REGULAR MEETING OF THE TOWN BOARD
TOWN OF GLENVILLE
MAY 7, 2008
AT THE GLENVILLE MUNICIPAL CENTER
18 GLENRIDGE ROAD, GLENVILLE, NEW YORK
Present: Supervisor Frank X. Quinn, Councilmen Edward F. Rosenberg, Mark A. Quinn, Christopher A Koetzle and Councilwoman Valerie M. DiGiandomenico
Absent: None
Supervisor Quinn called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM; Councilman Koetzle 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.
Town Council Reports:
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “I would like to announce that the 16th Annual Indian Kill Open House and Fishing Day will take place on May 10th at the Indian Kill Nature Preserve on Hetcheltown Road from 8:30 am to 12 noon.”
Councilman Koetzle – “I am pleased to report that all of the leaves have been picked up across the town. I would like to congratulate the Commissioner and his staff for doing a great job. I received a lot of e-mails for continuing the program.
The bulk program took place and is now behind us. The town looks a lot better and as I understand that the Commissioner has now started sweeping the streets.
The Small Business and Economic Development Committee met on April 24th, we talked about a variety of issues. We talked about some of the initiatives that we want to tackle for the remainder of ’08. Some of the things that came out of that meeting include helping to communicate with the business community and residents better on economic development issues, some initiatives around marketing Glenville for new businesses and some initiatives around beautification. There was some discussion relating to a BID (Business Improvement District). Financing was talked about and we discussed regulatory issues for instance what can we do to help people in the town to beautify their own existing commercial
properties.
The next meeting is scheduled for May 15th at 7:30 am here at the Town Municipal Center and the public is welcomed.”
Councilman Quinn – “The Park Planning Commission is discussing the next phase of our Parks Master Plan and it addresses a second entrance to Indian Meadows among several other items. It looks like the consensus among the Commission is that we will probably target a permissive referendum asking public approval for bonded funding for such items.”
Supervisor Quinn – “Item #5 on the agenda is a public hearing regarding operating a proposed fire safety training facility on town property located at 1725 Vley Road Extension.
Supervisor Quinn opened the public hearing at 7:40 pm.
Peter Russo, former member of the Town Board – “With me tonight are members of the Consortium, representing the Glenville Fire Districts is EGFD Fire Chief Arnold Briscoe; representing the Zone 5 Police Academy is the Executive Director, Patrick Smith; representing Schenectady Fire Department is Deputy Chief Mike Della Rocca; representing SCCC (Schenectady County Community College) is the Dean of Continuing Education, Ed Baker and our Chairman of the Consortium, Dr. David Hennessey, Chair of the Business & Law Department at SCCC.
The history of this project dates back to 1998, when I was liaison to the Fire Districts and met Chief Al Falcon from the Village Fire Department, who was really responsible for lighting the fire under this project. In 1999, with the assistance of our County Legislator, Bob Farley, we secured a NYS Grant from Senator Farley in the amount of $300,000 to get this project off the ground.
In 2004 the Consortium was formed with the members just named to manage a regional facility for first responders that would encompass fire, police and emergency personnel training.
In 2005 we hired Saratoga Associates to implement a plan for the infrastructure and design of the training facility. Also, in 2005, the NYS DOT transferred the title of the property, which was to become the site of the training facility. In the same year, we made presentations to the Glenville Environmental Conservation Commission and received a “Negative Declaration”. We also appeared before the Glenville Planning and Zoning Commission which deferred to the Town Board for any declaration. WE are rescheduled to meet with them next Monday, May 12th.
In 2006 a budget item sponsored by Senator Farley and Assemblyman Paul Tonko was passed for $2.5 million dollars to start construction. The money will be handled by the NYS Dormitory Authority. Funds will be released upon receipt of a lease for the property from the Town.
In two years of discussion and negotiating between the Town Board and the Consortium we are finally near an agreement on lease for the site. Once the lease has been signed, then the Consortium can begin construction.”
Chief Arnold Briscoe, East Glenville Fire District – “The job of today’s firefighter encompasses many skills; we are trained in areas such as fire suppression, EMS response, hazardous materials, structural collapse, weapons of mass destruction, and special rescue operations just to name a few.
We must learn about basic principles of how fire reacts under certain conditions and construction, thermal layering of heat inside a building under fire conditions, vehicle extrication differences between a car and a semi-truck, or even how to disassemble a machine to release a patient that has been caught within, and more.
There have been significant innovations, improvements and changes, in our tools and training to perform these functions. We have come so far to meet these needs and yet, we have much more farther to go.
In most areas across the nation, firefighters are working at fewer fires today and have less experience compared to our predecessors of a generation ago. At the same time, the overall firefighter fatality rate remains virtually unchanged and there is an increase in the number of firefighters being killed and injured inside structures during extinguishment activities. As such, it has become apparent that we need high quality, effective, hands on training, today more than ever before.
With ever increasing requirements from the state and federal government in regards to training and qualifications for our personnel, the need for a state of the art training facility has never been greater. Currently, for our personnel to achieve some of the most crucial parts of the required training, both personnel and equipment must travel long distances out of the local area to attend sessions to meet their certification. This results in additional costs and equipment that is away from the area unable to respond in event of an emergency.
Another cost factor comes into effect with the Insurance Services Office or better known as the ISO. The ISO supplies data to professionals in many fields such as mortgage lending institutions and property and casualty insurance companies. One of the many factors that are calculated into each fire departments classification rating is the aspect of sufficient training and the location of the training facility used. The classification rating assigned to a fire department is used by these companies to determine the rate of insurance each one of us pays on our properties and belongings.
It would be of great benefit to not only our firefighters, but for our residents as well, for us to have a local, quality training center and be able to perform the basic an essential training evolutions to help obtain a successful outcome in event of an emergency response. Today’s reusable training facility design and construction is more realistic than ever before. This allows training skills and knowledge training to take place in a minimized risk environment. It teaches firefighters how to conduct certain tasks in an environment that comes as close to a real situation as safely as possible. Our knowledge increases with each class we attend and certification we obtain. The best way to increase our
knowledge is through proper training in the proper atmosphere. This is a critical part of providing quality service to all throughout the area.
I ask for everyone’s support towards the completion of this project. It is important to remember that the purpose of hands on training is to reinforce and expand our emergency responders’ knowledge and skill level, with the goal of enhancing our emergency scene safety.
I thank the town officials for your time and hard work towards this project, and I thank all our town residents for all the support they have shown all the emergency responders in the Scotia Glenville area through out the years.”
Pat Smith, Zone 5 Police Academy – “I think everybody in the Town of Glenville that’s ever traveled Route 50 is familiar with the NYS Police EVOC Center on the airport property. For over 30 years they have been training troopers to drive cars safely under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.
For a period of time back in the ‘80s local police officers were given the opportunity to go through their program out there which lasted for about 3 years until the State became so busy and so big that they could no longer afford the option of bringing in local police officers. The way we train local police officers today for driving a car, which is eight hours of every shift that they work they are in the biggest three thousand pound weapon that we have ever seen. They go out there with very limited training that they receive during the police academy. Very few agencies throughout the Capital District have the option of being able to do any in service driving training. One of the reasons that we don’t is
we never had a place that we can call our own to do our training. Right now we use the parking lot at Crossgates Mall, prior to that we used a parking lot of a closed K-Mart in Montgomery County, so this is a very desirable and very sought after option of ours to increase our training ability. What you will see out there is low speed driving skills taught to the police officers in the Capital District and not only to the people that are on basic courses but we will be able to bring back in service training to the recruits that are 3, 4, 6, 10 and 20 years down the pike in their careers.
We can’t continue to look at this as something that we don’t really need to do. Our insurance rates skyrocket every year because of the accidents that town owned vehicles are involved in. One of the things we hope to do at this training facility is be able to lower those rates across the board for everybody.
I would encourage you to approve this project.”
Ed Baker, Glenville resident, Dean of Continuing Education at SCCC – “SCCC is really pleased to be a participant in the Consortium and to be involved in the construction and development of this homeland security and public safety training center.
This is a natural extension of the academic programs we offer at the college such things as Criminal Justice, Fire Protection Technology, Emergency Management Systems as well as our cluster of EMT Training Courses. For the students who are in these programs this facility is going to provide a site for field experiences so they will be coming out of the class room over to this site and actually working with trained first responders in gaining this professional experience right in the field. Through the College’s interactions with first responder agencies across the region we’ve really recognized the need for collaborative training on a regional basis that is part of a greater system with training that must be conducted
at the full state wide level. We see this region and this facility becoming the State model for regionalized first responder training and we have begun to move in that direction. We anticipate offering a cluster of training programs utilizing the facility to serve the needs of first responders from rookies through chiefs. Through the efforts of Dr. Hennessey and through the NYS Fire Chief’s Association we have recently been awarded two legislative grants which enabled us to reach out and to provide training on a regional basis first through distributive learning, which is live interactive instruction. We’ll train first responders at a site, near their homes anywhere across the region and then when the classroom experience has been finished we will actually bring them to the training facility for week-end long practical applications of what they have learned in the classroom, a wonderful savings for them as individuals but also a wonderful
opportunity for them to get together and to meet other first responders around the region to share their knowledge and to create networks.
Development of these types of programs is the role of our new coordinator for the emergency management programs, who has been on the job for all of two weeks. It is programs like these which will insure that the region has a very strong and highly trained first responder force; it’s also programs like these that will generate the revenue that will insure the sustainability and the vitality of this training center into the future.”
Councilman Koetzle – “Mr. Russo, where is the next closest training center?”
Mr. Russo – “It could be Rockland County or Rochester, NY. We have had a marketing analysis of roughly the ten to twelve counties that make up our demographics for the capital district area which include Washington County down to Green County. There are roughly 10,000 firefighters in that area so there is a great need for this type of facility.”
Councilman Quinn – “You still enjoy the status of being one of just a handful of gas burning facilities, correct?”
Mr. Russo – “Yes, that is correct.”
Councilman Quinn – “I trust that guest municipalities and some of these corporate entities that you mentioned briefly, they are probably subjected to a fee structure. Do we have any idea of what kind of fees this will entail for other municipalities coming in to train?”
Mr. Russo – “I am glad that you asked the question because we don’t have the answer yet because we are working on a business plan. The business plan that we created four years ago doesn’t hold water for today so we are revising it and Dr. Hennessey has been working on that.”
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “I think it is in an excellent location, off the Thruway, very accessible and I think it is about time that it comes to fruition.”
