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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-11-16TB 11-16-23 Page 1 of 5 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING November 16, 2023 Zoom Hybrid Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Spring Buck Cl Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, Cl Christina Dravis Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk Rick Young, Highway/DPW Superintendent Other Town Staff: Ray Burger, Planning Director Cassie Byrnes, Secretary to Supervisor Supv Leifer opened the meeting at 6:03 p.m. and the board and audience recited the pledge of allegiance. PUBLIC HEARING FIRE CONTRACTS Supv Leifer opened the public hearing and explained this hearing is necessary because the amounts of the contracts for Neptune Hose Company No. 1 and Etna Volunteer Fire Department were increased over the amounts advertised for the 2024 budget public hearing and revised at that hearing. There were no comments or questions and the public hearing was left open. HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT No report. PLANNING DEPARTMENT Ray Burger has provided the monthly update for the department and he will talk about a couple of the items later in the agenda. He stated that the process of the w etland delineation will begin on Monday and is being done by Barton & Loguidice. Cl Lamb said if there is space behind the Neptune fire house that isn’t wetland, we know that Dryden Ambulance is looking to move and needs more space. No adjourned date has been set yet for the Enslow matter. Mr Enslow has written to the board. The board discussed the matter and decided they would agree to give Mr Enslow until the third Thursday of September 2024 to clean up the property. Supv Leifer will relay that to the town attorney. Supv Leifer closed the public hearing at 6:16 p.m. RESOLUTION #184 (2023) – APPROVE NEPTUNE & ETNA FIRE CONTRACTS Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: TB 11-16-23 Page 2 of 5 RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the following fire contracts for one year in the amounts listed and authorizes the Town Supervisor to execute the same: Neptune Hose Company No. 1 of Dryden, Inc. $571,500.00 Etna Volunteer Company $241,000.00 2nd Cl Vargas-Mendez Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes Cl Buck Yes Cl Dravis Yes Cl Lamb Yes Supv Leifer Yes FIRE COORDINATOR Chris O’Connor reported that he has been focusing on the implementation of the SAFER grant. He met with Rebecca Moore, Treasurer for the Freeville Fire Department, the department of record for the grant. She is concerned that she may not have enough time to devote to the administration of the grant. They spoke with Julia Barron, the SAFER grant administrator, who has been very helpful and knowledgeable. The first part they will be eligible for is the $3 per call gas reimbursement. The details are worked out and all four departments are on board. It will be distributed on a quarterly basis. He will calculate the information provided by the departments and submit the application for reimbursement. A check will be sent to Freeville and that will be distributed to department treasurers based on their initial report, and the department treasurers will make the payment to individual firefighters. The most active members could conceivably receive $400-$500 per year. C O’Connor is almost done with work on the policies that FEMA requires fire departments to have. These need to be in place prior to receipt of any funds from the grant and include a travel policy, procurement policy, and others. There are examples and he is hoping to get all that in place so that at the beginning of the year they can start working on recruitment. He met with Mark Bell and Bill Ackroyd of Neptune Hose to review their mutually agreed upon plan. It includes things such as updating by-laws, updating mutual aid plans with mutual aid agencies, creating standard operating procedures, plan ning for a successful SAFER grant award, writing accountability and safety SOPs, meeting with each member to seek out ideas and concerns, appointing or electing a member advocate, and developing a job description handbook. Dryden has had a very active year and has some good people at the helm. They’ve been somewhat stymied by having to clean up messes. By and large they have been working on things pretty hard and at least half of the items on the list have been done. Almost everything else is being worked on. C O’Connor has suggested establishing clear procedures for addressing discipline, resignations and conflicts and they are working on it. A lot of progress is being made. They are anticipating a dream team for next year and are bringing back older, more experienced people who have done the job before. C O’Connor recently attended a course on the psychologically healthy fire department. He has some implementation toolkits which he has handed out to the fire departments. He shared that with board members and said the state has developed a course. The Dryden and Varna Departments understand the importance of this and already have people working on it. Cl Lamb asked whether departments had a strategic plan and the board discussed the importance of having a plan for volunteer organizations in general. He suggested finding a highly functioning department that works off a strategic plan to provide as an example for the departments in town. TB 11-16-23 Page 3 of 5 COUNTY BRIEFING Mike Lane congratulated those who won in the recent elections. He reported the county passed its budget pretty much as discussed in his last report. It includes a 2% increase in the levy. No one came to the public hearing and it was passed without any changes. The county-owned property in the 400 block of North Tioga Street has been de- constructed and removed. Another property, referred to as the red house, will be sold and they have selected a real estate agent to market that. There is about to be a new round of BridgeNY