REGULAR MEETING OF THE TOWN BOARD
TOWN OF GLENVILLE
JULY 16, 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 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 – Re-iterated the report that was given by Councilman Rosenberg at the June 18th meeting regarding information that was received by the Town from the Capital District Regional Planning Commission reporting the statistics on residential building permit activity in Schenectady County.
Councilman Quinn – “Normally James MacFarland is here the week after our Canalfest but I did attend a few of the events, especially the kayak related events with some family members who competed in that. I have to tell you that at least at the Maalwyck Park location it was very well attended. There were a great many things for both adults and kids to do and I was very impressed.
For those of you, who were trying to be downtown on Route 50, on Saturday, we also had the Firemen’s Convention Parade and it was sparsely attended but I can see that in upcoming years if we do have it again with a little more marketing effort on their part and ours it should be very promising.”
Supervisor Quinn – “I would piggy-back on Councilman Quinn’s comment about the Canalfest. It was very educational; the Birds of Prey demonstration was really interesting.”
Supervisor Quinn – “Item number 5 on the agenda is a public hearing on the proposed local law to amend Chapter 245 “Taxation” of the Code of the Town of Glenville by adopting the Real Property Tax Exemption for “Cold War” veterans.
Supervisor Quinn opened the public hearing at 7:37 pm.
Darlene Abbatecola, Town Assessor – “The “Cold War” is for veterans that served during peace time to accept the exemption onto their town and county taxes only, not school. It would reduce the taxes up to 50%. The dates served fall between September 2, 1945 and December 26, 1991.
I have instructions to what they need to bring in and they can also go to the State web-site to down load the forms and I also have them available in my office.”
Supervisor Quinn – “The data that I have says as far as what impact it will it have on our tax base; one-tenth of one percent.”
William Bach, town resident – “I have been here before when this first came up. I was drafted in the U.S. Army in 1955 and for over 50 years I have been denied the status of veteran by the dysfunctional politicians in our State House. The fact that I served my country and have not been considered a veteran by NYS is ludicrous. In over 50 years they have ignored all men and women who served in the cold war era both here and overseas. The State has now passed a law or resolution to give us tax break but they do not have the back bone to implement this. Instead they leave it to the local towns to say yea or nay, this way if a local citizens pass it the State can take credit for a good idea, if the locals
say no, they the State say well we tried.
I am asking you to pass this quickly so I and many other veterans who are still around after 50 years can benefit from a tax break. When you are living on fixed incomes we could sure use one these tight times.”
Robert Speck, town resident – “I have been a town resident for over 40 years. I don’t think too many people realize that the draft didn’t stop in 1945 when the war was over, it continued on for many years. I was drafted in 1948, I didn’t enlist I was drafted. I served two years overseas in Japan and then was honorably discharged at that time.
I would like to point out that the Cold War Veterans didn’t receive any bill-of-rights. The only thing that I have been able to determine from the Veteran’s Administration over these years is that I am entitled to a flag on my coffin when I die and at 84 that might not be to long. So I am hoping that there are a lot of Cold War Veterans that are at an elderly age, I know you have financial problems at this time but I would hope that you would take into consideration the number of veterans and all the years that they served for their Country.”
Kurt von Maucher, Schenectady County Council of Veterans Organization as well as the American Legion on Disabled Veterans – “I currently receive an exemption on my property for my service and my current disabilities. As Mr. Bach had said many of the veterans that have served this country just because it was not a “time of war” have been ignored for many years. They were there, they served their country, they served honorably and it was not their choice to say “I’ll go in when there is nothing going on”. Many of them were drafted, they served for many years and some made a career out of it which was their decision. They were in when there wasn’t any conflict going on yet
they are still veterans and they have been ignored as veterans for many, many years.
A lot of them did not choose when to go, they were drafted and they did serve their country and they deserve the benefits of being a veteran. Currently Scotia-Glenville is the only one that has not ratified and implemented this 15% exemption. I encourage the Board to pass this. The only thing that I would add is instead of a $12,000 cap on the exemption you make it more realistic with the alignment of property values, 15% off a house assessed at $100,000 that would be a $15,000 exemption. Even a single family dwelling you are talking anywhere from $140,000 to $200,000 for a house. I am not saying make it 15% of $200,000, what I am saying is make it like an average fair market value throughout the town if the
average fair market value is $130,000 make it based on $130,000 so it is kind of equitable for the people that have the least means.
