REGULAR MEETING OF THE TOWN BOARD
TOWN OF GLENVILLE
APRIL 2, 2008
AT THE GLENVILLE MUNICIPAL CENTER
18 GLENRIDGE ROAD, GLENVILLE, NEW YORK
Present: Supervisor Frank X. Quinn, Councilmen, Mark A. Quinn, Edward F. Rosenberg, Christopher A. Koetzle and Councilwoman Valerie M. DiGiandomenico
Absent: None
Supervisor Quinn called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM; Councilman Rosenberg gave the Invocation and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Supervisor Quinn asked the Town Clerk, Linda C. Neals, to call the roll. Everyone was present and accounted for.
Supervisor Quinn announced that the board will go into an executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss a personnel matter.
Town Council Reports:
Councilman Quinn – “As liaison to the Traffic Safety Committee, I would like to thank the members of DOT that just put on a fairly comprehensive presentation regarding the Glenridge Road corridor. Obviously we all have some questions; many of them are very valid. I think overall though you are going to see a vast improvement in traffic flow and safety as a result of some of the things that they are doing and I’d like to remind the populous that there will be a link on the Town of Glenville’s web-site in short order so that you can ask more questions and get some more data especially regarding round-a-bouts everybody’s favorite subject tonight.”
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “It was recently brought to my attention that I have not been responding to my e-mail address through the Town of Glenville. After researching the problem it was discovered that my e-mail messages were not being forwarded to me, however I have been reassured that the problem has been corrected and all e-mails will be forwarded in the future.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “From our Assessor’s Office, myself and our Town Administrator and our Assessor met with the State this week in regards to our full value reassessment in keeping in charge of the board from the prior year we are on a three year cycle which is due next year. Essentially keep in mind that the hope is we can bring our values up closer to 100%. We are approximately at 85%; your assessed values are approximately 85% of current market value as they stand.
We may all be aware that there is a change submitted by some of our utilities which is in direct correlation with our equalization rate which is what I am talking about the 85% versus the 100% and that is going to result in a transfer of some tax expenses from those utilities down to the rest of us. That in itself is going to cause bit of a tax increase next year and there is nothing we can do about that.
We also recently learned that our Metroplex money that we get is based on our assessed value. The update from the meeting is that in order to get this done for next year we are actually behind the eight ball, so to speak, we’re starting off behind to begin with.
We met with the representative from the state they recommend one way of doing things which talks about between $300,000 to $500,000. The reimbursement from the state would only be about $60,000. I am confident that we can get it done a lot cheaper than that but we have got to do a lot of work and we have to think outside of the box.
We have budgeted approximately $50,000 - $60,000 in the Assessor’s budget for ’08 for outside services. That should help us and I am hoping that we can get this done for not $300,000 - $500,000 but rather within that budget or very close to it. The good part is that if we can get it done within that budget we will get reimbursed next year from the state $5.00 a parcel, which is about $60,000.
There are some deadlines quickly looming on the horizon for us to meet if this is going to be successful. Worse case scenario we’re going to begin the process now for targeting a reval for the next, next year but we have to start now no matter what. We have most of the data it is a matter of updating some of it. I will keep you apprised as best as possible.
From our Planning and Building departments, Lowe’s is sort of at a stale mate, I think most people know and really it sounds like according to their representatives the contamination issue from the building on Freemans Bridge is still not resolved, meaning construction isn’t ready to commence.
There has been some flagging and staking at the rear of our property here, the Municipal Center. The surveyors from NY Development Group surveyed and staked the center line of the proposed road that’s coming from near the airport out to Glenridge here on the edge of our property. According to Mark Storti at the County the FAA heard on approval that the road has been cleared. Construction of the road should begin not long after the architectural investigation has been complete and a public comment period ends which means around late May. For those of you who are not aware there is a proposed development behind town hall here for some high end condominiums, a possible restaurant, some small retail and part of the
proposal is there may be another round-a-bout out here. It is part of the proposal but it will be at the expense of the developer. It will run from Glenridge Road along the Town Municipal Center and then back out to Rudy Chase.
No update on the K-Mart site. Nigro, across the street from Price Chopper, they have come back to the Planning and Zoning Commission and they are requesting a down sizing of the original proposal. The stand alone building on the corner is now being proposed as a bank and the main building that sits further back is to be down sized from 19,600 sq. ft. to 15,600 sq. ft.
The Hess on Freemans Bridge Road should be open by the end of the month.
As far as the Freemans Bridge Road Master Plan, I wanted to get an update on that. CDTC (Capital District Transportation Commission) has not been able to assist us; they are the folks that are reviewing the whole thing. They said they would likely be able to free up staff in April, our Town Planner is going to give them a call. One of the issues is that they are not charging us for this review so it is kind of hard to complain. It is on their radar screen hopefully soon.
One last item from our building department; their having some issues and I’ve noticed some of these too at the Zoning Board of Appeals meetings also. The interpretation of regulations in regards to accessory structures or garages; the rules are kind of vague and they don’t really spell things out very well. For instance it says you can’t have more than a 3 stall garage but it doesn’t tell you what a 3 stall garage is. This will come to us at a later date; it may require a work session.”
Supervisor Quinn – “One comment regarding Councilman Rosenberg’s report and see us after if you have trouble with this comment. Because we reval the properties in the town it is not automatically a tax increase. Tax increases are based on something much related to but not identical to and not caused by revals.
We would like to move Item No. 12 on the agenda which is a resolution authorizing our Chief of Police to hire a lateral transfer, a police officer to begin in a couple of weeks.”
RESOLUTION NO. 73-2008
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, a need currently exists in the Police Department for the positions of police officer, and
WHEREAS, Mark A. Kirker has requested a lateral transfer from the Schenectady Police Department, and
WHEREAS, an Interview Committee consisting of elected, town and police officials met with the candidates, conducted interviews and made its recommendations, and
WHEREAS, the Police Chief hereby confers with the recommendations of the interview committee,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this Town Board does hereby authorize The Chief of Police to hire Mark A. Kirker of 138 Birch Lane, Glenville NY 12302 to the position of Police Officer in the Glenville Police Department, with an effective date of April 21st, 2008, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the compensation and benefits for Mark A. Kirker be as set forth in the current P.B.A. Contract, as a fourth year officer; and
BE IT STILL FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Clerk, on behalf of this Town Board, be and she hereby is authorized and directed to notify said officer of the afore mentioned appointment.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
Supervisor Quinn – “Moving on with the agenda, we have two public hearings scheduled this evening. The first being a public hearing to hear all comments regarding the Town’s proposed Annual Plan for Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program for 2008. James Mastrianni will give a brief presentation.”
Supervisor Quinn opened the public hearing at 7:55 pm.
James Mastrianni, Joseph E. Mastrianni, Inc. – “We administer the Section 8 Program on behalf of the town. We have been doing this since 1976.
