Board Meeting 12/8/08
This months meeting was very interesting and disorganized (as usual). Present for this months meeting was Shawn Dunmire, Mike Scott, Dick Kozlowski, Michelle Dunbar, Curt Rung, Sue Rung, Robert Kemp, Robert Goodwill, Jean Howard, Paul Sadler, Theresa Baldwin, Jon Rietz, Larry Bedow and myself. Mr. Howard called the meeting to order at 7:28 with the board entering into Executive Session to discuss Personnel Issues.
The first 15 minutes of tonight’s meeting consisted of the Village Streets. I’m still not sure why the town is so concerned about the village streets. The village asked Curt not to take care of the streets for a reason and I think it is time to worry about the town roads instead. Leave the village to worry about their own streets.
The next five minutes was spent worried about the road name for County Road 8. Bob Goodwill is concerned that it says Inavale Road on one end, but everyone calls it Pleasant Valley. This discussion should have been nipped in the bud the first 2 seconds in my opinion.
Curt reported they are down a man due to an illness. Curt also reported that Randy’s truck is down due to a possible transmission problem and that Lyman’s Truck is working on it. Also the highway department spent $149 for a battery powered grease gun. I think I better run out and get Gary one of these for Christmas since they must be really useful. But then the practical side wins over and I think I will just let him use the old fashion pump kind that doesn’t cost that much.
Mr. Howard then made the comment to Curt that the town roads are taken care of much better then the County takes care of their roads. If Mr. Howard is talking about the same discussion that was had at the budget meeting then he is talking about County Road 5 (Daggett Hollow). Let me clear something up, because clearly some people are just talking out both sides of their mouths, the Town of Genesee takes care of County Road 5 not the County. If you are curious to what roads are taken care of by which town here is the County’s Snow & Ice Policy.
General Bills were passed with changes, it seems that the town was going to overpay the National Fuel bill once again. Thankfully Shawn noticed this and spoke up. I think it is time that we get someone in the clerks position that can read a bill. At the beginning of the year when it was not getting paid the postmaster was blamed. Jane claimed that the post office must have removed the stamp and that took approximately four months to clear up. Now she wants to over pay them again. Last months payment did not get in there on time, which I really do not understand there was a law passed back in I believe it was 1980 stating that any utility bills could be paid without the boards prior approval so that they could be paid on time. Once paid they are to be listed on the next audit for the boards review. I know when Mike Shawl was Supervisor and Dorraine Allen was town clerk the checks were cut the same week, why are they not done that way now? Also, the Verizon bill was never paid last month. What are we so busy with that the town bills are not paid on time?
Mr. Sadler stated that one building permit was issued and one dog was picked up. The owner of the dog came and retrieved the dog.
Mr. Scott informed the board that he still had not heard from the lawyer concerning the property behind the town hall. How much longer do we have to continue to pay the $170 (don’t quote me on the amount) to have the sewer pumped? How many years has this been going on?
The Year-End meeting will be held on December 30th at 6:00 p.m. And yes once again, I am going to quote the Town Law Manual, this time it is directed at Mr. Scott who informed the board that the meeting did not need to be publicized only posted on the board that only maybe 5% of the public sees.
§ 4-3. Notice of meetings.
A. Regular meetings. When a town board has established by resolution a regular, fixed time and place for its meetings throughout the year, no other “call” or public notice of any such meeting need be given to the members of the town board. This resolution is customarily adopted at the annual organizational meeting of the town board held on or shortly after January 1 each year. Typically, this resolution will establish the time and place for such regular meetings, such as “7:00 p.m. on the first Monday of each month,” or “8:00 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursday of each month,” etc., and state the place (i.e., the Town Hall) in the town where such meeting will be held.
B. Special meetings. A special meeting of the town board may be called by the supervisor at any time by giving at least two days’ notice in writing to the other members of the board of the time and place where the meeting is to be held. The supervisor may do this on his or her own initiative and shall do so within ten days if requested in writing by two members of the board. Because the town clerk is mandated by law to attend all town board meetings, notice of a special meeting should be given to the clerk as well. The Attorney General and Comptroller have agreed that business conducted at a special meeting held without two days’ notice is valid as long as all the councilpersons had actual notice of the meeting and attended and participated therein [1980 Op. Atty. Gen. (Inf) 109; 18 Op. St. Comp. No. 442].