I hope you pass the proposal.”
Mat Tongue – “I have been a resident of the Town of Glenville for eight years. 1945 to 1991 carries a large span of time and there are a lot of veterans that served during that time period. Some of them served during wars, some of them are war time veterans or entitled to different exemptions than the bulk of the veterans that served during that time period are not. Make no mistake about it that during 1985, when I enlisted in the Air Force, the Soviet Union was a very real threat to the security of this country. The Soviet Union and the Eastern block didn’t fall merely because of the efforts of the President and the spending on the military; it fell because of the large volunteer force that was
willing to ensure the security of the country. Most of us that joined the military during that time period didn’t know whether or not we would be called to go to war or not. We joined because we saw value in helping to serve our country and protect it.
I echo the sentiments of my fellow Glenville residents and veterans.”
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the public hearing at 7:48 pm.
Supervisor Quinn – “A lot of people forget all the unaccompanied tours that were in existence for anybody that served in the military during that same time period. Some families got split up; on the unaccompanied tours something more desirable but certainly a lot to undesirable locations.”
Supervisor Quinn – Item number 6 on the agenda is a public hearing to hear comments on the proposed amendments to Chapter 255, “Vehicle and Traffic” of the Code of the Town of Glenville.
Supervisor Quinn opened the public hearing at 7:50 pm.
Kurt von Maucher – “I haven’t seen anything in writing whether these are four-way stops or two-way stops. It does make a big difference.”
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the public hearing at 7:50 pm.
Privilege of the floor:
Ben Huisjen, Van Buren Lane – Mr. Huisjen purchased his property in 2007. He was confident that once he made this his primary residence the Town would have to provide health and human services and transportation to the residence.
Mr. Huisjen stated that in 1993 the Town Board voted to include the entire Van Buren Lane, they did not vote to include part of it. He quoted the following from Town documents which he obtained through a FOIL request: “Van Buren Lane in the Town of Glenville has been a town highway; it has been maintained by the town highway department for many years, etc. Whereas in the interest of justice are best served by accepting the conveyance of said real property which can be used for no other purpose other than highway purposes and by such acceptance of the conveyance allowing it to be removed from the real property tax rolls”.
He stated that in his opinion the town has an obligation to maintain all the way down to his residence and through his research found nothing saying beyond this point you on are your own.
Mr. Huisjen also mentioned that he had repeatedly asked the town to remove the road sign that was erected and put in violation of his easement.
He stated that the mailman has consistently said we don’t deliver on roads that are not maintained. He was told to place his mailbox along with the other ones at the end of the road.
He also mentioned the fact that cars park on the roadway and therefore he can not get past them to gain access to his house.
He stated that he would appreciate it if the board would act on this matter.
Kurt von Maucher, Chairman and Secretary of the Memorial Day Parade Committee for Scotia-Glenville – Mr. von Maucher thanked the board for their action recently for the additional funding for the parade above what was originally budgeted.
Mr. von Maucher explained that the parade has been held for over 80 years and jointly supported by the Village and the Town with the Village paying over two-thirds of the cost of the parade.
He further stated that the Village provides the police services, extra EMS services and the DPW workers and park workers that set everything up. He stated that those costs are all covered by the Village.
He thanked the board again and asked the board to appoint someone from the board as liaison to the Parade Committee so they can see the inter-workings of the Committee and the difficulties that we face.
No one else wished to speak; Supervisor Quinn closed the privilege of the floor.
Supervisor’s Comments:
Supervisor Quinn shared the following information:
“Each of you received today the budget so we know where we are for the first 6 months. I ask you to go carefully through it because as you know it shows 6 months and what is projected for the next 6 months. The projections are based on past experiences over the years and what ever information the department heads share with us.
On the three main funds we are slightly over on the projected revenue, 2.3% which is $200,000. On the expenditure side we are over $600,000 or 6% so please go into the line items for the three main accounts and you will note that there are certain places in here where there’s major glaring in over expenditures.
We have to prepare a budget for 2009, so early September we will be involved in that. If we are going to make any adjustments we only have 6 months to make them. The revenue stream, there is nothing exciting that says we are going to get a whole lot more revenue than what you are seeing on there but we do know that expenses have gone up considerably in certain areas.
While we were very conservative in both judging the revenue and the income you can see the revenue is pretty close at 2% to the favorable as opposed to underestimating it. There are things in here such as the mortgage tax, down almost 20% from the previous year.
