Village of Bloomfield Trustees Meeting of October 24, 2012

Present: Mayor Falsone

Trustees:Conklin, Barnard, Coleman

Kathy Conradt, Brian Rayburn,

Guest: Nancy Long, Michelle MacMillan, Glen Cooke, Charles Gullo

Absent: Trustee Kimball

The meeting was opened at 5:30 p.m. with the pledge to the flag.

5:30 Privilege of the floor: Glen Cooke, Director of the WOLCDC gave a presentation of the organization and its plans. He explained the purpose and formation or the organization and stated that they work closely with the Ontario County IDA, Empire State Dev. Corp., Rochester Business Enterprise and the banking community. The WOLCDC currently has a $15,000 mico-revolving loan program and has recently been awarded an additional $15,000 from the County IDA to expand the loan program. Goals for the future include additional marketing of the area to attract new businesses, especially a pharmacy.

Minutes: The September minutes were approved as submitted.

Mayor’s report:

  1. Received a letter of interest for the position of alternate on the ZBA and after ZBA chair review – Mayor Falsone motioned, Trustee Barnard seconded and it was unanimously carried to make the appointment of EJ Warden to alternate member on the ZBA.
  2. Michigan St. resident expressed concern for excessive speeding on Michigan St. Clerk will request radar sign placement for now and Brian Rayburn will research options to purchase a portable radar sign.
  3. Received a letter to update status and plan of action for a multiple STAR exemption that currently occurs for a resident in the Village.

Clerk’s report:

  1. Board reviewed financial report for September.
  2. Abstract 5 (vouchers 133-168) was audited in the following amounts:General Fund $11,408.61, Water Fund $29,499.06, and Sewer Fund $5,825.16, Trust and Agency $4007.01. Trustee Barnard motioned, Trustee Coleman seconded and it was unanimously carried to pay the bills. The clerk and public works supervisor declared that all goods have been received and all services have been rendered.
  3. Tax collection is currently at 97% with 8 bills outstanding and collection ending Nov. 2.
  4. EFC approved funding for the sewer capital project so all materials and application must be completed and sent in by Feb. 1. The engineer, public works supervisor, clerk and financial advisor will meet on Nov 8 at 11:00 am in the village office to develop a plan of action to complete the application.
  5. Received information from Troy and Banks for an audit of utilities at no charge, unless savings and/or errors are discovered and then it is a percentage of savings. An audit was conducted many years ago with this firm with no errors found. Trustee Barnard motioned, Mayor Falsone seconded and it was unanimously carried to authorize the Clerk to contract with Troy and Banks to audit municipal utility bills with a deadline of 6 months for completion of the review.

6:08 Public Hearing: Proposed Local Law #2 of 2012 for Best Value Procurement.

The Trustees waived reading the legal notice which appeared in the Daily Messenger. The purpose of the proposed law is to allow for flexibility in certain purchases where the lowest bid may not be in the best interest of the municipality. There were no written or verbal comments received from the public. There were no questions or concerns from the Trustees. The public hearing was closed at 6:10 p.m. Mayor Falsone motioned and Trustee Coleman seconded adoption of Local Law #2 of 2012 Best Value Procurement Standard. The roll call vote was: Trustee Barnard – yes, Trustee Coleman – yes, Trustee Conklin – yes, Mayor Falsone – yes and Trustee Kimball – absent and the law was duly adopted.

CEO monthly report: no questions or concerns.

Public works report: Brian reported:

  1. Water
  1. Contact with MCWA is ongoing.. The T/O East Bloomfield requested some items from MCWA prior to them conducting the leak detection survey in WD#2. As of yet the requested items have not been received.
  2. All valves have been exercised
  1. Sewer and WWTP
  1. The sewer capital plan is moving ahead. DEC has indicated that they like what we have proposed at this time.
  2. Maintenance is ongoing at the treatment plant.
  3. Sewer main replacements still need to be completed this fall. Hopefully this work will be done before the bad weather hits.
  1. Streets and Equipment

a.Sidewalk work has been completed for the year.

b.Some decorative lights are out. When RG&E does a disconnect, the repairs can be made.

c. Preparations for Halloween will be made next week.

d. Snow plowing equipment will be made ready

6:30 p.m. Privilege of the floor: Mr. Charles Gullo addressed the Board with his concerns for the lack of formal easements for his property located at 4 E Main St. The following was discussed by Mr. Gullo:

