Minutes of August 23, 2006

TOWN OF DRYDEN

TOWN BOARD MEETING
August 23, 2006

Present: Supv Steven Trumbull, Cl Martin Christofferson, Cl Daniel Tier

III, Cl Stephen Stelick, Jr., Cl Mary Ann Sumner

Elected Officials: Bambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk

Other Town Staff: Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney

Dan Kwasnowski, Environmental Planner

Supv Trumbull opened the board meeting at 11:00 a.m. and led board members and audience in the pledge of allegiance.

Tony Egner of Egner Architects introduced himself and Atty Mahlon Perkins and asked the board members and contractors to introduce themselves. Contractors present included Jerry Stevenson of McPherson Builders, general contractor; Jim Soper of Frye and Campbell, heating contractor; Randy Knapp of Knapp Electric, electrical contractor; and John Contro, plumbing contractor.

T Egner said he has prepared much of the paperwork necessary and would review it individually with each contractor. The schedule prepared by the general contractor calls for work to begin September 5, 2006, with a completion date of July 27, 2006. Atty Perkins said the Board could authorize the Supervisor to sign the contracts and the change orders subject to his review of the documents.

Cl Christofferson said he and Cl Stelick met on Monday with T Egner and reviewed the change orders. They are trying to get down to the price that was budgeted for the project. Most have already been reviewed and approved by the contractors, and they approve of the proposed changes. The changes made involve substitution of pvc vent pipe, different size pipes in some cases, substitution of hot water heaters, sprinkler pipe and other efforts to reduce the cost of the project and were proposed by the architect. A pre-construction meeting will be held by Wednesday of next week.

RESOLUTION #133 – AUTHORIZE SUPERVISOR TO EXECUTE CONTRACTS AND CHANGE ORDERS FOR TOWN HALL PROJECT

Cl Christofferson offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:

RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the contracts for construction of the new town hall as presented to the committee, and authorizes the Town Supervisor to execute the contracts and any change orders, subject to approval by the Town Attorney.

2nd Cl Stelick

Roll Call Vote Cl Christofferson Yes

Cl Tier Yes

Supv Trumbull Yes

Cl Stelick Yes

Cl Sumner Yes

The groundbreaking ceremony will be held Wednesday, August 30, 2006, at 2:00 p.m.

The Board briefly discussed the National Incident Management System and a training session to be held in Caroline on September 16. Cl Tier will gather more information on that.

The board discussed the creation of a temporary position to provide for the “clerk of the works” position for the town hall project, and whether it was best to hire someone on the town payroll or have a contract with that person as a subcontractor and the associated expenses. D Bogdan explained the position could be classified as a working supervisor position to meet the qualifications of civil service (as an exempt non-classified type). A contract can be written with the person hired for the position.

RESOLUTION #134 – CREATE TEMPORARY POSITION -

WORKING SUPERVISOR

Cl Stelick offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:

RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby creates a temporary exempt working supervisor position for the period September 1, 2006 through July 31, 2007.

2nd Supv Trumbull

Roll Call Vote Cl Christofferson Yes

Cl Tier Yes

Supv Trumbull Yes

Cl Stelick Yes

Cl Sumner Yes

RESOLUTION #135 – HIRE WORKING SUPERVISOR – CLERK OF THE WORKS

Cl Stelick offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:

RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor sign an agreement with John Holmes to serve as a working supervisor at an annualized salary not to exceed $46,000; the position is exempt, non-classified and part-time.

2nd Supv Trumbull

Roll Call Vote Cl Christofferson Yes

Cl Tier Yes

Supv Trumbull Yes

Cl Stelick Yes

Cl Sumner Yes

Cl Sumner discussed the development of the energy ordinance. It began with the presumption the board wanted residents to be able to take advantage of renewable energy sources that have better environmental impacts for the community. They want to regulate it in order to have some control over the visual impact on the neighborhood and view shed and safety of the installation. They have addressed this by requiring a special permit for construction of a renewable energy source. D Kwasnowski reviewed numerous existing energy laws and listed some details from each and the parameters from each. The Conservation Board discussed this over several meetings. Based on their input and using the telecommunications ordinance as a model he drafted the first version. She said it started to get complicated by introducing specifications that were relevant to wind energy alone and further complicated by the fact that they were trying to include other non-wind energy sources.

The draft was still in need of editing for stylistic reasons and for specific details. Cl Sumner, D Kwasnowski and Supv Trumbull reviewed the draft again, made a few changes and forwarded it to Atty Perkins. It still was in need of some editing at that point and Atty Perkins made extensive suggestions, primarily stylistic and grammatical, but raised a couple of substantial issues. He suggested that the telecommunications ordinance was perhaps not the best model to use. They looked at a specific wind energy ordinance that the Town of Malone has adopted recently. Cl Sumner, Supv Trumbull, D Kwasnowski and Atty Perkins met again and decided that the wind ordinance for the Town of Malone was simpler and if they were going to proceed to finalize one version that would be the one.

Using the Town of Malone ordinance, Cl Sumner incorporated all the details the Conservation Board had been working on. The version she ended up working with was true to the Conservation Board intent in all but a few ways. It is different in that the Conservation Board recommended no restriction on the color of towers and the ordinance requires them to be a neutral color. The Conservation Board specified that engineer’s certification would be required for both the initial application and periodic recertification. That was not included in this most recent version. The Conservation Board included a specification for noise limits at the boundary of the property and that also not been included, primarily because there is no other town noise ordinance for consistency. The Conservation Board recommended a height of no more than 150′ and this version has a maximum height of 140′ to be consistent with the telecommunications ordinance. The Conservation Board recommended no signage be required and the ordinance as proposed requires one sign warning of electrical hazard.

Cl Sumner said she was surprised to receive a letter from ZO Slater saying that he sees a problem carrying this out, so she went over the original version in some detail. The major difference she sees is that the application process included a lot more specific requirements in the first version than it does in this one. She said she doesn’t want to do something that he doesn’t recommend and this version was intended to be simpler. She also received a couple of recommendations from D Kwasnowski that she thinks they ought to consider.

She said she understands there is a need for review by Tompkins County and would like to consider recommending this almost as it exists now, and asking the County if there is a possibility of having them review it prior to September 14 so the public hearing can be scheduled for September 14. Atty Perkins said he would like to see it in an agreed-upon form prior to scheduling a public hearing. A special meeting could be held to schedule the public hearing. Atty Perkins said notice has to be given to Tompkins County Planning and to the adjoining municipalities. It is a type one action under SEQR, so someone has to prepare a long environmental assessment form. There needs to be sufficient notice of the public hearing.

Cl Sumner said she’s frustrated that so many things are coming up at the last moment. Cl Christofferson said he is anxious to move this along, but he also wants to make sure it is done properly. Cl Sumner said she would meet with D Kwasnowski and ZO Slater and see what needs to be incorporated to make it workable, and find out how promptly the County can review it. She will then try and arrange a special meeting to introduce it so a public hearing can be held on September 14, 2006.

On motion, made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Bambi L. Hollenbeck

Town Clerk