[0:02] Good evening and welcome. I don't know
what what word was coming out there, but
[0:08] um and welcome to a regular meeting of
the Ulyses Town Board. It is September
[0:15] 8th uh and 2026. And I will call this
meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. May I
[0:20] please have a roll call?
>> Sure. Mr. Manley,
[0:25] » present.
>> Miss Olsen,
[0:27] » present.
>> Mr. Goldman, returned.
[0:30] Mr. Bonds
>> present.
[0:34] » Miss weatherby is attending remotely due
to extenduating circumstances.
[0:39] » That's correct. Okay. We have a agenda
that was posted last uh Thursday.
[0:45] Um we have two public hearings um
and uh presentation from the JCA. Um,
[0:55] anything else that needs to be um added
or removed from the agenda? If not, I'll
[1:02] accept a motion to approve as presented.
>> Move to approve as presented.
[1:07] » Thank you. Uh, all those in or second.
Sorry,
[1:10] » I second it.
>> Thank you. All those in favor?
[1:13] » I I
>> Thank you. Okay. Um, first up is uh a
[1:20] public hearing a local law amending
chapter 20 of the town code. This is
[1:24] related to the water code was introduced
u back back in July I think and um so
[1:32] we'll um open and close that and then
we'll open and close the one on the tax
[1:36] um override for 2027. Um, is our motion
to open the public hearing um on
[1:42] amending chapter 20 of the water code?
>> Chapter 200.
[1:46] » 200, sorry. What did I say? 20
>> to open the public hearing for chapter
[1:52] uh amending chapter 200 of the town. So,
>> thank you. Is there a second?
[1:56] » I'll second that.
>> Thank you. All those in favor? I I
[2:01] » Okay. Um, any public comment,
please go ahead.
[2:08] Uh, my name is Vivian Rhodess. I do not
live in the town, but I live in the
[2:13] town. I live in the village. So, I've
reviewed this. The village, you probably
[2:18] know, instituted user fees on water and
sewer three years ago, four years ago,
[2:25] something like that, which basically
doubled my water bill and my sewer bill.
[2:30] So, I am a single lady in a small house
and I don't use a whole lot of either
[2:34] one, but I do pay $600 a year for user
fees for the facility of the sewer line
[2:41] and the water in addition to the water
and the sewer charge. So, I'm uh I have
[2:47] two two inputs. One is
um be very clear about what the
[2:55] percentage is that this is going to be.
It seemed like the language in the code
[3:01] as I read it was you know when the board
says which is very difficult for someone
[3:07] to budget and also the increments of
growth of the user fee should also be
[3:14] very clear. Uh
and that's that's from my experience as
[3:21] a village user. The other is that
somewhere in this code it says that
[3:26] there would be penalties after 20 days.
I looked at the town code at the at the
[3:32] state level and I couldn't find anything
for penalty after 20 days. It was after
[3:37] 30 days. So I just wanted to bring that
to your attention because I I did use
[3:43] the references to go read the parts that
are supposed to be what that's about. So
[3:49] thank you. appreciate your willingness
to hear my input.
[3:54] » Thank you.
>> I have a question.
[3:56] » So, I don't get from the text what we're
actually do what we're what we're
[4:00] changing.
>> We'll talk we'll talk about that in the
[4:03] section of the meeting related to that.
This is for the public hearing portion.
[4:06] » Is there anybody else who wishes to
address the town board on this topic?
[4:14] » Um, did we receive any written comments
for
[4:18] » No. Okay,
>> then I would um accept a motion to close
[4:24] the public hearing.
>> So move.
[4:25] » Thank you. Is there a second?
>> Thank you. All those in favor? I
[4:29] » I
>> um the next public hearing um is on a
[4:34] local law there, our annual uh one to
override the tax cap limit for 2027.
[4:41] Um so accept a motion to open that
public hearing. Move to open the public
[4:46] hearing on overriding the tax budget.