Pat Vieta – “I live uphill from where this facility is going to be built. I am in support of this facility, I think it is a good facility for the Town, I think the Town is taking on a good leadership role for this facility however I do have a couple of comments and a couple of concerns.
My understanding is that this facility is going to be making use of 11.4 acres of land that is southeast of the Olsen’s Sign Company and southwest of the railroad tracks and borders Vley Road Extension.
The facility is estimated to cost approximately 11 million dollars and none of which will be funded by the town, it is all going to be external governmental. The town is being requested to provide the land essentially free of charge and since this will be a governmental training facility it seems to be appropriate. There are going to be 5.9 acres of meadow and brush land after which there is only going to be 3 acres and 5 acres of forested acres after which there is only going to be a ½ of an acre.
The tallest building is referred to as the burn building is identified as being four stories tall, however about a month ago I heard at a Town Board Work Session that it is going to be five stories tall. I am not really clear which one that is.
There is going to be a 6’ chain link fence with barbed wire on top surrounding the facility and security monitor gates. I am expecting it to make it look much institutionalized.
In the report the worse case scenario could add as many as 130 additional cars entering the site in the morning and exiting the site in the evening.
For some of the training they have identified that there would be smoke generating events, estimating 3 to 4 per week with 2 live burns per day using hay and/or propane.
My main concerns are the traffic and the entrance/exit on Route 5. I use that entrance/exit on a regular basis and trying to get out onto Route 5, making a left onto Route 5, can be extremely difficult because there is not a light there so I think that needs to be reassessed. I would suggest that they consider moving that entrance/exit further away.
My understanding is that the generation of noise is going to be minimal. With the EVOC course some people in the neighborhood are concerned that there is going to be screeching of tires and running of cars.
Another concern I have is the 4-5 story building, whether or not that is going to fit into the façade of the area. Right now that area is very much open space farmland type of community so having a large building like that could look very much out of place.
The other concern I have is the security fence, if that is a regulatory requirement then I would understand that there is really nothing that anybody could do but if it is not and it can be avoided not only would the cost be reduced but also the look of the facility would be much nicer.
I do have one question, the days and hours of operation, could you inform me of what the days and hours are? Is it going to be all day and/or all night?”
(Ms. Vieta’s question was addressed by several members of the Consortium but they did not use the microphone therefore their comments were not recorded.) She was informed that the facility would have some evening activity but not every night. She was also reassured that there would be no way near the amount of cars coming in or out that was previously mentioned, also the height of the building would only be 4 stories.
Ms. Vieta – “Some of the benefits to the town, my understanding is, this is going to help with the local municipalities, local police and fire departments and one of the questions that I have is are you going to charge them or would they at least get a reduced rate in order to use the facility?”
Mr. Russo – “Out of county would be the only ones charged to use the facility.”
Ms. Vieta – “Since this is going to be a government owned and operated facility I am with the understanding that this is not going to be a money making facility and that if it ever did turn into a money making facility the Town of Glenville, who is not going to be getting much in terms of a tax base for this facility, would then be able to get some of those monies from the money making facility if it ever became one. Is this true?”
Supervisor Quinn – “You have a not-for-profit corporation not a government corporation that the consortium represents, so it is not a government facility. We have been negotiating over time on what, if any, funds come to the town. We have reached an agreement on the town’s fees are just tied to the maintenance of the roads, the water and the sewer and that is basically it.”
Ms. Vieta – “That answers all of my questions and like I said I do support this but I just had a few concerns.”
Don Jefts – “I live directly adjacent to the center. I would just like to take a second to thank Mr. Russo for the briefing that was pretty through. I am curious about what is going on, what has been going on and I guess Ms. Vieta really addressed everything pretty efficiently but some of the questions I have I just wonder if I could get a little bit more concise answers to.
I am just curious to the hours of operations. When you say it is not all night is it Saturday, Sunday, 8:00 pm, 8:00 – 5:00 M-F?
Fire Chief Kasko responded but did not use the microphone. He stated that typically the classes would be held M-F 9:00 to 4:00. There would be a possibility that one may be held on a weekend from time to time.
Mr. Jefts – “The other question I had was regarding the lighting. I have been there for a while and it is a nice quiet, secluded so to put something like that in there it’s going to impact my front yard basically and I’m not to say I’m against it but I am concerned about the changes that are going to be. The lighting is one of them as far as…I know when people design lighting it’s let’s light up every square inch of the property so you can’t have any burglars crawling in or what ever. I would hope that the engineer would have some ideas as far as some low impact lighting, not lights broadcasting off the side of building, lighting up the sky.”
Jack McDonald, Engineer – “The lighting will be shadowed and focused on the site itself.”
Mr. Jefts – “That is one of my main concerns, having the lights glare all hours of the night, it ruins the atmosphere.
The other question I had is the buffer zone around it as far as leaving existing trees or what not. The sketch of the site kind of shows it open so there isn’t a whole lot of room for buffer as far as any existing trees. The zone area as shown on the map is going to kill all of those trees; they will all be dead within a couple of years. I wonder if there were any proposals for some nice evergreen type trees on any of the perimeter lines.”
Mr. McDonald – “The existing landscaping along Route 5 will stay.”
