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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-06-13TB 6-13-19 Page 1 of 6 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING June 13, 2019 Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Linda Lavine, Cl Kathrin Servoss, Cl Alice Green Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Rick Young, Highway/DPW Superintendent Other Town Staff: Jennifer Case, Bookkeeper Ryan McHugh, Secretary to Town Supervisor Supv Leifer opened the meeting at 6:08 p.m. Abstract Approval RESOLUTION #100 (2019) – APPROVE ABSTRACT #6 Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract #6, as audited, general vouchers #374 through #461 ($202,729.65) and TA vouchers #44 through #46 ($4,606.58), totaling $207,336.23. 2nd Cl Lamb Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes Cl Green Yes Cl Servoss Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Arbitration Settlement Board members have an email communication from the town attorney. Supv Leifer recommends settling this matter for $3,500. RESOLUTION #101 (2019) – SETTLE ARBITRATION MATTER Cl Lavine offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board agrees to settle the current arbitration matter for the sum of $3,500.00 in full and final settlement and authorizes the Town Supervisor to execute any associated documents. 2nd Cl Servoss Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes Cl Green Yes Cl Servoss Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes TB 6-13-19 Page 2 of 6 Recreation Partnership By-Laws This Town Board previously voted to approve proposed changes in the Rec Partnership’s by-laws. After that, there were some slight changes and the Rec Partnership has asked that the member municipalities approve them again. Cl Green said she has reviewed them and sees no issues. RESOLUTION #102 (2019) – APPROVE RECREATION PARTNERSHIP BY-LAWS Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the proposed changes in the by - laws of the Recreation Partnership as most recently presented. 2nd Cl Green Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Yes Cl Green Yes Cl Servoss Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Bridge NY Updates The town has received a letter from the state allowing the George Road Bridge project to be advertised for bid. It has been posted to the Contract Reporter, advertised in The Ithaca Journal and is on town’s website. The due date is July 2 and bids will be opened publicly at 10:00 a.m. Freese Road Bridge The board needs to approve the draft findings document (received earlier today) so it can be sent to the state. The document explains why the preferred the alternative the Town has chosen and why the others are not feasible or prudent. Cl Lavine is concerned about a cost overrun and if there is one, how will it be handled? The town is responsible for anything over the grant amount. Supv Leifer said the town will talk with the County about it because the County has saved substantially by the town receiving the grant. The project is not yet at final design or ready to go to bid. The County has said they will pay the local share but have not voted on it yet. Cl Lavine said she would want an option to not afford a two-lane bridge. Cl Lamb noted the document is a good summary of the project, well written to read and understand and summarizes the town’s actions and thought processes to date. He is hopeful they see things our way. Supv Leifer noted this option would not involve taking land from property owners. The statement makes a strong case for the town. RESOLUTION #103 (2019) – APPROVE DRAFT FINDINGS DOCUMENT FOR FREESE ROAD BRIDGE Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the draft Findings Document for Freese Road over Fall Creek Bridge. 2nd Cl Lamb Roll Call Vote Cl Lavine Abstain Cl Green Yes TB 6-13-19 Page 3 of 6 Cl Servoss Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes COUNTY BRIEFING Mike Lane said 2020 budget work is underway for the County. They are about to announce the appointment of a Veterans Service Officer. It will be a good thing for the over 5,000 veterans in the County. We have not had a focused person since the state withdrew its officer that was stationed in Ithaca. There is a veterans medical facility near NYSEG and this will compliment that. Cortland County’s budget committee passed TC3’s request for a 5% increase in the sponsor allocation for their share of the college’s budget. Tompkins County will support an increase also. Enrollment at the college continues to be down. The Complete Count Committee for the census met this morning. They hope to have a large meeting in early August and invite interested people for a presentation. There will be the ability to complete the census by phone instead of online. If people don’t respond at all, they will send someone out to ask the questions personally. There is only a short form questionnaire this time. They are unsure whether the citizenship question will cause a problem with the large immigrant population in Tompkins County. There was an editorial in last night’s Cortland Standard about the Freese Road Bridge. The editorial says it is probably time for a new modern bridge. M Lane explained that the County had seen the Town’s receipt of the BridgeNY grants as a substantial savings for the county