AUGUST 14, 2017 REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING MINUTES
MEMBERS PRESENT: Norman Teed Supervisor
Carl Beechler Councilman
Dennis King Councilman
Kent Ridley Councilman
Ronald Allen Councilman
Terry Featherly Highway Superintendent
Linda Nieskes Town Clerk
PUBLIC ATTENDANCE: See listing in book.
CALL TO ORDER: Supervisor Teed called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE: Supervisor Teed led the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: GUY DOWNEY, 2460 SCHROO RD., CLIFTON SPRINGS: Mr. Downey said he was here last month about an issue in front of his house. He said it is getting worse and he really needs a time and date when something can be done because his basement is starting to get flooded and the sump pump had been running constantly. He said it is plugged up over there and it doesn’t have anywhere to
track to so it coming down his yard by the pond and going into his driveway, to the garage and into my basement. He said the sump pump has been running constantly for the last few weeks. He said when it rains, my yard is already saturated so now it’s going in a different direction. He said what he needs is something done soon before my furnace and hot water tank are taken out. Supervisor Teed asked Mr. Downey if the water was coming through a culvert pipe. Mr. Downey said the culvert pipe comes under the road and needs to be dug out and trenched along the road so the water is diverted. He said everything comes across because everything has been opened up for the water line. He said it has saturated his yard. He asked Supervisor Teed if he had been out there. Supervisor Teed said he had not. Mr. Downey said you can’t even walk out there; it’s just like a sponge, you sink in 6-8 inches. He said now it’s taken out part of his driveway on the side of the house and it’s going in that way. He stated when it rains, now that I dug the ditch for my waterline to hook into the Town’s, it’s all fresh and it’s coming in there too. Supervisor Teed said if the ditch along the road is cleaned, it should take care of it. Mr. Downey said he believes it would. Supervisor Teed said that would be up to Superintendent Featherly. Superintendent Featherly said we have been paving for 3 weeks and I can’t shut down the paving and go clean a ditch. He said we can’t do it until we get things wrapped up probably by the end of the week. Mr. Downey said what happens if my furnace gets taken out? He said last week when we had all that rain, it was a couple inches away from the bottom of his furnace and hot water tank. He said he doesn’t have the money to buy a new furnace or hot water tank and he doesn’t think the Town wants to pay for it either. He said it is a simple fix really. He asked what it would take 6 to 8 hours to trench that. Superintendent Featherly said it wouldn’t even take that if we could get out there. He said right now he has
PAGE 2 - TOWN OF PHELPS REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING MINUTES-AUGUST 14, 2017
contractors lined up for paving; he’s not going out there to clean that. He said it takes everybody that I have to do what I have to do. Mr. Downey asked if Superintendent Featherly had one free guy. Superintendent Featherly said absolutely not. He said he also has a culvert pipe on Mill St. (Orleans) that has to be dug, 2 pipes have to be put in there because the guy down at the end of the road
is getting flooded out. Mr. Downey said he just wants it done as soon as possible so somebody is not buying a new furnace and hot water heater. Superintendent Featherly said if he had to take a guess, he could probably get out there by early next week. He said oil and stoning should be wrapped up by the end of this week. Councilman King asked why he couldn’t work someone this Friday. Superintendent Featherly asked if he wanted to pay overtime. Councilman King said it has to be done. Mr. Downey said he doesn’t want to start anything but he does not want to have to pay for it either when it’s just a few hour fix. He said you just trench it out so it flows away like it used to do. Councilman Allen said
2 guys, 3 or 4 hours. Superintendent Featherly said actually we will probably be done tomorrow with the oil and stoning. Mr. Downey said if you need somewhere to dump the excess, you can dump it behind my pond so you don’t have to haul it away. Superintendent Featherly asked if this was a problem that sprouted up after they did the water line. Mr. Downey said he had said something to Superintendent Featherly 3 or 4 years ago, if you remember, about digging that and you said because of the way it ran, you didn’t know if you could do it. Superintendent Featherly said because it runs down toward the east. Mr. Downey said yes; but if you start at the culvert and dig deeper away toward your brother’s field where that ditch is, he thinks that would solve the problem. Superintendent Featherly said he did not think there was much fall there; but we can give it a shot.