Mr. Jefts – “I would just hope that maybe I could work with you guys on that. I have some insight to maybe some of that placement, that is what I do for a living and maybe a few trees placed here and there would help me out a little bit.
The only other question I had regards the fire burn and the smoke issue as far as the smoke drifting. How does that work?”
Chief Kasko – “We will most certainly work with our neighbors. I came from a very large burn facility in Texas and there were days when the wind blew in a certain direction there were certain fuels that we didn’t burn that day. We want to be good neighbors”.
Beverly Clark – “I have been following this in the newspaper and I did have concerns about the burn issue which you have answered. My further question is if things change in five or ten years or fifteen years and there are issues with smoke or pollution that’s jurisdiction is it? Can the Village pass a law that you can’t burn on certain days or does the Town pass a law or the County? Who regulates what goes on there if there are issues in the future?”
Supervisor Quinn – “We’ve got the State laws, and then you have the county and then the town. Those are the municipalities and government agencies that are responsible through their own ordinances and/or laws and regulations.”
Ms. Clark – “So residents could petition the town if there were issues and things like that?”
Supervisor Quinn – “Yes.”
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the public hearing at 8:25 pm.
Supervisor Quinn – “Item No. 6 is an Annual Report on the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) given by James MacFarland.”
James MacFarland – “By way of history EPA in 1992 delegated responsibility for storm water regulations to NYS, which now administers the regulations through a State Polluted Discharge Elimination System Permit (SPDES Permit) for municipalities designated MS4 communities of which we are one. The draft annual report that I will now summarize is required to be given during a public meeting and further by this Friday I will make available to the public this draft report on our website, here at town hall, our library and many other locations which is another requirement and then include any comments received on it in the report which will be distributed June 1st to the state.
The annual report details the town’s activities over the past year and requires that we certify that we have been incompliance with the applicable regulations. The town is obligated to comply with regulations covering six minimum control measures; they are: public education and outreach; we accomplish this largely now through our website and directly dealing with contractors and developers.
Public involvement and participation - this is an area that we really need to improve our efforts in. It is kind of a difficult area to engage people in on an issue like storm water; it’s one we will be working on during this upcoming year.
Elicit discharge detection and elimination – we did pass a local law on that in 2007.
Construction site storm water run-off – this is really a major focus of what we do and it was also a local law enacted in 2007 to help regulate that.
Post construction storm water management – this is one of our more difficult areas. After something is built, in place there are regulations in place that say we need to monitor this for years, make sure everything is operating really well. There’s some vagueness in there and we really need to own in on how we effectively manage post construction activities.
Lastly pollution prevention and good housekeeping for municipal operations – this is keeping our own house clean and we also need specifically some more work here. The no. 1 issue at which I will discuss briefly is truck washing.
This annual report covers in detail the town’s action in those six areas. By way of a brief summary of some of these activities in 2007 we did pass a required erosion, sediment control storm water management local law that largely regulates construction activities. We also adopted an elicit discharge local law that is broader in scope than the erosion legislation and covers what one would typically associate with pollution of waters that enter the storm sewer system. While these legislations are important safeguards to clean water at the town level we shouldn’t forget that the other reason that these pieces of legislation were essentially mandated as a part of this program is to place the enforcement actions and
responsibility for clean waters at the town level.
My analogy is rather standard just like the waters that we regulate flow down hill and down stream so has the responsibility for these programs from the federal government to the state and now the local governments. By doing these actions in 2007 and being through the fifth year of the program we are now responsible, not the state, not the feds, for clean waters.
In addition to legislation other notable actions during the past year included taking our water plant septic system off line do to its proximity to our well head, attending a variety of staff training sessions throughout the year, getting basic information onto our website and updating such regularly; developing an inventory of catch basins that allow for better tracking and maintenance and designation of municipal storm water office (that would be me).
Since I was appointed Municipal Storm Water Officer January 1st I’ve directed my attention to the following areas; learning the regulations, players involved, technical information, best management practices and learning a lot of acronyms that’s an important part of the whole process. We developed, very early this year, a site disturbance permit that controls construction activities and provides some measure of funding for this enormous unfunded mandate. The town board adopted that permit in March of this year. We developed a new procedure to review Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPPs) they must be submitted by anyone when disturbing an acre or more. By utilizing County Soil and Water
Conservation District staff we provided expert assistance with a quick turn-a-round with reasonable prices. Our previous protocol had been to send an engineers work out to another engineer to perform largely the same task. We still may need to do that on occasion but I believe we are now being more business friendly as a result of this change without comprising the quality of the oversight the town must provide.
Construction sites – as we may do in the future and all other areas, Minimum Control Measure 4 that addresses construction activities is in my and many others opinion the best place to spend our time and attention. The site that has been opened up, particularly an acre or more, to the elements can without proper attention allow enormous amounts of sediments to enter the storm sewer system, however my guiding principle will be the spirit of the law not the letter of the law. MS4 like all regulations must be administered equitably and with common sense. To me it’s not the regulation that is the end game; it’s keeping our water ways free of sediment and pollutants.
Lastly, developing enlisted discharge detective reporting form – I believe we are the first in Schenectady County to do this about a month ago, we have already provided training for our employees and what that does is just make awareness among our own staff that if they see something out in the field they have gone through some training, some awareness and they have a form and a protocol by which to report this. We will face some challenges in this upcoming year they include staff time. We had in 2007 approved hiring a fulltime employee to devote to this task, we now all share in the many requirements of this program staff training. While I am still accessing what training is needed and who needs it, I need a lot of
training as do many of our other employees and we will be asking the board for support with training expenses as we go forward.
