HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-08-17TB 8-17-23
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TOWN OF DRYDEN
TOWN BOARD MEETING
August 17, 2023
Zoom Hybrid
Present: Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Spring Buck
Cl Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, Cl Christina Dravis
Absent: Supervisor Jason Leifer
Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk
Other Town Staff: Cassie Byrnes, Secretary to Supervisor
Chris O’Connor, Fire Coordinator
Deputy Supervisor Dan Lamb opened the meeting at 6:03 p.m.
RESOLUTION #144 (2023) – APPROVE MINUTES
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the meeting minutes of July 13,
July 20, and July 25, 2023.
2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Dravis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
The board and audience recited the pledge of allegiance.
There were no public hearings or presentations.
HIGHWAY/DPW DEPARTMENT
Cl Buck said a lot of work has been done in addressing the damage and cleanup from
recent severe weather. Cl Lamb said we are fortunate to have a very responsive highway
department.
COUNTY UPDATE
None.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS
IAWWTP – Cl Lamb explained an urgent repair matter has come up at the facility. The
Town of Dryden is a two percent stakeholder and when they need repairs and upgrades, the
town has to pay its share. Of the total cost of 3.2 million dollars, the town’s share is
$64,228.15. The funding comes from town residents that are connected to the service. The
board will need to pass a resolution setting a public hearing on the matter for September 14,
2023, at 6:05 p.m. to determine whether it is in the public interest to approve th e project.
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RESOLUTION #145 (2023) – ADOPT PUBLIC INTEREST ORDER CALLING FOR A PUBLIC
HEARING REGARDING IAWWTF CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL BOILER
REPLACEMENT AND FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS
Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that Dryden Town Board hereby adopts the following Public Interest Order
calling for a Public Hearing
In the Matter
of
the Proposed Improvement Project Pursuant to
Town Law §202-b for the Wastewater
Treatment Plant in the City of Ithaca serving
the Town of Dryden known as the Boiler
Replacement Capital Project – Phase 4
ORDER CALLING
PUBLIC HEARING
WHEREAS, on July 21, 2023, the Special Joint Committee (SJC) resolved to recommend,
pursuant to Town Law § 202-b, that the City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca and Town of Dryden
(Owners), authorize and construct at their jointly owned and management wastewater treatment
facility known as the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility (IAWWTF), located in the City of
Ithaca, a project known as Capital Project 423J Additional Boiler Replacement and Facility
Improvements, in an amount not to exceed $3,243,846.00 (Capital Project), such improvements
to be constructed and owned by Owners, and
WHEREAS, the SJC thereby recommended authorization of this project contingent upon
action by Owners committing their percentage of reimbursement shares to the Joint Activity
Fund allocated per the Joint Sewer Agreement as follows:
Municipality Percentage Project Cost
City of Ithaca 57.14 $1,853,533.60
Town of Ithaca 40.88 $1,326,084.24
Town of Dryden 1.98 $64,228.15
=============
TOTAL: $3,243,846.00
WHEREAS, Cody Stevens and Steve Cartwright, of John W. Danforth, and Terry Watters,
of Encompass Group, have prepared a plan and report in such manner and detail as required
by the Town Board of the Town of Dryden, Tompkins County, New York, about the Capi tal
Project, which provides wastewater treatment services for portions of the Town’s Consolidated
Sewer Districts; and
WHEREAS, said plan and report are on file in the office of the Town Clerk, where they are
available for public inspection, and
WHEREAS, the maximum proposed to be expended for the improvements is
$3,243,846.00 of which Town of Dryden’s share is $64,228.15, with the proposed method of
payment being that the Town will reimburse the City of Ithaca for the former’s share pursuant
to a contract between the Town and the City of Ithaca. The Town will not issue or co -issue any
bonds but pay its share of expenses from sewer rents and charges from the Consolidated Sewer
District, and
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Town Board of the Town of Dryden,
Tompkins County, New York, as follows:
Section 1. A public hearing is scheduled for September 14, 2023 at 6:05 PM via Zoom
and in-person at the Town Hall, located at 93 East Main Street, Dryden, NY 13053, to determine
whether it is in the public interest to approve the Capital Project, as recommended by the SJC.
Access details for the Zoom meeting shall be posted on the Town of Dryden website at
www.dryden.ny.us not less than 24 hours prior to the date of the hearing. In addition to
participation in the public hearing via Zoom or in-person, all members of the public wishing to
submit written comments on this proposal may do so in writing addressed to the Town Clerk at
93 East Main Street, Dryden, NY 13053 or by email to townclerk@dryden.ny.us
Section 2. The Town Clerk of the Town of Dryden is hereby authorized and directed to
cause a copy of this order to be published once in the Ithaca Journal and also to post a copy on
the Town website and notice boards not less than ten (10) nor more than twenty (20) days before
the date of the hearing.