C. Posting.
(1) The Open Meetings Law (Public Officers Law § 104) requires notice of the time and place of a meeting to be posted conspicuously in at least one public location (i.e., the town clerk’s bulletin board) and to be given to the news media at least 72 hours prior to any meeting which is scheduled at least a week in advance. Where a meeting is scheduled less than a week in advance, notice to the news media and public posting must be accomplished to the extent practicable.
(2) Notice of (Regular) town board meetings does not require publication of a legal notice. Posting the notice of time and place of the meeting on the town clerk’s bulletin board and notification by letter or telephone to the local news media is sufficient to meet this requirement. It may be advisable to keep a book or log for entry of the date, time and name of the person who actually furnishes the notice to the news media. If you provide the media with copies of your meeting notice, perhaps with a list of tentative agenda items, they may choose to carry a story or notice of the time and place of the meeting as a service to their readers or listeners, which achieves the goal of notice to town citizens without the attendant cost of a legal notice.
Not that it needed to be brought up at a town board meeting, but Bob makes a good point. In the Town of Wirt we tend not to call roads by there proper name and the Bolivar post Office does not help. When I lived on Evans Ave the post Office would not deliver mail unless it was addressed west notch when I lived next to Bob they wanted the mail addressed as Pleasant Valley even though we were on Inavale. Pleasant Valley starts at Inavale then becomes Allentown Road at the Intersection by the Clark Road then becomes Drum at the town line. Many call the Hazard Road Snowball even though Snowball is Scio. About 300 yards of the Stewart Road is in the Town of Wirt then as you past the Clair Carrier it becomes Monahan. We Have Two Johnson Roads Johnson on the north end of the town off 275 and Johnson Hill off CTY 40 of course Everybody calls 40 Jordan hill and the map calls it the Richburg Road and on the east side of the village depot street turns into Richburg Hill. As parents it makes it hard to teach your children there street address incase of emergencies does it not. The Fire Company has responded to one home about 4 times over a 2 year period and the house number has been called out as being on Pleasant Valley one time, the next time on Drum, and the Next on Allentown. See someone put a new house on the Allentown Road with a nice sign in the front yard the reads Pleasant Valley on it. Most of us in the fire department are pretty good on the back roads, but we got some new guys so what ever you call you road or put on your mail is fine with me, but you might want to make sure you use the correct name in an emergency so we can find you. Thanks Dan.
I can see the frustration with the road names in the area and it is something that should be corrected. Each road or street in each municipality should have only one name that is assigned by the municipality. The Postal Service should not be assigning addresses unless the area has not been converted from the previous Rural Delivery addresses, such as Rural Route 1, Box245. When 911 addresses are assigned using one of the accepted national standards for assigning addresses, then that address should be used by all. These roads should have the proper signs at all corners. The most important reason to use the proper address is for emergency services. As a Postmaster for 25 years I insisted that everone use there proper 911 address not only for the proper delivery of their mail but more importantly for emergency services.
This is a cool site and it helps people like myself who does not live here but pays taxes here to better understand who my neighbors are as well as my elected officials. I also like to know why my taxes are so high in Wirt and how my tax dollars are spent. Hopefully some day, the town meetings will be live on tv like in other town because it’s I can’t get there in person. This site updates me on town issues and cuts right to the chase. Hopefully, most of the negative folks out there will come to realize that this site can be used as a tool to make this town even better.
Heard a couple of rummors this past week.
1). The village no longer wants the town to sand it’s streets appartly they were willing to pay 1,500 dollars yearly and because the town was putting to much sand on the streets the town has lost that income. The village wanted less sand because of the cost of street sweeping in the spring. Placing less sand on the streets would save money and the town could use more of the 1,500 for other expenses.
2). After several complaints about the west notch road not being plowed to standards the county checked it out and pulled the town off of 34. I have been seeing a lot of yellow plows on the road. Again our town budget is based on income from the county for plowing and sanding the roads. the county also provides the sand. a couple of years ago mike scott said the town can not afford to lose the income and sand from the county. would be nice to hear if these rummors are true and how they will affect our taxes.
Dan B. You are 100% correct in what you just stated. When the Village asked Curt numerous times to not put that much sand on the streets and there requests were ignored time after time.
Yes, the County has been taking care of County Route 34 and is deducting the cost from the towns payment they receive in March. As you may have noticed this morning the town is back to plowing County Route 34. I had to use my 4-wheel drive again. The county not only pays the Town $2,950 per mile they also supply ALL the sand and salt. There is no reason for our road not to have any sand on it. I must say I really missed the County Trucks this morning.