OCTOBER 5, 2015 VILLAGE BOARD MEETING
MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Kurt Wheeler, Trustee Amy Mann, Trustee Dave Porter, Trustee Jim Joseph
ALSO PRESENT: Bill Carr, Bob Lucas, Phil Byrnes, Matthew Reeve, Alexander Dubin, Sydney Levinson, Vitaliy Moskvich, Jim Stokes, Attorney for the Village arrived at 8:05.
The Board approved the minutes from the September 8, 2015 Public Hearing to consider a Local Law to amend Chapter 169 of the Village Code to establish a 25 mph speed limit on the entire length of Riverside Drive and the minute from the September 8th Village Board meeting.
Mayor Wheeler gave an update on the Creekside Park and planning process. Mayor Wheeler stated Dan Kwasnowski of Applied Planning who helped with this project has accepted full time employment in the Albany area and Jocelyn Gavitt will be wrapping up the project. Ms. Gavitt brought her ESF students to view the site and they will be creating potential designs for the park behind the library as a class project. Mayor Wheeler added the grant application ($26,000) for development of Creekside Park and Trail was submitted to CNY Community Foundation on September 25th. Mayor Wheeler met on site with Steve Case who brought along a colleague with expertise in grant writing to pursue funding to aid the potential redevelopment of part of the site.
Mayor Wheeler reported the Miata that was auctioned brought in $7,400. This car was originally auctioned and brought in $10,250. Rob Connor who won the car and donated it back with the idea whatever it sold for the monies would be used for the Creekside Park and Trail development.
Trustee Mann gave an update on the Albany Street reconstruction. The Albany St. crosswalks have been pulled. Milling of Route 20 has begun. On Tuesday, October 6th they will start milling Albany St. from Sullivan St. to Brae Loch. During this time there will be no parking on either side of Albany St. from Sullivan St. to Forman St. As soon as the parking areas have been milled they will be opened up. November 1st is the projected ultimate completion date for this project
Mayor Wheeler suggested the Village take a relaxed approach to the parking enforcement at this time unless there is a dangerous situation. People will be expecting to be able to park on the street when this may not always be the case.
Trustee Jim Joseph reported he had received compliments regarding improvements in parking enforcement.
Trustee Mann added that on Wednesday, October 7th beginning at 9:00 we will be sealing Riverside Dr., Lincklaen Terrace, Liberty, Center, Lyman Streets and Hotel Alley. During this time there will be delays and detours and no parking on the street. The sealing should take about one hour on each street.
Trustee Mann reported Bill Carr has reached out to the Gillette Lane residents to schedule a meeting regarding the repaving and potential redesign options for this street. Hopefully a meeting will be scheduled in the next few weeks.
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Matt Reeve asked the Board about the parking and parking violations in the Village. He asked who regulates or controls people parking on private property. Trustee Joseph asked Mr. Reeve to take a picture of the car and send it to him and he will follow through.
Trustee Dave Porter gave his monthly report:
Sewer/Water:
· Water pumped last month was 8.8 Mgal > 294 kgal/day – historic ave is 9.1 Mgal.
· Water service extension for distillery. The board approved extending water service to the proposed Rt 20 E distillery – plans are moved forward for this.
· Seven Pines Water District – currently tabled due to lack of support from residents in the proposed district.
· Town of Nelson Water Service – no additional updates
· Additional Storm Water Separation: In addition to preexisting storm water connections to the sanitary sewer from the Kinney’s building, most of Cazenovia College has similar storm connections to the sanitary sewer. Tim Carpenter (GHD) has offered to investigate the possibility of obtaining grant funding from NYS. As potential project might include connecting the various college buildings (with exception of recently constructed bldgs.) to the storm sewer neat the intersection Rt 20 and Sullivan St. The storm conveyance in that area is a vitreous clay storm pipe connecting Rt 20 to the willow patch due south – this pipe may need to be increased in size due to observed surcharging of storm catch basins during heavy storm; and, additional flow from college should be anticipated - possible directional drilling from Rt 20 to will patch would be considered in lieu of excavation through Village ROW. This project is potentially fundable through the GIGP Grant Program which paid for last year’s storm separation project.
