Town Board - Regular Meeting

I would like to begin the meeting by this pledge of allegiance and followed by a moment of silence. All right, we're going to be starting our uh regular meeting uh on April 8th, 6:00. The three emergency exits. There's one out to the left, one out here, and one to my right. If you need to have these, please make sure all cell phones are silenced during this uh time that we have. And uh also I would uh any vocal in issues we have, please let us know. Um and I'd like to greet the viewers at home as well. Uh the the you know they're going to be seeing this as well. So we'd like to to thank them for coming along. All right, let's start out now with the supervisor comments. I got a number of things to talk about. Um one of the things is uh beach road flooding. We've uh that's been quite an issue with us and uh you know this is not the first time, not the first rodeo we've had this. We do have beach road flooding from time to time and this year we did. Now I'd like to thank the highway department, police department, first responders. It was a great community effort to try to, you know, allay people's fears. And I mean, we've been doing everything we can to keep people from driving up there and if they are driving slow. We've been calling people out. We've been doing everything we possibly can. The highway department getting sandbags out, replacing, replenishing the sand. U marvelous. uh our our VIPS with our police department, not only patrols with police, we've also had our VIPs out there. So, this is really a heavy lift for everybody and I have to say that we we responded very well as a town. So, I want to thank everybody who was involved in the effort. It still continues uh but

we're hopefully going over the hump and and now going to be drier. Like to announce that we're going to have the long awaited dog park grand opening. This is a passion of our clerk Tracy Ksman who just loves this thing. Saturday, April 11th. This Saturday, it's going to be at 11 o'clock a.m. Yeah, I saw that. 11 o'clock. So, if you feel free like bringing your dogs on over there to see our new park, please uh please do so. It'll be it'll be a great event. Earth Day uh on the 23rd is also going to be happening. Um we're going to make sure that we're we're going to be uh meeting at what? Saturday, April.

Saturday, I'm sorry. Saturday. Yep. So, we're going to be doing our Earth Day. So, make sure you've put that on your calendar on the 23rd. Also, I'm going to move the supervisor Saturdays to that as well. Um, so I'm sorry, 25th, right? We're gonna move supervisor Saturdays that day as well. So, we'll do kind of a You want to come talk to the supervisor? Pick up some trash with us. So, that'll be a lot of fun. Uh, I would like to read a letter very quickly. I just received an email from a resident and I feel this should be uh, you know, let people know. I am, this is to, uh, Chris Wnika. I am writing to send a sincere thank you to you and your team. I requested an inspection of my mailbox on Cobalt Drive on Monday, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had been repaired within 24 hours. I truly appreciate the quick response and the professional job your crew did. Thank you for your continued hard work you do for the community and keeping our infrastructure in top shape. And that was Jessica Sabota who uh sent that to us. So, we just want to give a a little bit of a kudos to our highway department for that. Uh and the last note that we have is a sad note uh but a hopeful note. Um, former supervisor and uh, current planning board member Judy Boy has been taken ill. She's in the hospital right now with some issues and uh, we're we're awaiting word to find out what what's going to be going on. But, um, you know, Judy's a real steward for this town and uh, we wish her well and our thoughts and prayers are with her as she battles uh, battles this situation. So, thank you so much. All right. At this point, I would like to have public input pertaining to items with the exception of the public hearing. uh come on up if you'd like to speak. You have up to three minutes. All right, it looks as though we have no one. So, we're going to close that portion of our meeting.

Yeah. Okay. Move for the adopt turn mic on. Move for the adoption of a resolution approving abstracts number 13 of 2026 dated 412026 and abstract 14 dated 48 2026. I will second. And do we have any board comments to accept the abstracts 13 and 14 or any comments on the abstracts themselves? Okay. So, we have no comments and uh I'd like to commend councelor uh Daniel for having a lot of his uh questions emailed so that they could be answered in advance. It to save us a lot of time for that. So, all right. I would like to call for a voice vote. All in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed. Extensions. The motion is adopted. Public hearing to consider the acceptance of the petition plan and contract drawings for the Cicero sewer district contract number 43 associated with the Americana of Cicero development. I would like to wave the reading of the legal notice posted and advertised at this time. Do I have a second? Second. Like to have a voice vote. All in favor of waving the reading, say I. I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. The motion is adopted. Okay. Uh at this point, I'd like to ask if our town engineer, Kate Fierella, would like to speak regarding this public hearing.

