Town Board Meeting 4/24/08 8:30 am

You will see a link to an mp3 file of the meeting on the morning of Thursday the 24th below. If you click on the link, you can listen from within your browser, but there is usually a way to move this mp3 file to your desktop. In Firefox, you wait for the whole file to move to the browser, (a minute or two) then you go - File - Save Page As..... and you can put it anywhere you want. The advantage is that you can then listen with other programs (Real Player, Itunes etc.) which allow you to adjust equalizer settings and they give you a time counter. With the time counter and my notes below, you can jump to the part that interests you. You can also put the file on an Ipod, and listen while taking a walk, or driving or doing the dishes!


AUDIO

Present at the meeting are,
Supervisor Doug Austic
Trustees Liz Thomas, Lucia Tyler, and Dave Kerness
Also, Alan Vogel, Geoffrey Hart, John and Martha Ullberg, and Sue Henninger



0 hrs 0 mins 0 sec --- The first half an hour is all about the budget. It sounds to me like the only person in the room that understands the budget is the book keeper - Doug Austic. Apparently the State requires him to follow certain procedures, and formats, and use specific software. There are A funds, and B funds, and carryovers, double entry and multiple accounts. I don’t envy them this work. It’s difficult for dummies like me to know what the hell he’s talking about. I was pleased that others, especially Liz Thomas, were keeping an eye on it, and asking tough questions. I went to the website then to “Town Offices” then to “document downloads” and the budget aint there. Am I just not able to find it? The village budget is available on their website.

0-31-30 This is interesting. Alan Vogel speaks to the Board and encourages the Town to buy the old Trumansburg Phone Company building which is adjacent to the Town Hall. Doug plays his usual conservative role, and objects because of the liability and cost issues. Alan insists that the costs would be low if he and other volunteers did a lot of the work, and fundraising paid for materials, and asbestos removal. Alan was an important part of building the kids play area in front of the laundromat, and I believe he was also involved in the volunteer effort at the Ulysses Philomathic Library.

I see this as a philosophical conflict. Alan believes in “The Commons” and wants to grow the commons for the benefit of the community. Doug is more the traditional conservative, that wants to maintain the status quo. The discussion goes on quite a while. They both have valid points, but in these liberal vs conservative arguments I always side with JFK -

"If by a "liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "liberal."

just substitute “in Ulysses” for “abroad”

Doug does his best to pull the rug out from under Alan, but Liz sticks up for him. Apparently Alan will pitch the idea to the Village Board next. The Village decided to have a second meeting this month Tuesday 4/29 at 7pm. I don’t know if Alan is on the agenda. This meeting is not on the village website calendar.

1-05-06 They discuss the hiring of a Dog Control Officer other than the SPCA. My regular readers will know, that I think this is a lousy idea - privatization strikes again. They unanimously pass Doug’s resolution to create a position. Among the whereases,

whereas under the agreement with the SPCA, we have the ability to provide the same or better dog control services to the residents by having a town dog control officer contracting with the SPCA, for kennel services ..........

I object to the “same or better” part. I doubt that this fellow from Covert, doing this part time, can offer the same or better service as the full time trained professionals from the SPCA.

Liz wrote "The SPCA offers other valuable services which they will still cover at no cost to the town such as animal cruelty investigations, adoptions, housing lost pets, etc."

When we withdraw our support from the SPCA we essentially ask them to continue this work for free.

I wrote about this issue before the election on March 18th. You can find it below if you are inclined.

1-14-12 Ag Land Protection Plan discussed

1-18-25 Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCOG) is investigating pooling insurance

1-27-10 Liz to be alternate rep to TCOG

1-27-40 Dick Coogan - please come to working sessions

1-29-0 job descriptions , and all town board appointments - please report to the board at least twice a year.

1-37-0 Kris Cail to be Water Resources Council liaison

1-40-0 Liz wants a donut

Tompkins County Area Development Council - should we have a rep? Maybe they could help find someone to use the empty Babcock facilities - thereby boosting our tax base. Doug says they send everybody to the Airport Industrial Park.

1-42-50 Water District Commission

1-46-0 Dave says Anita Fitzpatrick (Tompkins County HR) is willing to review the town’s personnel processes and procedures and policies

1-57-30 Liz asks the board if they would like her to investigate website improvements. Doug downplays the importance of websites, but he and the board basically say - yes.