· The grant investigation work is being done by GHD (Tim Carpenter) at no charge to the Village. If we come up with a good idea that looks fundable, the Village will need to prepare an engineering report to go along with the application. At that point the village can entertain proposals to prepare that preliminary design report.
Fire Dept:
· Fireman’s recruitment initiative is in progress and nearing completion. Remaining activities include:
o The third of three open houses will be on Saturday Oct 10th.
o Possible recruitment table set up during the Farmers Market on Saturday’s in September. Alt: table at Tops or Buyeas?
· New Fire Dept. member applications: Steven Emlaw. As per Phil Byrnes, the recruitment drive resulted in five new member applications.
Lake Watershed Council:
· Next meeting: Possible planning meeting prior to Lake Summit.
· Lake Summit: To be held on Saturday December 5th Presenters include:
o Village: boat launch, inspections, enforcement (Fritz Koennecke)
o Town: benthic mats, stormwater management, mechanical harvesting (Tom Driscoll & Tim Hunt)
o CLA: herbicide treatment, CSLAP, fundraising (Stan Maziuk & Bob Greiner)
o Thad Yorks, Cazenovia College: Results of fishery surveys
o Bob Johnson, Racine-Johnson Aquatic Ecologists: Results of the 2014 rake-toss survey
Motion made by Trustee Dave Porter and seconded by Mayor Kurt Wheeler to pass the following resolution:
RESOLUTION #26 – BE IT RESOLVED, that the Village of Cazenovia through its governing body, the Board of Trustees, hereby accepts Steven Emlaw as a member of the Cazenovia Fire Department.
By vote of the Board – Mayor Kurt Wheeler – aye, Trustee Amy Mann – aye, Trustee Dave Porter – aye, Trustee Jim Joseph – aye.
Four in favor. Approved.
The consensus of the Board regarding the Smart Watt contract is that the Village is glad to continue to communicate with Smart Watt and engage their services if it is the best offer when lighting upgrades become feasible, but it would not be in the village’s interest to renew the contract at this time.
Motion made by Mayor Wheeler and seconded by Trustee Porter that the Village Board is extremely interested and very supportive in working with Cazenovia Equipment and their Renewable Energy program specifically micro power.
Vote taken. All aye. Approved.
Mayor Wheeler updated the board on a “Virtual Community Center” initiative powered by a web-based program called RecDesk. The concept and software were first identified by CACDA with Project CAFÉ and the Town of Cazenovia offering to collaborate and assist with its implantation. Mayor Wheeler and Lauren Lines also recently met with Sue Berger of the Common Grounds Committee, which may be interested in assisting also. The program would allow “one stop shopping” for community members to identify programming, events and facilities that are available. The software is extremely powerful and can also be used to collect fees on-line and enhance communication between activity leaders and participants. Organizers feel that, ultimately, it should be a component of the Joint Youth Rec Program to optimize shared use and funding of the project. Meetings with potential participants such as youth sports, the school, the college and local service groups will occur this fall with a test phase of the site over the winter and goal to implement it fully in the spring. By maximizing use of current facilities and then identifying gaps, this could also be a first step toward the long-term goal of a community center. Mayor Wheeler strongly encouraged the Village to take part and assist with RecDesk in any way possible.
Motion made by Trustee Porter and seconded by Mayor Wheeler to pass the following resolution:
RESOLUTION #27 - BE IT RESOLVED that the Village of Cazenovia through its governing body the Board of Trustees, hereby approves a 2% increase for the 2016 fire contracts bringing the totals for the Town of Cazenovia to $242,978.21, the Town of Fenner to $45,496.78 and the Town of Nelson to $72,617.18.
By vote of the Board – Mayor Kurt Wheeler – aye, Trustee Amy Mann – aye, Trustee Dave Porter – aye, Trustee Jim Joseph – aye.
Four in favor. Approved.
