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Agenda Meeting Minutes June 30, 2003
The meeting began at 7:30 P.M.
Those present: Fred, Bob and Alan.
Bernie was absent. Dot arrived at 7:32 P.M.
The Supervisor’s Report will include:
We have been served with an Article 78 Proceeding on our decision on the water district extension. We will be responding by July 24 with a return date before Judge Nolan on July 31 but that date will probably change at some point. Bob VanVranken will be the lead defense counsel. Bill Keniry and Jack Tabner will be counsel to Bob VanVranken. There are three possibilities:
We asked for quotes from six local contractors on the price of a new front door. We received a proposal from Bob Cromie for $1,839.31 and Schmidt and Schmidt for $2,300.00.
Judge Bascom’s computer is down. Craig Jones looked at it. Repairs will cost about $900.00. Craig suggested we purchase another one instead of repairing it. The Board decided to have Larry purchase a new computer.
The reimbursement check for Hazardous Waste Day from last year arrived. We
There has been a change is the Assessor’s Office hours. They will be at the Town Hall Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings. Gail expressed concern that this would not be enough hours. Dot felt that we do have clerks available for more hours. It was decided that Dot will contact them and ask them to revise their voice mail message at the Town Hall and leave phone numbers where they can be reached.
Fred received two calls of names that wanted to be added to the Veteran’s Board in Gideon Hawley Park. Gail said she has been passing names on the Laura. We will have one more newsletter notice before we have the sign updated.
The Cable Franchise Agreement is here. They have no problem with adding the form for better auditing. We will pass a resolution at the Town Board meeting authorizing the supervisor to sign the contract. Bob VanVranken has seen it and had no problem. Fred will check with him again.
The Cell Tower Ordinance is in Bob VanVranken Office. We are waiting to hear from him.
The trees from the Saratoga County Soil and Water Office have arrived. All but five were planted in Elmer Smith Park. They need to be planted soon or they will die. We may be able to get 20 more trees. If we do, we will plant them in the lot for the proposed town hall and can move them later.
Fred spoke with Rich Battenhausen regarding the Historic District Sign. The sign is ready to go. Ron has marked two locations but we will need approval from the County. Fred will call Joe Ritchey tomorrow and have someone come from the county.
Dot spoke with Mr. Mesick regarding the proposed new town hall building. He is tied up through most of July. Dot will try and arrange a meeting with him and the Board in August.
The Board received a letter from Vern Ketchum requesting public water based on a hardship for his new home on Crooked Street. Fred spoke with Jim Mitchell and he sees no pressure or engineering problems with the way Vern is suggesting it be done which would be connecting a 1" line to the existing 2" copper line which serves Ballance and Eldeen. Under the moratorium and the way the Local Law is written, it requires a public hearing and then we would make a decision.
John Morgan – The 2" line was put in by Ballance and Eldeen from Komar to Ballance’s property line. They paid for it and turned it over to the town. They are WTOO3’s. We tax those people. Sandy Kominoski has an 1¼" line going past her house on Vines Road that goes to McDonald’s property. When she finds out about this she will say why can’t I hook on to the
Fred – Masullo’s property has three more lots. If they build on those and run into water problems there will be a potential for more requests to tap into a 2" line.
John Morgan – The comment was made that five services could be fed off that 2" line. An engineer would have to stamp that for me to accept that. I disagree with that.
Fred – The question to the Board is how do you want to move? To move forward means setting up a public hearing date according to the Local Law.
John Morgan – Another alternative that I told Vern is that he would have to extend the main down the street, which would be an extension of the water district, and then you would run into the problem that you would have Gallup’s property to tie in, Eldeen’s and Ballances’s property to tie in.
Fred – Isn’t Ketchum’s tap going to be first?
John Morgan – His would be first but where are you going to stop this? This is all going to have to be engineered.
Fred – He would have to go the DEC and DOH.
John Morgan – Exactly. As soon as the moratorium is over with you have other people that want to be --- I’ll use the term outside users, which is no longer going to be the term, but you have people that want to hook up right now. I have three more that want to hook up right now. One of them is already a hardship case on Hillandale.
Fred – What is the right way to do it?
Alan – I think we have basically stated that we don’t want to see any more spaghetti lines in the right-of-ways. If there are going to be any more lines, they need to be up to design specifications. I guess the only difference with this is because there already is one out in the right-of-way, tying into an existing one is a little bit different in the sense that you’ve got a line that is already there. They aren’t running a new 2" line down the right-of-way.
John Morgan – I’m sure if something happens on Crooked Street, the Vines Road issue will come up.
Fred – The line to Balance’s would still be passing the other lots of Masullo as well, wouldn’t it?
John Morgan – Yes.
Janet Reville – Crooked Street - There are four lots with wells. One has a house on it.
Alan – Vern’s lot is the one that didn’t have a well.
Fred – Do we know if Vern has an attorney? Maybe he could call Jack Tabner and see if there is some resolution to the problem before he invests any more money.
John Morgan – I understand the bank will not go any further until (something about water).
Alan – It is a policy issue more than a legal issue.
John Morgan – There are people that want water out there and you are going to start a whole scenario here again if you aren’t careful.
Fred – Kominoski can ask to have the same treatment.
Alan – They have a hardship situation where they are also. The engineering would have to be checked because that is a smaller line across the street from Kominoski.
John Morgan –It would have to have an engineer’s stamp. There are no records at all for Crooked Street or Vines Road.
Alan – Doesn’t our Outside User Contract say that if a water main is available that the owner will tie in at their expense.
John Morgan – The Outside Agreement has been changed a couple of times. Back then I don’t know how it reads because I haven’t pulled them.
Fred – Ballance and Eldeen are 003’s. That makes them inside users.
John Morgan – They are an outside user perse but they are a WT003 because they get billed for taxes against (could not understand). A WT004 would be 1 ½ times. They are regular rated people because they paid for the line and turned it over to the town. Duguid, McDonald, Mitchell – they paid for everything. They are WT003’s.
Fred – The existing main and hydrant is on Ketchum’s side of the road?
John Morgan – The main is at the intersection of Komar and Crooked Street. It is on the west side of Komar and the south side of Crooked Street.
Fred – If Ketchum ran a line on the south side from the main, a whole new line like Gallup has…….(interrupted)
John Morgan – Now you are going back to a spaghetti line again which according to the way you have things set up to come, you’re supposed to do away with that. The outside user business hasn’t been finalized yet but that is going to be washed away.
Fred – How does this tie in with what the water committee is doing?
Bob – I don’t think it is in the realm of the committee to make these decisions. We aren’t addressing any of that.
John Morgan – This is strictly going to be a Town Board decision sooner or later.
Fred – Following the Local Law, Vern has applied to the Town Clerk.
John Morgan – This is all within the time limit of the moratorium?
John Morgan – Masullo is going to knock on your door after this.
Alan – The distinction there is the quality of the wells.
John Morgan – They haven’t drilled in the vacant lots.
Janet Reville – They are all drilled except the lot we bought.
Alan – They never came in to be included in the district but the Crooked Street project was going. They could have very easily gotten in on asking to be included in the district.
Dot – But were they asked?
Alan – They were landowners of record.
Dot - They may not have been the owners of record at that point.
Fred – It doesn’t solve the problem of Kominoski asking to do the same thing.
Alan – You have to keep them all separate. You have to evaluate hooking into a 2" line with a third house from an engineering point of view.
Fred – That is no problem. I got that from Jim Mitchell this afternoon.
Alan – The 2" line is already there. We could set this one up as an outside user at this point until we incorporate them all. The agreement would have to say that if the main ever did come through that they would have to hook into a main if it was ever put in.
Janet Reville – I thought the moratorium being over on August 19, that even though a letter has been sent, aren’t we not allowed to do anything until the moratorium is over and then have a public hearing or whatever else.
Fred – It wouldn’t require a public hearing then. This is under a hardship.
Janet – The people without hardships were locked out.
Fred – The next move we should make is to set up a public hearing date if the Board’s consensus is that we are not going to run into an engineering issue or a policy issue.
John – Somebody is going to have to have a stamp on it.
Fred – Is the Board’s consensus at this point that if we don’t see a problem with a tap of that 2" line after the public hearing is held then we make a decision to approve it? That’s not going to be an issue, or is it? If it is we better warn Vern ahead of time that this is what he is going to have to overcome.