>> Thank you. Is there a second?
[4:51] » Second.
>> Thank you. All those in favor? I
[4:55] » I
>> Okay. Um any any member of the public
[5:00] wishing to address the to this topic,
please go ahead.
[5:06] » I Hello. I'm still Vivian Rose. I live
in 104 Pennsylvania Avenue and Transburg
[5:12] and I pay town and village taxes and uh
I really do not have a problem with the
[5:19] town overriding the tax cap. But I do
have a problem with not understanding
[5:25] what's precious and what's going to be
maintained and what is going to be paid
[5:30] out of local taxes if and when federal
taxes and state taxes go away.
[5:36] And how that immediately impacts me is
looking at a recreation specialist
[5:41] position.
It appears to me that the town board
[5:46] needs to look very very carefully at
what it is funding. what is absolutely
[5:52] essential to the
daily life of its residents and what is
[5:58] not. Because at some point the local
folks are not going to be able to
[6:04] support all the things that have been
possible for us with grants, you know,
[6:09] with monies from other other people's
tax pockets that were pulled together
[6:16] for county, state, national that I I'm
concerned that that's coming down the
[6:24] pike and I'm concerned that we don't
have a lean budget yet. because we have
[6:31] accumulated a lot of responsibilities
that are not necessarily town government
[6:37] responsibility. So just a thought to
share with you. Thank you.
[6:43] » Thank you. Um are there any other
members of the public who wish to
[6:46] address the town board?
Um did we get any public comment on this
[6:51] matter?
>> We did not.
[6:52] » Okay. I accept a motion given that
there's no other public um indicating
[6:57] they wish to speak is uh accept a motion
to close uh the public hearing on the
[7:02] tax cap override.
>> So move to second.
[7:04] » Thank you. Um all those in favor
>> I thank you. Um very pleased to welcome
[7:10] next um
uh
[7:15] uh Nancy Zaylor uh from coming to us
from the Jacksonville Community
[7:19] Association. Well, welcome you. Thank
you.
[7:23] Where would you where are you most
comfortable? Would you like to Is it
[7:25] more comfortable to sit at a chair? Do
you want to sit at the podium? What
[7:28] would you like to do?
>> So, but sort of being in the front so
[7:32] that the camera captures.
>> Yeah. So, would you like a chair or the
[7:34] podium? Which one was preferable?
>> See,
[7:41] as long as they
will be our guinea pig
[7:48] and then please the audience, everybody.
Yeah,
[7:51] » that's very good. And that and I am a
novice at this, but I do have a um
[8:02] Whoops.
[8:15] Oh, somebody disappeared. You might have
to go back in.
[8:20] » Oh, I I signed up. Okay, that you know
what? I'll just do this. Um,
[8:28] I am delighted to be here. Um, as
Caitlyn mentioned, I'm Nancy Zaylor. I'm
[8:34] currently the president of the
Jacksonville Community Association. And,
[8:38] um, we like to come each year to fill
you in on what we've been doing and give
[8:45] a slight glimpse about what's ahead. And
this has actually been a very active and
[8:51] exciting year. And I will be giving to
you copies of the um pages of the
[8:59] PowerPoint that I can't project for
people. Um so I will just uh uh because
[9:06] I know if I give them to you, you will
just read them and stop listening. So if
[9:10] that's um if that's okay, I will I will
give them to you. But um just this is
[9:17] this is quick. We
[9:21] as you know the Jacksonville Community
Association
[9:25] I'm I'm striving for balance between
what I know a lot of members already
[9:29] know about us and wanting to make sure
others uh get a clear picture. The
[9:34] Jacksonville Community Association is a
nonprofit and um back in like 1960, we
[9:40] were um we acquired what had been a a
parcel of land owned by the Graange and
[9:49] it is uh still under our stewardship as
a 10acre park on Swamp College Road.