taxpayers that they would cover the local cost. Their Highway Manager would like to wait until the actual figures come in before making a recommendation. With respect to the Route 13 Corridor Study, the committee has conducted interviews for a consultant. The committee is focused in on one candidate and is working on a contract with the preferred candidate. M Lane suggested that the board look at Livermore Road and consider a street light at the intersection with Route 392. He was pleased to learn that the road will be striped this year. A lot of people use the road to the dorms that are not familiar with country roads. He’d like the town to consider better signage, the street light, striping and those kinds of things. LED Streetlights Cl Green explained the town received a notice months ago to be part of a consortium of other Tompkins County municipalities to work with the NY Power Authority. We needed to supply NY Power Authority with copies of our electric to do the same kind of workup that NYSEG has done so that we could compare whether we would like to have our LED streetlight conversion by NYSEG (who would retain ownership of the street lights) versus the offer made by the NY Power Authority. That would involve the towns purchasing the streetlights. NYPA is hoping to complete the analysis of who will be together in the consortium in TC and the cost will be based on the number of lights. She hopes to have the data by next meeting to make the comparison between NYSEG and NYPA. TB 6-13-19 Page 4 of 6 Both Freeville & Dryden Villages will join the consortium. CL Green said she understands there more ability to adjust the lights down at certain times of year with NYPA. She doesn’t think NYSEG offers that, but they will compare the two. The cost to the town will go to lighting districts the streetlights are located in. NYPA has been authorized to help with financing. TAP Agreement/Rail Trail John Kiefer explained that at a meeting in Syracuse they learned about the scope that needs to be included in the agreement. One component is a budget model, tied in to how the costs split and how Dryden provides its match. Perhaps we aren’t ready to sign that agreement yet. The agreement has been sent to the town attorney for review and after discussion, the board decided this will be on the agenda next week. J Kiefer said he believes there needs to be an update to the funding plan because they learned things at the meeting that were different than what the funding plan assumed. The board needs to be aware of and be confident of what it is getting into. It seems the next thing is to present an update to the board or a subcommittee. Ambulance Rates Supv Leifer said he met with Bill Ackroyd and Kevin Westcott a few weeks ago about the struggles they are having. There is a crisis with ambulance services staying properly funded across the state. A lot of it has to do with the Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement and the amounts they write off. In order have a competitive pay to get people to stay and maintain enough people to man the ambulances, they will need to cover the shortfalls. Dryden Ambulance is asking the board to revisit the current rate structure and the contract. K Westcott said several factors play into their shortfall. He distributed the attached information and reviewed with the board the 2018 and year to date current payer mix. The ambulance service automatically loses money on the Medicare patients. A certain amount of self-pay/no insurance is written off each year because it cannot be collected . They would like to revisit and renegotiate the current contract for another $290,000. They are not looked at as a career (not considered an essential service) and are losing paramedics to the nursing, fire and police professions. They currently have 8 full time paramedics and are looking to try to expand that out into their basic population. Bringing the basics on full time may encourage them to stay, but to do that they will need to increase hourly rates and add benefits. The board will consider an increase in the current contract at budget time. With respect to retention, K Westcott said to feed the program they need to have classes. Rescues in the area are short on manpower. It would help the ambulance and the town by offering collaborative CFR class. The expense would be $5,000 regardless of the number of people who take it. They are hoping to fill the rescues with CFRs. That may in turn encourage people to look at EMS as a career. He asked the town to consider funding that class in the fall. Dryden Ambulance may be able to contribute toward the cost. Supv Leifer will determine where the funds may come from and the board could vote formally at next week’s meeting. K Westcott will send details to the Supervisor so a resolution can be crafted. TB 6-13-19 Page 5 of 6 Etna Fire Funding Request Supv Leifer said he is going to ask Etna to show their call response rate. Last fall he talked with them about improving their response rate in order to have access to extra money in the fund balance. They have provided their incident attendance, but that doesn’t give him the data he needs to show improvement in response rates. Varna is going through some issues with personnel. Supv Leifer will get their call response data. Broadband Survey The survey