Coordination – this is a big one, we have had a lot of discussions over the last few days on this one. MS4 and the many departments that it touches is new enough that we are still finding our way as to how best to work together in communicating internally and effectively. Developing clear protocol is a goal for this year.
Investment in municipal operations – a truck washing station was mentioned previously, I know the Village has discussed it, the County is developing one, I believe has one. Niskayuna is potentially developing one, very expensive operation. We need to look at that as well as many other elements to compliance that we will need to consider and many come with price tags over and above staff time.
Producing annual goals results for annual reporting – our annual report is good, solid what we need to do over this next year is really put in measurable objectives and report how many reports have we issued, how many inspections have we done, how many people have we reached with public education, how many trucks have we washed so that is where we need to get more specificity to our report.
I came into the position on January 1st with a basic understanding of the program but no practical knowledge. Well far from an expert now, I feel confident to fill the town’s obligations in this area but not on my own. Staff in the engineering, planning and public work departments have been generous in their time and expertise in helping me do MS4 work and I offer my heartfelt thanks for their ongoing assistance.”
Privilege of the Floor:
Pat Vieta – Commented on several agenda items.
Ms. Vieta stated that she was against the additional funds to be designated for Freedom Park contribution and the Memorial Day Parade. She felt that the funds could be funded from the business community.
She also stated that she was in support of adopting the park use fees. She further stated that the parks are not used by everyone and those that do use them should be expected to pay for their usage and at a fair price.
Ms. Vieta also mentioned some comments that she heard at the boards last work session regarding two separate bond items that could potentially come forward. She further explained that one was for communication equipment and the other was to provide funding for highway department to replace roads and provide maintenance of the roads. She is very concerned about those kinds of bonds and that high of expenditures.
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn the closed the privilege of the floor.
Supervisor’s Comments:
Supervisor Quinn shared the following thoughts and ideas.
April 25th – Invited to General Electric for a briefing on the future of the power business.
April 29th – Attended the Local Government Council meeting to talk about economic development for the area.
May 1st – Intermunicipal Watershed Board meeting, we reviewed what’s happened since ’07, we established the ’08 goals and objectives. The major item that we have been working on for a while is to get the State Legislature to change the penalties for people who violate any of these Intermunicipal Watershed rules. It has passed the Senate; it is on the floor of the Assembly for action. Assemblyman Jim Tedisco has been very helpful with this.
May 1st – I had a meeting with the Beukendaal Fire Commissioners in reference to our FD #4 and what was their capability to take over pieces of this district in the future.
May 6th – NYS DOT gave a public information session at the Senior Center, on the proposed round-a-bout on Glenridge Road.
May 7th – I was invited to attend Conifer Park’s 25th Anniversary celebration at which I presented a proclamation from the town.
May 13th – Schenectady County Legislature will have a public hearing on the “Cold War” tax exemption on whether they are going to adopt it at the County or not.
May 16th – Schenectady County Inter-Government Coordinating Committee is meeting. They are talking over where can we cooperate and collaborate in different ways.
The town’s shared municipal services grant was approved in the amount of $579,000 for the Alplaus, Clifton Park joint sewer district.
I gave you tonight some updated figures from our work shop the other night. Amongst the other numbers that you can find in there is what does a bond cost for five years; if you ran them serial, if you ran one this year or one the next year; please review it so we can revisit some of these things.”
RESOLUTION NO. 90-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, over the past several years, the Town of Glenville has hired a certified public accounting firm to complete Audits of the Town's Financial Statements, and
WHEREAS, this audit is conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, the standards for financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards; and
WHEREAS, in 2007 three bids for fixed prices for financial statement audits for five years were received from a request for quotes sent out to CPA firms in the region; and
WHEREAS, the UHY LLP Certified Public Accountants (an independent Member of Urbach Hacker Young International) bid for 2007 of $22,700 for the financial statement audit represented the most experienced bidder with over 35 years of experience,
WHEREAS, the UHY LLP Certified Public Accountants (an independent Member of Urbach Hacker Young International) has estimated for 2007 that $5,000 will be the costs or the single audit required due to the level of federally funded grants received in 2007,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby authorizes the Supervisor to enter into an agreement with UHY LLP Certified Public Accountants, 66 State Street, Albany, New York, 12207-2595, to provide the audit of the Town's general purpose financial statements and the single audit for the year ended December 31, 2007, in the form of the N.Y. State Comptrollers’ Annual update document; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the fees for these services will be based on the actual time spent at their standard hourly rates; and
BE IT STILL FURTHER RESOLVED that the fees for this service shall be Nineteen Thousand Seven Hundred Dollars ($19,700.00), based on preliminary estimates by prior and current auditors plus the additional amount of One Thousand Five Hundred and Forty Dollars ($1,540.00) for auditing Section 8 Housing, totaling an amount not to exceed Twenty Seven Thousand Seven Hundred Dollars ($27,700.00), to be taken from budgeted account 01.00.1320.4500 except for Three Thousand One Hundred and Sixty Dollars ($3,160.00) for auditing the Highway Fund-Part Town to be taken from account 04.00.5140.4000; Eight Hundred Eighty Dollars ($880.00) for auditing the Water Funds to be taken from account 50.11.8310.4500; Eight Hundred Eighty Dollars ($880.00) for
auditing the Sewer Funds to be taken from account 40.09.8130.4500 and One Thousand Five Hundred and Forty Dollars ($1,540.00) for auditing the Sewer Capital Project Fund to be taken from account 40.09.8130.4500.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
Discussion…
Councilman Quinn – “We did get the money anticipated revenue going into that from Metroplex that is more than enough to cover this. However as a general municipal accounting procedure I agree with you 100%, it is such a small amount and we have had a windfall recently in that fund balance. I would urge that we adopt it.”
