Villageof Bloomfield Board of Trustees meeting of January 28, 2009

Present: Deputy Mayor Barnard

Trustees: Charlebois, Falsone,Cicchino

Kathy Conradt, Jeff Henehan, Nancy Long, Tom Kugris, Nicki Every, Dodie Huber, Ron Hawkins, Morgan Wesson

Excused: Mayor Kwarta

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

Privilege of the Floor: none

Minutes: Trustee Charleboismotioned, Trustee Falsone seconded and it was unanimously carried to accept the minutes of the December meeting as submitted.

Deputy Mayor’s Report:

  1. Met with several Bloomfield Meadows residents to discuss their concerns for disaster preparedness. Office of the Aging will hold an informational meeting at Bloomfield Meadows on Feb.11 at 1:00 p.m.
  2. Attended the WOLCDC meeting and reviewed a draft letter to the Town of e Bloomfield requesting that they reconsider joining the WOLCDC.

Clerk’s report:

  1. Board reviewed monthly financial reports.
  2. Presented Abstract #8 (vouchers 264-311, HF 10&11) in the following amounts: General Fund $33,603.03; Water Fund $20,457.74; Sewer Fund $15,768.39; Trust and Agency $5847.44, Water Improvement Project $35,728.36. Trustee Cicchino motioned, Trustee Charlebois seconded and it was unanimously carried to pay the bills as presented. Trustee Falsone motioned, Trustee Cicchino seconded and it was unanimously carried to approve a transfer of $11,253in the Water Fund from F1990.4 in the amount of $4071, from F1919.4 in the amount of $775 and from F8340.2 in the amount of $6407 to F1960.4 in the amount of $88, to F8310.4 in the amount of $1781, to F8320.4 in the amount of $8912 and to F8340.4 in the amount of $472. The Clerk and DPW Supervisor declared that all goods have been received and all services rendered.
  3. Interest rates on savings accounts are still below 1%
  4. Sales tax revenue for the fourth quarter is down 13.3% from last year.
  5. We have received 16 requests to date for the automated deposit payment of water/sewer and taxes and 1 credit card payment request.
  6. Trustee Charlebois motioned, Trustee Falsone seconded and it was unanimously carried to declare the EastBloomfieldTown Hall as the official polling place for the March 18 village election with polling hours from noon to 9:00 p.m, and further that Ginny Schroeder and Kathryn Murphy are appointed as the election inspectors.
  7. Trustee Charlebois offered the following resolution which was seconded by Trustee Falsone such that:

Whereas the expenses for the Oakmount Water System project in the Water Capital Fund exceeded its 2007/08 budget by $10,787.73; and

Whereas the emergency repair projects in the Water Fund exceeded its 2007/08 budget by $23,484.04; and

Whereas the General Fund possessed fund balance in excess of its expenses in the 2007/08 budget; and

Whereas all residents within the Village that pay Village taxes also receive water service; and

Whereas the General Fund did loan said amounts of funds to the Water Capital Fund and Water Fund in the 2007/08 budget; and

Whereas there are no additional revenues available to the Oakmount Water Capital Project or to the Water Fund at this time or any time in the near future; and

Whereas maintaining a long-term loan in the General Fund that is unlikely to be repaid reflects an inflated fund balance

Therefore be it resolved that the loans made to the Water Capital Fund and Water Fund be forgiven and reduced from the General Fund balance.

The roll call votes was: Trustee Charlebois – yes, Trustee Falsone – yes, Trustee Cicchino – yes and Deputy Mayor Barnard – yes and the resolution was adopted.

  1. The Planning Board minutes were distributed and later discussed in conjunction with the CEO contract.(see below)
  2. Received a notice from RG&E that they will be trimming trees in some of the right-of-ways to protect power lines.

Public works report: Jeff reported:

Water

1. The DPW is currently gathering the required data, as per the DOH, for the year long analysis of the springs/wells on Oakmount to, hopefully, take us off the GWUDI list.

2. There were 3 water breaks/leaks during the month of January. The first was located in front of the East Bloomfield-Holcomb Fire house on Main Street. This was an older 6" line that had a circumference break that 'was leaking into the storm drains. After considerable effort by our personnel, two Town of Canandaigua's men and one man from the Town of Farmington Water Department including their backhoe with a jack hammer attachment, the leak was located and repaired. The second leak was located at the south east comer of the intersection of South Avenue and State Street. This was caused by rusted bolts on the in ground valve. The last break was located just east of 56 State Street. This was another circumference break. This break also caused flooding in the basement of 150 Main Street which is down slope from the break.

3. The South Avenue Storage Tank's antenna is currently inoperative and will be replaced in the next week or so. Due to the intermittent communication between the master control and the tank level the water system has been on manual from time to time.

4. ChatfIeld Engineers and Barney Moravec, Inc has completed the preliminary hydro geologic report on the Michigan Street well project. Due to only one test bore being more than adequate to prove water quantity and quality phase 1 of the project came in well under proposed costs. The type of strata indicates the possibility of 100-400 gpm. At this time I would like to recommend that the village continue on to phase 2 and develop a well. The cost is in attached quote.

WWTP

5. We have received a quote from Chatfield Engineers in regards to doing an Infiltration and Inflow study on the sewer collection system. During the thaw at the end of December the plant was in flooding condition for a couple of days which damaged the comminuter located at the head of the plant. The DEC has recommended that an I& I study be done and its findings acted upon.

