Preble NY

"No Further Action" will be taken on the Knapp appeal.
Details near the end.

Town Board Meeting Report 5/13/02

I have decided that I will use my Mac iBook laptop to transcribe the meeting as they happen. It will be faster and easier for me but it may look a bit choppy. Please bear with me.

This is the meeting when they will decide about the Knapp appeal. It's 8:05 and we're waiting for Jane to finish copying some papers from Don Armstrong. Looks like she is making a book by the size of it, 30-50 pages at least. Guess we'll find out later what it's all about.

People besides the board here are: John Steger, first time in a long time he's been here. Jeff Griswold Highway Supervisor, Dan O'Shey ZBA chair and several citizens. Paul and Maureen Knapp are not here but they usually show up around 8:30. My guess is if they don't show up then the appeal is off, we'll see.

8:10 We finally start with the allegiance to the flag. Motion made and accepted to approve last meeting minutes and then the dog report

Justice report. Marylyn Stoker is in the hospital with knee surgery.

John Steger reports they are still looking for an administrator. (For what I don"t know) Budget reported to be in the black 250-500 grand, which he says is very small. Now he's talking about a landfill report. Tires are an issue, they are thinking of only allowing 6 tires per person per year. Guess tire disposal is a problem. John and other county people took a tour at the Fenner (sp?) windmill site (20 to 27 of them there). Looking into putting them on the Cortland landfill site. Checking to see if it is economically feasible. He talked more in depth about this than I'm reporting here.

Planning Board will meet the 16^th of May.

Clerk report by Jane.

Don Armstrong: Little York Lake PWC issue is pending the county lawyer response.

Betty: Flashing light at Song Lake Crossing. They reviewed the last three years and did not see a need for one at this time. The "they" being someone at county level, didn't get the name.

Town Hall Roof: Still waiting on the contractor, Gallagher, supposed to be end of month.

Don: Don's "book" was about the sub-division change that he prepared for them. Talking about the different options. After they come to some decision then they will have a public hearing. Don't know if this is available for public viewing yet. It is just some different options with nothing decided as yet. From the way they are talking this is a way to reduce the time it takes to do a minor sub-division. Perhaps this was initiated after it took Bob Rittenhouse 17 months to do a minor sub-division of his property. (That was a "special" case and I will fill you in later as part of another story.)

Betty: High nitrates in town water: 32 samples of water plus another 10 were taken to test for high nitrates. North end of town was high. This was done by the health dept. Perhaps they will know something at a meeting on Friday the 17^th. I didn"t catch where that meeting was to take place, somewhere in Cortland. Health department perhaps?

Burn Barrels: Tom Fox was really into this. He had a recent experience at his brothers that filled the house with stinky smoke. Nothing like first hand experience to raise awareness.

At this point I want to take you back to the 3/11/02 Town Board meeting and an odd comment made by Peter Knapp.

The subject of burn barrels, you know those 55 gallon oil drums turned upside down that people use to burn stuff, came up and after some discussion it was decided not to do anything about them. Peter Knapp made the statement that burn barrels are the same as outdoor furnaces because you burn the same stuff in them. This will be great news to the wood stove and outdoor furnace manufactures whom up to now thought they had to have grates, dampers, catalytic converters and engineering efforts to make their products work efficiently and not pollute. With thinking like that we will have burn barrels for a long time.

Back to the present...

Tom is more concerned about it after his experience. Tom wants to talk about it at some point later. Lynette asks for Dawn to come to a meeting to discuss it. Peter is silent and staring at the table. Discussion is between Tom, Betty and Lynette. Both Lynette and Tom need to know more information. Tom is pressing to look into it and give Dawn a "good answer". Peter still staring at his hands. Lynette liked the info Dawn sent and it was "eye opening" Tom talked about sending something to people letting them know what the deal is. They decided to delay the burning issue until later, perhaps next meeting.

Betty went to a meeting with county leaders at the 1880 house. In general about doing joint purchasing of supplies and equipment that could be shared. Maybe we could save some money or exchange services to save money. Just thinking at this stage. She said.

Fire lanes: Betty met with fire control and Dan Deneen. They are going to have a meeting with some owners of private roads on May 29^th at 7:30 at Town Hall and May 30 for the others. Letters will be sent to all involved. They want to come up with road names that match where the people live. Dan Deneen (county planning) will be there. People are supposed to come up with their own names. (Yep, that'll work). Apparently 911 has different names listed than some people actually use. Everyone involved will get a letter. Public information meeting to decide IF the people who live on those roads want to keep, change or make a new name for their roads. Those people will decide, not the town. If you live on a private road you are "supposed" to get a letter with the details from Jane soon.

They decided to send a thank you note to Vincent Maresco for his work on the Planning Board. (He resigned last month after many years of fine service.)

A personal note: For the last four years I have watched the planning board work. You couldn't help notice the deference the board gave to Vin. It was always "What do you think Vin" or something like that. Vin was the one who knew the issues and the facts and when he came up with a conclusion it was the right one. Vin was the one the board always turned too to get the definitive answer. We were always confident that he was treating every side fairly and evenly. Vin was a terrific asset to the board, the town and most important the people of Preble. It will be very difficult to find someone with his intelligence, knowledge, expertise and skills. He will be sorely missed. A BIG THANK YOU Vin for all your excellent work.

Tom Van Patten was appointed to fill Vin's unexpired term. Motion made by Peter Knapp.

Betty: Time Warner is in with AT&T and sent a letter to update town, nothing changed.

Sales tax 1^st 1/4 $80,344.68 to the town.

Charley Sturgen resigned from the ZBA. Spending time in NC with his grandkids and is no longer able to serve. Sent a nice letter to town.

Kay Vossler appointed to ZBA to fill Charlie's unexpired term. Motion made by Kate.
If that name rings a bell but eludes you then look at the copy of a letter to the editor that has been taped to the Town Hall blackboard for the last 2 years plus. She wrote it.

The letter to Bob Rittenhouse was mentioned, everyone got a copy.

9:05 Went into executive session to discuss the Knapp appeal. Paul and Maureen Knapp never showed up. Hmmm.

9:45 Back from executive session.

Betty announces that "No further action to be taken at this time." I understood that they had to decide one way or the other tonight or they would run out of time so I asked Don and he said that they have time to decide later if they want to pursue it. He did not want to commit to a specific time because he did not know for sure but said it was in the timeframe of 6 to 9 months to perfect their appeal. This does not agree with the information I have on this subject which is 60 days plus another 30.

Adjourned at 9:49

My opinion on the appeal: I think they are going to let it die. They didn't want to vote to do that because that would be admitting defeat. Letting it die avoids that. The fact that Paul and Maureen did not come indicates they knew what was coming. Helps when your brother is on the board I guess. Just my opinion of course. Now what happens next? Good question and one I don't have the answer too. If there IS a Plan B we will have to wait to see what it is. There is no urgency on this because whatever or if ever they do something there will be time to deal with it then. In the meantime we will continue to cover the ZBA, Planning and Town Board meetings. When and if something happens I will report it here. However, the town still has some other big issues to deal with. Fire Lanes are going to take up a lot of time over the next several months. This is an important issue because it not only concerns the lives and safety of the citizens of Preble but the lives and safety of our fire fighters. It is something we should do and is something we have to do. Remember that if the town does not create these fire lanes then the county will and if they don't then the state will. Obviously we don't want the county or state doing this so we have to work it out. It will take a lot of time and effort but it is worth it, perhaps more so that any other thing we have done.

Frank Hogg
5/13/02