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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