Uh sure. This is just for um the sewer the the process for the little bit of public sewer that is being built for this project that was at the town's request so we can in the future tie in more people um and the developer um is going through all the the steps with it. So it's the development kind of behind the post office route 31 area um that hopefully will kick off this summer. So this is just the process of making that happen.

Okay. Uh, at this point, I would like to open the public hearing at 6:07 p.m. and ask if anybody would like to speak for or against this. Do we have any board comments? Okay, we're going to close the public hearing at 6:07 p.m. Approving, we're moving on. approving the acceptance of the petition plan and contract drawings for the Cicero sewer district contract number 43 associated with the Americana of Cicero development. Whereas the town board approved the PUD on 611 2022 and the project was declared an unlisted action for the purpose of Sakura compliance and whereas the town requested the public sewer be extended pursuant to the proposed petition map and plan. And whereas the developer will construct the extension of the public sewer at their expense. Now therefore be it resolved that the town board approves a resolution to accept the petition plan of contract drawings for Cicero uh sewer district contract number 43 associated with the Americana of Cicero development dated September 8th, 2025. Last revised April 6th, 2026 as prepared by Edward Reed Engineering PLLC. Do I have a second?

Second. Do we have any comments on this? Okay. In that case, I would like to call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Extensions. Motion is carried. All right. Public hearing to consider acceptance of the water petition plan titled Cisero Water District Extension number six. I would like to move the waving of the uh wave to reading of the legal notice posted and advertised at the proper time. Do I have a second? So moved. All in favor say I. I opposed. Motion is adopted. Okay. Uh Kate, you're up again.

Sure. So the water will be provided by Aqua and this part of the project was not in a water district. So we had to establish one. We again we asked them to take in more property. So that whole corner will then be in a in a water district if in the future those other properties would like to tie in with aqua service.

So thank you Kate. Uh at this point I would like to open the hearing public hearing at 610 p.m. And do we have anybody who would like to speak for or against this motion? Any board comments? All right. now calling uh to close the public hearing at 6:10 p.m. All right. Um Cicero seeker Cisero Water District Extension number six. I'm making a motion to resolve the Cicero Town Board adopts a resolution declaring the town's action to establish the Cicero water district extension number six as an unlisted action for the purposes of seeker compliance. The proposed action will not have a negative effect impact on the environment. According to the proposed action, it does not require a preparation of a draft environmental impact statement or any other statement as adopted. Do I have a second?

Second. Board comments, please. Okay, since there are none, I'll call for a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. Nays. Abstensions. Motion is adopted.

Moving on. approving the acceptance of the legal description and plan for the Cicero water district extension number six. Whereas the Americana of Cicero development is not located in a water district and water service was requested from Aqua and whereas Aqua requires customers to be in water districts and whereas the property owner paid for the professional services to create a new water district and included the contiguous neighbors in the district. Now therefore be it resolved that the town board approve the formation of the Cicero water district extension number six as shown on the water petition plan titled Cicero water district extension number six dated March 18th 2026 as prepared by Yanuzi and Romans land survey. Do I have a second?

Second. Board discussion. I'll call for a voice vote. All in favor say I. Opposed and abstensions. Motion is adopted. Set a public hearing to consider the 2026 27 community development grant application. Move for the adoption of a resolution calling a public hearing on April 22nd, 2026 commencing at 6 p.m. local time to consider the 2026 27 community development grant application for enhancements to the Cicero Senior Center. Second. Do we have board comments? set the hearing. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion is adopted.

Uh question on this next item. I thought it was moved to April the 22nd, the approval of the the grant or the submission of the grant because it was premature to approve that prior to the public hearing. It was removed from the last edition of this So, it's just to let you know that um that we can still submit it and then have the public hearing. It's just allowing us to submit the application and then we can have the public hearing and make changes later. Okay. But it's allowing us to get the application in

because Alex's email said that that should be pushed. Did I agree it should be the way we do it. Okay. So, we're we're good with this. We can continue. Yeah, we'll move that item to 422. We're going to move that item to 422. All right. We will uh uh let's see. Do I have to make a motion to move that to 422 to vote on that, clerk, Tracy? Do I have to motion to move that? We have to have a motion to move that to 422 as well. Well, we never made a motion to Well, well, we did the we set the public hearing. So, Right. We set the public hearing.

