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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-09TOWN OF GROTON — MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019 AT 7:30 PM THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Town Officers Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Richard Gamel, Councilperson Crystal Young, Councilperson Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Michael Perkins, Highway Supt. April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper Francis Castillo, Attorney Town Officers Absent: A. D. Dawson, Town Justice John Norman, Town Justice Also Present: Scott Weeks Maddie Weeks Eric Satterly Jennifer Jones Ben Nelson Rick Neville, Jr. Glenn Morey Gary Wood Eric Satterly MOVED by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, to approve the minutes of the March 12, 2019 meeting as presented. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler RESOLUTION #19-034 - APPROVE PAYMENT OF VOUCHERS WHEREAS, vouchers for Abstract #4, numbered 126 - 172 were reviewed and audited by the Town Board, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves said vouchers for the accounts and in the total amounts as follows: Code FU11d Totals A GENERAL FEND 12.989.62 B GENERAL FUND PART TO«N 8,5 17.21 DA HIGHWAY FUND 2.5,924.75 DB HIGHWAY FUND PART TCAV-- 309.44 SI -2- PERUVILLE LIGHTING DISTRICT 160.81 SLI- MCLEAN LIGHTING DISTRICT 217 0. 7 0 Total: 489172.53 Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Monthly Reports: Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review and requested a budget transfer. We did receive a couple questions from the State Comptroller's Office about the Annual Report. We will be working on that the next couple of days. He reported that the Village had received bids for their new municipal building and they were all extremely high and beyond their debt limit. They are currently waiting for the architects to give them a recommendation and then decide where to go from there. Town Board Minutes Page 2 RESOLUTION #19-035 - 2019 BUDGET ADJUSTMENT MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Clark RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the follow 2019 Budget Adjustment: General Fund, Town Wide: From: Contingency, A1990.4 .......................... $25.00 To: Attorney, Misc. Contractual, A1420.41 ........ 25.00 Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed April 9, 2019 W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Since the weather is better, things are busier. He went to conference last month and started training on the 2018 Codes. Michael Perkins, Highway Superintendent - We got our truck back and have it running. John Mackey was here and got it running. Ben's been working on getting stuff that we need cosmetically to get it fixed back up and get it road worthy. Our new truck is at Stadium. We had PERMA training, basic life support, and everyone attended. We've been doing tree trimming, cold patching, sweeping intersections, and getting trucks ready for spring and summer work. We met with the DEC on the Walpole Road project. There are a lot of forms and things we need to go through and we may want to sub it out to someone with the credentials and equipment to do it. I met with Jeff Cronk on the trail project. We'd like to have a clean-up day with the Village on Saturday, May 11th . They would take metal items, but no refrigerators or electronics. Sofas and chairs would be taken at $5.00 each. Sometime in the future they might expand it to include tires and other things, but not this time. RESOLUTION #19-036 - SCHEDULE CLEAN-UP DAY MOVED by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Young RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves scheduling a clean-up day with the Village of Groton and charging $5.00 for couches, chairs and recliners. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review including her final Tax Collector report for 2019. Clerk Scheffler, Mike Perkins, and Rosemarie Tucker, Town Historian, had met with members of the Groton Rotary to talk about their plans for the East Hill Cemetery on Route 222, which they had been cleaning up and working on for several years. They would like to apply for a grant. Their plans include a fence along the front. A drawing of the fence plan was shown. Mr. Perkins said that if the fence was approved, that he would like landscape fabric and stones underneath it to keep weeds down and make maintenance easier for the Highway workers. They would like to continue trying to reset stones, many of which are in piles or leaning against trees. The thought is that since there is no record of where people were buried that they would attempt to place family groups together. Since Ms. Tucker has done extensive research on the cemetery, the three felt that she should be consulted before moving or resetting any stones. The Rotary members talked about planting hostas behind the gravestones and forsythia along the back border. Scheffler, Perkins, and Tucker felt that the plantings were unnecessary, out of character for this cemetery, and would create more upkeep for the Highway Department over time. They have identified additional Revolutionary War soldiers and are thinking of somehow replacing the commemorative plaque that is there. Ms. Tucker has Town Board Minutes Page 3 April 9, 2019 expressed great concern over this as the plaque was placed there by the DAR. She thinks it would be more