Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-09-2022TOWN OF GROTON –MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2022 AT 7:30 PM Town Officers Present: Town Officers Absent: Also Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Randy Jackson, Town Justice Lee Shurtleff, County Legislature Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Paul Lang, Town Justice Crystal Young, Councilperson Mack Rankin, Dept. Highway Richard Gamel, Councilperson Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent Robin Cargian, Town Clerk Francis Casullo, Attorney W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Julie Graham, Bookkeeper The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:33pm MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, to approve the minutes of the October 11, 2022 Town Board Meeting as submitted. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed MOVED by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Clark, to approve the minutes of the November 2, 2022 Special Town Board Meeting as submitted. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed RESOLUTION #22-076‐ -BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS General Account: A4089 Revenue $58,150.68 To- Increase Expenditures Salt Shed A9901.9 $58,150.68 Highway Town wide: Increase Revenue DA5031 $58,150.68 To- Increase Expenditures DA5142.2 $58,150.68 Capital Building Reserve Repairs: A232 $9150.00 To- Building Repairs A1620.42 $9150.00 MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp to approve adjustments as submitted. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed RESOLUTION #22-077‐ ‐ APPROVE PAYMENT OF INVOICES WHEREAS, vouchers for Abstract #11 for the Year 2022, numbered 466-510 were reviewed and and audited by the Town Board, be it Town Board Minutes Page 2 November 9, 2022 RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves said vouchers with the Total amounts as follows: A GENERAL FUND 21,789.50 B GENERAL FUND PART TOWN 100.00 DA HIGHWAY FUND 24,133.11 DB HIGHWAY FUND PART TOWN 37,840.49 SL2- PERUVILLE LIGHTING DISTRICT 81.90 SLl- MCLEAN LIGHTING DISTRICT 163.90 Total $84,108.90 MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Young Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Nays - Resolution Passed Monthly Reports Julie Graham, Bookkeeper – You have my report with the needed budget adjustments. Do you have any questions? W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer – You have my report. Folks are buttoning up for the winter months. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – We have had a lot to do and are also buttoning up for winter. I do want to thank Julie Graham for all of her work with the accounting, necessary budget adjustments and answering all my various questions. We are in a tight spot with some preventative maintenance on a truck. I was hoping we could get this sent in for a rebuild, before it completely ballooned into a full-on replacement, however that will not work out. The pump assembly will be $1,400. The PTO for that pump however, has splines that are worn out which is where we get the oil and air leakage. This can no longer be rebuilt as they do not have the parts to rebuild it any longer, and this has to be purchased. There is one left on the shelf at D&W for $5,500. I will need a resolution to move forward with a pump/PTO repair for Truck #21. The pump is at D&W now, all that would have to be done is for them to assemble it and Ben can get it back on the truck. It is a substantial amount and before the bill get passed around next month, I would like a resolution to go ahead with the purchase in order to get that snowplow truck up and running. RESOLUTION #22-078‐ ‐ APROVE HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT MAKE EMERGENCY PURCHASE FOR PUMP REPAIR TO TRUCK #21 MOVED by Councilperson Klummp seconded by Councilperson Gamel, to approve the Highway Superintendent make an emergency purchase of a replacement pump for Truck #21 in the estimated amount of $7,000. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Resolution Passed Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – We have talked a fair amount about this before. To get in line so we have one coming and give us time to save for it, I have a quote here for another plow truck. The last one we ordered, we have been waiting on now for 2 years and it’s not even getting built yet. If Town Board Minutes Page 3 November 9, 2022 we were to try and order the same exact truck we did two years ago, now, it would be $40,000 to $50,000 more. We do not pay that because we got locked in early. I recommend we sign another contract to get locked in at these prices which is right around $275,000. This is not totally the same as the last time, we need to order a plow. The last plow we were keeping was our newest plow. I have this quote until December 15, 2022. If we can get signed up, it is good future planning. Unfortunately, the days of ordering and seeing the same truck in the same year are over. Councilperson Gamel- Can we plan on that money? Don Scheffler, Town Supervisor- Worst comes to worst, we could sell it instantly. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – Essentially, we are planning by putting it away now. The last one is paid for, half the money the first year and half the second, we just don’t have the truck yet. We would just do the same idea again. Councilperson Klumpp- This is an item we have to have. For some reason if something changed, were you serious about being able to sell it? Are we in a safe situation if we commit to it now? Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – I know of a situation in another municipality where a truck was ordered but when it came in, it wasn’t what they ordered. Other municipalities found out about it, and they are like vultures trying to get their hands on it. The manufacturer has pages and pages of orders now, this price will not go down. Don Scheffler, Town Supervisor- We are working on a plan to budget more for future years to get us back to where we should be. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – I think we need to get a signed contract in to save ourselves money. If we wait another year to sign, we could be three years out. Councilperson Gamel- Refresh my memory, what is coming up between now and the three years out, equipment wise, that you will come in here and say we will need this as well? Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – We will need to get going on another pickup. We have got to get another roller, which we could get one used as we’ve talked about. We are looking into year lease options on a loader. On average, a trade-in costs you $13,000 a year but you get a brand-new loader each year and you’re not putting new tires, oil or maintenance into it. Our current loader, if you break it down by the life span, is costing us $16,000 per year. Will it be like that forever, maybe not? It could be a supply chain reaction, as they are selling these leased loaders for what they are getting out of them. The Town of Caroline has been doing this for a couple years now. The savings to have a new piece of equipment is working out for them. We are looking to gain any advantage we can. Trucks, Rick, are our biggest issue, not necessarily the heavy equipment. I bring up loaders because we have a loader at Andersons right now that has been there almost three weeks for transmission issues. The county highway department took that up for us which saved us a considerable bill. Councilperson Clark- The new truck you want to order, why isn’t there a plow that could come off another truck that will fit it? Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – It is a two-way angle plow and will not fit the same Town Board Minutes Page 4 November 9, 2022 assembly. We have a few barrel plow assemblies, but a portion of these trucks are on their second set of plow equipment. They are pushing salt and salt brine back off roads which is every piece of metals nightmare to do what they are doing. RESOLUTION #22-079‐ APPROVE THE HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT CONTRACT FOR THE PURCHASE OF A 2023 INTERNATIONAL HB TRUCK & PLOW PACKAGE MOTION by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp to approve the Highway Superintendent sign a contract for the purchase of a 2023 International HB Truck and Plow Package that has been quoted at the cost of $275,000, to replace truck #28. Truck #28 will then go for auction or sale. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – Our spare now is rough. It would make more sense to use truck #28 as our back up and remove a truck that is beyond repair. With no further comments or questions, the vote was as follows: Ayes – Clark, Young, Gamel, Scheffler Nays - Resolution Passed Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – A bit of good news is the new pickup we ordered over a year ago is on its way. Everything is still on track, and we can get a plow on it. The last employee hired however, has moved on to another higher paying job. We reposted the position two weeks ago and have had no applicants. Councilperson Klumpp- Do you know how much of a pay difference? Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – About $6.00 per hour increase. Robin Cargian RMC, Town Clerk & Tax Collector – I don’t have too much to report, just a question that was emailed regarding the Tompkins County broadband survey. Would you all want to participate by having it on the Town Website? They have only had 5% of a response so far by placing the information on the library website. I did ask if there was any other way they would be notifying people of the survey, which there was not. Councilperson Young- I thought that was already closed? If you put it on the website, I will link it to the community page. Supervisor Scheffler – Sounds fine. Fran Casullo, Attorney for the Town – Nothing to report Recreation Coordinator, Councilperson Young- We are moving forward filling the recreation director position, looking to making it a full-time position. This would include more duties such as off-season activities and adult activities. The job will be posted on the county site, and we are hoping to have it filled by the end of the year. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – Will that new full-time position have any control over youth sports, or will it still be separate? Councilperson Young- Football, Cheer and Little League Baseball are under their own control but all Town Board Minutes Page 5 November 9, 2022 will have to report to the recreation committee twice a year if they want to fall under the insurance. County Legislature, Lee Shurtleff - We had the County budget meeting Monday night and will be voted on next Tuesday which I felt had some good news when we got done. As a whole group, the legislature went with a zero percent levy increase for the upcoming year. Ultimately, the tax rate will drop on average $.50 or $.60 per thousand. The County fund balance was supported by sales tax, tourism tax, as well as the recovery funds. The things that were of a particular interest to me, was we made a last meeting move to add two full time sheriff deputies to the road patrol. I think this is only right for the rural areas, the city may be cutting but we are shoring up public safety issues outside of those boundaries. There was a little argument from those that are more city centric, who may have invested in the reimagining of public safety. They did not understand why we needed to increase more people in the sheriff’s office, but the point was we need to get more bodies on the road. The people we have now are working a lot of overtime, they have had several vacancies, and a lot of trainings going on. They are stretched at times. Another thing the county has done in this proposal is add a full time Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Program Coordinators position. This will tie into what we talk about later in the fire and ambulance contract hearing. We are experiencing, county wide, EMS response issues. Groton is one area that is doing very well but the southern portions of the county are not doing well. The County is going to have to take a stronger roll in system planning for EMS. We also added funding to weights and measures, it has been a one-person shop since I can remember. I feel these are some real rural issues that were served this year. We also dedicated a significant fund balance to sustaining the airport and the TCAT services. They have had a bump bouncing back from the pandemic. I am not one to advocate for the support of those operations through the tax levy. We need to find a way to sustain those without shifting the burden on the property tax owners. That is a place where the relief funds from the federal government are meant to be used to restore some of the services to get us past this period of time. The county set aside over 8 million dollars into a recovery relief fund made available across the spectrum for non-for-profit entities. Municipalities may be applying and some private businesses. We were informed the other night, when they closed the application period, (which was tiered into three categories of small, medium, large) for the (6) six million dollars that we have to put towards community recovery efforts, they have applications for requests of over (34) thirty-four million dollars. Those of us that are on that committee to review, will be receiving files of over 1000 pages. That is where the focus has been over the last three months. I am sure you have seen the paving that has been going on. Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – They have been doing a great job and have been excellent to work with the past two years. Eric Deforrest, Groton Fire Department – Submitted the following report: We have been doing tons  of Public Education.  We had crews at Sykes St. and at the Elementary School on 3 different days.  The  kindergarten class came to the station for a visit and I held a class with the FFA kids from the STEAM  lab to go over farm medic related rescues and Fire Dept information.    We have had a very busy month with leaf fires due to dry conditions.  PSA announcement: with the  lack of rain and abnormally dry year, the risk for brush and leaf fires are at a peak right now, even more  so than we see in a typical spring.  Please be aware of this when doing recreational burns.  We have  averaged a fire call a day through the month of October and that has trickled into November.     We continue to get new interest in membership.  We have 2 members completing there BEFO class  (basics of exterior fire operations). We hired a new part time Medic, Kaitlin Gorton, you will see a new  Town Board Minutes Page 6 November 9, 2022 friendly face in the back of the ambulance.  We are very excited to have her join our team. I think that  about covers it. See ya next month!  PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2023 FIRE AND AMBULANCE CONTRACTS MOTION to open the Public Hearing for the 2023 Fire and Ambulance Contracts was made by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Clark and the public notice for the 2023 Fire Protection and Ambulance contracts as well as the 2023 Budget hearings, published in the Cortland Standard as well as placed on the town website was read. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed Lee Shurtleff, Groton Fire Department Board of Wardens Representative – On behalf of the Board of Wardens for the Groton Fire Department, I thank you for your consideration for the budget requests that we sent in. The proposed budget for the fire department itself, including the four contracts with the Town Fire/Ambulance and Village Fire/ Ambulance, which constitute 95% of the revenues, is $660,000. Which is about a 2.5% increase over last year. The individual contracts range 2.2 or 2.6% increase, each asking for about a $4,000 or a $16,000 increase overall. Where that is being dedicated, is to sustain the EMS operations. Daytime Paramedics, Advanced Life Support help, fuel, apparatus. We shifted a lot of expenditures to EMS staffing and built those salaries, now we are at a point to try and stabilize them. We are a little concerned overall, putting about $60,000 a year towards replacing fire apparatus. As you know, with some of the equipment that is being replaced in Ellard’s department, the cost of fire apparatus has gone through the roof. We don’t have any immediate replacements coming. We are trying to rotate the engines to the NFPA (Nation Fire Protection Association) standard every 10-20 years. For example, to compare a few weeks ago, another district is replacing an engine where the bid came in at $800,000. Our last new engine we bought brand new 10 years ago, was $400,000. We were fortunate 4 years ago, to replace a second engine with a demo model for $275,000. Looking ahead, for what bonding costs may be, 5 to 10 years down the road, we are going to have to continue to increase that line a little higher. We also are looking at all our air packs or self-containing breathing apparatus which are about at the end of the 15-year life cycle, which will be a $150,000 project. That will probably be funded over a period of 4 to 5 years of payments and roll it into a reserve account for future replacements. As far as EMS goes, we are about at 675 ambulance runs in the first 10 months of the year, which will put us up over 800 calls for the year 2022. Fire calls running about 150. Ambulance wise, that is double what we were running in 1990. Far, far higher today which is stressing all other agencies. Our hope is the County can get a handle on the mental and substance abuse issues that all have an impact on these services. The other thing we are running into, is the hospitals themselves are running into staffing issues. Ithaca and Cortland have been going on diversion periodically causing our ambulance to be out of service for longer periods as we are transporting to Syracuse, Sayre or distant places. The other problem is the Emergency rooms are so backed up that once you get there, our staff is waiting longer to leave the patient. All these things put stress across the system. We don’t want to lose any personnel. When you read the report in January, you will see where we have provided mutual aid outside of Groton, more than we have coming to support us! All agencies are supporting each other. Dryden for instance is backing up the paid agencies in Cortland and Ithaca which is pulling us into covering the Dryden district periodically. There are much broader emergency medical services and hospitals issues that are cascading down to us. When we look at the two budgets together, the contracts from the Village and the Town equal about $300,000, the costs for EMS services is somewhere in the neighborhood of $375,000. So you can see, the fire contracts are supplementing the ambulance service that we put out there. Our salaries for Paramedics and Critical Care Technicians, as well as shared Town Board Minutes Page 7 November 9, 2022 daytime driver position, is a little over $300,000. We also have a lease for our defibrillators costing $15,000 per year and $20,000 for various supplies such as oxygen. It is no inexpensive adventure. Right now, we are holding our own. Insurance costs continue to creep up on us. They are fully 8% of the combined budgets for property, liability, and workmen’s compensation. We caught a break on worker’s compensation for our experience record over the last 10 years that has been very good. The Village started providing a fire fighters cancer fund two years ago which added about $5,000 a year. We have a good board working with us, following these numbers but did not want to come in and ask for a whole lot. We feel that $4,000 increase in the contract maintains us and moves us ahead. Looking ahead to the next year, the Village is going to put the building back out for a second bid. We have spent the better part of a year, parring down the square footage on it. Looking at some different approaches to the construction. We are hopeful this next round won’t be in the eight-million-dollar range, hopeful for something about half that but it’s going to be a stretch. That will be a big commitment for the Village. There is no way to do that without multi-year bonding if they move forward. The Governor did end up signing legislation giving volunteer ambulances the ability to bill insurance for EMS ambulance response cost recovery. That came into effect a couple months ago. We have