Section 3. This order shall take effect immediately.
2nd Buck
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Dravis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Gleamon Technology Agreement – Gleamon Technology, a vendor for the Dryden
Fiber project, submitted a document in June and the board requested the company come back
to the board with a not-to-exceed amount for their services. Supv Leifer and Cl Lamb met with
their leadership two weeks ago, and the agreement has been amended to reflect a not -to-exceed
amount of $120,000. Cl Lamb said we have to be careful with what we are allocating and this
project has to be frugal. It needs to sustain itself, and as more people are signed up we can do
more work.
RESOLUTION #146 (2023) – AUTHORIZE AMENDED AGREEMENT WITH
GLEAMON TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that pursuant to the Gleamon Technology Services Agreement presented to
the town of Dryden in June 2023, the Town Board authorizes the Town Supervisor to sign the
agreement, as amended, recognizing that total expenditures for the contract ending on June 8,
2024, shall not exceed $120,000.
2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Dravis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Repurpose Previously Allocated Funds – The Affordable and Workforce Housing
Committee has requested that the $10,000 they had asked the board to set aside for a CDBG
base study of affordable housing be instead used, together with an additional $10,000, to hire
an engineer to delineate the wetlands on the town-owned parcel behind the town hall and
highway/DPW buildings. A request has been made to DEC for that delineation, but it may be
some time before it can be accomplished.
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After discussion, and understanding there would need to be a discussion with the
bookkeeper regarding where the additional $10,000 would come from, the board passed the
following resolution.
RESOLUTION #147 (2023) – FUND WETLAND DELINEATION
Cl Lamb offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
RESOLVED, that this board approves the use of $10,000 previously allocated for a
CDBG base study of affordable housing and an additional $10,000 from a yet-to-be determined
account to hire an engineer to delineate wetlands on town owned property behind town hall
and the highway/DPW buildings.
2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Dravis Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
ADVISORY BOARD UPDATES
Ag Committee – No report.
Climate Smart Communities Task Force – Cl Dravis reported that after qualifying for
the $70,000 NYSERDA grant, RFPs are already being developed for insulation and
window/door replacement at the DPW Office Building.
A Climate Change and Resilience Plan (CCARP) is being created to identify properties
throughout the Town that may be affected by Climate Change. A questionnaire will be going
out soon to government officials in the Town and Villages, community groups (Varna and Etna
community associations), and Town advisory boards to gather a comprehensive list of
locations.
The committee is also looking at the new flood plain maps.
Conservation Board – Cl Buck said there is no meeting this month, but she will be
meeting with the Highway Superintendent to get some information and look for opportunities
for collaboration. There is some positive momentum and they are looking at how the
Conservation Board and Town Board can have better traction toward getting some efforts
moving forward.
Recreation & Youth Commission – No report. Cl Lamb said the Supervisor has said
that he wants this committee to be deeply involved in the ballfield development project. He
mentioned the town may hire a consultant to design ballfields. That would ensure that they
are properly crowned for drainage and water management.
Once the wetland delineation is done, a consultant would design the fields, parking,
and access around the delineation and hopefully a trail in a responsible way across the
wetlands with access for TC3.
Cl Vargas-Mendez said the Affordable and Workforce Housing Committee had a
conversation with the Supervisor. The town is going to hire a consultant and take a broader
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look and develop a more comprehensive plan for the entire area. He thinks that this is perhaps
the only valuable land asset we have for the town and it would be important to consider other
uses in addition to ball fields. Cl Buck said the Conservation Board would support a raised
walkway through the wetlands.
It was suggested that a task force be appointed to help with creating a plan for the
development of lands behind the town hall. It should be multi-disciplinary with a goal of
getting as many benefits from that asset as possible.
Planning Board – There are a number of projects under consideration in the town.
There was a presentation on the Ezra Village project in the village. They are very interested in
that. There are site plan reviews for two projects, one on Pinckney Road and one on Lower
Creek Road. A business was reviewed for 2707 Dryden Road. There was a good article in The
Ithaca Voice about what’s going on in Dryden and Lansing in terms of development.
Regarding the zoning law update, they received one response to the RFP for a
consultant, but the committee did not believe they checked all the boxes. The selection
committee had a meeting and will revise the RFP and put it out again. Cl Lamb said we are not
in a rush with this. They talked about form-based development, development that suits the
community and reflects what is already here and perhaps reflects what is in the comp plan vs
strict design guidelines written into the zoning law. We want to be more flexible in how we
allow development in the town. They will review the mobile home park law and the cannabis
law. Our zoning should reflect where we may want to see that take place.
