Village of Lansing

 

 

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, March 7, 2005, in the Village Office.

 

Present: Deputy Mayor Larry Fresinski; Trustees, Lynn Leopold, John O’Neill and Frank Moore; Attorney David Dubow; Clerk/Treasurer, Jodi Dake.

 

Deputy Mayor Larry Fresinski called the meeting to order at 7:32P.M.and opened the public comment period. Dennis Griffin and Anita Sullivan were representing the Lansing Fire District. Larry welcomed them to the meeting. Dennis stated that they are going to be attending our Village meetings to help improve communications and invited the Board members to attend their meetings.

 

Larry Bieri a resident on Oakcrest Drive, was in attendance representing the Community Party. He expressed a complaint regarding cars racing up and down Oakcrest Rd. playing very loud bass. David Dubow stated that the Village Zoning law provides noise standards only related to properties and does not address noise on public roads.  Larry Fresinski stated that the decibel limit has to reach a certain level and didn’t know if this would be reached with the bass from a car radio. Larry Burry suggested the Village install signs like the one he saw in Seattle, which have the word Bass with a line through it.  Larry stated that since we have no police force there is no real way to enforce compliance. Larry suggested that he and other concerned residents complain to the State Police or the Sheriff. If there are many complaints, those agencies will patrol. Lynn wondered if the Village of Cayuga Heights has a law relating to this kind of thing.

 

Motion-To Close the Public Comment Period  

 

Trustee Leopold moved to close the public comment period. Trustee O’Neill seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

Motion-To Open the Public Hearing on Proposed Local Law A to Amend the

             Sewer Law  

 

Trustee Leopold moved to open the public hearing. Trustee O’Neill seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

David Dubow explained that this proposed local law to amend the Sewer Law is to increase the sewer rent chargeable to owners of property who are not provided with water service by the Village of Lansing Water System. By Local Law 1 (2004), sewer rents (based upon a surcharge on water consumption) chargeable to owners of property who are provided with water service by the Village of Lansing Water System were increased, and water rates to such property owners have likewise been increased during 2004 and 2005. Inadvertently, concurrent increases in sewer rents chargeable to owners of property that are not provided with water service by the Village of Lansing Water System were not enacted, and it is the intention of this Local Law to correct such oversight. Currently, all water and sewer customers pay for sewer based on their water consumption at a rate of  $1.11 per 1,000 gallons of water used. This is based on a 50% surcharge on the cost of water purchased from Bolton Point. Borg Warner is the only business that Jodi bills under this “sewer only” category and that amount is based on the water that Borg Warner purchases from the Town of Lansing. Borg Warner is partially located in the Town of Lansing and partially in the Village of Lansing.

 

Joe Gainie, Facilities Manager for Borg Warner, was present to ask if this proposed local law could be reconsidered. He explained that they are large water users but most of their water does not find its way back to the sewer. The reason the water doesn’t make it into the sewer system is because it’s used in cooling towers so it evaporates.  They also have a swimming pool and they remove the chlorine from the water before distributing it into a local stream. Finally, the water from the washers used in their manufacturing process is cleaned and recycled with the removed agents hauled away. Frank asked if we had a policy to measure the sewage that comes from Borg Warner. The Board discussed measuring the outflow of sewage. Further research needs to be done on this issue. Joe is willing to sit down and discuss this with the Board. Jodi thinks that the Village of Cayuga Heights also needs to be included in this discussion since they are also affected. Joe agreed to write the Village a letter explaining his calculations and other supporting evidence.

 

Borg Warner currently pays $.50 per 1,000 gallons of water consumption. To bring them to the same rate as what everyone else in the Village of Lansing pays it would more than double their quarterly bill. Except for this quarter, their typical quarterly bills are ~$5-6,000. This last quarter, since they used approximately 3 million gallons less, was about $4,100. Jodi asked Joe why their water consumption had significantly decreased in the last quarters. Joe stated that they have started doing a lot of water recycling because the water costs have increased. Borg Warner has a portable recycling unit that hooks up to different machines.