HUD requires that we hold a public hearing to allow for public comment on our Annual Plan. The Annual Plan from last year is unchanged with one exception and that is that we have had to add some language for the Violence Against Women Act. No change to our policies and procedures, it is just a formality which allows us to give extra protection should a tenant be a victim of domestic violence.
We administer two programs as part of the Section 8 Program we give the actual Section 8 Program which gives our least fortunate members of society access to safe, sanitary and decent housing. In addition we also administer a Family Self Sufficiency Program which we started last year on a voluntary basis.
The Federal Government provides $300,000 of funding directly to the town. This allows us to help up to 55 participants, currently we help 51. In our Family Self Sufficiency Program we have 10 participants. That has been going very, very well for being a one year program.
The majority of folks in the program is elderly and disabled (67%). On average the amount of time that someone stays with our program is almost four years and the average subsidy is $433.00.
We have more funding than is necessary and that will allow us to carry the program forward as funding from the federal government has been tight. Priorities are a little different now than it has been in the past.”
Councilman Quinn – “What does the Family Self Sufficiency Program entail?”
Mr. Mastrianni – “It entails one on one case management where an assessment of a family’s barriers to self sufficiency, we do an assessment on them that identifies needs. Then those needs are matched to service providers in the areas who can help them with those needs. They have to sign a five year contract, part of this program there is an escrow account, the escrow account will build as the family moves through the program and at the end of this they are able to access that escrow account and use it towards further education, transportation, training and things like that. Sometimes they are $5,000.”
Councilman Quinn – “Is there actual job placement at the end of the program or do you just give them the tools to move on?”
Mr. Mastrianni – “We give them the tools and we put them towards job placement. There is a list of requirements that they have to meet; being free from welfare assistance outside of Section 8 for at least one year is one of the requirements.”
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the public hearing at 8:00 pm.
Supervisor Quinn – “Item No. 6 on the agenda is a public hearing to consider comments on the Town of Glenville Draft Open Space Plan. I invite the Chair of that committee, Mark Storti if he would come forth and Councilwoman DiGiandomenico do you want to have any comments?”
Supervisor Quinn opened the public hearing at 8:01 pm.
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “I just wanted to give a synopsis of the committee. On May 4, 2006 a group of 30+ people met and formed the Open Space Committee of the Town of Glenville. This group was whittled down to 23 very committed and dedicated individuals who met once a month to discuss visions, goals, policies, etc. The committee mailed out an open space questionnaire to the town residents and utilized their responses in forming part of the outline for the open space plan. The first of three public meetings was held on June 29th 2006 at the Senior Center. The meeting drew approximately 150 residents who had many questions the top two being; would there be an increase in taxes and would
eminent domain come into play and would the most important open space goal be in the protection of our aquifer? The Open Space Committee discussed such topics as goals and objectives, open space inventory and mapping, scoring system, open space preservation options, financing options for implementation etc.
I would like to thank the Open Space Committee, chaired by Mark Storti with the assistance of our Town Planner, Kevin Corcoran and Planner Michael Burns for our comprehensive Town of Glenville Open Space Plan. It took much dedication and hard work by everyone involved to produce such a document. A copy for review is available from our Town Clerk.
Had this been a professionally engineered service it would have cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars. Again thank you very much, the Committee, Mark, Kevin and Michael.”
Mark Storti, Chairman – “I grew up here, went to school here and live here. I would like to thank the Town Board for having this public hearing. This has been a year and a half process and it was very enjoyable.
I would like to thank our liaison Valerie DiGiandomenico and I would also like to thank the people on the committee and I want to recognize several of the people who stuck it through for the year and a half plan. I would like to thank Charlie Beers, Dan Grzybowski, Al Haugen, Stanley Lee, Larry McArthur, Jack Osterlitz, Mike Sheppeck, Don Snell, Hank Stebbins, Harry Willis, Barbara Jefts, Ray Koch and Clarence Mosher. I also would like to thank our professional staff here at the town, they really helped with this document, they worked with this document and Kevin Corcoran and Mike Burns did a great job on this.
I want to talk to you about what was our mission and our mission was the plan was to identify open space properties considered worthy of preservation as well as strategies funding mechanisms to accomplish the Open Space Plan. This is not to say that you can’t develop your property, this is to say those land donors that are in the open space area they have wonderful assets. You have some great natural features there and you should be proud of them. All we are saying is that if you do choose to develop we would like to work with you. The Planning and Zoning Board, the GECC, the ZBA and the Town would like to work with you if we could conserve and preserve these natural wonders that we have in this town. So
that is what it means, it doesn’t mean the town is going to take your land, it is up to you, you are the stakeholders and that was this whole process that we went through. So as we go through reviewing this plan I hope you remember that and if there are any questions I will be here to answer them.”
Wendy Carroll – “I live in West Glenville. I am here as a landowner and a person who is concerned about the beauty and the special areas that we have in Glenville. The main point of this is to give landowners options, options that are of equal value as development is. I think that is very important because if we don’t offer incentives for people to preserve some of these areas like the geological areas, the aquifer, just having clean natural unpolluted, undeveloped areas we’re going to lose it and we are going to look like the Town of Colonie.
In equation with this we need to pay attention to the areas that are already developed, the urban areas, the suburban areas, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the people that live in this new development that might happen behind Town Hall could walk down a sidewalk and go to a restaurant. The problem is now they can’t because they would be killed on Glenridge Road.
If we don’t do something and pay attention to our open space that once they are developed they are going to be gone and there is nothing we can do about that once they are gone.”
Daniel Testo – “I have lived on Waters Road since 1989 and I am just here to say that I am very happy that we have the open space plan and I do support it.”
Hugh Jenkins – Lives in W. Glenville. “I would like to thank the board for putting the open space plan into motion and I would particularly like to thank the people who worked so hard on the Open Space Committee. They really did a great job.
As a person that lives in the designated open space area I have seen beautiful open spaces and productive farm land turned into eyesores which are in essence a drain on the town because as we know these services generally out weigh tax benefits for these kinds of development.
I urge the passage of the Open Space Plan and I thank those who worked so hard on it.”
Hank Stebbins – “I have lived on Ridge Road for about 31 years. As a member of the Open Space Committee I want to thank the board for creating this committee and directing us to draft an open space plan.
It actually took us two years and three drafts to come forth with the finished product. I think there are a lot of practical alternatives recommended in the plan that really gets to the preservation of open space, integrating that with the planning process.
Too often a plan is made and it collects dust on a shelf but we see this as a living plan, we see it as a plan that needs to be reviewed every five years or so to update it and make it relevant to the times.
I hope this home town body that put this plan together; the plan itself will be accepted as submitted.”
Kernan Davis – “I reside on Onderdonk Road in the Town of Glenville. The plan’s coverage of the issues to provide a good basis for the land use management. This becomes a living document, useful now and in the future. I strongly recommend that the town adopt this plan and implement its provisions.