bridge and culvert grant funding. Municipalities in the county have had successes with this program in the past and it is open to all municipalities. The county is working with NYSERDA for help with the possibility of an energy site at the airport, possibly for battery storage, and a memorandum of understanding with NYSERDA was approved today. Funding was granted by New York State to several counties including Tompkins, Cortland, and Tioga to create teams to help with homelessness. There is a team in Cortland of about five and one for Tioga and Tompkins with about four members. He doesn’t have details on what this will entail. DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS Introduction of Special Use Permit - 1622 Dryden Road R Burger said this application for a contractor yard came up a few years ago. That was more for an operation that would have a fleet of contractor trucks and loads that would increase traffic along Route 13. This is a different operation for stockpiling topsoil, materials, millings, and such things more in line with a general contractor and landscaping business. The applicant would like to move forward with a hearing next month. The Planning Board will review the application and site plan on November 30 and will be able to then make recommendations. The site has been used for a variety of things over the years. This p lan has a pretty robust vegetative screening. It pushes traffic to the common drive between Elemental Pet Vet, the dog boarding business, and this lot. It will be an ongoing fill site with stormwater protection and about a three-acre buildout. After that, they may modify the SWPPP and continue on. At this point the SWPPP is in place to control up to 2.92 acres. The public hearing was scheduled for 6:05 p.m. on December 21. ADVISORY BOARD UPDATES Ag Advisory Committee – Talked about zoning definitions and Supv Leifer said they should be sharing those with R Burger and the Planning Board for the eventual zoning update. Recreation & Youth Commission – Discussed football, coaching and the issues that come up each year. They still want to make sure they are involved in planning for the land behind the town hall. They will need to select a new Chair as Dave Peck will not be continuing in that position. Broadband Committee – The committee will meet again tomorrow. Supv Leifer attended a recent event on rural broadband where he talked about the model that the town is TB 11-16-23 Page 4 of 5 using to run its fiber system. He learned that the contractor the county hired only does open access systems, so he now understands why Dryden wasn’t included in their report to the county. Their business is working with and developing open access systems. They don’t recommend municipally owned and operated systems with anyone they work with. There was some discussion at the event about drafting legislation regarding use of existing rights-of-way for fiber. Supv Leifer noted we are receiving invoices for the make-ready work that’s been done. Planning Board – They received a report from the county business advisory group offering consultation to developers. The town can refer development projects to them for advice. The board refined the RFP for the zoning update and it has been posted with a January 16 deadline. The Planning Board will need new members/alternates as Linda Wagenet and Dan Bussmann are leaving the board. Climate Smart Communities Task Force – They are looking for a contractor for the DPW building project and hope to begin work by the end of January. If anyone knows of a contractor, contact John Kiefer or Craig Anderson. A local contractor is preferred, and hopefully the work can be done in a way that can be easily replicated by other municipalities with similar buildings. CCARP (Climate Change and Resilience Plan): A draft of the plan should be available for review by the next meeting, then it will be sent out to the other advisory boards. The County's mass notification system, SIREN, is available to municipalities free of charge, so we should designate two Town of Dryden personnel who can be trained to send out notifications (other municipalities have designated Town Clerks and/or Town Supervisors). Dryden High School received a $700 grant from Sustainable Tompkins and purchased reusable utensils and trays for the cafeteria. Another $10,000 grant is available if we can show proof that there were 10 heat pump installations within the Town during the past 6 months. $20,000 is available if there were 25 installations. Conservation Board – They are interested in inviting Jennifer Michelle to present to the Conservation Board, Planning Board and possibly the Town Board and Zoning Board of Appeals about trying to integrate native plants into zoning requirements. There were concerns about land disruption at a couple locations in the town and that information was shared with Ray Burger. There was discussion about updates on the rail trail and interest in developing content regarding wetlands, perhaps information posts or QR codes. Affordable & Workforce Housing – They had a discussion with the deputy Mayor and a village trustee from the Village of Trumansburg who were tasked with drafting their zoning update. They focused on what they did around mobile home parks and manufactured housing. Their proposal is to remove any zoning prohibition for mobile or manufactured single family homes. The committee recommends that board members read the meeting minutes of their November 11 meeting. CITIZENS PRIVILEGE Mike Lane expressed again that it would be nice to get a streetlight at the intersection of Livermore Road and Route 392. He has brought this up several times in the last three years. TB 11-16-23 Page 5 of 5 With increased traffic from the dorms and new housing, it would be nice to have that intersection lighted at night. The town can do this at intersections. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:12 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Bambi L. Avery Town Clerk