Councilman Koetzle – “I would echo Councilman Quinn’s comments. I do agree with the resident that spoke early that we do need to encourage these organizations to maybe seek some other funds from our business community in particular and as we have to tighten our belts we have to look at that. That being said I am going to be voting yes for that resolution because I believe Freedom Park is such an important gem for our town and our community and the Village and as I understand it they are a little bit behind on some funding and it being May now they have very little time to make that up. I think there is a philosophical debate going on, I think it is a great debate over where we should be appropriating our
money and I think there is a difference between the bare bones of making a community safe and maybe making a community livable. I think we should spend some time at some point talking about what makes a community livable? What is it that brings people to this community, make them want to live here, make them want to visit here, make them want to come and spend their time and yes their money here? Freedom Park is a great opportunity for us to give our residents something, to give our visitors something, to give our business community something and for $625 I would strongly encourage a yes vote.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “I would just like to say that I agree that it is a worthy cause but probably not a necessary cause. I do agree that we do have what some would consider a windfall from an increase revenue source from Metroplex but I would rather see that windfall go towards either tax relief or necessary expenditures. It’s hard to argue that it is only $625 but they all add up and it started with the leave and the bulk item pick up at our last meeting. These are things that the town board as a group agreed to take off the table during the budget process and now we are putting them back on one at a time and with an unknown as far as where we are going to end up at the end of the year for sales tax,
Metroplex money and mortgage tax I will be voting not.”
Supervisor Quinn – “Given the things that we have as unfunded yet projected ’08 expenses depending on what we do with those we could be… depends on what we do. We don’t know for sure what our revenue is. We have been very conservative with it and we won last year so let’s hope our conservative is there. Everybody is telling us don’t count on a lot of revenue.
We don’t have the revenue and we have some un-projected expenses and until we get those out of the way because those could be ¼ million dollar each in the ’09 budget. On precedent as far as stewardship goes I see it as needs and wants and we did this as a board, we laid it all out last year and now we are back three times and I don’t know where this is going to stop but we have got roads that need doing long before we need these things. We’ve got a console we need doing long before we do these things. In good conscious I can’t vote for going to the fund balance anymore until we’ve finished the budgeted things we have got in front of us. When we do that then we can go back and see
if there is any money left so I will be voting no.”
Councilman Koetzle – “I would just like to clarify Mr. Supervisor, you keep referring to this board “cut this out”, this board did not cut this out and it seems like every meeting we have to continue to talk about this. It was the previous board who cut these funds out. This is a new board and it is right and proper for this board to do what they think is right and proper to do for the town. Let’s be clear I was not here last year so this board did not cut these funds the previous board did. This board is looking at restoring these funds and I think it is a very clear distinction and I think we have to be honest about it and I think we also have to stop double counting the leaves and
the bulk pickup as we have talked about before. Those monies are being sent to us from the State, they are not be allocated out of the fund balance, they are not having a negative impact on any taxpayer in this town and we have to be clear about that and we have to be honest about that. This was laid out in the last session, it has been laid out in the media, and we will be getting two State grants to cover the cost of that program.”
RESOLUTION NO. 91-2008
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, funding for Freedom Park in the 2008 budget is currently at $1,000, a $1,250 reduction from the 2007 level,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that an additional $625 is hereby designated for Freedom Park, such funds to be transferred from the Town Outside Fund Balance.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn and Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Noes: Councilman Rosenberg and Supervisor Quinn
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
Discussion…
Councilman Rosenberg – “There is a business improvement district that’s within the Village that has actually had some discussion at their meetings and benefit greatly from this parade walking down through their business improvement district, which I happen to be president of. I can assure you from conversations with other board members that we would be more than happy to help to represent this and we have not been asked.”
Supervisor Quinn – “In good consequence and good stewardship I can’t spend money until I have got the other bills out of the way.”
