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Scipio Town Board Meeting A special meeting of the town board was held at 6:30 PM prior to the regular town board meeting for the purpose of reviewing the checkbooks of the town bookkeeper, the town clerk and the town court clerk. All the checkbooks balanced and the town board found no discrepancies or issues with the town’s checkbooks. The regular public meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM on Wednesday June 14, 2017 by Supervisor Mutchler with the following people present. Supervisor: Gary Mutchler Town Clerk: Tom Olenych Town Board Members: Howard Nelson Highway: Mark Chamberlain Leslie Baxter Code Enforcement: Mick Piechuta Mark Ferrari Gary Whitten Absent Guests: Becky Rury, Greg Rury, Randy Lawrence, Bill Hall, Marion Brown and Anita Dungey. Motion to approve agenda for the June 14, 2017 town board meeting. (Baxter / Nelson) All in favor. Issues to come before the board from town residents and guests. There were no issues expressed at this time during the meeting. Motion to approve the minutes of the April 12, 2017 town board meeting. (Baxter / Mutchler) All in favor. Town Board Members reports: Leslie Baxter: 1) Updated the town board on the Allen Farm addition and the concerns the town board and some town residents have regarding the volume of rain that could come off such a large building. The Allen’s plan currently calls for any runoff to be carried away through the existing culverts and ditches on the south side of Hunter Rd Mark Chamberlain, the town highway superintendent, voiced concerns that such an event occurring in the spring, while there may still be snow banks along both sides of Hunter Rd., would be too much for the ditches and culverts to handle. Since the culverts on the south side are larger it was agreed the tile from the new barns be allowed to enter the south ditch at a point east of the current cross culvert that takes water from the south ditch to the north ditch. If, however this does not work and larger culverts are needed on the north side of Hunter Rd. the Allen’s would be responsible for all the costs. ---PAGE BREAK--- When Leslie visited the site, she was met there by Duane Allen and Doug Kierst of Cayuga Count Soil & Water. After this meeting, she felt Mr. Kierst was satisfied with the Allen’s plan and there was nothing the town could do to stop the project from going ahead. It was decided the town would ask the town attorney, Dave Thurston, to draft a letter to the Allen’s outlining the town’s concerns and asking the Allen’s to consider using only the culverts and drainage ditches on the south side of Hunter Rd. to handle any runoff. Mark Chamberlain told the board that any expenses involved with this project would be the responsibility of Allen Farm. 2) Reminded the board there will be two meetings regarding water quality issues in Owasco Lake at 6:00 PM on Monday June 13th. at BOCES in Auburn and another on Wednesday June 15th. at the Moravia Fire Dept. 3) Lastly Leslie brought up several programs the town budgets for that have not yet been paid for. These programs include the Swimming Program, Meals on Wheels for the elderly and the SCAT van. Supervisor Mutchler commented these have not been paid for because the town has not received an invoice for any of these programs. Once an invoice is received by the town’s bookkeeper a voucher will be filled out and presented to the town board for approval, and after being approved the bookkeeper will send each organization a check. Mark Ferrari: 1) Told the board he will purchase Windows 365 updates which should take care of the problems Mick Piechuta has been having with his computer. Mark feels there are three of four computers that will need updating so the most economical thing to do would be to purchase five updates at a cost of $99.00 as opposed to spending $69.00 each if purchased separately. 2) The town offices renovation project came up in discussion and although no start date has been established there was agreement the first room to be done would be the unused room next to the bathroom which would then be used for records retention and the historian’s archives. Howard Nelson: 1) Was to call WeCare because of continued problems getting empty containers on site and on time for the town’s expanded summer transfer station hours. Town Supervisor’s report: 1) Supervisor Mutchler brought up the solar panel project which will require a letter of intent be written from the town to Chris Carrick and Central New York Regional Planning and Development. This is a non-binding letter but is needed for this project to go forward. Motion to approve non-binding letter of intent. (Mutchler / Nelson) All in favor. 