1-59-10 Liz reports on the last Village meeting

2-01-03 Comp Plan and Rt 96 Corridor Plan

2-02-10 Dave says Tompkins County Planning, and our planning board will have a presentation on Unique Natural Areas (UNAs) June 6th (tuesday) evening at the Town Hall - double check this - I’m not sure I got that right.

Next TB meeting - Tuesday May 13th - next working session May 27th 7pm?

Move to adjourn.

Informing Ulysses, by Liz Thomas

On and off the record, personal notes from Liz Thomas, your Town of Ulysses Representative





Planning for the Future of Ulysses

Several simultaneous efforts are underway in Ulysses to set the stage for expected changes in the future. How does it all fit together?



Comprehensive Planning: Two well-attended workshops provided an opportunity for residents of Ulysses to give direction on how to channel development over the next 20 years. Teams of participants were provided with maps to indicate locations for the most appropriate types of development for the Town. The resulting ten maps were remarkably similar and will feed into an updated draft of the Comprehensive Plan which should be available by June. There are only a few more chances to give your input on this plan, so keep your ears perked for the next opportunity.



Water Needs Committee: For those of you who do not have municipal water, watch for a survey sometime this summer which will help determine the areas with the most pressing water concerns. Results of this survey will help decide where additional municipal water lines are needed.



Planning Board: Our energetic Planning Board will begin to research ways to protect the unique natural areas (UNA) in our town as designated by the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council. Potential benefits include promoting tourism based on UNA attractions, preserving scenic views, and maintaining adequate vegetation on steep slopes to minimize impacts of erosion to Cayuga Lake. The Planning Board also intends to review current Lakeshore development protections and recommend improvements if necessary.



Progress on Municipal Water: The Town Board voted 3 to 1 to withdraw support for the revised Water District 5 proposal and instead employ a cooperative process to design a water district with input from the Town of Ulysses Water Needs Committee, the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan, the Town of Ulysses Planning Board, the Village of Trumansburg, Finger Lakes State Parks, and the Town of Ithaca. You can read the resolution below - posted April 12th.



Dog Control:

Due to insurance woes, the Town ran into a slight snag in plans to hire Chris Austen as the Dog Control Officer. Last year, the SPCA announced a near doubling of its fees for Dog Control amounting to approximately $15,000 for Ulysses. Mr. Austen's fee is $5,500 plus $100 each time a dog is picked up (~17 dogs annually in our town). To cover liability insurance Mr. Austen would need to charge an additional $1500 unless he becomes a Ulysses employee. The SPCA offers other valuable services which they will still cover at no cost to the Town such as animal cruelty investigations, adoptions, housing lost pets, etc. Other Towns in the County are still negotiating with the SPCA and regardless of what the Town of Ulysses does this year, our dog control situation will be reviewed at the end of 2008. To be continued...



Ag and Markets Farmland Protection Grant

New York State Department of Ag and Markets recently awarded a farmland protection grant of $25,000 to the Town. The goal is to prepare a document that states the importance of agriculture and lays out a set of action strategies to preserve and protect agriculture as an industry and way of life in the Town of Ulysses. Based on data collected by Cornell Cooperative Extension in 2001, farming is the most significant economic activity in the town. The planning firm, Bergman and Associates, will facilitate the work and incorporate the findings into the revised Comprehensive Plan.



Ulysses Town Justice:

Tom Schlee has completed training to become our next justice replacing Christine Springer. Thanks Tom, for taking three weekends in a row away from your family to fulfill the justice position requirements.



Route 96 Corridor Study

Plan to attend a public meeting on the Route 96 Corridor Study where preliminary findings, including resident responses from a recent survey will be presented. At this meeting, attendees will have an opportunity to learn more about the planning process, provide comments, and ask questions of the consultant team.

When: 6:30 Wednesday, April 23

Where: PRI (Paleontological Research Institution) 1259 Trumansburg Road



Takin' Care of T-burg

This group was started last year to provide an organized and fun way for community members to gather to do routine maintenance and cleaning in the Main Street area and to also work on some long-range enhancement projects. The first work session will be on Saturday, April 26 from 8-11 meeting at the Kid's Village. No need to commit to the full 3 hours. Next dates: May 10, May 31, June 14, and on into the summer. For more information, contact Karen Powers at 387-4058 kpp419@yahoo.com or Don Schlather 387-4135.



Are You Interested in Becoming a Representative?

The Town has a vacancy on the Water Resources Council, a Coordinating Committee for the Tompkins County Board of Representatives. The WRC addresses subjects such as drinking water supply, roadside ditching practices, and generally provides a countywide approach to water quality monitoring. Let me know if you are interested.



