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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8-8-2023TOWN OF GROTON – MINUTES OF TOWN BOARD MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2023, AT 7:30 AM Town Officers Present: Town Officers Absent: Also, Present: Donald F. Scheffler, Supervisor Mack Rankin, Dept. Highway Richard Gamel, Councilperson W. Rick Fritz, Code Official Crystal Young, Councilperson Sheldon C. Clark, Councilperson Brian Klumpp, Councilperson Robin Cargian, Town Clerk Ellard Keister, Highway Supt Julie Graham, Bookkeeper Francis Casullo, Attorney The meeting was called into session with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:30 AM. MOVED by Councilperson Young seconded by Councilperson Gamel to approve the minutes of the July 11, 2023 Town Board Meeting. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Motion Passed MOVED by Councilperson Gamel seconded by Councilperson Young to approve the minutes of the July 24, 2023 Special Town Board Meeting. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed RESOLUTION #23-071‐ APPROVE PAYMENT OF INVOICES MOVED by Supervisor Scheffler, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, WHEREAS, vouchers for Abstract #8 for the Year 2023, numbered 318-357 were reviewed and and audited by the Town Board, be it RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby approves said vouchers which will make the accounts in the Total amounts as follows: A GENERAL FUND 16,626.26 DA HIGHWAY FUND 5,945.29 DB HIGHWAY FUND PART TOWN 3.963.18 SL2- PERUVILLE LIGHTING DISTRICT 91.90 SLl- MCLEAN LIGHTING DISTRICT 144.87 Total $26,771.86 Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp ,Gamel, Scheffler, Resolution Passed Nays - Monthly Reports Julie Graham, Bookkeeper – Report was submitted. There are a few budget adjustments needed. Money is going into Town Clerk records management to pay the information aid. Town Board Minutes Page 2 August 8, 2023 RESOLUTION #23-072- -APPROVE BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS MOVED by Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp to approve the Budget Adjustments: From: A1990.4 Contingency $1100.00 To: DA5120.41 Culverts $1100.00 From A1990.4 Contingency $5000.00 To A1410.12 Town Clerk Records Management $5000.00 Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler Motion Passed Nays- W. Rick Fritz, Code/Fire Enforcement Officer submitted the following report. Building Permits Issued:8 Permits Completed: 0 Fire Safety Inspections: 0 Training: Permits Renewed:0 Building Inspections: 52 Complaints:0 Zoning Permits:0 Certificates of Occupancy/Completion: 1 Violation Notices:0 Site Plan Reviews:0 Subdivisions:0 Life Safety Inspections July 2023 Inspected - 0 Completed - 0 Total 2023 Inspected -14 Total 2023 Completed - 14 Ellard Keister, Highway Superintendent – We have been busy over the month on Champlin Rd. and with recent road preparations with the Village on Clark Street to be able to grind it next week and get in line to pave the following. While working with them on that project, it came to my understanding that the rodeo for Olde Home days needed 8 to 10 inches of dirt material over a 125’x 120’ area. The original calculation was miscommunicated and needed to be 40 truckloads or 800 tons. The material was going to be donated from Neville’s pasture located on Clark St. To expedite this process and prevent trucks from being used on a newly paved road, I offered our trucks, excavation equipment, and service. This is more of a Fran question. I would like to charge the company a fee for our expenses from the Town for fuel and labor or if you prefer, offer this as a donation to the Olde Home Days committee. The company said they would be willing to pay. This event has already sold a thousand tickets and is expected to bring in more. Councilperson Klumpp: Don’t we donate something every year? I am ok with you charging the company. Supervisor Scheffler: Technically we can’t just give them money, but we can cover the cost of a particular purpose. In the past, we have paid for the Porta Bathrooms. Councilperson Young: I am fine with you sending an invoice for the trucking. Councilperson Clark: Who is benefiting from this, is it the fireman? Councilperson Gamel: No, the fireman are doing their own thing. This would benefit the Olde Home Days committee. Would that company typically have to pay for that, or have it done anyway? I’m ok with it. Supervisor Scheffler: This is not something a local group is doing? Go ahead and bill them. Town Board Minutes Page 3 August 8, 2023 Highway Superintendent Kiester: Zack passed his test and has his CDL, which is great. Hopefully, we will be getting our part-time person in the truck more and getting him signed up and passing as well. We started pouring 56 yards of concrete for the salt shed floor this morning and 34 yards tomorrow which will take care of the inside. Throughout the summer we have been taking a few spare hours in the afternoon to prepare it, to not take away from other projects. Councilperson Gamel: Do we have salt in the Village shed right now? Highway Superintendent Kiester: No. We ran it down as much as possible. I would say I have maybe a hundred tons of salt mixed with sand and covered with the leftover bunk plastic. Councilperson Gamel: What is the cure time on it before it has salt on it? Highway Superintendent Kiester: 60 Days, it will be into October anyway. I made expensive choices to lengthen the life of this floor such as using a sealer highly rated and used for bridge decks, and fiberglass rebar instead of steel at half the cost. It is as strong as steel and will maintain better because the fiber won’t corrode as the salt will eventually get in there. I went with a heavy concrete mix, with bigger stone and fiber in this as well to support the significant weight it will have. Councilperson Gamel: What is the sheer strength of that as compared to steel? Highway Superintendent Kiester: It is the same as steel. They sell 90-degree corners of it but you can bend it. We tried it. It’s not like a driveway marker where if you bend them they explode out at the bend . This does not do that. I finally heard from the DEC and have my permit for the Champlin Rd. crossover by the Smith Farm. Unfortunately, I do not think we will have enough time to get to it with patchwork and oil and stone to do yet. Councilperson Clark: I have a big thing about cracks in the highway. I have noticed Cortlandville runs tar in the cracks. I don’t know how expensive it is but those roads are beautiful. Highway Superintendent Kiester: It does work however, there are pros and cons which limit your future treatment plans. You can’t top it. The oil won’t stick to it so you can’t oil and stone it. What they will do with those roads is grind those out and re-seal an inch to two inches and come over it. They make different types of tar for that, some of it freezes and you just end up taking it out with a plow. Councilperson Clark: I just worry about Old Stage, it is such a nice road. Highway Superintendent Kiester: The county used to have a crack sealer, but they got rid of it. Some of these better pavement programs that we are putting forward, that are more budget-friendly for us, with lower traffic roads, don’t work with that type of application all the time. Some of the time, yes, and I am looking into that as well. If you go off Old Stage Rd. and look at Sharpsteen Rd, that has cracks. It is a process I have looked into but seems to cause future issues for oil and stone preservation practices. Councilperson Clark: How long will you wait before sealing it again? Highway Superintendent Kiester: I have other roads that are worse off. Ogden Rd., the sides are just gone. I would love to redo Old Stage, it is a heavy-traffic road and I know there are trucks on it that Town Board Minutes Page 4 August 8, 2023 shouldn’t be to avoid the corner. If you would like we can add it to my pavement plan for next year. I agree with you, a hundred percent. Councilperson Gamel: So if you oil and stone that again, would it help? Highway Superintendent Kiester: It would in some cases, but like Sheldon is saying, some spots are cracked out. We placed oil and stone about 3 years ago. You typically go every 5 years. I planned for August but it is now looking like September, to go up through all those oil and stone spots and shimmy up the outsides which are eroded from heavy tractor traffic. If you don’t do that the oil and stone just won’t stay. Regarding those cracks, you start looking at time and budget. What is the most practical practice? Some spots on Old Stage just need to be grounded out to be the most practical. I don’t see that taking place until the next two years due to the budget and band-aids until then. It’s just what we have to do. There are spots on Spring St. that I could double shoot with oil and stone but it didn’t have the stress cracks like Old Stage. If you don’t grind those out, they will just come back year after year. It doesn’t mean I won’t do some spots. The new pavement process used on Stevens Road worked well for the lightly traveled roads and will help to open our budget. Councilperson Clark: What are they doing on Hinman Road? Highway Superintendent Kiester: That is a new recycling process called an FDR. What they do is grind out the outside 3 feet, which the outside of that was worse than Old Stage, and take a large rototiller-like machine and grind it all up to about 8 feet to an even plane, they add oil and stone, then they roll it with a sheep’s foot roller which has tines coming out of the roller for compactions, then they grade off and re-roll it with a flat drum roller. It’s a trial run for the county, they do it a lot in PA but I wasn’t really happy with the top when I drove on it last week. They will oil and stone it when we do Stevens Road. I am waiting to see how it comes out. Robin Cargian, Town Clerk: We