REGULAR MEETING OF THE TOWN BOARD
TOWN OF GLENVILLE
MARCH 18, 2009
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 7:00 PM; Councilman Quinn 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 have an update on the Lowe’s project. NYS DEC will commence remediation of the chemical contamination on the former Kenco site next week. DEC will begin site preparation for the chemical treatment process they plan to install. In addition Lowe’s expects to remove the very prominent abandoned residential structure on the front of their property in a month or so and will then commence more site improvements. Lowe’s is still hopeful for a late in the year store opening.”
Councilman Quinn – “I have a brief report from the Open Space Committee, we met last week and we discussed the plans for the Christiana property that was donated to the town recently. Mark Storti the Chairman provided a very good GIS map and it looks like initially we’re going to be examining some passive uses of the park which include trails and what-not but there’s actually going to be a second walk through that property because they want to see it at its worst during flood stage in the spring. It looks like initially about a third of it is feasible in terms of trail demarcation and construction but we want to see it when it is at its worst because it is extremely wet back there. We will keep you
updated as it progresses.”
Councilman Koetzle – “From the Assessor’s Office, May 26th is “Grievance Day” from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. This is the day to grieve your taxes. The assessor’s office will start taking appointments next month for those who want to present their case to the Board of Assessment Review or people can just drop their paper work off to the Assessor and it will be reviewed by the Board of Assessment Review (BAR).
April 1st is the day our Public Works Department will begin picking up the brush from the storms. The brush should be brought out to the edge of one’s property, not in the roadway. It does not have to be cut up or tied. They will be making two complete passes through the town.
I just wanted to remind everyone that the Glenville Business Association is having a fund raiser for “Hannah’s Hope” on March 27th from 12 noon to 8:00 pm at Solid Surface Craftsman, Freemans Bridge Road. It is a $25.00 donation, NCAA Basketball Tournament, corn-beef and cabbage will be served and take-out dinners are available. This all goes towards trying to help a little girl named Hannah with a progressive terminal disease that right now does not have any funding or research. If you can’t attend you may make a donation at www.hannahshopefund.org .”
No one exercised the Privilege of the Floor.
Supervisor’s Comments:
Supervisor Quinn shared the following information:
March 12th – Town Board held an information meeting on Fire Protection District #4 at the Scotia-Glenville Middle School. It was a good meeting, a good sharing of ideas and the surveys that were filled out are being calculated.
March 19th – There will be a meeting here with a potential vendor to talk about the internal audit and audit control and just to go over; what do they do, what don’t they do and what we want done if we go forward.
March 20th – In Albany there will be a conference being put on by the NYS Office of the Aging at 10:00 am. It’s actually a panel discussion on “aging in the community”, since we have 20+% of our population that is over the age of 60, by the last census, I will be going and if anybody else wants to go or needs a ride let me know.
March 24th – At 11:30 am Center of Economic Growth is having their typical monthly local government council meeting. I attend those as a representative of our town and all of the other towns have representatives there as well. If there are any questions you would like me to bring up about how do other towns in the capital region address anything just let me know.
March 25th – We have representatives coming from the NYS Comptroller’s Office – this audit has to do with our information technology, on line collections and procedures for any of the payments that we do.
March 26th – The Alplaus Homeowners Association Meeting will be held at 7:00 pm
April 2nd – At 11:00 am is the grand opening of Fortitech’s Distribution Center, a facility that is just being completed.
We have received our notice from the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) that they want to begin their contract negotiations for their contract which expires at the end of this year.
