HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-03-10 - TB TOWN OF ULYSSES
REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING
MARCH 10, 1998
PRESENT : Supervisor Douglas Austic; Councilpeople, Andrew Hillman, Peter
Penniman; Robert Weatherby and Carolyn Duddleston absent; James Meeker Highway
Superintendent; Code Enforcement Officer Alex Rachun; Town Clerk Marsha L .
Georgia.
Others Present : County Representative Peter Meskill ; Free Press Reporter Ann Brewer;
Ithaca Journal Reporter Lauren Stanforth; Jody Marshall, Diane Hillman, Ann Stover.
Supervisor Austic called the meeting to order at 7 : 30 PM and led those assembled in the
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mr. Penniman moved seconded by Mr. Austic the approval of the previously reviewed
minutes of the February 10th Regular Town Board Meeting. Unanimously approved .
APPROVAL OF CLAIMS
Mr. Hillman moved seconded by Mr. Penniman to approve voucher numbers 62 through
107 in the amount of $25 ,054 . 05 . Unanimously approved .
REPRESENTATIVES REPORTS
County Board Representative Peter Meskill reported that since the last time he was
here he has asked the Chair of the Board to form a committee to look into the space needs
of the County Public Safety Building. This has been done and one meeting has taken
place. The committee is reviewing the different needs and the possible inadequacy of the
building . They hope to have a preliminary report back to the full board by September.
A budget committee meeting took place last Thursday and hope to have some
preliminary numbers on the 1997 Budget and how much surplus.
Mr. Penniman asked about the possible library expansion in the County and how it might
relate to the Ulysses Library or affect Ulysses or other rural libraries. Mr. Meskill stated
he was not sure how it could affect Ulysses. He does know that every thing the County
Library is looking at, so far, would affect the Finger Lakes Library System . Mr. Meskill
said that his sense is that it will be a slow process.
Mr. Penniman feels that Ulysses Library is expecting to get a lot more people and they
may be competing for the same people .
Trumansburg Fire Department
Representatives absent .
Mr. Austic did repeat his previous request that the Board needs figures on what the Fire
Department wants to do with the extra monies in the 1998 budget .
Mr. Meskill knows that the Department does need to replace a four-inch supply hose and
the other is the issue with the ambulance and going with a part time paid person.
Other
None heard.
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TOWN REPORTS
Highway Superintendent James Meeker reported that the new truck is ready to roll .
Plowed and salted as needed, cutting brush, doing some patching and cleaning up
roadsides and are starting to haul some stone.
Code Enforcement Officer Alex Rachun reported that two permits have been issued
one for a business and the other for an addition . The second meeting on the
Comprehensive Plan was last night and things are coming together The next meeting is
scheduled for March 19t at 7 : 15 PM .
Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia reported that a total of $822 . 50 was collected for the
month of February and $608 . 85 was turned over to the Supervisor along with the monthly
report . She has been working in the Records Room and purging files. Permission was
received from the Office of Court Administration for the destruction of the MV tickets
that had reach the retention period . The other records destroyed were records that had
reached the six-year or ten-year retention . These files were shredded . Three fireproof
files were donated, one to the Trumansburg Fire Department and two to the Ulysses
Historical Society . The shelves that were built are now full and the room is ready for
four more sections.
Committees and Board Members
Councilman Penniman reported that he had put together a draft Ethics Policy using
Tompkins County ' s copy. He has not compared it to the current Town of Ulysses ' s
policy . He suggests that the Board do so and revise it in the next couple of weeks. Table
it until next month .
The other thing is the Ulysses Home Page. A group met last Thursday and it was talked
about the updating of the information and redesiging the home page . Mark Scorelle is
willing to keep doing this for the Town but it would be less time consumming for him to
do it through EPIX. Epix is what we are using now for Internet and e-mail access. For
$26 . 95 the Town could get the four e-mail adresses they need, have unlimited service and
also have 6MG for Home Page use . This is a good price for this .
Mr. Penniman moved seconded by Mr. Hillman to upgrade the EPIX system to the
$26 . 95 system .
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Penniman aye
Mr. Hillman aye
Adopted .
Supervisor' s Financial Report presented by Supervisor Austic. Mr. Austic reviewed
and heard no questions .
