March 11, 2009 Work Session 6:30 PM
Supervisor Grant along with Council
Members Frounick, Mohun and George audited the Highway, General Fund, Special District and Fire Company vouchers. They also interviewed
Lesa VanSon and Michael Mohun for the Town Historian
position.
March 11, 2009 Regular Meeting 7:30 PM
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, also Superintendent Jensen. Councilman Gadd – absent.
Minutes of the Feb. 11th meeting – Supervisor Grant
asked if any corrections or amendments.
Motion made by George, seconded by Frounick to approve the minutes. Voting all ayes, carried.
Williamson Law Book Company
Annual Software Support Contracts: Town Clerk Plus $495 and Water/Sewer Billing - $825. Motion
made by Frounick/Mohun to approve the Town Clerk Plus and Water/Sewer Billing
software support contracts with Williamson Law Book. Voting
all ayes, carried.
General Fund claims #57-87 totaling #$10,472.13 presented. Motion
made by Mohun/George to approve the General Fund claims, voting all ayes,
carried.
Highway claims #42-70 totaling $49,105.70 presented. Motion made by
Mohun/Frounick to approve the Highway claims, voting all ayes, carried.
Special District Claims: Cowlesville Street Lighting Claim #3 -
$183; Cowlesville Water District claims #13 - 15 ($1868.86) and 2009 Fire Contract Vouchers:
Bennington Fire Company ($62,000); Harris Corners Fire Company ($23,900);
Cowlesville Fire Company ($72,361). Councilman George asked what the reason was
Bennington needed to pull some of
their money early. Told they have a mortgage payment due. Motion made by
George/Frounick to approve the Special District and Fire Contract claims,
voting all ayes, carried.
Supervisor’s Monthly report - Mr. George asked why the report shows
the town still has $62,000 in checking and $62,000 in CD. Supervisor Grant not
sure and suggested tabling the report. Morton made by Geoge/Mohun to table the
Supervisor’s Monthly report. Voting all ayes, carried.
2009 Budget transfers: Supervisor Grant asked for approval of the
following transfers: To increase appropriations and transfer into the following
General Fund Accounts:
A1010.4 Town Board Contractual $220
A1220.4 Supervisor Contractual $260
A1330.4 Tax Collector Contractual $ 20
$500
The $500 to
come out of account A1320.4 Auditor Contractual.
Motion made by Mohun/Frounick to
approve the transfers, voting all ayes, carried.
Correspondence: Letter read from Kenneth Brown, Officer in Charge,
Alden Post Office re: Road conditions on Woodley, Getman and Schad.
February Report and meeting
minutes of the Feb. 4th and 18th received from the Wind
Energy Advisory Committee.
Certificates of Insurance naming
the Town of Bennington additional
insured received from L. Breton Construction and Cowlesville Fire Company.
Notice from GLOW of Free-Household Hazardous
Waste Collection, Saturday, May 9th at Rock Glen (appointment
required).
Certified notice received from Quiet
Times Golf Course of their intent to renew the beer and wine license.
Town Clerk’s
monthly report.
Supervisor Grant received notice
from the NYS Office of Real Property Tax Services, that the Residential
Assessment ratio for Bennington is
50.03
Letter dated 2/12 from the New
York Rural Water Assoc. re: NYRWA’s 30th Annual Meeting.
Letter from Emergent Energy Group
Partners re: Webinar – Mar. 25 at 10AM
re: Preparing for Wind Power – How New Federal Legislation Affects You.
Letter from TVGA Consultants
dated 2/20/09 re: Their recent approval by the Wyo. Co. Board of Supervisors to
provide grant writing services to Wyo. Co. Municipal
Governments.