Councilwoman DiGiandomenico asked if we could provide some information on the fund balance, the fund balance at the end of 2008. As you know we are still receiving bills and revenue so it’s not fully posted. We are almost there, we are putting the final touches for the posting so while we are closing out ’08 we are still doing all of the business, but for you information giving that there is still accounts payable, accounts receivable and accrued payroll and capital projects that we are trying to close out expenses on. Given our appropriations for the year ’08, the fund balance for the end of the year is 1 million right now; $1, 2,762.00 that‘s about 6.4% of our appropriations for ’09. So
if you ask me today you will all get the final figures, if you ask me today what we are dealing with is about 1 million and $2,762.00 is the fund balance after we made the allocation of fund balance to the ’09 budget.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “You will be giving us a briefing on that audit; I won’t be able to attend? What is the next step with Fire District #4, what are we doing as a Board in regards to that and along the same vein, the information is available from the survey but only on line?”
Tony Germano – “You will have it shortly.”
Supervisor Quinn – “The next step, the Village Board and certainly the Mayor said that they want to have another meeting. They would like to have a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the one option that they are still very, very interested in which is do we want to pursue further the option of taking Fire District #4 and dissolving it along with dissolving the Village Fire Department and creating one new fire district for the entire area? I have to get with him and schedule a meeting so we can set it up and go down the road and talk about that.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “The only other thought that I had is we heard what we heard there; I guess I am still concerned that we didn’t hear from everybody and it was a small sample. I wonder where we are time line wise; I mean we are already in the middle of March. Does it make any sense to try and do a public referendum in November and try to get a better sense from everybody?”
Supervisor Quinn – “I would say let’s have the discussion with the Village and make sure we are all still on the same frequency and talking about the same things and that is “what is it that people want”? Then we can decide do we want to go to referendum or not. That will be our call. The Village is in its budget cycle, we have a contract for ’09, their budget cycle is different then ours.”
Councilman Quinn – “There is a logistical challenge in doing that too. I think we touched upon this, the boundaries of the fire district don’t line up with the election district boundaries. I think it is something they probably could overcome but it would be quite a challenging venture.”
Supervisor Quinn recognized the Participation in Government students in attendance from Scotia-Glenville High School before moving ahead with the agenda items.
RESOLUTION NO. 65-2009
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville awarded the bids brokering for lines of general property casualty insurance and workers compensation to Marshall and Sterling and they have identified Perma as the lowest available bid for volunteer fire fighter coverage at this time, and
WHEREAS, the bid for the lines of workers compensation and review of coverage price for some of the Volunteer Fire Districts workers compensation costs is completed and confirmed to be $69,248( Portions: Alplaus Fire #2 =$9,446, East Glenville #3 =$34,356, Beukendaal #5&9=$12,709, West Glenville #6= $5,225, and Glenville Hill #8= $7,512) ; exclusive of a 2% discount for early payment that the Town is in the process of negotiating for, and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Glenville Town Board authorizes the purchase of services from Marshall and Sterling of workers compensation insurance for Volunteer Fire Districts at a cost not to exceed $69,248 with the attached invoice to be reimbursed by the above mentioned fire districts.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 66-2009
Moved by: Councilman Rosenberg
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, the property casualty and business insurance for the Town of Glenville is due to be put out through a competitive bid process; and
WHEREAS it is in the best interest of the Town of Glenville, as in the past, to hire an insurance consultant to oversee the whole process including the following:
1.) Identify usual & customary exposure to property and casualty losses by reviewing existing insurance contracts and through independent analysis with client personnel
2.) Preparation of practical and concise specifications for the purpose of attracting qualified and responsible bidders
3.) Respond to any and all inquiries from perspective bidders
4.) Conduct public meeting limited to reviewing and recording of all bids
5.) Prepare written summary of all bids on a comparative basis
6.) Management of the entire Municipal Insurance bidding process professionally and ethically;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board authorizes the hiring of Mr. Patrick M. DiCesare, Certified Insurance Counselor, P.O. Box 54, Burnt Hills, NY, 12027 as an independent insurance consultant to oversee the insurance bid process including reviewing the insurance specification of the Town, updating them if advisable, reviewing the bids received and recommending the best bid to the Town at a cost not to exceed three thousand six hundred dollars ($3,600),
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Board authorizes the costs charged and fund balance appropriated to the allocated insurance charge codes (4300) based on the original budgets on a pro rata share basis as follows:
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2009 allocation |
40.09.8130.4300 |
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$369 |
40.06.8130.4300 |
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$4 |
40.05.8130.4300 |
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$4 |
40.03.8130.4300 |
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$3 |
40.02.8130.4300 |
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$2 |
40.01.8130.4300 |
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$3 |
50.11.8310.4300 |
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$1,245 |
02.00.7110.4300 |
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$46 |
02.00.3620.4300 |
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$18 |
02.00.3120.4300 |
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$637 |
02.00.1440.4300 |
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$15 |
01.00.3510.4300 |
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$33 |
01.00.3121.4300 |
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$201 |
04.00.5151.4300 |
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$1,020 |
~ |
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~ |
$3,600 |
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 67-2009
Moved by: Councilman Quinn
Seconded by: Councilman Koetzle
WHEREAS, by Resolution No. 111-2006 dated April 19, 2006, this Town Board did previously grant a temporary easement to the New York Development Group for the purpose of the construction of a road along the western side of the Glenville Municipal Center property, more particularly described in a document entitled “Agreement for Temporary Easement Between the New York Development Group and the Town of Glenville”, attached to the Resolution referred to above, and
WHEREAS by Resolution No. 184-2007, dated September 19, 2007, this Town Board granted an 18 month extension to this temporary easement; and
WHEREAS, the 18 month extension of the temporary easement will expire on March 30, 2009; and
WHEREAS, the New York Development Group has requested an 18 month extension of the agreement for the temporary easement due to delays in the construction of the road and the associated proposed residential and commercial project, and
WHEREAS, the Town Board continues to believe it is in the best interest of the Town to facilitate the construction of the project proposed by the New York Development Group and the road,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that this Town Board does hereby approve a 24 month extension of the agreement for the temporary easement granted and more particularly described in Resolution No. 111-2006; and it is further
RESOLVED, that the Town Supervisor is authorized to execute any and all documents necessary to give effect to this resolution.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes None
Absent: None
Abstention: None
Motion Carried
Discussion…
Councilman Koetzle – “This came out of concerns in the budget process that citizens had about knowing certain things about the budget or maybe not getting information that they had hoped for so this resolution would bring some of that transparency as you mentioned to the process. I think we have done a good job in getting to a resolution that makes sense for us and that everyone can accept.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “We had talked about that periodic that it was vague, is that one or two or three, what does that mean? I think this is a wonderful idea, I think it is a great idea to try and inform the public better and to try and get them more involved. I am not convinced that it rises to the level of a local law that we have to pass. Quite frankly any other board following us can decide that they are not going to follow this just by canceling the local law. So, although I think the intentions are good I think that there is an issue with it but if in fact you are going to do it I think it needs to be spelled out. If the idea is to make sure that this board is doing a certain thing than I think it
needs to be spelled out, I think just periodic to me means nothing. Is it every week, is it every two weeks, are we having them here or are we having them there. I don’t know what the intention is.”
Councilman Koetzle – “I appreciate your comments. If we go back a couple of weeks when I sent the memo to the board I had spelled out four geographic different regions of the town and the objection from the board at that time was I was too specific so now we are here at this time and place and we are getting the opposite where we amended that. I said that if that is too specific for the Town Board than let’s just go with periodic, it’s plural so it’s clear, it’s more than one and leave it to the discretion of the board, whatever board is in place at that time as long as more than one is done somewhere in the town. I am a little troubled that at one point my original proposal was too specific
and now…
Councilman Rosenberg – “At the last work session I expressed my concern of the exact same item…
Councilman Koetzle – “I gave you the exact same answer…
Councilman Rosenberg – “I can’t speak for the entire board but I can tell you that my thoughts, my feelings haven’t changed on that. If your idea is to make sure that something is done anymore than… otherwise you could say that it was commencing prior to the preliminary budget. We find it important enough to put a date certain of a 30 day or a 60 day but we are not committing ourselves to a number of meetings or that type of thing. Even our budget hearings are held at the Town Board meetings and we are saying we don’t even want to have them at the work session so we are pretty clear and concise on some of the items but to me this one is vague.
