Supervisor Grant along with
Council Members Mohun, Frounick
and George audited the Highway, General Fund and Special District claims. Board
Member discussed the Assist. Attorney General from the Buffalo Office
addressing, mainly the senior citizens on scams etc.; bank depository for the tax
collector; Wind Energy Conversion Local
Law and the report on the Tonawanda Creek Task force meeting held in
Supervisor Grant declared the meeting open and asked Council Member Mohun to lead the pledge to the flag. Present were Council Members Mohun, Frounick and George. Councilman Gadd absent and Highway Superintendent excused due to the weather, also Assessor Whittmeyer excused.
Minutes of the November meeting - There being no corrections or amendments, a motion was made by George/Mohun to accept the minutes as submitted. Voting all ayes, carried.
Financial Matters: General Fund claims #342-367 totaling $11,506.49 presented. Motion made by Mohun/Frounick to approve the General Fund claims submitted. Voting all ayes, carried.
Highway claims #215 – 237 totaling $51,268.78 submitted. Motion made by Frounick/George to approve the Highway claims, voting all ayes, carried.
Special District claims: Cowlesville Street Lighting claim #12 ($183) and Cowlesville Water District claims #63 – 66 totaling $2247.28 submitted. Motion made by Mohun/George to approve the Special District claims. Voting all ayes, carried.
Supervisor’s Financial Statements for November: Highway Checking shows a negative amount, but transferred money from the CD on December 1st. Councilman George asked how the town stands with the budget this year, knows the town has a little surplus. Supervisor Grant reported that with the surpluses maintained from previous years, knows that the General Fund is pretty close to being right at budget, with revenues etc., also the retirement bill this year wasn’t as much as budgeted. Part of the reserve for this year is appropriated in the 2010 budget. Councilman George asked how much of a surplus does the town have, ballpark figure. Told by Supervisor Grant, approx. $250,000 most of which is in CD’s. Highway is in good shape, light Winter so far, which helps a lot. Motion made by George to accept the Supervisor’s Financial Statements, seconded by Frounick, voting all ayes, carried.
Correspondence: Certified Election results from the Wyo. County Board of Elections received.
Certificates of Insurance received
from Pavilion Drainage and CBL Synder Corp. naming
the Town of
Town Clerk’s Monthly report.
Informational packets received from the NYS Town Clerks Assoc. for newly elected officials.
Supervisor Grant received letter from 5 Star Bank asking to be considered as the town’s official depository for all of the town needs in 2010.
E-mail alert from the Attorney General’s office re: an action filed relating to inflated prices being charged on personal computer, laptops etc. going back to 2001. Looking at doing a class action law suit, will be forwarding additional information.
TVGA Consultants submitted an “On-call” agreement for the above referenced project, also sent a copy of their latest newsletter.
E-mail from Office of the Aging stating that Joe Bicheler’s term on the OFS’s Advisory Board is up on Dec. 31st and he doesn’t want another term, will have to find a replacement from the Town of Bennington for a 3 year term running from January 1, 2010 thru Dec. 31, 2013. First meeting for the new person will be on March 4th, as they do not meet in January and February. Councilman George asked if couldn’t advertise, if have other stuff to advertise.
Letter from Dave Nelson of Dadd, Nelson & Wilkinson re: Time Warner Cable with a copy of the letter to Chris Muller re: the expansion of cable in the town to include Woodley, Gadd, Burrough North, Getman and Rt. 354. Supervisor Grant read the letter.
Highway Dept. – Superintendent Jensen excused tonight but reported having problems in dealing with the buy-back agreement on the loader, they don’t want to give apples for apples, not happy with the price, they have assured him that they will make sure that it’s done correctly, would probably be 14 month agreement which will be Spring time. They have also assured him that they will extend the agreement until that time, will still get the same rate, just have more hours on the machine. He also ended up buying the pick-up truck off of state bid. By the time he got his pin from Ford, got all of the paperwork etc., it would have cost more money to buy locally than going through state bid. Wound up buying it out of Fairport/Pittsford area.
Councilman Frounick questioned the road list that Council Member Mohun put together, not all the town roads are on it. Short discussion held on the town roads listed. Council Member Mohun reported the reason she did this was because she and Rick had a meeting on the TIP grant with County Highway Superintendent Todd Gadd, they talked about classifying roads and discovered that the town already has done the first step, which is the Local Law adopted in 2005 which establishes the guidelines for classifying roads. The next thing to do is classify the local roads based on traffic volume. She wanted it put in the minutes that they looked at the road situation, the TIP grant and no money is available, also contacted the town association and there is no money available there either for local roads.
Zoning – Home Occupation renewal received from Merlyn Bissell, no complaints. Motion made by George/Frounick to renew Mr. Bissell’s Home Occupation permit, voting all ayes, carried.
Assessment – Assessor excused tonight, daughter involved in minor accident.