[9:54] It's in the park zone now and we have
since 2017
[10:01] had a memorandum of understanding with
the town which has been tremendously
[10:04] helpful to uh sort of make a partnership
and from our end that since 2017 we have
[10:12] dramatically improved made a bunch of
improvements in the park. We have um in
[10:19] recent years dramatically increased the
amount of community engagement and uh
[10:24] are sort of in a phase where we're
expanding civic engagement. Um as you
[10:29] know we built a restroom with uh grants
from the county and funds from the town.
[10:35] It took a 5-year period from 2019 to 24,
but it is fully operational uh cleaned
[10:42] bi-weekly and is open to the public from
May until October. Uh after we uh or
[10:50] while we were completing that, we were
concerned that the park was not as
[10:54] physically accessible as we had wanted
it to be. And so here I can do this. We
[11:00] have uh we did create with a grant from
the county a parking area and a path to
[11:07] the pavilion and the restroom. And um we
did get a grant from the Ithaca Rotary
[11:14] Club to get a custommade picnic table
with extended ends so that um someone in
[11:20] a wheelchair or a stroller uh could pull
up to that and be um included in the
[11:26] activities that are going on at the
park. We routinely maintain the park
[11:32] largely with the help of volunteers, but
um an essential component of that is the
[11:38] mowing that the town uh DPW department
does. They are absolutely terrific to
[11:44] work with. I assume you know what gems
you have in the staff there. and our
[11:49] contact Dave Snyder
um is always uh available and helpful
[11:55] and they're occasionally smaller uh
projects like when we were having our
[12:01] cleanup day which was one of the most
successful we've had in years. He
[12:05] offered to have a town truck placed at
the park for us to load all of the uh
[12:14] clippings from the trails that our
Ulisses pruners helped generate volumes
[12:20] of stuff that filled uh more than um one
town truck. And we had um young children
[12:29] with little grabbers picking up garbage
and were very excited about the dirty
[12:34] diapers they were finding near the uh
fishing pavilion. They were probably
[12:38] about the only ones excited about dirty
diapers.
[12:42] But uh we filled several trash bags and
DPW uh was able to take that away for
[12:47] us. And this is relatively new from uh
in 25. We um decided after getting a
[12:55] quote from NiceG several years ago that
said it would cost about $30,000 to run
[13:01] an electric line from Swamp College
where there was a pole right at the end
[13:05] of the driveway up to the pavilion and
restroom. We said that's obviously not
[13:09] feasible. And so for $3,300,
we were able to um get solar panels in
[13:17] uh installed on the roof of the restroom
and then the accompanying meter and
[13:23] batteries uh which will be used to run
uh some lights that we have purchased
[13:28] and that will soon be installed uh
inside and outside the restroom uh to
[13:34] use this solar powered. We do take the
batteries offline for the winter and put
[13:39] them on when the the restroom is open
again from May to October. Um what is
[13:46] also brand new is that one of the things
that has changed in the last year is
[13:50] that the Namaste Manasauri School that
used to operate out of what people think
[13:55] of as the old Close Hall right on 96.
they have closed that building as a
[14:00] school and the students are consolidated
into the their campus opposite stick and
[14:05] stone. What that means is that the daily
use that those students and staff had
[14:12] made of the park that was part of our
sort of park supervision if you will
[14:17] because we don't have paid staff. Uh we
don't have someone who checks the park
[14:21] every day like when uh Dave Sherman was
alive. Um but so we actually felt the
[14:28] need to both monitor activity and also
use of the park with some security
[14:35] cameras that would be um LTE style so we
don't have Wi-Fi at the park but this
[14:42] would allow us to connect somehow and
see it on our phone if we uh had an
[14:46] alert. And the um Ithaca Club Ithaca
Rotary Club actually just gave us $600
[14:53] for those cameras. So those will be
getting set up soon too. Um we're really
[14:58] excited this year about the increased
community engagement. We have had two
[15:03] since the beginning of the year and
these community engagement ideas
[15:08] actually came from the annual meeting
that we had last fall. Jonathan Frolic
[15:13] who was president at the time sort of
invited the community members who were
[15:18] there to share ideas about what would be
helpful for JCA to do in the community
[15:24] and they were saying we'd like more
opportunities to get together with one
[15:27] another and so we have um in the first
months of the year planned two community
[15:34] dinners that uh were successful one of
which co-sponsored with the Jacksonville
[15:39] um Methodist Church And we have had um
our annual picnic just uh took place and
[15:51] that was uh successful. Plus this fall
we're actually planning to have a series
[15:56] of events that actually are dual purpose
as as a JCA as a community association.