Departments: Highway – Highway Superintendent Jensen addressed
comments regarding town roads. Clair
Kroh, Woodley Road reported he’s lived
on Woodley Road for 47
years and has never seen the road as bad as it is this year. He stated that
he’s officially notifying the town that the residents of Woodley
Road are going to hold the town responsible if any emergency vehicles are unable
to get there in a timely manner. He further stated that the town is responsible
to look out for the safety and welfare of it’s
citizens and it’s not doing that, something must be done. Supervisor Grant advised Mr. Kroh to put
something in writing to that effect, due to town local law,
town must receive written notification of a condition of town property. Mr. Kroh
said there has been damage done to vehicles, salt, Winter and Summer, dust
conditions, they pay as much taxes (same tax rate) as anyone else, commented
that a mile of Getman Road with only one house on it was black-topped a few
years ago. Joe Baer, 640 Woodley Rd.,
reported that on Feb. 12th, he came in from Schad and got stuck
twice in the mud, stated that then the ruts freeze, they no longer have a 4
wheel drive vehicle and the clearance on some of the cars is very low and he’s concerned
about mechanical damage to the bottom of their vehicles when the ruts become
frozen. He also reported that at the
West end of Woodley by the large culvert, gravel washes out around the culvert,
leaving a fairly large hole, they realize it’s there but somebody traveling that road and doesn’t realize it,
could cause a serious accident. They missed the mail about 3 days in February,
some of the mail is timely, have to pay them on time. He understands Rick’s
problem with not having funds, but wants to know about getting Federal money,
does the town have a plan, he’s not sure what the
options are. Superintendent Jensen gave some history of the 5 year road plan
which was developed in 1997-98 with the aid of Cornell University and just to
keep up/maintain what roads the town already had and work on the plan was $1.3 million dollars. So
basically that plan was set on the back burner. Bennington
is the largest town in Wyoming County
(area wise) with approx. 70 miles of town roads. Town does not have the money
to put into roads, last Summer, fuel prices shot up, two years ago it was
estimated to cost $350 - $400 thousand
to do one (1) mile of road. Mr. Jensen reported on how the town was awarded
money $45,000 to do a bank re-stabilization project on Schoellkopf Road, town
has done the work, but no money received from Albany yet, told everything has been
frozen. Suppose to be $100 thousand multi-mogul money coming in to do Burrough
and Tooley, don’t know if going to get that. Discussion held. Mrs. Baer pointed
out that there are 9 homes on that .8 mile of road, pay
a ton of taxes and frustrated when it’s so bad the mailman can’t come down the
road. Councilman George reported that the Town Planning Board did a survey and
one of the questions addressed roads, asked residents if willing to raise taxes
for roads, 2/3 of the people said no. Commented
that was because they live on hard roads. So then what does the town do. Got into a short discussion regarding
the survey. Supervisor Grant reported that several years ago the county
was looking at the same situation, roads that they had put considerable time
and money into only to find out that 10-15 years later, they had to go back to
those roads, put more money into it, which initially the roads were suppose to
be good for 30-40 years, just no way to take care of all of the county roads
with any type of time-table that made sense, so what the county has done is
gone out and borrowed money for a long term 10-12 year project to improve the
county roads, utilizing the state aid the county gets to pay off the bonds to
fix the critical roads and by having a good solid plan and making sure the
plans is set and followed, (not just because the squeaky wheel changes from one
election to another), that the plan doesn’t deviate. They are even looking at
being more successful in getting roads and bridges taken care of in a more timely manner and getting thinks fixed. Supervisor
Grant feels the board should sit down with the highway superintendent, some
funding agencies, consultant they used for the Cowlesville Water District on
borrowing money for that, also an engineer, someone experienced in working on
roads and making assessments (maybe someone through Cornell University that
assists highway superintendents) and developing a plan, maybe have to borrow
money and do a 5 or 6 year project in our town in order to bring Woodley, Eck, Burrough, Tooley,
Tinkham etc., focus on them, get them fixed and know
that in fixing a road, we can maintain it. Highway did a tremendous job fixing
Maxon Road a few years ago, go down it now and chunks coming out of the road from
the wear and tear, also Mr. Jensen has expressed concerns of no point paving a
road and 6 years later falling a part because town can’t put money into
maintaining what you already have. Mr. Jensen said he’s going to try to take
care of Woodley tomorrow, weather permitting. Rick reported that Clinton Street
was done in the early 60’s and now with the stimulus package will be getting 1.014
million dollars to work over from the Erie County line to Attica. Council
Member Mohun asked if when they do Clinton,
can they take the millings and put them on roads like Woodley. Mr. Jensen said
that he heard the Clinton Street
project is going to be a glorified chip seal, not sure what they are doing, but
it’s not an overlay, it’s basically chipping and stoning. Supervisor Grant
reported that millings if any available would be available to the towns.
Councilman George asked Mr. Jensen what he could do on Woodley, go in put
crusher run on it and grade it down. Rick feels can do the same as Tooley. Been
working on Tooley trying to get the school bus and
mail lady up and down, trying to work on some of the roads that the town can at
this point without making a bigger mess, but he feels he can go in there spread
some crusher run but his only fear is that we get some snow and he plows it all
off, go in there tomorrow or Friday, load it up with crusher run, then have it
snow and plow it all off. Residents asked who would they
contact for funding. Supervisor Grant said Dan Burling, Dale Volker, Schumer,
Chris Lee, (Ellen reported she has already sent letters requesting funding). More
discussion held on the gravel situation. Supervisor Grant reported the town
will look into bonding but when they recently went to renew the bond for the
Cowlesville Water District, only one bank replied. Woodley
Road residents thanked the board for their time.
