Village of Lansing

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, November 6, 2000, in the Village Office.

PRESENT: Mayor Donald Hartill; Trustees Lynn Leopold, Larry Fresinski, Frank Moore; Village Attorney Randy Marcus; Ned Hickey, Planning Board Chairman.

Mayor Hartill called the meeting to order at 7:34P.M. He then opened the public comment period. Ned Hickey presented proposed trail signage. The Village lacks markings on our Greenway Trails. Last Saturday Ned met with two residences from the Janivar Drive area, along with Mike Aulbach and Jim Orcutt to discuss signage. Ned presented a trail head sign that consisted of the Village Logo and the Greenway symbol with the word Greenway under it. Ned was not sure of the size but thought it would be approximately 10" x 12". He also proposed that we have slightly smaller signs along the trail with arrows to show direction. Ned said that they were looking at some sort of plastic sign. Ned also spoke with Dennis and winter is a good time to get these signs done. The Mayor would like to have Dennis investigate sandblasted wood signs. Lynn was concerned with vandalism. Frank thought that the word Greenway on the sign should be larger and moved up under the Village logo. The Mayor also suggested script letters instead of block to go along with the logo text. The Mayor told Ned to go ahead and have the signs done with the above changes.

Ned also suggested we have some sort of box at the beginning of the trail with brochures and maybe even post a list of rules. Ned gave the committee two laws, 1984 & Chapter 98 of the Draft Village Code to go over and select proposed rules to go on the brochure such as cleaning up after you dog. The problem the Board saw was enforcement. Public pressure is more appropriate because we don’t have the staff for enforcement. If someone reports an incident the Village should send them a letter.

The committee also wanted to deal with the issue of trail surfaces. They felt the trails should be multipurpose surfaces not just asphalt. Frank stated that we first need to determine what the trails use is going to be. Ned stated that Cornell was going to be putting in a trail in the area of the health care complex south of and parallel to Arrowwood Drive.

Motion-To Close the Public Comment Period

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

Randy presented the Board with Proposed Local Law F, containing some minor corrections to Local Law 5, which was passed in October. When Carol was incorporating the law into the codification she found two typographical errors and one omitted reference to an existing Zoning Law section that was intended to be amended (the Shannon Park Planned Development Area Regulations). Since there is some modest language changes in the law, there needs to be another public hearing. The Mayor will be out of town for the next Monday night meeting and there may be a quorum problem. The Mayor proposed the public hearing be at the first December meeting.

Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold- Aye

Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

Dave Putnam reported that United Asphalt was mostly done for the year. They will be back in a couple of weeks to finish the signs. There are 3 or 4 spots in the pavement that need to be fixed. The light at Uptown Road is not completed yet. Dave doesn’t know when the posts will arrive. The new Warrenwood entrance is functional. Dave will give the Board a cost breakdown once the project is completed.

Dave suggested that a stop sign be put in at the Uptown Apartment exit. Currently there is a yield sign there on private property. The Board agreed that a stop sign should be placed there on our right-of-way.

Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold- Aye

Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

This winter one of the issues the Mayor would like to touch on is how to deal with the private roads in the Village that may become public roads.

The new striping at McDonald’s is dangerous. The lane transfers are not long enough. The road striping needs to go back to the way it use to be. Dave went to the State Troopers and found out that it is legal to pass on the right as long as there is asphalt. This problem will be solved when we redo N. Triphammer Road because there will be a third center lane for cars turning. Dave will contact Dennis and have him change the lane markings.

Lastly, Dave reported that the bus stop on Uptown Road is too low for the road. In the spring we’ll need to jack it up and pour a new pad. He has gotten it so it is usable for the winter. The Mayor asked Dave about the removal of the water tank at the airport. John Majeroni has asked him on many occasions. Dave stated that now that Uptown Road is done he has time to do it.

Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold- Aye

Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

Next on the agenda was the approval of minutes. Lynn and Larry submitted some minor changes.

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye Trustee Larry Fresinski- Abstain

Mayor Donald Hartill-Abstain Trustee Frank Moore-Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

The Board then signed the delinquent tax affidavit, which gets sent to Tompkins County Division of Budget & Finance. It was a list of 30 property owners who didn’t pay their 2000-2001 Village taxes. The total unpaid amount was $10,190.53.

The Mayor commented that most of his time recently has been spent on the sewer issue. He is waiting to hear from the Village of Cayuga Heights to see if we improve I&I in part of the system, will the DEC allow the plant to accept an increased number of sewer units? The Mayor explained that a 3^rd party was willing to pay to have I&I work done in another municipality also served by the Cayuga Heights plant. As a result, capacity would be made available to the Village, and when they come for sewer units the fee is reduced or waived to offset the cost. Randy felt this would be ok if there were no legal requirement for the 3^rd party to do so. The Village can amend the local law connecting fees for sewer permits to address this scenario. Randy suggested that the 3^rd party may be running some risk, that is, of spending their money on I&I, and not having Cayuga Heights make additional permits available.. The Mayor thought this might give us 30 more sewer units. Don would like to have Larry do this presentation at the Village of Cayuga Heights next Board meeting. Since their meeting is the same time as ours, we will not have a quorum for our meeting.