Next Meeting Times and Dates:

The time for the second meeting of April has been changed just for this month.

8:30am Thursday, April 24

7:30pm Tuesday, May 13



Spread the word

This letter goes out to about 180 residents of the Town of Ulysses and Village of Trumansburg. Please forward this to others who might have an interest in this information. I'm always glad to add to the list.



Here's to Ulysses!



Liz Thomas

Liz.graeper.thomas@gmail.com

387-8170





For more official and unofficial information:

Where opinions are expressed, they are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the understanding or attitude of the entire Board. Approved minutes of the Town can be found at: http://www.ulysses.ny.us/town-offices.html. You can hear recordings of meetings on the Ulysses Democrats website at http://ulyssesdemocrats.blogspot.com/ thanks to Allen Carstensen.

I encourage you to take a look at Finding Ulysses which provides all kinds of useful and interesting information about happenings in the Town. See it at http://www.findingulysses.com/ thanks to Jonathan Cook.

Village Board Meeting 4/14/08

Here's a link to the AUDIO

(see post below from 3/5/08 for technical info on how best to listen to the audio file)

Present at this meeting, in addition to the trustees, clerk, treasurer, and mayor who were all present were,
Robert Brown
David and Susan Means
Allen Carstensen
Liz Thomas
Geoffrey Hart
Vanessa Willard
Amy Drake
Jerry VanOrden

The first few minutes is just chatter.

6m40s call to order

7m15s first public comment period. This is where I, Allen Carstensen, read my monthly comment on the continuing insanity in Iraq, and the illegality of the Bush administration. I reassert that we want the Board to pass our resolution, and I ask for an update on the thinking of the Board members. I am ignored. They move on to more pressing issues, such as wether or not we should have a fire whistle. I will post the text of my comment over at trumansburgimpeachment.blogspot.com

10m31s Robert Brown's questions about fire whistles and blue-stones

17m20s organizational affairs - this is the first meeting after the election.
Hrubos - commissioner of water, sewer, dpw, and he is the deputy mayor
Hart - police commissioner
Thomas - fire, ambulance, ems commissioner
Nottke - this is her first meeting. She replaces Filiberto who was the youth commissioner. Mayor Petrovic has greatly expanded this commission, to include not only youth, but chamber of commerce, library, historical society, farmers market, winter festival, and senior organizations. She's going to have to go to a lot of meetings.

22m20s official designations, meeting dates and times, voting, minutes, etc.

36m5s slate of officers

41m51s general budgetary public comment period

49m30s water and sewer budget. there is some discussion here about the income from our water system. When the village annexed the Auble trailer park, we stopped charging 1.5x the normal rate. I asked what other 1.5x customers we have, and Hrubos answered - several residences, the gulf course, ShurSave, the fairgrounds, the American Legion etc. Amy Drake was at this meeting and wrote about it in the Free Press. She gives the impression that we lost all of our outside income. It's a little confusing - I don't know what percentage we lost when we annexed the Auble property.
The water rates will go up as of the August billing from 29.75/first 1000gals to 31.50/first 1000gals - for village residents (1.5x for outside customers)

56m20s sewer budget, stream watchers, discussion of sewer problems. Hrubos points out that our sewer system is dumping to much e coli into the river at times of heavy rainfall. This is likely because a lot of people plumb their sump pump discharge into the sewer instead of the storm sewer, or out onto the ground. This sends far too much water to the Lake Street Sewage Treatment Plant, and it is overwhelmed and can not properly treat the increased volume. If you, dear reader, know anyone that has a sump pump that is plumbed this way, and or has gutters plumbed this way - please alert them to the fact that they are responsible for polluting Cayuga Lake. (They are also in violation of the sanitary code) Jerry VanOrden, from Stream Watchers - affiliated with The Community Science Institute - was at this meeting and he reported that when they tested the discharge from the plant in January and February, the bacteria count was way too high.

1h5m20s water infrastructure improvements. Amy Drake did a good job on reporting this aspect of the meeting in the Free Press, but the editor titled her report "Village to Begin Water Infrastructure Work" . Odd. She reported on the whole meeting. I almost didn't bother to read it because the title is boring. Bill does this a lot. Maybe he ought to let his reporters write their own headlines. Anyhow, work will soon begin to replace some old water main on RT96, and Hunt Engineers is supposed to re-coat a tank on RT89, and replace some booster pumps.