is online, and a mailing should go out soon. There was a story in the Ithaca Times last week. The initial response rate is 98% in favor. South Hill Rec Way It was determined that NYSEG owns the old railbed. While it was originally going to be a county license, NYSEG will be giving a license to each town along the route. Danby has the biggest stretch. NYSEG will provide agreements for each town. The board may vote on this in July. The trail does go between two homes on German Cross Road and the town may have to provide screening. Climate Smart Community Task Force Cl Green said there was an article about the Climate Smart Community Task Force in the Dryden Courier. The main focus of work now is documenting work that has already been done and actions already taken in the town that conserve energy in the town, like the geothermal system and solar arrays on the roof. It is a complicated set of requirements to document all the action items that the town can and could take. She thanked staff for assisting in finding necessary documentation. They are getting benchmarking for energy use by the town and fuel consumption of the highway department fleet. They have made good progress in the last few weeks getting the documentation needed to get to their goal of 120 points worth of action item steps by July 6 and uploaded on the state website for bronze certification. That status gives the town a leg up on grant money that may be available, such as up to 50% of the cost of updating the comprehensive plan. That money comes with the stipulation that the plan addresses sustainability issues and that is a goal of the planning board. John Kiefer noted this is a consolidated funding application and one requirement is a resolution by the board to make a match. He will provide a resolution for board to consider in July. The Natural Resources Inventory that was forwarded in May should be adopted by the town board. It has been reviewed by the Planning Board. Climate Smart Community points can be had by adopting it as an official planning document. She has asked the town attorney whether a public hearing is necessary to adopt it. It is compatible with the Natural Resources Plan adopted by the board last year, incorporates the Open Space Plan, and would be used for reference and as a resource. It would be good to adopt it prior to July 6. The Climate Resiliency Improvement Plan is an inventory of all the documents that the town has in place that address emergency preparedness and climate smart resiliency plans that are in place. The main objective of the document is to highlight any deficiencies in the town of Dryden’s plans and local laws to date and suggest improvements to strengthen the municipality’s resilience to climate change and document points of interest identified through TB 6-13-19 Page 6 of 6 the planning process. The town’s current comp plan currently does not address climate change or sustainability. This document needs to go to the Planning Board and Conservation Board for review. Cl Green will bring a resolution to the board next week that would require that a recycling bin be placed next to every waste basket in all town buildings. Adopting this resolution will give the task force some additional points. She will send the resolution for adoption next week. Compensation Study Cl Green said they have the data from the student teams. Among the recommendations in the Phase 2 team’s reports is there are some decisions and processes that now need to be turned over to the town for final decisions. That includes finalizing the job descriptions for the positions, ranking of titles in terms of salary, and a system for annual salary increases. There are good recommendations for that system of salary increments. In addition to the student teams, there was a $5,000 grant that paid for a professional consultant in guiding the students. There have been several meetings with the professional who is providing instruments for next steps for the town. There will be a working meeting to create the final job descriptions. After that, we will need to do a ranking process looking at the salaries attached to each job and scope of work involved. The consultant recommended the town supervisor be involved in creating that system (that will be tied to the performance review/management system). The professional recommended that when looking at a system for salary increments, you need to be sure it is tied with performance appraisals and that those are done in a timely way. They are on line to complete the task in time for 2020 budgeting. Cl Lamb said they will need to look at the last four years of pay for positions for more context. They will really focus on the performance management component. Performance reviews should be done on a more regular basis, not just annually. Agenda items for next week: • Introduction of special use permit application by Verizon for cell tower at 2150 Dryden Road • Introduction of special use permit application for a sign at 2141 Dryden Road medical office • Federal Aid Project Agreement (Rail Trail/Route 13 crossing) Attorney review There is nothing new on the Trinitas application. They are they will have to contribute to the water/sewer infrastructure improvement. There being no further business, on motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk