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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-03-27 - TB TOWN OF ULYSSES SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING MARCH 27TH, 2008 PRESENT : Supervisor Douglas Austic ; Council Rod Ferrentino, David Kerness, Elizabeth Thomas and Lucia Tyler; Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia. Others Present : Sue Poelvoorde, Roxanne Marino , Geoffrey Hart, Thomas Schlee and Robert Thomas . Supervisor Austic called the meeting of 3/ 11 /2008 to order that was not adjourned properly at 7 : 00 pm. Mr. Austic stated that he had been in contact with different vet clinics to get a price on caring for a dog that may need attention when the SPCA is unavailable. The thought is to set a maximum of $ 500 for emergency care. Mr. Austic also stated that Abigail Smith, Director SPCA will be sending the contact for • the Board ' s review . Hearing no other business of the Regular Town Board meeting of 3/ 11 /2008 Mr. Kerness moved, seconded by Ms . Tyler to adjourn the meeting. Unanimously approved and meeting was adjourned at 7 : 10 PM. The Special Town Board meeting of 3/27/208 was opened at 7 : 11 PM. Internet Service Ms . Thomas would like to investigate a wider service for interne service to the residents in Ulysses . Ms . Tyler and Ms . Thomas would like to look into a Federal grant that was received in Dryden. Mr. Austic will call Time Warner and also check with Dryden about the grant received. Comprehensive Plan Committee Report Ms . Poelvoorde reported that the committee will be holding two public workshops on the Comprehensive Plan. The first will be held on April 10th in the evening and the second one will be Saturday morning on April 12th . Ms . Poelvoorde said that they will be doing a press release, putting up posters and they also would like to send out post cards to save the date. There are about 1785 residents to send the cards out using the data file of addresses that was used for the survey. Ms . Marino said the cost for the post cards will be $750 to $775 which includes the printing of the card. Ms. Thomas moved, seconded by Ms . Tyler the following : BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses approves the expenditure for the mailing and printing of a post card to "Save the Date" for the public workshops for the Comprehensive Plan up to $ 800. Mr. Austic aye Mr. Ferrentino aye Ms. Tyler aye Ms . Thomas aye MR. Kerness aye Adopted. Special Town Board Meeting 2 03/27/20081 Thomas Schlee Mr. Schlee thanked the Town Board for his appointment as Justice and would like to ask the Board the procedure to hire a secretary. Ms . Townley the current Court Clerk does not wish to attend the evening court session. Mr. Schlee said that Ms . Townley would do the inputting into the computer and still remain the official Court Clerk but have a secretary attend the evening court session and hand this information over to Ms. Townley. The Board discussed Ms. Townley' s position on not working evening court . It was decided that Ms. Tyler would work with Mr. Schlee and Ms . Townley to work this situation out. Job Descriptions The Board discussed job descriptions for the Town employees . Mr. Austic will contact the County a.nd get the job descriptions and distribute these to the Board. Water District #6 Resolution Ms . Tyler introduced the following resolution for discussion. Resolution Introducing Water District 6 Whereas the Town of Ulysses was notified on January 7 , 2008 that the New York State Department of Health and the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) had reconsidered their position and allowed the Town of Ulysses additional time to submit a completed application and package for the Water District 5 project (WD 7 5) and would allow changes in the scope and service area of this project while retaining the current financing offer (DWSRF project # 17468) ; and, Whereas WD-5 alternative plans and cost estimates, as presented by Eric Pond of Barton and Loguidice on February 21 , 2008 were produced on a short time table; and Whereas there is insufficient time for adequate review of WD-5 Alternative C with revisions (revised WD-5 Alt. C) by elected officials and citizens nor enough time to meet the required legal application process, environmental review, and inter-municipal agreements needed by March 24, 2008 ; and Whereas (revised WD- 5 Alt. C) as presented on February 28 , 2008 is significantly more costly than the original WD-5 , since it is geographically more extensive, and the total estimated cost of $9 . 87 million is extremely close to the $ 10 million cap required to retain zero percent interest financing from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) ; and Whereas consideration of any alternate district is premature at this time due to the lack of a town wide water needs survey; and Whereas the quantity of water that can be provided to the Town of Ulysses from Bolton' through the Town of Ithaca infrastructure without improvements does not meet the total requirements of WD-3 , revised WD-5 Alt. C, and the Village of Trumansburg second source; and 1 Whereas the revised WD-5 Alt. C is not in accord with growth patterns encouraged by our current zoning; and Whereas revised WD-5 Alt. C impacts an identified Unique Natural Area and environmentally fragile lands west of New York State Route 89 not having proper conservation protections in place ; and Special Town Board Meeting 3 03/27/2008 Whereas revised WD-5 Alt. C cannot take into consideration the Comprehensive Plan initiative under progress, which is based on broad citizen input and scheduled for completion by October 2008 . Therefore be it hereby resolved that Water District 5 Alternative C with revisions be removed from consideration in favor of a cooperative effort using the inputs from the newly formed Town of Ulysses Water Needs Committee, the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Planning Committee, the Town of Ulysses Planning Board, the Village of Trumansburg, Finger Lakes State Parks, and the Town of Ithaca to look at alternative water solutions and to design more mutually agreeable, fundable water project hereafter to be known as Water District 6 . Further be it resolved that EFC and DOH be sent a letter that we will not be following through with DWSRF project # 17468 and that we will be targeting submitting a