1h11m0s passed the budget unanimously.

1h15m50s the village is probably going to soon sell 4 parcels of land that it owns. There will probably be somewhere around $50,000 income. There was some discussion here about what to do with this money. Chris Thomas mentioned Main St. Project completion. Hrubos mentioned buying a tiny little house on Salo Dr. adjacent to the DPW, for a youth facility. I would prefer that the village purchase the small lot next to the waterfall on the creek in back of the NAPA parking lot. This is on the market for $40,000. It would make a lovely little park. It is adjacent to the Carver's house on Congress. Frank Carver died early this year. He worked for peace his whole life. How about "The Frank Carver Memorial Peace Park" ? There is plenty of room for some picnic tables and benches here. The village owns the driveway down to the Carver's house, so a path could branch off of it down to the park. The creek is an underutilized asset to the village. If anyone agrees with me, I think now is a good time to make your opinion known.

1h23m47s much discussion about parking in front of the Town Hall.

1h30m50s pay some bills

1h37m30s Bill Chaisson has volunteered to write a grant application for street trees.

1h39m20s Gimme Coffee orange cone debacle

1h41m35s Safe Routes to School grant application. Chris Thomas says that chances don't look good. Maybe next year.

1h44m4s Public comment period 2. David Means on selling village property. Yours truly on the Frank Carver Memorial Peace Park.

1h50m50s Robert Brown asks what the new tax rate is - it's going from 5.28/1000 to 6.25/1000

1h52m40s Liz Thomas town update. Yours truly complains about the town's hiring a dog control officer other than the SPCA. Our SPCA does a lot of good work. More than just dog control (for which they are probably better trained and better insured and more likely available at any time) They also have an animal cruelty investigator for which they do not charge. I think it is a mistake to withdraw our support. This will come up again at the end of the year, and we could pressure the town to sign up with the SPCA again.

1h58m50s They decide to have a second meeting this month Tuesday 4/29 at 7pm.

2h1m30s Hrubos on the water main extension moratorium. He mentions that the City of Ithaca is also in violation, yet they are not under a moratorium. Odd.

Lucia Tyler's Water District Resolution

Here is the resolution that was passed at the Tuesday 4/8/08 Town Board meeting.

Voting,

Dave Kerness - aye
Liz Thomas ----aye
Lucia Tyler ---aye
Doug Austic ---nay

The democratic process is alive and well in Ulysses, if not in Washington.

I went to the Comprehensive Plan Workshop Saturday at the High School. Bergman Associates had four planners there. About 25 residents came. We broke into small groups around big maps of Ulysses spread out on tables, and everybody got a chance for input. I was impressed with their process, and I'm hopeful that if the Town Board places a high value on this work and if it informs the revision of the zoning ordinances, then we are headed in the right direction. Liz Thomas and Lucia Tyler attended the workshop. (no sign of the Supervisor)



Resolution Introducing Water District 6

Whereas the Town of Ulysses was notified on January 7, 2008 that the New York State Department of Health and the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) had reconsidered their position and allowed the Town of Ulysses additional time to submit a completed application and package for the Water District 5 project (WD-5) and would allow changes in the scope and service area of this project while retaining the current financing offer (DWSRF project #17468); and,

Whereas WD-5 alternative plans and cost estimates, as presented by Eric Pond of Barton and Loguidice on February 21, 2008 were produced on a short time table; and

Whereas there is insufficient time for adequate review of WD-5 Alternative C with revisions (revised WD-5 Alt. C) by elected officials and citizens nor enough time to meet the required legal application process, environmental review, and inter-municipal agreements needed by March 24, 2008; and

Whereas (revised WD-5 Alt. C) as presented on February 28, 2008 is significantly more costly than the original WD-5, since it is geographically more extensive, and the total estimated cost of $9.87 million is extremely close to the $10 million cap required to retain zero percent interest financing from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF); and

Whereas consideration of any alternate district is premature at this time due to the lack of a town wide water needs survey; and

Whereas the quantity of water that can be provided to the Town of Ulysses from Bolton Point through the Town of Ithaca infrastructure without improvements does not meet the total requirements of WD-3, revised WD-5 Alt. C, and the Village of Trumansburg second source; and

Whereas the revised WD-5 Alt. C is not in accord with growth patterns encouraged by our current zoning; and

Whereas revised WD-5 Alt. C impacts an identified Unique Natural Area and environmentally fragile lands west of New York State Route 89 not having proper conservation protections in place; and

Whereas revised WD-5 Alt. C cannot take into consideration the Comprehensive Plan initiative under progress, which is based on broad citizen input and scheduled for completion by October 2008.

Therefore be it hereby resolved that Water District 5 Alternative C with revisions be removed from consideration in favor of a cooperative effort using the inputs from the newly formed Town of Ulysses Water Needs Committee, the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Planning Committee, the Town of Ulysses Planning Board, the Village of Trumansburg, Finger Lakes State Parks, and the Town of Ithaca to look at alternative water solutions and to design more mutually agreeable, fundable water project hereafter to be known as Water District 6.

Further be it resolved that EFC and DOH be sent a letter that we will not be following through with DWSRF project #17468 and that we will be targeting submitting a new IUP by 2009.

Finally be it resolved that the estimated timeline for completion of a project plan and submission to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and other applicable funding sources is no later than October 2010 (see attachment for detailed schedule).

Town Board Meeting 4/8/08

You can listen to the meeting by going to (THIS LINK)

(see post below from 3/5/08 for technical info)

***** The recording starts before the meeting has officially started. Liz Thomas, Marcia Georgia, and Allen Carstensen, are chatting about the possibility of getting these mp3's up on the Village and Town websites.

9 minutes 15 seconds -- they're talking about various bills to pay

11 m 30 s -- pledge of allegiance, accept minutes of 3/11 meeting

17 m 40 s -- planning board representatives, Rebecca Schneider and Ken Zeserson talked about Unique Natural Areas (UNA's)

21 m 15 s -- Dave Kerness resolution asking planning board to focus on water districts, and UNA's, and conservation zoning, lake front zoning, alternative energy, residential and commercial zoning, in preparation for the adoption of a completed Comprehensive Plan, and subsequent zoning revisions

23 m 40 s -- Diane Hillman - Jacksonville Association

37m 10s - recreation partnership discussion with Roxanne Marino

41 m 0 s -- DPW - Jim Meeker talks about the possibility of the Town buying a parcel adjacent to the Town Barn.

48 m 30s -- Code enforcement - Dick Coogan - Grassroots camping on Agard Rd. is technically a zoning violation. No conclusion reached.

55 m 40 s -- Town Clerk financial

56 m 10 s -- Lucia Tyler reports that Tom Schlee and Michele have worked out a schedule for Night Court

57 m 20 s -- Dave Kerness on bulk mailing

1h 3m 40s -- budget problems - The supervisor's budget is off by $300,000! Hopefully this is just an easily corrected error.

lh 7m 30s -- Dick Coogan? UNA's, and Storm Water Annual Report

1h 12m 35s -- Dick on the web page - stay with John Levine or go to Road Runner - $130/month extra I think he said but that sounds wrong - probably 130 extra per year. town business should be done on servers paid for by the town and should be backed up.

1h 20m 40s -- Rt. 96 corridor? April 23rd at PRI 6:30 public meeting. Fly over - cost us $15,000 - attempt to locate failed septic systems. Apparently we got a lot of false positives.

1h 25m 50s -- Dog control officer - should he be an employee of the town, or a contractor? No conclusion

1h 42m 20s -- Lucia Tyler reads her resolution to nix WD5 alt C, and do it right, giving the Water Commission time to do it's work, and wait for the completion of the Comprehensive Plan, and zoning revisions. Vote,
Dave Kerness - aye
Liz Thomas ----aye
Lucia Tyler ---aye
Doug Austic ---nay
Heated discussion follows when Dave asks Doug to explain his vote.

1h 50m 56s -- Apparently the discussion here is wether or not to include a "Farm Protection Plan" as part of the Comprehensive Plan - Much confusion follows about how much this would cost.

2h 6m 10s -- schedule change - the next working Town Board meeting will be 4/24/08 at 8:30 am instead of 7 pm. Dave's bringing the donuts!

2h 8m 0s -- back to Dave's issue (resolution?) to ask for planning board work. Dave and Doug have very different concepts about how this should proceed.

at the very end of the recording - my battery dies - Doug asks for comments and Roxanne begins to say something about the WD resolution - perhaps she will send me her thoughts so I can post them here.

(4/19/08) Roxanne feels that May 2009 as a target date for submitting a new plan for a water district is too soon to let the processes of the water survey and water needs committee analyses, consideration of a new Comp Plan (presuming one is adopted in the late fall to early winter of 2008), etc. fully be incorporated into a new water district proposal.