Village of Lansing

 

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, October 15, 2001, in the Village Office.

 

PRESENT: Mayor Donald Hartill; Trustees Larry Fresinski, Janet Beebe and Frank Moore; Ned Hickey, Planning Board Chairman; Randy Marcus and Bill Troy, Village Attorney.

 

Mayor Donald Hartill called the meeting to order at 7:38P.M. He opened the public comment period. There were no public comments.

 

Motion-To Close the Public Comment Period

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved to close the public comment period. Trustee Janet Beebe seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill- Aye                   Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                                           Trustee Janet Beebe- Aye                     Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

 

Dave Putnam reported that 90% of Uptown Rd potholes were fixed today. Dave presented a change order to the Board that would decrease the Airport Elevated Tank Demolition contract by $4,400 and change the contract completion date to May 15, 2002 as offered with the original bid. The new contract price will be $25,400.

 

Resolution#3811-To Accept Change Order #1 for a $4,400 credit to the Village to Extend the Deadline for completion of the Airport Elevated Tank Demolition to May 15, 2002

 

Trustee Frank Moore moved to accept this resolution and Trustee Larry Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill- Aye                   Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                                           Trustee Janet Beebe- Aye                     Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

 

Mayor Hartill asked Dave if for a sidewalk in front of M&T Bank was part of the N. Triphammer Rd. project. Dave will find out if there are any issues with the right-of-way. An easement could be obtained to install the sidewalk. Randy will look into it. Dave will verify who owns the property. Dave will also attempt to do something about the pedestrian crossing button on the pole in front of Sevanna Park. For safety reasons, Don would also like to see M&T close one of their N. Triphammer Rd. entrances and have it come in from Sevanna Park since a turning lane will be put in.

 

The Mayor asked Dave how he would go about getting connected to a forced sewer main if it goes in front of his house. He could get a pump, which is quite common, but the big risk is if the power goes out there is no sewer.

 

Frank asked about the resurfacing of Cayuga Heights Road. Dennis will start soon on repairs but resurfacing won’t happen until next year. They discussed relocating the end of Cayuga Heights Road where it intersects at E. Shore Dr.

 

Tim Buhl is stuck in Boston so he will not be present until the November 5th meeting to present the final set of numbers for relocating the utilities underground. The Board discussed the different options for funding this. A lot depends on if we receive the Marchecelli funds from the state.

 

The Planning Board recommended appointing Maria Stycos to fill the vacant position left by Steve Halevy. The Planning Board interviewed two candidates. John Piscopo is still undecided but may be a good candidate to fill the alternate position. An alternate has to be activated by the Board of Trustees for a long-term absence. This position was originally created to cover for Ned when he left for Florida every winter. The previous alternate was Phil Dankert who took Janet Waterman’s position when she moved to Florida. Ned expressed that the Village has been lucky because we’ve had the same Planning Board for 12 years until this year when we’ve lost two members.                      

 

Resolution#3811-To Appoint Maria Stycos to a Five-year Term on the Planning Board Ending May 2006

 

Trustee Janet Beebe moved to accept this resolution and Trustee Larry Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill- Aye                   Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                                           Trustee Janet Beebe- Aye                     Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

 

Next on the agenda was the approval of minutes.

 

Motion-Approval of Minutes for October 1, 2001

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved that the draft meeting notes, as reviewed and revised by the Board, are hereby adopted as the official minutes. Trustee Janet Beebe seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                    Trustee Frank Moore-Aye                                            Trustee Janet Beebe- Aye                     Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

 

Next on the agenda was Mayor’s comments. As you may have read in the paper, the $7 million application for the Clean Air Bond Act Funding was approved at only $786,000. Without this grant the Town of Lansing will not be able to afford to set up a sewer benefit district. The Town is the group at risk. The Village only needs the Kline Road Bypass that we can fund with no problem. However, this can’t be separated out until the EIS is completed. We could start construction on this bypass next summer. The Kline Road Bypass would actually carry sewage from the Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights and the Village of Lansing to the Ithaca Plant.

 

Don is hopeful that we will be receiving sewer units soon. Brent Cross is still waiting to meet with Dan Walker to evaluate the repairs done in the Town of Ithaca to see if the repairs warrant the Village getting more sewer units.

 

The Mayor of the Village of Cayuga Heights had a neck operation in Boston and Walter Lynn is acting as Deputy Mayor. The Village of Cayuga Heights now wants to be a full partner. Don asked Randy if O&M charges could be based on water consumption. Randy had not researched it himself but Rich John, the attorney for the Town of Lansing, was writing to the comptroller for an opinion on whether we can charge a connection fee for sewer units.

 

On the good water side, we are still waiting on Pataki’s signature to allow Cornell University to be a part of the venture.

 

Ned stated that there is a lot of trash on N. Triphammer Rd. between Graham Rd. and Brook Drive. He suggested we look into getting volunteers to clean it up. Jodi will let Dennis know. Ned suggested advertising in the paper or newsletter in the future.

 

Jodi had printed off a list showing who has been paid for acquiring property along N. Triphammer Road and Randy gave an update on those still outstanding. He expects to have all contracts back in two weeks with the exception of Mobil. Don will attend a policy meeting tomorrow so he will try to schedule an early November meeting with the NYSDOT. Larry’s committee is all ready to go. Larry has not looked through the documents from DOT but will make it a point to do so. Don hopes to be able to advertise in the Albany newspaper in December so construction can start this spring.

 

Randy announced that this would be his last meeting.

 

The Board discussed joining NYS Retirement System. Frank did some research and handed out a comparison that he had. Don asked Jodi what the general feeling of the employees was. The employees would like to have the fixed benefits. The thought of being able to chose how you invest with the NYS Deferred Compensation plan is a nice thought but none of us are stock brokers and really know how to invest. The employees are aware of the cost to buy back time in the system. Don is sympathetic with the employee’s desires to join the system. He would like to see if there is some way the Village could afford to do this. Larry added that after two years the long-term disability could also be dropped because the NYS Retirement System has that in their benefits. This is a $3,000 line item in our current budget. Don would like the Board to review this information further so that it may be discussed at length at the November 5th meeting.

 

Frank & Larry reported on the Village of Cayuga Heights Fire Station open house that was held last Sunday.

 

Motion- To Adjourn

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved adjournment. Trustee Janet Beebe seconded the motion.

 

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                    Trustee Frank Moore- Aye

                        Trustee Janet Beebe-Aye                      Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

           

 

                                                                                                            Jodi Dake

                                                                                                            Village Clerk