 

Motion-To Close the Public Hearing

 

Trustee O’Neill moved to close the public hearing. Trustee Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The Board decided not to act on this proposed law until they had a full Board and a chance to review Joe’s letter. Frank feels this is a simple matter of being fair.

 

The next item on the agenda was to set the election place, date and compensation. The Village election is always the fourth Tuesday of April from noon to 9pm. In this years budget we allotted for compensation of $65 per inspector. Larry proposed the following resolution:

 

Resolution #4115- Village of Lansing Elections

 

Be it RESOLVED, that the annual election for the Village of Lansing will be held on Tuesday, April 26, 2005, at the Fire Hall on Oakcrest Road, between the hours of Noon and 9:00 in the evening on said day with the compensation for the election officials to be set at $65 per person.

 

Trustee O’Neill moved that this resolution be adopted and Trustee Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                   Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                             Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The next item on the agenda was the approval of the minutes for February 7th and 16th. The Trustees had sent their edits to Jodi via email but John had not so he gave a couple of minor changes in wording. The February 7th changes included adding Trisha Whitney’s last name to the minutes, changing the Highway Department to the Public Works Department, and clarifying the design efforts to be engineering design efforts. There was a spelling error corrected in the February 16th minutes.

 

Motion-Approval of Minutes for February 7th & 16th, 2005

 

Trustee O’Neill moved that the draft meeting notes, as reviewed and revised by the Clerk/Treasurer and the Board, are hereby adopted as the official minutes. Trustee Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The Planning Board has completed their revision of the Comprehensive Plan and the Board all received a final copy. The next step in the process is for the Board of Trustees to set a public hearing on the revised plan.

 

Motion-To Set a Public Hearing for the Comprehensive Plan for April 4, 2005 at 7:35pm.

 

Trustee Leopold moved that the public hearing be set and Trustee O’Neill seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The Trustees had received the first round of budget numbers via email from the Mayor. Jodi took these numbers and made the following modifications before entering them into the Budget Program:

 

 General Fund

All employees were entered at their current rate where the Mayor had left them blank. Last years SS# & Medicare # were used.

A1001-Real Property Taxes at a $1.65 rate has been entered $541,098

 

Water

F1030-Special Assessment-Changed to reflect actual cost of BAN-$19,114

F9730.6-BAN Principal-Changed to reflect actual cost-$18,744

F9730.7-BAN Interest-Changed to reflect actual cost-$370

 

Sewer

G1030-Special Assessment- Changed to reflect actual cost of Bond Principal & Interest

G0962.2-Budgetary Provisions for Other Uses-adjusted to account for G1030 change.

 

Jodi had written in notes on the budget to help the Board better understand some of the items. The following were additional questions raised at the meeting:

 

A1560-Electrical Inspection Fees-Floyd and Ben had come up with a new fee schedule and after review, the Trustees would like to have Floyd attend our noon meeting to discuss them. Jodi will call Floyd and ask him to attend.

A2590-Building Permits the Mayor increased up to $40,000 but Jodi spoke with Ben and he would be more comfortable having it remain the same at $25,000. No big commercial projects that he knows of. Consider changing.

A2655-Minor sales are only high this year because people bought plans for N. Triphammer Rd. Project. Jodi suggests leaving at $200.

A3620.4-Code Enforcement Contractual- consider increasing from $3,000 to $4,000 to account for Carol & Floyd’s mileage allowance.

A8020.1-The Planning Board salary is a question because it doesn’t equal the 15% increase Don stated in his email. At 15% it should be $17,250 not $18,500.

A5110.2-Equipment-This line item is for a tractor but John stated that the estimates he received from Rick were closer to $25,000 rather than $20,000. Was the estimate that Dennis gave the Mayor different?

A5110.13-Summer Laborer Salary- Rick had suggested to John that some temporary labor would be useful in late April- early May which is prior to the typical start date for our summer hire. John suggested adding $1,000 to this line item to allow for approximately 10 days of temporary labor at $100 a day. Consider increasing this line item to $6,000.

