Work Session

WEST SENECA TOWN OFFICES                                     TOWN BOARD PROCEEDINGS
1250 Union Road                                                           Work Session
West Seneca, NY 14224                                                          January 30, 2012
 
Supervisor Sheila M. Meegan called the meeting to order at 2:00 P.M. with 30 seconds of silent prayer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
ROLL CALL:          Present    -    Sheila M. Meegan    Supervisor
                                                Eugene P. Hart        Councilman
                                                John F. Rusinski      Councilman
                                                Kandace Wittmeyer Assessor
                                                Shawn Martin          Attorney
                                                Wayne Drescher      Auditor
                                                John Gullo              Code Enforcement Officer
                                                Steven Tanner        Engineer
                                                Laura Landers         Finance Office
                                                Connie Miner          Grantwriter
                                                Matthew English      Highway Sup’t.
                                                Edward Gehen        Police Chief
                                                Mary Josefiak                   Director of Senior Services,
Recreation & Youth
                                                Jacqueline Felser     Town Clerk
                                                Dale J McCabe        Town Justice                             
                            
Supervisor Meegan read the Fire Prevention Code instructing the public where to exit in case of a fire or an emergency.
 
GRANTWRITER
  • Grants awarded to date this contract year - $50,603 Parks Development for installation of a paved multi-use trail around Veterans Memorial Park, fixed site fitness equipment, and playground equipment; $85,000 CDBG HUD grant of construction of a new elevator at Town Hall; $61,677 NYS Archives grant for digitizing 25 years of Building & Plumbing Department records and all birth and death records – Total awarded to date: $197,280
  • Grants Pending - $28,469 from Unified Court System for court equipment; $16,665 from NYS Education Department Division of Library Development for sidewalk reconstruction; two NYSDEC Recycling pre-applications for compost/grappler truck and recycling bins
  • Grant Administration - $250,000 Ice Rink Grant (Town Board needs to decide if they want to amend grant to be used for police department expansion); $50,000 Buffalo Creek Access Project; $181,100 Energy Efficiency Block Grant from US Department of Energy; $350,000 Police Department Expansion (deleted – Town Board needs to decide if they want to reapply); $50,000 GPS units for Highway Department (intent changed to security cameras and awaiting approval)
  • Will be looking to see if proposed consolidation of sewer and water districts could fall under a local government efficiency grant (deadline is March 21st)
  • Working with Town Clerk’s office on another archives grant to digitize minutes books
  • Councilman Hart wants to see more financial planning between departments & Finance Office.
  • Supervisor Meegan expressed need for a financial advisor and a five year plan.
 
 
WEST SENECA TOWN OFFICES                                     TOWN BOARD PROCEEDINGS
1250 Union Road                                                           Work Session
West Seneca, NY 14224                                                          January 30, 2012
                                                                                      Page two . . .
 
POLICE DEPARTMENT
  • Part-time clerical position open, posted on website and will be interviewing applicants
  • Retirement of a detective in March and person in line to fill that position is also the IT person which is a valuable person to the department, so if no one within the department is interested in filling the IT position they may have to hire from outside
  • Community programs – grant funding for citizen police academy and bike patrol is getting scarce. Not funded through end of year and may need $8000 to $10000 to finish year.
 
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
o       Roof on Highway Department is from 1950’s and is leaking severely. Two tier building and estimate for lower tier was $50,000. Wants to get estimates for entire roof. West side wall of building also needs repair - $375,000. Suggested combining roof and wall repairs - $700,000. Cost of $70,000 just to take solar panels off roof.
 
ASSESSOR’S OFFICE
o       Commented on March 1st deadline for STAR exemptions; there are over 4000 STAR applications annually and 1000 still have not been received; a second mailing is going out as a reminder
o       Assessor is now at her office in Town Hall three full days – Monday, Thursday & Friday; can be contacted on Tuesdays & Wednesdays and will return phone calls on those days
o       Shared Assessor contract is up May 1st and Town Attorney Shawn Martin will be discussing this with the board members
o       Assessor’s input and presence was requested on upcoming discussions about the new sewer lateral ordinance and the impact on the assessed value of the town
 
ENGINEERING
  • Veterans Park
Ø      Ice Rink renovation – Cooling system under rink needs replacement, proposed installation of a sport court to utilize ice rink in summer, addition of overhead doors to improve ventilation, mold issues to be taken care of, remodel locker room for additional space and storage area, removal of batting cages that are often under water and installation of 40 additional parking spaces
Ø      Baseball diamonds - Lighting posts need replacement along with new dugouts
Ø      Town Hall – grouting on brick needs re-pointing, elevator replacement, expansion for prisoner transport area, 6000 sf expansion to move Supervisor and Finance Department back from Burchfield Center
Ø      Kiwanis Building – $200,000 just to fix water problems; proposed demolishing and rebuilding (will lose a baseball diamond but there is a proposal to add diamonds at Firemen’s Park); electrical area controls lights for baseball diamonds and band shell so that must stay
Ø      Pool – replace shelter that is leaning and out-of-date; replace playground & add new trail (grant already applied for); fencing around pool needs replacement; renovation of pool (put out to bid). Money was bonded in 1997 for recreation that can be used.
 