June 20th – I attended the Schenectady County Intergovernmental Council discussing dispatch and equipment. The consultants that they hired have just finished their reports; we are all supposed to be getting one right around now. The comments are what about the technology; will the technology we have match up in the future with other technologies? The consultant says yes and the interesting piece of it is if you made a central dispatch for the towns and the city and the two villages they don’t think that there is any fund savings or cost savings in that at all. As soon as we get the report you will see how their rational and the logic went on that because to me I don’t get it.
The County is waiting for the State to say what they are going to do with the newest technology for dispatch. They are shrinking band-waves and so forth. They are not moving on putting central technology together yet.
Some of us attended the Alplaus Parade. Carver Construction (installing the new and updated sewer lines) has not only done a wonderful job of not only getting the work done on time or ahead of schedule but they cleaned it up and the people were very happy and everything went very smooth.
July 7th – I was involved in a ribbon cutting at Socha Plaza for a new insurance company. (State Farm)
July 10th – I was at a meeting for the volunteer fire companies’ convention that Councilman Quinn mentioned earlier. They have their kick off and business rally, so I welcomed them on your behalf for the Town.
On August 3rd – Schenectady Military Affairs Council will have a meeting for the 75th Birthday of the 109th. They are planning an open house for that event in October.
I will be off to Alaska to fish for salmon for a few days.
Between now and our next meeting I would like to have a work session because we have do work on the budget for next year. I ask each one of you to give me as what you see as the tax goal, what do we want taxes to do, go up or down, if up or down by how much.”
Supervisor Quinn moved ahead with the agenda.
RESOLUTION NO. 127-2008
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the Howard Group, LLC has offered to dedicate to the Town of Glenville a triangular parcel of land located on the southerly boundary of Glenridge Road at the northwest corner of the parcel of land owned by the Town of Glenville more particularly shown on the map annexed hereto; and
WHEREAS, the Superintendent of Highways has advised that this parcel is necessary for future road construction and for access by the Town to utilities and had recommended that the Town Board accept this offer of dedication,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Glenville does hereby accept title to the parcel of land offered to the Town by the Howard Group, LLC, more particularly described in the deed and map annexed to this resolution subject to the approval of the documents and title by the Town’s attorney.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 128-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
WHEREAS, the lateral transfer of Anne Peltier to fill a vacancy arising from a retirement in the Police Department has created a vacancy in the Comptroller’s Office; and
WHEREAS, it is the recommendation of the Comptroller’s Office that an Account Clerk be hired to fill that vacancy; and
WHEREAS, existing employees and the current Civil Service competitive list for that title were canvassed for interest and interviewed; and
WHEREAS, the Comptroller, Assistant to the Comptroller, and Director of Human Services are in agreement on the best candidate for this position,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Lisa Sauer, 419 VanVorst Road, is hereby appointed to the position of Account Clerk in the Comptroller’s Office, effective 7/21/08, at the salary ($30,962) specified in the Town of Glenville/CSEA contract.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 129-2008
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) expiration of site plan approvals; 2) home occupations; 3) accessory uses and structures; and 4) definitions
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board hereby schedules a public hearing for Wednesday, August 20, 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 DiGiandomencio and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 130-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
BE IT RESOLVED that the Monthly Departmental Reports for June 2008 as received from the following:
Assessor Department
Building Department
Dog Control
Highway Department
Human Services
Justice Department
Planning Department
Section 8 Housing Payments
Town Clerk's Office
Water Department
be, and they hereby are accepted, approved for payment and ordered placed on file.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 131-2008
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
BE IT RESOLVED, that the minutes of the regular meeting held on June 18, and the special meeting held on July 9, 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
Discussion…
Supervisor Quinn – “This is something that has been left over for years that never got closed out so we are closing out a piece of business.”
