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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-07-14-TB to TOWN OF ULYSSES REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING JULY 14, 1998 PRESENT: Supervisor Douglas Austic; Councilpeople Carolyn Duddleston and Andrew Hillman . Councilman Robert Weatherby and Peter Penniman absent. Highway Superintendent James Meeker; Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia . Others Present : Tompkins Co . Representative Peter Meskill ; Free Press Reporter Ann Brewer; Rebecca Hicks; Ronald Shaw; Thomas Parkin ; Warren Brown ; Ann Stover; Thomas Reitz; Jim White and Liz Thorndike . Supervisor Austic called the meeting to order at 7 : 30 Pm and lead those assembled in the Pledge of Alligiance to the Flag of the United States of America . APPROVAL OF MINUTES : JUNE 2ND SB June 9t Regular Board Mtg . Hearing no changes of corrections of the previous reviewed mintutes, Mrs . Duddleston moved seconded by Mr. Hillman to approve the mintues of the Special Board Meeting of June 2nd and the Regular Board Meeting of June 9th Unanimiosly approved . APPROVAL OF MONTHLY CLAIMS Mr. Austic asked if any changes were to be made on the claims numbers 228 through 270 in the amount of $ 17, 144 . 10 that the Board reviewed . Hearing none Mr . Hillman moved seconded-by Mrs . Duddleston to approved claims for payment. Unanimisly approved . REPORTS OF REPRESENTATIVES County Board Representative Peter Meskill reported that they are just getting into the budget season now . All of the department heads have been request to submitt their budgets and he believes that they have and the administration has them . They will go through them and than the budget committee will review . That will be a three to four week process . Also Mr . Meskill wants to request the Town Board to pass a resolution to allow the County to post " No Parking' on Falls Road and Halseyville Road during the Grassroots Festival to make a better and safer traffic flow . Mrs . Duddleston moved seconded by Mr . Hillman the following ; WHEREAS Tompkins County Board Representative Peter Meskill asked the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses to pass a resolution to allow the Tompkins County Highway Department to post ' No Parking " Falls Road, from July 22nd through July 27th, as per the request of the State Police . SO THEREFOR BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses supports the posting of " No Parking " on both sides of Falls Road from Duddleston Road up to Cemetery Road . FURTHER RESOLVED to also post " No Parking " on Route 96 from the Village limits to the Halseyville Bridge on both sides and including " No Parking " on Town of Ulysses ^-'2� Regular Board Meeting 7- 14-98 Halseyville Road from the corner of Route 96 to the Jenny Creek bridge on both sides . This posting to take effect July 22"d, 1998 through July 27th, 1998 . Mr . Austic aye Mrs . Duddleston aye Mr . Hillman aye Adopted . Trumansburg Fire Department No one in attendance . TOWN REPORTS Highway Superintendent James Meeker reported that they have been cutting brush on Rice Road, Brook Road , Terrell Road, and Iradell Road . Cleaning ditches on Iradell . Starting to haul in more stones, mowing roadsides for the second time . Cleaned out the lot on Halseyville Road Code Enforcement Officer Alex Rachun was absent and no report handed in . Mr . Austic did state that the permit revenue is over for the year so that we are ahead of what was anticipated . Town Clerk Marsha Georgia reported that the total fees collected for June was $ 1362 . 50 and of that $772 . 23 was turned over to the Supervisor along with the monthly report. License supplies for the 1998 — 1999 hunting seasons have been arriving for the start of the sales prior to the Deer Management application deadline of September 11th, 1998 . Mrs . Georgia introduced Warren Brown who had contacted her to donate his • time to help her work on a census report of addresses . Mr. Warren stated that the Census Bureau is in the process of preparing to do the census for the year 2000 . March of 2000 they will be mailing out questionnaires to every household . So they are asking each local municipality to review the mailing list as they have it currently. They will be sending that list out around August 1st. We will have three months to look it over and make any additions or changes to get a complete account as possible . Mr. Warren has been a resident for two years and he works at Cornell in this type of data and he called Marsha and volunteered to help out. Board Members and / or Committees Mr. Hillman reported that he and Doug had chaperoned the eighth grade school dance one evening . Mrs. Duddleston reported that the Recreation Partnership is still working on their budget but that it is hard without knowing what will be coming in . The last two months they have spent on the by-laws . When finished she will share with the Board . Mr. Reitz reported as a representative to the Transportation Committee . The one project that would be in Ulysses is the bridge replacement on Rt. 89 just passed Glenwood Pines Rest. Will be some major detouring . Supervisor's Financial Report - Mr. Austic distributed copies and explained . No questions heard . Town of Ulysses 3 Regular Board Meeting 7- 14-98 OLD BUSINESS Colegrove Road Ditch ( Reitz June 9th Meeting ) Mr. Austic stated that he has talked with the Attorney for the Town Bruce Wilson and Highway Superintendent James Meeker about the ditch on Colegrove Road that Mr. Reitz asked about at the last Board Meeting . Mr. Meeker has determined that there is no danger to the Town property or no danger to any other residents in that area . Attorney Wilson advises that the Town remains with their policy that we do not get into doing things off the Town right-of-way unless there are these dangers . So therefore Mr. Austic told Mr . Reitz that he could not justify going in and fixing the ditch . Mr . Reitz stated that he has pin pointed both the locations on the adjoining property lines and part of the ditch, he believes, falls on the Town of Ulysses Highway Department property . However he also would like to ask if the Town feels any responsibility about over the last fifty years dumping all the sand in the ditches that wash down and plug up the ditch downstream , although it is off the Town property . Also he asked the same question at the Transportation Council meeting of other State, County and Town highway people, and they simply said get a release from the property owners and the Town could go in there and in a couple of hours clean it up . It is not a big major deal . The sole purpose of this ditch is to drain the road . He says that he has checked with another neighbor that has lived there since the nineteen fifties and they said that the ditch was there at that time . Mr. Austic stated that he is not debating that and it probably has been . It is up to the Highway Superintendent Mr . Meeker. Mr. Meeker stated that it is one of those deals . He understands where he is coming from . He does not know who put the ditch in . He stated that if you picture that the road is not there, than where would the water go? The way the ground is and the water shed up on Rt. 96 and across the road , even if the road and culvert pipe were not there the water would still go there . When the highway was built they bridged wherever the low spots were by putting a culvert pipe in to allow the water to pass through under the road . Now who put the ditch in he has no idea . All they did was deal with the water problem when they were building the road . Mr . Reitz stated that this ditch is a man made ditch . He has pictures that show that they are Town culvert pipes . Mr. Meeker stated that his jurisdiction is 25 feet from the center of the road . That water goes down there and it is a low area , swampy area and it just spreads out. When you have water that slows down it silts . The flow of the water will change because of vegetation growth . This is a fact of Mother Nature and the may she works . He does not know that he can spend tax dollars on going down through there and cleaning that out . Mr. Reitz again stated that the sole purpose of this ditch is to drain the road . He asked if the property owners could fill the ditch? That could destroy the ditch . Mr. Meeker stated that you could not damage the highway . The highway is not producing that water. Mother Nature is producing that water. (2\ Town of Ulysses 4 Regular Board Meeting 7- 14-98 Mr. Reitz argued this point. He stated that he looked in his deed and found no deeded right-of-way to the Town . Mr. Meeker replied that if there was a deeded right-of-way he could go and clean it up, but when it is private property he can not. If he did it for one he would have to do it for anyone that requested it. He will look at the ditch that is on the Town property and see if there is anything he can do, but he will not go over on private property, but it is very wet there and could be a problem getting any equipment in there . Mr. Meeker has previously discussed this with the attorney and was told that each property owner is responsible for a ditch that crosses his property and is not a government problem . Mr. Reitz continued feeling that it is a Town problem . He stated that he would have to talk with his neighbors and see if they wanted to file a lawsuit. Supervisor Austic and Highway Superintendent Meeker feels he has to do what he feels he has to do . The Town's Attorney advises the Town and specifically says "if it is dangering the highway within the right-of-way you have the responsibility to go and clean it to make the water flow, but if not you are not to be off the right-of-way. " Supervisor Austic repeated that the decision is not to fix the ditch on private property. We have to stay with Town policy. There is a limit as what can be done . Mr. Reitz asked if any of the Board members would like to visit the site . Mr. Hillman stated that he would . Other Old Business Mr. Reitz reported that the Jacksonville Community Association has adopted the " Bus Shelter" in Jacksonville to maintain it with a contract with the County Transportation . NEW BUSINESS Mr. Austic asked if anyone had any new business to discuss? Mr. Reitz asked if the Village had brought up the idea of reducing the speed limit from the Village limits to the Halseyville Bridge? He wanted , to know if the Town would also support a request to the State DOT to do this . . Mr. Austic stated that the Town could request it. But seldom do they lower the limit. e: Town of Ulysses 5 7C Regular Board Meeting 7- 14-98 they realized, with the passing of the Environmental Bond Act, that Cayuga Lake was the only one of the eleven Finger Lakes that did not have any kind of a lake wide association or watershed wide group . In order to get funding from the Bond Act, for all kinds of good things for the towns and villages, the State requires that there is some evidence that the Watershed has their act together. In other words to get the most out of the money, whether it is sewage treatment or water lines or agricultural improvements, they want to be sure that the Watershed has thought about ways of providing , keeping cost downs and so forth . That was the main thing that got them going . They are going to have their first annual meeting . She handed out fliers that have an invitation for the annual meeting and an additional flier that tells about the network. They were not started to oppose anything but the motivation of the realization to make sure that Cayuga Lake got their fair share of the funding that is available they thought they should get their act together. It is a citizens based group but they would like to get all of the towns in the watershed to join . They feel the price is right at $35 a year for membership . They will be producing a newsletter to keep everyone informed about opportunities around the lake, activities that are going on, problems that are being faced, etc . Everyone works together around the lake. In case you did not know, Cayuga Lake is the largest of the eleven Finger Lakes . It is 722 square miles and there are 40 towns and villages and 6 counties . August 15th is the first annual meeting and they would very much like to have as many of the town's representatives and residents to attend . They would very much like the Town to become a member of the Network. The Board thanks Mrs . Thorndike and Mr. White for coming . CORRESPONDENCE Mr. Austic reviewed the correspondence . He will leave in the conference room for anyone to review that would like to . ADJOURNMENT Hearing no further business Mr. Hillman moved seconded by Mrs . Duddleston to adjourn the meeting . Hearing no objection the meeting was adjourned at 8 : 20 PM . Respectfully submitted, Marsha L. Georgia