My wife Elizabeth Dobson Davis, also a resident of the town on Onderdonk Road; she wrote – “I strongly support the draft open space plan for the Town of Glenville and urge the Town Board to approve the plan as is. The Plan will provide clear guidance for the town officials, for future development and would allow for decisions that are environmentally and economically sound.”
Daniel Hill – “I am a twelfth generation resident of Glenville. My family has lived on the same piece of land here since about 1693 and I mention this not just to brag but because I think this continuity causes me to take an especially long view of the state of the world and the state of the part of the world that is closest to me. It also gives me a long history to see how things change and what remains constant. As the plan points out in detail: open space is a great social value and it also has measurable economic advantage over low density development. As the plan also states once open space gives way to something else it’s essentially lost forever.
We shouldn’t stop progress and growth that would be contrary to human nature and it wouldn’t be healthy but we should make sure that our growth today doesn’t take away from us and take away from all of those who will follow us things we hold dear and can never get back. The proposed open space plan balances past, present and future, development and stability and I ask each of you to please vote to adopt it.”
Harry Willis – “I live in the Village where comparatively there is not a lot of open space. Having the opportunity to serve on this committee has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I have ever had, so I would like to personally thank the Town Board for giving me the opportunity to serve.
I would like to just mention the results of the initial survey that was performed by the committee before we really started going on the plan. By margins of roughly 60 to 65% of the responses to the survey, and we are talking in the neighborhood of well over 400 responses to each of these questions, thought that it was important to protect, expand or improve stream corridors, wildlife and associated equal logical resources, farm lands as well as forests and woodlands. One question – should Glenville have a plan for preserving some amount of its open space? – yes 459, no 10, a margin of 50 to 1.
I would like to urge the Town Board to adopt this plan.”
Pat Vieta – “The Town of Glenville is a highly desirable place to live and we should all be proud of that fact. Because of this, growth is inevitable. How the future growth of the town is managed is the primary purpose of the Open Space Plan. I’d like to commend the individuals who have recognized the need to develop such a plan and brought this to the forefront allowing a pro-active approach from the town and its residents before it is too late.
1) Overall I think the plan is a good one. It is very thorough and well thought out; I commend the committee members on a job well done. In general, I think the plan will help in achieving the goal of encouraging an open space type of a community in the Town of Glenville. The Town of Glenville is taking a leadership role in this area and other communities are looking to us with respect to an Open Space Plan.
2) While I can see the need to change and revise the zoning laws in order to adapt such a plan, making the zoning changes too prescriptive or too vague could be a detriment so this needs to be done cautiously in order to not end up with an undesirable result. However, timely decisive action is warranted.
3) From what I understand the committee has not as yet solicited any review or comments from local builders, contractors and/or land developers. The town should consider taking a proactive approach and soliciting the input from not only the individuals but also the businesses that would have to work within this plan to determine whether or not what the town is about to accept is useful, viable and workable when it comes to their line of business.
4) Communication of the plan is a critical step to insure its success.
5) In the interest of communication, consideration should be given to some sort of educational workshop(s) on the subject. In my view a workshop would serve two primary purposes, 1) communicate in more detail the Glenville plan once it is adopted and 2) bring in someone from the outside who is a professional in this area to help individuals come up with viable options and plans that would work for the overall good of the town, residents, landowners, builders, contractors, land development people. I am willing to champion such an effort if the town would consider it beneficial and there are enough interested parties.
6) In the case of a housing development that would make use of an open space/ conservation type development, the plan does not address how the land identified as open-space/conservation property would ultimately be managed and taxed. If the expectation is that the residents would continue to maintain and pay taxes on land that is set aside as conservation or open space parcels, this expectation should be clearly addressed and advertised to the town residents prior to implementation of the plan.
7) I strongly agree with the statement that “Glenville needs to strive to develop a positive tax basis”. However, the way this is implemented MUST be fair. It is stated in the plan that the revenue-to-expenditure ratio for residential development averages $1.15 spent for every $1 collected in taxes, in other words a negative tax ratio. Whereas for open space the town only spends on average 37¢ for every $1 collected in taxes. In other words, the taxes obtained form those of us who own and maintain properties consisting of open space are subsidizing, and possibly in a substantial way, those who do not. I question the fairness of such an approach. I for one am more than willing to pay my fair share of taxes in order to receive the services that I expect such as great schools, a safe community, excellent police, fire and EMS personnel, plowed and sanded roadways and other such services. However, the method of taxation must be fair to all residents. I challenge the town to
seriously look at the apparent discrepancy between the taxation of the single family residential owners and the more rural open space landowners.
8) The plan should be considered a living document and subject to change as needed and revisited at least on a periodic basis to assess its quality and usefulness. In line with this, individuals and businesses should be given an avenue to provide feedback and suggestions for necessary changes.”
Charlie Beers III – “I am a fourth generation on my property and the only one to have to pay a bank to do it.
Being involved intimately I believe that all 20 people gathered together had a good interest in mind and worked toward that end. Ten, twenty, fifty years from now make my land about more than politics and power. I truly believe that the 20 people working on the plan had a common goal. I am very fearful of what that may evolve into and I hope that it is never used as a tool to take away my ability to use my land for myself or any children I may have in the future. I just ask that everyone very carefully and respectfully consider anytime that the open space plan is used, the interest of the landowner, taxes that have been paid and where we are going in the future. My tax bill has grown and grown, my land has stayed
the same, my ability to be able to earn a living off of that has greatly diminished and I just hope that we are able to protect the green space and we are able to protect the landowner because ultimately if we have a strong relationship we could have a Town of Glenville that I want to live in, in twenty years.”
Renna Bell – “I live on Onderdonk Road and I am a first generation. I choose to move here and raise a family here because it is a wonderful place to live and I would like to be here for twenty-one more years.”
Henri Plante – “I think you should adopt this program right off the bat. It is a step in the right direction but it does have to be every so often, you are going to have to make adjustments to it.
There are a couple of questions that I have. We know that the open space is going fast and one of the reasons for this is that we extend water lines; we extend the sewer lines and everything else. That seems to be counter productive. I can see going into a very densely populated place where they need it but to put them out in open space areas I just do not understand. Why do we do it?
We can never get back from an individual home especially the mini stakes, we can’t get that back and we know what the ratio is. Why do we continue to do this? Why don’t we have some kind of remediation for anybody who is going to cost the rest of the taxpayer money?
Now there is another little thing that I don’t think most people take into consideration is that when you take open space every leaf, every blade of grass is contributing to more carbon dioxide. Now we are all worried about our carbon footprint, well when you put in a house on a piece of property every one of those little pieces of greenery are the big instrument in taking carbon dioxide out of the air. We do not ask anybody who is developing in an open space how are they going remediate that. We are actually increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air by taking up the green space.
