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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-08-09 TOWN OF GROTON - MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2011 AT 7:30 PM PUBLIC HEARING - TOWN OF GROTON LAND USE 8, DEVELOPMENT CODE AT 8:00 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: Doug Newman, Bret Wyllie, Gregory Weiland, Mary McGarry- Newman, Rachel Newman, JoAnne Cipolla-Dennis, Brian Robison, Dewey Dawson, Gary Coats, Elizabeth Brennan, Richard C. Case, Jr., April Scheffler. MOVED by Councilman Sovocool, seconded by Councilman Gamel, to approve the minutes of the July 12, 2011 meeting as presented. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 217-242 of the General Fund in the amount of $13,150.90 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Gamel, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to approve the General Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Claim Numbers 118-132 of the Highway Fund in the amount of $15,236.65 were presented for audit. MOVED by Councilman Clark, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to approve the Highway Bills for payment. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey. Monthly Reports: Elizabeth Brennan, Bookkeeper/Highway Clerk - Presented monthly report for the Board's review. Gary Coats, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Presented monthly reports for the Board's review. Mr. Coats reported that things had been busy and at least four new houses Town Board Minutes Page 2 August 9, 2011 were going up. He has been working with the owner of a barn that is in need of coming down and that should be taken care of this week. Richard C. Case, Jr., Highway Superintendent - At the present time the Highway Department is totally involved in summer road maintenance. NYS Heavy duty vehicle inspections are up to date. The shop attends to the PM Program and repairs, daily. Gravel roads have been grader honed, rolled and salted. Shoulders have been completed on the newly paved section of Sovocool Hill Road. Shoulder repairs have taken place on Stevens Road, Salt Road, Elm Street and Lick Street. While the shoulder machine was mounted, Type #7 blacktop was used in it to do some extensive patch work on Old Stage Road, Lick Street, Clark Street and Torok Road. The crew has mastered the use of the shoulder machine in several different applications. All Town road intersections have been power broomed once more and roadside mowing is taking place daily. The summer youth program is underway with the employment of Don Evener, Chris Graham, Kraig Riese and Quinn Walpole. Their labor has certainly made a difference in production and safety. The parking area in the main shop is being cleaned for Olde Home Days as the Historical Society will hold its annual craft fair there. As you have probably noticed, the driveway has been paved as budgeted for this year. This project turned out very well. The Suit Kote paver operator and our Town employees did a very professional job. Dale and I are researching broom mowers that can be universally mounted to the Town tractors. I hope to have a purchase recommendation for you at next month's meeting. April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Fran Casullo, Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report. A. D. Dawson, Town Justice - Submitted monthly reports for himself and Judge Norman. Councilman Donald Scheffler, as Recreation Coordinator- Had nothing to report. Brian Robinson, County Legislator - Mr. Robinson talked about the County Budget presentation scheduled for September 8th at the Town Hall. The County Office of the Aging and the County Legislature has been asked to vacate the County Court House building by the Unified Court System. Before too long the County Clerk will probably also be asked to move out. Hopefully, the DA will be able to stay. There will need to be purchase or rental of buildings for the moves and he talked about possible locations. Joe Mareane, County Administrator has listened to the budget priorities of the Legislators. The meeting at the Groton Town Hall will be right after the budget comes out, so we will be the first to see what Mr. Mareane's budget is. Supervisor Morey offered Privilege of the Floor, but no one wished to speak. Discussion took place concerning a request from Sheldon Carrington to release 2 acres of his land covered by a diminishing lien agreement with the Town of Groton so that he could transfer it to a step-daughter who wants to build a house on it. Town Board Minutes Page 3 August 9, 2011 RESOLUTION #11-057 - RELEASE PART OF MORTGAGED PREMISES OF SHELDON CARRINGTON MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves releasing part of the mortgaged premises of Sheldon Carrington's property as subject to a Diminishing Lien Agreement dated October 6, 2006, provided that it can be legally accomplished with no negative impact for either Mr. Carrington or the Town of Groton. RESOLUTION #11-058 - DONATION TO OLDE HOME DAYS MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Sovocool Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the donation of $900.00 to Olde Home Days to be used towards port-a-potties, sinks and advertising. Announcements: ➢ Planning Board, August 18 at 7:30 pm • Zoning Board of Appeals, August 31 at 7:00 pm • Olde Home Days, August 19 - 21 County Budget presentation by Joe Mareane, September 8, 7:00 pm PUBLIC HEARING LOCAL LAW #1 OF THE YEAR 2011 TOWN OF GROTON LAND USE & DEVELOPMENT CODE MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to open the Public Hearing at 8:00 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Supervisor Morey asked the Town Clerk to read the Public Notice as duly published in the Town's legal paper, the Groton Independent, on July 27, 2011 and additionally in the Freeville Shopper on July 26, August 2, and August 9. No written comments or emails had been received by the Town Clerk. After an opening statement, Supervisor Morey asked if anyone from the public wished to speak. Town Board Minutes Page 4 August 9, 2011 JoAnne Cipolla-Dennis - I actually live