[16:04] We want us to support our local
businesses and other than sort of buying
[16:09] from them when we can, we realize that a
lot of people in community don't
[16:14] necessarily know some of our local
businesses and so planning sort of
[16:19] organized field trips if you will. So,
the Honeybee Embassy, um, uh, Jonathan
[16:25] has talked with them about having a
group of people come, maybe take a tour
[16:29] to see the apiaries and have like a
honey tasting or some sort of social
[16:35] event that all is also good for the
business. Um, the event would be free,
[16:39] but people could be free to, you know,
buy if they chose, but they would know
[16:43] more about a business operating right
around the corner from them. And
[16:47] similarly um in the heart of the village
uh Danny Trippet has opened something
[16:52] called the Quanderey uh in Ulissi Square
which is an escape room sort of mystery
[16:58] program that a group of people uh comes
together and tries to solve all the
[17:02] clues to
>> I I've never been. So
[17:05] » to escape the room. Yeah.
>> To escape the room. So, um, we have
[17:08] said, you know, people have said, you
know, I'm sort of curious about that.
[17:11] And we said, well, it's easy enough for
us to put out to see who's interested,
[17:17] get a group together. Danny has said for
the people we bring in, he will give
[17:22] half price as an introductory thing. So,
it's sort of like a win-win. And maybe
[17:28] in the winter when thing when people are
sort of hunkered down more um having a
[17:33] game night at Mama said which isn't in
the hamlet but we think of it as sort of
[17:38] close by. Those are the kinds of things
that um we're interested in doing. Plus
[17:44] we've got a new volunteer who is quite
uh skilled and interested in doing more
[17:50] um uh like walks to identify plants and
trees and birds and and things like
[17:55] that. Those would all be be free. So, I
mean, people passively use the park now.
[18:00] We plan events at the park, but we don't
we haven't yet, and we're looking
[18:04] forward to inviting people in a
organized way to uh learn more about the
[18:09] park and take advantage of it. And the
result of these these uh extra
[18:14] activities is we have Pentail. This this
you will see a little bar graph is easy
[18:19] easy to uh get. In 2024, we had like
just a couple of events and maybe 25
[18:25] people. And if everybody who says they
want to come come to these extra events
[18:29] in the fall, we expect about 175. Now,
that's may not be 175 different people.
[18:34] And I know the difference between
attendance and unduplicated count, but
[18:39] um it shows a volume of engagement that
is important to us. And um
[18:47] you we basically want to assure you that
uh JCA does
[18:53] a lot with a little. Um we are extremely
grateful for the uh annual uh allocation
[19:02] that we get and we are um but we have
sort of parlayed our partnership with
[19:10] you into getting uh we got since 2017 in
theouou we've had two free studies done
[19:17] one by students at Cornell as a master
plan for the park and a second one done
[19:22] actually will Glennon your director who
teaches at Sunni Courtland was able to
[19:27] hook us up and we got a separate plan
that was for how to maintain and uh the
[19:33] park and how to improve accessibility
and that was part of what triggered us
[19:39] wanting to do the parking area and path
is that so that those were free to us.
