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Home My WebLink About2022-08-11TB 8-11-22 Page 1 of 6 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING August 11, 2022 Zoom Hybrid Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl James Skaley, Cl Loren Sparling, Cl Leonardo Vargas-Mendez Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Rick Young, Highway/DPW Superintendent Other Town Staff: Ray Burger, Planning Director Cassie Byrnes, Secretary to Supervisor Amanda Anderson, Bookkeeper Supv Leifer opened the meeting at 6:08 p.m. Financials & Human Resources Abstract Approval RESOLUTION #124 (2022) – APPROVE ABSTRACT #8 Cl Skaley offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves Abstract #8, as audited, general vouchers #626 through #723 ($478,335.09) and T A vouchers #34 through #41 ($21,579.06), totaling $499,914.15. 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes PUBLIC HEARING ITHACA AREA WASTE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY BOILER REPLACEMENT PROJECT Supv Leifer opened at public hearing at 6:09 p.m. This public hearing will be continued next week. He explained that this is an emergency project because one boiler needs to be replaced prior to winter. Town’s share of the total expense is 2% ($12,870.00). There were no comments, and the hearing was left open at 6:11 p.m. and will be continued next week. Climate Smart Communities Task Force Presentation on Community Choice Aggregation Alice Green and John Kiefer gave a presentation on community choice aggregation. (See slides attached.) They are bringing attention to an action the board can take that is included in the Comprehensive Plan’s Climate Action Plan. The Task Force believes that TB 8-11-22 Page 2 of 6 community choice aggregation is the highest impact action the town could take out of all the recommendations for actions in the Climate Action Plan. Comments during presentation and discussion: • Community choice aggregation at its most basic level is bulk purchase program that procures an energy supply for a municipality’s residents. • The Task Force has been studying whether the community should be doing community choice aggregation. • The town would hire an administrator for the CCA, and the administrator would handle the purchase of the electric or gas supply. • The utility (NYSEG) would still be in charge of delivery and maintaining the lines and billing customers. • The benefit for the customers would be more affordable rates, local control of the source and cleaner energy. • The goal would be to buy renewable energy for customers in the entire town. • Current NYSEG energy power gets only 15% from renewable energy sources, but NYS has called for 70% renewables by 2030 and 100% renewables by 2040. • NYS created Community Choice Aggregation to allow municipalities to help their residents get to the goal of a greater mix of renewable energy for the entire town. • The Climate Smart Task Force is exploring options for a local CCA (J Kiefer, M McRae, L Sparling & A Green). • Municipalities can pass a local law to purchase energy on behalf of their residents and small commercial accounts. • If passed, NYSEG customers in town would be automatically enrolled in the CCA, but may choose to opt out of the CCA. • The CCA may also include other energy services and programs. • The goal is to make the service at meet or beat NYSEG rates. • The town would contract with an administrator to gather data, send out an RFP for energy providers, contract for power if an acceptable bid is received, manage public outreach, send opt-out letters, and manage customer service. • The town is not obligated to pay anything to the CCA administrator. The fee for their service is built into the fee structure generated by the power consumers. • There are four NYSERDA approved companies offering CCA administration: Joule, Mega, Good Energy and Local Power. • The City and Town of Ithaca are working with Local Power and other municipalities are being invited to join their consortium. • Joule is currently operating CCAs for more than fifty municipalities in New York State. • The committee will also contact Mega and Good Energy. • Goals include enrolling all town of Dryden NYSEG customers on an opt -out basis, gain local community control of energy source, purchase in bulk for more competitive prices on renewable energy and keep energy costs at or below NYSEG rates for o ur residents. • Next steps include adoption of a local law enabling the town to create or join a CCA, selection of an administrator, begin public outreach, and finally sign a contract with an energy provider. • They will not move forward if energy cannot be secured at a competitive price. • Many New York State residents are already members of CCAs. • The electric market is complicated, but the administrators have a thorough understanding and will come in and take care of all aspects for us. • A lot of the state’s renewable initiatives rely on local government, and this is our opportunity to participate in the state program. • The Task Force believes this is beneficial and doable, but needs to know the Town Board is committed to moving forward before they spend more time on it. TB 8-11-22 Page 3 of 6 • The market is very flexible now, and it is difficult to project any specific savings to customers, but the committee will not accept a bid that doesn’t meet or beat the NYSEG rates. • Homeowners already signed up with an ESCO would not be opted in automatically. • Residential accounts and small commercial accounts on NYSEG’s regular supply would be automatically opted in. • Larger businesses would need to opt in. • The standard contract is two years, and the price would be predictable to customer s. • There will be community outreach and complete transparency. • The Task Force is hoping the two villages will participate. • The enabling legislation doesn’t obligate the town to do anything, but enables it to take action should it choose to do so. • The Task Force is looking at whether to partner with the City and Town of Ithaca or to go into it on our own. The committee will provide a final version of the proposed legislation for introduction prior to the next board meeting. County Update Mike Lane reported that the independent redistricting commission for the county legislative seats has sent a report to the legislature. It recommends a change for next term (elected in 2025) to a sixteen-person legislature. There is a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, August 16 at 5:30 p.m. He encouraged anyone wanting to comment to do so. The map is on the county website. Dryden’s districts are quite similar to what we have now. The legislature sent back a resolution asking that the commission reconsider whether there