Dot – What is John saying about having (could not understand)
John – If I am going to be responsible as the Water Superintendent and he is putting a house there, I want a stamped engineer’s certification of that because if he has any problems he is going to come to me first and I will have the paperwork and I will say to the property owner, "Here is what you furnished the Town of Charlton". I want an as built plan from the tap. It boggles my mind that they say five houses can hook up on a 2" line.
Alan – He wants to have an actual report that says that a 2" line will supply a third house. The letter that Vern’s engineer wrote is not adequate.
John – No. I want a stamp.
Bob – If that is received, then let’s let him know that we will proceed with it. If we get the approval of the engineer that the supply would be adequate, then we would be comfortable with going ahead with a public hearing.
Fred – We will not set a public hearing date until we have that set of drawings. Is that what you are saying?
Bob – It is not a set of drawings so much as a statement that that would supply.
John – When it is over with you have to have a stamped set. Period.
Alan – Why don’t we set a public hearing for our next Agenda Meeting?
Fred – That would be July 28 at 7:00 P.M.
Alan – Kominoski is except from the moratorium.
Fred – We will have a resolution on this hardship on July 28 at 7:00 P.M.
Jim Leupold – Edwin Drive - What constitutes a hardship case? I know there are situations where you would want to do something like that but this is a brand new house?
Fred – He has drilled a well and there is a well report of all the problems he has had.
Jim Leupold – Is there a house already there?
Fred – No.
Jim Leupold – But I would think that a hardship case would be somebody that has been living in Charlton for 10 or 15 years and all of a sudden their well has gone dry. What else are they going to do vs. a brand new lot that nobody is even living on. How can you qualify that as a hardship?
Bob – In order for him to continue with bank approval for his house he has to have more water than this. I assume he can’t get a mortgage.
John Morgan – That is right. He can’t get a mortgage until the approval of water. That would be the same as Kominoski. If they were to try and sell that house, they would have to meet the requirements from the bank for a mortgage and that well will not do that.
Fred Acunto – The definition of a hardship: Should any owner of property effected by this local law suffer an unnecessary hardship in the way of carrying out the strict letter of this local law, then the owner of said property may apply to the Town Board of the Town in writing for a variation from strict compliance with this local law upon submission of proof of such unnecessary hardship. For the purposes of this local law, unnecessary hardship shall not be mere delay in being permitted to make an application awaiting for a decision of the application for a variance, special permit, site plan, subdivision or other permit during the period of the moratorium.
Alan – It’s in that first sentence.
Fred – He has documented it pretty well in my opinion that he has a hardship.
Jim Leupold – I guess my question was, that definition of hardship, could it be someone who just bought property or (could not understand) house?
Bob – It says property owner.
Fred- There will be two resolutions at the Town Board Meeting, approval of a franchise agreement with Time Warner and the water usage rates.
Bob Lippiello – Water usage rates will increase as a result of Glenville raising our cost. For the year 2003-2004 the rate will be $3.15 per thousand gallons. The minimum will increase to $85.00 for 35,000 gallons.
Gail asked for permission to purchase a new PC on state contract and to enter into an agreement with Craig Jones for maintenance.
Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Lippiello, A Motion authorizing the Town Clerk to purchase a new PC on state contract and for the Town to enter into an agreement with Craig Jones, 5 Western Avenue, West Charlton, New York to provide maintenance, be approved:
Approved: Councilman Grattidge Yes
The next Town Board Meeting will be held on July 14 at 7:30 P.M. at the Town Hall. The next Agenda Meeting will be on July 28 at 7:30 P.M. with a Public Hearing at 7:00 P.M.
After some discussion it was decided to award the job of installing a new front door to Bob Cromie.
Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Mitchell, A Motion awarding the installation of a new main entry door as quoted without a crash bar but with a heavy duty commercial lock set to Bob Cromie, 1851 Route 67, Ballston Spa, New York at a cost not to exceed $2,100.00, be approved:
Approved: Councilman Grattidge Yes
Alan asked if there would be a final report of the Water Study Committee before the moratorium is over. Bob said that would be tight. The Committee is having a meeting with Jim Mitchell to go over their figures.
Robert Killeen, Jr. presented the Town Board members with a letter regarding Councilman Grattidge’s behavior at his place of employment in February. Board members read the letter.
The meeting adjourned at 8:35 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Hanchar, Town Clerk |
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