new IUP by the end of 2009 . Finally be it resolved that the estimated timeline for completion of a project plan and submission to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and other applicable funding sources is no later than October 2010 (see attachment for detailed schedule) . Mr. Austic opened up discussion on this foregoing resolution presented by Ms . Tyler and made some comments and disagreed with some of the information in the resolution. Mr. Kerness said that the resolution was correct. Mr. Austic feels that the Comprehensive Plan should be completed before any zoning changes are made. Mr. Austic also feels that it still should be called District #5 . The Board felt calling it District #5 would confuse the residents and this would avoid that confusion. Mr. Kerness distributed a schedule for implementing Water District #6 and asked for any input. Mr. Austic said that he feels that working on zoning issues before the Comprehensive Plan is completed is an issue. Mr. Kerness said that in relationship to that. The UNA activity is something that has been on the Town Boards docket for some time. If you look at UNA and lake front zoning the original 1999 Comprehensive Plan suggested to do this and Mr. Kerness does not feel that it is out of scope from the current position that the Comprehensive Plan is taking. Also it is clear in the current survey that keeping natural beauty to this community is paramount to everybody. Mr. Kerness does not see a problem with having the Planning Board start to review UNA and lake front zoning. Mr. Austic asked if Mr. Kerness is planning on having the Planning Board develop the zone for UNA. Mr. Kerness said to let the Planning Board do the work that they are willing to tackle this project and they are more then capable. Also the Comprehensive Plan Committee will be looking at those two areas . Mr. Austic is concerned that the Planning Board would be writing the legal language for Zoning and they are not set up to do that but they are set up to review Site Plans, review sub-divisions and does not believe they can write legal language for the zoning. That is a Town Board ' s function. Mr. Kerness said that the Town of Ithaca has done a lot of work on the UNA and Ken and Rebecca attended meetings on that review. Special Town Board Meeting 4 03/27/2008 Ms . Thomas said that the Planning Board will be doing the background work on the UNA and come up with recommendations and preparation work for the Board. The Board discussed the schedule. Village Request of Support for New Side-walk Plan The Village of Trumansburg sent a letter to the Town asking for support of a new side- walk plan and would like a letter back to them by the 31st. No plan was included in the request and no details of the work. Mr. Austic said that he is willing to support but would like to know more about what was done with the last one and is it finished and how was it paid for. Mr. Kerness asked why the Town has to support it. Ms . Thomas said that it is a grant that they are going for and would be helpful if the Town supported it. Ms . Tyler said she would be in favor of sending a letter of support and trusting that they design a sidewalk. Ms . Thomas said that there are not really sidewalks in that area on Truman St and South St. , but there are on Whig St. but not in good condition. Mr. Ferrentino asked what the specifics of the grant are that the Village is applying for. Mr. Ferrentino said that he is worried about it because he is a tax payer in the Village and the Town should be concerned because Village residents are also Ulysses resident' s and right now there is a threat that Village taxes are going to go up dramatically because of what has gone on in the Village the last few years . Mr. Ferrentino said that the vision back when this all started was to clean up the sidewalks down town and there were a couple of spokes that were important and one was South St. because it is the main way into the school . That needed to be done and the part of that was to go north of the Village from here and up to the trailer park and the low income property, so if you follow logic this is potentially a good project. If you look at Elm St. and South St. there are a lot of kids that walk on those streets . Mr. Ferrentino thinks that it is a good idea to have the sidewalks . Mr. Ferrentino ' s concern is the Village and how it comes around where the finances are and how that is going to shake out after looking at the last sidewalk project that is not finished and that is costing the tax payers a lot of money when they were told that the original plan would not cost tax payers a dime other then $ 35 ,000 of in-kind services and right now looking at the engineering and the money that was spent and the way that project was done he questions the logistics and the nuts and bolts of the project. Mr. Ferrentino supports the sidewalks but is concerned about how it its to come about as a tax payer. Ms . Thomas asked if putting in a letter of support and them following up with more information. , Mr. Ferrentino said it would be better to understand what the money is, what is the matching for the Village and knowing . what the grant is. Ms . Tyler suggested writing a letter of support of the project but stating that the Town has reservations and is concerned about the matching funds . Mr. Kerness (said that it would not look good and he feels that there are a lot of questions and are good questions . Mr. Ferrentino said that he would like to see a presentation from the Village putting up a picture of what they are doing, this is the goal, this is the grant, this is the time frame, and this is the taxi burden. Special Town Board Meeting 5 03/27/2008 Mr. Kerness said that would be a fair question. He sees that the Village had a plan in place that they did not match very well and it is costing the tax payers money. Ms . Thomas said the Town could support the concept and maybe the Village has learned from he past experience and would not do that again. The general consensus was that the Town does not have any specifics of this project and would like more information and do a letter at the April 8th meeting. Hearing no further business Ms . Thomas moved, seconded by Ms . Tyler to adjourn the meeting. Unanimously approved. Meeting adjourned at 9 : 42 pm Respectfully submitted, Marsha L. Georgia Ulysses Town Clerk MLG: mlg