Village of Lansing

 

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Thursday December 14, 2006, in the Village Office.

 

PRESENT: Mayor Donald Hartill; Trustees Larry Fresinski, Lynn Leopold, Larry Fresinski, John O’Neill; Superintendent of Public Works John Courtney; Motor Equipment Operator, Richard Beckwith; Code & Zoning Officer, Benjamin Curtis; Clerk/Treasurer Jodi Dake; Clerk, part-time Carol Willard.

 

Mayor Hartill called the meeting to order at 12:15P.M.

 

Ben stated that Levon Brewer should finally get his certificate of occupancy tomorrow at 3 Bush Lane. There have been many problems through the last year.  The County and EMC have both weighed in on the Crossmore Subdivision. The cliffs in this subdivision are a sensitive area. Ned Hickey has a meeting with County Planning. This area is a prime area to be acquired for open space.  There may be funding available to protect this area. The next Planning Board meeting is 1/8/07.

 

Lynn stated that she spoke with Dooley Keifer, who is on the environmental review committee, and she stated that the County might have a small amount of monies for land acquisition. Every year people can nominate land to be acquired by the State. Lynn will call Andy and talk to him about land trusts. Mr. Crossmore has indicated that he is caught in a bind and is paying very high taxes because his cliff land and similar sensitive areas are deemed developable by the County. There is also a possibility that the portion of his property in question could be deeded to the Village of Lansing. The assessed values on property along the shore has increased dramatically. This area is a very sensitive area in the middle of a gorgeous view. Lynn suggested that the Mayor speak with Ned on this.

 

Carol has been doing apartment inspections. Next week she will be starting on what use to be the Covered Bridge Apartments on Graham Rd.

 

Rick has the snow fence up and is just waiting for snow. It was asked if anyone has gotten a hold of Jeff Geiger, manager of Sun Down Farms, to ask them to repair their split rail fence. It is falling down and doesn’t look very good.

 

John O’Neill has spoken with Bob Walsh at NYSEG and he will supply us with an inventory of our current streetlights.  It was reported that to install a streetlight on an existing NYSEG pole and to perform minor maintenance would cost the Village about $10 a month per pole. John suggested that we consider removing some of the lights that were on N. Triphammer Road before we installed the new streetlights. Don stated that there would be a cost to remove them. John Courtney stated that by the bridge the State mandates cobra heads.  Bob also suggested to John O’Neill that the Village go with 100-watt lights. He also asked if we had a dark sky’s policy. The Town of Ithaca does. If we would want to have this policy, a resolution would need to be adopted with specific places indicated. John Courtney stated that high-pressure sodium lights would be yellowish in color. Courtney will also look into what kind of lights the Village of Cayuga Heights uses because they flutter. Courtney would also like to see a light in Dankert Park. They are finding garbage from drinking and drugs in the park. Hartill told Courtney to go ahead and look into what it would take to get a light in the park.

 

John O’Neill did some further research on Deer Fortress and found that it doesn’t work in cold weather. There is another product that was recommended called Repellex that does work.  In the meantime, each of the new trees on North Triphammer Road has been wrapped.  O’Neill will experiment with this product on his own and report back to the Board.

 

Lynn sent an email to the Trustees after she spoke with Dooley Keifer on the deer issue. She suggested that language be added to a resolution that we want help from the State DEC. Frank stated that Tim Joseph seemed to accept it as a County problem at the last TCCOG Meeting.

 

Lynn informed the Board that the floating classroom had a very successful year by serving 1500 kids this summer.

 

Jodi stated that she has had All-Mode in to talk to her about our current phone system. Our system will not be supported after February 2007. If we have our system replaced by December 27th, Nortel will send us a rebate of $450 with proof of destruction of our old system. The new telephone system would be a fully digital, IP enabled, Nortel Networks Business Communication Manager (BCM50). It would be bundled with four Central Office Lines, 2 analog ports, 2 IP set licenses, eight digital station ports and eight voice mail boxes. It also includes a 10 port, 100-hour voice processing system, which is expandable to 1000 mailboxes. This price includes labor to install and program the equipment and a one-year warranty. The new system would allow us to utilize our current phones. The Mayor suggested we update our current system.

 

Resolution #5291-To Accept All-Mode Communications Quote for a

                              BCM Telephone System to Replace the Nortel Phone

                              System in the Office for $2,578.00.

 

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

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore-Aye                                           Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                    Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

                        Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye

 

Jodi has also had Jeff Wright in to discuss health insurance. After reviewing what is currently available, it seems that what we have is still the best option.

 

Don asked how much space we had available in our fireproof cabinets because we were soon going to acquire all the paperwork that Byron has done relating to the N. Triphammer Road Project. Jodi questioned if there was room up in the fireproof cabinets in the shop. Rick asked what was going on with the firehouse because they need more room for storage with all the new equipment that they are acquiring. Don stated that once a decision is reached with the Fire Department, we can then move forward with what we’ll need. Jodi can continue to go through old boxes and possibly throw stuff away that we no longer need to archive.

 

Mayor Hartill entertained the following resolution:

 

Resolution #5292– Abstract of Audited Vouchers

 

Be it RESOLVED, that Abstract of Audited Vouchers No. 7 for the General Fund, in the amount of $42,927.60 is hereby approved for payment, and

 

Be it RESOLVED, that Abstract of Audited Vouchers No. 7 for the Water Fund, in the amount of $2,280.64, is hereby approved for payment, and

 

Be it RESOLVED, that Abstract of Audited Vouchers No. 7 for the Sewer Fund, in the amount of $3,400.20, is hereby approved for payment, and

 

Be it RESOLVED, that Abstract of Audited Vouchers No. 7 for the Capital Projects Fund, in the amount of $26,454.83 is hereby approved for payment.

 

Frank questioned whether the invoice to Drain Brain for sewer flushing could be charged to a business in the Village. John explained that we do a certain amount of flushing maintenance every year, and in most cases it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where a problem originates. Frank suggested passing a resolution that required businesses to keep maintenance logs or invoices showing the work that was completed. Lynn asked if anyone knew of another municipality that had such a law. John stated that we have this in our Code and Carol inspects. The best way to go would to have external grease traps.

 

Trustee Fresinski moved that the foregoing Abstract of Audited Vouchers resolution be adopted and Trustee O’Neill seconded the motion.

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                 Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                                           Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye                 Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye

                        Trustee Frank Moore-Aye

 

Courtney went on to report that he has completed the highway inventory. Our miles of roads increased from 16.75 to 17.08 since we have accepted the end of Horizon Drive and Catherwood East by HSBC. With the N. Triphammer Reconstruction we’ve also increased our lane miles from 35.04 to 35.82 lane miles.

 

This month the Highway Department has done some tree pruning, put tree protectors on all the new trees along N. Triphammer Rd., and measured all the roads for the inventory. The new truck has been ordered. This month they will be working on the Janivar to Wakefield/Churchill Drive Trail. John will get sewer flow data to the Mayor.

 

O’Neill and Courtney have not gotten together yet with David Putnam to discuss speed radar equipment on N. Triphammer. The question came up of whether to have solar power or have the radar equipment hard wired. The Mayor prefers to have it hard wired so that we can continually collect data. John asked if they considered getting portable radar units. Lynn would like to see a permanent sign.

 

Motion- To Adjourn

 

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

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                 Trustee Frank Moore-Aye                                           Trustee John O’Neill-Aye                    Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

                        Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye

 

The meeting adjourned at 1:40 PM.                                       

                                                                                                                                                            Jodi Dake                                                                                                                           Clerk/Treasurer