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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-11-10TOWN OF GROTON — MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2020 AT 7:30 PINI THE TOWN HALL, 101 CONGER BOULEVARD Town Officers Present: Donald F. Scheffler, SupenTisor Richard Gamel, Councilperson Crestal Young, Councilperson Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Michael Perkins, Highway Supt. April L. Scheffler, Town Clerk Charles Rankin, Bookkeeper Francis Casullo, Attorney Robin Cargian, Depute Town Clerk Town Officers Absent: Also Present: A. D. Dawson, Town Justice Bell Nelson Jolla Nonnan, Town Justice Ellard Keister W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Sara hnobel MOVED by Councilperson Ganlel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, to approve the minutes of the October 13, 2020 Town Board Meeting as presented. -dyes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Ganlel, Scheffler RESOLUTION 420-077 - APPROVE PAYMENT OF INVOICES MOVED by SupenTisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Young WHEREAS, vouchers for -abstract411, numbered 453 - 492 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 Florid Totals .1 GENERAL FIND 16.404.75 D_1 HIGHWAY FUND 38.118.33 DB H1GHNVA� FUNDPAKYTOWN 3.442.61 SL2- PF Rt l ILLS I.IGH I'ING DISI'RICI 9881 SLI- MCLEAN LIGHTNG DISTRICT 129 52 Total: 58,194.02 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. The invoice for zero dollars from the Health Insurance Consortium was Town Board Allnutes Page 2 November 10, 2020 received. The Highway fiend is still ver, close and they need to discuss where some budget adjustments can be made for the end of the year. RESOLUTION 420-078 - BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS MOVED be Supervisor Scheffler, seconded be Councilperson Clark RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the following 2020 Budget adjustments: Highwgy Town 144d.- From: Iade From: Contingence. D.X1990.4.................................................$5.000.00 Employee Benefits, Workmen's Compensation, DA9040.8......... 8,000.00 To: Machinery & Equipment. Personal Services. DA5130.1.............6,000.00 Snow Removal, Vacation. DA5142.11.................................7.000.00 Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer - Was not present but had submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. nlichael Perkins, Highway Superintendent - They have been busy ditching, replacing culvert pipes, shoulder repairs, hot patching, and brush trimming. Plowed snow last week and have a lot of salt and sand mixed for the winter program. Councilperson Clark - Reported that on the East side of Town a good job has been done up there with the roadside trimming and it is better than he's seen in mane moons. Keeping the roadsides up protects the edge of the road and they are doing a good job. April L. Scheffler, RMC, Town Clerk/Tax Collector - Submitted monthly reports for the Board's review. Pictures of Country _acres Pet Service's remodeling of their kennels had been presented to the Board. She asked if the Board wanted to extend the deadline for payment of taxes for senior citizens as they have done in the past. RESOLUTION 420-079 - EXTEND DEADLINE TO PAY TAXES WITHOUT PENALTY FOR SENIOR CITIZENS MOVED be Supervisor Scheffler, seconded be Councilperson Klumpp RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby authorizes the extension of five business days for the payment of taxes in full, without interest or penalty, to Town of Groton resident senior citizens who receive either the Enhanced STAR Exemption or a Senior Exemption on their principal residence within the Town of Groton. Said extension shall apple to their principal residence only. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Town Board Allnutes Page 3 November 10, 2020 Francis Casulto, Attorney for the Town - Last month the Board had received a letter from Judge Dawson stating his intent to retire/resign on January 2, 2021. A week ago, an email was received notifying the Board that be was withdrawing his planned resignation and intends to continue his teen, which ends December 31. 2023. Attorney Casullo stated that Public Officer's Law requires a town justice to resign to the Town Clerk and the Chief Administrative Judge. Since the original letter stated that be was planning to retire/resign, the Town Clerk did not accept and file it as an actual letter of resignation or make any notifications to the State and County Boards of Election. Additionally, the Town Board did not take any action. Since it was not an actual resignation. Judge Dawson continues on with his teen. John J. Norman and A. D. Dawson, Town Justices - Were not present. Councilperson Crestal Young as Representative to Joint Youth Program — Had nothing to report. Ben Nelson, Groton Fire Chief - We have 857 total calls for the year. Fire calls have picked up a little with a pile of leaves on fire and a brush fire. We did have Halloween. The chicken barbeque went well, followed by the trick -or -treating. We're going to try and do something for Santa Claus coming to town. Whether he's been restricted by COVID. I'm not sure yet, but we're going to try and do something. Lastly, the President of the McLean Fire Department Board of Commissioners, Mike Totman, passed away on Saturday. Chief Denny Carr will be filling in until elections nest month. Councilperson Klumpp - Asked if there was any activity concerning the new fire station and Mr. Nelson said that there has been some discussion and they are working on the numbers. Supervisor Scheffler - There has been a small change in the 2021 Preliminary Budget having to do with the McLean Fire District. It does not affect the Town's budget or the tax cap. McLean Fire District levies its own taxes and we just collect the taxes for them. The Bookkeeper had provided updated pages to the Preliminary Budget reflecting the minor changes for the McLean Fire District. After discussion, the Board and Bookkeeper said that they saw no other changes that needed to be made to the Preliminary Budget. RESOLUTION 420-080 - ADOPT FISCAL YEAR 2021 TOWN BUDGET MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby adopts the Fiscal Year 2021 Town Budget as presented. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Supervisor Scheffler - We have an update on the Hazard Mitigation Plan. Robin Cargian, Ellard Meister, Dan Carey, Rick Fritz and I have been working on this. Robin and Ellard filled out these action worksheets. We have to have two actions planned and we have three. So, we are moving ahead with that. One is a new salt shed, one is a large culvert that needs changing on Clark Street Extension, and the third is emergency shelter options. We are working with the Town Board Allnutes Page 4 November 10, 3030 school, houses of worship, and any other place we can find and also maybe some storage for supplies and planning. Robin do you want to add any more to that? Robin Cargian - No, you did great. It has to be in by the 131h, so we need the numbers. Rick, that you had on the salt shed. Privilege of the Floor Sara Knobel - I'm here to ask you to reconsider. I wasn't here at the last meeting and I'm not sure who was but I think it was the Mayor, who asked about the use of one of the garages. I thought be was at a meeting, but I could be wrong. I beard it was voted down, so I'm asking you to reconsider. I have some infornation and the third page talks about Tompkins County statistics. What they do, the Food Bank comes once a month for four hours. It's the first Thursday from 8:30 to 12:30. In October, we handed out 17.500 pounds of food. It's enough food to feed a family of two for a month. It's meat, dairy, vegetables, fruit. The vegetables and fruit are all fresh. We didn't have milk, but we did have eggs. So, it's a lenge amount, and without a grocery store, it costs us nothing. We have to provide volunteers and last time we had 20. The Mayor was there. I think it's just a great opportunity and I'd hate to see us lose it. I'd love it if we could try it one month. I don't know what the issues were. I heard one of them was insurance. The Food Bank does have liability insurance. I could share that with Chris Dempsey. Councilperson Gamel - Where did you do this before? nls. Knobel - We did it at the pavilion in October, and we might be able to do it there in December. Sometimes December's not too bad, but if it's snowy and blizzardly.... Mike Perkins - Chris (the Mayor) came to see me and we talked about it a little bit and I put some thought into it and with snow and things like that coming on, it's really not feasible for us with trucks coming in and out of here and having to shut things down and not being able to take care of the roads. Liability is a big thing and with trucks in out and the extra traffic, it could be really hazardous. Supervisor Scheffler - It's not really a safe way to do it. I think the insurance thing came from me when I said I thought it was a horrible liability. We have a great bunch of men here and they're safety -conscious, but with people driving through the building and walkers, they're just not going to see a baby carriage parked behind one of these trucks when they back up. We don't want anybody to get hurt. Councilperson Young - Let's go back to what your thoughts were because it never did come to the Board. It was just a conversation between some people. But if I understand it correctly, from what I hear, you were thinking that the doors would be open and people would be able to drive through the third bay, drive through and leave. In December there could be blizzard conditions and keeping those doors open for that amount of time....... nls. Knobel - Well, if there's a blizzard, they'll cancel. Councilperson Young - I think also, like Mike and Don were saying the safety for the trucks constantly going in and out of this parking lot, with cars going through, you could put cones up but people aren't going to pay attention to that. Unless you have several volunteers directing traffic and making sure that they're following that traffic line, it could be a potential hazard. nls. Knobel - That they do. They have the cones, vest and flags. But I'm guessing that if there's a blizzard and the roads are bad, they're not going to come. Town Board Allnutes Page S November 10, 3030 Councilperson Young - The reason you don't want to have it at the pavilion during the winter is because of the access and the exposure? Ms. Hnobel - The exposure. If the weather's not bad, we'll do it there. But if it's 20 degrees or 0. I don't know that we'd get a lot of volunteers to come out and work it. Councilperson Clark - What about at the Legion pavilion out back? Ms. Hnobel - They wanted to see what you were going to say first. Several Board members continent that the Legion would be a good circular drive-through area for it. Supervisor Scheffler said that the Town Hall area is tight in the back. They are worried about trucks going in and out and also the diesel fumes. Councilperson Young - It's not that we don't support it. We certainly support it. We just don't think this would be a great environment for people to be safe. But we certainly support it and would like to see it happen. Ms. Hnobel - Well all I could do is ask. Ellard Heister - I don't want to reiterate anNqhing Mike already said. We're going to be done paving and patching. The blacktop plant closes this week. With that, we got the last of our cross -overs done that we needed to do for paving on Sovocool Hill Road next year. One thing that came to our attention at this time is that I contacted the bus garage to let them know that we'd have that road closed and try to get a head count on the buses through there and work with them the best we can. We now have instead of two bus nuns, we now have five to deal with. We experienced it last Monday and we'll be going through it all winter. We'll have a lot more to deal with out there. All the traffic is important to us, but we take a lot of priority in school buses and now they're not stopping all day long. There will be a lot more wear and tear on the trucks and the guys. With our crew, we're at frill capacity and will just keep doing what we do. Also, I'd like to say a very sincere thank you to Robin and April for all the help they give us all the time in that front office because without them we'd be in a lot of trouble. Announcements: Planning Board Meeting, November 19 at 7:30pm No Zoning Board of Appeals meeting this month There being no further business. Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Young, at 8:O1pm. Unanimous. April L. Seheffler, RMC, Town Clerk