FEBRUARY 1, 2016 VILLAGE BOARD MEETING
MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Kurt Wheeler, Trustee Amy Mann, Trustee Dave Porter, Trustee Fritz Koennecke
ALSO PRESENT: Jim Stokes, Bill Carr, Lauren Lines, Mike Hayes, Jason Emerson, John Ninos, Bob & Bobbie Constable, Bob Lucas
Meeting called to order by Mayor Wheeler at 7:00 p.m.
Upon a motion by Trustee Mann, seconded by Trustee Koennecke, the Board approved the minutes from the January 4, 2016 Village Board meeting by a vote of 4-0.
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The Village Board scheduled special meetings for February 16, 2016, at 6:00 p.m. and March 1, 2016, at 6:00 p.m. at the Municipal Building to discuss the 2016 – 2017 budget.
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Mayor Wheeler briefly reviewed the status of the planning for the Creekside Park and trail and advised that the Creekside Committee had met and Jocelyn Gavitt of Gavitt Associates had submitted concept sketches. The committee will be re-convening soon on a date to be determined. The Mayor advised that the final reports are posted on the Village website.
Upon a motion by Mayor Wheeler and seconded by Trustee Koennecke, the Board recognized and adopted the Creekside Park Plan and the Creekside Trail Plan as provided by Dan Kwasnowski of Applied Planning with one minor revision to accurately reflect the current zoning for the Creekside District as passed in January 2015.
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Mr. Jim Stokes, Attorney for the Village of Cazenovia reviewed three proposed edits to Chapter 180 of the Village Code. The first would redefine the word “kennel” in the code to allow for dog grooming businesses in the Village. Currently, the village code does not distinguish between dog grooming and day care facilities from overnight kennels. The second edit to the code would clearly allow drive thru windows in Village Edge South in conjunction with drug stores or banks. This was the intent when the VES zoning was written but the language is different from that of other zones, creating ambiguity. The third edit would clarify the jurisdiction of the Historic Preservation Committee to be consistent with that required for the Village to earn “Certified Local Government” status.
Upon a motion by Mayor Wheeler and seconded by Trustee Mann, the Board scheduled a Public Hearing for March 7, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at the Municipal Building to review the revisions to amend Chapter 180 of the Code of the Village of Cazenovia by a vote of 4-0.
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Trustee Fritz Koennecke led a discussion on boat racks and the policy. (See Trustee Koennecke’s report below):
Lakeside Kayak Racks:
· DPW is building 2 racks for a total of 12 kayaks or canoes. The racks are near the water along the south boundary of the park. This is very close to the recently enhanced hand boat launch area to the south of the dock.
o We will start small; there is room for more if the program is successful.
o I fear that this will be very successful, but we will not want to fill the entire park with boats. Hence a very incremental plan.
· Propose $40 for IMA/ $50 for Non-IMA permit to store one boat for the season.
o Open question: Village residents only or open to all at the same price or with an increased non-resident price (Board preferred to open it to both as with the launch.)
· Permits will be available through the village clerk and the process will be similar to launch permits. A separate form will be used for the application to minimize confusion about permit types. Applicants will need to sign under a statement that says:
o I have read, understand and agree to abide by the attached regulations governing the use of Lakeside Park Boat Launch and boating practices on Cazenovia Lake under penalty of fines and/or revocation of permit. I also understand that the Village of Cazenovia is not responsible for loss or damage while my boat is stored at the park.
o Much of the regulations apply to motorboats, but I think it best that everyone understands the same set of rules.
· Season runs from the last weekend in April to Columbus Day- same as the boat launch.
o Signups may start as early as January 1st
· Stewards will monitor the racks for safety and unauthorized usage
· There will be a sign on the racks that says:
o Rack use by permit only, contact the Cazenovia Village Clerk at 655-3041 for information. Permit stickers shall be placed in a clearly visible spot near the stern of the boat so that it is clearly visible while the boat is on the rack. The Village of Cazenovia is not responsible for loss or damage- please secure your boat appropriately.
· The boat launch regulations will include a new paragraph with the following:
Use of the Kayak and Canoe Racks is by permit only. Permit sticker shall be placed in a clearly visible spot near the stern of the boat so that it is clearly visible while the boat is on the rack. Boats found on the racks without permits will be removed. The Village of Cazenovia is not responsible for loss or damage- please secure your boat appropriately.
· All the information will be posted on the website under Parks and Rec alongside the existing Boat Launch information. This information includes the new application form and the updated regulations
· For budgetary purposes, I recommend we wrap this into the Boat Launch Program and us the funds to offset higher personnel costs expected in the next few years
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Upon a motion by Trustee Koennecke, seconded by Mayor Wheeler, the Board approved the fees of $40 for IMA and $50 for Non-IMA to store one boat for the season by a vote of 4-0.
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Officer Watkins of the Police Dept. followed up with the Village Board on a memo he had submitted to the Village Clerk to explore payroll deductions for union dues. A discussion followed. Jim Stokes, Attorney for the Village said he would review and get back to the Village Board.
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Trustee Porter gave his monthly report:
Sewer/Water:
· Water pumped last month was 7.7 Mgal >>> 250 kgal/day – historic ave is 8.6 Mgal for month of December.
· 1/29/16: 4-inch water main break on Rippleton Rd.
