VILLAGE OF WEST CARTHAGE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Regular Meeting
November 13, 2018
A regular meeting of the West
Carthage Village Board of Trustees was held November 13th, 2018 at 6:00
p.m. at the West Carthage Municipal
Building. Said building
is declared smoke free and accessible to handicapped persons. The press was
informed of the meeting and notice was posted.
Present:
Scott Burto, Rob Peluso, Mike
Bigness, Jim Smith,
Excused: Scott Sullivan
Guests:
Dave Pustizzi, Steve Anderson,
Mickey Dietrich, E. Avallone, , Peter Crump, Jr., Mark Spencer, Tom Valentine,
On a motion by R. Peluso, seconded by J. Smith,
the minutes from October 9th, 2018 were approved.
The public hearing for Local Law 8-2018
regarding water meters and manual reading fee was opened. Mayor Burto reviewed the proposed amendment to
section 88-12 and reviewed the
SEQRA. No one commented and the public
hearing was closed on a motion by R. Peluso, seconded by M. Bigness. On a motion by M. Bigness, seconded by R. Peluso,
a negative SEQRA was declared.).
Public comment period was opened. M. Spencer stated he will not let “this
village board take away the community room”.
It belongs to the residents of West Carthage and not the village
board. He wants see in black and white
where the board did fund raising for the community room. He stated that the room is a Red Cross shelter
and he will have the generator taken away if the police department is put
in. He has “already talked to Albany”. Mr. Spencer was contacted about Pleasant Lake
beaver problems and offered to trap them there and on Liberty Street for a
price. Steve Anderson remarked that only
5 or 6 people use the community room during disasters so there is plenty of
room for them.
Pete Crump reported the fire department has
been busy and reported recently to a structure fire on Zecher Road. The airpack testing will be done tomorrow by
MES. The fire department received a bill
from Mohawk Valley Freightliners; Pete called and discussed the charges with
them and was told we are not responsible for the bill. The fire department has been takin care of
the community room. Regarding code
enforcement, Pete reported that it has been quiet. The Adam Smith house has hit foreclosure
finally. Tom Valentine has nothing to
report. M. Dietrich reported that the
next RACOG meeting will be December 4th at 6:00. The LED street lighting will be discussed and
NYPA is coming in January to discuss financing for municipally owned
lights. The more communities that join,
the better the purchasing power. Mickey
reported that Tim Turck posted on NY Alertz that the village was flushing water
meters.
Mayor Burto asked for approved to request a
quote from National Grid for the LED lighting.
ON a motion by J. Smith and seconded by R. Peluso, the request was
approved.
Dave Pustizzi reported the police department
has been very busy. One of our officers
did a nice job wrapping up a lewd behavior complaint; the officer tracked the
man down and the man pleaded guilty in court.
Outback Supply, town of Watertown, is donating another patrol rifle;
Mayor Burto approved the donation. Dave is
waiting for it to clear the FFL. Dave is
still short a couple of officers; Coseo won’t be back for 6 months. Dave has been busy with zoning issues. A couple of businesses are rebranding and
changing signs. There was a solar
project that was close to being finished.
The owner had not obtained a zoning or building permit so Dave shut them
down. They have the permits and have finished the project.
On a motion by J. Smith, seconded by R.
Peluso, Benjamin Azah was appointed to the RACOG ZBA. He will be appointed to the WCHA board next
month.
On a motion J. Smith, seconded by R. Peluso,
the request by the clerk to bill Carthage Specialty Paper the amount of water
estimated to have been used by them up to October 23rd, 2018 was
unanimously approved.
On a motion by J. Smith, seconded by R.
Peluso, unpaid taxes in the amount of $14,547.11 including penalties was
unanimously approved to be returned to Jefferson County.
A request for a sewer credit from Kelly Raap
due to water usages for pool filling, hot tub filling and outdoor water usage
was denied on a motion . The policy of
the board is to give sewer credits due to major leaks and pool fillings,
provided the usage is recorded on the village pool adjustment form is utilized
and it was not.
The clerk requested that due to numerous
accounting errors by the deputy clerk, Mark Hills, CPA suggested that the
village modify the agreed upon procedures to just the entirety of joint water,
and the village cash/bank accounts, water and sewer revenues and accounts
receivables and the fund balance. Mark
was here last week assisting the clerk with the cash accounts and although they
are not correct, the amount is small and the bank reports more cash than the
general ledger does. On a motion by J.