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Austic presented the resolution given to the board at the February meeting that Ben
Curtis, Representative Cable Commission for the Board ' s endorsement . Mr. Curtis has
also report that the fee schedule has now been determined that it would be $2 per cable
subscriber . This would represent between $ 1100 to $ 1200 for the Town of Ulysses share .
Mr. Hillman moved secnded by Mr. Penniman the following;
Whereas The Tompkins County Intermunicipal Cable Commission was established to
maximize the advantages of intermunicipal cooperation in the regulation of cable
television by both avoiding duplication of effort and by increasing leverage through
strength in numbers ; and
Whereas the City of Ithaca is a member of the Commission; and
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Whereas the City of Ithaca with the largest subscriber base in the Tompkins County
cable system has significant interests in cable related issues over and beyond those of the
other municipalities in the County; and
Whereas the City has made the judgement that it will require the services of a
professional consultant in negotiating the renewal of its franchise agreement with Time-
Warner and has completed the selection process for such a consultant; and
Whereas the City has reaffirmed its commitment to maximizing the advantage of
intermunicipal cooperation and has requested that the other municipalities in the
Commission join the City in its contract with the selected consultant; and
Whereas the City, in consideration for its special interest in certain cable related issues,
has proposed to pay a disproportionately greater share of the cost of the consultant ' s
services such that the cost to any other municipality will not exceed 1 1/2 times the annual
franchise fee paid to that municipality by Time-Warner under their current franchise
agreement; and
Whereas the City has further proposed that the other participating municipalities will be
full partners in the negotiation process beginning with the formulation of a final scope of
work for the consultant,
Now, therefor, be it resolved that the Tompkins County Intermunicipal Cable
Commission support, in concept, entering into the joint contract for consultant services as
proposed by the City of Ithaca and recommends to its member municipalities that they
individually approve joining the contract; and
Provided that the concerns of the other municipalities (e. g. rates and line extensions)
will carry equal importance in negotiations; and
Provided that the other municipalities may vary the formula for determining the share of
the cost of the consultant paid by individual municipalities in order that each participating
municipality will pay some amount and participation will be affordable for all member
municipalities, but such that the share to be paid by the City will not be greater than as
determined using the formula proposed by the City.
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Penniman aye
Mr. Hillman aye
Adopted .
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Hillman stated that at the request of his constituents he spoke with the NYS Police
about the status of the satellite barracks. Apparently the County is offering a building
down on Rt . 96 . He had hoped that they could be moved further up this direction like
Jacksonville area but unless the Town is willing to supply them a space that will not
happen. However they seem really willing to come up here and set up some speed details
and also they would like to come to Board Meetings.
Mr. Hillman also talked with Dwight Mengel about the bus shelter in Jacksonville, the
condition, he offered gravel to prevent the mud getting in and around. He would supply
materials if someone would maintain it . Mr. Austic stated that the problem maybe that
the shelter is on private property belonging to Blue Ox and also the shelter is on the State
road right-of-way. The original agreement with the County was that they would
maintain.
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Mr. Meskill asked if it was just the mud problem people are concerned about or more?
Mr. Hillman said that and trash . Mr. Meskill will make a note of this because he has a
SWAP crew that may clean it up . He will make a call .
Mr. Hillman commented that in the spirit of the resolution that was addressed here about
Board Members speaking as Board Members that he plans on attending the Public
Hearing in Albany tomorrow regarding the effect of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
and its effect on local governments. This was at the request of Mr. Luster' s office. Mr.
Luster is a prime sponsor of the Brahman Bill that is currently in the Assembly . Mr.
Hillman is going with a group from Ulysses that will be talking. He will be testifying
about his experience running for Town Board and that as a Board Member, but not
speaking for the Town Board and he will make that real clear in his statement . Mr.
Hillman will be telling them that a part of the platform that he ran on was a responsible
application of this new technology, especially the use of existing structures and co-
location of providers so we can limit the total of numbers of new towers going up . Mr.