There has to be something done to make people to give easements to some kind of an organization that can put that in perpetuity so it won’t be developed and you have to have some kind of a tax break. If they are going to do this I think that they should be rewarded for doing it. At least you know have a program at which we have some start in this whole thing about green space that we really needed.
We have to do something to make sure that those rules on the aquifer are extended further to make sure that there is no problem.”
Carl George – “I am a landowner in the Town of Glenville at the end of Wagner Road. I have lived at that site for 30 years. I have been an ecologist for my life, I have traveled the world, I have been in a great many countries of the world and I have seen the devastation of lands that were once forested that had soils that were habitable. In Lebanon where I taught for six years at the American University of Beirut I went up into the mountains which once upon a time had forests. They were forests that were rich, diverse with wildlife. You look as far as you can see but you don’t see a single tree. Now that seems absurd but realize that Glenville not that many years ago was de-forested, these
were thousands of acres of sheep lands, of open pasture where there were relatively few trees. The water régime subjected the area to flooding and loss of soil and of course loss of fauna and flora. Now this region is an exciting region because throughout the United States we are seeing dramatic changes in weather, climate, and climate response and there will be a time and it won’t be very far off, at the maximum twenty years, when we will see extraordinary return of people to this region. There will be tremendous pressure on these lands and if that area is developed willy nilly, casually you will have serious problems. It will impact one of the greatest aquifers in this country; it will impact your tax base in such a way that you will find it far more expensive than if these areas were preserved and the natural processes were left intact.
I do recommend endorsement of this plan. I very much commend you for initiating and establishing the processes, which will, result in a good plan. I endorse the idea that this plan not be fixed in stone, that it indeed be a mobile plan that lives on perhaps to be reviewed every three years or every five years. I urge you very deeply and from a very rich base of experience take this plan seriously, do endorse it because all of our futures do relate to it.”
Ann Kulak – “I live on Baldwin Road. You may be familiar with the property, it is fairly sizable and very visible from the road and we have lived there for forty plus years and this has indeed been a great place to raise our six children. During that time I have become more and more increasingly concerned about the development or a lot of development in a lot of areas and I just want to say that this report that has been devised that is about to be presented is I think…thankfully I don’t think it is too late in coming. Some of our other surrounding communities were twenty five or thirty years late. I don’t think we are quite there yet and that is thanks to the good people who put this
together and I am very hopeful that you will support it.”
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the public hearing at 8:40 p.m.
Privilege of the Floor:
Bob Winchester, Alplaus – Resided in the Town of Glenville for 45 years and in Alplaus for 35 of those.
Thanked the town officials, the town employees and the department heads that showed up for the annual meeting and for their thoughtful deliberation on the Alplaus Sewer Project.
Stated that he felt there should be a sewer board that looks after that sewer district and oversees it. Not that it supersedes the town but that it oversees and makes recommendations. It will be responsible for overseeing the sewer district and its expansion and he asked that if the board decides to have a sewer board in addition leave space on that board for people from other towns as they join in.”
John Gaetani, Cedar Lane – Has lived in the town for almost 9 years. Confused whether there will be a leave pick up or not. Strongly urges the board to pass the resolution to increase the spending and pick up the leaves; was not too concerned about the bulk item pick up.
Kurt Semon, Droms Road – Commented on the bulk item pick up. Advised the board that many residents do not receive the Gazette and in the spring probably about 60% of the residents will have bulk items in front of their yards, along the streets; code enforcement will be very busy and also the police department. He suggested that the Town reconsider sending out a newsletter to get the news out to the residents.
Rocco Montesano, Glen Terrace – Thanked the board for their service to the community. He was in support of reinstating the leave pick up and the bulk item pick up. He mentioned that not having these services would affect the beauty, safety and drainage systems in the neighborhoods. He felt that there was a lot of confusion this year with the messages that were out there regarding the status of the programs for ’08.
He feels that there is an eternal dispute among departments and the Board. That is okay until it reaches out to the community and it impacts us.
Neil Turner, Amsterdam Road – He stated that the elected officials should not cater to special interest groups at the expense of the general public. This seems to be the case in this town, I refer to the town providing free leave pick up for some residents while taxpayers as a whole foot the bill. He feels that leave collection should be a responsibility of the property owner.
I ask that the Board discontinue this unfair practice as well as other practices that benefit few at the expense of the whole.
John Ewing, Goldfoot Road – He agreed with Mr. Turner. He has lived in Glenville for 52 years and he feels that this town has come to a point where it is split right down the middle by Swaggertown Road. He stated that West Glenville never has a leave pick up.
He also stated that they never see a police car in their neighborhood as well.
He stated that if we can’t give everybody in this town equal then we are going to go into a two tier tax system. He suggested that the town tax the people that are getting the service and take it off of those who aren’t.
Ed Culhane, Sutherland Drive – He stated that his neighborhood always looks forward to the leave pick up. This is something that is probably part of our quality of life in Glenville and in difference to the folks who live on the west side of the town. He stated that in sticking up for the Police Department, public service generally responds to where their need is most. Most of the crime, luckily for you folks in the west part of the town, occurs over here. Most of the leaves get in the way over here, there are sewers and storm drains that get blocked by leaves and they are blocked by leaves now.
He stated that it is not just an expense issue, for both picking up leaves and picking up the bulk trash, it’s a quality of life issue that is part of Glenville. I support the resolution and I thank Mr. Koetzle for having the guts to put it forward.
Ms. Korkosz, Baldwin Road – She stated that she has never had leave pick up, she doesn’t need that service. She went to the recycling facility on Hetcheltown Road and purchased a permit for $15.00 so all of their bulk pick up will go right over to the recycling facility.
Resident of Willow Road – He agrees with the people that believe that leave pick up and bulk pick up is an important issue and a quality of life issue. He also thought that the idea of there being a stamp for an additional charge would work. That way everybody would be covered and you are not paying for it if you don’t use the service.
Theresa Short, Cedar Lane – She is a real estate agent and agrees that the trash pick up and the leave pickup is a big plus when selling a home or buying a home. We have to provide services to get people to live here.
The following residents were unable to attend the meeting but submitted the following comments:
Bill & Lois Giniecki – Spring pickup makes sense please continue. It saves homeowners time delivering to proper locations, saves gas and better for environment – gas fumes etc.
Fall pick-up – missed our street for 2nd pickup last fall.
Lois Anderson – I now live alone and have a small car, I would find it most helpful to have a bagged leaf pickup.
Frank Palmer – In support of reinstating the bulk item pickup and the leaf pick up.
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the privilege of the floor.
Supervisors Comments:
Supervisor Quinn shared the following thoughts and ideas.
Tape malfunctioned at the beginning of the Supervisors comments.
Supervisor Quinn – “I want to share some thoughts and ideas around finances concerning the next nine months as well as last year.
