Town Board Meeting

CLERMONT TOWN BOARD

APRIL 6, 2009

The Clermont Town Board held its regular meeting on Monday, April 6, 2009 at the Town Hall. Those present were Supervisor Staats, Councilman Richard Jones, Councilwoman Lent and Councilman Nolan. Councilwoman O'Neal was absent. Also present were nine residents and Andy Howard, Town Attorney.

Supervisor Staats opened the meeting with the salute to the flag.

MINUTES: Councilman Nolan noted corrections to the minutes of March 2nd as follows:

Page 1 - 3rd paragraph - delete ‘and content of last issue' add ‘Supervisor Staats will send' a letter, delete ‘will be sent'.

Page 2 - #3 Highway Garage - 7th line - delete ‘added', add ‘asked if we can also if', delete ‘that'.

Page 2 - #5 NYSERDA Audit - Delete ‘ St. Luke's Church', add ‘Highway Garage'.

Councilwoman Lent noted a correction as follows:

Page 5 - 1st paragraph - add ‘voted no', delete ‘abstained'.

Councilman Jones made a motion, seconded by Councilwoman Lent to accept the minutes of March 2nd as corrected. All in favor. So carried.

The minutes of March 18th cannot be approved at this meeting as Councilwoman O'Neal is not present and Councilman Nolan and Councilwoman Lent were not present on March 18th.

CORRESPONDENCE:

  1. The Town Clerk read the March Town Clerk's report. A check for the General fund in the amount of $501.80 was presented to the Supervisor. A motion was made by Councilwoman Lent, seconded by Councilman Jones to approve the Town Clerk's report. All in favor. So carried.
  2. Pine Plains Central School District public notice regarding nominating petitions for membership on the Pine Plains Central School District's Board of Education available at the District Office located at Stissing Mountain Middle/High School or you may call the District Clerk at 518-398-7181, ext. 401. The Board of Education Election and School Budget vote will be held on Tuesday, May 19, 2009.
  3. Clermont State Historic Site - The Chancellor's Sheep and Wool Showcase to be held on Saturday, April 25, 2009 11:00 AM - 4:30 PM (Rain date April 26)
  4. Website - Councilman Nolan asked if the Pine Plains School District info on Board of Education and Budget vote could be added to the website.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

BERKSHIRE TACONIC GRANT: Councilwoman Lent has filed the narrative for the $1000.00 grant for the base radio, portable radios and chargers in the amount of $1,708.78. We are eligible for a $1000.00 grant and may receive the full amount or at least half of the amount spent.

ZONING UPDATE: Councilwoman Lent met with the Zoning Board and Planning Board during March on updates pertaining to accessory apartments, wind towers, solar panels and commercial business permits. The applications will have everything attached that the applicant will need to file. Patrice Perry of Columbia County Planning has supplied information on solar panels. Andy Howard has done a lot of work on preparing Local Laws for all the amendments. Councilwoman Lent will meet with the Planning Board and Zoning Board members on April 8th. The Town Board will receive their draft the last week of April so that they can be reviewed. Councilman Nolan submitted a model amendment on small wind energy systems. The Columbia County Planning and Association of Towns would like to use our ordinance for a sample. Supervisor Staats thanked Councilwoman Lent for working diligently on this project. Also discussed outdoor wood furnaces which can be addressed in future zoning updates.

BROWNFIELDS: Councilwoman Lent will be working next on reimbursement for attorney fees from DEC. Councilman Nolan asked if the work being done by C.T. Male is allocated in this year's budget. Supervisor Staats stated that there is $10,000.00 budgeted for work on the Brownfields.

HIGHWAY GARAGE: Councilman Jones has done engineering on the design for

the proposed highway garage, and located the Little League field, picnic area and driveway from Route 6. The driveway has been relocated further to the east, a well location has been sited. C.T. Male has prepared an environmental assessment form with three elements: Highway garage, Little League field and the remaining property. Supervisor Staats explained that SEQRA review would have to be done no matter what the plans are for the property. Andy Howard has been corresponding with Councilman Jones and Ray Jurkowski, our engineer, who has experience with this type of project. His opinion is that before doing anything on the property you must go through the SEQRA analysis. This allows you to engage in any use on this property. Councilman Nolan asked, since there is no present funding, if there is a sunset on SEQRA. If the scope of work does not change and it was a reasonable time with no change, it could be utilized. Councilman Nolan asked if there was a change in the surrounding neighborhood, if it would make a difference. Mr. Howard responded that this could be analyzed at the time. Mr. Howard suggested doing a complete SEQRA review on the entire property identifying any future development of the site, the scope of what you are doing, such as garage, ballfield or both. Whatever the project may be, develop a cost analysis, a design analysis and identify where costs are to come from, surplus or bonding. This development process can begin during the SEQRA period but it doesn't have to. Councilman Nolan stated that Clermont is on the State Recovery list for a potential stimulus package project to receive as much as $1,400,000.00 for the Brownfields projects. Councilwoman Lent asked where the number came from for the stimulus package? Councilman Nolan responded that he used Dan Wheeler's original estimate for the garage. He also reported that money for the Academy building storm windows and potential solar panels for the roof of Town Hall or garage was also included in the stimulus package request. Councilman Jones suggested including a copy of the site plan and ALTA survey with the SEQRA form. Councilman Jones and Highway Superintendent met with a Morton Buildings representative and discussed the design of the garage and they will be getting back with a design and price.