WEST SENECA TOWN OFFICES                                     TOWN BOARD PROCEEDINGS
1250 Union Road                                                           Work Session
West Seneca, NY 14224                                                          January 30, 2012
                                                                                      Page three . . .
 
Ø      Basketball court and fencing – needs repair
Ø      Villa Place (paper street) appeared to be abandoned in 1971 and is to be given to Veterans post
 
o       Water
Ø      Presented map indicating areas serviced by ECWA and areas operated by TWS
Ø      Recommended getting out of water business and turning it over to ECWA due to liability
Ø      31,000 feet of watermain that ECWA would like replaced if they are to take ownership of district
Ø      Town will eventually have to replace lines in the next five or so years
Ø      Estimated cost is $5.5 to $5.6 million
Ø      Wayne Drescher - May be alternatives to financing this such as asking ECWA to put a surcharge on top of the normal bill to pay for only the improvements
 
  • Roads
Ø      Presented maps indicating roads that were completely reconstructed, roads that had repair work done, and roads that are in need of repair within next five years
Ø      Dover & Greenmeadow are of significant importance and next on list for full reconstruction - $3 million project that includes replacing storm sewers.
Ø      Highway Supt. Matthew English suggested increasing to $5 million and doing more than one road project per year to catch up.
Ø      Will be doing chip and seal this spring which will come out of blacktop line item but is less expensive. Some neighborhoods will qualify and they will be experimenting.
 
  • Sewers
Ø      Town is under an order of consent by NYSDEC to fix sewers in District #13 & #5 and East & West/Angle/Leydecker Sewer District #20
Ø      Revision was made to sewer ordinance to take care of laterals
Ø      Sewer districts were studied to understand system better. Study included 20 mini areas to identify worst areas to best that needed to be fixed. Ten phases were identified.
Ø      Phase I was studied last year and recommendations for improvements were made to correct the sewer problems in that phase. This needs to be implemented as part of the order of consent.
Ø      Will be asking to authorize study for phase 2 and 3 at next Town Board meeting
Ø      Will be identifying things to do above and beyond the order of consent to stop basements from flooding as often
Ø      Need to address capacity issues in areas where flow coming in is greater than flow going out
 
 
 
 
 
WEST SENECA TOWN OFFICES                                     TOWN BOARD PROCEEDINGS
1250 Union Road                                                           Work Session
West Seneca, NY 14224                                                          January 30, 2012
                                                                                      Page four . . .
 
Ø      Plan to fix this is a capital project: Phase 1 – addresses inflow and infiltration issues - $10.5 million; capacity issues are not in the order of consent but will stop people’s basements from flooding - $17 million; issues at Leydecker pump station - $300,000; sliplining issues - $1.5 million. Total for Phase 1 - $30 million and still not out of consent order
Ø      $70 million if they were to do everything and still need laterals fixed even if they aren’t broken
Ø      Sewers have to be fixed before they can be turned over to Erie County
 
  • Energy efficiency – Direct Energy is energy supplier and since electricity rates have fallen since last contract from 7.9 cents down to 5.3 cents per kilowatt they will be recommending a new two year contract with Direct Energy at a savings of $100,000 per year
 
AUDITOR
  • Bonding & Financing Projects
Ø      Discussed bonding that will be maturing in 2013 and 2014
Ø      Need list of projects, estimated costs, methods of financing, capital plan in writing
Ø      Grantwriter can start working on grants; engineering work can begin; some projects can be done in the winter at a lesser cost.
Ø      Current budget contains $450,000 for Town Hall entry construction. Next year that $450,000 can be used for debt service and can buy a lot of improvements over the life of a bond. Can only bond for the useful life of a project.
Ø      Will meet with board members individually and provide them with information on existing debt load & long term financial plan
 
DIRECTOR SENIOR SERVICES, RECREATION & YOUTH
  • Senior Center – 35 year old kitchen equipment is aging (oven and garbage disposal) - $2500 to $3000 to replace. Could use CDBG money or request member item from Senator Kennedy.
 
FINANCE OFFICE
  • KVS paperless procurement module (paperless vouchers, improves controls, real time access for departments) includes 16 hours of training and 12 named users - $12,372
 
BURCHFIELD CENTER
  • Proposal for two car garage facility that will house restrooms and storage at Burchfield Center - $55,000 three years ago. Also need climate controlled storage for artwork.
 
TOWN ATTORNEY
  • Code of Ethics – Each board member needs to submit two names
  • Recreation Commission – Met in January and will reconvene on March 16th
 
 
 
WEST SENECA TOWN OFFICES                                     TOWN BOARD PROCEEDINGS
1250 Union Road                                                           Work Session
West Seneca, NY 14224                                                          January 30, 2012
                                                                                      Page five . . .
 
TOWN CLERK
  • Work session minutes will be brief summary of what was discussed
  • Suggested work sessions be held at 5:00 or 5:30 P.M. before Town Board meetings. Next work session was scheduled for February 27th at 5:00 P.M.
 
SPECIAL MEETING
  • Special meeting scheduled for Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11 A.M. with realtor group at the Burchfield Center to discuss the amendment to the sewer ordinance concerning the laterals.
 
 
The Work Session concluded at 4:30 P.M.
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                             _______________________________________
 JACQUELINE A FELSER, TOWN CLERK

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