supposed to go to all the neighbors before hand and get everybody's input whether they can do
it or not. And I don't remember ever being approached before it happened to say, look, are you
going to have a problem with this.
Supervisor Morey-Well, it was judged as not a land use but the use of some land.
Hugh Keegan - And I think that's the agreement is that what it's been judged as is whether Gary
is reading this right or wrong. I personally think he's reading it wrong.
Supervisor Morey- Well, that's your opinion and obviously you realize that regulations
Hugh Keegan - I don't think it's a use that can be used for agricultural use.
Town Board Minutes Page 8 February 9, 2010
Supervisor Morey - Well, if it's not, then we'll find out through the County.
Hugh Keegan - I mean that's what I think it is. I don't think it's a agricultural use. All I'm
saying is
Councilman Gamel - But rural is also in there. It's not just agricultural. If it were all
agricultural, Mr. Keegan, your house wouldn't have been built where it was built because it's an
agricultural area and we wouldn't allow housing. It's a rural area. We have addressed this the
best we can, for the entire Town, everything that you brought to us. Everything. We have done
our very best to make it so that we're not looking out for Peruville, we're looking out for
everybody in the Town of Groton. And you know what, we're not Cortland, we are not Dryden,
we are not Lansing and God Almighty, I hope we never turn into them.
Hugh Keegan -All I said to you is did you talk to Tompkins County Planning.
Supervisor Morey - We have to send it to them and we're trying to get a response. It's part of
the procedure.
Hugh Keegan -Yes, well that's what I would do first to see what they're input is.
Councilman Gamel - I just hope everybody understands that we are doing the best we can to
take care of everybody in the Town. Yes, some people are not going to like 350 for a number.
Some people, as we've heard before, are not going to like 50 for a number, should be at 25. You
know what? We're never going to please everybody; we understand that. But we are trying to
do what's best for the entire Town. We keep going back at it and like Glenn said, it's a living
document and we keep going back and back and when we hear a suggestion we think, you know
what, that's a good idea and I think we're really close.
Hugh Keegan - Well, maybe it's time to submit it to them and see what they have to say.
Supervisor Morey- It has been Hugh, it's part of the process.
Hugh Keegan - Well, that's what I'm saying. I thought they came back and said that.....
Supervisor Morey-No, they did not.
Hugh Keegan - Well that's what I asked you when I came up.
Supervisor Morey - That's the reason why we can't have our public hearing next month. It's
because we didn't hear back from them. We didn't hear back from our lawyer either.
Hugh Keegan - Well that's why I asked because I thought they had given you a
recommendation.
Supervisor Morey - No. April did send out a very extensive process we have to go through to
pass the code regulations and I thought it was addressed to everybody in the committee.
Hugh Keegan - It's got to be frustrating. It would be nice if the County just had one regulation
and then all the towns could just live off the one regulation.
Town Board Minutes Page 9 February 9, 2010
Supervisor Morey- Maybe they realize that different towns are different.
Hugh Keegan - It's a frustrating way of doing it.
Councilman Gamel - It is, but I love Groton for what Groton is, and not Lansing and not
Dryden and not Cortland. I don't want to live in Dryden, Lansing or Cortland.
Donna Simons - First of all I'd like to address the Board. Glenn, when you first let the floor
open you said that we all had to be considerate of each other and the exchange I just saw or heard
was not considerate of everybody here. We all have a stake in this, not just the people of
Peruville, but the Eckerts as well. But not just them; the Town of Groton has a stake in this. I
would like to know once this passes, because it's going to pass, you're all up here and you're
going to make it pass, but who's going to regulate that when he has his little festival? Are you
going to come up, Glenn, when I call you and say, "you know what, it's 10:30 and it's still going
on and there's over 350 people up there." Are you going to come and count them? If I call you
at midnight are you going to get out of bed and come to the Eckerts' and see what's going on?
How is it going to be regulated? And not this festival, but now I've got the neighbors down the
road who are going to decide that I'm going to play my music all night long. What am I going to
do about that? The Village has an ordinance. You can't even have a barking dog. You can't
have a barking dog in the Town, but we can put up with that? You guys have to go back and
look at this again and not just for Peruville but for the whole Town. You have to go back and
look at this again. We have nothing. I have nothing, against the Eckerts having a good time and
having their music as long as it's contained within their area and I'm not having to listen to the f-
word every other word. That's not what I want to listen to and I'm sure that if it was in your
back dooryard you wouldn't either. I just think you should take another look at what you're
proposing and what you want the Town to expect as your code.
Robert Eckert - I just want everybody to know that I plan on doing these things, if I can do
them in the future, for benefits. I'm going to take all the proceeds from everything that I do up
there, you know, after my expenses and I'm going to donate to any charity, to anybody, to
whoever they want to donate to. I'm not doing this to try to upset everybody. I've heard people
talk about this thing being a business. For one time a year? That's kind of weird, you know.
I'm not doing anything good for the community up there, doing this? I kind of think I am. I go
down to the Groton school there, I don't know how many people out here actually went up to the
kids in need Christmas tree last year and actually pulled some of those stockings off there. Our
kids down here need hats and gloves and stuff like that. We gotta take care of the community,
you know. Doing the festivals, it raises money up there. I'm sorry if people have to listen to it.