Councilman Nolan sees some changes that should be made in the cover letter and SEQRA form. It was suggested that we ask Kirk Moline come to a special meeting, and any changes that we want made be emailed to each other and to Mr. Moline before the special meeting. A special town board meeting will be held on Friday, April 24th at 6:00 P.M. to discuss SEQRA and other town business, as necessary. Dennis Palazzo suggested that the baseball field should be resituated so that the sun is in the third baseman's eyes.

NYSERDA AUDIT: Councilman Nolan reported that he has not received the audit report.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS: Pine Plains and Red Hook Schools are scheduled to be here at the May 4th meeting. School budget voting is on May 19th.

Councilwoman O'Neal's report was read:

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLAN:

  1. Telephones have been installed that have battery backup.
  2. Emergency radios will be reported on by Councilwoman Lent and Supervisor Staats.
  3. Generator project in process and will be reported on by Ray Jurkowski.
  4. Memorandum of Understanding: The Carmelite Sisters will have their attorney review and submit changes or corrections for next month. Supervisor will report on Fire Company.

QUADRICENTENNIAL:

  1. Thanked Angela Goetz who donated 400 tulip bulbs in honor of Dutch contribution to historic occasion and for those who helped plant them, Angela Goetz, Ruth Hammer, Ray Tousey, Dagmar Payne, Dianne O'Neal and many children from the Canaan Fellowship.
  2. Report on other plans will be reported next month.

COMMUNITY HOUSE:

  1. Ray Tousey and Aldo Dusman painted the bathrooms and Claudia Teubl and her daughter baked cinnamon buns and made hot chocolate for them.
  2. Louise Kalin painted the restored nineteenth century blanket chest, which is now in the parlor.
  3. Two anonymous donors have given an Oriental rug for the parlor.
  4. The Tivoli Masonic Lodge has offered a six-burner gas stove, which was arranged by Neil Hegeman and picked up by Jim Potts and highway crew. The Village Green committee will restore the stove and Joan Buser's grandson will install it. The acceptance of this stove is provisional and is dependent upon the Town Board's approval.

Councilman Jones asked that the LP source not be adjacent to the building and the feed line should come to the north end to minimize pipe in the building. Use stainless steel pipe for inside the house for the least amount of exposure of gas in the building.

Councilwoman Lent suggested burying tank because there are many children around the building and the tanks are unsightly. A motion was made to approve accepting the stove with conditions as noted by Councilman Jones, seconded by Councilwoman Lent. All in favor. So carried.

OLD BUSINESS:

  1. TELEPHONES: The phones have been installed by Germantown telephone and Lynn Clum came in on Saturday to explain their use. Supervisor Staats thanked Bruce Bohnsack and Lynn Clum for their help. The lease payment of $89.00 is the same as before. The installation for the system was reduced to $170.00.
  2. RADIOS: The base radio and portables have been received and are operational. They were tested today by James Potts.
  3. GENERATORS: State is renegotiating contract on state bids. We have to wait to for new prices.
  4. ACCOUNTANT: Councilwoman Lent has started to review the information received from Brian Fitzgerald from her Foil Request for information. She has noted some questions but will continue to review. Supervisor Staats asked if the new reports being received monthly are sufficient.

NEW BUSINESS:

  1. Bob Desmond, at the request of the Supervisor, spoke on assessments.

    2. Councilman Nolan asked when the sales were made. It was determined that the sales were between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.

