HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-04-14 - TB 313
TOWN OF ULYSSES
REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING
APRIL 14, 1998
PRESENT : Supervisor Douglas Austic, Councilpeople Carolyn Duddleston, Robert
Weatherby and Peter Penniman, Councilman Andrew Hillman absent, James Meeker
Highway Superintendent, Alex Rachun Code Enforcement Officer, Marsha Georgia
Town Clerk.
Others Present : Tompkins County Board Representative Peter Meskill, Sue Poelvoorde
Supervisor Austic called the meeting to order 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 minutes of the Regular
Town Board Meeting of March 10th, 1998 . Hearing no objections or changes (Mr.
Penniman does have some spelling errors he will show the Clerk. ) the minutes were
unanimously approved .
APPROVAL OF CLAIMS
After examination of vouchers # 108-# 160 for a total of $29711 . 91 Mr. Penniman moved
seconded by Mrs. Duddleston for approval for payment . Unanimously approved .
REPRESENTATIVES REPORTS
County Board Representative Peter Meskill reported that at the last Public Safety
meeting they heard a presentation from the Director of Probation and the Commissioner
of Social Services regarding the SWAP Program and the running around of the SWAP as
a service work program and welfare work people working together. (The apparent so-
called problem was that it is run by probation and the welfare workers felt they were
being treated like criminals. ) As the program went on it came out that what some people
in the division had thought was not happening and the program does seem to be working
well . They are going to survey the people involved with the program and report back in
60 to 90 days and make sure it is working as smoothly as they reported to them .
Mr. Meskill asked if there had been any progress on the re-numbering of Iradell Road .
Mrs. Georgia stated that some progress has been made but she did admit that she was
having a difficult time re-numbering or going back to the three digit numbers because
after it is all done it will still be wrong. She also feels that a higher percentage of
residents do not want this done. Mrs . Georgia asked if the other two towns involved had
been asked by Mr. Meskill to revise their numbers . He stated that no he had approached
them. Mrs. Georgia was disappointed that all three towns had not gotten together and
solved this. Mrs. Georgia volunteered to do the entire road in four digit numbers, as she
feels is the correct way.
Mr. Meskill reminded the Town Board that they had passed a resolution that this would
be done. Mrs. Georgia went on record that she was never in favor of doing this change,
especially in this manner.
Trumansburg Fire Department
No one in attendance from the fire department . Mr. Meskill did remind the Board of the
up coming banquet .
Black Diamond Trail - Representative Sue Poelvoorde from the NYS Parks
Department handed out some maps. She reported that they have been working on this
56\
Town of Ulysses 2
Regular Board Meeting
4- 14-98
project for some years . A little background is that they have been working on this project
since 1970 and talking about trails connecting the State Parks across NYS . They starting
looking at a project to connect the State Parks located within Tompkins County. There
have been several starts and stops with the project . Back in the early nineties the Finger
Lakes State Parks Region applied for a Federal Transportation Grant and they received a
grant of 70% match for the trail project in Tompkins County. Taking off from there they
have started working on the project and what Sue has been doing for the past year and a
half is sending letters out to all the adjacent properties along the abandoned railroad
corridor, which is where the trail is intended to go, between Ithaca and Taughannock. It
may go all the way to Trumansburg but the main goal is to get folks out to Taughannock.
The letters that went out requested the property owners to contact Sue and let them know
when they would be available to express their issues or concerns and ideas on the trail .
Over 110 letters were sent out and so far she has heard from over half of those folks and
has spoken to them in person or on the phone. So far she is very pleased with the
outcome . A lot of folks are very supportive of. The 53 people that she has met with or
spoken to, there are six that are deadly opposed to the trail or they are opposed for other
reasons than that they just live next to it . They just don't think money should be spent on
it and that kind of thing. Overwhelmingly, people do like the idea of the trail , they may
have some concerns with respect to keeping the vegetation or can it be increased or can
fencing be done along their property. These things will be worked out . That is the main
goal of the meetings to find out how the people want to interface with the trail . Sue will
continue to work on the actual physical plan for the trail for the next couple of months .
With respect to the Town there will be road crossings along the trail corridor and the
State will want to make sure that all the Town roads that we have the adequate signs and
work that out with the Highway Superintendent . DOT will tell them what kind of signs .
The trail travel lane will be eight foot wide, with two-foot wide grass shoulders on each
side and looking at a fine stone dust cover on travel lane. A non-motorized trail . There
will be patrolling .
The total grant for this project is $ 850,000 and 70% of that will be Federal monies and
30% will be state funded under different programs that they have . The total expected
cost would probably be around $ 1 . 5 million.
The Board thanked Sue for coming. Proposed Trail corridor on file.
TOWN REPORTS
Highway Superintendent James Meeker reported that they plowed and salted as
needed . Helped Enfield out with hauling crusher run, pulling salt boxes off the trucks
this week. Raking up sod and cleaning up roadsides. Patched all their roads and cleaning
ditches . He needs a resolution from the Town Board to state that the 1954 air compressor
can be consigned to the auction .
Mr. Weatherby moved seconded by Mrs. Duddleston the following:
RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses consigns the 1954 Air
Compressor to the auction.
Mr. Austic aye
Mrs . Duddleston aye
Mr. Penniman aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Adopted .
