Work Session Minutes
TOWN BOARD WORK SESSION
April 6, 2011
A Work Session Meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Royalton was held on Wednesday, April 6, 2011, at the
Royalton Town Hall, 5316 Royalton Center Road, Middleport, New York. Supervisor Lang called the meeting to order at 5:30 P.M.
The following were present:
Supervisor Richard J. Lang
Deputy Town Clerks Jill Seelbinder, Pat Hinds
Council Members Jennifer Bieber, James Budde, Bradley Rehwaldt, Daniel Bragg
Highway Superintendent Terry Nieman
Water/Sewer Superintendent Dan Morse
Attorney Albert Brandt
Engineer Douglas Bennett
Also present were: See Attached Sheets
GUEST SPEAKERS
John & Kathy Berry, CPA - Berry & Berry, CPAs
•· Presented Town of Royalton Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2010. Mr. Berry went through the report and explained some of the changes that were made to the format. Mr. Berry stated that all of the funds have a healthy fund balance. The official copy will be in the Town Clerk's office for anyone who wished to review it.
•· Discussion ensued
REGULAR AGENDA
Paul Bruning - Ditching Clerk
•· Finished working on Fairview Drive and currently working at two addresses on Griswold Street
Dan Bragg - Councilman
•· Received a quote from Sentinel Security & Communications, Inc. regarding court room updates. Regarding IP address - we will review this again this month.
•· School Project - Emerson Pkwy - Councilman Budde asked Councilman Bragg where are we at on this project. Councilman Bragg has been working on this with Highway Superintendent, Terry Nieman and the School. Negotiations still in process.
Douglas Bennett - Town Engineer
•· Currently working with Kenneth Strell, Town Engineer on treatment plant.
Daniel Morse - Water/Sewer Superintendent
•· Nothing to report as this time.
Terry Nieman - Highway Superintendent
•· Update on four 10 hour days as to five 8 hour days - This past year we saved 29 Over Time hours.
•· Highway Bid opening for Trailer 4/4/11 @ 10:00am The three (3) bids received are as follows:
Vantage Equipment 5985 Court Street, Syracuse $49,739.00
Monroe Tractor 5035 Genesee Street, Buffalo $43,777.00
George & Swede Sales 7155 Big Tree Rd, Pavilion $43,777.00- did not meet specs
Terry asked the board to accept Monroe Tractor bid. Councilman, Budde asked our Town Attorney,
Mr. Brandt to look at specs.
•· No bids were received on the two auto cars with the minimum bid of $3,000
•· I would like to ask the board for approval to take the auto cars to the scrap yard.
•· Our equipment holding up good, diesel going up, cost of culvert pipe up and the price of tires up.
•· Question was asked about the warranty on our vehicles - standard.
James Budde - Councilman
•· The Supervisor, Lang's office received a bid from Marotta Electric and was given to Councilman Budde as follows -
To install 5 CAT 5 lines for court system computers 2 in the court room 3 court offices, Total job labor and materials for $675. Daphane Berg, Justice Clerk will be returning from vacation tomorrow and she will have more information on this. To be reviewed at our next meeting.
•· Bid received from C.A.M. Trenching and Trucking regarding an increase in Grave Openings effective 5/1/11.
•o Grave Openings $390 old rate was $355
•o Grave Openings (Sundays & Holidays) $470.00
•o Cremation Burials $195.00
•o Cremation Burials (Sundays & Holidays) $220.00
•o Winter burials will be done at his digression according to the weather and conditions of the cemetery. Any damage done to cemetery could result in extra changes for repairs. Prices for winter burials will be the same as for Sundays and Holidays as listed above.
•· The law indicates that we will do every effort to do winter burials. This will only be done if it can be done safely and securely with that decision made by Mr. Criswell.
•· I would recommend that we revisit our fees for plots.
•· Mr. Cam Criswell, from C.A.M. Trenching and Trucking goes way beyond to meet the needs of the people and is doing a wonderful job for the Town.
•· A question has been asked at the Town Clerks office - Does the Town of Royalton have anything in our zoning laws preventing a person from being buried in their back yard or on their own personal property. Councilman Budde received a phone call from Marie Little, Town Clerk to have him contact this resident
regarding this issue as he works for several funeral homes on the side and is familiar with dealing with
some of these type of issues. Marie Little, Town Clerk has verified the information with the NYS Dept. of Health and the NYS Bureau of Funeral Directing so that we pass along the correct information to this resident. A funeral director MUST be involved to a degree. A funeral director will be required to fill out and file the death certificate in the Town Clerks Office. The funeral director must also be present at the disposition of the body, no matter where the burial takes place. This will include a burial in the back yard. The cost associated with those services is unknown. NYS does not require a person to be embalmed for burial. It is recommended, but not required. Being buried in a cemetery is not required and is up to each municipality to decide and pass an ordinance pertaining to this issue if they choose to make it a law in their community. Discussion ensued and will be looked into further.
•· Councilman Budde was asked to look at and draft up a Vets Park job description by Supervisor Lang. This job shall be referred to as "Park Attendant", Presently the opening of the park shall commence on April 1st of each year and conclude on October 1st of the same year. Vets Park shall remain open daily to the public beginning at 7:00am until 9:00pm. Proposed hours change to be 9:00am until 9:00pm. Councilman Budde would like to see a sign on the chain link fence with the park seasonal dates that it opened, hours, phone number on who to contact with inquires.
Bradley Rehwaldt - Councilman
•· Presented his report from going to the NYS Association of Town's Annual Meeting in January. These are some of the topics. Out of the 150 classes these are the ones that I choose to attend.