Rail Trail Task Force – It was great receiving funding from Berkshire Hathaway last
week. They expect work on the rail trail pedestrian bridge in the next federal fiscal year cycle.
ITCTC had inquired about the construction timeline.
Affordable & Workforce Housing – In addition to requesting funding for a wetland
delineation, they had a good conversation with INHS about land use behind the town hall.
Broadband Committee – The county is putting out an RFP for work county-wide. The
town will bid on any work to be done in our town. The town hired a marketing coordinator for
the project and that has proven to be a good investment. They are tracking enrollment and
who is asking for service and how many hookups we have.
FIRE COORDINATOR
Chris O’Connor said he met with folks in Etna last night and in the end, he thinks
things are going to be much better. They agreed to have Freeville and Varna also respond to all
the EMS calls. Once the forms are signed, it may take a week to take effect. All four
departments are now done with the mutually agreed upon plan. They will start the process
again at the beginning of the year now that they are all familiar and more or less on board.
Based on performance and understanding of what is necessary to move forward, they will start
the new year with a new set of ideas.
They are all working on budgets and utilizing the new budget template.
With respect to recruitment, Varna is in the middle of their fall recruitment. Freeville
has a few new people. Dryden has ten new members with a net gain of 8. Etna is not having
any success. They talked about it last night.
C O’Connor said he is waiting to hear on the SAFER grant application that was
submitted. If the grant comes through, it will jumpstart everyone’s efforts.
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CITIZENS PRIVILEGE
Jack Enslow, 1892 Slaterville Road, asked the board to drop the legal action against his
family that is happening Monday morning. The situation has changed significantly, and the
board has the ability to do this for his family. He updated new board members on his
situation.
J Enslow said there was one neighbor who complained, and both he a nd his wife have
passed away, so there is no complainant anymore. All of his neighbors around him are in
support of him having more time. He has made progress and will continue to do so. Execution
of this on his family would put a huge amount of money on his taxes, which would mean that
he couldn’t pay them and he would lose the property in three years’ time. This is a death
sentence to his family.
He knows that his property is different. He does permaculture and agroforestry. He
knows it is not a beautiful specimen of architecture. It doesn’t need to be to support and
sustain his family. He is looking at purchasing a neighboring property of 26 acres to add to
his farm.
The town is now trying to force their way onto his property and clean up the burnout as
they will. It has an exorbitant price tag on it and is all about rushing the job that is being done
slowly, efficiently and in the way that his family wants it done so it doesn’t damage the land
unnecessarily and waste their resources. The zoning does need to be more flexible. Within the
first year of his family being homeless from a fire, they had a 35’ camper with a 5’ rollout but
were told they couldn’t live in it because they are not a registered RV park and don’t have an
actual home anymore. The town made his family homeless. He has a lady and two little girls.
Now, while he’s homeless he is supposed to take care of this burnt house. And then Covid
happened and his family can’t wear masks. The impacts were massive through Covid a nd he
was being pushed for a timeline. This is crushing his poor family. The only people that want
to continue this are the people on the board. Everything is resolved with all his neighbors and
the board is moving forward. He doesn’t understand why this needs to continue. There is no
legal reason why he can’t have more time. The town’s lawyer said the board could give him
more time, but they aren’t.
It is unreasonable to expect him to complete the task in a short period of time. It is
impractical for poor people to buy dumpsters and excavators to solve a problem like that.
When his property floods, it takes him weeks to fix it because he does it by hand. There’s no
electricity, there’s no power tools. He finally has a person with a piece of equipment that can
drag the beams that he can’t move and who has a dump trailer. He has removed four
truckloads and two trailer loads of scrap metal since his last meeting her. He has excavated
out his outdoor wood boiler, which is a sealed unit, and he can consume wood and gain heat
for water. He is beseeching the board to stop making war on his family.
Cl Lamb said the town has similar goals. They want the property to be safe for his
family and residents in the area. J Enslow replied that it is fully posted property, and no one
has been injured. The entry gate has a huge beam across it and metal mesh fence in the areas
where you can get to it. The rest of it he will work through, but you can’t walk up to the
property and there is a large bank.