Sewer

6. I have requested for the budget an additional full time employee. Due to the varied nature of the work performed by the DPW, an additional employee would be of much more benefit to the department than the summer employee program. This was especially brought to light in regards to having a safe work zone when working on water breaks and other road work.

7. The 5 year plan has been adjusted to recommendations to the budget. 1500' of sidewalk has been moved to 2010, as has purchase of a replacement for the pickup truck and sidewalk plow tractor.

CEO report:

  1. Reviewedregular monthly reportand annual report with no questions or concerns.
  2. As a result of the outcome of the court proceedings concerning dogs, the Board may want to request that the attorney write a new dog control law for the Village.

Engineers report:

  1. The Michigan St well hydro-geological report is completed with only one test bore required. Phase 2 is recommended to commence as soon as possible.
  2. Submitted an estimate of approx. $24,000 to do an infiltration and inflow study of the storm water system.

Committee reports:

  1. Water – no report – on hold
  2. Comprehensive Plan – no meeting scheduled yet but Town officials are currently meeting with the consultant to discuss what still needs to be completed.
  3. Recreation – TEB is still optimistic about receiving the $440,000 grant. It will be 12-16 months before any grant funding can be received. In the interim, the Town has met with an engineer to complete the drainage project from the parking lot to Rtes 5&20 and around the front baseball field.
  4. Fire Hall committee – the plan for the new building ha been presented to the Fire Commissioners and still needs to be scheduled to present to the public.
  5. Office Committee – 2 board members are against the move and 2 board members are in favor – Deputy Mayor Barnard holds the swing vote and he is in favor of the move. It will now be dependant upon whether there is money in the budget to afford the move.
  6. Fence/brush pile Committee – Trustee Charlebois distributed a suggested policy for monitoring brush for Board review. Costs will be included in the proposed 2009/10 budget. The Town Board will discuss sharing costs at their next regular meeting.

Public hearing for Local Law #1 of 2009

Draft Local Law #1 of 2009 – amendment to the sidewalks local law to address prohibition of placement of grass and debris on sidewalks, right-of-ways, streets and catch basins. The public hearing was opened at 6:30 pm. The Board waived reading the legal notice. There was no one in attendance from the public and no written comments were received. Deputy Mayor Barnard motioned and Trustee Falsone seconded that Local law #1 of 2009 be adopted and the roll call vote was: Trustee Falsone – yes, Trustee Charlebois – yes, Deputy Mayor Barnard – yes, Trustee Cicchino – no and Mayor Kwarta – excused. The Local Law was duly adopted. Trustee Cicchino did not support the law as he was dissatisfied with some of the language.

CEO contract:

  1. Dodie Huber presented the contract for code enforcement services. She stated that the calculations contained in item #6 were developed in cooperation with Mayor Kwarta. The last sentence of item #8 was also modified.
  2. The Village Board discussed the minutes of the January Planning Board meeting as follows:
  3. Supervisor Huber feels that the Planning Board recommendation to seek other CEO services is outside of the task given them by the Village Board, which was to review a draft property maintenance local law. It is not a Planning Board function to determine effectiveness of communication between the Village Board and CEO.
  4. Trustee Charlebois feels that the CEO has done an excellent job and answers any complaints brought to him but he does not go out looking for violations to write tickets for.
  5. Trustee Falsone disagrees that the CEO should not be looking for violations – if the CEO sees an obvious violation he should cite the property without waiting to be told by residents to do so.
  6. Nancy Long and Nicki Every explained that the Planning Board looked at the property maintenance violations report for the Village and could not understand why the CEO would do an inspection of the entire Village and choose to cite peeling paint on homes, some of which have little damage, and then not cite at all some more serious violations that exist in the community.
  7. The Clerk reported on the determination by the Village Attorney that the Village Board has NO authority over determining what properties are in violation of the codes. That determination is the sole responsibility of the CEO. The Village Board may direct the CEO to enforce the property maintenance codes but they can not effect the decision by the CEO as to whether a property is actually in violation. There is language in the code referring to “good repair” which gives the CEO some latitude in making his determination. Therefore, the Attorney supports the decision of the CEO in reviewing the list of 36 properties cited for property maintenance code violations in that the CEO did what was asked of him by the Village Board.
  8. Supervisor Huber suggested a contract from now until 05/31/2010 to work through issues and to take the Village to the end of a fiscal year.
  9. Trustee Cicchino stated that he would not be in favor of a contract for a period any longer than 1 year.

Trustee Charlebois motioned, Trustee Falsone seconded and it was unanimously carried to contract with the Town of East Bloomfield for code enforcement services, as specified in the contract, until January 1, 2010.

New business:

  1. We received a letter from the Fire District regarding house numbers. Supervisor Huber stated that the Town has also received the same letter from the Fire District and the CEO has been asked to send letters to those residents in violation of having the appropriate house numbers for emergency response.
  2. Jeff reported that the DPW has run out of space for any additional snow removal of the downtown area.
  3. The Clerk reported that she had been contacted by both Stan Steele Agency and Claude and Carol Creswell concerning expenses associated with the flooding of the basement at 150 Main St. The Village must wait until everything is sorted out by the insurance companies.

Trustee Falsone motioned, Trustee Cicchino seconded and it was unanimously carried to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Conradt, Clerk