On the issue of good water, we are still awaiting an agreement from Cornell and the City of Ithaca. Everything is agreed upon in principal. We still need to be concerned with the Bolton Point Road. Conrail came in and tore out the original 32’ crossing to the pump station and replaced it with a 12’ crossing. When the truck came to deliver the hypercloride it couldn’t get over the railroad tracks. Conrail agreed to come back and put the 32’ crossing back in because we have an easement but when they came back they only put in another 6’ claiming that their backhoe broke. They have since agreed to come back. The truck did finally make it to the pump station.

Lynn reported to the Board on the Cayuga Watershed dinner at Wells College. Sandy Treadwell spoke and was very pleased with the way this watershed group was working. After Sandy spoke they split up into little discussion groups. The Mayor sees one of the main problems being that no qualitative or quantitative calculations have been done. There still is a lot of work to do. The mayor feels that the statements they make need to be backed up by science.

Don has been working on the N. Triphammer Property Acquisition offer letters and should have them completed by the end of the week. He would like to have all the acquisitions wrapped up by the end of the year. The next step is forming a committee of 5-10 people to go through the selection process. The Mayor thought that some of the people from the previous group might be involved. Ned suggested Carol Klepack because she is a good thinker. Don asked Larry to contact Steve to get a present list of DOT approved contractors.

Randy contacted Neil Tarallo’s lawyer regarding getting back the easement for the light at Graham Road. Neil will be in his lawyer’s office tomorrow at 9:00am.

During general discussion Ned stated that the Top’s & McDonald’s traffic seems to be fine. Once the lights were retimed, things ran smoothly. Frank asked what the Board thought of the lights on the roof of McDonald’s. There is a problem with glare and Dennis is dealing with it. Ned commented that the Planning Board was so concerned with the traffic and landscaping that they missed the lights on the roof and the color of McDonalds.

The Mayor stated that John Dennis’s term on the EMC was up for yearly reappointment.

Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold- Aye

Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold- Aye

Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

During general discussion, Lynn reported that the Unique Natural Area Report won the award for best project. Ned reported that the Marriott is opening November 26^th.

The Mayor stated that the cell tower people have been contacting him. They are interested in the park area on the south side of Rt13. The Mayor would not like to see a tower in the park area. Previously, it was suggested that a good site would be the contaminated area northeast of the airport but they weren’t interested in that land. They are also interested in the southwest corner by the airport because it is on a ridge.

The Mayor had previously distributed a Draft Joint Sewer Agreement, which he briefly discussed with the Board. Basically it doubles the rate for people that aren’t one of the current partners. Residents will be charged by the gallon instead of unit. Currently, the Village of Cayuga Heights considers a unit to be 328 gallons per day when in actuality our Village average is 173 gallons per day. This translated to about $130 a year as opposed to the $105 we pay now. The other part is buy-in cost. Transmission cost increases 10-15% in the capacity cost. There will be another meeting December 6^th.

Since Don will be out of town and Larry will be going to the Village of Cayuga Heights Board meeting, there will not be a quorum for our next Monday night meeting. The meeting could be rescheduled or just canceled. Since there was not a lot of pending business to take care of the Board decided to cancel the meeting.

Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold- Aye

Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

Jodi will have this put in the paper.

Randy told the Board that he got the draft codification back to Carol. He expects that at the beginning of the year it should come to the Board for approval.

The Mayor may have a potential Trustee who is an apartment dweller in the Village.

Frank wanted to discuss the Ripple situation a little further. He doesn’t feel it should end this way. He questioned if current technology for testing was used. He would like to see the Village look at the sewer pipe where the blockage happened and see if in fact there is something wrong with the pipe. The Mayor explained that two years ago we employed Yaw’s to TV our sewer lines. When this was done we found a number of problems which we fixed. The Mayor stated that this area never showed any problems. It is a straight pipe and no heavy construction is being done there. The Village does maintain our sewers properly. We exceed our neighbor’s maintenance efforts. Unfortunately no one will probably ever know what actually happened. It acted like a grease build up. Frank thought we should be more curious as to why it happened and so it doesn’t happen again. The Mayor stated that this is the first time we’ve had sewer back up in someone’s home in 25 years. Don stated that if they had a $50 back flow valve it could avoided this. Don will have Dennis investigate the sewer in that area.

Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

The meeting adjourned at 10:16 P.M.

Jodi Dake

Village Clerk