in Dryden. I am here tonight because I am very concerned about my pals behind me, Mary and Doug and Rachel Newman, who have an organic farm out here. They've been here for almost four years, farming it, just the three of them, and have been quite successful at marketing. I'm concerned about your land use and how it's defined in zoning. What we did in Dryden, is we didn't really ban anything. We just clarified our zoning and our zoning clarification is that we don't what high impact, heavy industry in the Town of Dryden. We don't want it to be industrialized and that comes with methane gas development. So, a lot of people are curious to see who's coming on board and who isn't. Dryden was a unanimous vote and there were Republicans on that board. Ithaca was a unanimous vote and tomorrow night I'll be in Ulysses and that will be a unanimous vote to prevent this industry from, in essence, ruining what we have here. You can't just do a little gas drilling. Hydraulic fracturing, the horizontal type, in my opinion is un-American the way that they do it, especially in the State of New York. If I choose not to lease my property, for development and my neighbor chooses to, that gives the industry the ability to come onto their property as it's leased, set up a pad, and drill any number of wells, up to about 16 wells. Hydraulic fracturing horizontal, they can come right onto my property, drill right underneath it, take my gas against my will, and give me a penance that they think it appropriate. I think that is un-American. We are getting enough gas out of other formations in the United States and if you'll do some research you'll see that shale gas is really ruining our water in America, throughout the country. So, I am just here to offer any services that we can offer you. We do work with Helen and David Shlashay (?) who have worked with the Town of Ithaca and Ulysses and a number of small towns that don't want to be identified, to pass an ordinance via their zoning, which is the only way that you can restrict this type of activity. The State can not help us once they come. So, my concern is for the agriculture here. As much as I love the three guys behind me and support them in buying their products, I will not buy organic food that has been raised around frack sites. I don't know if you're familiar with the letter that was sent to Governor Cuomo from New York City stating that a number of buyers will not be buying food from the Finger Lakes Region, organic or otherwise, if we choose to use methane gas development in Upstate New York. So, all I'm here for is to offer you services and to find out if you presently have in your zoning a restriction for that type of activity or are you allowing that type of activity? Supervisor Morey - Thank you. You have my card and you're going to give me some information? Thanks, that's perfect. Mary Newman - We have an organic farm out there and we've waited our whole life to finally do it. The thing that strikes me every time I hear this discussion is that they say, if gas drilling can be done safely. We have state after state after state that shows that at this point in time, that is not possible, right now. So, you're starting an argument with something that's not possible and that doesn't make sense to me. So, I'm just hoping that in this stage of the planning that we can just put the brakes on this and just say let's wait until we have any kind of way of doing this. If it's not right away, there's plenty of time, it's been there all this time, it's not going anyway, there's no rush here. We need to protect. We're talking about the agriculture of this area that's so beautiful and that is not compatible with gas drilling, it's just not. So, I'm just here to urge you guys to protect us. That's what we're all here for. Greg Weiland - I didn't know those people would be here but I came specifically for the same reason. I've read a lot about what happens when hydro-fracking occurs Town Board Minutes Page 5 August 9, 2011 mortgages can be threatened. Banks don't like to support this sort of thing. The roads will be destroyed by trucks that carry millions of gallons of water in and out, if they take it out. Sometimes they leave the water; sometimes they dump it. You can have your well destroyed so you're property is worthless. I own 15 acres and we live off the well. If the well fills with methane or anything else between the stuff they pump in and the stuff they free up, radium, all sorts of things. I can't say enough, that we should really, carefully think about whether we want to do this to our community, to our water, to our roads. You should see some of these huge platforms that they generate and the water that they generate. Just the pumping stations alone go 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The noise alone, not counting air pollution. Anyway, I'm here support that we carefully think about whether we are going to elect to have our community have this sort of thing go on because the potential for total destruction for what we really love here is serious. Supervisor Morey asked if anyone else had comments. MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, to close the Public Hearing and return to Regular Session, at 8:16 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town - Expressed his concern that a response had not been received from the County. He was also concerned that amendments had been made to the Code after the completion of the SEQR and perhaps the Board would need to repeat the SEQR. He advised the Board not to take action on passing the Code until he had time to research this SEQR issue. MOVED by Supervisor Morey, seconded by Councilman Gamel, to go into Executive Session to discuss Human Resource Benefits, at 8:16 pm. Ayes - Sovocool, Scheffler, Gamel, Clark, Morey MOVED by Councilman Scheffler, seconded by Councilman Sovocool, to return to Regular Session, at 8:31 pm. Supervisor Morey - Let the record show that no resolutions were made during Executive Session. There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 8:321 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk