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Scipio Town Board Meeting This public meeting was called to order at 7:04 PM on Wednesday June 8, 2016 by Supervisor Gary Mutchler with the following people present: Supervisor: Gary Mutchler Town Clerk: Tom Olenych Council Members: Howard Nelson Highway: Mark Chamberlain Leslie Baxter Mark Ferrari Gary Whitten Visitors: Mike Whitten, Heather Garner, Mick Piechuta, Andy Simkin, Cindy Wilcox, Dale Bennett and Machell Phelps. Motion: to approve supervisor Mutchler’s agenda. (Nelson / Whitten.) All in favor. Issues to come before the board from town residents: Tom Olenych spoke to the board about Ron Curvin’s forced resignation from the town’s Board of Assessment review. He wanted to make sure all the town board members were aware of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Curvin’s resignation. Because Mr. Curvin was going to be out of town on the June 2nd Grievance Day and on the advice of Heather Garner, who as the town assessor should have no influence or sway whatsoever as to who should or should not be on the Board of Assessment Review, supervisor Mutchler contacted Mr. Curvin and forced his resignation. He did this without contacting any of the other town board members other than Gary Whitten. It was also brought up that the way supervisor Mutchler covered this at the May town board meeting was done in such a manner as to make it appear to the other town board members that Mr. Curvin’s resignation was voluntary. Mr. Olenych felt this incident showed a lack of respect for a majority of the town board members as well as a lack of respect for the chair of the Board of Assessment Review who was also intentionally left in the dark about all of this. Mr. Olenych stressed that as an elected official supervisor Mutchler, as well as all elected officials, has a solemn responsibility to the residents of the town of Scipio to conduct town business in an honest, open and transparent manner. Mr. Olenych felt the way supervisor Mutchler handled this situation would set a dangerous precedent for the town. Given an opportunity to respond supervisor Mutchler did not dispute any of what Mr. Olenych said and apologized to the town board members stating in the future he would be more above board in conduction town business. Machal Phelps of the Empire State Senior Games spoke to the board about staging a cycling event in the town along State Route 34B. There were no objections posed by the town board members although the question of liability came up. ---PAGE BREAK--- Machal explained that ESSG had 5 million dollars in liability insurance as well as added riders and waivers to cover all the participants in the event. Motion to approve permitting this event. (Mutchler / Nelson ) All in favor. Cindy Wilcox and Andy Simkin, both of Southern Cayuga Instant Aid, spoke to the board about what their organization does. Each town board member was given a handout which described SCIA in more detail as well as statistics relating to the volume of calls made between the towns of Scipio, Genoa, Venice and Ledyard, financial information, fund raising information and expenses. Supervisor Mutchler felt, based on the information given him, the town of Scipio was paying too high percentage based on usage. Cindy explained these costs change yearly due to changes in the number of calls a town has as well as changes in the town’s population. Motions to approve the May 11, 2016 minutes. The minutes were approved pending changes showing the VanNostrand’s were given an opportunity to speak at the May 11, 2016 town board meeting. (Nelson / Mutchler) All in favor. Reports: Assessor / Grievance Day: Michael Whitten, the chair of the Board of Assessment Review, told the board that Grievance Day went well with about 35 grievances being decided. Of this number approximately 25 were heard that night with the rest having been mailed in. Heather Garner, the town’s assessor, told the board she heard several grievances prior to Grievance Day and as a result the number of people coming up before the BAR was significantly lower than in previous years. Code Enforcement: Mick gave the board an overview of his May activities as well as to say he was still having problems (too slow) with his computer. He talked to Jon Robson who did not know what might cause this be he, Jon, will come to the town offices to look into the problem. Mick read a letter from a town resident complaining about the burning of old building material form the Opendore Project in Sherwood. Mick had contacted Pat White who heads the Opendore Project to tell her she would not be able to continue doing this. Lastly Mick asked the board to approve adding an electrical permit, at $10.00 each, to the current list of town building permits. Motion to approve: (Mutchler / Whitten) All in favor. Highway: The new tractor is in and set up. Mark has used it and is pleased saying it will do a lot more work than the old setup. Mark also said the paving is done on Sherwood Road as well as sections of Hunter Road and Scipio-Venice Town line Road. ---PAGE BREAK--- Town Clerk: Tom told the board he has not yet gotten the June bank statement for the tax account so he is still not able to close out the tax account books for 2016. This should be done by the time of the July 13th. town board meeting. Tom is also looking into ways of adding space to the town’s spring and fall newsletters because there was not enough room in the spring newsletter to accommodate everyone who wanted to add something to the newsletter. Motion to approve the auditor report:9 (Baxter / Whitten) All in favor. Board member reports: Leslie Baxter: Leslie brought up the idea of installing an AED (automated external defibrillator) on town property. This equipment ranges in cost from $974.00 for a base unit and as much as $1,630.00 for more sophisticated units. It was felt there is little need for this equipment so no action was taken at this time. Mark Ferrari: Clarity Connect was unable to acquire an adequate signal at the town barn so it would need to dig a trench from the town offices to the town barn in order to get a good signal. It was decided to put this on hold because Mark Chamberlain said he can do without this for the time being. Howard Nelson: All the documents for Solarize New York have been filled out, signed and were mailed on Monday June 6th. in plenty of time to meet the June 30th. deadline. Supervisor Mutchler: Motion to approve Ann Robson as representative to the Cayuga County Planning Board. (Mutchler / Ferrari) All in favor. Motion to approve the following transfer of funds. From: A2770 Unclassified Revenue $20.00 To: A1620.48 Computer Repairs From: DA915 Assigned Unappropriated Fund Balance $56,000.00 To: DA5110.4 Repair of roads – Contractual From: A1990.41 Contingent $50.00 To: A1355.4 Assessors Contractual. (Mutchler / Whitten) All in favor. Supervisor told the board that to date he has not found any alternatives to the town employee’s insurance plans but he will continue in his efforts to do so. The Gould Cemetery issue according to Dave Thurston, the town’s attorney, is on hold until the VanNostrand’s 30 day appeals window has passed. Dave Thurston had asked the town to arrive at a fair market value for this property which Heather Garner, the town’s assessor appraised for $275.00 Motion to approve this appraisal for the Gould Cemetery property. (Mutchler / Whitten) All in favor. ---PAGE BREAK--- The issue of drones being used in the filming of an episode of Lakefront Bargain Hunt on HGTV was discussed and the privacy concerns addressed. The town board was in general agreement that as long as those property owners, whose properties are being filmed, are informed of and agreeable to being filmed by drones then the town board has no objections. Lastly Supervisor Mutchler discussed posting speed limits on Gilling Road because of concerns about excessive speed by a town resident who lives on Gilling Road. Because the town has look into posting speed limits on town roads in the past and was unable to do so as this is a DOT responsibility no further action was taken at this time. Vouchers: General 93 – 109 totaling $4,108.00 (Baxter / Whitten) All in favor. Highway (DA): 35 – 45 totaling $171,268.29 (Whitten / Nelson) All in favor. Motion to adjourn: 9:17 PM (Mutcler) All in favor. Respectfully submitted, Thomas J. Olenych Town Clerk ---PAGE BREAK---