It focuses around several different things. We don’t have the complete figures for 2007 and we won’t have them until probably the 15th. We get both revenues and expenses in January, February and March that we book back to ’07. We don’t have the bottom line on ’07 yet although we do have certain information. We had black ink from ’07 and we will have a surplus and there is an estimate on what that surplus will be and it could be, give or take 10 or 20% until we close out the books, it could be up to $500,000. We budgeted well, we cut things in the last quarter of last year, we did lots of different things last year and it looks like we could have a budget surplus of
that amount of money.
When we put the budget together we had certain goals, as a board, we were going to control expenses for ’08. We cut staff, we cut overtime, no pay raises for department heads, we did meet the union contract raises, and we met the increased cost in health insurance for 170 people so one of our goals was to control expenses. We also did it in ’07 because that affects the ’08 budget like ’08 affects ’09. The second goal we had was we must maintain a fund balance to meet emergencies and hold down the taxes for the upcoming year and so the purpose was that we would have a minimum fund balance no worse than $900,000. That result was there was a 6% tax increase that a lot of people hollered about
but we said we would maintain the fund balance to cover emergencies and the make sure there is some there for the coming years. Then we decided on criteria, if we were going to do cuts for ’08 in programs, we set up criteria as a board; critical services that must be done if they are either required by law or it’s required by safety or any of those other kinds of things so we said critical things get funded and then we go to the next level after that was necessary services. So first if you have any money take care of critical, next if you have any money you take care of necessary and then if you have any money you go to the nice to do things. The last goal that we had was to keep the taxes in ’08 as low as possible. Once we get the close out then we will know whether we have money to spend in ’08 from ’07.
We are at the end of the first quarter going into the second quarter. Revenue projection so far year to date, we know that our mortgage tax itself is down over 30%, that is a major revenue source for year. We think, but no one will guarantee us that the County Sales Tax and Metroplex Sales Tax will meet our budget but that budget is less than last year so on the revenue side we are at the mercy of some very volatile economic things, so what I am saying as the CFO is I don’t have any faith in the revenues for ’08 being any higher then what we projected.
We have one item tonight on the budget that has to do with leaves and bulk pickup. We are going to have these kinds of items for months and months and months to come so tonight this one item is just one of many because we cut, as you know, all of those different programs and all of those different services and we used those criteria, critical, necessary and nice to do. We know sitting here tonight from our prior meetings that we have got a bunch of expenses in ’08 that are not budgeted. We know that in ’08 we have got personnel expenses by both our highway department and our police department on replacing personnel, overtime costs that they need to operate for the rest of the year. We’ve got capital
expenditures that we postponed from last year; road paving. We’ve got personnel expenses related to vehicle replacements that we postponed from last year that we still didn’t fund in ’08 and we have the tri-annual re-evaluation that has got to go on because we have inequities in our programs. We also have sitting out here (pointed to the police department) a dispatching operation where the equipment is breaking down more and more rapidly. We are seeing quotes from $700,000 to upwards of that just to replace it. When you add up the things that we were just talking about we have not addressed yet for 2008 in our ’08 budget possibly multi-million dollars worth of changes but we did cut some things so we are going to see a parade of people and organizations and clubs and rightfully so, can you replace, can you replace, can you replace, so you heard me describe revenues are questionable and volatile those of you on the board know that, you
have seen it over the years how it goes up and down. You know we have got unattended expenses that we have got to face.
Just to remind all of us in case we forget. The purpose is, obviously emergencies and the second purpose obviously having something to do with how we want to have taxes next year. Last year we committed $500,000, if we get the $500,000 in the fund balance from ’07 to ’08 we will have the exact same amount we had at the beginning of ’07.
Not impossible to say right now we’re looking at, if nothing changes and we don’t commit any fund balance, double digit tax increase for next year. We can’t keep postponing things. We have got some really, really tough decisions to make. What we do for the rest of the year sets us up for next year, for ’09. So as I think of it I don’t want to make any decisions to increase expenses not tonight or anytime without going through the criteria we used before; is it critical, is it necessary, is it nice to do, is it equitable for all of the citizens, how will we handle the uncertainties and all of the things that go with fluctuating revenue, fluctuating expenses and so forth? Is it an
emergency or is it routine and we deal with it? Last but not least how does it affect the ’09 tax increase?
County Waste will pick up leaves; County Waste will pick up leaves from April to November if they are raked up, put in a bag and put in the front yard. The people in the Town of Glenville are paying for that service. We also as a town pick up leaves; we have done it, the entire town in ’07, in the fall of ’07 was picked up. The town highway department as said absolutely the entire town was covered, oh by the way whether you believe it or not they made a pass the second time through many, not all parts of the town, and it cost $197,000 to do that last November.”
Councilman Koetzle – “You had mentioned and I’ll quote “we don’t know where we are mortgage tax 30% down” the County Sales Tax you say we will meet our projections however this board was briefed just two weeks ago that we are at $200,000 over our projections. We were handed a memo, we were even handed thoughts on where we could apply that $200,000. This kind of goes to that misinformation and confusion that people have because one week we hear one thing, the next week we hear another thing. Can you address that please Mr. Supervisor?”
Supervisor Quinn – “You and I and I gave out the memo from the County saying that the County Sales Tax will be the same as last year. Made no commitment about the County Metroplex Tax, which is several hundred thousand dollars, the difference is so far 1.8 million and we budgeted 1.6 million so it looks like there is $200,000 but with that $200,000 we could be off $200,000 in sales tax alone. We know we are already way off in mortgage tax…
Councilman Koetzle – “Mr. Supervisor, I am curious then why this board was asked to consider where to spend that money two weeks ago when tonight now we are saying we have to be skeptical about spending that money.”
Supervisor Quinn – “You did not get that information from me about where to spend it…
Councilman Koetzle – “We did receive a memo, Mr. Supervisor with ideas on it and how to spend it.”
Supervisor Quinn – “Yes, that’s fine but I did not recommend where to spend it. As you know you might of got a memo but that could have come from anywhere in this room.”
Councilman Koetzle – “Just as a follow-up, Mr. Supervisor, the equitable issue we heard a lot about tonight. I don’t know if you have children in school, I don’t know if you have ever used the park but I am sure a lot of our residents have never used the parks in this town but they are paying for it. The Canal, I have never in my life and probably never will use it but I am paying for it. We live in a society where sometimes our tax dollars don’t go to necessarily services we use but certainly services that make the community livable so I think we need to be fair when we talk about the equitable issue and I just wanted to bring that to your attention.”
Supervisor Quinn – “This town has a very long history of saying “if you benefit from something and others don’t then we set up a separate taxing district”. Some of the people tonight said that so we have water districts, sewer districts, drainage districts, light districts, fire districts and so forth, therefore the people in the district who benefit from the service pay for that and that is the history of Glenville. As some people said tonight we could in fact create what ever you want to call it for pick up. That we could do, that as an option or make a sticker and those that benefit pay on the sticker, but remember we spent so far $197,000 last year on leaves and we still have a safety problem.”