Come on. We're all friendly here. You got to hit the green button. Yep. You got it. All right. So, it's the official one. Yes. This was on here mostly to accept just that we're submitting the application. So, because the application is due on the 10th, we're still have to submit it by then with the caveat that we still have a public hearing that things can be changed on it. But I just wanted your approval to just submit it in the first place and things can be changed after the public hearing. If anything comes up, then things can still be changed, but we just want the approval to move forward with the

So, is there like an amendment process if there needed to be right? Then we would amend it and redo the application based on whatever comes up and then we can do a reapproval. Okay. Is that fit? Can we move ahead or do you want to pull that to uh another day? I mean, if if if it needs to be submitted prior to the 10th, I I guess we can move forward with approving that as long as there's a way to make amendments to it if anything comes out of the public hearing to

Yeah, I spoke with uh gentle the gentleman Michael Laflair at community development and he he said that's because they give us such a short window like four weeks to put these together. He said that's how most of the towns do it. As long as it's as long as when we submit the application that we have a date for the public hearing set and then an anticipation of an approval, then we can still submit the application and change things as they come up.

Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Then I will move for the adoption of a resolution to support and authorize the parks department to move forward with submitting an application for the $50,000 funding from the community development block grant for enhancements to the Cicero senior center as well as the updated 5-year plan as required by the US house department of housing and urban development HUD. The town board further agrees to allocate approximately $12,000 in fund $12,500 in funds to meet the required match to this grant. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Any other board comments other than what we've previously discussed?

The 12,500's already been appropriated and in the budget, correct? So, we don't need to do an additional that's um budgeted for this year. That would be uh what they're asking for here is basically consideration to add it to next year's budget when that comes around. Right. Can I go back up? Sure. It's tricky because we have two different grants going on at the same time. Okay. But it's really the same grant. Is that still on? So what the application that we're requesting to submit is is actually for next year.

So you submit it now. They approve it like in October, but then the funds and everything aren't until next year. So we had one last year. So we were approved for one last year to do some enhancements at the senior center. Right. So that's 125, right? So really, we're just going to do the same thing again next year. So can we appropriate funds for a future budget? We'd uh just do it in the next year budget in June or so, right? But so I mean, but it will still need to be approved as part of the budget process in the fall. Right. Correct. We're just indicating that we're going to do that. that we're intending to do that. Yes.

Okay. Very good. Okay. Additional board comments. Okay. I call for a voice vote. All in favor say I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion is adopted. Set bid date for new roof for the Cyro Senior Center. Move for the adoption of resolution to authorize the parks department to move forward with soliciting proposals with a formal bid process for a new roof to be installed at the Cicero Senior Center. Bids will be accepted no later than 10:00 a.m. on Monday, April 27th, 2026 at the town hall. Do we have a second? Second. Board comments, please. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. Abstensions. Motion is adopted. Safety Coordinator move the adoption of resolution that the Cicero Town Board appoint Jessica Solier as the safety coordinator for the town of Cicero per the memorandum of understanding. Second board comments. Uh basically just so that everybody is aware um this is a move for us to replace the safety coordinator because um Sergeant Amiat is is retiring from the force and he was the safety coordinator. So what we're doing is we're moving Jessica who is basically the second choice of the early appointment to to take that role and she graciously agreed to. So she's just basically going to take it on over. So that's why we're doing this. Any additional comments? All in favor say I.

I. Opposed abstensions. Motion is adopted. the police. Various surplus items. Move for the adoption of the resolution to sell 10 surplus axon taser X26P handles with two cartridges each, 16 holsters, and 32 training cartridges to the village of Central Square Police Department for $3,000. Budget code 002-000000-2665-000000.

Second. Okay. Uh, any board comments? This is U revenue budget line where for the fund receipt of the funds when they come in. Correct. Okay. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Abstensions? Motion carries.