Smith, seconded by M. Bigness, the board approved amending the audit process.
A letter was received from Andy Nevin at
County Planning regarding the comprehensive plan. Tom Valentine did not receive a copy so the
matter was tabled until he can review it.
On a motion by R. Peluso, seconded by M.
Bigness, Local Law 8-2018 was approved on a roll call vote: Smith-aye, Bigness-aye, Peluso-aye,
Burto-aye. Passed unanimously.
On a motion by J. Smith seconded by R. Peluso,
the following abstract was approved:
11/13/2018 General
- $28,965.67
Water:
- $16,302.64
Sewer- $226,512.28
R. Peluso and J. Smith reviewed
the bills and signed the vouchers.
On a motion by J. Smith,
seconded by R. Peluso, payrolls for October 18th and November 1st were
unanimously approved.
On a motion by J. Smith,
seconded by R. Peluso, the following budget transfers were approved:
From: A.1990.0400
To: A.1910.0400 $4,993.74
(Insurance-budgeting error)
From: A.1990.0400
To: A.3410.0400 $2802.50
(Siren repairs)-unbudgeted
From: A.1990.0400
To: A.3120.0200 $9,2909.29
(Plate Reader)- unbudgeted
From: A.1990.0400
To: A.9785.0600 $30.00
– Error in payment schedule on purchase/lease debt
J. Smith reported that he
attended the FASNY Legislative Meeting in Albany. He making the recommendation that we go with
Hartford Insurance for the cancer insurance.
There is an advanced coverage plan for $199 per qualified member. On a motion by J. Smith, seconded by R.
Peluso, the board agreed to obtain the state-mandated firefighter cancer
coverage from the Hartford at a cost of approximately $199 per member, per
year. The coverage must be in effect by
January 1, 2019.
M. Bigness thanked Mayor
Burto and Debi Pierce for their efforts in collecting all of the amounts due
from Carthage Specialty Paper.
R. Peluso reported that there
were 414 voters in the village elections and he thanked everyone for supporting
him in the elections.
Mayor Burto reported that we
received all of the money owed to us from CSP.
The joint board has been paying all the legal costs. He reported that there was a problem with Ox
Specialty Paper dumping plastics into the sewer. They were contacted and took responsibility
and acted to correct the issue. He also
noted that the last 2 board meetings we have had insurance companies appear to give presentations. He would to see Haylor, Freyer and Coon as
our insurance co-brokers for NYMIR instead of Eastern Shore. J. Smith stated that they only represent big
cities, nothing around here. Mayor Burto
corrected him by reading a list of local municipalities that are with
HF&C. On a motion by R. Peluso,
seconded by M. Bigness, the village of West Carthage will switch co-brokers
from Eastern Shore Insurance to Haylor, Freyer and Coon. Mayor Burto reported that a company called “Pettawatt”
was interested in purchasing the Metro Paper building but there is a large sum
owed to the village of Carthage and also the WPCF for sewage treatment. They offered to pay the village of Carthage
the $75,000 owed but would not agree to pay the $180,000 owed to the WPCF. Runoff is a big issue at that plant and residents
of both villages will be responsible for absorbing the cost if the amount due
is not paid. The WPCF made an offer to
Pettawatt to put $50,000 in escrow for repairs to the plant to correct the
runoff problem once the board receives a job commitment letter, proof that
Pettawatt owns the plant and a letter
from the power plant that they will be selling them power but they got angry
and left the meeting. Mayor Burto
addressed Mr. Spencer’s community room comments. He stated that we held a public hearing a few
months ago and Mark was the only person to comment. Mayor Burto is looking to use the space wisely
and still maintain the community room for residents. The space as it is now is large and we have
to keep it heated on a daily basis which is a waste of energy and money when it’s
empty a majority of the time. He told
Mr. Spencer “you ran for the board on that platform and the voters spoke”. Mr. Spencer did not win a seat on the
board. Mayor Burto stated that the
public made it clear that they are in support of the direction the board is
going in.
On a motion by R. Peluso,
seconded by M. Bigness, the meeting concluded at 6:40 p.m. with no further
business being necessary.
.Deborah J. Pierce
Village Clerk/Treasurer