appropriate to add another plaque and thinks her local DAR Chapter would do that for the cemetery. RESOLUTION #19-037 - APPROVE CONTINUED WORK ON EAST HILL CEMETERY BY GROTON ROTARY MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the continued work and improvements to the East Hill Cemetery by the Groton Rotary Club provided that Michael Perkins, Town Highway Superintendent and Rosemarie Tucker, Town Historian, shall be consulted on all plans, discussions and operations, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the placement of the fence along the front of the Cemetery provided that all State Highway regulations are adhered to and the Highway Superintendent's stipulations are met, and be it further RESOLVED, that the Town Board does not approve the planting of hostas and forsythia bushes being proposed by the Rotary Club. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Francis Casullo, Attorney for the Town - Had nothing to report. John J. Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices - Were not present. Councilperson Crystal Young as Representative to Joint Youth Program - The Recreation Partnership Board met on March 26th and reviewed year-end budget and program statistics. Groton had a total of 83 registrants for the year, which totaled 1.68% of total registrations. The Joint Recreation Committee met on April 2nd. The babysitting course will be held on April 13th with a maximum of 12 participants. This is a Red Cross Certification class. Youth Track & Field are taking place in April/May (waiting on weather). Youth baseball and softball registration has closed. Summer job posting are open for swim director, lifeguards and Rec. Assistants. The grant approval for the trail project was increased to $8,000. A ribbon cutting event will be announced when project completed (may be end of summer). Youth Commission met on April 3rd. We welcomed Youth Representatives Kaleb Goodwin and Drew Jackson. Program Manager Monica Dykeman reported on the many great programs happening with the youth to include Amazing Ag, Homework Helpers, Cooking Fun, Groton Harvest, and Junior Camp Counselor Training. Amazing Ag will tour the Cornell Dairy Farm on April 8th. April 17 will be a trip to the Wild Animal Park in Chittenango. Cooking Fun this month included making cupcakes for a birthday celebration, and making pizzas. The kids were able to take ingredients home to make pizza at home. The school will be doing hot breakfast and lunch this summer at the high school. This will be open to any youth up to age 18. There will be bag lunches available at the Groton Library. No lunches at the Park this year, the children will just walk over to the high school for a hot meal. This is made possible through the Park Foundation Grant. Glenn Morey, County Legislator - The New York State Budget has some impacts on you. First of all the Internet Marketplace Fairness, means that the State is going to collect sales tax on internet sales. They estimate around $175million in additional revenue. The AIM aid and incentives for municipalities is going to be reinstated for towns and villages and take the sales tax out of the counties to pay it. Voter reforms are going to take effect. Early voting operating costs will be about $140million across the State to purchase electronic poll books. There will be one or two places to vote in the county and they will need to have electronic poll books. Also employees must be allowed three hours paid leave to go and vote on Election Day. Some things that didn't happen with the State Budget was expansion of the bottle bill to include liquor and wine bottles and marijuana is not going to be legalized. The property tax cap is Town Board Minutes Page 4 April 9, 2019 going to be permanent. Money will be given for the unmet needs of seniors in the County Office of the Aging. There's also $33million in agricultural programs. Last month David Norte had been upset about what was going on in the County. Mr. Morey explained that there had been a sub -committee of the Dryden Planning Board that was for the purpose of finding ways to reduce greenhouse gases and he was upset because they were going to regulate how they could heat your house and what you could do with your house and how to build it. It was reported in this week's Groton Independent that the sub -committee was meeting illegally and privately and announced that they had a final for the Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Dryden. Consequently, the sub -committee was dissolved and things would now be done through the Planning Board. Next week the County Legislature will vote on whether to buy a piece of property on North Tioga Street to build a center for government. The County budget retreat starts April 3 0th Supervisor Scheffler asked about local tax grievance day and why they weren't having it anymore. Mr. Morey said it was decided that there weren't many people coming to the local meetings and that people can still go down to the Assessment Office to grieve their assessment. Mr. Morey said that he had voted against it. Ben Nelson, Groton Fire and Ambulance - There were a lot of fires at the end of March. There were none in Groton, but they helped with other places. The Town of Dryden had eight fires in eight days and Groton assisted with four of them. They have had 227 ambulance calls and 52 fire calls to date. There is a statewide no burn ban until May 14th. April 20th is the Easter Egg Hunt at the