RESOLUTION NO. 132-2008
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the County of Schenectady has requested a conveyance from the Town of Glenville of a previously abandoned portion of Habel Lane in order to enhance security at the Stratton Air Guard base; and
WHEREAS, the Superintendent of Highways has advised that the Town of Glenville has no need to retain the property proposed for conveyance and has recommended that the property be conveyed to the County of Schenectady,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Supervisor is hereby authorized to execute a deed to the County of Schenectady for a previously abandoned portion of Habel Lane, more particularly shown on the map annexed hereto reserving to the Town of Glenville an easement for drainage and other municipal utilities.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
Town Administrator’s Report
Tony Germano – “I have three issues that I’d like to brief you on this evening. The first has to do with the efforts of our Employee Health Care Working Group, it’s part of our labor management group, we had reported previously that through the efforts of the group working with our insurance broker we were able to offer a health care coverage for Medicare eligible employees and I believe there are three employees that have signed up for it. It was a savings to both the employee and the town, for a two person coverage it’s about $4,000 per year in insurance premium which is about $350 per month in premium savings for making one small change. We are announcing this in a lot of different forms and
the hope is that we have 30 other members that are enrolled in our insurance program that are Medicare eligible and our hope is that we can reach them and have them look at this coverage. Those that have looked at it thus far have indicated that there is no diminution in insurance coverage from what they were previously paying a much higher premium for.
A quick update on the Lowe’s project, on Monday evening Lowe’s was in front of our Planning Board and they did get approval for what they call a modified site-plan adjustment. As we all know the need for the site-plan adjustment was that an access road was going to be built behind the adjoining properties to Lowe’s Drive which is unfortunately the site of contamination. As a result Lowe’s was prevented from doing any construction to provide permanent access to the rear of that property. They did agree to provide temporary access more to the front portion of that adjoining property towards the Freemans Bridge Road site. We are now working with them because easements are required from the two
property owners that border the soon to be purchased Lowe’s site.
Everything looks like it’s in its final stage and we are hopeful to hear from Lowe’s very shortly about a start date.
The last thing that I would like to update you on is the sewer project that is ongoing between us and the Town of Clifton Park and our Alplaus Sewer Project. If you have been over there you’re seeing that a lot of area was dug up, a lot of pipe was pushed. There’s been a real diligent effort by town staff as well as Carver Construction. They have done a fantastic job in not only getting the work done in a timely manner but accommodating the needs of all those that traverse those roads day in and day out. We are on schedule, the hope is that next month or so the project will be ready for hook-up. We’re working with Commissioner LeClair about notifying residents on the proper procedures to go ahead
and hook-up the sewer. With respect to the shared services grant, the $576,000 grant, we’re working now with the State Department on the dispersing of those dollars. We also are working with the Town of Clifton Park to develop an inter-municipal agreement which we would need because they are going to be hooking on to the Alplaus Sewer system, eventually providing service to some 250 of their residents as well as the Glencliff School. We will probably be meeting with Clifton Park in the next couple of weeks to finalize how the funding will be applied from the grant and how that will be applied to the debt; $576,000 less our 10% share of the grant will significantly reduce the debt not only to the Alplaus residents but also those in Clifton Park as well as the Glencliff School. We are right where we need to be in terms of not only the building of our side of the sewer system but we expect that Clifton Park will soon be starting construction once they get
their engineering done and once we come to terms with the actual inter-municipal agreement.
Commissioner LeClair and I also met with the City of Schenectady, as you know they process our waste, and we have now provided them with the engineering information that’s required. We need to do this because we are bringing outside town users onto the system.”
New Business
Councilman Rosenberg – “I would like to respond to Mr. von Maucher regarding the parade funding. You said that you didn’t find out until May that the funding had changed? Because this was in the budget and we as board members were told that anyone that was affected was notified early in the year.”
Mr. von Maucher – “We were notified in May about the additional funding that the board approved.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “I happen to be President of the Scotia BID (Business Improvement District) and we have talked about this. There were a couple of folks that came representing your organization and we had offered a suggestion back then that perhaps that BID may be interested in supporting your organization but we didn’t get any requests. Did that message get back to you? Everybody wants to have the parade and everybody wants to support the Veterans and honor them, that’s all fine and good but the BID also benefits financially from having that parade come through their area and they may actually be interested in supporting that because of that.”
Mr. von Maucher did not come up to the microphone; therefore his comments were not recorded.
Councilman Rosenberg – “I am on both sides here, coming from a stand point of should the Town be sponsoring a parade that occurs in the Village or should the BID be sponsoring the parade in the BID. I would prefer seeing the money coming from the BID and I pay into it.”
Motion to adjourn was moved by Councilman Rosenberg; Seconded by Councilwoman DiGiandomenico.
The Town of Glenville Town Board Meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM.
ATTEST:
______________________________
Linda C. Neals
Town Clerk
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