Transfer Station – Councilman Frounick
should have all of the information for the cover for the compactor ready by Monday
to give to the clerk to advertise. Councilman George asked about the dumpster
for furniture, mattresses etc. Councilman Frounick
reported he stopped there twice, couldn’t get in touch
with anyone at the company in
New Business: Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) zoning law. Supervisor Grant reported, town is waiting to get some preliminary comments back from the county planner, those will be incorporated in the law if the town sees fit and then will have an official draft to submit to the Town and County Planning Boards for their review and consideration and also give that draft to the town attorney to complete the SEQR, they do have the preliminary draft.
Supervisor Grant noted that all board members were given information that Tom Carpenter, Clarke Patterson, (who worked with the Sheldon and the Eagle Project Wind Conversion projects) put together, different points on some of their engineering. He was the one that Art Buckley recommended that the town contact to do the SEQR. When asked, Mr. Carpenter said no, should have the town attorney do the SEQR and he would work with them on engineering related questions. He (Mr. Carpenter) felt it would be helpful to share this handout with the Town Board Members.
Tonawanda Creek Task Force – Supervisor Grant reported that she attended the Tonawanda
Creek Task Force meeting in Corfu which is a multi county task force looking at
flooding erosion issues along Tonawanda Creek as well as it’s impact on environmental, fish
habitat, recreational uses etc. A lot of issues were brought up. They have
scheduled Niagara River Water Shed Workshops, January 9th in
New Business: Set date of year-end meeting and organizational meeting. Motion made by Frounick to set the year-end meeting on Dec. 29th, 6:30 PM and the January Organization/Regular meeting on January 6th at 7:30 PM with a work session beginning at 6:30 PM. Motion seconded by Mohun, voting all ayes, carried.
Water Feasibility Study Agreement with
NYS Retirement reporting requirements – Supervisor Grant reported that all elected officials who are in the NYS Retirement System must keep a log of their hours for 3 months, January 1st thru March 31st to be filed with the state retirement system.
Banking – Tax Collection: Supervisor Grant reported she and the clerk met with representatives from Chase bank last Friday and also has information from the Bank of Castile. After a short discussion and reviewing the information and rates provided, board members felt they should stay with a local bank. Motion made by Frounick that the tax collector use the Bank of Castile for tax collection purposes, seconded by Mohun, voting all ayes, carried.
Alternate Member for the Zoning Board of Appeals – Last Month Mr. Ryan Rupracht sent a letter stating he was interested in the position and met with board members at the work session tonight. Motion made by Frounick/George to appoint Mr. Rupracht as the alternate member on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Voting all ayes, carried.
Other matters to come before the board:
The Assistant Attorney General’s Office in Buffalo contacted the supervisor about doing some information workshops in the town, mostly aimed at seniors regarding fraud, security, identity theft etc., He would like to do that here at the town hall or possibly at the nutrition site. Supervisor Grant talked to the Office of the Aging, they have no problem with that. She also talked with the Pine Lounge who also doesn’t have a problem with it.
Yearly Maintenance Agreement with Eagle Systems for the copier for 2010: Cost is $580 which includes travel, labor, parts, drum and toner. Motion made by Mohun seconded by George to authorize the supervisor to execute the maintenance agreement with Eagle Systems, voting all ayes, carried.
Phones – Clerk was contacted by Time Warner Cable regarding a phone promotion with rate listing. Past year spent $1670 for phones here at the town hall and the highway barns. Town could save some money by going with Time Warner for phone service. Right now town has two phone lines (1 at the town hall and 1 at the town barns) and 1 fax line. Talked about adding another line for the court, the court clerk would rather have a POS line for her credit card machine. Time Warner also reducing the rate on road runner on his 2-3 year proposal. After discussion and reviewing the information a motion was made by George/Mohun to have Time Warner get a contract to the town to check out and approve. Voting all ayed, carried.
Extend Health Insurance Benefit due to contract negations – Supervisor Grant reported that because the town is in negotiations with the highway contract that expires at the end of this month, in case they don’t come to an agreement by the end of the year, need authorization to file the paperwork to extend the Health Insurance benefit beyond the end of the contract for the highway workers and Superintendent Jensen. Motion so made by Frounick, seconded by Mohun, voting all ayes, carried.
Training for the ZBA and Planning Board Members – Councilman George knows that according to state law each member must have 4 hours per year and that it can be waived by the Town Board. He feels the town should waive the 4 hour minimum, feels should change to 2 hours, time you can get 2 hours in one night. Also on line training or video tapes you can get reported Supervisor Grant. After short discussion a motion was made by George/Mohun to waive the 4 hours to 2 hours mandated training and to forward letters to the ZBA and the Planning Board. Voting all ayes, carried. Councilman Frounick asked to include a reminder in that letter that they must submit their vouchers quarterly for payment
Supervisor Grant asked everyone to stand for a moment of silence in memory of Christine Wojtczak, former Town Justice from 1990 – 1992.
There being no further business,
a motion was made by Frounick/Mohun to go into
executive session to discuss a personnel matter. Voting all
ayes, carried. Town Board entered into executive session at
Motion made by Frounick/George to close executive session at
Motion made by Mohun to adjourn.
Meeting adjourned at
Respectfully Submitted,
Judith Brown
Town Clerk