Cl Lamb said the board wants a level of cooperation from Enslow, a level of planning
because the property is out of compliance with local codes. The board can’t decide who has to
follow them and who doesn’t. There are state codes that he is in violation of. Additionally, the
County Health Department has exceptions to people living in homes perpetually. It is a safety
violation in terms of fire and water and septic. They don’t want people in a position of harming
themselves or their family. It is hard for the board to suspend these things and has tried to
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work out a plan with Enslow. They doubled the length of time offered to clean up the property.
The board hashed this out with him last fall after some long meetings and interacting with him
with our attorney and the planning department. He doesn’t think it is fair to make the board
out to be the bad guys in this situation. They have tried to work with him and need good faith
efforts on his part. Tell the board what he is willing to do.
J Enslow said four truckloads and two trailer loads of metal were removed. He asked
where he was out of compliance. At the meetings it came down to the burnout and he is
pulling it down. It is being taken apart; it just isn’t happening fast. It’s all about speed for the
board.
Cl Lamb said two years isn’t fast for cleaning up a burned out building site. J Enslow
asked with what tools, and what timeline and what finances. It is far more important to do it
right.
Cl Buck asked how much time and what kind of resources are needed. J Enslow
replied that he had originally agreed to a two-year timeline last fall. (He did not sign the legal
documents.) He came to an agreement with his old neighbor. He needs two good dry summers
to make progress because of the way the land is and the layers of clay. He needs to be able to
get trucks in there. He did manage to get a skid steer and has moved some stuff. He wants
the full two years. The document was unreasonable and he won’t agree to a bad document
that he didn’t have a lawyer to look at, that says things not accurate or true. He wasn’t able to
go over it with the town attorney, and at the next meeting it was said that it was agreed upon,
and it wasn’t, so he wouldn’t sign it. He thought he had been making good progress.
The situation has changed. There is no complainant anymore. The only thing out of
code is the house that burned was knocked over. He has made progress on taking down the
structure. He has cut halfway through. The biggest slowdown is the roofing sections and large
beams. The foundation is stone. He will be heating with the wood and uses it already to heat
water and cook on. It’s a resource. The stone will be reused also. Part of the plan is to reuse
the beams to build a fence. You don’t have to have a permit for anything under six feet and
has a design and is collecting materials to build L bracket fences that can be moved so they
can be near the front. They can be a vision block. The growth on the property is contiguous
with his neighbors. It’s massive and you can’t see much at all. The pictures in the report are
old. He’s been working on it and there is a lot of progress.
This will cause a protracted legal battle for nothing. He will fight because he has to.
This is survival for his family. He doesn’t have a choice. He has to fight his town for no
reason. Nobody is upset with him and he has harmed none. What fiscal sense can this make?
His taxable value went up. Everyone’s value went up. His neighbor’s house across the road
burned.
He read a note from his lady that said it feels like they are being attacked because of
their poverty without regard to their continued efforts and neighboring support. Their children
love the place. It’s a place of solace. Don’t let them take it away. He said he will fight tooth
and nail if this isn’t dropped because he doesn’t have a choice.
Cl Lamb said last fall the town prepared an agreement with Mr Enslow to have a
cleanup plan developed. When it was presented, it wasn’t signed, and there was no response
about what the problems with the language were. What the town needed was to know exactly
what he wanted changed. He did not come to the December 8 meeting. The town has tried to
work with him. The town has the burden of upholding regulations and ordinances and laws.
The board has been elected and empowered to fulfill these responsibilities. The town isn’t
trying to be the bad guy, but Enslow has to work with the town in good faith.
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Cl Lamb said Enslow was told if the agreement wasn’t signed, the board would have to
commence using a court order to get him to comply with the standards that need to be met.
The board was all set to give you two years, extending the time beyond what they originally
thought would be a reasonable deadline. To come in now when this legal proceeding has
commenced and ask the town board to stop something in the court system that he knew was
occurring, is a pattern. It’s frustrating because he is doing almost the same thing he did last
December when he didn’t communicate and tell the board what he needed. If someone were to
get hurt due to the unsafe conditions on his property, the liability would be on the town
because it did not enforce its own rules.
Cl Lamb said he isn’t sure what can be done at this poi nt. He will talk with the town
attorney and the Supervisor, but he isn’t sure if he can stop the process at this point. The
board feels deeply for his situation and doesn’t want his family displaced. They want him to
have his property and that’s why they tried to work out a plan. What is needed from Enslow as
a citizen of the town is to be a partner in the process. He has to willingly agree to a timeline
and some benchmarks.
J Enslow said if he missed a meeting, he’s sorry. That shouldn’t crush his family. He
has continued to make progress.
Cl Lamb said he isn’t sure we can alter the court date on Monday and suggested he go
to the court date.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:14 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bambi L. Avery
Town Clerk