DRAFT

Regular Meeting February 14, 2005

Charlton Town Board

Saratoga County

New York

After the pledge to the flag, the invocation was given by Town Clerk Gail Hanchar.

At the regular meeting of the Town Board of Charlton, Saratoga County, New York, held at

7:30 P.M. 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 by Councilman Verola, seconded by Councilman Grattidge that the minutes of the

January 10 Town Board Meeting and the January 31 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:

Total of the bills approved at the January Agenda Meeting was $172,013.28.

Vouchers for the month were #1019-#1151.

TOWN CLERK’S REPORT:

Gail Hanchar read the Town Clerk’s Report. She reported taking in $249.54. Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Lippiello. PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR (Agenda Items):

No comments.

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

January revenue and expenditures:

General Fund – Expenditures of $150,798.41. Revenue of $9,940.00.

Highway Fund – Expenditures of $42,472.85. Revenue of $117,071.75.

Water District #1 – Expenditures of $24,795.90. Revenue of $171,100.32.

Water District #2 – Expenditures of $174.25. No revenue.

Major expenditures:

General Fund – Tax Collector-Capital Outlay (for computer and printer) of $2,064.98, Siding for the salt shed of $2,221.08, Buildings ( Architect’s fees and software) of $68,444.52, Insurance of $32,138.91, Police Car of $23,667.12 and Code Enforcement Fees of $3,429.00.

Highway Fund – Ice Control Materials of $16,488.78.

Water District – AdValorm Payment to Town of Glenville of $19,358.00 and Utilities

of $2,239.82.

Major revenue:

General Fund – Planning Board fees of $500.00 and Reval. Reimbursement for Annual Reval. of $9,444.00.

Highway Fund – Sales Tax Distribution of $117,037.00.

Water District – Taxes Collected of $171,100.32.

There were 753 hits on the web site for the month of January.

The Town Hall will be closed for President’s Day on February 21.

The Town Board conducted its annual internal audit and found no problems. The Board does the audit not with any great knowledge of how to do an audit. The Board has put out a search for an auditor to do an independent audit. The Audit Search Committee is ready to make a recommendation tonight.

Doug Salisbury - Callaghan Blvd. – Read a letter from the Search Committee which consisted of Doug Salisbury, Don Schermerhorn, Sandy Verola and Fred Acunto. The Committee sent out 9 RFP’s. Three firms declined. One was returned “undeliverable”. Five responded. All 5 firms met and/or exceeded the Committee’s standards. Doug stated that the Committee unanimously recommends that the Town enter into an agreement with Edwards, Williams, McManus and Ricciardelli P.C. of Saratoga Springs at a fee of $5,100.00. Supervisor Acunto said that the Board will discuss this matter at the Agenda Meeting on February 28 and select an auditor at the

March 14 Town Board Meeting.

COMMUNICATIONS:

We received a resignation letter from Maureen Resue, Secretary of the Planning Board. She will not leave until after the minutes for the March meeting are completed.

We received a resignation letter from John Steele, Alternate to the Planning Board.

ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER:

It has been quiet. A family of foxes has been running around in the Crooked Street area. They are not bothering anyone. Lee received a rabies booster shot.

ASSESSORS:

They have been busy. The field review of the town is done. Wes Weaver and Bob Cromie have begun working as assessors. They are working on getting the building permits situated so they are on the role for 2005. The deadline for exemptions is March 1. There will be a public information meeting on March 1 at 7:00 P.M. at the Town Hall. Vicki will give a presentation on the annual update. People will not get their new assessment notices until after March 10. From the time the notices go out until the middle of April, the public is encouraged to make an appointment with the assessors.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN:

Steve Caine reported that he had received a call last night (2/13) from Bob Spec, President of the BHBL Central Schools, Board of Education. The Board is very concerned with the unexpected level of growth and student population increase in the district. A couple of years ago the Capital District Regional Planning Authority performed a study for the school district and my understanding is it included predictive figures on student population growth. Bob Spec reported that the student population has grown by 100 students more than anticipated. Because of this and knowing the developmental pressure in the four other towns in the school district and riding around our town, the board is gathering points of contract and getting ready to do another study to increase the accuracy of their planning. Bob reported that he is going to contact Charlton’s Building Inspector to get data on the number of building permits being issued. He asked me about the work of the Comprehensive Planning Steering Committee and I told him all our work products, to date, are on the town web site. He mentioned that we would probably hear again from school administrators.

On the work of the Committee:

We are now getting into the meat and potatoes of working through objectives and strategies that support the fourteen goals the committee and community developed. You remember objectives and strategies are the “ways and means” that directly support each goal, or put another way, they are how the town can achieve what townspeople want. Our consultant’s expertise is showing and she is doing a great deal of work providing us a broad range of options for accomplishing goals. What we are getting is very complex and dense or substantive information. The first thing we need to do is understand what she is offering us. When we understand the implications and consequences of recommending or not recommending each recommendation, we will then start determining which options the committee believes best suit the needs of Charlton. Ultimately the Town Board and our townspeople will need to understand what options we are considering and why we are recommend specific ones. We think it is extremely important that our committee members, the Town Board and ultimately our townspeople formulate their options and make their decisions on a fully informed basis. All of us need to understand the ramifications of each potential option or recommendation and the consequences of doing or not doing it. The last thing we want to see happen is to hand over a thick volume of data and recommendations to the Town Board and our townspeople that they have never seen before and expect them to understand and approve it.

The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee is doing its level best to educate all of us by putting everything we can on the web site and inviting everyone to attend our meetings. There will also be open public hearings. We hope you and our townspeople will do their level best to learn as much as possible, as we go through the process. It cannot be all learned in a couple of days when we reach the end and have to make the big decisions. I want to thank Councilwoman Verola for attending our last meeting. I think she got an appreciation for the depth, breath and complexity of the work we are doing. In conclusion, we encourage all townspeople to visit www.townofcharlton.org and checkout the entries under Comprehensive Planning Project and to attend our meetings the first Monday of each month in the Town Hall.

CONSTABLES:

For the month of January there were 28 patrols, answered 8 911 calls, covered 2,339 miles, issued 38 tickets and investigated or went to 2 house fires in District #1.

ECC:

The Annual Roadside Clean Up will be held on April 30 from 8:00 A.M. until Noon. The Annual Tree Give Away will be from Noon until 1:00 P.M.

E-GOVERNMENT ADVISORY BOARD:

They are looking into what are some of the things the web site can do to help people who work for the town and ways to get information out to the community. John Kelly, our webmaster, has made an offer to the town to use some new material he is just putting out that will allow individual departments to access the web site with codes and make updates to their own site.

EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE:

The Charlton Freehold Church is listed at the county as an emergency shelter. The Charlton Girls School and Charlton Heights School are not on the list. They are willing to be shelters. Sandy will look into that.

HIGHWAY:

We will be passing a resolution on posting the roads.

HISTORIAN:

Laura will be attending the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference in Albany on

April 21-23.

The Association of Public Historians is meeting in Amsterdam on May 1-3.

On June 10-11 there will be a conference in Syracuse on NYS History.

March 1 is a training workshop on Electronic Document Imaging for those of working with the town records. Laura, Gail and Heather will be attending.

The Historic District Commission is meeting the 3^rd Wednesday of each month at 7:00 P.M. at the Town Hall. Laura will be attending as liaison.

The Charlton Historical Society held their moveable feast last month.

The town has memberships now in the NYS Military Heritage Institute, Brookside Museum, Saratoga County Historical Society, Heritage Hunters and the Association of Public Historians.

Brookside Museum is doing some fund matching for grants they have received.

Laura passed out copies of a proposed resolution she would like to board to pass this evening. It is a resolution applying for a Quality Communities Grant for citizen education and planning updates to increase opportunities for citizen input and to increase community pride. The grant would provide funding for brochures and information and to hold public meetings over the next 2 years to help us learn more about all of the topics involved in the Comprehensive Plan. The deadline for submission is February 25, 2005.

HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION:

They are meeting this Wednesday at 7:00 P.M.

PARK COMMITTEE:

The met last month. There is a wedding planned at the gazebo in May.

PARTY IN THE PARK:

It will be June 4. They will meet again on Wednesday, February 16 at 7:30 P.M.

PLANNING BOARD:

The Planning Board is meeting Monday, February 21 at 7:00 P.M. There will be a public hearing at 7:30 P.M. regarding the site plan review of the new town hall.

RECORDS ADVISORY BOARD:

Lynn will be starting shortly sorting and reboxing old records.

TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD:

They will meet tomorrow night at 7:30 P.M. They have been asked to look at the computer equipment that we have in an effort to determine if there are things that we need. They have had a request to look at some software. There are a wide range of technology issues that they feel they can be of help with to the town. They have reviewed some of the detailed plans of the Town Hall.

TOWN HALL:

Mr. Vosburgh is continuing to work on developing a set of prints and the budget. We are looking into hiring a clerk of the works. The public hearing for the site plan review will be held on Monday, February 21 at 7:30 P.M. Everyone in the historic district was notified by mail.

VETERANS RECOGNITION BOARD:

The Board is collecting names. We have received 22 additional names. They should be on the board by Memorial Day.

WATER:

John is still taking readings in several places in town. He has been trying to reach the woman from the NYS Health Department. Councilman Lippiello said he received a draft of a letter from Jim Mitchell regarding incorporating new additions to the water district on a yearly basis. He checked with someone at ENCON and was told it would be no problem. Councilman Lippiello read a portion of the letter regarding “where the main extension exceeds 500 feet”. He feels we ought to say, “Except for municipal additions”. This would mean if we were to run the line or a municipal department were to expand it, they would not have to go through that same individual water supply application. It was decided we would discuss this with Bob VanVranken.

ZONING:

For the month of January they issued 5 permits and collected $1,195.00. Supervisor Acunto asked about permit #05-04 for a pole barn. He feels that the fee is high considering there will be few inspections. Dave said it is based on the square footage. It will be a large building with electricity and plumbing.

RESOLUTIONS:

Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Verola that Resolution #67, A PROCLAMATION PROCLAIMING FEBRUARY 23, 2005 AS ROTARY INTERNATIONAL DAY, be approved:

Approved: Councilman Grattidge Yes

Councilman Lippiello Yes

Councilman Mitchell Yes

Councilman Verola Yes

Supervisor Acunto Yes

Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Mitchell that Resolution #68, A RESOLUTION AMENDING RESOLUTION #64 OF THE YEAR 2005 APPOINTING WESLEY WEAVER AND ROBERT CROMIE AS ELECTED ASSESSORS TO FILL VACANCIES, be approved:

Approved: Councilman Grattidge Yes

Councilman Lippiello Yes

Councilman Mitchell Yes

Councilman Verola Yes

Supervisor Acunto Yes

Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Verola that Resolution #69, A RESOLUTION TO ADVERTISE FOR SALE BY SEALED BID (1) 1999 FORD CROWN VICTORIA POLICE CAR, be approved:

Approved: Councilman Grattidge Yes

Councilman Lippiello Yes

Councilman Mitchell Yes

Councilman Verola Yes

Supervisor Acunto Yes

Motion made by Councilman Grattidge, seconded by Councilman Lippiello that

Resolution #70, A RESOLUTION TO TEMPORARILY ORDER LIMITING OF ROADS TO A 4 TON LIMIT, be approved:

Approved: Councilman Grattidge Yes

Councilman Lippiello Yes

Councilman Mitchell Yes

Councilman Verola Yes

Supervisor Acunto Yes

COUNCILMAN REPORTS:

Councilman Grattidge – Congratulations to Rotary. They are a great organization.

Councilman Mitchell – Congratulations to Rotary. The Newsletter should be received this week.

Councilman Lipppiello – The Town Hall is moving along. The E-Government and Technology Committee are meeting and should change the town in a positive way. Thanks to all the volunteers for the effort they put into the town.

Councilman Verola – Praise to Rotary and good luck in their future endeavors.

PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR:

Marv Schorr spoke representing the Charlton Seniors. He asked for permission to use the town duplicating machine to print their monthly newsletter in an effort to minimize costs. They will provide their own paper and pay for the use of the machine. They are currently making 100 newsletters but might be making 200 by the end of the year. Gail will research the cost and discuss further at the Agenda Meeting.

Dick Lupi – Beechwood Avenue – Thanked Vicki for the informative presentation on assessing she made to the Seniors and for the question and answer period. Marv also stated that Vicki gave and outstanding presentation. He said it was the best explanation that he had heard on how the process works.

Laura passed out a proposed resolution to the Town Board on the Quality Communities Grant which is for citizen education, planning updates, increasing opportunities for citizen input through hosting educational events and to increase community pride. She and Wendy Baird (Maple Avenue resident) attended the meeting to request Town Board support. This grant is something they just learned about and would like the Board to approve $4,000-$5,000 to hire a consultant to manage educational events and cover costs of printing of a brochure to advertise events. A list of proposed educational events was attached to the resolution. They would like to see a Friends of Alplaus Heritage and National Corridor established. They have to have a resolution from the Town Board to apply for the grant. The deadline for grant submissions is February 25, 2005. The Board had a number of questions. It was determined that this grant is available every year. After some discussion it was suggested that they bring it to the attention of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee and continue to work on it for next year. Steve Caine commended Laura and Wendy for their efforts. He stated that we need to learn as much as we can to make wise decisions regarding planning for our future as a town.

Doug Salisbury – Callaghan Blvd. – Would like to see our ball field mowed on a regular basis for everyone to use. George Eggleston stated that the agreement with the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Baseball League was that they mowed the field when they were using it from April until July. After that, the town would mow it on a weekly basis due to manpower constraints. Councilman Lippiello said that last year we put more drainage in and hopefully we will put more in this year. That might help get mowing equipment in. The Park Committee will work on it.

Mark Chotkowski – Peaceable Street – Spoke regarding the letter from Jim Mitchell. He thought a water district extension had to go through the Department of Health, not the Department of Environmental Conservation. Councilman Lippiello said ENCON also needs an approval. Mark said he was concerned that they would exempt a municipal entity of the town from going through the whole process when. If they are extending a water line 100 feet and there is a town person who lives on that 100 feet, they should have the ability to hook up to the water main just like Ballston did with the water main for their Town Hall. Mark doesn’t understand how there could be an exemption for the application because you would still need to know whether or not you have enough water supply in the tank to add to the extension.

Councilman Lippiello stated that in cases where major subdivisions, 5 or more, and in cases where the main extension exceeds 500 feet, an individual water supply application would be made prior to the extension of the main. Jim indicated that we might want to consider the exclusion of a municipality for that.

Mark said that we had a concern 2 years ago about how much water storage we have and how close we are to capacity. Last year the town incorporated District #5 so that anyone who is out there is an extension and requires an application. He feels if a municipality is exempt it could short cut town residents or the town itself. Councilman Lippiello will have Bob VanVranken take a look at it.

Dick Lupi asked that if you preclude the municipality from having to go through this process, does that mean that anybody on that line would then be prevented from hooking up? Councilman Lippiello said that you can’t prevent them from hooking up if the main is in front of their house.

Marv asked that if an exemption was granted for a municipality, would that short circuit the SEQRA process? An extension is a SEQRA type of action. Councilman Grattidge said it was his understanding that anyone that was going to extend the main would have to complete the full application. Dave LaFountain asked what the advantage would be to exempting a municipality. The Board stated that this needs further investigation.

The Agenda Meeting will be held on February 28 at 7:30 P.M. at the Town Hall.

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

at 9:05 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Hanchar

Town Clerk