Hillman is also going to say that he believes that the application has had very negative
impact on the way our local town government has run . Mr. Austic asked how he could
say that . Mr. Hillman stated that he will bring up the December 30th, 1997 Town Board
Meeting where Greg Hoffmire was re-appointed . He believes that was unethical and
possibly illegal . Mr. Austic wonders why he would want to get into that at this Public
Hearing. Mr. Austic feels that if he wants to go and speak about towers that would be
fine. Mr. Hillman feels that this is the impact that this technology has on local
governments and it has caused all kinds of problems all over the country and we are a
case in point here. Mr. Hillman states that this is basically what he is going to limit his
testifying to . Mr. Austic feels that he should not get into anything about progress of the
lawsuit . Mr. Hillman stated that he did not know the progress of the lawsuit except that it
had been postponed at the request of the Town . Mr. Austic stated that it was not the
request of the Town. Mr. Austic stated that he should not get to carried away because he
thinks that this is Mr. Hillman ' s opinion because he feels that the tower didn 't affect a lot
or as much as you think. Mr. Austic feels the issue in Albany is, 'Do you want to change
the legislation at the Federal level?" Mr. Hillman feels that is going on in the House and
the Senate and the Brahman Bill is in the Assembly and hopefully out of this public
hearing will come sponsorship into the Senate . Also the group is hoping for the forming
of a statewide organization from the various citizens group around the state that are
working on this right now
Mr. Penniman stated that he has a question that is somewhat related and has to do with
the Comprehensive Plan. At times in the past we have talked about identifying
significant view sheds and designating certain areas where we wouldn 't want to have
towers or certain types of development .
Mr. Austic stated that at the last meeting this was talked about.
Mr. Rachun stated that he included in his recommendations the land that was already set
aside by the County or targeted by the County as a critical environmental area as well as
the Town designating their own. This should be taken into account but it is difficult
working with private property. Once designations are done then it would be a zoning
issue.
Mr. Hillman stated that the State has made designations in the Town of Ulysses as well .
He thinks the State only mentions Taughannock Park view shed and the County only
made two or three designations.
Mr. Penniman feels that as a general comment, anything that the Town does to strengthen
the regulations of the aesthetic issues and address in the zoning codes would only
strengthen our ability to regulate cellular towers. It is difficult to say one thing is an
aesthetics problem when the Town has not done anything about regulating pollution in
general .
Mr. Austic states that the problem is it is not only towers, that you have to worry about
houses and all kinds of stuff.
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Mr. Penniman agrees and thinks that it would be a pretty wide spectrum and be very
difficult and hard to determine which place has the most valuable view and then telling
the property owners they can not develop it .
HEARING OF INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS
Diane Hillman and Jody Marshall, residents from Jacksonville would like to know what
the current status is on water coming to Jacksonville . Mr. Austic said we were way down
on the bottom of the list for the State Grant Funding, nothing for this year. The next time
to apply would be next year, but he feels there is no hope for grant monies for drinking
water. Ms . Hillman stated that there are lots more than gas pollution, wells are to close to
septic, there is nitrate pollution etc. Mr. Austic stated that the study itself is going to be
expensive to see how much it would even cost to run water.
Mr. Penniman stated that if you look at the economics of running water from Ithaca, it
looks-Whim that you would have to have some very e
-cost. -Mi.-Austic-saysf iat there are State-studs that state that-the cost-can only be so
much per user in a district and it would be hard to get that cost down under that.
Ms. Hillman says that no matter where you come from for water a study would have to be
the first step .
Mr. Austic said it would probably cost $ 15 - $20 thousand to do a study and we would
have to come up with that money . It would be very nice to do this but also very
unpopular to raise taxes by $ . 50 or $ . 60 per thousand . This will have to be considered
come budget time. It' s possible to run the water but the question is can the people afford
it.
Ms Hillman just does not want it forgotten .
REQUEST FROM Highway Superintendent
Mr. Meeker requests a resolution from the Board to declare the ' 78 Mack truck as surplus
so he can take it the auction in Palmyra.
Mr. Penniman moved seconded by Mr. Hillman the following:
RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses hereby declares that
the ' 78 Mack truck surplus equipment and can be taken to the auction in Palmyra.
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Penniman aye
Mr. Hillman aye
Adopted .
CORRESPONDENCE
Mr. Austic reviewed the following correspondence:
Announcement of teleconference at Cooperative Extension
Municipal Officers meeting 3 /31 /98
SEQUA form from Black Diamond Trail (copies to Alex and Board)
Survey from the State Comptroller about computer set ups and what excess we have
Annual Report from Regional Southern Tier Planning Board
ADJOURNMENT
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Hearing no further business Mr. Penniman moved seconded by Mr. Hillman to adjourn
the meeting. Hearing no objection meeting was adjourned at 8 : 40 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha L. Georgia
Ulysses Town Clerk