Superintendent Jensen asked the Town
Board to declare surplus and advertise for bids one (1) 12 x 16 overhead garage
door. Motion so made by Frounick,
seconded by George to declare the 12 x 16 overhead door surplus
equipment and advertise for bids. Voting all ayes, carried.
Superintendent reported that
earlier this Winter there was wind damage up at the highway barns, (salt
storage building) some siding blew off and now more recently some shingles have
blown off, working on getting a claim into the insurance company, also needs a
new entry door for the shop.
Zoning: Special Use Permit Renewal received from Louis Breton, 2033
Clinton St., applied for a 1 (one) year renewal
for vehicle/boat storage. Motion made by Frounick/Mohun to approve Mr. Breton’s
renewal for one year, voting all ayes, carried.
Home Occupation Renewals received from : Michael Mohun (Law Office
of Michael M. Mohun; John Brandon (Aerie Design Services); Tom Hudson (Sunset
Printing); Richard LeFort (Custom Beds and Tables); Diane Gutowski (Village
Fabric & Craft Shop); Deborah Buckley (The Bettinoll Company, LLC) Lawrence
Zygaj (Lawrence J. Zygaj, PLS, PC - Surveyor); Gary Arcese (Gary Arcese
Enterprises); Bonita McCarville
(Homespun Shoppe); Nathan DeGroot (There’s No End Games Calls). No complaints
received on any of them. Motion made by George/Frounick to approve the Home
Occupation renewals. Voting – George, Frounick and Grant voted aye – Mohun
abstained.
Assessment: Supervisor Grant reported that Assessor Whittmeyer was
going to schedule informational meetings here at the town hall but couldn’t get
anyone from the state or Real Property Tax Service to come with her. People have
not been attending these workshops and everyone skeptical about the attendance
in Bennington. They suggested
having these sessions at schools where they have the equipment available. She’s
proposing as an alternative, is having copies available on CD’s that goes
through a lot of the information (actual CD that they show at the work shop,
basically explains what the assessment process is and how she derives at the
values, how to challenge your assessment), have people pick-up, take home and
review it and if find enough interest, then schedule a public work session, if
they can guarantee a big enough crowd. Motion made by Councilman George that
the town advertise when the CD’s are available for
take-out, also to be put on the web site, seconded by Council Member Mohun,
voting all ayes, carried.
Transfer station: Supervisor Grant prepared a report on the
expenses and revenues for 2008 and the estimated expenses and revenues for 2009.
Supervisor Grant proposed increasing the punch cards, adding more punches,
increasing the punches from 8 to 10 and increasing the cost of the card to
$15. If changed and sold the same amount
of cards as last year, would increase the revenues by approx. $10,000. Council Member Mohun asked what it would cost
to have a company come in and do town-wide pick-up. Supervisor Grant reported
it would cost approx. $225-$350/household. Supervisor Grant said that they need
to set the prices for the punch cards and the stickers which are expiring the end of April.
After short discussion, a motion was made by George to raise the price
of the punch cards to $15 (10 punches) and to keep the sticker prices the same
as in the past $5 for the first vehicle and $1 for second. Motion seconded by
Mohun, voting all ayes, carried. Cost per punch will go from $1.25 to $1.50,
will go into effect when new stickers and punch cards are ordered and received.
Presentation: Anthony Santoro, Wyo. County Emergency Services
Coordinator was suppose to be here tonight but called just before the meeting
started and said that county emergency communications were down and he was
unable to make the meeting.
Public Concerns: Joe Roche, Highland Glens
asked about the water situation. Supervisor Grant reported the town was suppose
to have a meeting with the engineer Jason Foote on February 28th
only to find out that the engineer thought it was scheduled for March 28th.
He will be here on the 28th of March and meeting with the Town Board at 10 AM
and if he (Mr. Roche) could be here at 10:30.
Willing to talk with them about what type of work needs to be done in order to
get the preliminary information to go out to bid to find out how much the
project would cost.