are grinding through. Hunting licenses are on sale and we are ready. Fran Casullo, Town Attorney – Nothing to report. Groton Fire Chief, Eric Deforrest submitted the following report. Kids camp was a huge success this year with over 110 kids each night. We had a huge dept. turn out to support camp with 30-plus members each night as well. We had tons of educating material but also new this year we had a bounce house, and water slide obstacle course that was a huge hit! Surrounding fire depts assisted in our success including Mclean, who covered our calls in our community while we concentrated on camp and brought their smoke house for the kids to climb through, and The Tompkins County Airport who provided their Crash Truck to ensure the kids went home soaked. The Helicopter we hoped for was cancelled due to weather. Another amazing year in the books thanks to everyone who sponsored and contributed. EMS billing is now live. We have received zero negative feedback from the community thus far. Old Home days are coming up this month. The dept. will be cooking at the Legion as we have done in years past. There are some menu changes this year that we are experimenting Town Board Minutes Page 5 August 8, 2023 with. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the new fire dept. building on Friday night at 6 pm at the future building site. Everyone is welcome to attend! Supervisor Scheffler, CSE Solar Update: Both town supervisors have been meeting with the engineers, and lawyers have been communicating with CS Energy. Draft of Local Law #2 of 2023 The draft was reviewed page by page and changes were applied. Of major concern was if it was advisable to base a factor setting a limit, on other municipal zoning regulations. MOVED BY Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Young, to remove section 367.2 e. In an effort to maintain shared responsibility on a Countywide and Statewide basis, a moratorium on new Solar Energy Systems shall be instituted once the land coverage from large-scale Solar Energy Systems reaches a total combined area of 1.5% of the total land area of the Town of Groton. Once triggered, this moratorium may be removed once every town and city in Tompkins County reaches a total land area coverage for large-scale Solar Energy Systems of 1.5% of each town’s total land area, AND every county in the State of New York reaches the same threshold. Once removed, a new, and higher, maximum density threshold shall be set by the Town Board. Ayes – Clark, Young, Gamel, , Resolution Passed Nays - Klumpp, Scheffler MOVED BY Councilperson Gamel, seconded by Councilperson Klumpp, to update the draft as reviewed and send it to the attorney as soon as possible. Advised by the attorney to wait before establishing a lead agency for SEQR. RESOLUTION #23‐073 – AUTHORIZE THE USE OF EMAIL FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF LOCAL LAW PROPOSALS AND FINAL DRAFTS TO TOWN BOARD MEMBERS MOVED BY, Councilperson Gamel, Seconded by Councilperson Klumpp that the Town Board hereby authorizes the use of email for law propositions and final drafts to comply with Municipal Home Rule §20 (4) and authorizes the Town Clerk to post the email addresses to be used on the signboard as follows. Groton Town Supervisor – supervisor@grotontown.com Councilperson Sheldon Clark - evoclark@aol.com Councilperson Richard Gamel - rbgamel@verizon.net Councilperson Brian Klumpp - owascols@outlook.com Councilperson Crystal Young - crystal137898@gmail.com Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Resolution Passed Nays - Privilege of the Floor Highway Superintendent Kiester: The original, 1962 building boiler, will need to be replaced. The quote from Climate Control is around $21,000. The other two companies I have reached out to have not gotten back to me with quotes needed to satisfy the procurement policy rules. I do want to jump on Town Board Minutes Page 6 August 8, 2023 this before September rolls around which would require a resolution to move forward once all the quotes are in. RESOLUTION #23-074 – AUTHORIZE BUILDING EXPENDITURE NOT TO EXCEED $25,000 FOR NEW BOILER MOTION BY Councilperson Gamel, second by Councilperson Clark to authorize the Highway Superintendent and building committee to research quotes for a new boiler and proceed with a purchase not to exceed $25,000. Ayes – Clark, Young, Klumpp, Gamel, Scheffler, Resolution Passed Nays - Supervisor Scheffler received feedback from the Board, and they did not feel it was necessary to have the auditors come to a meeting to explain the results of the completed audit. Announcements: • Zoning Board of Appeals, Meeting has been canceled. • Planning Board Meeting, Thursday, August 18, 2023, Sheldon • Olde Home Days August 24 & 25th • Health Insurance meeting August 15th There being no further business, Councilperson Gamel moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilperson Clark, at 9:08 pm. Unanimous. Robin Cargian, RMC Town Clerk/Tax Collector