The other question that I had is #4 we batted it around about whether or not we wanted to stuff another piece of paper in there. Have we gotten an answer as to whether or not it is going to cost us anymore money or not for postage and to stuff them?”
Councilman Koetzle – “I was told that the increase in cost would for stuffing and mailing would be one penny each. That would be about $100 more.”
Supervisor Quinn – “On Councilman Rosenberg’s comment I am okay with periodic, while I can appreciate it would be nice to articulate, we could run these and nobody shows up. We could schedule three, four or five of these and nobody shows up then what are we doing here, so I am okay with periodic.
One other thing that is behind all of this I think under discussion is a lot of people have business experience in preparing budgets but these budgets are governed by municipal accounting not the standard business accounting that most people are aware of and so you really need to understand something about municipal accounting to have a meaningful discussion of why this and not that.”
Councilman Koetzle – “As I understand it Item #4 requires a unanimous vote from all five of us in order for it to pass. If it does not pass I would bring it back as an individual resolution at another meeting.”
Councilman Quinn – “Why does this require unanimity, what is that based on?”
Supervisor Quinn – “It is a piece of law, we asked the attorney who is not here this evening to clarify that; the answer the attorney came back with was for Item #4 it does require the full boards vote in order to pass, not a majority.”
Supervisor Quinn made a motion to amend Item #2 of the resolution, it currently reads “The conduct of periodic community forums commencing at lease 60 days prior to the adoption of the preliminary budget” to read “30 days”; seconded by Councilman Koetzle
Councilman Rosenberg – “Just to explain my vote I am committed to educating the public and getting them involved but again I don’t think it raises to the level of a resolution or a local law and I am going to abstain from the vote.”
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Abstentions: Councilman Rosenberg
RESOLUTION NO. 68-2009
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
WHEREAS, the Town Board is committed to a transparent and accessible budget process as a means of informing Glenville taxpayers and residents on the status of town fiscal matters and to solicit their input on operational needs and requirements and services that are, or need to be, administered by the Town; and
WHEREAS, the Town Board has also determined that Glenville taxpayers deserve a clear and distinct written explanation of major projected expenditures and revenues within the adopted Town Budget and their relationship to the computed property tax rates,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that to achieve the above requirements the Town Board hereby directs:
(1) The conduct of Town Department Budget hearings during regularly scheduled Town Board meetings;
(2) The conduct of periodic community forums commencing at least 30 days prior to the adoption of the preliminary budget;
(3) The publishing and distribution of a “plain language” Executive Summary for the tentative, preliminary and final annual budgets which identifies: accounting practices; major items of expenditure and revenue projections; multi-year capital spending plans, if applicable; computed property tax rates; and other information and pertinent budget data. Such information will be displayed prominently on the town website and posted in accessible locations within the town office.
(4) The Towns Receiver of Taxes is authorized to enclose within the annual property tax bill an Executive Summary of the Final Town adopted annual budget and an explanation of the computation of annual tax rate.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstention: Councilman Rosenberg
Motion Carried
Supervisor Quinn – “So because of #4 we can not get it all the way through tonight, so would you please redo in light of it. We amended it to 30 days but we didn’t get all the way through on it.”