talked to companies in the business of processing insurance claims. We will bring a proposal to the Village and Town Boards to consider looking at going toward a billing service, as all the others are. I am not advocating one way or another, but it may be an option to help you contain the costs moving ahead. With the large number of tax-exempt facilities in the area that have an impact on our service, you really need to give some consideration to what Medicaid, Medicare, and private health insurance allows for ambulance transports. It’s not likely to be a huge amount of Medicaid reimbursement. If you were to take a patient that is on public assistance, which 75% of the nursing homes are on, the average recoupment is $160 per call. Multiply that times 100 calls a year and that can help keep gas in the tanks. We also have many elder care facilities in the area, where Medicare would pay a fair amount toward billing. Our estimate is, billing would offer $125,000 per year, if handled properly, but we will have more on that moving forward. Councilperson Klumpp- You mentioned a lot of the hospitals are running into delays. Is it more calls or is there a staffing shortage? Lee Shurtleff, Groton Fire Department Board of Wardens Representative – Staffing is an issue. The convenient care was shut down and never reopened in the capacity that it did before. About 95% of the patients that were going there, are now going directly to the Emergency Room or to some of the other urgent care facilities that are available. A lot of the hospitals just don’t have the specialty care that they used to. There was an article in the Cortland Standard tonight about OBGYN and the lack of maternity care people. The same thing is transferring over into cardiac and neurology. I also read an article about Upstate being able to maintain its level one trauma center moving ahead because of various complications. It's just pushing people out. From the funeral service perspective, I have been to Buffalo, Cooperstown, White Plains and had one person shipped here from New York City because people could not get the care they needed in a regional hospital and had to go far distances. If you read the Syracuse Post Standard, they had an article that talked about the number of people who had been turned down or diverted from the Syracuse hospitals since the first of the year. It was a number in the 8,000-9,000 range. We took a call about three weeks ago where the patient was covid positive. I got a call to warn anyone on the call they have been exposed (we are still following safety precautions) they were looking for a transport due to the patients’ respiratory issues and Syracuse did not have the availability for the care. They were also looking to transport four other patients to Albany that TLC did not have the ambulances available to do the transport. It is creating part of the back log. I don’t know if you have read the Ithaca Times article with some of the concerns Trumansburg has trying to back up Bangs in Ithaca? Due to the Town Board Minutes Page 8 November 9, 2022 difficulty with mental health and substance abuse, it is tying up the ambulance as it must wait for law enforcement to establish a presence of safety. That is just one of multiple issues. I think the broader issue is going to be the ability for the hospitals to handle the transports going ahead. Another issue is a lot of the doctor’s offices are not seeing people like they did before the pandemic. People had put off their care and now ultimately, they are ending up in the emergency room as things have escalated into something that could have been taken care of sooner. With no one else from the public wishing to speak, a MOTION to close the Public Hearing on the Fire and Ambulance Contracts was made by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Young. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed RESOLUTION #22-080 - APPROVE FISCAL YEAR 2023 FIRE & AMBULANCE CONTRACTS MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Clark RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the Fiscal Year 2023 Fire and Ambulance Contracts between the Town of Groton, the Village of Groton, and the Groton Fire Department. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2023 TOWN BUDGET MOTION to open the public hearing was made by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Gamel. Ayes - Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed Supervisor Scheffler- The budget this year is the best we can hope for. We have 4% pay increases, raised building and repairs for an entrance way repair from $61,000 to $80,000. There is money for garage equipment, the health insurance increase by 6.5% and extra money budgeted for a full-time youth program director. We honored the highway employee agreement. We budgeted $175,000 for equipment replacement reserve and increased the equipment from $17,000 to $40,000 for equipment machinery repairs. The proposed culvert work on Champlin and Old Stage Rd. will be covered by ARPA and grant funds. The Town Board, Supervisor and the Bookeeper have a 4% pay increase. Our tax rate went down $.29 1/2 and we are under