  1. The property was subdivided in 1982 with no formal easement required at that time.
  2. The buildings were approx. 7000 sq. ft. at the time which allowed for adequate access on site to the side and back of the buildings
  3. In 2001 the main building was increased to double its size and extended to within 10 ft. of the side lot lines which leaves no additional room for a driveway access to the side or back of the building.
  4. No formal easement was required by the Village Planning Board at that time.
  5. Mr. Gullo has, since 1982, always used the existing driveways on each side of his property, which are owned by the two adjacent property owners through a “gentleman’s agreement”
  6. Both adjacent properties are now for sale making the future of the gentleman’s agreement uncertain
  7. Mr. Gullo has been trying, without success, to sell his property for at least 10 years and the absence of a written easement has been a deterrent to potential buyers.

The Village Board believes it has no standing in the issue of easements between property owners and recommends that Mr. Gullo consult his attorney to draft an easement map to present to the current owners before the properties are sold.

Water committee: Trustee Coleman distributed a graph comparing the water rates in Monroe County with the rates in the Village of Bloomfield.

WOLCDC committee: Trustee Barnard reported:

  1. The next meeting will be at the village office on Oct. 26
  2. The business roundtable meeting at Cheap Charlie’s on October was not well attended

Sewer Committee: no report

Audit Committee: Trustee Coleman met with three accounting firms and presented three bid proposals for the audit. The Village is currently in compliance with all requirements of the State Comptroller’s Office with the internal audit which is conducted annually. If the board decides to retain an auditing firm, another issue to be addressed by the auditor could be establishing an escrow to lower bond interest. After discussion of the merits and drawbacks of funding an outside firm to do a procedural audit, the proposals are tabled for review at the Nov. meeting.

New business:

A. Draft Local Law #3 of 2012 to allow the Village to exceed the tax cap limit was reviewed. The law is proposed to provide flexibility although it is not the intent of the Trustees to exceed the tax limit in the next budget. A public hearing will be scheduled for the November meeting at 6pm.

B. Draft Local Law #4 of 2012 to amend the zoning law for signs was reviewed. The public hearing will be Nov. 28 at 6:15 p.m.

C. SEQR- sewer capital project. Upon recommendation of the engineer for the project and following a brief discussion Trustee Coleman motioned and Trustee Barnard seconded the following:

Whereas the Village of Bloomfield plans to undertake a sewer capital project, and

Whereas the project proposes to rehabilitate, repair and upgrade an existing sewer system with more energy efficient technology , and

Whereas the project will be constructed on the existing sewer site, and

Whereas the project will not exceed any of the thresholds listed in 617.4 b (6) by more than 50%,

Therefore be it resolved that the Village of Bloomfield Board of Trustees declares the sewer capital project to be a Type 2 action which does not require any further environmental review.

The roll call vote was:Trustee Barnard – yes, Trustee Coleman – yes, Trustee Conklin – yes, Mayor Falsone – yes and Trustee Kimball – absent and the resolution was duly adopted.

D. NIMS – Trustee Coleman offered information on a volunteer program in Victor to provide transportation for non-emergency medical appointments and would like to research the possibility of establishing a similar service in our community. The Clerk contacted the EB Methodist Church as they had offered this service in the past but had to discontinue due to the high need and lack of enough volunteers. The Clerk will obtain more information on how the Victor program was started and is maintained.

E. Request to waive water and sewer late penalty – a resident is requesting that the board waive the late penalty for the July bill as they did not receive it through the USPS. There is a concern for precedent and the practice of arbitrary enforcement of a policy if exceptions are made. Although there is no reason to doubt that the bill was not received, mail delivery is out of the control of the village and there could be residents that take advantage of that reason for not paying a bill on time. Mayor Falsone motioned, Trustee Coleman seconded and it was unanimously carried to deny the request to waive the water/sewer late penalty when the bill has not been delivered by the USPS as that is out of the control of the village and a waiver would be an arbitrary application of the water/sewer policy.

TEB board meeting: Trustee Barnard reported that he attended the last board meeting and he gave a brief summary of issues discussed.

Works in progress: DEC and fracking – the Town of East Bloomfield has joined with a committee representing 6 municipalities to contract with an environmental attorney to draft appropriate regulations to protect against any detrimental impacts of fracking on our infrastructure.

Adjournment: Trustee Barnard motioned, Trustee Coleman seconded and it was unanimously carried adjourn the meeting at 7:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Conradt, Clerk