  2. CAP Program: The County is not looking at the Consolidated Assessment Program any further. The Supervisor is looking at alternatives to paying $100,000.00 for a revaluation of parcels by possibly joining together with other towns. He will update next month.
  3. Code Enforcement Vehicle: Supervisor Brown has a police car being taken off rotation. He has asked Supervisor Staats if the Town would want to split the cost on a yearly basis of maintenance, insurance, lettering and striping of the car for John Fieser to use as code enforcement officer. Mr. Fieser would pay the cost of fuel. The town's cost would probably be about $600.00. They believe it would be more professional to have him use an official car. This would have to be on a yearly basis in the event that we do not share the same Zoning/Building Inspector. Would have to find a line item in the budget to cover this if approved. Supervisor will bring more information next month. Councilwoman Lent would rather see money go into the reevaluation.
  4. The Town Clerk asked to be able to get the port-o-let for use at the Little League field for the season. She will get a price per month from Royal Flush, who supplied it last year and let the Supervisor know.

SUPERVISORS REPORT:

HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: The resolution for the satellite office at 325 Columbia Street was insufficient for Supervisor to vote for this resolution. He is on the committee to choose the contractor for the Ockawamick School.

COMPUTER COMMITTEE: Supervisor Staats has suggested various cost savings measures such as extending the replacement of county computers to a four-year cycle before replacing them and finding comparable computers which cost less.

REAL PROPERTY COMMITTEE: Because there is a shortage of assessors in the County the County is looking at ways to consolidate reevaluation services.

BUILDINGS & FACILITIES: There has not been enough explanation of all the issues regarding Pine Haven for the Supervisor to make a decision on this issue.

VILLAGE GREEN committee is going to donate the cost for Roll of Honor Scroll.

EASTER EGG HUNT is Saturday, April 11th - 12:00 to 2:00 PM.

SCHOOLS: Pine Plains and Red Hook School will be here at next month's meeting.

G-TEL: Bruce Bohnsack will attend next meeting to discuss fiber optics and cable channel packages.

MORTGAGE TAX: Is estimated to be $13,160.00 for first six months of this year, which is very low. The first quarter sales tax comes in this month.

BUDGET & REVENUE REPORTS: The Supervisor urged caution on expenditures in the attorney account as the zoning changes resulted in an expense not planned for.

Supervisor Staats recognized resident Christina Ferrone who is a student at Columbia Greene Community and doing a report on the highway garage project.

ABSTRACTS:

A motion was made by Councilman Nolan to pay General fund abstract #4, vouchers #74-107 in the amount $10,601.87, seconded by Councilwoman Lent. All in favor. So carried.

A motion was made by Councilman Nolan to pay Highway abstract #4, vouchers #36-54 in the amount of $6937.91, seconded by Councilwoman Lent. All in favor. So carried.

A motion was made by Councilman Nolan to approve Trust & Agency abstract #4, voucher #3 in the amount of $32.50, seconded by Councilwoman Lent. All in favor. So carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

  1. Judy Neary stated that there were a lot of our senior citizens, which signed a petition for Pine Haven to stay in Philmont. She asked if the supervisor checked on school taxes as to whether they could be paid in two payments. Can the Supervisor ask if Columbia County can pay school taxes in two increments instead of one? The Supervisor has checked into this and the County will accept whatever is paid and the balance will be rolled over to the Town and County taxes, a payment plan can be set up for the balance. Judy also asked if properties could be checked by using Google Earth to see what changes have taken place on a property. That would have to be discussed with the Assessor.
  2. Elizabeth Mahar asked who the assessor's were that did the assessment of the base properties. They were from the State Office of Real Property. The Supervisor is talking with Supervisor Brown to consolidate for reevaluation of parcels in Germantown and Clermont.
  3. Harry Harned asked if the Fire District had been removed from the Memorandum of Understanding, and Supervisor Staats said that the attorney is changing it. Also, a shelter director, appointed by the Fire Company, should be added to the MOU. In the discussion of the garage, he asked if requesting Morton design for a plan/design isn't giving them the edge on the bidding process, because you would be using their specs and design. Councilman Jones came up with the design and Morton will give a comparable design, which we can use or not use. Mr. Harned asked whether or not the garage is going to be started this year. The garage is at the point where we have a site approved, we are proceeding on SEQRA and we have a preliminary design. Supervisor Staats said we are proceeding as to how we can do this. It is a necessary thing, and if we get funding or the economy improves we will be ready to proceed.
  4. Desiree Webber, Dog Control Office, told the board that Germantown Telephone would be posting information on lost or found dogs on the community channel. If anyone has any problems keeping their animals enclosed and needs help please let her know. She asked whom she should use in an emergency if Pine Plains Veterinary is closed. It was suggested that she use the Kingston Emergency facility if there is an emergency.

A motion was made by Supervisor Staats, seconded by Councilwoman Lent to adjourn at 9:42 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Helen Shannon, RMC

Town Clerk

Date: 
Meeting: 
Town Board