Village of Lansing

 

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, August 20, 2001, in the Village Office.

 

PRESENT: Mayor Donald Hartill; Trustees Larry Fresinski, Janet Beebe, Frank Moore and Lynn Leopold; Phil Dankert, Planning Board Member.

 

Mayor Donald Hartill called the meeting to order at 7:37P.M. He opened the public comment period. Carolyn Spicer was present to express how many people are upset with the closing of A&P. There was a sense of Community at this store. There are 5 apartment complexes on the other side of Route 13 and many of these individuals do not have cars and walk. She feels that now there will be more congestion going over the bridge and she urged the Board to plan for what may happen with this increase in traffic. She would like to see the Board be proactive and call Mr. Thaler, owner of Triphammer Mall. Mayor Hartill agreed to call Mr. Thaler. She hopes that the Village will upkeep the bridge in the winter because many people will be walking to the P&C. Don feels that our public works department does a good job of maintaining the bridge.

 

Another of Ms. Spicer’s concerns was the pedestrian crossing at Triphammer Mall. She feels that the State only thought of the auto traffic and not the pedestrian traffic when this intersection was set up. Don explained that there is some confusion of the timing of crossing when “Do not walk” flashes. Many people don’t realize that you still have a significant amount of time to cross the street. The Board thought it was a good idea to put up a sign as a reminder of pedestrian traffic. Frank also suggested slashes on the crosswalk. There are also no sidewalks into P&C. With the new design of N. Triphammer Road we are paying much attention to details such as this. Don informed Carolyn that the Village is negotiating with New Plan Realty to acquire a drive through behind Friendly’s so that the buses could turn in there. Since Top’s bought and is having the A&P closed there seems to be a movement not to go to Top’s but to P&C instead. Frank suggested that a neighborhood association be set up because it can be very powerful. Don will contact Ms. Spicer after he speaks with Mr. Thaler.

 

Dick Charsky came to inform the Board of the NYSEG Price Protection Plan that was released 3/7/01. This plan addresses energy price protection. There are five main components to this plan:

 

1.  Increase supply/generation, natural gas is used to produce electricity

2.  Increase transmission capacity, many lines are overloaded

3.  Convey a technical conference to look at 3 power pools becoming one

4.  Look at using power wisely

5.  Price protection plan, the original proposal was to freeze rates for 7 years

 

Dick is looking for a letter of support for this plan. The letter of support for price freeze is to go to the Governor. Lynn stated that there was a large benefit from the energy audit and was distressed that this program has been discontinued. She feels there still is a lot to be done and hates to see the education that NYSEG used to do go to the wayside. The mayor told Dick that the Board would do this at the next meeting once everyone had a chance to look a copy of the plan over.

 

                        Motion-To Close the Public Comment Period

 

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

 

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

                        Trustee Janet Beebe-Aye

 

Tim Buhl, Resource Associates, was present to give a progress report on burying the utilities along N. Triphammer Road. He has made preliminary quantity estimates on the scope of the project and will have a final budget estimate for the project at the September 17th Board meeting. He explained to the Board that even though the lines would be buried there still will be approximately 10 transformers along N. Triphammer. There will also be additional costs for each individual to have their service go underground to their building.

 

Next on the agenda was the engineer’s report. An invitation to bid has gone out for the Airport Elevated Tank Demolition. The bids must be returned by September 11th and the project must be completed by December 31, 2001.

 

Friday Surety Bonding Company sent Bill Troy the take over agreement. On the 24th Dave met with the Bonding Company. Both the attorney and the engineer have issues with the agreement that need to be resolved before it goes to the Board. If the microsurfacing can’t be completed this year then Dave will have the bad sections of Uptown Rd. milled out and redone. The microsurfacing will still need to be done next season. Since the Board is not meeting the first Monday in September, Dave asked the Board to pass a resolution to give the Mayor authority to sign an agreement with the bonding company if it was satisfactory to both the attorney and engineer.

                       

Resolution #3805-Authorizing the Mayor to Enter Into An Agreement with Surety Bond Company Pending the Approval of the Attorney and Engineer are Satisfied with the Contents

 

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

 

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

                        Trustee Janet Beebe-Aye

 

Next on the agenda was the approval of minutes. Lynn gave Jodi a few minor changes.

 

Motion-Approval of Minutes for August 6, 2001

 

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

 

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

Trustee Janet Beebe-Aye

 

Next the Board discussed the Sewer SEQR Positive Declaration, Notice of Intent to Prepare a Draft EIS and Conduct Public Scoping Determination of Significance. Stearns & Wheler, LLC did an overview document of the municipal wastewater collection system improvements and intermunicipal agreement for the Ithaca area.  A public scoping session is scheduled for Sept. 6th at Lansing Town Hall at 7pm. The main discussion will center on how sewers will promote development and what that will do. Don encouraged all the Board members to attend. Don doesn’t see a booming housing demand. In the Village we’ll see more infilling. Most of the development will probably happen in Ivar Jonson’s development. Don will forward the Chazen Study to the Board members when he returns from vacation.

 

During general discussion Frank discussed an article he read in the New York Times on hog farming in the Fingerlakes and it’s effect on the Watershed. Larry couldn’t fit the CLT Design Guidelines on the website because the document and all the graphics were too large. He suggested maybe adding money to the budget next year to increase our webpage size. Don suggested putting a note on the website that this document can be viewed in the Village office. Don asked Larry to look into Roadrunner wireless once again.

 

Motion- To Adjourn

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved adjournment. Trustee Lynn Leopold seconded the motion.

 

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                    Trustee Frank Moore- Aye

                        Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye                   Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye

                        Trustee Janet Beebe-Aye

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:30 P.M.

 

                                                                                                            Jodi Dake

                                                                                                            Village Clerk