Mr. Downey said if you start out a foot and go a couple inches every 10 feet or so
in the opposite direction, it should work. Superintendent Featherly said we could probably get to it by the end of this week. Mr. Downey said he does not want any unnecessary damage. He said you people don’t need to pay for it and I don’t need to pay for it; it is just a simple fix. Councilman Allen said he was just asking Superintendent Featherly if he would have a couple guys for 4 or 5 hours, he would not be opposed to pay the overtime. Supervisor Teed said it’s only 100 feet
or so. Mr. Downey said it might be a couple hundred feet, from the culvert down to the other culvert. He said there should be another one down by your brother’s
(Ron Featherly) driveway. He said there is a culvert there and it comes underneath and there used to be a ditch that ran along my yard and the corn field and everything used to drain down that way and out to a back field and that other pond. He again said you can leave the stuff there, you don’t have to haul it away, he will take care of it later. Superintendent Featherly said as long as we stay on your driveway. He said he doesn’t want to get off the driveway because if it is as wet, there could be a chance of burying the truck. Mr. Downey said you can just dump it in my yard by the telephone pole; he can spread it out with his rake.
Supervisor Teed said he would let you 2 work it out then. Mr. Downey said he just doesn’t want any unnecessary damage. Superintendent Featherly said we got you Guy, we just have all this scheduled paving. Mr. Downey said his yard has never been like this since he has lived there. He said you literally sink 6-8 inches. He said it’s like walking on a cake. Superintendent Featherly said this is the first
PAGE 3 - TOWN OF PHELPS REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING MINUTES-AUGUST 14, 2017
year he has not been able to mow his front yard. He said it is extremely wet this year. Mr. Downey said a few years ago we had a rainy summer and 2 days later he could go out and mow. Water Superintendent Mike Vienna said we have had 14 inches of rain in the last 5 weeks. He said he wanted to say for the record, it was not the waterline that caused this. He said that ditch was running water a few years ago. He said if the ditch is cleaned, it will take care of the problem. Mr. Downey asked Superintendent Featherly by the end of the week then? Superintendent Featherly said we will give it a shot. Mr. Downey thanked everyone.
APPROVAL OF THE Councilman Allen, offered the following Resolution. RESOLVED that,
7/10/17 REGULAR TOWN the July 10, 2017 Regular Town Board and the July 31, 2017 Special Town
BOARD AND 7/31/17 Board Meeting be approved as written. The Resolution was seconded by
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD Councilman King, who moved its adoption. 5 AYES. Carried.
MEETING MINUTES:
RESOLUTION: Transfer of Funds to Close Out Pelis Rd.-Capital (see attached).
RESOLUTION: Modify 2017 Budget to Include Additional CHIPS Money (see attached).
RESOLUTION: Resolution to Amend the Tobacco-Free Policy Portion of the Employee
Policy (see attached).
RESOLUTION: Accept Code Enforcement Officer, Ed Clark’s Retirement (see attached).
HIGHWAY: Superintendent Featherly presented his July 2017 Highway Report to the Board.
Councilman King asked when they do the milling do they add the oil at that time?
Superintendent Featherly said no, you crush it, you mix the stone in the paver actually mixes the oil in with it. Councilman King asked if that was the process you have to send it someplace to check and see what the proportions are? Superintendent Featherly said they take samples of it when it’s all crushed and they run it through the Lab and they determine how much oil to add with it when you lay it back down. Supervisor Teed asked if it was Western or Midland? Superintendent Featherly said it was Midland this time. Councilman Beechler asked how the 284 budget was coming along? Superintendent Featherly said
we are pretty close right now, number-wise we are really close. He said it gets a little nerve-wracking when all that work comes together all at once and you are just blowing through the money quick. He said you are constantly every night going back and checking because the oil price could jump. Councilman King said he saw some pretty large numbers. Superintendent Featherly said everyone is behind and all the other towns are going at the same time, everybody is calling for trucks and you are trying to help them finish and they are trying to help us.
MONTHLY REPORTS: The Town Clerk’s, Assessor’s, Water and Zoning Reports for July 2017 were
reviewed by the Board Members for their approval.
PAGE 4 - TOWN OF PHELPS REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING MINUTES-AUGUST 14, 2017
DISCUSSION WITH THE A) Supervisor Teed asked Kenny Sontheim if there was anything he wanted t
SUPERVISOR: offer. Mr. Sontheim said he wanted to come in and let the Board know that the
Town Planning Board got the comments back from the Ontario Co. Planning Board. He said there is one major change based on the comments we received
from Ontario County. He said we suggested putting a 350 acre cap on the large solar arrays. He said the Ontario Co. Planning Board gave us good advice that from their reading, that was pretty much an arbitrary number; that there was no real planning to back that up. He said they made the suggestion that we take that out of there and our Board agreed. He said we wanted to make sure your Board knew that we took that out of there and will not allow large solar arrays in the Agricultural Districts. Supervisor Teed said that went before Attorney Jeff Graff
also. Mr. Sontheim said Attorney Graff has it now and it is his understanding that he is in the process of making the final changes so it can come back to you for a public hearing and act upon it. Supervisor Teed said at this point we do not have any applications for that in an agricultural zone. He said he has had 2 people in an ag district come and say they wanted to do this. Supervisor Teed thanked Mr. Sontheim for the information.
B) Supervisor Teed said the Phelps Community Center had sent in a letter asking the Town to increase the amount we give them yearly. He said we will review this once we start our Budget Process for 2018.
C) Supervisor Teed said we have a letter from NYS Department of Health regarding the Town water. Water Superintendent Vienna said every 3 years we get an inspection for our whole system. He said everything went fine. There were no violations. He said in the report, it was said that we had not had an inspection since 2011. He stated that is incorrect, we had an inspection of the tank this year. Superintendent Vienna has talked to the gentleman that did the report and he will correct it. Supervisor Teed said it was a good job.
D) Supervisor Teed said we would like to give the Boy Scouts with Chris Maney and the Lions Club a huge thank you for all their hard work on the War Memorial on Main Street. He said it looks great. He said they did a fantastic job on the fountain. Clerk Nieskes said Mike Vienna removed 3 trees that were ripping the flag. Mike said 2 of the 3 trees were full of termites.
OPEN FORUM: Supervisor Teed asked if anyone wished to address the Board. Supervisor Teed
asked Bill Wellman, candidate for Town Council if he would like to speak. Mr.
Wellman just addressed the Board and said hello.
NEXT TOWN BOARD The next Town Board Meeting will be held Monday, September 11, 2017, at the
MEETING: Phelps Town Court/Meeting Room, 1331 Rt. 88, Phelps at 7:00 PM.
BILLS: Councilman Allen offered the following Resolution. RESOLVED that the following bills:
PREPAID GENERAL “A” - #234 - #242 THE AMOUNT OF $7,955.67,
GENERAL “A” - #243 - #276 THE AMOUNT OF $41,161.49,
PAGE 5 - TOWN OF PHELPS REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING MINUTES-AUGUST 14, 2017
PREPAID GENERAL “B” - #55 IN THE AMOUNT OF $70.07,
GENERAL “B” - #56 - #57 IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,606.98,
PREPAID HIGHWAY “DB” - #185 IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,311.56,
HIGHWAY “DB” - #186 - #214 IN THE AMOUNT OF $182,199.59,
PREPAID SEWER - #25 IN THE AMOUNT OF $232.32,
SEWER - #26 - #28 IN THE AMOUNT OF $20,060.48,
WHITE RD. WATER DISTRICT #14 IN THE AMOUNT OF $100.37,
PREPAID RT. 96/488 WATER DISTRICT - #33 IN THE AMOUNT OF $391.86,
RT. 96/488 WATER DISTRICT - #34 - #36 IN THE AMOUNT OF $672.35,
PREPAID ORLEANS WATER DISTRICT - #19 IN THE AMOUNT OF $879.71,
SPAFFORD RD. WATER DISTRICT - #17 - #18 IN THE AMOUNT OF $132.02,
PREPAID MELVIN HILL WATER DISTRICT - #28 - #29 IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,314.01,
PELIS RD. WATER DISTRICT - #14 - #15 IN THE AMOUNT OF $465.81,
ORLEANS WATER DISTRICT, #1 EXT. (SCHROO RD.) - #21 - #23 IN THE AMOUNT OF $231.92,