Village of Lansing

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, June 6, 2005, in the Village Office.

Present: Mayor Donald Hartill; Trustees, Larry Fresinski, Lynn Leopold, John O’Neill and Frank Moore; Attorney David Dubow; Planning Board Member, Phil Dankert; Clerk/Treasurer, Jodi Dake.

Larry Fresinski called the meeting to order at 7:38P.M.and opened the public comment period. Dan Veaner told the Trustees about the new online newspaper, The Lansing Star. Dan hopes to have in depth coverage on the Village of Lansing. The online subscription is free. They are selling ads to finance it. They also will have a classified section. Jodi will add him to the list of people that receive agendas. Lynn suggested adding a link from our web page to his. The Lansing Star will have a deadline of Wednesday to receive information and then will be published on Friday every week. If there is late breaking news he will be able to include that as well. Dan is the only full time editor but there are many that will contribute. They will also be offering internships to high school students. Another feature of the paper will be that once a month they will be featuring a “Lansing Star.” This will be someone who has made a contribution to the community.

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 Lynn Leopold-Aye Trustee John O’Neill-Aye

Mayor Hartill arrived at the meeting and took over. The next item on the agenda was to approve the minutes from May 11^th & 16^th.

Motion-Approval of Minutes for May 11^th & 16^th, 2005

Trustee Leopold 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 Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye

Trustee Frank Moore- Aye Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

Trustee John O’Neill-Abstain

The Board discussed the possibility of rescheduling this month’s Wednesday meeting from June 15^th to Thursday June 16^th. It was decided after reviewing their schedules that it would be better for all the Trustees to reschedule the noon meetings for Thursdays for the rest of the fiscal year. At the organizational meeting next May they can then change it permanently if it works out well. At that point the Employee Manual will need to be updated to reflect this change.

Resolution #4156-To Reschedule All Wednesday Noon Staff Meetings for

The Second Thursday after the First Monday Meeting at

Noon for the Remainder of the Fiscal Year

Trustee Fresinski moved to accept this resolution. Trustee Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

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

Trustee John O’Neill-Aye

Jodi will publicize this in the Ithaca Journal.

The Mayor stated that he has received an email from Tim Joseph regarding the towers at the airport. Because a tower collapsed on top of a building in NY, a structural inspection was done on the tower at the Sheriff’s Department. The tower was found to be marginal for supporting the County’s antennas and would not support Verizon’s equipment. Originally, the 911 tower was also to be a multipurpose structure but it, according to Tim Joseph, can only support one other additional party’s equipment. Because of this, the County wants to build another tower up by the airport. They are proposing building it on the disposal site on the other side of the airport. This has been an ongoing issue with the County. Don will inform Ned Hickey, Planning Board Chairman, of this situation. David Dubow reminded the Board of the issue as to which governmental entity, the County or the Village, will have permitting and zoning enforcement authority over any new tower project.

Don met with the Intermunicipal Sewer group of six. He was happy to report that the Kline Road Bypass is in progress. One of the discussions at that meeting was to compare the Ithaca and Village of Cayuga Heights sewer treatment plants as far as phosphorous. Ithaca is dumping 40 lbs. of phosphorus per day. The new system to be installed at the Ithaca plant is projected to reduce this amount to 20lbs. This is with processing 8 million gallons per day. The Village of Cayuga Heights plant on the other hand is processing 2 million gallons per day and is in the single digits of phosphorous which is much better than the Ithaca plant. As a result of this new information, the Mayor indicated that at the ribbon cutting for the Kline Road Bypass, he intends to report this new information to the press so that the public is properly and fully informed. The Mayor expressed his concern and dissatisfaction when he reads inaccurate information being reported in the Ithaca Journal.

There is a SCLIWC-related meeting in Cortland on Monday June 13^th, which Larry will attend since Don will be out of town. There is more pressure to do a Stormwater Ordinance. Don is pleased to see three utility crews working on moving the N. Triphammer Road utilities.

John Courtney has recommended Christopher Bishop to the Board of Trustees as a new hire for the position of summer laborer. Christopher impressed John by stopping in several times and demonstrating his desire to work. He is a college student who may be available in future summers. Chris had good recommendations from the Town of Lansing. John would like to be able to hire him on a two-week probationary period.

Resolution #5157-To Hire Christopher Bishop as a Summer Part Time Laborer at the rate of $10/hour.

Trustee Fresinski moved to accept this resolution. Trustee Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

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

Trustee John O’Neill-Aye

Lynn stated that she planted the flower boxes at the Village entrances this past weekend and around the office today. There are currently 9 flower boxes in the Village: 2 on Warren Rd. and Highgate Circle and then one on Cayuga Heights Rd., Route 13, Bush Lane, N. Triphammer Rd. and Cherry Rd. Suzanne Lorbeer used to plant and maintain these boxes but she can no longer do it. It was suggested that the Village either ask persons who live close to the boxes to water them or have the summer helper do it once a week if needed. The Mayor thanked Lynn for planting this year. He will also send Suzanne a thank you letter for doing it in the past.

Phil Dankert thanked the Village for all the work they’ve done to improve Dankert Park. Our new Working Supervisor has really done a great job of completing the much-needed repairs in the park. Jodi ask the Board and Phil if anyone knew why there was a mound in the middle of the fenced in playground. No one could recall a purpose and it was suggested that the stumps be removed and the area flattened out and seeded.

John O’Neill reported that he would be attending the Lansing Fire Department meeting tomorrow night. John handed out notes he prepared from the last meeting he attended. John explained that the Station #5 floor supporting structure does not meet State codes. The old building does not have a decontamination room and further, is in a deteriorated state and would most likely be disapproved for usage sometime in the near future. The requirements for the proposed new station are still under discussion. They would like to build a one-story station on 2 acres of land. They would prefer to be on N. Triphammer Rd. so they would be highly visible. It was pointed out that NYS regulations allow the construction of fire stations in areas zoned residential. It was also mentioned that they have already found buyers expressing interest in the current Station #5 property. John was impressed with the fire meeting he attended. He feels they really put a lot of thought into it. John feels the one big issue that needs to be resolved is whether the existing building can be brought up to code. They want to go with one story but John feels that two stories would be better. Don told John to contact the architectural firm to see if there are alternatives.

John stated that he had letters from both Mesh Mewar and his neighbor giving the Village permission to go on their property to clean out the drainage ditch. Don stated that we could not go on private property unless we have a properly prepared and executed easement. He also explained that the Village cannot perform work on private property that is for the sole benefit of private property owners. He indicated that the Village is solving the ditch problem and the property owner should take care of his land. John will talk to Mewar. Don stated that the Village is happy to receive his storm water runoff into the Village’s storm water drainage system.

Motion- To Adjourn

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

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

Trustee John O’Neill-Aye

The meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM.

Jodi Dake Clerk/Treasurer