should be an odd number of legislators and fewer districts. They also asked them to look at couple of the downtown districts (particularly district 1). The commission can come back and say they don’t want to change the report, or send a new report with a different configuration, or an alternate configuration and let legislature choose. The legislature feels strongly that there be independence in the commission, but wants them to be aware of some of the issues. The county has formed a special advisory committee (chaired by Dan Klein) to administer the federal community recovery money. They will be working with the MRB Group as administrators of the program and will soon be accepting applications. There is over six million dollars available (through the American Recovery Act Program) that will be distributed for housing, daycare, or not-for-profits. They are looking for things that are transformative or where there has been harm done by the pandemic. Game Farm Road Trail Crossing – A stakeholder meeting is being scheduled. Construction at TC3 has begun on parking lots and sidewalks. There was about $800,000 allocated for that. Cortland County will provide some of their funding with in-kind work. Discussion/Action Items Amend Personnel Manual – An amendment to the manual so that employees are paid for required testing or training. Resolution #125 (2022) Amend Personnel Manual for Compensation for Training, Meeting, or Testing Attendance Cl Skaley offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: TB 8-11-22 Page 4 of 6 RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby amends the Town of the Dryden Personnel Manual by adding the following section: Added to the end of Section 401 – Departmental Hours Compensation for Training, Meeting, or Testing Attendance: If an employee attends training, a meeting, or takes a Civil Service exam that is required to fulfill their current job requirements, or maintain their position, the employee will be paid their r egular rate of pay or earn compensatory time if they exceed forty hours in a given workweek. 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Pedestrian Bridge over Route 13 – It’s necessary to pass a resolution correcting information that was in a previous resolution for the pedestrian bridge. The previous resolution referred to two parcels and it is only necessary for one parcel. RESOLUTION #126 (2022) – AUTHORIZE ACCEPTANCE OF REAL PROPERTY TO ACCOMMODATE ROUTE 13 PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: WHEREAS, on June 9, 2021, the Town Board of the Town of Dryden adopted a resolution to contract with the State of New York for managing the process of acquiring a parcel east of Route 13 for the Dryden Rail Trail pedestrian bridge; and WHEREAS, it is necessary for the Town of Dryden to agree to accept the real property acquired by the State of New York for the Dryden Rail Trail Phase 2 project, PIN 395071. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Dryden does hereby authorize the acceptance of the deed of all real property acquired by the State of New York or offered directly to the Town for the Dryden Rail Trail Phase 2 project, PIN 395071; and be it further RESOLVED that the Town Supervisor, upon review and approval by the Attorney for the Town as to form, is hereby authorized to execute any and all documents necessary to accept by deed all real property being transferred to the Town of Dryden for the Dryden Rail Trail Phase 2 project, PIN 395071; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that, pursuant to Town Law §§81(1)(c) and 220(3), this resolution is subject to permissive referendum. 2nd Cl Lamb Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Dryden Fiber Authorizations - There is a quote for $19,842 for a server and related expenses in order to service customers that will be housed in the building authorized last month. TB 8-11-22 Page 5 of 6 RESOLUTION #127 (2022) – PURCHASE OF SERVER AND RELATED ITEMS FOR DRYDEN FIBER Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: Whereas, Dryden Fiber needs to purchase 2 DHCP Servers with installation from Netegrity. Whereas, our approved contract with Netegrity did not include this equipment. Therefore, be it resolved that the Board approves the purchase of 2 DHCP Servers including installation and five years of tech care for $19,842. 2nd Cl Lamb Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Supv Leifer requested permission from the board to engage Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP as bond counsel for the broadband project. They are working on a similar project and have experience in this area. RESOLUTION #128 (2022) – AUTHORIZE AGREEMENT WITH ORRICK, HERRINGTON & SUTCLIFFE LLP AS BOND COUNSEL Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorize the Town Supervisor to execute an engagement letter with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP dated August 8, 2022. 2nd Cl Lamb Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes Fire Coordinator Job Description – Civil Service has approved the current version of the town’s Fire Coordinator position. RESOLUTION #129 (2022) – APPROVE FIRE COORDINATOR JOB DESCRIPTION Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the attached job description for Fire Coordinator. 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Sparling Yes Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Skaley Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes TB 8-11-22 Page 6 of 6 Next week’s agenda will include continuation of the public hearing on the Ithaca Area Waste Water Treatment Facility boiler placement and two public hearings on unsafe structures. Supv Leifer asked the board to review the July financial reports in preparation for entering budget season. Department heads have received their budget worksheets. Board members will review employee performance reviews prior to beginning budget work. Supv Leifer said for this budget the board will have to deal with the inflation issue plus trying to get employee compensation closer to where it should be. Next week is the first meeting with Teamsters for their new contract. Freese Road Bridge – Cl Lamb reported he has communicated with Barton & Loguidice that we are willing to put the old trusses on the new bridge if we can do it in a way that is functional and is not cost prohibitive. The town would bear the cost of maintenance of the old trusses (estimated at $15,000 every two years). There will be a pedestrian walkway outside the trusses. There was a question about whether the 1061 Dryden Road project owner has been told that there is insufficient electric supply for the development. Supv Leifer said he has not been notified by NYSEG. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk