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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 Sep-Dec 2015 Municipal Town Newsletter.pdf1 Town of Enfield Municipal Newsletter 168 Enfield Main Road http://townofenfield.org September-December 2015 Enfield Town Boards Meetings are held in the Community Building, 1st floor Town Board: 2nd Wednesday, 6:30pm Town Supervisor Ann Rider 277-3478 ann-rider@townofenfield.org Vera Howe-Strait Town Council Members Virginia Bryant 387-9376 Mike Carpenter 277-4204 Vera Howe-Strait 273-1413 Beth McGee 229-7870 Planning Board: 1st Wednesday, 7pm Chair, Dan Walker 387-6394 Ann Chaffee 272-6460 Steve Givin 273-7434 Calvin Rothermich 272-5930 Red Poney Carpenter 279-2372 Henry Hanstein 727-3746 Town Offices Town Clerk 273-8256 Alice Linton, Town Clerk Sue Thompson, Deputy Town Clerk Town Office/Clerk Hours: Monday-Thursday, 3 pm - 6 pm Highway Department 272-6490 Barry Rollins, Highway Superintendent Town Highway Office Hours: Monday-Friday: 6 am - 2:30 pm Town Court 273-0363 Justice Poole: Monday, 5:00 pm Code Enforcement Office Community Building, 2nd floor Code Enforcement 277-0266 Alan Teeter, Code Enforcement Officer Code Enforcement Office Hours: Monday thru Thursday 8:30-11 am Wednesday 5-7 pm - Community Bldg, dwnstrs 882-9958 Town Historian Sue Thompson 272-6412 Enfield Volunteer Fire Company Roger Lauper, Chief 272-8757 Larry Stilwell, Deputy Chief Kirk VanDee, 1st Assistant Chief Alan Teeter, 2nd Assistant Chief Tony Carlisle, Captain County Legislators Dave McKenna Enfield/Newfield 564-7243, dmckenna@tompkins-co.org Jim Dennis Enfield/Ulysses 387-4058, jpd821@yahoo.com Report from the Supervisor Hope the summer has been good. Certainly there was enough rain. Hope there was also enough music, swimming and barbeques. We're now almost back to school and all that the fall season brings us. Tompkins County Area Transit wants to extend bus route #20 and will be putting in a turn around area at the new Highway Building. The Town has decided to retain the piece of property across from the Town Hall to provide a permanent Park and Ride for the community into the future. The Town Board is committed to supporting public transportation. We want do our part in encouraging mass transportation to reduce our community's carbon footprint. We will be razing the old “Pig's Ear”, which is in extremely poor condition, leveling off the area, and in conjunction with TCAT, setting a new shelter and resetting the bicycle racks from the corner, so those ambitious residents can safely park their bicycles at the new site. I'm hoping for a finish date of November 1. The route will not be extended until mid-January when TCAT sets their winter schedule. TCAT is excited to better meet the needs of our community. The Town Board is also talking about a Solar Farm Law. Residential installations are controlled under the NYS Property Maintenance Code and would not be part of this. With the increased interest in large installations, it probably would be prudent to have some controls in place, especially infringement on neighbor's quality of life and some controls about abandoned installations, so they don't become public eyesores and safety concerns. Come to the public sector of our regular Town Board meetings if you have an opinion of this topic. What part of this upcoming phenomenon would be appropriate to control in Enfield? What should not? E-mail also works. As a closure to the Emergency Planning Committee's work this year, we will having an Emergency Preparedness Meeting for the community on October 3 at 10AM at the Elementary School. We will have our final Enfield plan available, have informational materials available and some visual presentations to encourage you to do some planning with your family and or business on this important topic. Beth Harrington has many, many fun ideas on this fairly dry subject so stay tuned. Remember the Harvest Festival on October 10 and a local election on November 3 at the Fire House. Ann S. Rider Supervisor Town Comprehensive Plan The Comprehensive Plan writing committee is currently working on the following sections: Municipality, Economic Development, Infrastructure, and Environmental. Revision of these draft sections is nearing completion and we'll begin the final two sections, Community and Agriculture, moving into the Fall. We welcome all who wish to participate in this process and value your input and enthusiasm as we finalize this important document for the future of our town. All meetings are open to the public. Check the town website at www.townofenfield.org for dates and times or contact Councilperson Beth McGee at beth-mcgee@townofenfield.org for more information. 2 Helpful Tompkins County Web Sites (all begin with http://www.): Government: co.tompkins.ny.us Legislature: tompkins-co.org/legislature Assessment: tompkins-co.org/assessment Board of Elections: tompkins-co.org/boe Clerk: tompkins-co.org/clerk Health Department: tompkins-co.org/health Highway Department: tompkins-co.org/highway Solid Waste: recycletompkins.org From the Town Clerk I hope everyone had a good summer. Although it is way too early to think about the subject, this newsletter is a good way to get word out about a slight change to the town and county tax bills. In years past the Tompkins County Assessment Department has printed all tax bills in their office and each town has seen to the mailing of the bills. This year the Assessment Department has asked that we try a new procedure. All tax bills will be printed and mailed by a company that specializes in this work. It appears the only change to residents is that if you usually get multiple tax bills in one envelope, this year each tax bill will be in an individual envelope. Although it seems like this will use more postage, we are assured that there will be a total overall savings for the process. Once again this year you will be able to look up your tax bill information on-line by going to www.townofenfield.org and clicking on the "tax collection" tab. You will be able to see if your tax payment has been processed, print copies of your bill or receipt, and look up prior year's bills. For anyone who doesn't have access to our website, we are still glad to provide information when you call our office at 273-8256. In January we will have extended hours as follows: Mondays 3-6 Tuesdays 9-12 and 3-6 Wednesdays 3-6 Thursdays 9-12 and 3-6 Saturdays 9-12 The remainder of the year our hours will be Monday - Thursday from 3-6 p.m. Throughout the year if our hours don’t work for you, please give us a call and we’ll be glad to accommodate your schedule. Alice Linton Enfield Town Clerk From the Highway Superintendent Spring I am pretty sure most of you realize that we had a record amount of cold this winter and we are looking forward to our spring projects. We received our new loader, we also found a used dump truck, a 10 wheeler it’s a 2008 MACK and in very good shape for $107,000. It came equipped with a snow plow and spreader. This price is less than half of what a new truck would have cost. It will replace the Old 1992 truck. This was bought with Town Board approval in an attempt to keep within our plan for updating equipment. A loader is one of our main pieces of equipment. What does a loader do? A loader fills the trucks with sand during the winter months to use on our roads. It pushes back snow on the roads so that we have more room to put the new snow falling. Much needed this winter! During the spring and summer months we use it to cut shoulders, pick up and move material when working on the roads. Our main focus this summer is replacing road covert pipes, finishing South Van Dorn Rd, ½ a mile between Enfield Rd and Bostwick Rd. Continue work on Rockwell Rd replacing pipes and resurfacing. Unless we find more pressing issues once the snow melts. Mailboxes took a beating this winter because of the amount of snow. Just a reminder that spring and summer are a good time to get your mailboxes back in shape. The Town Hall and the Highway have the requirements (policy), as well as they are available on Line at Town Of Enfield. The measurements in this policy is to ensure the snow plow blade fits underneath your mailbox, as well as the snow that is being pushed. And that the posts are back far enough from the road. I want to thank the guys for a good job this winter, there were some long days and weekends. Summer Change of road plans from above. Re-profiling Buck Hill rd. (between Harvey Hill and West Enfield Center rd.); 1/2 of the last mile of Fish Rd. Oil & Stone "Chip sealing" East Enfield Center Rd (between 327 and Applegate Rd;) Shudaben Rd; Bostwick Rd; and Aiken Rd (between Waterburg Rd) and Podunk Rd. Clean up week went very well, some rain at the beginning but all in all very successful! Fall Our summer projects are now done. Continuing doing our summer road maintenance, ditching and culvert re-placement. We are a little behind because the Excavator’s engine blew up in mid-July. We had to rent a machine for only one month. Luckily with our experience and capability, we are able to do this in-house, saving $6,000- $8,000 plus also saving down time because we can get it done faster. The engine, just itself, was approximately $11,000. Thanks Buddy Rollins Highway Superintendent 3 News from Tompkins County Government Contract Awarded to Tompkins County Office for the Aging Regional Long Term Care Ombudsman Program Tompkins County Office for the Aging has been awarded, through a competitive process, a five year contract for $113,000 each year with the New York State Office for the Aging and the Office of State Long Term Care Ombudsman. Tompkins County will administer the Ombudsman Program in a newly created region which will include Tompkins, Schuyler and Chemung Counties. The mission of the Office of the Long Term Care Ombudsman is to protect the health, safety, welfare, human and civil rights of people living in nursing homes and adult care facilities. Volunteers are a vital component of the Long Term Care Ombudsman program. They are certified and professionally trained advocates who resolve issues with long term care facilities on behalf of residents and their families. Volunteers include former teachers, businessmen, healthcare workers, and others. They are also homemakers, attorneys and others who care about the well being of people living in nursing and adult care homes. The new region of Tompkins, Schuyler and Chemung Counties includes 23 long term care facilities serving approximately 1840 residents. If you are interested in more information or volunteering for the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, contact Suzanne Motheral, Ombudsman Coordinator at the Tompkins County Office for the Aging, (607) 274-5498. Rabies Alert – Catch the Bat! The Tompkins County Health Department urges residents to avoid the risk of rabies and rabies treatment by capturing and submitting for laboratory testing any bat found in their home that may have come in contact with humans or pets. There have been two confirmed rabid bats in Tompkins County in 2015. Rabies is largely transmitted through bites from rabid animals. Bats present an additional concern, because in certain situations a bite may not be readily apparent. This includes bats that are found in a room with a sleeping