RESOLUTION NO. 69-2009
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS, the Town of Glenville has been considering the enactment of a Local Law to amend the Code of the Town of Glenville to establish licensing and regulations for telephone directory distribution within the Town of Glenville, and
WHEREAS, it is necessary to conduct a Public Hearing in connection therewith,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that this Town Board does hereby schedule a Public Hearing for April 1, 2009 at 7:00PM at the Town of Glenville Municipal Center, 18 Glenridge Road, Glenville, NY 12302, to consider public comment on the enactment of a Local Law to amend the Code of the Town of Glenville to establish licensing and regulations for telephone directory distribution within the Town of Glenville.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 70-2009
Moved by: Councilman Koetzle
Seconded by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
WHEREAS, the Commissioner of Public Works and the Town Board as Commissioners of the Sewer District have been considering proposed modifications to the plan for the construction and improvements within Woodcrest Sewer Extension No. 7 to Sewer District No. 9 of the Town of Glenville,
WHEREAS, a Public Hearing regarding the proposed modifications to the plan for construction of the improvements within the district extension was held before this Town Board on February 18, 2009 at which time all interested parties were given an opportunity to be heard, and
WHEREAS, this Town Board determines that it is in the best interest of the residents within the district extension to approve these modifications,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that this Town Board does hereby approve the proposed modifications to the plan for the construction and improvements within Woodcrest Sewer Extension No. 7 to Sewer District No. 9 of the Town of Glenville, and it is
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Commissioner of Public Works is hereby authorized to advertise for bids for the construction of improvements within the said sewer district extension as modified, said bids to be opened at a time and place to be determined by the Commissioner of Public Works.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
RESOLUTION NO. 71-2009
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Quinn
BE IT RESOLVED that the Monthly Departmental Reports for February, 2009 as received from the following:
Assessor Department
Building Department
Dog Control
Highway Department
Human Services – Jan & Feb
Justice Department
Planning Department
Receiver of Taxes
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. 72-2009
Moved by: Councilwoman DiGiandomenico
Seconded by: Councilman Rosenberg
BE IT RESOLVED, that the minutes of the organizational meeting held on January 7, 2009, and the regular meeting held on February 4, 2009 are hereby approved and accepted as entered.
Ayes: Councilmen Koetzle, Quinn, Rosenberg, Councilwoman DiGiandomenico and Supervisor Quinn
Noes: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Motion Carried
New Business:
Councilman Rosenberg – “The letter that was received from County Waste in regards to the leaves and grass, I have one question, it says they are offering the service free as a courtesy to our customers. Is it only the County Waste customers, does anybody know?”
Tony Germano – “They will be picking up in the entire town.”
Councilman Rosenberg – “So it’s not just County Waste customers because this letter went out to their customers so the rest of the town doesn’t necessarily know. If that is the case essentially what they are saying is the County Waste they will be picking up leaves and grass starting March 31st free of charge to their customer and to pretty much everybody in the town. Beginning this year there is a change they will only pick up the leaves and grass clippings in the brown paper bags, no garbage cans for any reason. This pick-up will commence on March 31st.”
Councilman Koetzle – “I would like to discuss the following item at our next work session. The Assessor has asked if we would take a look at a program that she would like to purchase that would provide aerial images of the town which would help her during the re-val. It is a $20,000 program, she says we can get a $17,000 grant to cover most of it but she needs the police department to put in for it which is due by May 17th.
The Commissioner of Public Works needs verbal approval to make a few purchases, two of them being hydrants that need to be replaced for safety reasons, one will cost $2,206, the other costing $2,761. Both of these were damaged and need to be replaced. These were damaged due to hit and runs (the board gave approval to replace the two hydrants).
The second item is parts for the sweeper, $1,960 which needs the Supervisor’s permission.”
Supervisor Quinn approved the spending for the sweeper parts in the amount of $1,960.”
Councilman Koetzle – “We have a “Welcome to Glenville” sign that was destroyed this winter over on Glenridge Road. How can we get this repaired?”
Tony Germano – “That is being worked on; there is a possibility that someone may be replacing all of the “Welcome to Glenville” signs.”
The Town of Glenville Town Board Meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.
ATTEST:
______________________________
Linda C. Neals
Town Clerk
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