Elementary School, 9 - 11. April 25th the New York State Citizen Preparedness Corp is doing a presentation on how to prepare and react to a disaster at 6:3 Opm at the High School. April 27th is a barbeque at the municipal lot. May 10th is a Student's Against Drunk Driving program at the High School. There will be a helicopter, State Police, Groton Police, Dryden and Groton ambulances, and possibly a hearse. Jennifer Jones, Groton Recreation Director - Last fall she made a plan to establish trails in Groton. The three-person committee consists of Ms. Jones, Scott Weeks and Jeff Cronk. A map was handed out of the proposed trail system which is a total of about four miles. Around 95% of the trail is on School, Town or Village land. Also about 80% of the trail is already cleared as a previous trail, a logging trail, or an unofficial trail that people have just started using. There will be trailheads at the Town Barn, the Memorial Park, the High School, Sovocool Hill Road and the Town gravel bank. They applied to the County for a grant and received $5,000 for the Village recreation. They were then told that they could also apply for the Town and received an additional $3,000. The goal is for each trailhead to have a bench, a trash receptacle, and a nice weatherproof kiosk with maps, warnings, rules, etc. Part of the money will also be used to build stairs at the Sovocool Hill trailhead and gravel for the various parking areas. The grant is a reimbursement grant and asked the Town would consider spending the $3,000 and then be reimbursed through the grant received. Some discussion took place with Councilperson Klumpp concerning some of the private property and areas that he had surveyed. RESOLUTION #19-038 - TOWN OF GROTON TO EXPEND FUNDS FOR COMMUNITY TRAIL MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Supervisor Scheffler RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby agrees to expend $3000.00 towards the Groton community trail project and take the reimbursement from the Trails Grant received by the Trail Committee from Tompkins County to cover said expenses. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Town Board Minutes Page S April 9, 2019 RESOLUTION #19-039 - 2019 GROTON RURAL CEMETERY RECORDS DEPOSITORY AGREEMENT MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the 2019 Groton Rural Cemetery Records Depository Agreement for storage of cemetery records in the Town Clerk's vault and authorizes the Town Supervisor to sign said agreement. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #19-040 - FAIR HOUSING MONTH MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel WHEREAS, in accordance with the Title VIII Fair Housing Policy of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and, WHEREAS, the Month of April 2019 has been designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office as Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity as Fair Housing Month, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Groton hereby declares and proclaims April 2019 as Fair Housing Month in the Town of Groton. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #19-041 - POPPY TIME IN THE TOWN OF GROTON MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel WHEREAS, the Carrington -Fuller American Legion Post #800 Auxiliary works unselfishly throughout the Town of Groton, and WHEREAS, the American Legion Auxiliary annually sponsors the traditional offering of the "POPPIES" to the Groton area, and WHEREAS, by offering these "POPPIES" the Auxiliary helps to benefit the needs of the disabled American Veterans by providing workshops and therapy for them through the Veteran's Hospitals, NOW THEREFORE, I, Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor of the Town of Groton, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM, the month of May 2019 to be "POPPY TIME" in the Town of Groton and respectfully encourage all members of the Groton Community to generously support the Legion Auxiliary during "POPPY TIME". Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Town Board Minutes Page 6 April 9, 2019 RESOLUTION #19-042 - APPOINT SAM ROSE TO PLANNING BOARD MOVED by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp RESOLVED, that there being a vacancy on the Town of Groton Planning Board and upon the recommendation of the Planning Board, the Town Board hereby appoints Sam Rose to the Town of Groton Planning Board for a term to begin April 9, 2019 and end December 31, 2021. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #19-043 - WAIVE FEE FOR MCLEAN FIRE DISTRICT MOVED by Councilperson Clark, seconded by Councilperson Gamel RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the waiving of the $648.00 fee paid by the McLean Fire District for a building permit and be it further RESOLVED, that the said fee will be reimbursed to the McLean Fire District by inclusion on the May 14, 2019 abstract of vouchers. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Supervisor Scheffler - Discussion on Abundant Solar. They've been talking to us and nothing really has changed. They would like us to sign everything over to the IDA and let them do a PILOT. We've talked about, that they should pay the same as everybody else. They want to know where we stand on it before they will move forward. They won't do anything until they get a tax break. That was her final word to me today and if they don't get the PILOT that they want then their business is upside down and they won't do it. I said I can't speak for the Board but I will put it in front of the Board. What does the Board think? Councilperson Klumpp - Do you want to put it to a vote? Supervisor Scheffler - Well, we can discuss it, we can vote, we can pass a resolution that this is what we're going to do or not do. Councilperson Gamel - I am firm with the thought that until we get some kind of an application on paper, like everybody else that does anything in this Town has to do, until we get a written application that tells us what they want to do, and until we find out from the IDA what their proposal would be, I think our hands are tied. We can't do anything until we find that information out. I think it's a stalemate. Supervisor Scheffler - I agree. Councilperson Klumpp - I have a lot of opinions on the matter but I don't even think I need to give those opinions until the first step and the first step is them showing us a sketch of what they want to do. Supervisor Scheffler - She said today that she could have that to me this afternoon and then ten minutes later she said it might be three days. And I didn't get anything this afternoon so....... Councilperson Klumpp - And to second Rick, everything that comes to a town for approval, be it Planning Board, a building permit, everything has a sketch with it. That's something, it has a plan. Councilperson Clark - I feel the same way. Councilperson Young - I'd like to see even a draft and a draft IDA agreement. Town Board Minutes Page 7 April 9, 2019 Councilperson Klumpp - I think the two items, something from the IDA and something them, something concrete other than just asking us to pass it off to the IDA. Attorney Casullo - Obviously, it's a Board decision, but I've had multiple discussions with Heather at the IDA. Once you opted out of the tax exemption, you can't engage in a PILOT. However, another section of the law allows the IDA to do that. My understanding is they want a letter of support from the Town to engage in the PILOT. Other than that, you really don't have a lot of say in the negotiations or the final outcome. Then moving towards what the Board has brought up is the issue that it's somewhat difficult to make a decision on a project when you have absolutely nothing before you. Councilperson Gamel - I'm just dumb -founded that they've gotten away with this in other places, or do they just think that we're..... Attorney Casullo - Again, this is a Board decision, but as your attorney if someone is asking you as a Board to recommend a project that you don't even have a sketch on, forget about the solar part, if it was anything else, would you? The Board all responded, no. Councilperson Klumpp - And it isn't just the five of us. We're here to protect the rest of the community. Not only is it fair that this project get the PILOT, but what are they putting in. Attorney Casullo - But she now says a sketch is forthcoming. Supervisor Scheffler - But it didn't come. And I have told them I can't support sending a letter of support when I don't even know what I'm supporting. Councilperson Klumpp - I think she threw a big number out at us last month where she said they'd already spent $25,000.00 or something along those lines on the project. It would take an engineer two hours to draft a sketch and send it to us. Attorney Casullo - I think from the discussions that we've had the last month, I think that's an accurate statement. Supervisor Scheffler - So, do we need a motion or just a consensus of the Board? She just asked what the Board felt. Attorney Casullo - I don't know if you need a resolution. If she says she's going to come with a sketch, wait and see the sketch. I do think though too, I don't want it being perceived that the Board is anti -solar, because they are not. Board members all respond, no, they are not. Attorney Casullo - But it's hard to make a decision on a proposed solar farm when you don't have anything before you. You could say the same thing on any project. It's not that you're anti this or anti that until you see the specifics. Then you may have opinions on that project, but until you have something it's difficult. I sometimes think there's this perception already that this Town Board is somewhat anti -solar and I don't think that is the case. Supervisor Scheffler - No, not the case at all. I've talked to some people around town and they don't think that. Most people that I've talked to say they should pay taxes. Councilperson Klumpp - I also think there's a fear to be perceived that way, which is why you brought that up, when in reality if it were any other business coming in here, I think we'd be hesitant also. There is that public pressure out there to say yes to anything solar, wind, green. I think everyone should take a step back and realize that any other project would be treated the same way. Privilege of the Floor: No one wished to speak. Town Board Minutes Page 8 April 9, 2019 Announcements: ➢ Planning Board, April 18, 2019 at 7:30 pm ➢ Zoning Board of Appeals, April 17, 2019 - cancelled due to no application ➢ Clean-up Day, Saturday, May 11, 2019 ➢ Easter Egg Hunt at Elementary School, April 20, 2019, 9:00 am - 11:00 am ➢ NYS Citizens Preparedness Training Course, April 25, 2019, 5:30 pm ➢ Fire Department BBQ, April 27, 2019 ➢ SADD Program at High School, May 10, 2019 There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Clark, at 8:3 5 pm. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler, RMC Town Clerk