DRAFT

Regular Meeting June 14, 2004

Charlton Town Board

Saratoga County

New York

 

 

At the regular meeting of the Town Board of Charlton, Saratoga County, New York held at 7:30 P.M. at the Charlton Town Hall, called to order by Supervisor Acunto, there were present:

 

                                    Councilman Alan Grattidge

                                    Councilman Robert Lippiello

                                    Councilman Dorothy Mitchell

                                    Councilman Sandra Verola

                                    Supervisor Ferdinand Acunto

 

Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Verola that the minutes of the May 10 Town Board Meeting and the minutes of the June 1 Agenda Meeting be accepted as received:

 

                        Approved:            Councilman Grattidge               Yes

                                                Councilman Lippiello                Yes

                                                Councilman Mitchell                 Yes

                                                Councilman Verola                   Yes

                                                Supervisor Acunto                   Yes

 

 

ABSTRACT OF CLAIMS:

 

The total of the bills approved at the Agenda Meeting was $157,952.33.

 

Vouchers for the month were #1503 to #1634.

 

 

TOWN CLERK’S REPORT:

 

Heather Scribner read the Town Clerk’s Report.  She reported taking in $130.31.  Motion made by Councilman Verola, seconded by Councilman Grattidge.  PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

 

PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR (Agenda Items):

 

No comments.

 

 

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

 

Supervisor Acunto – There will be expenditures which will only be for personal services because we audited all of the vouchers in June.

 

May expenditures and revenue:

General Fund – Expenditures of $14,046.96.  Revenue of $94,277.93.

Highway Fund – Expenditures of $24,802.21.  Revenue of $61,535.00

Water District #1 – Expenditures of $3,019.76.  Revenue of $185.96

Water District #2 – Expenditures of $167.88.  Revenue – None.

 

Major revenue:

General Fund – Mortgage Tax of $74,640.97 and Franchise Fees of $17,893.00.

Highway Fund – Sales Tax Distribution of $61,535.00

 

The Employee Manual has been turned over the Kathy Hanley, our bookkeeper.  She is reviewing the necessary health insurance portions of that and the vacation and other items that we asked her to look at.  

 

The web site activity from March 25 to April 23 showed 792 hits.

 

Supervisor Acunto and supervisors from the area took a tour of the Kesselring Site.  It was very interesting.

 

 

COMMUNICATIONS:

 

DOT has acknowledged receipt of our request for an investigation of the speed limit on Crooked Street.  They will be reviewing it and getting back to us.

 

Eagan Realty has the listing on the piece of property just north of the Highway Garage.  We received at note from them asking if we were interested in the property.  The Board will discuss it at the Agenda Meeting.

 

 

ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER:

 

Lee reported that it has been a busy month.  There were dead animal pickups and a stray dog pick up.  Lee has been receiving a lot of complaints on dogs barking.  Councilman Verola asked if there was a concern this year about rabies in the wild animal population.  Lee said we haven’t had a case in Charlton in a year or so.

 

 

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN:

 

Steve Caine - We are approaching 800 responses to our written survey.  Most communities get 10-15% return, maybe 25% at best.  We sent out 1,460 surveys so we have over a 50% response.  Our townspeople care.  It probably will take the consultant a bit longer than anticipated to compile the results.  Obviously, all the data will be shared with the Board and the community and it will serve as a basis for a “vision” and subsequent recommendations.

 

On June 7^th the Committee finished up its last of four focus group meetings.  Thanks to Midge Dube and Peggy Gains for coordinating the seniors meeting and thanks to Andrea Herrin and Jenna Smith for coordinating the teenagers meeting. 

 

On July 1 between 7:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M. in the Charlton Freehold Academy the Committee will hold a Community Image Survey.  We are advertising it on the Town website, in The Gazette, Spotlight, through e-mail, posters and maybe some phone calls.  We hope as many of the Town Board members as possible can participate. 

 

 

CONSTABLES:

 

For the month of May there were 30 patrols, 8  911 calls, covered 2,162 miles and issued 37 tickets and investigated 3 accidents.

 

 

EMERGENCY PLANNING:

 

The training session which Dean DeCapria was going to attend was cancelled.  It will be held in the fall.

 

 

HIGHWAY:

 

They cleaned up after Party In The Park, have been working on Newman Road, clearing brush on Jolly Road, working on Featherbed Lane, and graded up Rocky Ridge.

           

HISTORIAN:

 

Laura has had five requests this month for information concerning properties and historical significance or information about one-room schools.

Thanked Mr. Tasse for his help in photographing the Memorial Day Ceremony  and the Founder’s Day Parade.  Laura made other arrangements for the parade  (could not understand).  The new superintendent of the Burnt Hills Ballston Lake Schools, Jim Schultz, carried the town flag in the parade.  The new principal at Charlton Heights, Tim Sinnenberg, carried the US flag in the parade.  The parade was in honor of educators.

Ethan Robertshaw has been working on an Eagle Scout project this year about taking care of old United States flags.  He provided boxes for old flags and then picked them up and took them to the National Cemetery in Saratoga for their annual Flag Day burning ceremony.  

There were four veterans in the front of the parade.  They were Deac Stauffer, Howard Baxter, Ray Bull and Wilson Stanley. 

This month Laura did her annual presentation for the Charlton Heights 4^th Graders.

The Historians of Saratoga County met with the County Historian last Wednesday.  They were all talking about Comprehensive Plans in their communities and the need for working with their respective Planning Boards.  They discussed the need for demolition permits for historic sites so information could be recorded before the sites are gone.  They also discussed having Preservation Committees in each area.

The Saratoga County Fair is July 13-18.  Our Historian will have an exhibit there.

There is a Saratoga County Room at the new Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.  There will be a photograph of Charlton’s Veteran’s Honor Roll along with the Honor Roll of each community.

The 2004 Capital Region Archives Dinner is set for October 6th.  The theme will be Archives in the Adirondack Region.  It is open to anyone.

From July 31^st – August1st there will be a conference in Greenwich, New York on the underground railroad.

Laura was asked to attend the graduation of Schenectady County Community College’s first archeology program graduates.  They are certified archeologists.  We have seven local graduates that are ready to assist in archeological surveys in our community.

 

 

LIBRARY:

 

Their annual meeting will be June 30^th.

 

 

PARK COMMITTEE:

 

There was a complaint about a foot-bridge in Mill Pond Park.  George has examined the bridge.  One corner of one board is busted off.  They have been riding horses across it.  Party In The Park went well.  The port-a-john is in the park for the summer.  The trees all survived that were planted last year.  The Highway Department will be finishing up the volleyball court soon.  Supervisor Acunto asked what should be done about the bridge in Mill Pond Park and George said he felt there was nothing wrong with it.

 

 

PLANNING BOARD:

 

They have a meeting on June 21.

 

 

RECORDS ADVISORY BOARD:

 

We will be picking out what document we will be having preserved this year.

 

 

TOWN HALL:

 

There will be a meeting with the architect on Wednesday at 7:30 P.M.

 

 

WATER DISTRICT:

 

John has the fence up at the pump house.  A hook up that was approved last fall on Old Stage Road has been completed and is in place.  The form is ready to go to the printer.

 

 

ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS:

 

The ZBA met last Tuesday.  They approved a request for a variance on a pre-existing substandard lot.

 

 

ZONING:

 

For the month of May the Zoning Office took in $2,115.00.

 

 

MOTIONS:

 

Motion made by Councilman Mitchell, seconded by Councilman Grattidge, A Motion Appointing James Poirier, 781Charlton Road, Charlton, New York as Chairman of the Historic District Commission, be approved:

 

Councilman Verola asked if there was a vice-chairman on that Committee.  Supervisor Acunto responded that that appointment would be made internally.

 

                        Approved:            Councilman Grattidge               Yes

                                                Councilman Lippiello                Yes

                                                Councilman Mitchell                 Yes

                                                Councilman Verola                   Yes

                                                Supervisor Acunto                   Yes     

 

 

Supervisor Acunto stated that generally when there are holidays we follow the County schedule.  Since July 4^th is on a Sunday, the County will be closing on Monday, July 5^th.  That is what we will be doing.

 

 

COUNCILMAN REPORTS:

 

Councilman Grattidge – Thanked Ron and the highway employees for painting the gazebo for Memorial Day.  It will need a little structural work in the next year or two.

Thanked the Historical Society for the Founder’s Day Weekend.  It was great.  They did a super job with the 5K Race.  Thanked everyone who served on the committee for Party In The Park.  For two years Operation Friendship has sold fried dough.  They are affiliated with one of the Methodist Churches.  They sponsor exchange students to foreign countries.  They do a fund raiser at Niska Day and at Party In The Park.  They have some local connections in Charlton. 

Councilman Grattidge – I am very unhappy with the way the annual reassessment went this year.  Going through the grievance process for the first time myself, I find we have some problems in our assessment roll.  We hired a professional assessor who came in both last year and this year and the assessors chose not to use their information this year.  I think we have some major problems with our assessment roll.  The State has sent us a form that says we are at 100% but there are so many inequities now in our roll that I think we are going to have a long time to straighten our roll out.

 

Supervisor Acunto – We did sit down with them prior to this and gave them some suggestions.  Obviously they saw fit to do it their way and we have to remind everyone that they are elected officials and they act independently of this Town Board.  There isn’t anything that we the Board could do other than voice our concerns similar to what Alan just said.

 

Councilman Mitchell – Thanked everyone that was involved with Party In The Park and Founder’s Day.  It was very successful.  I will concur with you about the comments on the assessments.   Dot spoke regarding what came out of the focus group for seniors for the Comprehensive Plan.  There were concerns about the needs of some of the elderly in Town and that there probably are services available that they are not aware of.  The suggestion was made that we consider having a commission or some way of getting some people together to find out what services are available.  They would be a contact for these people or for their relatives.  We could be putting this information in the newsletter.  Supervisor Acunto said that we have a representative to the Office of the Aging and it is his wife.  She has put out numerous pieces of information and answered numerous phone calls.  She would be glad to come and speak along with someone from the Office of the Aging if we want to put together an information night.  Councilman Verola suggested that we have a contact number in our Charlton Directory.

 

Councilman Lippiello – Thanked Alan for the success of Party In The Park and the excellent fireworks.  Thanked Ron and the highway employees for getting the park ready. 

Thanked Walt Schmidt, Jr. for the nice job done on Kathy’s new office.

 

Councilman Verola – She received a thank you note from the clown who participated in Party In The Park.  Thanked Ron for the wonderful job on the gazebo.  Sandy stated she would like a detailed report from the Assessors on what happened through the process and how it was resolved.  She would like to know how they arrived at some of the assessments they arrived at.  Councilman Grattidge said that we need to wait until the Assessment Board of Review does its work.  They haven’t finished hearing cases. Councilman Verola would like a detailed report from the Assessment Review Board also.

Supervisor Acunto said that to put that in writing might be voluminous.  Wouldn’t it be better to have them here in public? We might loose something if it was in writing.  People could ask them questions.  It was decided to discuss it at the Agenda Meeting to see if the timing was right for the next meeting.

 

 

PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR:

 

Janet Reville – Crooked Street – Asked who should be contacted about junk cars?  Supervisor Acunto responded that it would be the Zoning Administrator.

 

Marv Schorr thanked Peter Parker for the fantastic job he did in organizing the parade for Founder’s Day.  He also thanked the Burnt Hills Spotlight, The Times Union, The  Weekly and The Gazette for the publicity for Founder’s Day.  

 

Laura stated that there will be a concert at the gazebo in Gideon Hawley Park on

July 28^th at 7:00 P.M.

 

Councilman Mitchell mentioned that the highway crew did a wonderful job in caring for the private cemeteries in town. 

 

The next Agenda Meeting will be June 28 at 7:30 P.M.

 

After everyone had the opportunity to speak who wished the meeting was adjourned

at 8:50 P.M.

                       

 

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

                                                                        Gail Hanchar

                                                                        Town Clerk