· Bill Carr has received a budget estimate from Dunn and Sgromo for potentially adding a new production well at the Water Treatment Plant. Currently a new well is not needed but may be needed in the future to support additional development. The engineering study would cost approximately $9,500 and engineering documents for capital improvements would be in the range of $20K - $25K. This does not include costs for well drilling, testing, surveying, bidding, Contract Administration, or applications for financing/grants. Bill Carr to continue assembling project costs for this future project.
· Water service extension for distillery: Construction of distillery is in progress.
· 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.
o In general, buildings that predate the wastewater treatment plant probably have storm drains that should be rerouted to the storm sewer system. Later in the year Bill Carr will conduct dye testing to confirm the piping connections.
o The previous project was funded by the Green Innovation Grant Program (GIGP), which distributes grant awards in New York each year. The GIGP program is one of many grant programs that are administered by the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC).
o The GIGP accepts grant applications from roughly June 15th through July 31st. After that they rank the applications and EFC distributes the money. Grants typically cover 90% of the project cost – the Village covers the rest.
Fire Dept:
· Fire Dept. Banquet – This Friday.
· New Fire Dept. member applications: None this month
· As a result of the successful membership drive, the department has found that they are in now in short supply of equipment that they issue to new recruits (approx. $3K/new member needed) – the board needs to consider additional disbursement of funds to the FD in spring of 2016.
Lake Watershed Council:
· Next meeting March 15th, 2016 at 7:00pm. Location will be the Village Hall.
Misc:
· SmartWatt Energy Performance Contract Update (street lighting project): Recent signed NYS legislation provides some clarification on transfer of utility-owned street lighting to municipalities. We have been in recent contact with SmartWatt regarding kick-starting this potential project – SmartWatt originally proposed a meeting with the Village in the 2nd or 3rd week of Jan 2016 to review options but SmartWatt needs to evaluate the impacts of the legislation before they meet with us. Next meeting with SmartWatt will be in March 2016.
· Jan 19th: Bill Carr met with Caz Equipment about the possibility of a micro turbine project at the Mill St. Dam. Based on preliminary assessment by Caz Equipment, due to the fact that the Village has no buildings close to or adjacent to the Mill St. dam, this project does not appear to be economically viable.
· Solarize NY project: Spoke with Anne Saltman of CNYRPDB– evaluation in progress.
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Trustee Amy Mann gave her monthly report:
TREES
Tree Commission met January 16 to start organizing for the new year. Our annual educational seminar will be held on March 19 at 10:00 am in the Library Community Room. Speakers will be Jim Maloney and Jason Grabosky and will include pruning and planting demonstrations. Will circulate the informational poster when it is available. Our Arbor Day observance will be April 23 in Lakeside Park. We have chosen Lakeside Park as our focus for 2016 not only for Arbor Day but for our volunteer planting day. More details to follow on all of these.
LAKELAND PARK MASTER PLAN
Saratoga has submitted the revised master plan map and is putting the finishing touches on the written plan so our work with them on this is nearly complete. They have also finally submitted the necessary items to Parks and satisfied the contractual requirements enough to be paid 90% of the outstanding invoices. We had been holding these invoices because we are not allowed to pay them until directed by Parks. At this time, with the board’s approval during our review of bills tonight, I would like to recommend that we go ahead and pay these. The final 10% will follow upon receipt of the final report by us and by Parks. In addition, we learned that our original contract with Saratoga expired on 1/1/15. I would like to propose that we approve extending this contract to cover the small amount of remaining time left in the project.
Lauren has been working through the terms of the hand launch grant. Ted and I met with her last week to organize the next steps so that we can hopefully stay on our desired schedule of having the construction completed for the summer season. We will likely not be under contract for a little while, but in the meantime we can go ahead and have the concept drawings converted to construction documents to be used to go out to bid. After lengthy discussion, we would like to recommend that we use Saratoga to complete these drawings. They did the concept drawings and are already familiar with the site and the project; we also paid them $4,000 for these preliminary drawings (which can be used toward our match.) It does not seem to make much sense to start from scratch with someone new. We would therefore like to suggest to the board that we explore hiring them for this project. We plan to set clear requirements on timeline and point of contact. We will need Saratoga to help us include the expanded scope and budget of the project now that we received more funding than expected; the revised proposed fee for the drawings will come out of this discussion. If it pleases the board, I would seek your approval to proceed with these discussions and will share updated info with you as soon as it is available.
LL Bean contacted me last week to begin work on the 2016 contract for them to use the park for the ODS again. I pulled last year’s contract and forwarded it to them and anticipate using the same one again based on their initial comments. Last year they paid $75 for park use and an additional $500 for trailer storage. I would propose that we renew the contract using the same fees for 2016. In other news, Lauren has submitted an application to the LL Bean corporate grant program for $25,000 support toward the launch project, since they are direct beneficiaries. We would use any funding under this grant toward the match for the Canal Corp grant. This amount seemed in line with other projects they have funded; we will await the outcome.
DPW See Bill’s report below:
Buildings / Grounds
New kayak racks have been built.
Heating boiler at Municipal Building has been repaired
Streets.
Plowing
Cold patching continues
Christmas Decorations have been removed from Albany Street
Cemetery
1 Burial.
Also, Bill and I met with Jocelyn Gavitt last week to fill her in on some proposed ideas for the Gillette Lane repaving project. We think it would be useful to have a visual depiction of the proposal, and Jocelyn has offered to provide this for us. When this drawing is available, we will prepare the next communication to the Gillette neighborhood and invite feedback. We would like to narrow down our plan in the near future so that we can plan for DPW’s involvement this summer and balance it with other projects like Creekside and Lakeland.
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