Code Enforcement Officer Alex Rachun reported that three permits were issued one
BZA hearing for an area variance for an addition on a house. No application for the
tower was received .
A)Q
Town of Ulysses 3
Regular Board Meeting
4- 14-98
Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia reported that for the month of March a total of
$2,794 . 20 was collected in fees and of that $2, 550 . 23 was turned over to the Supervisor
along with the monthly report .
She had attended a meeting held by the Tompkins County Assessment Department on the
changes to take place on the tax bills for 1999 . Due to the new STAR exemption some
changes will take place. One of them will be the mailing out of receipts to all of the
escrow holders. The bill itself will change. One of the things that it will have to show is
the exact saving the taxpayer will save with the STAR exemption .
Mrs. Georgia reported that everyone that is on Blue Cross Blue Shield have signed on to
the new insurance PUP and all the paper work has been completed . Blue Cross has been
notified that we are canceling coverage as of May 1st when PHP takes effect . The only
retiree that could not go on PHP is Rolf Holtkamp and he has been able to be covered
under his wife ' s insurance. Mr. Holtkamp will now elect to be reimbursed, up to a $ 1000
a year, under the Town' s personnel policy.
Mrs. Georgia informed the Board of an idea of covering part of one wall in the
conference room for a permanent type bulletin board, which would also help the
acoustics in the room. She also pointed out the maps that were purchased but that do
need installing on the walls. The 1835 map of Tompkins County needs to be restored .
Mr. Rachun suggested that maybe some of the grant money is used for this.
Committees and Board Members, Carolyn Duddleston reviewed the Recreation
Partnership Board proposed by-laws, the 1998-work plan, and the 1997 registrations .
Ulysses participation in the programs was about equal to 1996 .
Peter Penniman reported that Community Links met and they are talking with SPEAK-
Up and trying to explore a community center. The next meeting is Tuesday night at the
high school . They will be looking into grants. The other thing is the home page. The
Town could not switch to EPIX due to the price. Mark Scorelle will continue to do the
up-grades through the use of John Levine ' s server. Mr. Austic would like to see a
counter on how many view the page.
Mr. Austic reported that the Master Plan Committee has been meeting every week. At
the last meeting he asked them to get a schedule out as to when the plan would be ready
for a public hearing. He would like to have it available for June or July. Mr. Austic
stated that the committee feels that a moratorium on commercial business for four to six
months would be advisable. Just in the zones where there will be changed.
Supervisor' s Financial Report Mr. Austic reviewed the financial report. The board
asked about the Justice Clerk line in the budget . The Board feels that they should keep a
handle on this.
OLD BUSINESS
No Old Business heard .
NEW BUSINESS
Street Lighting for Cayuga Nature Center
Mr. Austic is in receipt of a memo from Roger Rector who is a member of the board at
Cayuga Nature Center. The Nature Center would like a street light . Mr. Austic has
checked with DOT and they say that they don't handle this that it would be up to the
Town Board . NYSEG will not bill the Nature Center but will only bill the Town . It is up
to the Town to decide. The Board has some further questions that they would like
answered .
\-\\
Town of Ulysses 4
Regular Board Meeting
4- 14-98
Carpeting, Cabinets for Town Hall
Mr. Austic reviewed the estimates for the carpet for the conference room, justice office
and half of the town clerk ' s office. He has also gotten an estimate on cabinets for the
kitchen area. The carpet is $ 1365 and the cabinets are $400 . Mr. Austic suggested that
this get done. He also reported that Dave Allen would be starting the landscaping next
week.
Mr. Penniman moved seconded by Mrs . Duddleston to purchase the carpet and install the
cabinets.
Mr. Austic aye
Mrs . Duddleston aye
Mr. Penniman aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Adopted.
Other New Business
No other new business heard .
HEARING OF INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS
Mr. Bruce Babcock is here tonight telling the Board of his difficulty in paying his taxes .
He would like to know if there is anyway of getting things changed for installment
paying or for an exemption for the disabled .
Mrs. Georgia explained the process of the installment payment under NYS Real Property
Tax Law. It is out of her hands after January 31st. Many people ask about partial
payment but if they were taken what a bookkeeping nightmare if people never paid the
balance.
Mr. Babcock does have a mortgage and it was suggested to him to maybe establish a
escrow account.
Mr. Austic understands where he is coming from but the Board has no control, nor does
the tax collector. Mr. Austic will be glad to help him talk with the State.
CORRESPONDENCE
Mr. Austic reviewed the correspondence . He will put everything in the conference room
for anyone to go over if they would like to .
He did receive information from the State Comptroller that they are going to have the
court office pay directly to the Supervisor the monthly fees collected and then the
Supervisor will wait for the State to bill the Town, pay the State and the Town will keep
the balance . This will get the monies faster to the Town instead of waiting for payment
each quarter.
There is a Public Service meeting in Binghamton on Cable on the 12th of May if anyone
is interested .
There is an announcement of spraying for weed control from NYS DOT throughout the
county for the month of April .
ADJOURNMENT
Hearing no further business Mrs . Duddleston moved seconded by Mr. Weatherby to
adjourn the meeting, hearing no objection the meeting was adjourned at 9 : 25 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha L. Georgia
Ulysses Town Clerk