•o The use of motions, resolutions, ordinances and local laws
•o Shared services - Does it make sense or cents.
•o Federal health care Reform Act
•o Options for towns to lower Health care costs
•o Alternative approaches to finance Infrastructure projects
•o Tax Assessment - Is everyone paying their fair share
•o Controlling workers compensation costs in this economy
•o Retirement reporting for elected and appointed officials
•o NYSERDA'S focus on local government
•o Open meetings law and the freedom of information act
•o Crumbling Infrastructure
•o Establishing and accounting for reserves
Albert Brandt - Town Attorney
•· Councilman Budde asked to have this relayed back to Thomas Brandt, Town Attorney regarding the Bunker Hill Cemetery. Resolution to be written for April's Board Meeting
Jennifer Bieber - Councilwoman
•· Had a meeting with Anne Sisk and was given the Comprehensive Needs Assessment 2011 Funding Opportunity Calendar for the Town of Royalton, NY.
•· Cemetery Mountain Ridge the driveways are in need of stone. In order to fix the areas that need attention we will need $500 or $600 in stone. In some of the other areas we will need a second base of crusher run stone.
Richard Lang - Town Supervisor
•· Sales Tax for February was up $1,000 ahead of last year for a total of $11,024.94 for the year
•· Mike Hartman, Assessors Office relayed some information . Mr. Hartman has received correspondence from the state involving our level of Assessment. We are able to claim 97% . Anything
above 95% is a good thing therefore at this time I do not recommend embarking on a revaluation project.
•· Question was asked Councilwoman Bieber, if she had anything on the right to farm signs. Councilwoman, Bieber responded nothing at this time still doing some research.
•· Town newsletter - we need articles by April 15th. Councilwoman, Bieber asked that articles be emailed . Newsletter may be done in house this year.
•· Joe Hickman from Modern Corporation/Modern Recycling brought in one of their containers for us to see. The cost is $65 and it will hold 95 gallons of recyclable items. It will hold everything from cans to papers.
•· Mowing bids were received for the Town of Royalton's five (5) Cemeteries for a 3 year contract - Royalton Mountain Ridge Cemetery, Royalton Union Cemetery, Gilbert Cemetery on Chestnut Ridge Road, Mabee Cemetery on Slayton Settlement Road, & Ketchem Cemetery on Griswold Street. The four (4) bids received are as follows:
•o Oakhurst Development 208 Oakhurst St., Lockport $14,400
•o Hausrath's Landscape 451 Meyer Rd., Buffalo $11,600
•o Scapes 3040 Petroleum St.,Niagara Falls $11,100
•o Whitey's Landscaping 3375 Lockport Olcott Rd., Lockport $ 8,600
Whitey's Landscaping came in as the lowest bid and did meet the specifications for $8,600.
Councilman Budde, asked if we could have Thomas Brandt, Town Attorney review this 3 year contract.
•· Question was asked about our contribution to Mike Hartman's training. Town Supervisor, Lang has checked with Hartland and it will be about $500 towards his courses in August & September this year. This is ½ of the amount charged for his 24 hours course.
•· Refund for the Energy audit - still looking into it as we haven't received yet.
•· Amount of interest that was received in 2010 in our HSBC account was $5,623.97 at a rate of .045 rate of interest basis point.
•· Dedicated phone line for the phone system - The dedicated phone line was supposed to be line 19 extension on the bench per Marie Little, Town Clerk
Pat Hinds - Deputy Town Clerk
•· We received a flier that we received from the Middleport Fire Department for a Volunteer NY, days
April 9-10, 2011 from 11:00am - 3:00pm. It is a weekend to learn more about the volunteer fire service in your community.
•· Correction to Resolution 20-11 UPGRADE SECURITY motion in the minutes reads denied and it should read as tabled. On a motion made by Councilman Bragg, seconded by Councilman Budde.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Angela Spark, Mountain Road- Asking for Time Warner cable to come down her road. Her and her husband own a working farm and have an apartment upstairs. Their apartment went unrented for six months due to the fact that she couldn't offer the internet. She has children in college and high school that need the internet for school assignments and trying to run a business all thru her cell phone internet. It has become very expensive. I have been in contact with Time Warner for the last nine months begging them to run the cable to my address. I would like to know what the Town does with their franchise fees that they receive from Time Warner each year. How much of these fees are used to upgrade cable in this town? Discussion ensued.
Melissa Kubas, Freeman Road - Asking if there have been any decisions bringing water down her road. Councilowoman Bieber updated Mrs. Kubas on the current status.
Chris Steiner, representing Roy Hart Youth Baseball and Softball. We have different fund raisers to help with our expenses. Last year we had 257 kids and this year we are up to 287 kids. The costs depend on the age of the child up to adults. Last year we were given $2,100 from the Town of Royalton. With our in house fund raisers we are able to reduce this to $1,500 this year.
Richard Lang, Supervisor wanted to be sure we are not paying for insurance for adults.
Everett Pearson, resident asked a question regarding burying a loved one on your home property. Is there anything that will be recorded on the deed? Properties get sold thru the years and what records would be kept to prevent someone digging up a grave. Councilman Budde mentioned earlier that a licensed funeral director would have to be present and would have this information. To be looked into further.
There being no further information to come before this board, a motion was made by Councilman Bragg, seconded by Councilman Rehwaldt and carried unanimously that the Work Session be adjourned at 8:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Patricia Hinds
Deputy Town Clerk