And the profanity thing, don't get me wrong, I didn't like that myself', but I talked to the guys
and got that all taken care of and stuff so these people don't have to listen to the f-word coming
over the microphone because I don't like to hear it either. So, like I say, I'm just trying to do
something really good for the community. I think it will benefit Groton tremendously; I know it
will because I'll make sure that it does. As far as policing and stuff like that, it's already written
in your festival thing. I can't get a festival permit if I go out of you guys' guidelines. It makes
sense. Somebody was talking about this thing going on after 10:30. With your festival permit
thing that you guys have, it's at 10:00. I talked to Gary. Gary said he's going to call me at 10:00
and it better be quiet up there. I have no problem with that. It's all written in the thing that you
guys did. I thought you guys did an excellent job except for one thing, the 90 decibel thing. I
believe that what you guys should do is put it in and not write it as the source. I'm not talking
for myself, I'm talking for somebody else out there that might go and get a festival permit.
Where do you guys determine 90 decibels at the source? The guitar, the drum kit, the PA
Town Board Minutes Page 10 February 9, 2010
system, the mixer? Where are you guys going to determine that? Just write it up as 90 decibels
as per OSHA standards, because I can tell you what the source is. It's not the front end either.
It's not the monitors. Where are you going to determine the source, the guitar, the amplifier it's
going through, the mixer board that's out front? That's a gray area, I thought, in there. I already
talked to some of you guys about the 90 decibel thing and you guys said it was OSHA standards.
Write it that way. I looked up the OSHA standard and I have no problem with it. And all the
other stuff that you guys have in there, it's fine. I just do believe that I can get this thing to
where it's really going to help the community out down here in the Town of Groton. And at this
point,that's all I have to say.
Sandy Swearingen - I have a question that I would like to ask Mr. Eckert since he's here. How
often do you think you're going to do this if you want to benefit the Town? Are you trying to
say that you're going to do it just one time or are you thinking more often?
Supervisor Morey- Sandy, he doesn't have to answer....
Mr. Eckert said something that was not distinguishable on the tape.
Sandy Swearingen - I don't know, I'm holding it to you, I guess. Because if it's going to be just
a one-time thing, the amount of money that you're going to get off of it isn't really going to
benefit that much.
Supervisor Morey - All right. We're going to close the public comment and move on to
something else.
RESOLUTION#10-017 - PROCLAMATION OF LIBRARY LOVERS MONTH
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED,that the Supervisor of the Town of Groton shall issue the following proclamation:
WHEREAS, libraries enable individuals to make informed decisions about their self governance
by promoting unrestricted access to information and by serving as community centers for
lifelong learning; and
WHEREAS, in a world undergoing constant change, libraries provide enduring connections
to the past and future of our communities, nations and civilizations; and
WHEREAS,the expansion of electronic networks linking libraries and their resources makes
possible better and more easily accessible information for library users around the world; and
WHEREAS, libraries provide entry to important research about health, economics, housing,
the environment and countless other areas to support better living conditions and to help
people lead longer, more productive and fulfilling lives; and
Town Board Minutes Page 11 February 9, 2010
WHEREAS, libraries support a competitive workforce with basic literacy programs,
computers and other resources to help children and adults learn to find, evaluate and use
information they need for their jobs, health, education and other needs; and
WHEREAS,many libraries offer pre-school story hour and summer reading programs to
encourage children to begin a habit of reading that will serve to benefit their personal and
professional lives; and
WHEREAS, 10,413,962 people in the State of New York and 40,528 residents in Tompkins
County have library cards;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor of the Town of Groton, County of
Tompkins, State of New York, do hereby proclaim February 2010 as "Library Lovers Month"
in the Town of Groton and urge all of our citizens to visit libraries and thank a librarian for
making this unique and wonderful institution possible.
RESOLUTION#10-018 - SEND LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR TOMPKINS COUNTY
OPEN ACCESS FIBER PROJECT
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor, Glenn Morey to
send a Letter of Support to confirm that the Town of Groton is in support of a Tompkins County
Open Access Fiber Project that will be used to foster the development of broadband services
throughout the County.
RESOLUTION#10-019 -APPOINT PLANNING BOARD CHAIR & VICE CHAIR
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby appoints Ed Neuhauser as Chair and Mary Gloster as
Vice Chair of the Planning Board
RESOLUTION #10-020 - APPOINT ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS CHAIR
& VICE CHAIR
MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Clark
Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey
RESOLVED,that the Town Board hereby appoints Steve Thane as Chair and Paul Fouts as
Vice Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Town Board Minutes Page 12 February 9, 2010
Announcements:
➢ Planning Board- February 18 at 7:30 PM
➢ Zoning Board of Appeals - February 24 at 7:00 PM
➢ Barbara Lifton, Town Hall Meeting - February 17, 3:00 - 5:00 PM
There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by
Councilman Scheffler, at 8:22 PM. Unanimous.
April L. Scheffler, RMC
Town Clerk