RESOLUTION NO. 92-2008
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, funding for the Scotia Glenville Memorial Day Parade in the 2008 budget is currently at $1,000, a $2,478 reduction from the 2007 level,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that an additional $1,239 is hereby designated for the Memorial Day Parade, such funds to be transferred from the Town Outside Fund Balance.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn and Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Noes: Councilman Rosenberg and Supervisor Quinn
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 93-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, by application dated April 03, 2008 and pursuant to Local Law No. 3 of 1974, Schenectady County Environmental Advisory Council has applied for a permit to conduct Outdoor Amusement/Entertainment at the Indian Kill Nature Preserve on Hetcheltown Road, May 10, 2008 and
WHEREAS, said application did include permission of the owner of the property on which said Amusement/Entertainment will be conducted, and the necessary insurance coverage; and
WHEREAS, said application has been referred to the Chief of Police, Town of Glenville and the respective Fire Chief of the area in which said entertainment will be conducted and the Schenectady County Environmental Health Department, as required by Article II, Section C of said Local Law No. 3,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby approves said application of the Schenectady County Environmental Advisory Council’s “Indian Kill Open House Fishing Day”; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Clerk be and she hereby is authorized and directed to issue the required permit subject to all stipulations cited by the Chief of Police, the Alplaus Fire Chief and the Schenectady County Environmental Health Department.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 94-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville Open Space Committee has prepared an open space plan for consideration by the Town Board; and
WHEREAS, adoption of an open space plan is considered an “Unlisted Action” in accordance with 6 NYCRR Part 617 (State Environmental Quality Review Act {SEQRA}); and
WHEREAS, the Glenville Town Board has assumed SEQRA Lead Agency in this instance; and
WHEREAS, both the Glenville Environmental Conservation Commission and the Planning & Zoning Commission recommended that the Town Board find no significant adverse environmental impacts associated with adoption of the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan, and that the Board issue a SEQRA “Negative Declaration;”
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby determines that adoption of the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan will not result in a significant adverse environmental impact; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby issues a SEQRA “Negative Declaration” (attached) for the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan, based on the following findings:
· The policies of the Open Space Plan are consistent with various recommendations of the Town of Glenville Comprehensive Plan relative to preservation of agricultural lands, wetlands, steep slopes, etc. Further, the Open Space Plan draws heavily on the Comprehensive Plan in acknowledging that the western portion of Glenville is an area where development should be kept to a minimum given the lack of infrastructure in this area, and the fact that western Glenville is not well-suited to development due to the presence of numerous natural resources, steep slopes, poor soils, etc.
· This action will not result in an adverse change in existing air quality, surface water quality, traffic volumes, noise levels, solid waste production, etc. On the contrary the Open Space Plan speaks to the various benefits in preserving open space, and in not allowing development in geographic areas which would not readily support new development.
· Adoption of the Open Space Plan will not result in the destruction of large quantities of vegetation, wildlife habitat or other natural resources. The Open Space Plan, in fact, aims to preserve vegetation, farmland, wildlife habitat, wetlands, steep slopes, flood plains, etc.
· Similarly, the Open Space Plan will not result in the impairment of important historical, archeological or aesthetic resources. The Plan identifies these resources and suggests that they be permanently preserved.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico – “I would like to express our gratitude to the Open Space Committee, chaired by Mark Storti and assisted by Kevin and Mike from our Planning Department and all of the members of the Committee for their time and effort on this project.
They completed this comprehensive plan in less than 1½ years and worked very hard to accomplish this in such a short time. Thank you all for a job well done.”
RESOLUTION NO. 95-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville Open Space Committee has prepared an open space plan for consideration by the Town Board; and
WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan is a policy document that identifies strategies for open space preservation, funding options, goals and objectives, etc;
WHEREAS, the Glenville Town Board, as SEQRA Lead Agency, has issued a SEQRA “Negative Declaration” for this action; and
WHEREAS, the Town Board held a public hearing on the draft Open Space Plan on April 2, 2008, at which time strong support for adoption of the Plan was voiced;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby adopts the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that adoption of the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan is based upon the following findings:
· The Open Space Plan lays out a reasonable approach to open space preservation; an approach that recognizes the quality-of-life benefits and fiscal advantages of preserving open space, while not calling for draconian measures that would be unacceptable to the public (i.e. eminent domain or the raising of property taxes to levy funding for an aggressive open space acquisition program). The more passive and voluntary tenor of the Open Space Plan is what ultimately appealed to the public, and to this Board.
· Both the Glenville Environmental Conservation Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend adoption of the Open Space Plan.
· Public sentiment, as voiced at the April 2, 2008 public hearing, and as evidenced strongly in the initial community survey, supports adoption of a plan for preservation of open space in the Town of Glenville.
· A number of policies articulated in the Town of Glenville Open Space Plan complement various provisions of the Town of Glenville Comprehensive Plan, particularly with respect to preservation of agricultural lands, steep slopes, wetlands and floodplains, and preservation of the character of western Glenville, in general. In short, the Open Space Plan and Comprehensive Plan, two key land use policy documents, are consistent with one another.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 96-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS, a variety of zoning text amendments are being proposed by the Town; and
WHEREAS, the proposed amendments cover items such as 1) the keeping of horses in Suburban Residential zoning districts on lots of 10 acres or greater; 2) expiration of site plan approvals; 3) home occupations; 4) accessory uses and structures; and 5) definitions
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby schedules a public hearing for Wednesday, May 28, 2008, at 7:30 p.m., or as shortly thereafter as possible, at the Town of Glenville Municipal Center, to consider various proposed revisions to the Town of Glenville Zoning Ordinance.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
Discussion…
Councilman Koetzle – “I have had concerns about this since it was proposed. I think that we are starting to nickel and dime our residents a little too much. Charging a fee to the residents to use the park, even a special use permit, I am troubled by, I am not comfortable with. I am concerned also that in this policy there would be discretion where upon written request we may wave the fees. I think then there is some question about favoritism or there might be some question as to well this one paid and now I have to pay maybe I shouldn’t have to pay either. How do we determine who pays and who doesn’t have to pay? I see that being a problem. I have a problem charging residents
the same that we would be charging non-residents. If non-residents want to come and use our parks I could support the fee but I can’t support charging the residents the same fee we would be charging non-residents after the residents already pay tax dollars to support those parks. That is fundamentally unfair and I just can’t support it.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “We should probably note too that I don’t think it has been delineated anyway that when you tell me your are going to charge me to use the park that I have to pay to have my kids go on the swings. It’s not the entire park, it is certain parts of the park like the pavilions and stuff as Councilman Quinn said will generate, we have to send somebody over there to clean up after them that we normally wouldn’t have so I can certainly support this. It is a minimal charge. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree that I’d like to charge outside people but I don’t know how you do that. I am in support of it, it is not a big fee and it sort of paves the way down the
road to help improve our parks.”
