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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7_08_2020 Transcript Regular Meeting07-08-2020.mp3 Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:00:01] ​OK, I will call the meeting to order. Virginia can keep trying to connect. And if I hear from her, I'll keep you posted. This is the regular Town board meeting for the town of Enfield Via zoom meeting port on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. Are there any changes or additions to the agenda? Counciperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:00:30] ​I actually have a little something that I just heard from a resident that is interested in us looking in two paving in front of the food pantry entrance. They've been volunteering there and they're concerned that the residents are having a hard time getting their carts in and out of that area. It kicks up a lot of dust. So she was just wondering if we could look into that. So if we want to talk about that at some point, it doesn't necessarily have to be discussed in this meeting, I know tonight is really heavy, but I just want to put that out there because she just contacted me. Maybe Buddy would have a good idea of how much that would cost us and what they would. That's something that we can budget in the future. They actually asked for an estimate on that last year for that whole parking area. And then up the hill to the back. But I heard anything on that. OK, well, we have Buddy on here tonight. Maybe we can grill him a little bit for it,. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:01:34] ​And I know it's very difficult at the end of the food pantry, getting the pallets back into the pantry. It's hard on the volunteers because of the uneven gravel. It just could be somehow a little bit of pavement there. It probably would be a whole lot of help both to the patrons and to the volunteers. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:01:56] ​I think just for the regular use of residents of that building, even if it's just a community building, it would be nice to pave that whole area. But the food pantry, their goal isn't to stay there. And it is not an ideal space for the food pantry. So just being responsible about Town facilities is enough reason, in my view, to pave that whole area. So, OK. All right, is there any objection to having that, if we can fit it into new business at the end of the discussion or the meeting? OK. All right. Privilege of the floor. Each speaker gets three minutes and all comments need to be addressed to the full board on. If you click on the participants list, you should see a.. Raise your hand function if you're calling on the phone. You can also use star nine to turn that on and turn that off. And a little hand will come up in front of us and we'll be able to see you in in the list and can call on you and see. At the end, if you haven't been able to get that to work for you, I will on mute everybody and I'll warn you first so that everyone will be unmuted. And then I'll ask if there's anyone who has additional comments that they would like to use the privilege of the floor. OK. Ellen Woods. Town Clerk Ellen Woods ​[00:03:53] ​Hi. So this is before I start. Privilege. I do have another commitment tonight. So, Stephanie, just any correspondence like that that comes in. It would be great to have a copy of it if it came in in a written form so that I can. OK. So great. Town Clerk Ellen Woods ​[00:04:14] ​So I'm just just as it was just the Fourth of July, I'm reading the first part of the Declaration of Independence in Congress, July 4, 1776, the unanimous declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving from their just powers, from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such forums as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. And accordingly, all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right. It is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct effect the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:06:48] ​Thank you, Ellen. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:06:50] ​Courtney Bailey. Courtney? Courtney Bailey ​[00:07:03] ​Sorry. Someone tried calling in and it messed me up. I'd like to speak about the proposed plan to change how the highway superintendent and I believe the town clerk are selected currently is by vote. I just want to make sure that if we move to a employee situation where the town's people do not have a say in it, that those people are still residents required to be residents of our town before they're working on us. I do believe, however, that the important board positions themselves, including the supervisor, need to be left up to the voters. And that is not something that should be moved to the board. Makes a choice for all of Enfield. And that's it. Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:08:09] ​Thanks, Courtney. Ed Heatherington? Ed Hetherington ​[00:08:23] ​Right, you got me. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:08:25] ​Gotcha. Ed Hetherington ​[00:08:26] ​OK. Recite the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And I have another comment. Ed Heatherington ​[00:08:47] ​You know, I sort of get all Courtney Bailey on the fact that a supervisor should probably stay at two years and also the town clerk and the highway superintendent should be elected by the people. That's the end of my comments. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:09:08] ​Thanks, Ed. There's anyone else who'd like to speak for a privilege of the floor, please raise your hand. All right, I'm going to unmute everybody and ask the question again one more time. All right. Is there anyone who would like to speak for privilege of the floor? I keep on unmuting you all and then you remute yourself, so. But we're open for that. Well, all right. Virginia is still working on it she's starting over. OK.Lets see here. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:10:28] ​What's happening is there's a little panel that comes up and says unmute yourself and they aren"t unmuting themselves. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:10:38] ​Well, then we need to pay better attention to the screen. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:10:41] ​ ...my computer anyway. My zoom. Supervisor McGee ​[00:10:46] ​All right. County legislator I see Anne Korman and Dave McKenna here this evening and a second. So I'm trying to unmuted to. Hi there! Who wants to give a report? Hi Dave! Legislator Dave McKenna ​[00:11:15] ​Hello there. Basically, we passed. Cares Act for T-Cat. And Gadabout. And we awarded a bed for replacement bridge Town of Lansing, Ludlow. Ludlowville Road Bridge. And we also authorized the execution contract with Fisher Associates for a construction phase serves as for the Ludlowville bridge. We approved a supplemental agreement Number two, a New York State Department of Transportation replacement of the Etna Lane Bridge over Fall Creek in the town of Dryden and I did a final payment, a final payment for, E.L. Ames Inc...., a Tompkins County airport, and that was for the final payment on last the ... bridge that they installed. They had a resolution to update the administrative policy manual. Telework arrangements and related policies. Excuse me further than that. it was a relatively quiet night. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:13:06] ​Thanks, Dave. Anne did you have anything you wanted to add? Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:13:10] ​Sure, I can add a couple quick things TCAT buses. You are going to stay free for the rest of the summer. And if folks haven't used in a while to see you, both doors are open the front and the side door to make it easier to socially distance. And since you don't have to go in to pay anything, you can go in the side door, which is I think it's about halfway back there is mandatory a mandatory mask wearing on the busses and a 20 person Max. And they are cleaning the buses regularly. We're returning more and more employees to the county. We still have some furloughs scheduled right now till the end of July. And then we're continuously evaluating that. July 26, the extra money from the feds, that extra six hundred dollars per week for unemployment is expiring, July 26. A lot of people have been saying it's the end of July, but we found out it's July 26. And as you've heard, the this state is quarantining or asking people to quarantine coming from other states. Fiscally, we're still looking at eleven to 18 million dollar deficit, trying to make make it up, make up at least part of that through reductions in spending. And but we're we're in dire straits and we're hoping the federal government is going to come through with at least some money for municipalities. And I think that's about it. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:14:49] ​Great, thanks Anne. Does anybody have questions from the board for Ann or Dave? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:14:55] ​Is there any sort of idea? If we did have federal funding when it would come through? Or when we would know yes or no if we are. Legislator Dave McKenna ​[00:15:08] ​I don't think anybody knows that just yet. Pretty much open here. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:15:15] ​Right. There's that right. The current proposal does have that in it at the federal level. But we don't know if it's going to pass. Councilperson Stephnie Redmond ​[00:15:28] ​Do you know where it is right now in process? Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:15:33] ​I believe it's just still in Congress that the Senate, it hasn't gone to the Senate yet. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:15:44] ​Thank you. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:15:45] ​There there is more. Of course, we're always asking people to please contact your Congress people and your senators the the people in Congress have been really great about speaking out about that. We we've talked to some of our officials and they're they really see that New York is is really going to be hurting and not just because we were in a deficit already, but this is just really compounding it. I mean, we could see if everything goes good, that the county could still see eleven to $18 million shortfall. And that's if we get some tourism back. That's if all the students come back and spend some money. So it's it's pretty scary. It's pretty scary. We don't want to raise taxes. We don't want to have to cut services. We don't want to lay people off. But right now, every options on the table. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:16:43] ​So I know that there's a few different bills that they're looking. I think one's called the Smart Act or something like that. Is there one that it's better to advocate over others and why? Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:16:58] ​Let me look it up. We can come back because. Martha Robertson did have a proposal, a resolution that we passed supporting one or two of the bills. So let me look that up. Can we pass that? I just can't remember the the numbers and everything,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:17:19] ​OK? I just don't know when we you know, when we talk to them which one we should advocate for. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:17:24] ​Right. And I can say that. I can send that to the board. A resolution. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:17:32] ​OK, great. Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:17:37] ​Thank you both. Legislator Dave McKenna ​[00:17:38] ​You're welcome. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[00:17:39] ​Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:17:40] ​Welcome Virginia. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:17:40] ​Yes. Don't ask. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:17:46] ​Computers. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:17:48] ​No runaway puppy. I got to get myself together again. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:18:08] ​You're on mute Beth. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:18:11] ​Thanks, supervisor report. This month, I worked with the bookkeeper to set up new systems of record keeping and bill paying, worked with Williamson to set up the cloud accounting system for the supervisor, bookkeeper and the clerk, the bookkeeper, Brian McIlroy. He convinced Williamson not to charge us for the Clerk access and the Clerk annual fee. So that was several hundred dollars that we saved there. I met with Paychex to go over the employee manual creation process through their H.R. program, facilitated two board meetings. I met with Rene Carver regarding streaming and online meeting facilitation for the board meetings in the community building. Worked with the Deputy Town supervisor to coordinate tasks and teach bookkeeping processes and met with her and the bookkeeper coordinated the barriers for the town hall and the install of replacement water heater and worked with municipal solutions to review the highway bond. Tended to retiree dental insurance procedures. The retirees are not signing up for the or enrolling in the advanced dental program. So I'm working with the Medicare representative to see if there is something that I can do to help facilitate that. And, of course, the calls with the county health department and administrator and Tom Reed. I worked with the Matt Lincoln to get the town properties mowed. Reviewed the website policy with the confidential secretary, reviewed the electronic payment policy with deputy Town supervisor, worked with Tetra Tech to prepare for hazard mitigation at annex coordination. Began the budget review for 2021 with the deputy town supervisor. And we'll be submitting requests for budget needs at the beginning of August. Met with the Tompkins County supervisors twice. Does anybody have any questions about any of that? All right. Ellen. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:20:32] ​She had to leave, but she did give me a copy of her report. If you'd like me to share it. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:20:38] ​Sure. Oh, Patricia. Yeah. Deputy Town clerk go for it. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:20:42] ​Patricia. The deputy town clerk. OK. The Town clerk July report, installation of a new cloud software ongoing added a login for deputy on Williamson. But still need to network computers. Assessment roll arrived, last day to pay taxes at the county was July 1st, so she communicated with residents and rerouted payments. Laserfiche maintenance and added archive sections for highway and correspondence provided transcripts from minutes due to CoVid clarified election law and answered voting questions from residents. Implemented reopening plan. Consulted on reopening plan. Undertook an inventory of excess electronic equipment. Installed new DEC printer the decal printer added two Saturday hours, which are now 10:30 to 4:30 instead of 1:30 to 4:30. Secured and created Black Lives Matter signage updated answering machine message to reflect reopening and created auto responder ordered new forms from Vital Records. Worked with S.P.C.A. and Department of Health on reporting. Ongoing deputy training. Identified needs of office. Arranged copier Service. Created Legislative Summary template. Created legislative window for public info. Publicized new recycling guidelines. Work on Student Youth Employment Program. Connected with the DEC updated sign at the road, which is the marquee, monitored food cabinet, posted the D.E.C. fire warning, kept changing calendar up to date, communicated with bidders to process bids for solar RFP. The consortium report, is that we, I believe that's it. We are seeking a representative attending meetings until one is found, one goal continues to employ proactive strategies to reduce emergency room use by subscribers, which is to find primary provider primary care providers for individuals who are in need. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:23:20] ​Can you say that again, please, Patricia? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:23:23] ​They're seeking a representative attending meetings. She is attending meetings at the consortium. Until one is found. One goal continues to employ proactive strategies to reduce emergency room use by subscribers to the consortium, apparently. A lot of people are without primary providers. And so they're trying to connect people with primaries. Medical providers. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:23:52] ​Thank you. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:23:53] ​You're welcome. Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:23:55] ​Any questions for Patricia? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:23:59] ​Doing a great job, Patricia. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[00:24:01] ​Oh, thanks. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:24:01] ​Seconded Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:24:08] ​OK. We're up to the Highway superintendent report. I've asked Buddy to unmute himself. There we go. Highway superintendent report. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:24:41] ​Just doing our summer work. Doing ditching and patching and getting ready to do our summer projects. That's it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:24:57] ​I am curious about the summer help by I heard you hired someone, was that through the SYEP? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:25:05] ​No. Personnel department. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:25:09] ​Did you check with the SYEP? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:25:12] ​Didn't make the cut off, when I looked at what you had to do and I wasn't interested. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:25:20] ​So the point of checking in with the SYEP is that it was going to literally save the town thousands of dollars in employment that the county would then pay for through the SYEP program. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:25:30] ​So anybody was there was going to be qualified for what I could get for seasonal help and under highway law, I can hire and get the people that I need that I want. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:25:44] ​But we had a hiring freeze in place and that was the exception, is that it was going to go through the SYEP. We could have had a..... Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:25:50] ​...The town. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:25:52] ​What's that?. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:25:54] ​I work under Highway Law. Councilperson Bryant ​[00:25:57] ​Now we work under the budget and the freeze hiring freeze. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:26:01] ​No, I work on your highway law and I have the budget and I hired who I wanted. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:26:09] ​Spend another two thousand dollars with Guy Crowe to find out what highway law is. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:26:18] ​Robert, did you were you the liaison for this? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:26:21] ​I was the liaison. I asked Buddy to show up at the meeting tonight and explain various things that the town board had questions about. I did not ask him specifically about the hiring of this position. I was not asked to. But Buddy is here and Buddy can explain. And perhaps, you know, Buddy believes that the highway law allows him to hire whomever he chooses. Some on the town board disagree with that. Perhaps we should get a legal opinion on that? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:26:53] ​K... Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:26:56] ​And then I also have a question about the two eighty four agreement. I'm curious about that Aiken Road project and why it's so much more now than it was previously? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:27:07] ​OK. Curious why this is coming up six months later? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:27:12] ​I was just starting to become familiar with the budget. So, I mean, I'm really just looking through it. I know I'm kind of new to it, so a little late to the game. But that money's got having to come out now. And I noticed you spent like sixty five thousand dollars in materials. And I know that we have a cap of fifty thousand dollars for that. So between that cap and, you know, the access of fifteen thousand dollars there and hiring another employee, there was a hiring freeze. And you were supposed to go through the SYEP that's, you know, thousands of dollars now, tens of thousands of dollars. Now that could be spent on things like paving in front of the, you know, the community building or something like that in our town. So I guess that's why I'm I'm curious what's going on here and why it's so much more? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:27:58] ​I would also like to add that we did try to have this conversation six months ago, but the highway superintendent refused to show up to meetings in order to have these conversations about hundreds of thousands of dollars for capital improvement projects in person for accountability. So we would have had these conversations then, but we're having them now. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:28:19] ​That's not true. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:28:20] ​It is absolutely true. It is absolutely true. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:28:26] ​Now, you did that in February as you wanted to explain, the 284 form, which I did in e mail, and that's what happened. There was nothing talked about price wise. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:28:39] ​Because you didn't come to the meetings to talk about the 284 agreement and the projects on it. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:28:45] ​The 284 has been signed this agreement between board and that's all I had to do. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:28:52] ​I didn't sign that. I advised against it,. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:28:53] ​I don't care. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:28:54] ​.... The board did what they wanted to do. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:28:58] ​So and I work under highway law, which entitles me to spend the budgeted money that's in the budget for the town for the year along with hiring and who I want to hire. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:29:12] ​Even when there's a hiring freeze? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:29:14] ​Correct. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:29:15] ​Oh, during CoVid. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:29:16] ​The hiring freeze was for the town, not the highway department. I work under highway law. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:29:22] ​Well, I'm going to recommend that we move the money out of the summer help line and put it into the chips line in order to abide by our fund balance policy. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:29:31] ​Go ahead. You'll just be swapping money around because I'm still going to spend it and you're going to have to move money back in there to cover it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:29:40] ​What happens if we don't do that? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:29:43] ​It's a personal liability. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:29:45] ​No, I'm not personal. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:29:48] ​It's a personal liability. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:29:49] ​It's zero balance, and it's up to the town supervisor to keep line zero balance. That's the only thing you can do is move money around to keep it from being zero balance. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:30:00] ​That isn't true. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:30:01] ​It is true. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:30:03] ​It's worries me that you're in charge of 75 percent of our town budget, and it makes me more it more leaning toward the fact that we do need an appointed position for this position because we need to have somebody that is answerable to the town board because we are dealing with budget issues here. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:30:21] ​Mimi, did you have a comment? Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:30:23] ​Well, at least working with the Town board, I feel like we don't have a team approach chair. It's it's very Buddy will say .... Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:30:33] ​you're exactly right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:30:34] ​Just wondering. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:30:36] ​I think what we need to do is move on. I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this and approach it with next year's budget. That's money we won't have next year. So it just won't go in those budget lines. So. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:30:47] ​Right. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:30:47] ​Now, we're about to come up with a budget. It's gonna be a scary budget. And the more these kinds of things happen... for the town and that money won't be there in the budget next year. So we won't have to worry about those budget lines. So I think we should just move on. It's not going to go anywhere. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:31:06] ​Buddy, I have a simple question, and that's the one that was brought up at the last meeting, and that is Aiken Road. And I suspect I know the answer, but I want to hear it from you because you're the master of highways. And that is a couple, three years ago it was budgeted at sixty thousand dollars. I think it was another stretch of Aiken road and then it was budgeted at one hundred thousand dollars. And this year it's now one hundred sixty thousand dollars. Now it may just be that stuff cost more. And if you tell me that, I'll believe it. But I just wondered, you know, why that budget line was going up as it was? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:31:43] ​Well, it's like you said, the sixty thousand the first year was a different stretch of Aiken Road, which we didn't have to do much ditching hardly any replacement of pipes and stuff. It was just repaved. And then last year it was one hundred thousand dollars. And then this year I estimated it being one hundred sixty thousand. Now if you look at the 284 form and you can read the sentence, it says there shall be expended "not over" the sum of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Doesn't mean that's what it's going to cost. I'm telling you that it won't cost over that much. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:32:25] ​Is a question that came up at the last meeting was the ditching work, which is looks good and you did a lot of it. And I wondered if that added to the expense in your indicated to me that it has, some said it was would be taken out of the general maintenance budget? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:32:41] ​That is a question? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:32:42] ​Yeah. Which is it? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:32:44] ​You can do either way. However, I want to do it. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:32:51] ​So that $160K is probably including the ditching work, in your estimation? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:32:56] ​Correct, Probably. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:32:57] ​Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:32:58] ​There is one hundred thousand dollars worth of ditching? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:33:03] ​No. 60. It would be at most because. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:33:05] ​No. Between three years ago when the other stretched thought other mile stretch of Aiken Road. This is what we're comparing it to. So it's one hundred thousand dollars difference in cost. So there's one hundred thousand dollars in ditching. I just want to clarify that. I just want to clarify it. Superintendent Beth Rollins ​[00:33:22] ​Read what it says. It won't. I won't spend over the sum. Doesn't say that's what it's going to cost? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:33:36] ​Do you think probably the Aiken Road work will come in under one hundred and sixty thousand, in your estimation? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:33:42] ​I'm not going to say. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:33:44] ​Okay. [00:33:46] ​It's ...highway..work. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:33:51] ​You understand why it's important for us in order to be able to do the budget to understand why things cost as much as they do, though, right? Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:34:03] ​Absolutely. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:34:07] ​I mean, I personally don't feel like I can be responsible for learning, you know, how to do this budget unless things are consistent and we can have a dialog with some understanding as to why things are costing, how much they do. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:34:18] ​And I said to go to Cornell local roads and learn how to do road maintenance. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:34:25] ​I would like an explanation from you. Why something is costing more? Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:34:30] ​No, when you get into a budget like this, you are looking ahead. You plan the number of hours that that're going to be spent. The cost of materials, even projecting a 10 percent increase over the period of budget time. I mean, it's all it's not perfect, but it's better than what we're hearing. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:34:47] ​And we've done this for twelve years. What is this year any different? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:34:51] ​It's a lot more money. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:34:52] ​We're going to face a huge budget cut. That's why. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:34:55] ​And fine, then we'll have to cut budget where we need to cut when we get working up the budget. There's no reason to be arguing over this. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:35:10] ​I'm more concerned about the lack of communication, about things, you know, when we when we said we are going to hire somebody to the SYEP, it would save them town money. And then that didn't happen. And you just went ahead and hired someone when we had a hiring freeze in place. We had a fifty thousand dollar cap on materials and you spent sixty five thousand. That makes me feel nervous. You know, it's if I told my kids to spend 20 dollars and they went out and spent two thousand dollars, I'd be shocked too. So, I mean, it's kind of like that. I need to know for my own sake, in the sake of budgeting, too, what to expect. Councilperson virginia Bryant ​[00:35:42] ​One having worked with this, I'm sorry, having worked this way over many years, I mean, the the upper age, the people that come in or are monitored, counseled, mentored and so on. You're you're very likely to get someone who would be a good worker. It's just like you're passing that off. I hate that. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:36:07] ​One thing, I don't like your kid. Another thing is I have tried. I've asked you numerous times to undo the freezes trying to work with you and you weren't interested. You're trying to make me work through a system that has no experience at road work. When I could hire, I hired a guy that can run every piece of equipment that we have a class B license and I don't have to hold his hand. Now, I've done this over the years. Cornell local roads and stuff and people that come in from the outside. Especially with this CoVid going on. We don't care to have somebody from the way out side. To come in. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:36:50] ​There. There's a local Enfield residents that were in this program. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:36:55] ​Over 18 years old. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:36:57] ​Yes, they are. They're between 18 and 24. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:37:01] ​Right. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:37:02] ​...Cut off to put in the application. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:37:06] ​So let's move on. Mimi, do you have a suggestion? Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:37:10] ​I just have one common is the last time we talked about summer help, you were using them. You were going to be using them as flag people on the roads so that your people could continue to drive the equipment. So I'm just saying that, again, the communication wasn't there to have a lively discussion about this, about the pros and cons. So I you know, I feel like we don't have all the information. And then you yell at us because we don't have all the information and we don't make the decisions you want. So without that information, we can't make a good decision. And maybe we made the right one. Maybe we didn't. I was excited about hiring a youth because these guys, they're not, they don't have summercamps. They they have nothing they can do this summer. So it was important to us as the board and us as a community to make that statement. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:37:57] ​Office still open. We can still put one more on. [00:38:01] ​Buddy. Did the person you wanted to hire for summer help, did he or she have to be someone who is skilled at heavy equipment, who has a Class B license and who knows enough not to get hurt? Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:38:17] ​That was the point. They were available they're, retired from the county and he wanted to work for the summer and he can run the paver and everything else that we have. I worked with he meant to county myself, and I don't know how I can tell him to go do what needs to be done. And he said, when we need flaging too, as summer help. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:38:44] ​Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:38:51] ​All right, so any suggestions on how the board would like to move forward? I do have one more thing. I was notified by the bookkeeper that Buddy is allowing employees to work through lunch. That's against the law. It's against New York State labor law and and then submitting for overtime for that. Don't do that anymore. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:39:15] ​You're wrong again. No, listen, you're wrong. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:39:19] ​Don't tell me to listen. It is against the law. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:39:22] ​...You look it up. It's against the law for you to force somebody to work through lunch. They can volunteer to work through lunch. And when a person works through lunch with me. They get paid for it. And actually, they have to get paid for it, especially if it's not an uninterrupted lunch and doing the CoVid doing our first mall. The guy wanted to stay out instead of driving the tractor back and forth because of having their own vehicles. So again, you're in something that you don't know what you're talking about. My business. And the book keeper does not tell me how to run the highway department. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:40:08] ​Well, if it was my business, I wouldn't want to be paying overtime to anybody if there's any way to avoid it. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:40:14] ​Well, this kind of work we do over time. You don't worry about it in the wintertime, do ya? Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:40:26] ​I'd be happy... Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:40:27] ​Move on. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:40:28] ​I'd be happy to send in New York state law on this. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:40:31] ​Sounds like.... Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:40:33] ​I would too, go ahead.... I've looked it up myself. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:40:37] ​I'm actually looking at the law right now. New York requires that every person employed in or in connection with the factory be allowed at least 60 Minutes for the noon day meal. And it goes on. But basically, I can send it to you, but you are.... Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:40:49] ​Going to keep on going. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:40:52] ​OK. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:40:53] ​It's towards the end. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:40:56] ​All right. I get only to be at. We can go over it some more. But my understanding of it is that you are required to give them a lunch. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:41:06] ​You're correct. I said that I can not make them not take lunch. They have to have the option of having their lunch, but they can work through lunch voluntarily. And I pay them when they do. When we do even. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:41:23] ​And that means overtime. More money out of. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:41:26] ​Correct. It does mean overtime because you can't shorten a day for. And as my overtime money to be spent, and that's why I have the budget,. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:41:40] ​OK, we can address it in the budget. Let's move on. Superintendent Buddy Rollins ​[00:41:42] ​We can. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:41:44] ​Yeah lets move on. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:41:45] ​This is sounds to me, like we need legal opinions on who has the right to decide who to hire for the highway department. And also the question of labor law and the lunch break. Sounds like we need none of us or lawyers. Buddy is not a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer. But I sounds like we need some brief legal opinion on that and then we'll know who's right and who's wrong. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:42:11] ​So the board legally can move money from whatever lines in the budget that they determined to move money for to pay for things. So we just can't move money back to the general fund from the highway fund so that, you know, that is our purview. And the board can be a part of these decisions because the board can change however that money is available. Based on how we do budget amendments. So if we want to pave the road, I mean, I guess there was a question of whether we were gonna do a budget amendment to move money for chips. And in order to abide by the fund balance policy, moving $118,000 over right now is cash that we're not guaranteed that we're gonna get all of back. It would be great to be able to move that from savings that we had from partial unemployment and also for the summer help line because we had put a freeze in place. So those are options that are open to this board. All right. Code enforcement. Where is Alan? Here he is. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:43:46] ​So for the month of June, I did issue five new building permits, one for a solar permit, and Wetherbee Road, I received no complaints. The work is continuing on the new cell tower on Fische Road. I see the towers up. I don't see any equipment. Yes. Or probably about another month before it's placed in service. But it's coming along. Oh, thing. I got official word that my conference in Syracuse that was rescheduled for October and canceled and the state is not waiving requirements for the 24 hours of in-service training, but they have online courses available and coming up at no charge to take those this year. So I will take those. I completed the six hour, 2020 code update training over the last couple of weeks. So I had my first 6 hours of credit signed up for 3 hours of energy training over the next three weeks. So that's what happened. Any questions? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:44:51] ​I am actually going to in the next day or so send you some things to look at. For the county hazard mitigation annex. Others asking about different building projects and and housing and that sort of thing that you would have figures for so I'll. I'll email that to you if I haven't already. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:45:11] ​I've seen the forum and actually I just did that through the town of Newfield. So I'm familiar with the process and I knew that's not a big deal. They just want the last number of houses and apartment houses over the last five years, I think. So I had that information available. So, not a problem. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:45:27] ​OK. They do have some other questions about projects, big projects in the town. So I'll just send it to you and just look it over. And we're meeting with them on Monday. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:45:43] ​OK. So if you want, I can be available on Monday. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:45:49] ​I think that would be great. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:45:50] ​Just just let me know. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:45:51] ​I will. Did I forward that e-mail to you with the meeting information? I thought I e-mailed it to you and Stephanie? Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:46:04] ​You e-mail me one for meeting. That may have happened last week, but not an updated one so. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:46:10] ​Yeah, they said no. That was what this one was for. They never sent the zoom link for this meeting on Friday. So. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:46:18] ​On that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:46:18] ​Yeah. Yeah, I asked. Actually, they found all of the my email frantic over the week that we hadn't received that, in junk mail. So I was like, oh,. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:46:30] ​Sure. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:46:30] ​OK. All right. Any questions for Allen on code? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:46:38] ​Glad you approve my neighbor's house. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:46:42] ​Yes. he's been working on it for a while it was a garage. He's been slowly converting, but due to covid, he wanted to wait for the permit coming the paperwork. So I'm keeping track. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:46:56] ​Is it still working for you or are you primarily doing things through email, Alan, or you're getting more people into the office? Code Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:47:02] ​I'm still doing a lot through e-mail and phone calls, but people are coming to office now a little bit, not too many. So I set that up a little bit. I also got a sign in sheet for when people come in, which I think was a good idea. So I'm sure. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:47:17] ​That'll be great for tracing, actually. And are you able to limit access on Monday mornings during court? Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:47:27] ​Courts aren't open yet. So it hasn't been a problem. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:47:29] ​Oh, they're not seeing people yet. The room is set up pretty great, though. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:47:34] ​Yeah. I actually helped Betty a little bit. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:47:36] ​Thank you. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:47:37] ​I also re...that the occupancy load for the courtroom, it was the entire upstairs. So it's down to, I think, 68 people now to the total occupancy. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:47:47] ​So then we're looking at about 30 as our maximum. I don't know how we'd get 30 people in there. Code Enforcement Officer Alan Teeter ​[00:47:57] ​Right, she said. Twenty five percent, I think, was about 17 people, so. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:48:02] ​OK. OK. Fire department. Assistant Chief Alan Teeter ​[00:48:10] ​Total calls for June. There were 18 calls. 12 were E.M.S.. No motor vehicle accidents 4 service calls, mostly trees down. I think there 2 fire calls. They were both mutual aid, one to Trumansburg and one to Mecklenburg. July trainings the 2nd. We had a general meeting. Tomorrow night there's chainsaw training. On 16th. We're doing truck checks on the 18th who are having training for the new 622 tanker, which is arrived. Under 23rd, we're having safety officer training for all the members on the 30th. We have E.M.S. training. Other dates of interest on the 21st, there's a blood drive on 8/4 will be the next officers meeting. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:49:01] ​Thank you, Stephanie? And Robert, have you been able to set a meeting date yet? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:49:07] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:49:09] ​Good. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:49:10] ​We are doing it on the 27th. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:49:12] ​Right Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:49:13] ​Great. And just for public information, a Mimi and I have asked that Stephanie and Robert take over with the quarterly meetings and preparing for the budget or not the budget the contract renewal. So. So they're going to meet with the board president, Denny Hubbell. And also, Greg, the vice president, is Roger going to be a part of that? I know I copied him on that email so the fire chief. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:49:44] ​I think so. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:49:46] ​I presume so. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:49:47] ​Great. Well, good luck with. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:49:49] ​Thanks for giving us responsibility. Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:49:51] ​Sure. We Mimi and I really enjoyed working with them. It's been been a great development of our relationship with them. So. Don't mess it up. All right. Do you have any questions, anybody for the for Alan regarding fire? OK, thanks, Alan. Assistant Chief Alan Teeter ​[00:50:17] ​Sure thing. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:50:20] ​Dan Walker, planning board. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:50:22] ​Yes. How are you doing? I'll try to keep the short enough excitement tonight already. We had a meeting in. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[00:50:32] ​Orange tonight. But I'm glad you're not orange. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:50:37] ​Was I? Or if I turn the light on, I get I get orange. It's just did my. Yeah. OK. We had a meeting on last month, last Wednesday. Via zoom basically talked about subdivision regulations a little bit. Mike Carpenter had some questions and we reviewed the process for two lot subdivision approval by the code enforcement officer, which doesn't have any timeframe. So supposedly somebody could subdivide it one week two lots for approval and then another week for two lots. But in discussing it with Allen, he agreed that if people are gonna do that, he would be referring it to the planning board for a review because it would really be more than a two lot subdivision. All the board members have received that site plan guidance document that you led us to. And they're going to read through that this month and we're going to review that at the August meeting, go through the process. There were two possible subdivisions, three lot, two to three lot subdivisions coming up that Alan had inquiry's on one was that Mike Carpenter was thinking of Enfield Center Road and one's three lots of division and Thomas Road, which we had Alan had a preliminary inquiry on that is being surveyed, we may have that on the agenda next month. As I had a phone inquiry, as the chair of the planning board from a developer that was interested in what our review process for a significantly sized 20 megawatt area solar project in the Applegate Road Applegate Corners area and explain to them that we have a review process and so they may be bringing in that subdivision. I did ask him who he's working with because the name sounded familiar. And it may be a situation where I have to recuse myself because he may be using LaBella Associates as a design engineer. But we'll see what happens down the road. So we're going to actively look at the subdivision or the site plan review process, all the and town board members. So if I do recuse myself, the other planning board members would be up to speed on how to go through the review process. And I just couldn't be involved in the actual discussions. But that may or may not happen, but I just want to let you know that. And I'm trying to put together a online training program. So that the board members can get their required training this year. I haven't finalized that yet. Any questions? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:54:12] ​I did find a a training before Dan. I can send it to you if you want. It was a pretty comprehensive, comprehensive planning board training through the Department of State, I believe. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:54:24] ​I think I've seen that too already. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:54:27] ​OK. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:54:27] ​Yeah, I'll try to pull those together,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:54:30] ​OK. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:54:32] ​Dan, I'm so glad to hear that there may be a smaller project coming to Enfield another one. And keep me apprized of it because I'm interested in knowing about it and tell you any more meetings when that matter might be decided. Planning Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:54:47] ​They will. They will be advertised. I know that. I know the planning board meetings agendas. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:54:54] ​I'm glad to see that our new Solar law will still encourage people to come and propose solar projects. That's good. Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:55:05] ​Mimi, did you have something? Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:55:06] ​I did. The the gentleman that presented at a meeting or so ago about the enhanced energy guidelines. And you were going to look at that as a planning board? Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:55:20] ​Yeah, we haven't. I've I downloaded that. I have that. We didn't put that on a future agenda to review that. Put that up for the August meeting in. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:55:28] ​NYStretch. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[00:55:30] ​Yeah. Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:55:30] ​Yeah. Councilperson MImi Mehaffey ​[00:55:34] ​Thank you. Board Chair Walker ​[00:55:35] ​OK. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:55:39] ​All right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:55:40] ​Thanks Dan. Board Chair Dan Walker ​[00:55:41] ​OK. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:55:46] ​TCCOG, Bob? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[00:55:48] ​Yes. I sent all the board members and the Tompkins clerk one and a half page written report. I'm gonna summarize that briefly because you've got a lot of business tonight. The Tompkins County Council of Governments met virtually June 25th. The two major items were considered and acted on. TCCOG unanimously recommended that the county legislature reconsider a resolution on which it had deadlocked at its June 16 meeting. The resolution, if adopted, would have speeded redistricting of the county legislature by authorizing the county attorneys to write a local law to temporarily shorten legislative terms. The ones that would do begin in 20 to 2022. Surprisingly, neither one of our legislators mentioned that. But as recently as last night, the legislature was given the opportunity to reconsider its earlier tied vote, which had killed any thought of speedier redistricting. The legislature refused to reconsider it. So it looks like now that we will not reapportion our Tompkins County legislature until perhaps 2025, which would mean it would be almost into the next decennial cycle before a properly apportioned legislature would take office. It's unfortunate, but that's the way the legislature has determined that it wants to go. The other item that TCCOG acted on was to recommend that Governor Cuomo extend his executive order suspending portions of the New York Open Meetings law so as to continue online public meetings. We know because we're meeting here tonight that the governor did that. However, again, his extension runs out in early August, so we don't know what he will do then there was some feeling on TCCOG, which I wouldn't buy into, but that was the opinions of others, that we should have a permanent suspension of the open meetings law so that we could meet virtually perhaps in perpetuity. And I'd need guidance from the town board as to whether support things like that. But in any event, that's what TCCOG did on the 25th of June. And we have we'll probably have a meeting of the Transportation Subcommittee, which I chair later this month. That's it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[00:58:37] ​I've lost Beth. there she is Supervisor Beth McGee ​[00:58:38] ​Anyone have questions? Thanks, Bob. Quarterly reports Enfield Community Council. Courtney Bailey is here. Courtney Bailey ​[00:58:52] ​Good evening, everybody. So lots of interesting things going on. I'm not sure if and got the April through June quarter report actually sent out to guys, she brought it down to me on paper because I couldn't open it. So I don't know if that was fixed or not. I'm going to try to be very brief here. Because I have, I've been having quite a week. So my husband just had surgery yesterday and two plates and twelve screws put into this right for him. There were some questions on how we were reorganizing our budget due to the possibility of Summercamps closing, which we did, in fact, have to close it. It is a very difficult decision for all of us. What it came down to is. A couple of things. One, we've always prided ourselves on having one of the best camps in the area, that the kids love to attend. That is a good, safe learning environment as well as having fun and that they enjoy their time, their. The second part of it is that we would be limited to 50 children. It would be almost impossible to meet the demands. Even though Vera and Allison, our camp director and camp assistant director worked tirelessly to see what camp would look like and worked out arrangements on where how seating would look and all of those myriad of things they had to do. And all it would take is one child who is ill and we would have to quarantine every child, every family of the child and every worker in their families from CoVid. And they would have to wear masks 20 the entire time they were there. There was no way around that. Even with the six foot distancing, it still would have ended up being masks all the time. And it just logistically couldn't happen to kids would be miserable. It wouldn't be a fun camp. We weren't allowed to do swimming. We weren't allowed to do field trips, any of that. Allie and Vera put in a ton, and I do mean a ton of work trying to get camp up and running and had already started registration because obviously couldn't wait on that until the last minute. So we did have payroll expenses, even though camp did not happen. It was sixty four hundred dollars roughly because I don't have the exact amounts for the FICA and SUDA. For their time and efforts in trying to get camp opened, it would not have been right not to pay them. Especially with how hard they were attempting to do this. Our liabilities still need to be covered because part of those liabilities, even though the majority of that is for summercamps, it still involves. Harvest festival and canoeing trip and anything like that. That was another $7616. Again, that's roughly because the workers comp we might be able to get some money back on it. We are spending at least $3900 for what is taking camps place. That is six weeks of program. They're going to be condensed. So instead of having the program once a week. For 6 to 8 weeks, it's going to be 4 days. The first 3 are going to be July 13th to the 16th, major exploration. Then July twenty third, 20th to the 23rd, phenomonal photographers and July 27th to the 30th the cardboard boat challenge. I don't know what the next 3 are. Those are the ones that are on deck right now. Monday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. is going to be online discussing with the kids what this program is hoping to achieve. And getting everything set up. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is going to be 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in person, maintaining all social distance guideline. And then from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., it will be online again. Each of those days to discuss what they did and how it happened. And this is gonna be county wide. So the online sessions will be as a big group. A rather big group is my understanding, and then be in-person sessions will be the smaller the groups will break up and go with their own team programmer. So our teams will be with Vera and, et cetera. That is going to cost us. Like I said, at at least $3900, there were still some things being worked out because of the time of the in-person. There we are looking at whether we will have to pay for boxed lunches for this the kids, because they're going to be out. I think the first one is going into the national forest where they can really spread out. But we're still we're still looking at that. And we won't know more until we have the actual kids doing the program next week as to how exactly that will look. If they have to, they will make adjustments as they go. We also are planning at least two community events that will have social distancing adhered to, a drive in movie is one of the things we're looking at. And Cornell Cooperative Extension is helping us with how do we get that license to run the movie we want to pick and where do we rent a screen and all of that? They're looking, they're thinking it's gonna be about $600 for that. A historical scavenger hunt was another idea with stamps that people will go to different historical sites on a map and get a stamp that they visited. Which means they're gonna be with people that they live with in their own vehicle to do that. But it will hopefully, hopefully bring us together. And we had one more that we were going to possibly doing, which is a canoeing trip since we already have the 6 canoes. The state funds that are received by the Town. Enfield for a total of $877. We talked to Kate about that. Who is our liaison. And we have already given. That money is usually used for Summercamps. They have said that we can use it for anything that benefits kids in the long run. If we had something we need to do, just send them an email saying this is what we're going to be doing for this. We told her that what we were thinking about Vera had been putting a lot of thought into it, is we would use them to purchase more life jackets and first aid travel kits, and additional first aid supplies that we need to refurbish the original kit and waterproof bags. And can snacks for two family canoe trip, and she was great with that. There was some question about how that money gets to ECC we really kind of need that to be in a separate check from our contractual payments that we receive just so that we can keep track of that better. More. Or a line item leave on the check. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:07:10] ​I think there's a stipulation in our contract that the Town keeps that funding, that money and you get the funding from the Town. I'll look at that more carefully. Courtney Bailey ​[01:07:20] ​OK. Because this state, this state was very confused about that. And they said, no, that money should be just period going from the Town straight to whoever is doing the Town programing into that pot. So I guess, yeah, we're going to need to look at that. But I'm not looking. Right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:07:39] ​All right. So it does go directly tiddy to ECC. because we give ECC. Fifty thousand dollars a year. So ECC gets that money, that funding just comes that check just comes to the Town,. Courtney Bailey ​[01:07:52] ​OK. Courtney Bailey ​[01:07:52] ​And then it goes in that line. Courtney Bailey ​[01:07:54] ​The state had some questions because they don't believe that that's the way it should work. So we're going to need to talk to Kate at some later date and get that figured out and make sure we're all.... Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:08:05] ​That with her. I can clarify it in the contract as well. Courtney Bailey ​[01:08:08] ​OK. And Kate also said, I don't know if this has gone through or not. They were looking at two budgets as of. The last Thursday of May one is going to be a 12 percent reduction to Enfield, which would be bringing us down to $18,966. And one would be if the flat rate would be $21552 of the county budget coming to Enfield for youth services. The good news is the Rec partnership is doing a refund. On what we least that what we give them to be part of the rec partnership. And they're going to be refunding Enfield $1151 because of the programs being canceled and not being done let me check my notes, make sure I didn't miss anything. Oh, our youths. Did get awarded a pitch program for $500 for an Enfield generations program. Hopefully CoVid ends or we'll find some other way to do it. But they're hoping to have the teams actually work with some of our seniors and work on projects that will be unveiled for the two hundredth anniversary. A birthday celebration. So we will see. How that all goes out and and Anne and Sue Thompson have been working on that with a few other people. And it looks like they've got things well under way starting for next year. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:10:05] ​Great. Does anybody have questions for Courtney? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:10:11] ​Just to say Courtney that you and Vera and Sue and the whole crew do a heck of a job and we congratulate you. Congratulations. Courtney Bailey ​[01:10:20] ​Thank you. We do try very, very hard. This is very close to our heart. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:10:26] ​And take good care of Tim. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:10:28] ​Thanks, Courtney, I do have a question about the space. You know, if I tried to connect with Eric and Jean about the community building space, do you know more specifically what his needs are going to be for that? Courtney Bailey ​[01:10:42] ​As of right now, I don't believe we are going to be needing it. Hold on. Let me. Oh, no. One of the programs I think he does need it. The 27th to the 30th. I'm not sure where exactly they're doing the cardboard boat challenge. The building portion of it? The photography I know they're planning on doing out and about and the nature exploration they're doing out and about. So the only one that I know of that might be in there is going to be that July 27th through the 30th, which will actually be the 28th, twenty ninth, thirtieth from 9 to 1, might be in there for the cardboard boat challenge. I am not certain I can email him and ask. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:11:33] ​OK, because it's pretty overwhelming in that space. So we just don't own that anymore. So. So I'm not really sure how he's going to, to be able to fit kids in there at all. I had hoped to get them together, but I. he Had another meeting that he needed to. Courtney Bailey ​[01:11:56] ​Yeah. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:11:56] ​He addressed these Courtney Bailey ​[01:11:57] ​Non nonstop to make sure that they are doing what they need to do to even have the program and keep social distancing. And what do we do about transportation to get the ban now and then? I call them the other day. I need to call you back tomorrow night. Okay I'll talk to you tomorrow. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:12:18] ​Mm hmm. OK. Can you please have the voucher to the Town the week prior to the meeting? That is, it should be to the supervisor a minimum of seven days prior and that way it's just challenging right now, especially to have to navigate having board members come back again to sign vouchers at the last minute. Courtney Bailey ​[01:12:47] ​OK. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:12:47] ​So if we can avoid that. That would be great. Courtney Bailey ​[01:12:50] ​I'll let Ann know because she's been taking care of filling out the vouchers. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:12:54] ​OK, great. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thanks, Courtney. Appreciate your time. Good luck with the program and and with Tim. Courtney Bailey ​[01:13:06] ​Thank you guys. Have a good night. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:13:08] ​You too. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:13:09] ​Thank you. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:13:09] ​Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:13:11] ​OK. Consent agenda. We have a do you have the next budget amendment number one one second. Patricia. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:13:23] ​Yeah. Let me pull it up, please. Well, oh, dear. I believe it's 10. It might be eleven. I have it here. OK. It's 11:00 at. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:13:46] ​11 Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:13:47] ​Beth, Supervisor McGee. Yes, 11. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:13:51] ​All right. So budget amendment. Well, let's go through the consent agenda first. I will have the audit claims. Then there's a budget amendment to move funds to pay for the fees for Paychex payroll. Also, the cemetery mowing. We had put most of that much of that money in the buildings and grounds line. So that needs to be moved over to the cemetery contractual line. And just a small amount for the state retirement. So those are listed on another. On a separate page, the budget amendments. So I'll move the consent agenda,. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:14:34] ​Second. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:14:38] ​OK. Would you read the audit claims, please? Patricia. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:14:41] ​Yes I can do that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:14:42] ​Thank you. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:14:46] ​The Town board authorizes the supervisor to pay general fund vouchers 151 to 171 one five one to one seven one dated 07/08 2020 in the amount of $13,100.98. Town board authorizes the supervisor to pay highway fund vouchers number 98 to 110, dated 97/08/2020 in the amount of $98,398.16. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:15:30] ​Thank you. Did all of those get three signatures? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:15:34] ​I believe so, yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:15:37] ​Thank you. OK. Is there any discussion? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:15:45] ​One thing I will mention, because some people might question why is a highway? Why are the highway vouchers so high? That was a big repair bill for several highway trucks that I looked through. It looked like the line items were all good, but it was one of those things where sometimes equipment breaks down and we had to get it fixed. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:16:08] ​Well, I do have an additional budget amendment that if the board wants to include that in the consent. For the 40 thousand dollar from the generally repair's contractual to the machinery contractual, do you want me to add that. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:16:28] ​May I intervene here? It looks like there was a rental that was the major cost. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:16:38] ​A rental? Deputy Town Clerk Patrica Speno ​[01:16:40] ​Yeah. It was forty thousand four hundred and two and 70s dollars and seventy seven cents, it was suit coat, corporation gravel and pug mill rentals. I believe it was equipment. That's equipment, but it was a rental. Probably we didn't have that equipment and we had to rent it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:17:03] ​Well, when I Deputy Town ClerkPatricia Speno ​[01:17:04] ​That was the biggest expenditure that was, voucher number 105. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:17:13] ​Is Buddy still on the meeting, so he might be able to answer that. Deputy Town Clerk Patrica Speno ​[01:17:17] ​And I don't have the vouchers with me, but it makes sense to me. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:17:25] ​He's not here. I'll be right back. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:17:35] ​When I saw gravel, I thought that was actual gravel, I didn't notice it was from. It was for rental. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:17:43] ​I didn't catch that either. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:17:45] ​Equipment rental. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:17:54] ​I don't want to include that in the consent agenda. We can talk about it later. Unless someone else,. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:18:04] ​I believe there was gravel in there, but somewhere Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:18:08] ​What was the cost of the rental? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:18:11] ​$40,402.77. Forty thousand dollars. Four hundred and two thousand, forty thousand four hundred and two thousand dollars and seventy seven cents. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:18:26] ​That's why I got the materials costs for sixty five thousand dollars, because I didn't realize that that was a rental. I thought that was actually gravel. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:18:34] ​I believe the plug mill is is is a mill, you know. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:18:39] ​Yeah. Above that, it says gravel. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:18:42] ​Seneca Stone. And that was $675.75 Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:18:47] ​No, above pug mill. It says gravel. And there's a separate. Amount from that pugg mill. I thought the Pugmill is much less at the Pugmill rental is much less than the gravel was a lot more. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:19:07] ​62218 is probably the size of the gravel. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:19:13] ​Oh, okay. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:19:18] ​It wouldn't appear.. On the site. To talk about that, I don't really understand it now. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:19:25] ​That the pug male would create, you know or make. That is the size that is the capacity of the pugmill? But I'm not sure, I'm not sure. Don't quote me. But now that it's recorded right there,. Councilperson Redmond ​[01:19:43] ​A dollar amount beside the pug mill. Deputy Town Clerk Speno ​[01:19:47] ​The dollar amount for SuitCote Corporation rentals is $40,402.77. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:19:59] ​And what would. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:20:00] ​That I mean, in the itemized list, that for an itemized list on. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:20:05] ​I don't have the actual voucher with me. I'm at home, OK? I up. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:20:11] ​I have the actual voucher because I think that was separated out into gravel and a pug mill. And I think the pug mill was only about $6000 only. And then I think the gravel was closer. Was it was a much larger amount. OK, I guess I didn't find that because. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:20:30] ​Yeah, sure. Unless. You know, I don't have it in front of me. So. OK, so that's my word because I looked at it closely. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:20:39] ​Well, the total for both of those things is forty thousand four hundred and two thousand. Forty thousand four hundred and two and seventy seven cents. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:20:52] ​When I signed off on those bills, I said, in the next life, I'm either going to sell gravel or fixed dump trucks in. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:21:11] ​But there was there is a Seneca Stone bill for $675.75, he may have been the materials that. I don't know. I would have to see the voucher myself. I didn't look at it. I just went through the. I just added them all up. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:21:32] ​So the cost of that rental was forty thousand dollars. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:21:35] ​Yeah. $40,402.77. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:21:41] ​So that wasn't a repair. No, but I think an actual repair. What is it for? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:21:48] ​I think when I looked at it, the voucher, when I looked at the voucher or when I looked at the itemized list from Suco, there was a large amount for gravel and then a smaller amount for Pagnol. So the rental, I think, was for the pulp mill. The gravel was, I think, the more significant number. And that makes more sense. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:22:07] ​There is 64218/gravel, which I think is I don't know. That's not an amount. That's not a monetary figure. There I don't know what it is,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:22:25] ​Is the rental rental of a piece of equipment. Is this what we're talking about? Was presented to us as if it was a large repair, but it was actually a rental of a piece of equipment. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:22:39] ​It says rental pug mill rental. Gravel and pug mill rental. So it would have to see the voucher. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:22:51] ​...rental and Pug Mill Rental. Like two separate things from Suko. That's how I read the, I read the voucher, that's I read the itemized list that was coming in that bill. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:23:05] ​Yeah, I just in the last few minutes, I just picked this up at six o'clock tonight so I didn't get a chance to look at the vouchers, but. I'm sure you're correct, you're probably correct, but it's it's. Forty thousand four to. And 77 cents for, both those things together. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:23:38] ​I recall with a large amount of expenditure on that invoice, because it was a large amount was for the gravel. And I was kind of surprised by how expensive gravel is. But I guess that's the way it is. And I don't think the rental was appreciably contributing to that overall bill? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:23:58] ​Let me look at something. What does it say on the invoice for the pug mill rental? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:24:04] ​Well, I don't have it. I didn't bring it with me. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:24:06] ​You don't have the invoice? Deputy Town Clerk Patrica Speno ​[01:24:08] ​No, I didn't bring the. I just have the abstract. And it says suitcote corporation. 62418/gravel and pugmilll rental. I don't that's that's a that's a designation for the type of gravel. It's not an amount. 64218 Let me look it up on line and see what I can find. It'll take a minute. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:24:50] ​I can't imagine renting anything from two 600 and some dollars for doing so. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:24:57] ​I'm just curious what it was for. Because it's a piece of equipment. It's probably something that is going to mix something or, you know, and I guess my concern is that it was presented as a large repair. And that's what the budget amendment request was, that it was large repairs. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:25:18] ​Isn't the repairs for the trucks, the twenty eight thousand dollars? That's, I think, the repair money. Most of it is for the dump trucks that failed. That's this invoice. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:25:30] ​We're not talking about the same things. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:25:32] ​OK? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:25:35] ​Ok lets see. It's not telling me anything. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:25:46] ​So I'm not I don't feel comfortable, including this budget amendment for the repairs in the consent agenda, if we want to belabor it later, if he wanted to come back and give some explanation for it. That would be great. And we could maybe move on. But I have moved the consent agenda with the three budget amendments and the audit claims. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:26:09] ​Well, I certainly agree we should move on with this one. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:26:12] ​I should have brought the vouchers with me, but I didn't feel right doing that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:26:18] ​I appreciate that. They should stay at the town hall. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:26:23] ​Don't even want to delete the audit claims from the consent agenda right now. Pull them out and just approve the three budget amendments. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:26:30] ​No, I don't. Because we have other bills to pay. If you want to pull that voucher, then pull that voucher. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:26:36] ​I recommend we call for that voucher. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:26:41] ​There would be a difference, an amount. Did you want to change the amount on that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:26:46] ​On the highway? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:26:47] ​ You have to change the amount if you pulled out voucher? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:26:50] ​Yeah. Let me do that. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:27:04] ​Yea, we've pulled vouchers before. When, we've had questions. We have questions about this. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:27:15] ​So the highway law that Buddy says that he follows. It says the town superintendent of highways may rent or hire machinery or equipment from other units of local government, from individuals or from business corporations, at a rate to be approved by the town board. The expense of this rental or higher shall be paid out of moneys provided for the repair and improvement of highways. So that would be something we need to clarify. Rentals by the town shall not be applicable toward the purchase of machinery or equipment. So rent, so rented except for pursuant to the installment purchase contract under General Municipal Law 109b. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:27:56] ​But if we're talking about a rental or something for six hundred some dollars is not a big deal. That's. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:28:01] ​Right. But that's what I'm looking for a clarification for. is it a rental that costs forty thousand dollars or a rental? The cost? Six hundred dollars. That would be great. If the Lynch meals are what it costs forty thousand dollars, then that's reasonable. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:28:17] ​The machinery that you see Suit Kote using was there either or whatever. Of imagine this. OK,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:28:26] ​Well, this piece of equipment, I don't think. It doesn't seem like it would be forty thousand dollars to rent. Councilperson Vriginia Bryant ​[01:28:33] ​No there's some. We need to ... Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:28:36] ​Well, I'm sure it's purchasing the equipment would be a lot more expensive than 40000. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:28:42] ​So they asked for a budget amendment. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:28:45] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:28:45] ​So if you want to consider the budget amendment at a later time. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:28:49] ​The amount.. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:28:51] ​Just one minute, please. If you want to consider the budget amendment at a later time, then don't pull the voucher. Leave it as is. If there is a problem with it, then pull the money from a different line. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:29:04] ​So are you alright with leaving the voucher? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:29:08] ​I guess I thought that the budget amendment Buddy was requesting for what he had sent. I presume the board was this was an email earlier this week was for the repairs, including the twenty eight thousand dollars in in in broken trucks. I thought that was what the budget amendment was primarily for. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:29:29] ​What is the line, Patricia, for that bill? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:29:32] ​That would be without the rental? Fifty seven, nine, ninety five and thirty nine cents. 50 cent. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:29:40] ​Is a line. The budget line. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:29:42] ​Oh, the budget line. I don't know. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:29:46] ​It should say it on the abstract. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:29:49] ​It would be one o five. Budget line,. Oh DA .. BA 5110.4, the account number, right. DA 5110.4. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:30:09] ​That's the contractual line. All right. So if these are for repairs, then I am good to include this particular budget amendment. Moving money for the large repairs. Forty thousand dollars as. So we'll have budget amendment 11 for Paychex payroll budgeted, amendment 12 for cemetery mowing and budget Amendment 13 for state retirement and 14. And I have the language for I can stand you, Patricia. Budget Amendment moving funds for machinery repairs. And that would be whereas large repairs have exceeded the amount budgeted. Therefore, be it resolved, the Enfield Town board authorizes Town supervisor Beth McGee to reduce line D.A. fifty one ten point for general repairs contractual by forty thousand. An increase fifty one thirty point four machinery contractual by forty thousand. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:31:08] ​So I'm amending the consent agenda to include that. Is there. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:31:13] ​I'll Second it Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:31:14] ​All right. Thank you. Are there any other discussion about that? OK. Could you call the vote, please, on the amendment to the consent agenda? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:31:25] ​Yes. Thank you. Councilperson Bryant. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:31:30] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:31:31] ​Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:31:33] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:31:34] ​Councilperson Mehaffey. Councilperson MImi Mehaffey ​[01:31:36] ​Aye. Thank you. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:31:40] ​Councilperson Redmond. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:31:42] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:31:43] ​And Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:31:45] ​Aye Thank you. Now, is there any further discussion on the consent agenda. OK. Can you please call the vote on the consent agenda? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:31:57] ​Councilperson Bryant. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:31:58] ​Aye Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:32:01] ​Councilperson Lynch,. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:32:03] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:32:03] ​Councilperson Mahaffey. Councilperson MImi Mehaffey ​[01:32:05] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:32:06] ​Councilperson Redmann. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:32:09] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:32:09] ​And Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:32:11] ​Aye. Thank you. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:32:12] ​Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:32:13] ​I'm emailing this to you right now. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[01:32:16] ​Great. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:32:41] ​All right. Has everybody received the. Solar bid. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:32:49] ​So there were two solar bids. There was one from Renovus and one that was a late entry from Rebecca Carpenter from Finger Lakes Renewable. And there is an issue with both of them. We had put as a stipulation in the RFP that they had to meet with me for a site review and neither one met with me for a site review or for a site visit. So I'm not sure if that's something we want to talk about. But also, there was the late entry from Rebecca's. So that's another thing. We just have to decide how we're gonna deal with those. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:33:30] ​Stephanie, what's our timeframe on this? How long do we have to cogitate on it? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:33:36] ​So the actual due date was on the 30th, I'm sorry. And the third sorry, that was the deadline. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:33:44] ​What is our designation that we're going to tell them? The date. The date. We're going to tell them. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:33:52] ​Let me look at it real quick. I had it pulled up here. Oh, goodness. Now, I can't find it. Just when I had it. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:34:12] ​We amended that once to give us more time, because, of covid. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:34:17] ​We did, And I think that was one of Rebecca's issues, is that it was she was dealing with with CoVid stuff. And just it took her a long time to get get through everything. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:34:26] ​When did we put that out, though? I mean, these are the things we're gonna have to figure out what's important. First of all, CoVid bated, so delivering them or sending them in a mail, the mail was apparently a problem. And then so that didn't happen. So then deadlines weren't met. And so, I mean, I guess. And and also no site visits. So I'm I'm out of this. So you guys all decide what you want to do about this. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:34:57] ​We'll see. See, this is an old one here. Basically, we gave we gave her about 30 days. Yeah. Between our our notice of award. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:35:09] ​What's the date, the notice of award, now. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:35:16] ​Well, my experience has been only with the state and federal. You get your. Proposals late at all. It's done. You're not in line, but you know what? This is a little different situation on board, I guess. They want something else. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:35:35] ​Well, all sorts of laws have been basically rescinded in the middle of it. So it's really hard to tell how to navigate that. So, again, I'm not going to attempt to do that. You guys make a decision because you have to live with this project. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:35:51] ​None of us is the governor. That's the problem. You know, again, I would if something is submitted late, I don't want to get into a legal problem where somebody is going to the one who is a timely filer is going to sue us because we accepted the bid from somebody that was tardy. I don't know. Obviously, these are decisions we can't make tonight. I hope we'll have at least a few weeks to figure this out, maybe even have to get some some legal advice, on this. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:36:20] ​For somebody who complained about our legal bill last month so much. You certainly are debating about whether we should have lots of legal advice. This month. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:36:30] ​Well, I don't want. I don't want us to get sued. That's the thing that sometimes a stitch in time saves nine, if you will. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:36:37] ​But do you have insurance for that? Yes. Mimi. Councilperson MImi Mehaffey ​[01:36:40] ​When we call the Association of Towns and ask them, this is a pretty straightforward, big question. If a bid is late, can we consider it? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:36:49] ​You know, Stephanie, do you want to do that? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:36:52] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:36:53] ​There are questions here. We put out a bid, but also look through the bid request and notice the language that we included. That gives the board purview over some decision making. That isn't so cut and dry. I mean, I think that we made it so we were able to make some decisions based on the conditions that were presented to us so we can go and have a recount here. Mm hmm. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:37:21] ​And it says deadline for submission of bids slash proposals is July 1st. But it also has a little apostrophe saying date subject to change depending upon CoVid 19 pandemic restrictions. And then they made everything proposed deadline, you know, 30 days later after each one of those for no more than 30 days later for the sign project contract and then 30 days later for the project completion. Thirty I'm sorry, proposed deadline for project completion 30 days after project contract signed. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:37:49] ​I did not. And I made my statement. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:37:52] ​So do you feel that you're within that? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:37:57] ​I do think we should probably get a review of that just to make sure that we're not getting into legal trouble. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:38:03] ​I'm going to suggest that nobody open that e-mail. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:38:09] ​Either one of them,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:38:10] ​Either one of them, until it's time to do that. So, you know, the conditions that are problematic already. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:38:22] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:38:23] ​And also just, you know, explaining to them they understand what CoVid has done, throwing a wrench into everything. So just getting a little more clarity on what we're allowed to do. But they also need to know when you contact AOT, what our language was that we used the stipulations. But I think that there's other language in there, too. I don't have it in front of me. So I think that there's other language in there that speaks to board purview, giving a little bit of leeway with decision making. I could be wrong, but I think that that was our recommendation by the attorney. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:39:06] ​Yeah, I'll go through that and I'll propose it to AOT and then I might be able to have it. Well do. We want to add that to our special hearing. Our special meeting or do. When do we want to know? Bye for this. When are we gonna open the bid? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:39:21] ​We want to know before our that award date. So, I mean, it'd be great if we'd get the award date. I mean, I sort of would like us to do this project and people are back to work. Would be great to get on somebody's calendar. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:39:34] ​But I'm saying, don't we need to do that during a meeting, so I think we need to know this information before the special hearing or is the special or that public hearing, or is that public hearing date meeting too full to think about this Solar RFP? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:39:47] ​I know you're having a public hearing and you might be having a vote on that, but those proposed laws, so, you know, you can add that to it, there would. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:39:55] ​It's going to be a busy night. We don't know how many to speak at the hearing and how long it's going to take for us to consider the hearing testimony. Is there a possibility? Of course, we can't just open the bids and then instantly, you know, award them. I would want at least a few days to study the particulars of one versus the other and see which one is advantageous. So I whenever we open them, we should open them one day and then maybe a week, maybe 10 days, maybe two weeks later, then make the award decision. I would think. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:40:31] ​So. Whenever you get information back from AOT, okay. You can have a special meeting. You just tell me and I can call a special meeting. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:40:39] ​And then we could open up. Councilperson MImi Mehaffey ​[01:40:41] ​Or we can add. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:40:42] ​Sorry Mimi. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:40:45] ​Possibly added the the public hearing,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:40:48] ​Sure. I mean, I don't think that meeting's gonna be three hours long. Councilperson MImi Mehaffey ​[01:40:51] ​Right Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:40:53] ​So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:40:57] ​Ideally, I'd like to know if Stephanie can get the opinion the next few days. Then we have a meeting just to open the bids. OK, then we open the bids and we adjourn. We come back at some other time and decide what we're going to do. That would make more sense to me. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:41:14] ​So I can send you the contact information for them. Stephanie? They have an info email. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:41:21] ​Yeah. Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:41:25] ​What are people's vacations like? This is summer. Just no one special meeting could be held. I'm I'm wide open. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:41:35] ​Not the first week of August. OK. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:41:40] ​I'm here, I have only gone into Ithaca. twice in the last month. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:41:45] ​I think we want to get this done in July anyway. So. That's absence shouldn't be an issue here. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:41:52] ​No, Stephanie, it's the way I began. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:41:56] ​When will you be gone, Stephanie? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:41:58] ​The first week of August. OK. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:42:01] ​All right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:42:05] ​So we could do it. I mean, I hate to go beyond I mean, I hate to go that far anyway, so if we can do it sometime in. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:42:12] ​Could we meet next wednesday? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:42:16] ​What is next Wednesday? I have another meeting. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:42:24] ​Let's begin to put a doodle out or something like that, too, once I get the A.O.T. meeting settled. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:42:31] ​OK. OK. So let's move on. Reopening plan. I met with Rene Carver that we had talked about before. He was a consult on. Like Web meetings,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:43:01] ​Can I just interrupt one more thing. Yeah, I'm sorry. Besides having a late bid, we also had the issue of having it in there that we had required a site visit. What are we going to do about that aspect? Do I just when I ask a AOT or do we. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:43:18] ​Yeah. I mean, we got some bids and neither one of them did it. So I guess we're on equal footing at least on that, aren't we? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:43:25] ​OK. So I thought we needed to scrap them completely. Okay, I'll ask A.O.T. about it. I just didn't know how people felt about. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:43:32] ​Like I said earlier, you'd think that these people never submitted bids before. That's ridiculous. So anyway. OK. So there I met with Rene yesterday, actually, and I'm hoping to meet with Stephanie this week to kind of mock up a system for streaming meetings and having people in place in the meeting in person. So we'll work on that. My recommendation was I personally have, I think, the equipment that I need in order to kind of mix it with the the monitor that's there currently and the cart. And we do have a computer, the bookkeeper's computer that we could use for now, although it's not really recom.., it's not going to be recommended to continue with that. You're gonna make an investment. Local government is all about access. That is the reason we're here. So the investment should be a good investment in equipment that you need instead of cobbing it together. We could do it fairly inexpensively, but we may need some new equipment to make it happen. So but I'm happy to work together to to show how it can happen and then recommend some upgrades and then recommend that Rene do the upgrades. It is it's gonna be well below our five thousand dollar bid threshold or whatever that whatever requirements we're gonna have there. So. But he has been extremely helpful and free with his time to talk things through. And we had a great conversation working through all of the potentials and the things we want to have happen and the things we need to facilitate for this. So I really appreciate is how Mimi. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:45:33] ​Could just be a blooded expense that we submit? [01:45:35] ​It could. But there's we're not going to see any money for that. Yeah, sure. I mean, we're marking things CoVid for sure. Yeah. In some in some fantasy world that might happen, but probably not. But sure, we can write write it down. So I mean of keeping track. I've kept track of other expenses that we've had to have for that. OK. So that's what I have. My hope is that. Once, like I said, Stephanie and I are going to meet and try to do a mock up and we get it working. Then we can know the system and how it works. And then then I can put together some recommendations for equipment upgrades that we would need to make it happen. And then. It would be great if Rene could do it for the Town. He's just he's very willing and just very knowledgeable. So that's what I have with regard to opening the room itself is all set up. Alan had worked with Betty and set up the courtroom. It was it looks great. It's very it's appointed well to keep people separated. Very minimal seating. No. Did Alan say something about 13? Is that what he said earlier, that space? Twenty five percent. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:47:03] ​Seventeen Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:47:05] ​Seventeen? Yeah. I don't think there's that many seats available in space right now. So they've taped off seats that shouldn't be used that are next to each other, so like in a row of three seats. There is like one seat available. So I think it's it is a good method, too. And they've also pulled up the chairs and put chairs like every six feet. So. So actually, I am going to take Betty off mute. She's raised your hand and I do. I would like to talk over that. The use of that space for board meetings with her. Available as well. Hi, Betty. Hi there. Judge Betty Poole ​[01:47:49] ​Yes, Alan. And I did work in the room. I just. He did. Correct the total amount of individuals. I know as far as the court is concerned, and I'm not sure as far as you're concerned. We are only allowed twenty five percent of the maximum capacity. But that includes the judge and the clerk. So that's about sixteen point two five. We got a quarter of a kid coming in. You know the guy I know. So if you subtract. All of you folks then. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:48:42] ​You can have about 10 people. Judge Betty Poole ​[01:48:44] ​Exactly. Exactly. So that's that. And we really don't have any choice. We. Taped it out. Measured it out. And I, I also have a sign in sheet for people. I also I have a no touch thermometer. I go right through the whole spiel with them, read everything off to them, and then they sign it. But I did. I wanted to clarify that that that amount, at least for the court, includes us as well. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:49:29] ​Right. And with the Clerk, there's six people then if they're if the you know, if other people show up. Highway superintendent the the code officer there in place. Then we do have many people in that space. But it's also if we can stream in at the same time, have a zoom meeting, then we can certainly accommodate having them not be in the room. So and I also I I personally feel really strongly about making sure we do not disturb the setup that's in there currently for the court. It was it was clearly time consuming and it is set very clearly where people can be. So I will we'll need to talk about how we're going to manage people coming into the building and then what happens if we're at capacity. So we'll have to talk about what that's going to look like. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:50:33] ​I was in the building yesterday. And it looked really well set up, you also I would hate to see see some people going in there and mess it up. After what Betty described. Judge Betty Poole ​[01:50:42] ​Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:50:43] ​Remember that we board members are going to be separated from each other to be crowded at two tables like we were before. Judge Betty Poole ​[01:50:51] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:50:52] ​And that's going to make the whole the streaming situation more complex because you have an option to have like a group, Mike, but a group, Mike is not going to pick us all up. Well, being that far apart. So individual mikes will be more expensive and you'll have to have a mixer for that. I mean, that doesn't have to be super expensive, but the mixer will have to connect to the computer. And so you can't it just it's going to be more expensive if we're gonna have to be separated like that. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:51:24] ​It may be an unavoidable necessity, and it will serve the community to allow more people to see what we're doing. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:51:32] ​I absolutely think that these are questions of accessibility for all types of people. I mean, I'm going to I'm going to call out Ed Heatherington. He from the day I was elected to the Town board, he emailed me regularly and told me his thoughts based on the minutes of the meetings and wanted to be involved, but may not physically find it easy to get to the community building for a meeting. And yet he's about four houses down the road. So we are seriously talking about accessibility for many different people. And of course, we have this situation with regard to broadband not available to everybody. So there are lots of accessibility issues. So a hybrid model here is going to have to be really important going forward. But I cannot I don't think that we can go back to the to the way that it was when we've had so much participation. So so since the people are what the government is all about, the investment in making it accessible to them, I think is an important one. And it would come out of the building fund anyway. The building line. So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:52:45] ​I think it would be a wise thing to do. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:52:48] ​I totally agree. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:52:51] ​All right. So we'll work on that and we'll have a better sense of how that will work and and communicate with the board as soon as we we do. All right. Does anybody else have other thoughts on the managing people in the building? We do have the Wi-Fi that people can access outside of the building. Also, that's one or one other thing we'll have to figure out is that it's not going to be hard to figure out. It's just gonna be having to get Cat five cable that's long enough, but making it wired directly for the town board meeting. So we're not fighting with what for Wi-Fi, with all the other people that might need the Wi-Fi in order to access the meeting if there's anybody around the building or in the building. Trying to access that, so. So our goal would be to have one Zoom meeting going on with one computer. So all the board members don't have to have the zoom meeting in front of them. So. Yes, Mimi. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:53:55] ​Do we also have to comply somehow with the asking all the questions ahead of time and have you been in.. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:54:03] ​Privilege? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:54:04] ​No, no. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:54:06] ​Yeah. I mean, I find. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:54:08] ​That it is what the requirement is it in the public sector? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:54:11] ​Well. Sure. I mean, I guess if you're asking people to come into the building and spend any significant amount of time with other people in that building, I personally feel that the temperature check situation would be a good one to have in asking the questions. Have you been ill? And all of the set of questions that they that they provide for us so. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:54:33] ​Whole protocol that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:54:37] ​So you may need someone who is doing that, right? Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:54:39] ​That's what I'm wondering. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:54:43] ​Governors rules change all the time. So by the time we go back to having in-person meetings in that community building, there may be a whole bunch of new regulations that we have to comply with. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:55:08] ​All right. So how do you want to move forward with this? I can provide our information probably in the next week. But how do you want to move forward with the other things? Because the executive order was only extended through the through early August. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:55:24] ​5th. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:55:24] ​So, I mean, it may be extended again, but but I'd rather be prepared for that. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:55:34] ​It would be nice if we could shoot to a possible goal of having our August meeting back in your community building. And then if the governor says no, you meet remotely, we could still meet remotely. But at least we would be prepared. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:55:48] ​Well. All right, so. Think through how we would be administering those questions. I don't think that it's something that the board can focus on. The board has to be the board at the meeting and focusing on the business of the board. So it would seem like there needs to be someone else attending to those things. The meeting. Councilperson Stehpanie Redmond ​[01:56:20] ​Is Rene Carver available to actually facilitate that aspect of our meetings, or is he just going to do setup for the via zoom and the microphone microphones and things like that? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:56:32] ​No he would be consulting on the package of items that we need and then we would be managing the meeting. So,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:56:42] ​OK, so he's he's not willing to actually, you know, be in the milieau at the meeting and dealing with all that during the meeting. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:56:49] ​I don't think that's what he does. And he probably doesn't want to be someone administering temperature checks and stuff either. So, I mean, if this is. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[01:56:58] ​You're going to have to have somebody who is going to be the engineer, if you will, during the meeting so that we can conduct our business getting a lot more complex than what we're doing here tonight. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:57:09] ​So our hope is that the system would be fairly simple and we're gonna have a meeting that is facilitated by the supervisor. As usual, we've been facilitating privilege of the floor just fine. It it it would be terrific to have a producer of the meeting, but for our meetings, I don't necessarily know that it's necessary. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:57:28] ​Perhaps they have some guidelines or is thinking about the beginning of open meetings. But, you know, the temperature at the entry and all that stuff. I don't know. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:57:42] ​Yeah, those are good thoughts. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:57:45] ​Is it possible? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:57:46] ​Oh, sorry, go ahead. Mimi. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[01:57:47] ​I think it's pretty clear what has to happen. It has to happen at public meetings. And the question really is, do we have somebody that we either pay or a volunteer that is willing to administer it? And every new person that walks in, they now have to take them aside, take their temperature and run them through a list of questions. It's really the questions are pretty well stated by the Tompkins County Health Department. There's lots of literature out there on that. So I don't know, maybe putting it out there on the on the Web site, looking for a volunteer to come to the meetings and administer questions to the public I don't kno.. Possibly. I don't know of the health department going to do something like that. Well, maybe they could advise how we could find somebody to do something like that. I'm not sure. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:58:48] ​Also be a cost of the meeting. I mean, if you pay somebody 50. Well, there's a risk involved. So 20 bucks an hour to do a meeting. So, you know, again, public safety isn't free. So I think. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[01:59:08] ​I'm leaning towards something like that, someone who's qualified, R.N. or some, if somebody did do that appropriately and follow the guidelines. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:59:17] ​I don't know that you're gonna get an R.N. for 20, I think. But I think that she's finding someone that is able and and responsible and would take it seriously. I think it would be valuable. Councilperson Stehpanie Redmond ​[01:59:35] ​I know our Town clerk has a lot of EMT experience, so maybe we could convince her to run that part of it and actually get the deputy town clerk and her there to sort of check people in. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:59:48] ​I don't think that's a good idea at all. The Town Clerk has a lot of work to do at a town board meeting. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[01:59:55] ​Well, that's why I said we thought we had the deputy town clerk at the other meeting. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[01:59:59] ​Now, the focus needs to be on the meeting for the Clerk. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:00:03] ​OK,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:00:04] ​So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:00:04] ​Maybe maybe Ellen knows of somebody. An EMT within the fire department would maybe volunteer his or her time to do this kind of thing. Maybe. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:00:17] ​Well, or get paid. SupervisorBeth McGee ​[02:00:18] ​or get paid, Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:00:20] ​Right. Yeah Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:00:20] ​ I still think the more important priority, if you're going to spend some money, is to have somebody who will take charge of the electronic aspect of it, because anybody who is running the meeting is going to be so preoccupied with running the meeting that it's going to be very difficult to run the technical aspects of it. As I said, last meeting my sister at her church, you know, the ministry doesn't run the video stream of that. In fact, they have about three or four people behind the scenes who are running that it takes that many to run it. So we may find if we're doing this from the community building, it will take more person power. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:01:04] ​So that is the technical end of things and getting things turned on and set up. Sure. But the as the supervisor facilitates privilege of the floor and we'll need to continue to facilitate the meeting using Zoom. And so you can do that, the supervisor can do that or whoever is facilitating the meeting can do that simply by having a wireless mouse and keyboard. And the monitor is already there. So there's a computer that would be connected to the monitor and the wireless keyboard and mouse would be connected to that. And then the meeting is just is run on the monitor. So the public who in the building can see who's in the zone meeting and so can the board. So it's still in that way. Privilege of the floor can still happen the way it's happened before. So there's still access. When when I'm doing privilege of the floor. That's my focus. So it's not difficult to run it. That aspect of the meeting. So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:02:14] ​It is you're going to be one wide shot of all the board members sitting there right now. We see individual tiles with individual faces. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:02:21] ​Right. So the board would be the one streambed that is that is a full board. So you'd be using a webcam for that. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:02:32] ​But in terms of making that sort of thing, I don't know. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:02:36] ​Those are those will be separate mikes. That would be connected to a mixer. Yes. So again. All right. So I said that I will put together a mockup and then you can decide, we can decide if it's doable in that space, in the way we need to have it happen. And then Rene can make recommendations on equipment and how to put it together, because I'm not going to do any technical technical stuff anymore beyond what I'm doing right now. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:03:05] ​You shouldn't. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:03:05] ​So. I don't have to do any of that. Actually, that would be wonderful. I just wanted to show that it is possible in the short term. I'm happy to just call Rene and say, hey, can you set us up? Because he's seen the equipment that we have. If the board would rather I do that. That would free up a whole lot of time for me. So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:03:34] ​We should move ahead on this. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:03:38] ​We lost Mimi. Where'd she go? Councilperson Stephnaie Redmond ​[02:03:48] ​I don't have any either. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:03:50] ​All right. Well, then again, do you want me to go ahead and just have Rene give us an estimate? Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:03:58] ​I do. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:03:59] ​I do. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:03:59] ​I do. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:04:00] ​OK, then. That's great. I really appreciate that. That gives me more time to print checks and do the vouchers. All right. Wonderful. Thank you. So anyway, I'll move that. We engage Rene Carver in providing a consultation and estimate on providing public access through Zoom. And at our Town board. Facility in the community building. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:04:32] ​Second. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:04:33] ​We're going to. Thank you. Any further discussion. All right. Would you call the vote, please, Patricia, on that motion? Hold on. I gotta unmute. There you go. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:04:50] ​Councilperson Bryant. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:04:52] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:04:53] ​Councilperson Lynch. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:04:55] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:04:56] ​Councilperson Mahaffey. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:04:57] ​She is not here. Deputy Town Clerk Speno ​[02:05:00] ​OK, and Councilperson Redmond. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:05:04] ​Aye. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:05:05] ​And Supervisor McGee. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:05:07] ​Aye. Thank you very much. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:05:08] ​Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:05:09] ​Thank you. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:05:10] ​Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:05:17] ​All right. The budget did mention that I'm gonna be sending out the budget requests early for probably first week of August or right after the first week of August to get people submitting their needs. I hope to get from them flat budget or as the county is suggesting, a 12 percent decrease. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:05:46] ​Right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:05:50] ​And then Mimi just texted. She's here. She says she voted yes. No, I don't think we can take that. That's just in my text. So. But it's fine. Oh, she called in one second. Hold on a second. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:06:09] ​Is that her there the two two seven six? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:06:12] ​Is that You Mimi? Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:06:13] ​Hello. Can you hear me? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:06:14] ​Hello. Yes. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:06:16] ​Can you hear me? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:06:16] ​Yes. Yes. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:06:18] ​OK. Sorry about that. My Internet shot. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:06:21] ​OK, great. OK, so we're gonna move forward with that great. And then there was something else that I wanted to mention about the budget. I got together with Stephanie and Brian last week, and we went over different aspects of the budget. And Stephanie and I have gone through it line by line. So she has a better understanding of that as well. So it can be for the boy to point somebody or in case of an absence or just taking care of daily things. She better understands that as the deputy. And that right now is all I have. The county, you know, as it was mentioned by by Anne it is pretty dire. And there I think that they're preparing well and second meet unmute Anne. Anne are you there Anne Koreman? Legislator Anne Koreman ​[02:07:32] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:07:34] ​Can you tell me what the tax increase perspectus this was? Legislaotor Anne Koreman ​[02:07:43] ​I. To the best of my recollection. So you want the sales tax from the last couple of months or the projection? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:07:51] ​No, the projection of the county tax increase in Jason's proposed budget? Legislator Anne Koreman ​[02:07:59] ​Oh. Property tax. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:08:00] ​Yes. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[02:08:04] ​I'm trying to remember he had different scenarios. One was 10 percent. One was 20 percent. We're hoping to do neither of those. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:08:16] ​Oh God. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[02:08:18] ​We're hoping to do under 10 percent. But there's so many factors. Sure. We might not be able to because we have to not. Luckily for years, they have been bumping up the fund balance. So right now we could possibly take the hit. Although this is only halfway through through the year, we don't really know what's going to happen the rest of the year. We could possibly take the hit and put it all in our fund balance. But that's just this year. And that and that next year we're gonna have it could be similar shortfalls. So we're gonna look at, like balancing this out over the next couple of years and seeing how much we want to draw down our fund balance. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:09:03] ​Yeah. So, I mean, the reason I ask that is because just being mindful of the burden of property taxes on Enfield residents and making note of that potential increase from the county. And being mindful of that when we're setting our own budget. Did we lose, Bob? Legislator Anne Koreman ​[02:09:26] ​Right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:09:27] ​Oh, here he is. Legislator Anne Koreman ​[02:09:28] ​You realize that the you know, there's a lot of people out of work. There's a lot of people that have had huge impacts to their businesses and various other things of keeping kids at home and the extra expense in that child care. So we realize that. So we we're going to try and do the best we can to to not you know, we're certainly not going to be cavalier and just say, oh, OK, we're just going to raise property taxes 20 percent and make that up. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:09:56] ​Thank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:09:57] ​When do we have to have the public hearing regarding the tax gap? Because we've got to keep our options open? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:10:05] ​Well, I would propose that anytime I can propose to for August meeting, many board members have felt like we should propose that in January and be done with it because of the concerns about sometimes there are miscalculations and you want to protect yourself because it's a pain right in the rear to exceed the tax gap just on an error. So it just makes sense to do it. It doesn't mean you're going to exceed the tax cap. It just means that you won't face the implications that you would if you did. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:10:40] ​...tonight to set that public hearing? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:10:48] ​Yeah, I mean, the initial budget isn't due until September 30th. So, I mean, we could do it. It's at september's regular meeting? The public hearing for the property tax cap law. So I can propose it at August's meeting. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:11:10] ​All right. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:11:10] ​And then you can set a public hearing. You could do it at September's meeting. Sounds good. Because I don't feel comfortable just setting a public hearing for something that I have not proposed yet with the language and everything. So. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:11:24] ​What you just suggested works for you? I would say let's go with it. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:11:31] ​I can't recall when last year did the tax cap figure from Albany come down? That doesn't mean if we do it this year. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:11:38] ​But I, I begin my the budget review too and start collecting numbers in August last year, I asked for. I'm pretty sure it was and might have even been notified when I asked for the budget request. So. Yeah, so it's fairly early, it's fairly early that it's available. I've already gotten the growth rate documentation, so they use that in our pilot pilot agreements to kind of figure it, to figure it out. So I think that the information is there this year could be very different. But I'll check in on it this week. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:12:18] ​Thank you. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:12:18] ​See what the form says. OK. All right, thanks Anne OK. Cleanup days rescheduling. I guess we're going to table that. We don't have any more conversation about or any more information about that. I haven't gotten any of you gotten any. Somebody Bob? we talked about October. So. All right. So table that unless people have something they want to discuss about it. All right. The next thing on the agenda is the uptake update of the town of Enfield policy, an employee manual. So we've met with Paychex and they've gotten us login. So we're going to enter the information into their manual builder that is ours and then review it based on the legal language of the policies that are current that they have through New York state law and that sort of thing. So so we'll be able to get that information input and have a better sense of what reasons might need to be made. Councilperson virginia Bryant ​[02:13:47] ​Why reinvent the wheel? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:13:52] ​So we actually I did get them to extend that time period. We have access to the free services through Paychex HR through the end of August. So. And if we feel like we're not not finished with it yet, we can consider paying for a couple of months. So I can get those figures. OK. The Web site policy. Everybody got that. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:14:41] ​Yeah. [02:14:44] ​Yes. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:14:49] ​So I actually dug this out. Sue and Alice and I had considered the Website policy a couple of years ago now and just have been tossing it around. And so we did a couple of updates and. And then I had Alice actually review it to make sure that it was accurate. As far as her recollection of all of the things that we had talked about and considered with regard to Web site management and the things that come up. So this wasn't provided until like two or three days ago. So I'm just presenting this. So if you guys want to talk about it among yourselves or review it, that's great. And then make recommendations. But I have no expectation that there's gonna be a. A resolution on this this evening, so. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:15:58] ​We ought to know, for one thing. Let the Town clerk weigh in on it, because she might have concerns and opinions on it and let the public weigh in on it. Be good. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:16:10] ​I'd love to do that anytime during privilege of the floor. So. And just to be clear, I think that the again guy has advised and I just also want to be clear about what Guy's position is guy is a council. And he will tell me regularly that he doesn't rule on anything. He advises the town board on the law and the town board. It's at the discretion of the own board to make the policies and decisions that they agreed to by a majority. So the attorney isn't the arbiter of our decisions. I just want to make that clear so everybody understands that the attorney consults the board. Sometimes he gives way too much information. Sometimes he gives information that doesn't seem like enough, but he tries to teach and provide as much as he can. So we might not have to consult with him regularly on issues because he's already given us lots of information on something. So I save the information that he shares and and often look back on those on those e-mails, so. Yeah. So he isn't he isn't the decider of things. The Town board is the decider on things. The governing board. In case there was any confusion about that. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:17:42] ​Well, the only the only question I had was the public's weighing in on it and the Town clerk. Well, you know, she has some concern. She's not here right now, but she might want to weigh in on it and show that we could make a consensus decision that hopefully would please everyone. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:18:04] ​From my perspective, the Town Web site, it was very important to me because our former Town Web site was not easy to navigate. It was very difficult for for Sue, who did the best she could do with it, to communicate to the public. And she did an excellent job at taking that site after I built it and just running with it and making it as informative as possible. And it really is a depository for so much that's happened in Enfield local government. So I'm really, really proud of it and and grateful to Sue. And she also it was very important to us to be mindful of the professionalism of that site and taking care of that site. And we often we considered things like different events that might happen, that might be profitable events for people and whether we were going to have those things on on the Town Web site or promote those sorts of things. So there are always questions that come up for topics on on the Web site. And it is important for the Town board to understand that it is a place for the public to get information. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:19:19] ​I expect I'm starting. I'm sorry to interrupt, Ithave spent the last three months. Going through other Web sites with the Town, Ennfield there, Connecticut. They're in New Hampshire. They're all over the place. As we know, since our English ancestors and I find them to be almost 98 percent. Talking to you about Town. What's going on in town that's going on with a person or anything like that? It's very strange to me. It's fascinating. Sometimes they're enlarging in history, which Sue has done is doing other things, but it's really very. It's a journey that I am continuing. So let's sort of put them out there. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:20:09] ​So the policy is very well written, it very specifically states the goals for the Web site. And then very clearly say, you know, it says, you know, a method of how we're going to reach those goals. And I agree with the goals that are stated and it seems very conciseSo, you know, I think it's a really well written policy. I don't see any problems with it. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:20:32] ​I don't know either. I think it's very well written. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:20:34] ​So let's just put it on the agenda for August and we can review it then. And any questions or concerns? And actually, if you have questions or concerns you want to send to me prior to that or in a board discussion like an email, if your questions in the e-mail or wording suggestions, feel free to do that. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:20:59] ​I have to say that I think the policy reflects the professionalism of the website. I have spent a whole lot of time looking at other towns, Web sites, looking at wind and solar laws.And often they are almost impossible to find. I will spend hours. And yet in Enfield, it's everything is really right at your fingertips. So it made me appreciate the layout and informative nature of our Web site. So thank you for that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:21:32] ​OK. The electronic payments policy. sYou sent that. And again, this is one that was sent later on. So I think that this if we if we have questions now or we want to talk about it just briefly now. But to have it on the agenda for August meeting. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:21:54] ​Sounds good. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:21:55] ​With wording changes or suggestions. That I don't think it's urgent that we get to these. This ability to take these payments, we're already taking some payments electronically. And I think that that's reasonable. But this policy that I really like the policy, I thought that the wording was really clear. And again. I was actually surprised by the thouroughness of it. I was no, I wasn't surprised. I was just pleased. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:22:31] ​I agree. I think it's crystal clear. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:22:34] ​You know, Ellen does a lot of the electronic stuff with the dog licenses and that sort of thing. So, you know, I don't know if she's weighed in with her opinion on it, but I'd want to hear what she had to say as well. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:22:45] ​Well, I think that, Stephanie, you put that together based primarily on many of the notes that Ellen provided, that. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:22:52] ​She gave me the list of what she would like to have for her to take payments for. And so I added that the only thing about urgency, which I don't think it's really urgent, is that we leave ourselves open for sorry to be sued. This is how it is to be living on solar. By the way, I live off grid. So the only issue is that it leaves us open to be sued if we if there was tampering and, you know, somebody got charged wrongly on their account. So a policy, it protects us legally a little bit. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:23:25] ​eah. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:23:26] ​Can I can I ask. Are the fees re..? Are we going to upcharge for the fees that the credit card company charges us? Are we're planning to? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:23:38] ​We had. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:23:39] ​As a revenue. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:23:42] ​Well, as a non expense, it's more expensive to take credit cards than it is cash or checks. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:23:49] ​The customers pay that. That's part of the customer. That's part of the fee for. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:23:53] ​That's part of the transaction. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:23:57] ​So it's true that it's through the current one that we use the dog licenses through. So they collect that. Got it. OK. So it doesn't cost the Town anymore. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:24:07] ​No,. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:24:08] ​I understand now. I thought it was in addition to. We'll take credit cards for that. [02:24:13] ​So I would like also to suggest that we get the. What do they call it. The swiper, so that way we don't have to document anything. It's automatically entered when they swipe the card. So it's one hundred and fifty dollars. It's a very reasonable expense. Yes. So OK, so if there are no more comments or questions on that, then let's throw that on the August agenda and. And consider it then. And Bob, you said the. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:24:59] ​Why are we waiting to put this on the August agenda and Clerks away... Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:25:06] ​Yeah, I mean, I think that because it was presented just a few days ago. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:25:12] ​Gotcha. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:25:13] ​And so this way it would give everyone an opportunity to to look it over. And if there are any concerns or questions or changes they want to recommend or are ask about, that is that's reasonable, I think. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:25:25] ​OK. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:25:31] ​Unless other people want to vote on it now. I mean, I don't. I'm not the decider. But, yeah, I'm fine to leave it until August. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:25:41] ​Should we get the swiper? Is that something that can be purchased now so that that can be done? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:25:47] ​Well, yeah, I mean, Patricia, are you able you're taking the cards there for dog licenses, correct? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:25:52] ​No. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:25:53] ​No, you're not. They're the only online. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:25:56] ​Checks and cash and right online it goes through Williamson. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:26:00] ​Right. OK. OK. All right. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Is the goal of this board to pass this policy and accept payments, electronic payments at the Town. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:26:14] ​But if you're if you're doing it for a credit card machine that's connected right to your bank. I'm not sure it's going to go through a Williamson then and they're not going to get their fee. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:26:24] ​I don't know what Ellen has in mind for the swiper. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:26:31] ​So either Ellen or I can reach out to Williamson and get more clarity on that. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:26:37] ​OK. That be great. Before we purchase the piece of equipment. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:26:40] ​Good. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:26:41] ​Sometimes those services have to be done online. You know, if you're going through Williamson. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:26:54] ​And she may have already gotten that information. Right. OK. All right. Moving on the policy regarding the attorney. Contact Bob. You got information from AOT. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:27:09] ​Yes And I sent everybody on the Town board a Brief Memo on it. I talked yesterday with Katie of the Association of Towns, and she basically says that we can have a what I would call a gatekeeper, that before somebody else, another elected officer or an appointed officer, anybody goes to legal counsel. The attorney for the Town, they can come through. Either the Town board or the supervisor? As long as there is a policy, Katie indicated that we should probably have a policy in place that allows this to make it crystal clear to everyone what our procedures are. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:27:53] ​I like that idea. I have generally operated as long as I've been on the board that the supervisor is the primary contact. And if we if any of us wanted to communicate with the attorney outside of those communications. But the supervisor that the board would make that determination. That's how we've just generally operated. But a policy on that is a good idea. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:28:19] ​es. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:28:21] ​You want to write that Bob? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:28:27] ​I could try. I could try. You should probably run it by council because I'm not a lawyer. But in any event, we could see. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:28:34] ​Well, I definitely said this should be a policy for this because it's sort of been in practice that week when I came on the board that read anybody who want to talk to the attorneys at the Town. We would always consult the supervisor. I'm not suggesting this be the policy here or definitely it just doesn't come from anyone anywhere. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:28:56] ​And another thing that I can do is I can ask the supervisors next week on Monday when we meet. So if any of them have a policy. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:29:06] ​OK. We'll have to reinvent the wheel. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:29:12] ​That might be good. The other the other supervisors might have some good advice that we could we could cherry pick their best ideas. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:29:19] ​Excellent. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:29:25] ​So final item here. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:29:28] ​I am always looking for municipal solutions to give me some great news and tell me we can rewrite our highway bonds and have a major savings there. So I had her check in once again because of the economic situation and. Well, it is. There would be some savings. They have a threshold. They want you to meet because there is cost involved in redoing the bonds.And so there are legal it's products between ten and fifteen thousand dollars to redo it. So you really have to meet at least that and have significant savings over before they recommend you're going to do it. However, she did do a bond prepayment estimation for me, which I found really interesting. And at this point, every dollar counts. So right now we pay principal and interest in April and then we pay an additional interest payment of between ten and twelve, thirteen thousand dollars in October. So the whole thing is generally about one hundred thousand, give or take, for the year. And so we could pay principal and interest by January 1st and then pay interest in April and interest in October. So a bulk of our payment is happening four months prior. And that's an advantage to us. So if we and they charge a fee every time they manage this for us. So each year their fee would be two hundred seventy five dollars to to facilitate this, because there's lots of notification that has to go out to the bondholders that we're going to prepay. So after the fee in 2021, if we were to do this. So we're talking probably let's say our payment in 2021 would be principal and interest eighty thousand six hundred seventy five dollars and fifty six cents for January for principal and interest. And then we have the fund balance to do that in January in the general fund. And that's where the highway bond payment comes out of. So we do have the fund balance to afford to do that even before the full levy is made. So I think it is reasonable. In that first year we would save six hundred forty nine dollars and forty five cents in the second year 737. Ninety two in 2023 we'd save seven hundred sixty eight sixty one twenty twenty four. We'd save a sixty two. Fifty twenty twenty five. Nine hundred sixty dollars. And in 2026 the payoff year 1061 dollars. We're talking about that kind of savings for just doing this a few months earlier. So you know, it's something to consider and it isn't going to make it. So the budget dollar figure is any different. It's just gonna be the timeline of paying. So it just means that you're paying the bulk of it upfront in January, by January 1st, instead of waiting until April. So I just wanted to throw that out there, that there is some potential savings there, even if it's not the the bigger savings of redoing the bonds bonds. So something to consider for how we're gonna move forward next year. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:33:02] ​Is our bookkeeper meet in on this yet? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:33:06] ​No, I just got this information and. And again, it's really the the boards. It's you know, it's up to the board to decide if they just want to make that make those payments in that way. The fund balance is there generally to do that. And the other there are other options, too. This one, we can do the same thing with retirement. We can pay it prior to the January date. And but the savings for that fifty thousand dollar bill is like five hundred bucks. And we've never done it because that doesn't seem like enough. But again, when you're talking about every dollar counting, you know, I want to know. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:33:47] ​What you've just described makes sense. I mean, you say how much it costs to, reduce the bond versus fashionpaying in this time. It's like even my arithmetic. tells me that's right. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:34:03] ​What I don't have the numbers in front of me. I'm wondering how low that would make our fund balance go in January. Jan, fund balance,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:34:14] ​You generally have an unappropriated fund balance for the general fund, about four hundred thousand dollars. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:34:22] ​OK. So it's not like it would leave us short at all. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:34:25] ​No. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:34:26] ​It's really not an issue. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:34:27] ​No. And the other. But we have considered in the capital plan and the fund balance policy shifting money for this salt barn. So that is a consideration as well. That doesn't mean that that I mean, town don't even think that that's going to impact it, because, again, you're talking about a January payment that you just need some cash flow for. The cash flow is generally there with the general fund. It's the highway fund that there's a problem with. And then if you make the other payments are, of course, like fifty five thousand dollars for retirement in January. You have worker's comp payments in January. It's gonna be like twelve, maybe thirteen thousand for that. And sixty thousand dollar payment for the initial payment for the highway or the fire contract. So But, All, that time the levy is coming in. Between the. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:35:29] ​your talking you still haven't undone the fund balance. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:35:32] ​Right? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:35:33] ​Right. So, anyway, just something to consider. Councilperson Stehpanie Redmond ​[02:35:36] ​The salt barn. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:35:38] ​And then we'll see. We're going to act on it. [02:35:42] ​And for instance,. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:35:44] ​Particularly since we don't have an investment policy, so that four hundred thousand that sits there is not earning anything. And so it's it would be a pretty good rate of return to do it in this way. And simple. But do you know. And you could always change it the following year if you felt like it, didn't, you know, wasn't what you wanted to do or we had a different reason for wanting higher fund balance. So I think that's a bad sort of idea and I think we should pursue it. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:36:15] ​Yeah, I do, too. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:36:17] ​Stephanie. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:36:18] ​And also, if we paid for the salt barn, that would probably be a spring thing anyway. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:36:23] ​Correct. Spring maybe two years from now. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:36:28] ​If the payment for that would be during the spring. Usually, right? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:36:33] ​So, yeah, but what we were talking about is shifting money into a new building fund. So that would be a reserve from the general fund. So that money would already be removed and intended for and reserved for the purpose of paying for our portion of the salt barn. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:36:54] ​Bringing up the question of a salt barn, where do we stand, how much time do we have to make a decision on that? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:37:01] ​You have to have the project completed by April of twenty twenty three. So you can make all the decisions you want, your eventually you're going to have to put out a bid for it. You're going to have to decide how you're going to pay for our half. So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:37:18] ​I suspect with this uncertainty, we're going to have to probably bond some of it. I would think, because we just can't ask the taxpayers to subsidize that. With all the uncertainty, we're going to have years of uncertainty with us and we need that salt barn and as we've said before. So I think that probably we will have to borrow a lot of the money to do that, and we probably should. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:37:42] ​Well, that depends on the salt barn that you get and the cost of it. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:37:47] ​I have I have serious questions about whether this Town board working with this highway superintendent to come to a agreement on any of that. I just can't see it. I mean,. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:38:00] ​I'm in agreement with you Mimi, I think it's going on. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:38:04] ​The communication has broken down to such a such a point. I mean, he won't even sell the truck that he agreed to sell in January. So I can't I can't I can't imagine us working well together, but I hope I'm wrong. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:38:18] ​Well, the town... Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:38:18] ​I hope we don't have to pass up that salt grant. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:38:20] ​The tall Town bill is the salt barn. Highway superintendent doesn't decide whether we're going to have a salt barn or not. We do. And if we decide we're going to have a salt barn, then I guess we're going to have a salt barn. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:38:33] ​I like your attitude Bob. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:38:38] ​Well, I just also keep in mind that there are Cr... There are parts of the project that can. There are different ways to fund it. And that would need to have cooperation with Highway superintendent. So you just you have to keep that in mind. The relationship is important. I mean, I can get the book out again and read the comments right before the rental.. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:39:02] ​What we have here is a failure to communicate. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:39:07] ​But, you know, and communication and transparency is really important. And we work really hard at that. So I'd like to see us continue doing that. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:39:18] ​What I think we are doing. Probably you can't make decisions on the salt barn this year, but probably we should early in 2021, start making decisions on the salt barn so that it will be constructed by the time that the grant money runs out in 2023. Now, Beth, you had said earlier that you were impressed. I believe you said by what the state was doing up on Warren Road. I don't know if they've done anything on that that it was going to be a lot less expensive what they were proposing,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:39:47] ​Didn't I? I didn't give you the estimate? I gave you the new estimates. Size changes that and I that were provided by the one woman who is gonna build the wooden, one who proposed the wooden one to us think that I had asked her for a whole bunch of different specs based on what the state had, what Mark Bush at the state had communicated to me about the building that they're building up there and their capacity. And I'm pretty sure I sent those to you guys. I thought that was included in that conversation. I can dig that out again. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:40:23] ​Send it again if you can. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:40:31] ​Well, do you. All right. Well, that's all I have. And I guess we can't really talk about paving that whole space unless you want to talk about budgeting for that on the A fund and maybe hiring SuitKote to do it next year, because apparently that's you know,. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:40:54] ​That might be a way to go. Or can we look into some grant options? Does anybody have any ideas for a green option for that? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:41:02] ​I don't know if that's something that's going to be available for grants, but I mean, it's the food pantries. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:41:09] ​They're community building. It seems like, again, a good call. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:41:14] ​For even for the food pantry is not to stay in that space. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:41:17] ​It is not an adequate space for the food pantry. So. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:41:21] ​It would make a good, good hook line for a grant. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:41:28] ​Go for it. Do what you can do. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:41:31] ​All we need is a little black top down there so that people don't strain themselves putting those pallets of potatoes back in the building. I feel sorry for the people who have to work that that hand truck because it's a real haul to get those things back in at the end of Monday. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:41:49] ​The entire drive up to the back of the building is a disaster. There's been so much water run off. It's very unsafe to walk on especially. But to drive on it too. Yeah, for sure. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:42:03] ​What's the long term plan for the for the food pantry. Any idea where they're planning on moving? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:42:09] ​They they have ideas. I'm sure when they have money, they'll have better ideas, you know, more firm ideas. So. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:42:18] ​They have a go fund me effort. I think that's under way. I don't know where it stands. You'd have to check with Jean Owens. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:42:24] ​It's about three thousand dollars, I think. OK. So. OK. All right, so let's do privilege of the floor. Anybody want to raise their hand? Anyone who is remaining. Privilege of the floor. I don't see any hands raised. I will unmute everybody. Everybody's unmuted. Is there anyone who would like to speak for privilege of the floor? Patricia. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:43:00] ​Yes. This CoVid screening at the meeting. I went to the doctor this morning. It was the best one yet. They had a big sign that had the three questions you ask between you and the foyer between the two doors, two moving doors. Of course, they had someone in front of the sign and someone inside the next door. And she said, wait right here. And the fellow came out through the. Electronic door, whatever and. said, "read the sign" and I said, oh, yeah none of those things, you know. And so he went through the questions with me. I think it's a good idea to have that sign there. You know, makes it a lot easier on the person doing the screening. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:43:58] ​Right. And Alan did mentioned he's doing a log in, a "sign in". And I think that would be really important as far as tracing as well. So we make sure that people entering the meeting also sign can have them sign and have it be. They are stating that. The answers to these questions are such that, you know, the ones we're looking for. And then they can be admitted to the meeting. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:44:26] ​Well, he also put the thermometer in my ear, you know, afterwards. But I had to read the sign first go through the questions, and it was just three questions. And it's the typical thing. And I know Ellen is doing that at the hospital. I don't know if they have this sign, but I think it's a lot easier on the person doing the screening to have that sign there. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:44:54] ​Mm hmm. Well, would you take a look on the health department's site and see if a sign that similar to that is on? Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:45:02] ​Yes. I will,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:45:03] ​Similar to what you've seen. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:45:04] ​Yeah Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:45:05] ​ I agree, because if I can get that, I can have those printed, enlarged and laminated for that matter. Yeah. So they're sanitizeable. . Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:45:16] ​Right. Right. And then, you know, they write down your temperature on, a piece of paper and give it to you, you know, so. But I really wasn't I, I can't imagine going cold with like 20 people or 100 people over at the time of a day without having, you know, a sign there. You can just say, please read the sign. You know, it was funny. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:45:44] ​It's good information. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:45:46] ​It is a good it's a good little twist on it for me, because then I've been to several doctors since this thing started. And most of them do not have that same year. So I look for a sign. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:46:01] ​All right. Thank you. If you're just at the CDC and maybe even the New York State Department of Labor Web site and the Health Department at Tompkins County, their Web site, I know that they provide signage. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:46:12] ​And I can also ask the doctor where they got that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:46:16] ​Sure. That'll be great. Yeah. OK. All right. Thank you. I have someone else. Joanne? Joanne Huddle ​[02:46:25] ​Yes, hi. I wanted to say this is my first Town board meeting that I've attended or listened to because usually I have conflicts. I appreciate all the work you're doing. I think the board seems to be pretty level on a lot of the topics. The one thing I did come late to the meeting and you were discussing things with the highway department as a taxpayer, I was not impressed with the way that communication was taking place. I got the impression that the the highway supervisor thinks that that is his own bucket of money and he can do with it as he sees fit. That is the taxpayers dollars. And I feel that he was disrespectful to those of you that had valid questions and was trying to obtain information to help you make decisions. And I would like to see or have some sort of follow up about that communication and about how you plan to address that. I see that is a very negative impact to our town. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:47:47] ​Thank you. Joanne, would you give the deputy Town clerk? Could you give us your last name for the deputy Town clerk? Joanne Huddle ​[02:47:53] ​Huddle, huddle,. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:47:54] ​Huddle. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:47:54] ​Thank you, Joanne. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:47:55] ​Thcank you. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:47:57] ​Thank you, Joanne. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:47:59] ​You may want to consider coming to the public hearing, that's coming up. We're proposing laws that would make his position appointed, which would basically make him an employee to the Town board and would give us a lot more leverage in controlling that budget. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:48:13] ​So I also take issue with that. An employee to the Town board is an employee to the Town representatives of the people. And so I actually have gotten like two in the last month. I've had two communications people reaching out to me to fix problems that will not be addressed by that person. And I said like it, unlike anything that I've said before, because, you know, I should have said this before. The highway superintendent is an elected person. He can make a choice whether he's going to fix your problem or not. And if you don't like how he deals with it then or doesn't deal with it, then maybe you should come to the public hearing. It's not my job to fix the problems that are presented to him, and he chooses not to fix, many times. I mean, that's why I actually was communicated with about people on a road where there was a construction project or a project going on and on and there was no response. Not going to do anything about it. Traffic was bad. Not going to do anything about it. And then they contacted me and I spent a lot of time getting the state to make that better for those residents. And and then when it got worse, again, I checked in with them again and asked them to reaffirm that they were going to do things differently. And so it's not the town board's job to do that. And so I don't think the town board should do that. If you want accountability, you want people to get to know exactly, really what what the position is about. Let that let them deal with them directly. It's not the town board's job to fix those problems. So anyway, I appreciate that. Thank you. Anymore. Anyone else for a privilege of the floor? I tried to unmute everyone and only one person uh Betty Poole, here we go. Betty? Judge Betty Poole ​[02:50:24] ​I'm still here. All right. I just wanted to reaffirm that once the town board does reopen. Like for the meetings. That we could be assured that that following Saturday that the room is sanitized. So when we have court on Monday. It'll be ready for us to go because we intend after court to go through and sanitize everything ourselves. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:51:06] ​Yeah, I can actually I can check in with Pat Baker and see if we can adjust the schedule, she generally cleans that space before the town board meeting. We can certainly have her cleaning space after the town board meeting instead. Judge Betty Poole ​[02:51:20] ​That would be very helpful because we're done with four. We're going through and sanitizing everything we are. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:51:31] ​And I know she is following sanitizing protocols. So she is using sanitizing solutions and stuff. Judge Betty Poole ​[02:51:37] ​Yes. Yes. And I have all of that. So I'm just waiting on the face shields. Now that we've been directed to where. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:51:49] ​And Norm, I did let him know about the bench. Oh, so he is. And he's just gotten the both of the Town Clerk ones done. So I think he's in process. He had to replace the water heater over at the town hall for the for the town, for the clerks office or the town hall office and the sheriff's. So. Judge Betty Poole ​[02:52:08] ​Okay. I appreciate that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:52:10] ​Thanks, Betty. Thank you. All right. Any I don't see any further privilege of the floor. Anyone else have announcements, comments? Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:52:26] ​One bit of old business. Did we ever resolve that, that bill that we said we were going to pull regarding gravel and of piece of rental equipment? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:52:42] ​That wasn't removed. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:52:44] ​It wasn't OK. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:52:45] ​No, that wasn't removed. And we included the budget amendment in the consent. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:52:51] ​All right. But I thought the gravel was something else so that that's all taken care of. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:52:55] ​So the other question, though, is there was a request to do a budget amendment for chipps funds. But Mimi, you suggested you didn't think that we could move forward with that. Anyone else feel that you can move forward with that. You have about one hundred and sixty thousand dollars of unappropriated fund balance in the highway fund. You you would be committing to spending all of that money without a guarantee. You're going to get all of it back. So if you want further consideration of that, then we can put that off if you don't. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:53:31] ​We consider only doing 80 percent of it, considering that we may get it. I mean, we don't really know how much we're going to get. But they were talking about a 20 percent decrease at some point as numbers thrown around. Nothing means at this point. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:53:46] ​Well, he's given you an estimate of what a project cost and what the other things are going to cost. Yes. So you basically have to go based on that, unless he's going to come back and tell you he can do that project for 20 percent less. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:53:59] ​OK. Do you know what the limit is for our chips funding then? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:54:05] ​The total? Where is at where the. The total amount we'd need to move, because I believe we've already put the unappropriate, the unappropriated revenue in there. Thirty thousand dollars. The total we'd have to move is one hundred eighteen thousand ninety eight dollars and sixty six cents between the three lines. That's the request. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:54:50] ​We have to do anything right now. Can we hold our cards? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:54:54] ​You don't have to do anything. But yeah, I want to move it and move it. Councilperson Stephanie Redmond ​[02:54:59] ​I'm just curious if there's a limit on how much we we will be reimbursed for chips funding, if you have any idea what that would be at this point limit. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:55:09] ​The other thing that could help is quarterly reimbursement. But the Highway superintendent has not done that. He's ignored that. And we actually have a policy in place this year now to do that. So I don't know if that could be something that would happen, then that would be great. Then you'd have that money back in September. Otherwise you've got to wait until the last minute in December. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:55:29] ​But we haven't spent any of that money yet, have we? Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:55:33] ​You'll have to ask him that. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:55:36] ​Right. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:55:37] ​This is really a failure to communicate. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:55:45] ​It's a huge part of our budget, and it's it's a pretty big unknown. As I said last week, I don't really want to leave eighty thousand dollars sitting on the table. And not take it. I know, but I don't know how to limit the amount we spend to the eighty thousand plus possibly the twenty thousand for the truck that was supposed to be sold. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:56:07] ​Well, that, in fact, I was going to go into reserve. Councilperson Mimi Mehaffey ​[02:56:11] ​But we can think that. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:56:13] ​Oh, You also have funds in the summer help line because you did not remove your hiring freeze. And that's sixteen thousand. You also have money for that was saved in the personnel line for general repairs, and that was about thirty thousand dollars. So. You could move money out of that. But either way, you should consider it and how you'd want to do it. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:56:47] ​Well, I'm not in favor of any budget transfers tonight. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:56:54] ​All right. So if nobody wants to move that. Nobody wants to move that then I. One Second, let me say, if Joanne wanted to make an announcement, Joanne, did you have an announcement? Joanne Huddle ​[02:57:13] ​Not announcement, but I just wanted to add one quick thought. I concur with your thoughts on the bond and potential refinancing. I think the interest, even though it's small. Every dollar counts. And I think it's wise if you have the cash flow to do it. To go ahead and make that payment in January and to get that savings. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:57:34] ​Thank you. Thanks for your. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:57:39] ​OK. There's no other announcements. Just double check. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Thanks, everybody. Councilperson Robert Lynch ​[02:57:50] ​Thank you. Joanne Huddle ​[02:57:51] ​Thank you. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:57:52] ​Very much. Supervisor Beth McGee ​[02:57:53] ​And everyone, night. Patricia, thank you. Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Speno ​[02:57:56] ​Thank you. Councilperson Virginia Bryant ​[02:57:59] ​Thank you. Patricia.