the 2% tax cap. Are there questions? Lee Shurtleff – Was the general assessed value 331 million? So, you had an increase in the assessment of what looked like to me, 11 million. That was quite a bit lower than the rest of the county. Congratulation on lowering the rate. It looks like a sound budget. With no one else from the public wishing to speak, a MOTION to close the Public Hearing on the 2023 Fiscal Town Budget was made by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Supervisor Scheffler, Item 10, to approve partial payments in 2023 and beyond. From what I understand, and Julie may be able to help me with this, we need to have a motion for machinery and Town Board Minutes Page 9 November 9, 2022 equipment expenses 5130.4 to be paid from Highway Part Town. This has not been in the budget previously but is in the proposed budget so we will need a resolution to allow this before we can pass the budget. RESOLUTION #22-081 - APPROVE PARTIAL PAYMENTS FROM 5130.4 FROM HIGHWAY PART TOWN IN 2023 AND SUBSEQUENT YEARS. MOTION to approve partial payments for machinery and equipment from Highway Part Town 5130.4 for fiscal year 2023 and subsequent years made by Councilperson Klumpp, seconded by Councilperson Gamel. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed RESOLUTION #22-082 - APPROVE FISCAL YEAR 2023 TOWN BUDGET MOVED by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Clark RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves the Fiscal Year 2023 Town Budget as presented. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Groton Fire Department Report was read out loud by Supervisor Scheffler as it was felt to have baring on the budget for the education services the department provides to the community. Public Comment submitted by email missed in error: “Good morning- the salaries paid to all positions in the town of Groton Highway department employees are below surrounding areas and should be reviewed. Currently, on the Tompkins County website, the following MEO vacancies are listed: Town of Enfield, $22-$24/hour; Town of Groton, $18-$20/hour; Town of Ulysses, $23.50/hour ($24.50, 1/1/23); Village of Dryden, $20.40/hour. I believe other municipalities in Tompkins County are also higher. These guys work hard in all-weather to make it as safe as possible for us to travel in our town. Please let them know how much they're appreciated and compensate them accordingly. Thank you!” Supervisor Scheffler, Memorandum of Understanding for the Joint Recreation Program with the Village of Groton- One change in this agreement from previous agreements is the director will now be full time. Are they any questions on that? RESOLUTION #22-083 - ACCEPT INTERMUNICPAL JOINT TOWN RECREATION PROGRAM AND RECREATION DIRECTOR POSITION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE TOWN OF GROTON AND THE VILLAGE OF GROTON. MOTION to accept the Intermunicipal Joint Recreation Program Agreement as submitted by Councilperson Young, seconded by Councilperson Gamel. Councilperson Klumpp- Can you let us know again why they are making the change for part time to full time? Councilperson Young- Yes, basically the current director was doing more full-time work than part- time. This work extended into weekends and evenings. We wanted to increase the programing to include adult recreational activities or have someone who has grant writing capabilities to assist the Town and Town Board Minutes Page 10 November 9, 2022 Village to offset costs. We realize the program has grown into something more than a part time work. We cannot thank Jennifer enough for all that she has done over the years. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed CS Energy Project Update Supervisor Scheffler, There will be a meeting next Tuesday with CS Energy, Lansing, all Attorneys, Engineers and County stakeholders to discuss their progress with the application before they get into a public education session. Extend Contract with Chuck Rankin Supervisor Scheffler- Julie and I both feel it would be beneficial to have Mr. Rankin on call for a bit longer. There are end of the year documents that need to be filed which Julie has not done on her own yet and may need his advice. The rate was $150 per month. He responds to all calls and is always willing to come in when we ask. RESOLUTION #22-084 – EXTEND BOOKKEEPING CONSULTING CONTRACT WITH CHUCK RANKIN UNTIL MARCH 2023 MOTION to extend the bookkeeping consulting contract with Chuck Rankin at the previous rate until March of 2023 made by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Resolution Passed Deleware River Solar Application- South Main St. Supervisor Scheffler- We have received an application for a solar array on South Main St. which is under review. Privilege of the Floor: No one wished to speak. Announcements: Planning Board, November 17, 2022 @ 7:30pm Zoning Board of Appeals, November 16, 2022 @ 7:00pm There is a Public Hearing for a Solar Moratorium here at the Town Hall next Tuesday November 14, 2022 @ 7:00pm There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Clark, at 8:36 pm. Unanimous. Robin Cargian, RMC Town Clerk/Tax Collector