Councilman Koetzle – “We could separate the residents from the non-residents by who is actually holding the event.
There is some confusion on this - although someone who uses the pavilion may make a mess that we might have to go clean up. I understand that we do have staff that maintains the park so there is a bit of double dipping here. Those people who maintain the park as their daily routine or on a routine schedule would be taking care of the park anyway so there is a bit of double dipping on revenue. As we see there is a $15 administrative fee in here and although I understand there is some work to do with filing a permit that by in large is paying for a person we have on staff anyway.”
RESOLUTION NO. 97-2008
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, in order to provide for equitable use of the various town park facilities that are subject to permitted use and rental, a draft park use permit application has been developed, and
WHEREAS, the town’s Park Planning Commission has reviewed the draft application and suggested changes that are incorporated in the application that is attached hereto, and
WHEREAS, the Director of Human Services recommends that the draft application be adopted, in that it will result in greater access by the general public to park facilities and generate revenue appropriate to permitted use,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town of Glenville Park Use Permit Application dated 4/30/08 be adopted effective May 7th, 2008.
Ayes: Councilmen Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: Councilman Koetzle
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 98-2008
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, in order to provide for the maintenance and security of the town parks during the summer months temporary employees are needed,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Melissa Van Heusen (Park Laborer), 45 Cuthbert St., Scotia, Nick McCracken (Park Laborer), 53 Charlton Rd., Scotia, Greg Myslinski (Park Security Worker), 405 Mohawk Ave., Scotia, and David Kinns, (Park Security Worker), 1 ViaDelZotto Dr., Glenville are hereby re-hired and Christopher Norton (Park Laborer), 42 Pinewood Dr., Glenville is hereby hired, for a period not to exceed 5/12/08-9/30/08 at the budgeted rate of $8.00/hr.(no benefits), and staying within the total departmental budget for these services.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 99-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS, the Annual Memorial Day Parade will be held on Wednesday, May 21, 2008; and
WHEREAS, this particular Wednesday is when the Town Board of the Town of Glenville is normally scheduled to meet; and
WHEREAS, all members of the Town Board will be participating in the Memorial Day Parade,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby cancels the regularly scheduled meeting of May 21, 2008 and reschedules the meeting to be held on May 28, 2008.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 100-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
BE IT RESOLVED, that the minutes of the regular meetings held on April 2, 2008 and April 16, 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. 101-2008
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, the Glenville Department of Public Works has several pieces of equipment that have been replaced or declared unusable; and
WHEREAS, the Town has the opportunity to participate in the Annual Countywide Auction to sell said equipment for best price,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville hereby declares the following equipment surplus and authorizes the Commissioner of Public Works to sell for market value or best price;
PARK AUCTION LIST
1998 Bunton/Textron Mower – Serial No. XBHT66177
1994 Toro Groundsmaster Mower – Serial No. 3079480342
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
Town Administrator’s Report:
Tony Germano – “At the request of Schenectady County Board of Elections Commissioners, Commissioner LeClair and I coordinated with General Services Administration and we are going to be storing 200 voting machines that are soon to be discarded for a temporary period time at Building 403 in the Industrial Park at the GSA Building that we have a lease agreement with. We still have not heard whether it is a definite from the County yet but they will be moved to the site sometime in the fall where they will remain for a short period of time and then they will be properly disposed of. The machines will be stored with no liability to either GSA or the Town of Glenville.
The only other thing I want to report on is the Supervisor commented on earlier about inter-governmental cooperation working with the County on emergency communications and the Chief and members of his communications team and I met with the County Administrator last week. We talked about where we are at and our upgrade of our communication project and where they are at. We talked about joint dispatch, we talked about sharing of possible tower sites and a number of other things that I believe could benefit the Town and benefit the County and maybe benefit some of the surrounding towns as well.
So we are starting to look at the sharing of assets as a costs reduction for all us and Mr. Supervisor you are right they are still in the study phase of central dispatch. They’ve decided to basically not move forward on a total communication upgrade, they are going to be doing some frequency adjustments right now and we could benefit from some of those adjustments. If we decide to move forward and we do upgrade tower sites my sense is that they will need some of those tower sites as well and again that could be a costs savings for us.”
RESOLUTION NO. 102-2008
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 and a contract 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 9:40 p.m. and entered into Executive Session.
Time being 10:00 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 10:01 PM.
ATTEST:
______________________________
Linda C. Neals
Town Clerk
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