Move for the adoption of a resolution to consider an amendment to chapter 152 of town code relating to setting park hours for all parks as follows. Seasonal park operating hours. All parks will operate under seasonal hours during the peak season defined as the period from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Peak season hours, all parks shall be open from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Non- peak season hours outside of the park peak season, park hours shall remain, is currently established, opening 1 half hour before dawn and closing 1 half hour before dusk. Local law enforcement has the discretion in determining when and how to enforce these operating hours in accordance with the applicable laws and circumstances. Do we have a second? I will second. Uh board comments on this before we move ahead.

If we're amending town code, doesn't this require a public hearing again? That's we set the public hearing for the next board meeting. This this is to basically get it out. So people have it and it's up. Okay. So the public hearing is already set and this is what Okay. To give notice of what it is. Okay. Just amending that part. Okay. Um all right. Uh any other board comments? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed and abstensions. The motion is adopted.

Move for the adoption of a resolution to accept $500 from Modular Comfort Systems as a sponsor of the summer concert series at Williams Park. Revenue code 001-000000-2705-000000. This is gifts and donations. Do we have a second? Thank you. Uh all board comments. All right. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed abstensions. The motion is adopted. Move for the adoption of a resolution to approve a budget transfer from the gifts and donations account of $500 to the special events budget code 001-7989-400-0000 which is the summer concert series contractual account. Second board discussion all in favor say I. I I opposed abstensions. Motion's adopted.

Highway removal of various dead, dying, dangerous trees in highway ro move for the adoption of a resolution to approve chest lock tree removal on Nadaga County contract 5885 to remove dead, dying, dangerous trees in the highway right ofway for 2026. the amount of $20,000. Budget code 003-5140-436-0000 brush and tree removal. Do I have a second? Second board comments. Dead, dying, dangerous. Say that three times fast.

I I liked how tongue twistitation, right? Dead, dying, dangerous. Very, very good alliteration. Thank you so much for that. Uh, okay. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion is adopted. Move for the adoption of a resolution to approve Barrett paving state contract number 23291 for the asphalt for paving town roads in the amount of $1 million. Budget code 0003-5112-4750-0000. Capital paving is contracted. Second.

Okay. Do we have any discussion on this? Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Extensions. The motion is carrying. Move for the adoption of a resolution to approve TH Consella Incorporated, county contract number 5871 for Runner Crush for road drainage projects in the amount of $25,000. Budget code 003-5110-4553-000000 runner crush second please second okay any comments got to fix the roads all in favor say I

I opposed abstensions the motion is adopted move for the adoption of a resolution to pribe to approve sinecon for cylinder main boom cylinder and bucket cylinder rotator rotor assa. Wow. Let me read that one again. Move for the adoption of a resolution to approve sincon for cylinder main boom cylinder and bucket cylinder rotor essay in the amount estimated at $8,79362. Budget code 003-5130-4358-000000 highway machinery other. Second. Do we have discussion?

Just a comment. It's my understanding that um because this is a sole source supplier, no bids were required in this case because they're the only place where we get it from. Additional discussion. All right. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion is adopted.

Approval of town posted meter meter purchase and postage meter lease. Move for the adoption of the resolution that the town board approves and authorizes the town supervisor to purchase a Quaident X-7 certified mail solution via New York State Sourcewell contract number 070125-QDT for the amount of $8,235.75 from Eden Business Technologies. Purchase a maintenance contract from Ednet Business Technologies for the Quaidon X-7 certified mail solution at $1,824 annually. Lease a postage meter from Ed and Ed Business Technology for the Quaidon or EX-7 certified mail solutions that includes ERR for 63 months at $67.50 per month. Budget code 001-1670-4000000-0000 lease options Pittney Bose postage machine lease option $479.38 per month for 60 months add and ed business technology lease options for $419.99 per month for 63 months.

Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Uh, board comments, just we'd like to have uh Oh, okay. Wayne come up and give us a little bit more insight on this. Thank you.

