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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-08-12 - TB TOWN OF ULYSSES REGULAR TOWN BOARD AUGUST 12 , 2008 PRESENT : Supervisor Douglas Austic ; Council Rod Ferrentino, David Kerness, and Lucia Tyler; Elizabeth Thomas absent; Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia; Deputy Supervisor Richard Coogan absent; Highway Superintendent James Meeker; Attorney Mariette Geldenhuys . Others Present : Geoffrey Hart, Allen Carstensen, Sue Poelvoorde Chair CPC, Christopher Thomas Village Trustee and Jamie Saine Free Press Reporter. Supervisor Austic called the meeting to order at 7 : 30 PM and led those assembled in the pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Kerness moved, seconded by Ms . Tyler to table the minutes of June 10th, 2008 and July 8th, 2008 Regular Town Board and the Public Hearings on July 8th, 2008 . Mr. Austic aye Mr. Ferrentino aye Mr. Kerness aye Ms . Thomas absent Ms . Tyler aye Adopted APPROVAL OF CLAIMS Ms. Tyler moved, seconded by Mr. Ferrentino the following: BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses approve the previous examined vouchers # ' s 267 through 367 in the amount of $51 ,347 . 57 . Mr. Austic aye Mr. Ferrentino aye Mr. Kerness aye Ms . Thomas absent Ms . Tyler aye Adopted REPORTS Tompkins County Representative Jim Dennis — absent Trumansburg Fire Department Representative — absent Planning Board Representative — absent Comprehensive Plan Chair Sue Poelvoorde reported that the Comprehensive Update Committee just received the Draft Comprehensive Plan copy of the compiled report of all of the corrections that have been distributed from the Bergman Associates . More copies will be forthcoming and the Town Board will be provided with these copies for their review. Also the SEQR materials have been sent for the Town Board to declare lead agency, which they could declare now, but Sue has not had a chance to look over and when she does she will get copies to the Board. Ms . Poelvoorde said that the committee will be meeting August 26th and after that time they may be able to set some dates for hearings . The Board is welcome to include any comments they may have for changes or corrections to the committee. PUBLIC PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR Regular Town Board Meeting 2 August 12 , 2008 Mr. Thomas, Village Trustee reported that the Village Board decided to hold off, at the moment, on the billing for EMS services . The Board will take a Took at this again at their next budget cycle. The Village has added a couple more paid EMS personnel to cover Friday and Saturday nights. Now the volunteers will be covering 5 nights instead of the 7 nights . In addition the Village is looking at investigating going with a written contract with the Fire Company including performance standards . The Village has given the Phone Company a purchase offer for the building behind the Town Hall and it is being processed by their legal department and hopes to hear back from that in the next week or two . The purchase offer was for $41 , 113 , which is $ 30,000 for the building and $ 11 , 113 for the asbestos abatement to be done before transfer of ownership to the Village. The Village will deal with the lead abatement. TOWN REPORTS Highway Superintendent James Meeker reported the following: • Finished ditching on Buck Hill Road • Helped the Town of Ithaca do paving on their roads • Mowed all roadsides and trimmed around bridges and guardrails on Town roads • Hired a backhoe to come in on Iradell Road to re- strap a culvert pipe because it was coming loose • Working on fuel tanks getting them painted Code Enforcement Officer Alex Rachun - absent Town Clerk Marsha L. Georgia reported that a total of $ 1243 . 50 was collected for the month of July and $702 . 61 was turned over to the Supervisor along with her monthly report. No fees were collected for water this month. Ms. Georgia announced that Sporting licenses go on sale August 18th, 2008 and again this year the DEC are not allowing any Deer Management sales in section 8S unless the hunters have a privilege permit. Ms. Georgia reported that a lot of water surveys have been returned and Sue Ritter is working on getting a program written to compile the surveys and have asked if the student worker, Catlin would be willing to do that. Catlin is willing but time is running out before she will be back in school. Board Members and Committees Ms. Tyler reported that she had attended the EMC meeting and there was another presentation on the Emerald Ash Bore which has resulted in a regulation that you are not allowed to transport fire wood into State Parks. So campers will have to buy local fire wood. Mr. Kerness reported that he attended the Town of Ithaca Board meeting for a couple of reasons . He has been following the Wind Power Ordinance which they passed and the other being the Lake Front Zoning. One of the things Mr. Kerness said he took away from the meeting, other than it is very complicated, they did not give the public the ten days to review the document and they could not take a vote. Mr. Kerness will get a copy of the Town of Ithaca' s Wind Power Ordinance and possibly other Town ' s laws or ordinances on wind power towers because this is something that the Town of Ulysses will soon be looking into . Mr. Kerness would like to tap into Ithaca' s expertise on both topics. Supervisor Rustic asked if anyone had questions on the monthly operating statement. Ms . Tyler asked about the Dog Control CE account #A3510.4 . Regular Town Board Meeting 3 August 12 , 2008 Mr. Austic said that is where the contract for the SPCE came from and if the Dog Control Officer has to take a dog to the SPCA that fee of $ 100 a dog will come out of that account. • Mr. Austic said that he will be distributing the budget request forms to the Department Heads and they will be returned to him by September 20t . He then has until September 30th to file the tentative budget with the Town Clerk and the Town Clerk has until October 5th to present the Tentative Budget to the Town Board. The Town Board scheduled a Budget Work Shop for October 6th, 2008 at 6 : 30 PM. Deputy Supervisor Richard Coogan absent. OLD BUSINESS Other SPCA Ms, Tyler said that she received a letter of concern from Alan Carstensen after he spoke with Abigail Smith, SPCA Director, who is concerned that the SPCA has a lot of fixed costs for dogs that do not relate to the dog catcher. Expenses such as cruelty investigation, free neutering and spaying, and animal adoption. Mr. Austic said that all those are not required by Ag and Markets . Mr. Ferrentino said that Mr. Carstensen should contact the SPCA because Ms . Smith of the SPCA came to this Board and said that they had the funding for all of that type of thing and that was not a concern for them . Ms. Tyler said that Mr. Carstensen had talked to Ms . Smith. Ms . Tyler asked Mr. Austic when he thought the bids would be received by TCOG . Mr. Austic said that the bids should be back by the 15tH Buffalo Another issue Ms . Tyler asked about is the roaming buffalo that she and Mr. Kerness have received calls about. Mr. Meeker advised them to advise people to get in touch with DEC Fish and Wild Life who are in control of the situation because of the rumors floating around. Ms . Tyler asked about the information that was left in their box in reference to Smart Growth. Mr. Austic said that the article came from the Association of Towns . Ms . Tyler asked if Mr. Austic could sign that he gave the information to the Board and where it had originated from . Ethics Mr. Kerness said that he has kind of a sore subject to bring up and that is "Ethics". Mr. Kerness said that the Board had a meeting and upped the gift amount that the employees and elected officials could receive to $ 75 and he had it in his mind it was to accommodate the Grassroots tickets of $65 so that people could receive one per family and not feel guilty. Mr. Kerness said that it has been alleged that both Town employees and elected officials have received tickets to Grassroots . Mr. Kerness said that the Town has a policy, do we investigate it, close our eyes to it? Regular Town Board Meeting 4 August 12, 2008 Mr. Austic said that the investigation process is to make a complaint to the County Ethics review Board and if the Board wants to do that it would be done through the County. Mr. Kerness said that he does not feel that he is at that point. Mr. Kerness said that he would like to discuss this amongst the Board and understand how to deal with this . He thinks that the County Ethics Board would come if for example someone was sited receiving 25 tickets . Ms. Tyler said it would not be such a sore subject if it had not been discussed right before the tickets were picked up . 1 The Board discussed this briefly and asked Ms . Geldenhuys about doing the training on the ethics policy to all employees and elected officials as it states, in the policy. Ms . Geldenhuys said she would be glad to set up two training times and the Board will make it mandatory for all employees, volunteer committee people and elected officials to attend. Rehabilitation Grant Mr. Austic mentioned that the Small Cities Grant the Town received for $400,000 is turning out to be very difficult to give the money out because of the Federal Rule that you can not touch a place that has lead. Mr. Austic said that most of the places that are being helped are old homes with lead paint. Mr. Austic reads the rule different then the Better Housing Administration; the rule says you have exemptions if there are no children living there six years or younger. If they are older people you can just ask them not to enter the room where 'the work is being done. Ms . Geldenhuys will look into waivers and also check with HUD consultants to see how to work around this. • Attorney' s Research of Highway Work off Road-Right of Way Ms . Geldenhuys looked into the Highway Department doing work outside of the road right of way and she has looked at Highway Law, the Town Law and a couple of comptrollers opinions. Ms . Geldenhuys said that in general it seems to be that the Town Board could instruct their highway department to do the kind of work that is out of the highway right of way but then they need to make reimbursements from the General Fund to the Highway Fund . Mr. Ferrentino said to let the State pay for the Black Diamond Trail . Mr. Austic said that he has talked with Ms. Poelvoorde several times and there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the road right of way. Ms . Poelvoorde said there will be culvert work, placing of signs the State will have to work with the Highway Department on. Ms . Poelvoorde said it is not that the Town is not participating. People need to understand that the municipalities are cooperating and helping out. Adjournment Hearing no further business Mr. Ferrentino moved, seconded by Mr. Kerness to adjourn i the meetings Unanimiously approved and meeting adjourned at 8 : 55 pm. Respectfully submitted, Marsha L. Georgia Ulysses Town Clerk MLG: mlg