The regular monthly meeting of the Town of Tompkins Town Board was called to order at 7:04 pm in the Town meeting room, Trout Creek, NY. With Bill Layton leading in the Flag salute.
Present:
- Brian Albanese – Councilperson
- Howard Buttel – Councilperson
- Peggy Backus – Councilperson
- Tim LaTourette – Councilperson
- William Layton – Supervisor
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Others:
- Nancy Roberts – Bookkeeper to Supervisor
- Linda Bourn – Deputy Town Clerk
- Ron VanValkenburg – Highway Superintendent
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Floor Time/Guests:
Nancy Hornbeck, Brenda Martin, Pam Gardepe and Meranda Reynolds & Michelle Phoenix.
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RESOLUTION # 45-2024 APPROVAL OF MINUTES
On motion by Brian Albanese, seconded by Bill Layton, it was moved to approve the Meeting Minutes for May 2024. Vote: All in favor – Motion carried.
RESOLUTION # 46-2024 ABSTRACT OF CLAIMS
On motion by Peggy Backus, seconded by Howie Buttel, it was moved to approve the Abstract of Claims for May 2024 as follows:
General Fund: $8,076.90
Highway Fund: $113,595.67
Vote: All in favor – Motion carried.
RESOLUTION # 47-2024 TOWN CLERKS MONTHLY REPORT
On motion by Brian Albanese, seconded by Bill Layton it was moved to receive, and place on file the Town Clerks, monthly report for May 2024. Vote: All in favor – Motion Carried
RESOLUTION # 48-2024 SUPERVISOR MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORT
On motion by Howie Buttel, seconded by Peggy Backus, it was moved to approve and place on file the Supervisor’s monthly financial reports as of May 31, 2024, dated 6/8/2024.
Vote: All in favor – Motion Carried.
RESOLUTION # 49-2024 SEWER DISTRICT ABSTRACT
On motion by Brian Albanese, seconded by Howie Buttel, it was moved to approve the May Sewer District Abstract of charges. Vote: All in favor – Motion Carried.
RESOLUTION # 50-2024 SEWER DISTRICT MONTHLY REPORT
On motion by Brian Albanese, seconded by Howie Buttel, it was moved to approve Sewer District May Monthly Report. Vote: All in favor – Motion Carried.
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MOTIONS:
Motion by Brian Albanese, seconded by Peggy Backus to approve the advertising of the bid process for phase #1 of the walking trail.
Vote: All in favor – Motion Carried.
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NEW BUSINESS:
Bill received a call from a gentleman named Dan Szczesny. He is the director of Griffin Free public library in New Hampshire, and he is making a booklet on fire towers and trails in New York, He would like to come out and walk to the fire tower and include any information we have on the fire tower to include in his booklet. Bill will meet with him and give him information on the fire tower.
Bill has the renewal contract with the Hearts of the Catskills. We have an invoice that Bill is going to check with the Dog Catcher because we should not have any fees from them. We should not have to pay for any fees for any dogs that are picked up. We will have to cross the section out that says we will be charged $40.00 and send it in.
There is one application for camp.
Motion by Brian Albanese, Seconded by Bill Layton, all in favor, carried to approve the camp application.
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OLD BUSINESS:
Ambulance – Brenda said that they found a used ambulance for sale for $20,000. The circuit board does not work and does need to be replaced and would cost around $2,000, but they would drop the price by $2,000, it is in Port Laden she believes it is a 2009. Chris already checked it out, and Josh wants to test drive it.
Bill showed Brenda an ambulance he found on Facebook Marketplace for $3,500 in Vestal.
Fire Tower – Bill will be meeting with Ed Engleman with 5 others on Tuesday June 19th at 8:15 am, they will be going up to the fire tower to look at the road and see what stumps need to be taken out.
UTV – Nothing new
Walking Trail – The community committee has received the budget for the walking trail and the total would be around $100,000 for completion. Brian Albanese made the motion to start Phase #1 of the project which would be approximately $30,000. This would be the section behind the storage building. Phase #2 would be Across the brook, phase #2 will be decided to be done later after we see what the use of phase #1 is. Linda will post the ad in the paper this week and run for 2 weeks to begin this project.
Truck Paperwork – We have the new paperwork in place with the new revised purchase agreement to purchase the truck.
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HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT REPORT:
Working on Chase Brook to get ready to pave, they put crusher run the whole length of the road and Ron got a bill today from Robinson Brothers and he would like to get it paid if the board would, it is for $37,690.80. We still have 27 loads that we have not been billed for yet. Ron said we can bill this to CHIPS so we can get this submitted.
Ron also has a bill from Kimball Midwest, this bill goes back to January, and he is pretty sure that he has processed this before.
[Roadcrew work update:]
Cleaned ditches.
Fixed the headwall that fell in.
Trimmed trees and limbs.
Getting ready to start working Readburn Road.
Mowing.
Went to Franklin and helped them haul gravel for 2 days.
Went to Colchester for the last 2 days and helped them seal roads.
Repaired equipment.
Work on the Edwards mower.
We have a truck that has been up to Allegiance for six weeks. There is an estimate for $20,000.00+ because of the salt eating away on the truck. Ron told them to start the work on it.
There is a trailer behind the shop that needs repair is a 1989 it will need $6,000 worth of repair where the salt has eaten away, either we must fix it or replace it.
The New Holland tractor that has been sitting on Rock Rift Road for 2-3 weeks, the crew went over the other day and started it up and it shut right off and there was a puff of smoke that came out from under the hood.
We are scheduled for August 6 to pave roads, Ron brought the paperwork over, we are doing Chase Brook Rd and he wants to do the center of Dryden, he has the stone, but Dryden does not qualify for CHIPS, but it must have something done. Ron gave Brian a copy of the CHIPS 10-year program paperwork.
Ron wants to know if we are going to be able to get another new tractor, Ron said the ARPA money was going to be used for it. Brian said it was never said that it was going to be done, he said we were going to see if we could use the money for that. Ron got a quote on a new John Deere tractor. Ron would still want to keep the New Holland and still use it. Brian asked if we sold the Massey, Ron said no.
The board thinks we need to decide on what to spend the ARPA money on, Bill suggested that we split it 50/50 with the Highway and General accounts. There is $116,000.00. Brian would like to see $30,000.00 go to the walking trail and the rest go to equipment, but we need to be buying something that will not spend all of the money we have, so if the tractor is bad then we bid out for a New Holland tractor, but if the boom mower is bad then bid out a new boom mower with 2 heads. Ron says that between the tractor and the mower the two are just as bad and doesn’t want to put an old beat-up mower on a brand-new tractor. Brian asks that Ron bring something more in line to what we have that we can spend equipment wise in the $100,000 range at the next meeting.
We have a replacement schedule that we are not following. The schedule was set up on how we were going to replace equipment. At the rate we are buying equipment we are going to be out of reserves money.
Bill said there is another sign missing on Higley Spur Road.
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Meeting adjourned at 8:34 pm
Next meeting to be held on July 9, 2024, at 7PM
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Date: July 2, 2024
Linda Bourn
Town of Tompkins Deputy Town Clerk
Town of Tompkins in New York's Delaware County 