Trustee Amy Mann gave her monthly report:
TREES
Installed a donated beech Memorial Tree in Lakeland Park and two honey locusts next to the Lincklaen House entrance on Lincklaen Street. Scheduled Tree Commission Community Planting Project for Saturday, October 24. We will be installing 7 replacement trees on Nelson St. Since Nelson St. was originally a TC project, we thought circling back to maintain failed trees was an appropriate project. We will also be installing three 10-12 foot Norway spruce trees on the town green as part of our continuing efforts there. These are large scale plantings and will be done with Joe Weinheimer’s tree spade. These plantings will be paid for by the generous bequest which was received via the Town last year to be used toward plantings. To that end, I would like to do a permissive referendum tonight to spend up to $4,000 on this project.
Also we are scheduled to participate in a presentation on Thursday, October 29 at 7 pm in the Library Community Room entitled “Trees - Shade and Much More.” CPF is the main sponsor of the event, which will feature speaker Emanuel Carter from ESF. Professor Carter will speak about the ecological, health, and wellness benefits of trees to a community. The presentation is geared largely to residential trees, but Tom Tait plans to speak on behalf of Tree Commission to explain our protocol when managing village trees. The public is welcome to attend.
The dead walnut tree in Lakeland Park was removed today. We had several folks interested in repurposing the wood so you may see by-products of the tree showing up in various forms. We also will be removing two trees on Sullivan which we had hoped might make it another year, but which declined quickly over the summer.
CARPENTERS BARN/MASTER PLAN
Saratoga has submitted a preliminary final report for our review, Ted and I will be working with them to get that into final form. I believe the Master Plan is still awaiting approval from the state before we can put everything to bed.
DPW
See Bill’s report below:
Buildings / Grounds New bike racks have been installed at Lakeland Park.
More boards have been replace on the dock
New ice stops have been installed on the firehouse roof.
Streets Sidewalk repair on Lincklaen and Union Streets has been completed and 2 new trees have been planted next to the Lincklaen House
The hitching post at Buyea’s has been graded
New sewer line has been installed from the new hotel to Nelson Street.
Repaving of Farnham Street has been completed.
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Storm sewer work continues.
Brush and leaf pickup starts Monday October 5th and runs until November 6th.
NYSDOT continues work on Albany and Forman Street and Ledyard Ave. Milling of the pavement will start at the end of the lake and work towards the Village center.
4 new No Overnight parking signs have been installed around the college.
Cemetery Repair work continues on old stones
1 Burial.
Mowing continues.
Also on Wednesday Oct. 7 DPW will be sealing Riverside Dr., Lincklaen Terrace, Liberty, Center, Lyman Streets and Hotel Alley. During this time there will be delays, detours, and no parking on these streets. It should take about one hour.
Leaf and brush pickup began today and will continue through November 6. Branches should be no more than ten feet in length and six inches in diameter. Branches and brush should be kept separate from leaves, and nothing should be left in the street where it could clog the sewers.
Motion made by Trustee Mann and seconded by Mayor Wheeler to pass the following resolution:
RESOLUTION # 28 – PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Cazenovia, at a regular meeting held on September 8, 2015, duly adopted a resolution, subject to permissive referendum, to expend up to the sum of $ 4,000.00 from the Community Tree Replacement & Enhancement Capital Reserve Fund for the purchase of new trees to be planted in the Village of Cazenovia.
By vote of the Board – Mayor Kurt Wheeler – aye, Trustee Amy Mann – aye, Trustee Dave Porter – aye, Trustee Jim Joseph – aye..
Four in favor. Approved.
Mayor Wheeler took a minute to comment how well the Evergreen Cemetery is maintained and commended Superintendent Jeff Hughes for all his hard work.
Trustee Jim Joseph gave his monthly report:
Village of Cazenovia –
· Carpenter’s Barn/Lakeland Park NYS Parks Planning Grant (2013 CFA) - submitted second reimbursement request; final plan is under review
· Joint grant application with the Town for records management under NYS Archives program submitted on 4/24 ($109,000) - FUNDED