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “On February 28th we received a letter from George Davidson, Commissioner of Finance in Schenectady County, it reads: The Town of Glenville’s share of the minimum sales tax guarantee to the town and villages in 2008 will be $1,874,000, etc.
At the bottom the letter it says: Your town will receive a share of the additional ½ of 1% sales tax that was imposed by the County. The amount of this distribution will depend upon actual sales tax.
It was forecasted that it would be in the $200,000 range. Now some of our forecasts are also forecasted so are we to believe only the increases in the tax end and not to believe in the increase in the revenue end? There has to be some kind of balance here. Since the population of Glenville 42% is over the age of 50 I do think we should address the need of that group of people in addition to the general public. I have no problem paying school tax and other taxes and I think you have done an excellent job cutting the fat from the budget. I do commend you on it but when you start to touch the bone and the core of what the tax system is in Glenville I think the people have expressed their feelings and we are here to
represent the people and I am listening to what the people are saying. For the additional $6 - $10 that it would cost to have the leaves picked up and the bulk item I don’t think anyone has a problem with that.”
Supervisor Quinn – “Your comment and what you read is absolutely accurate, it was the same thing that Councilman Koetzle and I were just talking about. There could be $200,000 in that one fund, you and I know that’s one fund, that’s not the sales tax fund or Metroplex which is several hundred thousand dollars also. I’m not disagreeing we could have $200,000 in that fund but that is not the issue. You and I know we’ve all read the Schenectady County Legislature is very, very, very worried that they’re not going to make their revenue projections. We share the same concern; will we make our revenue projections?
If there is $200,000 there, that’s fine, we may not make revenue in a whole bunch of other places and so that $200,000 may not be surplus. That $200,000 may not even be enough. We don’t represent just the people in this room tonight, we represent 28,500 people and whether this is equitable or not I went around to three apartment complexes, you know who they are, Shady Lane, Tryon Apartments, there are one thousand apartments, those people don’t want taxes for leaves, they don’t need to have leaves picked up it is billed in their rent. We have got senior citizens that say this is crazy, I am on a fixed income so I am just responding to your two comments to say; yes we could have $200,000 I am reminding
you that that may not be a surplus but we may not make revenues for the year.”
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “It is also my recollection that we have a reserve fund balance of $900,000 and I think I heard $500,000 tonight. I am confused as a board member. Did I hear $900,000 fund balance or did I hear $500,000 fund balance?”
Supervisor Quinn – “We start the year at $900,000, we pick up $500,000, puts us right back where we were.”
Councilman Quinn – “I don’t want to go into a recurring refrain from last year but I will remind the members of this board and yourself as well that I continually brought to your attention that while we were publicizing dire consequences we were regularly well ahead on revenues and well behind on expenses every month. After eleven months had passed, last year, we had an excess of 1.4 million dollars. Now we may have had some extenuating circumstances but I can venture a guess that when all said and done from our financials from last year we are going to have more than $500,000 left over. It is an educated guess.
What I would respectfully, and you know I try and do that, request being a believer in not only in financial transparency but full financial disclosure instead of always reporting to the public the gloom and doom I think they deserve to know when we have excess in reserves.”
Supervisor Quinn – “Yes and you and I know that those are all public documents if anybody wanted to know we would do that.”
Councilman Quinn – “I would just submit that you report both sides of it that is all I am asking out of fairness.”
Supervisor Quinn – “In part and parcel, as we all think about it, we were making decisions last year for ’08 in September and October and then we voted in November, since that time when we had that data because in October we only had Septembers data so we had one quarter left. We have been booking bills and expenses and revenues for six months since then. So, I would have loved to say we have xyz. I didn’t know, you didn’t know and the comptroller didn’t know because we are still booking revenues and expenses for October, November, December, and January were not finished yet. It would have been wonderful if we knew this.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “First of all I think it is not necessarily fair to treat school or playground which is a public entity that anybody has a right to use and to compare that with picking up leaves from a resident. I don’t think that is the same thing, it is totally different.
Second of all, I think what you are talking about with the fund balances I heard something different. I heard that we have the $900,000 that we planned for but we may have an additional $500,000 which comes up to 1.4 million and last year in order to get to this budget this year we used $500,000 to draw us down to $900,000 and the likely hood is we’ll use that $500,000 again at the end of this year to balance next years budget. So I heard something different.”
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “I didn’t think this meeting was going to turn into a budget debate and I would like to suggest that we get on with the other items on the agenda and address these items at budget time and we should be able to inform the public in the middle of April what the actual balance is at the end of the year and we can discuss that at the next meeting.”
Supervisor Quinn moved ahead with the agenda items.
Discussion…
Councilman Koetzle – “I would like to clarify some confusion. We are asking for $67,000 to be added to this years budget, how that breaks out Mr. Supervisor, is the $23,000 was actually allocated for the previous years leave pick up program and because we had such a late autumn and an early winter our DPW did not get to every section of the town in fact we were briefed that half of the town was still with leaves. The $23,000 because of state finance law since the Commissioner did not use it once the new fiscal year started that money rolled into a general fund.
Mr. Supervisor, I’m saying as part of the $67,000 that $23,000 should rightfully be returned to the Commissioner so that he can finish the job that he was tasked with in ’07. That is not new money, let’s be clear about that. That is money that is rightfully part of the DPW budget and they should be able to use it to finish the program.
Of the rest of the money, $9,900, there was some confusion on this as well. I think when the budget was being crafted there was some talk of a $35,000 to $64,000 program when in reality it was always $9,900. There was a lot of work done by Tony Germano, Rich LeClair and myself in researching this and we talked to the prevailing wage department, we talked to the Department of Labor, County Waste and in fact that earlier $35,000 - $64,000 figure was wrong. We meet prevailing wages at $9,900 so I am asking the board to reconsider that since I believe the premise of the decision when it was made was faulty.
Further in the $67,000, $34,000 would run the ’08 pick up program, which I think we need to fund. I understand that there are financial restrictions on the town but there are certain services that we need to provide because the residents want them and the residents need them.
What I have done is gone to our two State Legislatures, Assemblyman Tedisco and Senator Farley and I asked for their help and I said we did not budget this in ’07 for ’08; what we need is some help and both of those Legislatures have come through with money for the Town of Glenville to run this program. We spent a lot of time doing mathematical acrobatics but in reality what I am glad to report to you tonight is there will be no negative impact, no future tax increases, no past tax increases, no current tax increases to run this program. Senator Farley has given us $25,000 and Assemblyman Tedisco has given us $10,000. Mr. Supervisor we have made the whole fund and I think we should go forward and vote yes for this
resolution.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “I state first and foremost I want to give the taxpayers, not just the ones with leaves or old refrigerators, the most services of the best quality for the lowest available taxes. There are services that we do not provide that other towns and cities do. We should consider our fund balance, which we have taken into consideration. The State Comptroller recommends 10 to 20% fund balance compared to your budget. Our budget was a little over 10 million dollars so the Comptroller recommended that our fund balance be between 1 and 2 million dollars this year. We compromised as a board to drop that down to $900,000 where we are already below state recommendations.