2) Supervisor Mutchler was approached again this year by Machell Phelps of the Empire State Senior Games taking place on June 17th. As with last year she was asking permission from the town board to use town roads for the cycling events instead of state roads which she feels has too much traffic and would pose a greater risk to the cyclist. Motion to approve the use of town roads for this event. (Mutchler / Nelson) All in favor. ---PAGE BREAK--- 3) The issue of Melvin Kurtz’s wind turbine came up with Scipio resident Anita Dungy, who lives in close proximity to Mr. Kurtz, expressing her concerns over health-related issues. She has vertigo and tinnitus problems which she feels will be aggravated once the wind turbine is erected. Mick Piechuta, the town code enforcement officer, commented that in his opinion this is allowed under the town’s current zoning laws and therefore there is nothing to be done as far as nullifying Mr. Kurtz’s permit. Mick also pointed out Mr. Kurtz is looking at other areas of his property to build on so that Mrs. Dungy isn’t so close to the structure. Mick also said the town planning board was going to visit Mr. Kurtz’s property for an “on-site” visit and everyone would wait for their finding before going any further with the project. 4) Mr. Mutchler was contacted by Gary Allen who had been contacted by someone from Minnesota regarding an old cemetery, on the Allen Farm property, where some of his relatives were buried. The issue is this land has been farmed by the Allen’s for decades and does this individual have any recourse to reclaim this old burial plot. After some discussion, it was thought there is a difference between a cemetery and a family plot. If it’s a cemetery there may be an issue with disrupting the land for agricultural uses but if it’s a family plot, which has been left dormant and unmaintained for such a long length of time, the town board feels nothing to do to reclaim this piece of property. The town will attempt to determine whether it’s a cemetery of a family plot. 5) Mr. Mutchler discussed the financial report noting the town received $17,619.83 from the state for “extreme winter recovery” which will be put into the town highway’s CHIPS account. Motion to approve the financial report. (Mutchler / Nelson) All in favor. 6) Supervisor Mutchler noted the inspection on the landfill on Bergerstock was completed on May 29, 2017. 7)Next Mr. Mutchler informed the board member the fence around the cemetery abutting the VanNostrand’s property was put up on June 14, 2017. 8) Lastly Mr. Mutchler told the board members he had been contacted by a town resident regarding the town’s plans in the event of a “domestic insurgency”. Currently the town has no such plan in place and the board felt there was no need to implement such a plan at this time. Town Officers reports: Assessor: 1) There was no report from the assessor although it was noted the town Board of Assessment Review met on June 1, 2017 to hear grievances from town residents. There were only two grievances heard and all related matters were concluded that evening. Town Clerk: 1) Tom Olenych told the board the new bulletin board was in and had been installed next to the existing bulletin board. He will put something in the town’s Fall Newsletter letting town residents know it’s there and can be used by town residents for community notices and also for business & services information. ---PAGE BREAK--- 2) Discussed the deadline dates for submissions to the Fall Newsletter. Tom will e-mail all town officials on July 1, 2017 telling them he must have all submissions no later than August 8, 2017 so he can put the newsletter together and ready to be mailed out sometime the week of August 18, 2017 giving town residents approximately five weeks to get ready for Fall Cleanup Day on October 7, 2017. Highway Superintendent: 1) Mark Chamberlain told the board his crews have been busy mowing, ditching and working with other towns. 2) Mark also told the board all the paving that needed to be done on the town’s roads was completed for the year. 3) Mark also told the board he had been in school at Cornell Local Roads for three days where several areas of highway / road maintenance were addressed. Code Enforcement: 1) Mick Piechuta gave the board his report of permits issued, inspections and site visits as well as his other activities for the month that pertained to code enforcement and zoning issues. Other Business: The board agreed to move the July town board meeting from July 12, 2017 to July 19, 2017 because not all the town board members would be able to attend on the 12th. Approval of vouchers: General Fund 82 – 100 totaling $5,078.93 (Mutchler / Nelson) All in fovor. Highway Fund (DA) 44 - 55 totaling $131,722.66 (Nelson / Mutchler) All in favor. Motion to adjourn: 9:35 PM (Baxter) All in favor. Respectfully submitted, Thomas J. Olenych Scipio Town Clerk