Clair Kroh
stated that in the December minutes authorized advertising for another member
on the Wind Energy Advisory Comm. and specifically asked for someone who have
recently moved into the community, 10 years or less and asked why. Supervisor Grant reported that when they did
the initial advertisement and appointed a full committee, they came back
afterwards, said that everyone appointed had either lived in the town their
entire life or 20 -30 years and they were interested in getting someone’s
feelings about the town, how they compared their previous community with
Bennington after only living here a short time.
Asked if there was a summary of
the survey – Told they are trying to put it on the web and also there is a
summary available in the town clerk’s office of which copies can be made. Ellen
reported they were also trying to get all of the comments together for each
category, this was a Town Planning Board project and she’s not up to date on
the comment summary for each category.
Joanne Mitchell asked about an
update on the Junk yard law. Supervisor
Grant reported the town has looked at junk regulations in other towns, Alden
and other communities in Wyoming County
and also Council Member Mohun has been making phone calls. Ms. Mohun reported she e-mailed the Dept. of
State and her question was is there a difference between a zoning officer and a
code compliance officer, was given a phone number, she called and had a
conversation regarding zoning laws and the property maintenance code (state law
which governs everything, structure, junk, junk cars, garbage, etc). Zoning and
Property maintenance code are two separate things, zoning regulated by
municipality and the uniform code is a state code can be enforced on a local
level and if that were the case, would have to appoint a code enforcement
officer or make a job description to
include with the zoning officer. A decision was made back around 1984 by all
the towns in Wyoming County
(who had zoning) to NOT enforce the state code, it then went to the county
level whereby the Fire & Building Codes Department was created. She called
the county (Mr. Roberts) and was told that they do enforce this law, all he
needs is a letter from anyone, (give address of the property and what they feel
is wrong), he will then go to the code,
find out what section applies, do a drive by (make sure the complaint is
legit), if feels in violation, would start paper work, notify the owner, give
them 30 days notice to clean up their act, if not done in 30 days, begins court
proceedings. This is all done at the county level. If go to court, will also
be at the county level, (Supreme Court of Wyoming County) because they handle between 400 and 600 cases/year and cannot
possibly run around nights to all of the individual town courts, which most towns
hold courts at night. Also noted the person that writes the complaint
doesn’t get dragged into court. Mr. Roberts will be forwarding Ms. Mohun more
information and the procedure. Asked if this information
could be put on the town web site.
Supervisor Grant said she could do up something and have it on the web
site. Joyce was given an applause for her efforts.
Old Business: Town Historian
vacancy – Supervisor Grant reported the Town Board interviewed two (2) very
qualified applicants who applied and expressed interest in the town, (Lesa
VanSon and Michael Mohun) both town residents and asked if one of the Board
Members wants to make a motion to appoint one of them tonight, both of them
bring different things to the position.
Short discussion held. Motion made by George, seconded by Frounick to
appoint Michael Mohun as Town Historian for one year (all appointment expect
for Assessor, are yearly) George, Frounick and Grant voted Aye, Council Member
Mohun Abstained.
Use of the town Hall by the OFA (date changed to April 27th)
– Motion made by George, seconded by Frounick to approve the date change
request by the Office of the Aging for use of the town hall for their county
wide program. Voting all ayes, carried.
Rest Rooms at the Park – Chris Waldron, Dan Sweetman
and Mike Lapp were present to discuss bathrooms at the park. Talked about where
they felt the permanent bathrooms would best be suited at the park and they also
felt a small concession stand was needed. Discussion held on bathrooms.
New business: Use of the Town Hall April 25 for the historical
society program. Motion made by Mohun/George to allow the historical society
the use of the town hall on April 25th. Voting all
ayes, carried.
Town Prosecutor Salary - Mistake in budget, last
year paid him $3600, this year only budgeted $3500. Motion made by George,
seconded by Frounick to adjust the salary to $3500 for 2009, voting all ayes,
carried.
Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter – Motion made by
Mohun/Frounick to enter into Executive Session at 9:15
PM.
Motion made by George/Frounick to
come out of Executive session at 9:52 PM.
Council Member Mohun made the
following statement/motion - Be if resolved, that due to financial
circumstances and after much discussion, it was decided to eliminate the
position of one full time equivalent machine operator within the Highway
Department effective 3/13/09 with the payment of 80 hours severance
pay. Seconded by Councilman Frounick, voting all ayes, carried.
There being no further business,
a motion was made by Mohun/Frounick to adjourn, voting
all ayes, meeting adjourned at 9:54 PM
Respectfully
submitted:
Judith
Brown
Town
Clerk