person or bats that are found in the presence of an unattended child or a person with a sensory impairment. Bats that have contact with pets that are lapsed or unvaccinated against rabies also present a concern. If there is any chance that contact with a bat occurred to a person or pet, or you are not sure if contact occurred, capture the bat without touching it. If indoors, close windows, room and closet doors, turn on lights, and wait for the bat to land. Wearing heavy gloves, cover the bat with a pail, coffee can or similar container. If you spot a grounded bat outdoors, you can prevent further contact with people and pets by covering it with a pail or similar container. Immediately call the Tompkins County Health Department at (607) 274-6688. If the bat is not captured or tests positive for rabies, every person and pet that had a reasonable probability of exposure should receive rabies shots as soon as possible. An 80-second video on the proper technique for safely capturing a bat found in one’s home is available on the New York State Department of Health website at http://www.nyhealth.gov/diseases/communicable/zoonoses/rabies/. To find out more: http://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/health/eh/neighborhood/rabiesfacts. From the Enfield Town Historian - Sue Thompson “Throw Back Thursday”, I know the term has probably been over used ,but it brings attention to my new historian’s articles every Thursday. You can find these articles on the towns website – www.townofenfield.org. In my weekly “Throw Back Thursday” series I share a little bit of Enfield’s History. Do you have a photo of a past event, building, etc. of Enfield you would like to share? Email the photo to historian@townofenfield.org. and I’ll feature it in an upcoming article. I also invite readers to share their memories of each of our weekly photos by sending a message to historian@townofenfield.org. I will be at the Enfield Harvest Festival on October 10th sharing some “Enfield Folklore/Ghost Stories” with the community. I’d love to hear any stories you would like to share! The Tompkins County Municipal Historians group will be rewriting our “Touring the Towns of Tompkins County, New York”. The major points in the brochures will be geographical highpoints; Native Americans if evidence; origins of community; use of land: agriculture and changes, industry; town government, interesting characters and anecdotes; cemetery information: highlight notable residents, ownership; parks, special gardens if public viewed from road; trails; education: remains of one room school houses, notable institutions of education; religious structures, historic marker and monuments, historic buildings, famous/infamous residents: past only; communities within municipality: ethnic, religious, communal, residents. If you have any comments information regarding the above list let me know. The History Center in Ithaca will be featuring Cemeteries as part of the community landscape, architectural importance, responses to death, responsible groups for local cemeteries, genealogical and historical information. They are working on tours of cemeteries within our communities also. Enfield will be featured in an exhibit on our Rumsey Cemetery. A very interesting cemetery with double headstones and the families “residing’ there. I researched all the people buried there and how they are related, I learned a lot! 4 Town of Enfield 168 Enfield Main Road Ithaca NY 14850 Dates to Remember September 2 Planning Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 7 pm 2 Volunteer of the Month nominations due 9 Town Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 6:45 pm October 7 Planning Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 7 pm 7 Volunteer of the Month nominations due 14 Town Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 6:45 pm November 4 Planning Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 7 pm 4 Volunteer of the Month nominations due 11 Town Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 6:45 pm December 2 Planning Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 7 pm 2 Volunteer of the Month nominations due 9 Town Board Meeting, Community Bldg, 6:45 pm Town Website Have you checked out the new town website? Please visit the site at www.townofenfield.org for all the latest information and resources important to Enfield residents. Meeting dates, minutes, services, history, community groups, newsletters, tax information, community calendar, budgets, financial reports, and much much more are available on our new site. You can even sign up to be notified by email when new information is added! Don't miss a thing, check it out today! From the Code Enforcement Office It’s been a busy summer for projects in the Town. We’ve had a lot of home owners installing solar panels, even more than last year. Its important to know that you need a permit and an electrical inspection for these projects, but your contractor should help you with those two processes. There are many local contractors working on solar installations, and they all seem to be doing a good job, including those from Enfield. There are still tax rebates for solar installations, which are making it affordable for people. Even though the temperatures remain warm, now is the time to have your furnace checked and serviced, before the busy season starts. If you are installing a wood, pellet, or coal stove, you need a permit and an inspection; your homeowners insurance may require this, but if not, its still a good idea. As always, if you have any questions about projects around the home, give me a call. Alan Teeter, Code Enforcement Officer