A8020.45-Planning Consultant-A Trustee asked why it went from $5,000 last year to $500 this year. Last year we hired a consultant to do our Open Space Plan.

A0962.21-Budgetary Provisions for other Uses-Parks- John ask what this item was. It is a transfer to General Capital Reserve for future park capital improvements or parkland purchases.

F8340.2-Transmission & Distribution Equipment/Capital Outlay-The Board wondered what this item was for since it increased from $25,000 to $85,000.

 

John asked if the Village wanted to begin to comply with the NYS guidance regarding street signs, we will need to replace the existing wooden signs with the standard metal ones. John stated that Rick says that we would need about 45-50 signs at a cost of approximately $50.00 each for materials. This process could be phased in over a period of 2-3 years if necessary. Larry stated that with the N. Triphammer Road project, all the new road signs are included in the contract. Jodi stated that this kind of expense would come out of A5110.4-Street Maintenance Contractual. Currently that line item is $70,000 but Jodi was unsure of what projects the Mayor had in mind.

 

During General Discussion David Dubow reported that Randy Marcus would have a proposed local law for the April meeting so that a public hearing on the Codification can be set. Larry stated that the draft version of the Codification is on the WebPages. It will be nice to have the official Codification on the WebPages because it is searchable. Once it is approved we will have to set a price for the document. If people would rather, they can just look at it online or print it themselves.

 

There is a parcel of approximately seven acres by Kensington that the Edelmans would like to dedicate to the Village of Lansing. There are some details still being worked out but the Trustees will probably see this at their next Monday night meeting. If we accept this property the Village will be responsible for reimbursement of the taxes already paid which cover the remainder of the current tax years.  Dubow estimates this to be approximately $3,000.

 

David Dubow also informed the Trustees that the documentation to accept Ayla Way as a Village road has been completed. Jodi has informed Dennis and he is having NYSEG power the streetlights.

 

Larry stated that the Ithaca Journal has published two articles on the N. Triphammer Road Project from his email broadcast. People are contacting Larry to have him add them to his email list. Larry has put a place at the top of our website to let you access all previous N. Triphammer Rd. notices.

 

There was an issue of a pothole at the end of the road where you come out of TOPS onto N. Triphammer. The hole was in the State right of way but the Mayor had our Public Works Department fill it anyway so as to protect vehicles.

 

Frank stated that the Town Sewer Committee was waiting on the Village of Lansing to have a sewer committee to communicate with.  Don is drafting a charge for this committee and has asked Lynn to chair it.

 

The Board discussed the proposed change in the way the Village of Cayuga Heights would charge outside users for sewer. It was concluded that this may have significant effects on the amounts payable by Village property owners and will have to be followed carefully.

 

Someone approached Lynn from the Montessori School who would like to put a sign on N. Triphammer Road to direct people to their school. John stated that at one of the Planning Board meetings they had discussed having pylons with business names on them. This was part of the N. Triphammer Road Project discussion, which still hasn’t been decided. After some discussion the Board agreed that we need very strict criteria for signs.

 

Motion- To Go into Executive Session to Discuss Personnel Issues

 

Trustee Moore moved to go into executive session. Trustee Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The Board went into executive session at 9:00pm.

 

Motion- To Come Out of Executive Session

 

Trustee O’Neill moved to come out of executive session. Trustee Moore seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The Board came out of executive session at 10:45pm.

 

Resolution #4116 -To Authorize the Deputy Mayor to Offer the Position of

                      Working Supervisor of Public Works to the Primary Candidate

 

Trustee Leopold moved this resolution. Trustee O’Neill seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

 

 

                        Motion- To Adjourn

 

Trustee O’Neill moved for adjournment. Trustee Moore seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore- Aye                               Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                 Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The meeting adjourned at 10:50 PM.                                       

                                                                                                                                                            Jodi Dake                                                                                                                           Clerk/treasurer