Our highway overtime budget this year alone, just for 2008, is $12,000 over budget right now. We are on track for gas and oil which is a good thing. I also understand that there has been a recent request from the highway for $179,000 and there will be additional requests for paving and other equipment in that department.
Our police department is approximately 10% over spent on overtime, although on track for gas and oil for 2008.
A short list on the big ticket items, I think it is unfair and it is near and dear to many people’s hearts, your all here, although I am surprised that the percentage wasn’t 100%. I assumed that the people coming tonight were all going to complain that they wanted their leaves picked up but there was a fair amount of people who said they are willing to not pay for that service because they don’t use it. We eliminated $25,000 from our department head raises for 2008 not one department head in the Town of Glenville received a raise this year, a $25,000 cut. What I am getting at is we shouldn’t be approving things on a onzie basis we sat down for months and did our budget and to pull one thing at a time
without considering the other things that we cut isn’t fair. We eliminated another over $8,000 in personnel services from a general fund, we used $300,000 from our water revenue to offset operational expenses an increase of $200,000 from the budget. We reduced $25,000 from our dispatchers, we took $20,000 out of our assessment equipment line, we reduced oil, a trailer and paver by $300,000 from the highway. Again from the highway we reduced equipment by $150,000, highway again we reduced $40,000 for equipment and a lift. We reduced $170,000 that was to go to the salt shed, another $10,000 for stone and gravel, $90,000 from highway for personnel services, our personnel service line for our intern for the planning department was reduced $5,000, general dispatchers/personnel services reduced by $50,000, police overtime was reduced by $112,000. What I am getting at is it is not prudent for the board to pick this apart because it will be one after the
other, after the other. We have already heard requests, we have some other increases that are coming along that are going to be asked for. Our mortgage tax collection this year that we budgeted for was an increase of $200,000 over last year. I believe these services are important, I believe we can still offer them, I think it is a mistake to spend the money as we have in the past. I would recommend that we look at special leaf districts as we have with other services in the town such as water and public sewer. I haven’t heard from anyone about just a bagged leave program as was suggested tonight that wouldn’t require an inordinate amount of personnel like loose leaf pick up. We could pick it up maybe and it would be in a leave district. That service tends to benefit only the persons who use it.
Again this is not a public park that everybody does have the right to use, I do not use the leaf service, I can’t go to someone else’s house to use the leaf service yet the park anybody can go to it.”
Councilman Koetzle – “Councilman Rosenberg, I just want to reiterate in case you missed what I said earlier. The town is getting a $35,000 infusion to run this program pending the state budget passes. Once that happens we have commitment. We have $23,000 that should be committed to a program that was not finished in ’07 that we need to go back and do.
Commissioner LeClair has committed $9,900 in an efficient saving, that he has found in his budget that he can ask the board to allocate for this program. So although you went through a long list of a lot of pain I don’t see the relevance because this program is whole. There is no impact on our taxpayer to run this program.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “I don’t have any problem recommending that we amend this resolution to spend $35,000 on those three programs.”
Councilman Koetzle – “The problem with amending the resolution is that first of all we don’t deal with the entire program both ’07 what is leftover in ’08 and we don’t know it’s not going to be enough to run the program, but $23,000 is from the Commissioner’s budget from ’07, $9,000 is from efficiencies in the budget we have this covered. We owe the residents today on this entire program for ’08. They are confused, there is too much information out there, we have thrown out prevailing wage issues and all other issues. We need to deal with this entire program tonight and put it to bed so that the residents can take advantage. We can start picking the leaves up
tomorrow. We can’t pick this resolution apart; we owe them an answer today in totality.”
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “I think I am aware of the $12,000 in overtime for the highway department. I think the problem was snow keeps falling and falling and it usually falls on a week end to top it off. Mr. LeClair ran the leaf program without overtime and the weather was against him there too so he has streamlined his department to the bone and I still believe that the residents should be granted the privilege of the leaf pick up and the bulk pick up. As far as schools go I do not avail myself of anything at the schools except the pleasure of seeing my grandchildren in plays etc. and I am willing to pay the school taxes so let’s start thinking about the rest of the people. Let’s not just
have a one way discussion here because it is not comparing oranges with oranges.”
Supervisor Quinn – “First of all let me just summarize the following points. The $23,000 that’s supposedly in the highway department’s budget for last year is theirs, wrong answer, it’s not theirs. We put in $500,000 in fund balance last year some of it went to highway, some of it went to police some of it went here, there and every other place. It’s not their money; it’s not left over in their line item of the budget. It is unreserved fund balance regardless of the department.
We had a whole bunch of expenses that weren’t in the budget that we also had to account for as well as revenue so this stuff moves around in the unreserved fund balance. A comment was made earlier about all of the reserve fund balance. A reserved fund balance is against a known obligation so we can’t use it for anything else. The other thing is what you heard me say and I appreciate, I think it is wonderful that Chris was able to get a member item, wonderful, great. I hope they listen to us in the future but at least we got one that’s good. The issue is not leaves for me, the issue is spending fund balance and without a review of all the other people that have the same claim for different reasons
about this issue, it’s spending money we don’t have from the fund balance.
We are making it without doing a review like we did at budget time. My view as the CFO, my view after being on the board for seven years is we are headed for a perfect storm and I am trying to be cautious so the rest of us as taxpayers don’t end up with a double digit tax increase next year which is a distinct possibility. You may say I am yelling wolf, I don’t think I am but we will vote it.
I would like at this time to make a motion to amend the resolution before us as follows:
Now, therefore be it resolved that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby authorizes the revenue line item miscellaneous revenue be increased by $35,000 to increase the expenditure item from this line to $35,000
Seconded by Councilman Rosenberg
Councilman Koetzle – “I would be opposed to that amendment. I think there are two problems here that I am seeing. One is an equitable and consistency issue. One hand you just argued this is a program that not everyone takes advantage of so therefore it should not be funded and now all of a sudden we are saying we’ll fund it but only at $35,000. It seems to be inconsistent to me if this is an equitable issue then we should vote either yes or no on the resolution. It is that simple, we are getting mixed signals, and we are getting confusions.
Secondly we break it apart, we are being irresponsible. What we are doing is we are setting the Commissioner up for failure. We are giving him half the money he needs to tell him to go out there and do a program that we are asking him to do. That’s not fair to him, that’s not fair to our residents and what we are doing is we are pitting half of the town against the other half because as we saw now where the Commissioner doesn’t have enough money to finish the ’07 program half of the town still has their leaves where the other half had them picked up. That’s not fair, that’s irresponsible, we have got the money, we have got the $23,000 left over from ’07 that would have been
spent if a snowflake didn’t fall. Let’s be honest about this, let’s not try to throw in all sorts of other smoke-n-mirrors to deflect the issue. We have the $9,900 from the Commissioner who found the efficiency in his budget and is willing to help pay for this program and we have got the $35,000 from the state. We are whole; there is no negative impact on the taxpayer. Let’s be consistent Mr. Supervisor, let’s fund this program and let the Commissioner get his job done.”
