Village of Lansing

 

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, January 6, 2003, in the Village Office.

 

PRESENT: Mayor Donald Hartill; Trustees Janet Beebe, Larry Fresinski, and Frank Moore; Bill Troy, Village Attorney.

 

Mayor Donald Hartill called the meeting to order at 7:43P.M. He opened the public comment period. No members of the public were present.

 

Motion-To Close the Public Comment Period

 

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

 

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

 

The board was now ready to take the Cable Franchise Agreement off the table. A public hearing has already been held.

 

Motion-To Take the Cable Franchise Agreement Off the Table

 

Trustee Fresinski moved this motion and Trustee Beebe seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

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

 

Jodi informed the board that the Town of Lansing has approved a 2% cable franchise fee. Mayor Hartill proposed we set the franchise fee at 3% to provide partial funding for underground utilities on N. Triphammer Road. Larry felt that 5% was the better number because at 3% the village will not receive enough money to pay for all the utilities to go underground and we would need to find additional monies to pay the additional cost. Mayor Hartill feels that it is appropriate for those additional funds to come from the General Capital Reserve Fund. The mayor did not want to be too different than the Town of Lansing though he would be comfortable with 4% since that amount is half of what our sales tax is. Frank Moore commented that it is not only cable but all the utilities that are being buried so why should cable fees pay for all the utilities to be buried? Hartill stated that we get gross receipts tax from the other utilities, which is 1/5th of our non-property tax in our budget. Larry suggested that we could argue that for a large number of years cable customers have only paid 1% and there is a need to make up the difference for the large amount of staff time which has been spent on this cable agreement. What this translates to for the cable customer is for each percentage point the customer will see a $.60 franchise charge on their cable bill. A 3% franchise fee for an average customer will be approximately $1.80.

 

Frank stated that we still have not committed to putting the utilities underground. Larry stated that we could change the franchise fee at any time. Mayor Hartill feels we have started with premise with our design firm that the utilities will be underground. Frank suggested we go with that 3% franchise fee now and then increase it once we definitely decide to go underground with the utilities on N. Triphammer Rd.  Larry thought that we would be able to change the franchise fee on a yearly bases and that we should revisit this yearly on the anniversary date.  Frank agreed with this because it is the conservative approach.

 

Resolution #3923-To Accept the Cable Contract with a 3% Franchise Fee

 

Trustee Fresinski moved to accept the cable contract and Trustee Moore seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

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

 

Bill Troy will contact Time Warner Cable and have them prepare the final documents. The board was happy to have finally adopted a contract after 10 years of negotiations.

 

Next on the agenda was the approval of minutes.

 

Motion-Approval of Minutes for December 11, 2002

 

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

 

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

                       

Motion-Approval of Minutes for December 16, 2002

 

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

 

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

 

The Mayor received a letter complaining of a pothole on Leif’s Way. Don had Dennis look into it and he found that NYSEG had done an install and left a mess. NYSEG will fix it. This weekend a wire went down on Oakcrest and some residents were without power from 7am-3pm. Frank stated that a neutral line was down behind his house. This is just another reason to support underground utilities. The Town did a good job of cleaning the large amounts of snow off the roads.

 

There was a sewer meeting on December 23rd with Steve Farkas, Walter Lynn, Don Hartill and two engineers to discuss our position. They all agreed that there are no serious issues and that some detail of costs needs to be figured. Just before this meeting Cathy Valentine from the Town of Ithaca stated that the City of Ithaca is taking the position that the Town of Ithaca can not expand its flow until other outstanding issues are resolved..  Mike Hall, the sewer facilitator, contacted the mayor to let him know that the Saturday January 11th meeting had been canceled. There will be a meeting this Thursday to update them on how SJS plans to resolve the differences of the group of three.

 

The Village of Cayuga Heights Sewer plant has gone from a serial system to a parallel system, which allows them to control better the phosphorus levels and which could allow for more sewage to be treated. Currently there are three lines from the village that run into the plant. One services this side of Rt. 13, one for the apartments and Highgate area and the last comes from the medical complex and one apartment complex. On the north side there seems to be a 100,000-gal/day leak by the airport. Once the weather improves we will have these lines televised to see where the leaks are. These repairs translate into sewer units.

 

Frank commented that a real estate agent had asked him why the village was formed. The Mayor stated that if the village had never of been formed we would have seen strip malls from here to the town line on N. Triphammer Road. The village provides an environment in which there are more roads, water, sewer, walkways and services.. The board discussed the option of having a police force but it was not cost-effective to have our own force. Currently, we have Sheriff and State Police coverage which we would loss if we had our own police department. The Village of Cayuga Heights can respond to criminal cases in the village.

 

Don asked the board to let him know if they hear of anyone interested in a youth position. We still have an opening on the County Youth Board.

 

Motion- To Adjourn

 

Trustee Fresinski moved adjournment. Trustee Beebe seconded the motion.

 

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                    Trustee Frank Moore- Aye

                        Trustee Janet Beebe-Aye                      Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:41pm.

 

                                                                                                            Jodi Dake

                                                                                                            Village Clerk