I want to be sure everybody on the board understands this. Um, we have a postage meter machine that the lease expires the end of June, middle of July. Um, it's through Pittney Bose. the lease options at the bottom of this resolution to show you how much more expensive leasing is compared to buying this machine outright off the state contract. All right, I got this information. I reviewed it with our comproller and we determined that buying the postage machine is a better option for the town. We're doing the same thing that a number of school districts and other municipalities are doing. In fact, I took two people from the town hall down to the North Syracuse school admin office last week, okay? So they could look at one of the machines to see if it meets their needs, which it does. So we will buy this. Now, we cannot buy a postage meter. Postage meters and everything are money printers. So we can't buy them. You can only lease them. The government maintains control over those. So those we will that we will still have to lease as part of this. But in the long run because this may last way longer than five years. All right. This will save us money um upfront. This is a $21,000 cost advertised over five years compared to 29,000 for Pittney Bose or 24 25,000 leasing through EdNed. So this makes sense. Now, this err is something to do with certified mail. We send quite a bit of certified mail. Bitney Bose tried to get us to release early last year and they said, "Why aren't you doing this option for mailing for certified mail return? You can save about $500 a year to do this." I looked at that and the cost to add that into that lease that expires in a few months

was about $4,000. Okay, that was foolish to do. All right, that's why that's in here as part of what Ed and Ed does. Okay, and it's about $16 a month. So, there is a savings for us to do that. The other part of this, and I also consulted Robert Germaine. All right. And I have some language from him about can we accept a buyout of that Pittney Bose lease early so we get the machine from Ed and Edin here sooner. We can. Okay. Robert is giving me some advice. I will have a separate resolution for you after reviewing the Pittney Bose contract to make sure there's no hidden minds or anything like that in there. Okay? And we'll have that for you to accept three months of buyout so we have no problem at the end of the lease at the next board meeting. Anybody have any questions?

So with the lease, do they maintain it, fix everything, all labor cost, all parts? Yes, but that is that breakout cost of $1,800 a year. Well, I see that that's that was my next question with the annual $1,800, you know, $1,824. Does that maintenance contract will that cover all labor and parts to anything that may break on these? Okay. All right. Good. Great. I know sometimes that it won't cover certain things on a maintenance contract. That's why I I asked.

Uh thank you very much for an extremely thorough uh investigation on this, Wayne. We appreciate it. you're saving the town money. You're doing due diligence and and we certainly do appreciate it. So, any other discussion from the board? Yeah, I want to thank Mr. Freeman both for the due diligence he put into researching all of this and then all of the follow-up questions that I had. I appreciate that. Um, do have one more technicality question that popped into my head as we were looking over this. Again, budget related. So, the budget code here that's listed, that's postage. So that's where basically the usage of this would be the postage that we're paying. Is that correct? It also covers the lease for the current machine.

And it covers the lease. Does it cover the price we're paying for the purchase though? Where what account is that hitting for the actual machine, the equipment? Uh I believe we were going to put it in that line, but as I think about it, we may not. Yeah, I think there's only $7,500 in that line. So, the machine itself will exceed that. So, we don't have to figure it out here, but just we'll need to probably shift some money around to cover the cost of the equipment. But again, this is a great great thing to do. I'm glad the time was put into it. I think it's going to save the town money.

Okay. Thank you, counselor, for pointing that out. Do we have any additional discussion on this issue? Uh, call for a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion is adopted. Uh, councelor Daniel made it very um prevalent to me that I did not allow for discussion at the last meeting and from the board. So, I'm I'm opening that up right now. Is there any discussion issues that any of us need to present to to the town?

Just comment. Uh, again, thank you to all of the town staff that have worked to answer my questions. I had probably whole page worth and I appreciate all of the different departments getting back to me. Um, I know it's extra work. Um but thank you very much for for that time. Also just want to throw out again thinking finances and all that. Nothing to be answered now but something that I think we should think about is how are we doing in terms of fuel costs year to date with the changes in the economy the rising cost of fuel. I think it makes sense that we take a look at our budget to see did we really budget enough to cover all of this or do we need to be thinking about some contingency planning to shift some funds around? And likewise, is there any way we can potentially save some money, pull back and consolidate to try to to accommodate that? Cuz uh if we don't look at it now, we're probably going to find ourselves in a situation down the road where we're we're we're in trouble. So just just a little thought on that. something if you folks can can work on it, we can talk about it offline and just see how things are going

because we know prices are not going to be going down anytime soon. Even if the hormood situation changes, it's still going to be a backlog of oil. It's going to take quite some time for this. So, the prices will remain high for quite a while and and good point. We need to address that. So, do we have any other discussion from the board? All right. At this point, I would like to open up public input. Speakers have up to three minutes and it appears we have no one stepping up. So I'm going to make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Have a good evening everyone.