Ayes: Councilman Rosenberg and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn and Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion to Amend Defeated
RESOLUTION NO. 74-2008
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS, the Commissioner of Public Works recommends the continuance of the Bulk Item “Spring Clean Up” and Loose Leaf pick up however funding was not provided in the 2008 Budget; and
WHEREAS, a verbal agreement was made years ago with County Waste for them to conduct the Bulk Item “Spring Clean Up” on behalf of the Town of Glenville in a sum not to exceed $9,900; and
WHEREAS, the town needs to finish picking up the remaining leaves left from fall of 2007 in addition to the 2008 Fall Loose Leaf Program; and
WHEREAS, the town pays tipping fees to Schenectady County Conservation for the disposal of loose leaves at a rate of $3.00 per yard;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby authorizes the allocation of Town Outside Village fund balance to increase expenditure line 02.00.8160.4192 in the sum of $67,390; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Board authorizes the Town Supervisor to obtain written requests for proposals from 3 vendors for Bulk Item pick up and to execute a 2008 contract in accordance with established procurement procedures for no more than $9,900 for such services.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn and Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Noes: Councilman Rosenberg and Supervisor Quinn
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 75-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS, a vacancy exists for an Alternate member on the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) due to the recent resignation of John Hubbard; and
WHEREAS, Bob Dieterich, a Glenville resident, recently approached the Town offering to serve on the ZBA; and
WHEREAS, as a Glenville Banker (CFO), Mr. Dieterich would bring a valuable perspective to the ZBA relative to Business and Residential Zoning;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby appoints Bob Dieterich of 42 Joyous Lane, as an Alternate to the Zoning Board of Appeals, effective immediately, and terminating on December 31, 2011.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 76-2008
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the November 2007 Comptroller Financials reported the highway budgetary line 04.00.2560.0000 had a surplus of $46,029.45 created by Public Improvement Permits received for some ongoing projects; and
WHEREAS, said projects included The Reserve – Albany Partners in the sum of $17,280 and Glenview Gardens – Belmonte Builders in the sum of $21,026.95; and
WHEREAS, the Superintendent of Highways requested professional engineering services for further review of these two approved projects at a cost of $787.50;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby authorizes the allocation of Highway fund balance to increase expenditure line 04.00.5110.4533 in the sum of $787.50.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 77-2008
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the Town has obtained permission for a pipeline crossing from Pan Am Railways, Inc., in connection with the construction of the improvements in the Alplaus Sewer District,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this Town Board acting as Commissioners of the Alplaus Sewer District, does hereby authorize the Town Supervisor to enter into an agreement, a copy of which is annexed hereto, with Pan Am Railways, Inc.
Ayes: Councilman Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 78-2008
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville’s Park Planning Commission serves to advise the Town Board on matters pertaining to the town’s park properties, and
WHEREAS, new members wishing to contribute their time and talent are encouraged and welcome to volunteer,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Gary McPherson, 14 Cumberland Place, Glenville, New York, is hereby appointed to the Town of Glenville Park Planning Commission effective April 2, 2008 through December 31, 2008, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Board extends its appreciation to Mr. McPherson for his volunteerism and community spirit.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 79-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS the Town of Glenville operates a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and
WHEREAS the Town of Glenville is required by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to prepare and adopt a written Annual Plan that establishes local policies for administration of the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program in accordance with regulations of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and
WHEREAS the Town Board of the Town of Glenville has caused a written Annual Plan for 2008 to be prepared establishing local policies for administration of the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program in accordance with regulations of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and has reviewed such written plan,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby adopts the Annual Plan for 2008 for operation of the Town of Glenville Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 80-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomencio
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
BE IT RESOLVED, that the minutes of the regular meeting held on March 19, 2008 be and they hereby are approved and accepted as entered.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 81-2008
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, the Town has recently formed Extension No. 7 to Sewer District No. 9, commonly referred to as the Woodcrest Sewer District, for the purpose of the construction of a sewer system which will service the properties contained in said district extension; and
WHEREAS, it is necessary to enter into a contract for engineering services in connection with the design of the sewer system, together with contract administration and construction observation services for the project; and
WHEREAS, the Town has solicited proposals for such services,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this Town Board acting as commissioners for Extension No. 7 to Sewer District No. 9 of the Town of Glenville, does hereby authorize the Town Supervisor to enter into a contract with CT Male Associates PC for design services, contract administration and construction observation in connection with the sewer system improvements proposed for the said district extension, a copy of which is annexed hereto.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 82-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, April 13th, 2008, marks the Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens, Inc.’s, 30th Anniversary of service to the community, and
WHEREAS, the Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens, Inc., has grown from an organization that provided limited services to a small portion of the community, to a vibrant full-service organization that provides a wide range of benefits to thousands of seniors both in and outside of Glenville, and
WHEREAS, the services that the Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens, Inc., provide include transportation, health and wellness, driver training, education, nutrition, and a host of social and recreational activities, and
WHEREAS, the Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens, Inc., deliver outstanding value to the community through service delivery that primarily utilizes a vast and talented volunteer base, and
WHEREAS, the Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens, Inc. are a source of pride in the Glenville community as a caring, altruistic, and effective agency that is a model of organizational success,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that upon the 30th Anniversary of the Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens, Inc., the Town Board of the Town of Glenville offers its congratulations on past and present successes, support for its future initiatives, and gratitude for a job very well done, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that to commemorate 30 years of dedicated service to the community, Sunday, April 13th, 2008, is hereby proclaimed Scotia Glenville Senior Citizens Day throughout the Town of Glenville.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
New Business:
Councilman Koetzle – “I have absolutely no problem with a resident taking an issue with me personal or professionally or with any of us. That’s their right and I commend them for that, which is a duty that I signed up for when I decided to run for office.
However, what I think we need to do is enforce the rules of this board that we all agreed to when we sat in a work session and talked about enforcing civility. We made an agreement at that time between the five of us we would not allow personal attacks to continue at the podium. That was allowed tonight, Mr. Supervisor, and I just want to call it to your attention and ask that in the future it would be mindful of personal attacks from the podium. That is not appropriate and we all agreed to that.”
RESOLUTION NO. 83-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby adjourns into Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
Supervisor Quinn adjourned this portion of the meeting at 10:15 p.m. and entered into Executive Session.
Time being 11:00 pm Supervisor Quinn reconvened the meeting.
Motion to adjourn was moved by Councilman Quinn Seconded by Councilman Rosenberg.
The Town of Glenville Town Board Meeting was adjourned at 11:01 PM.
ATTEST:
______________________________
Linda C. Neals
Town Clerk
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