[19:44] We got um with your help about uh 14
over $14,000 in county money as grants
[19:51] toward the restroom and accessibility.
And we were able to leverage uh $1,600
[19:57] in grants from the Itha Rotary. We've
got about 20 to 35 volunteers that help
[20:03] maintain the park and we are um you know
pretty scrupulous in in how we spend and
[20:11] account for the the the annual
allocation. So um as I mentioned we are
[20:18] planning to uh do a little more on
increasing our our civic action. Um, and
[20:25] that is I mean back in 2017 there was a
threat that the local post office in
[20:30] Jacksonville might be closed and the
community rallied around. We actually I
[20:34] was out of town board then and contacted
Senator Gillibrand's office who followed
[20:39] up and at that time they were
reassuring. We don't know now. Um, but
[20:45] that kind of advocacy has been done in
the past by JCA. Uh we wrote an uh a
[20:50] letter supporting increased funding for
child care when Namaste was trying to
[20:55] expand. And um then this year you saw us
at a number of meetings because we came
[21:01] to the um comprehensive plan steering
committee to give feedback um on the
[21:06] Hamlet portion of the plan. And then um
we were very grateful that that we
[21:12] actually were able to to schedule a
special session of that comprehensive
[21:15] plan steering committee. at least some
of the members came and met these some
[21:19] of the residents in Jacksonville so they
could understand more about what was
[21:22] under consideration and um what was
going on. One of the things that
[21:28] indirectly grew out of that is that this
fall we hope to bring some people
[21:32] together to start doing what we're
calling like a we're organizing in the
[21:37] hamlet to try to address some of the
traffic safety issues on Route 96. when
[21:42] the um Living Essence Massage School
opened, I know the town clerk's office
[21:49] got calls saying even though they added
parking to the Ulissi Square location,
[21:54] they didn't have enough parking for all
of their students and were wondering is
[21:58] there some sort of parking ride or is
there a place that our people can park
[22:02] and it's like well sort of there's not a
lot of good options and in the course of
[22:06] that discussion the idea of parking on
96 was raised. It's it's it's an option.
[22:12] People at the chiropractic office do it,
but most people feel like they wouldn't
[22:15] take their life in their hands to park
on Route 96 there. Obviously, they park
[22:20] on Route 96 in the heart of the village
and that parking does slow traffic down
[22:26] and obviously the village police
enforcement makes a big difference. But
[22:31] we had thought that there might be some
traffic calming measures that we could
[22:34] explore in cooperation with the town,
with the state, and whatever. So anyway,
[22:40] we'll be uh those are the kinds of
things beyond just being good stewards
[22:44] of the park that we are interested in.
And um just a I mentioned a couple of
[22:51] things that we're coming ahead is um we
will be getting probably in the next few
[22:56] weeks getting the solar lights installed
inside and outside the uh the restroom.
[23:03] And depending on what we decide about
the security cameras and where those
[23:07] should be, those will be going up
hopefully uh later this year. One of the
[23:10] things that we want to do is the parking
area and the path that we created is not
[23:18] yet
as navigable as we would like. it still
[23:22] feels a little grally and so figuring
out how to get that surface resurfaced
[23:28] so that it would be more accessible is
one of the things that's that's on our
[23:32] uh on our plans for this year and um but
for next year we are actually looking at
[23:38] um and I am just about done the uh
we've talked about it here before and
[23:44] this is the year I think really 2027 is
really the year to sit with a
[23:48] combination of the wonderful community
uh resource people we have plus people
[23:55] at DPW and members of our board to put
together a longer term uh both
[24:02] maintenance plan for the park and as
well as improvements so that we have a
[24:06] sense about what it takes to to keep the
park safe and to um you know then other
[24:13] things to improve it. But like this year
uh our insurance company that's part of
[24:18] theou we provide the insurance and make
sure the park is safe. The insurance
[24:22] company actually had said that the old
uh foot bridge that crosses the pond had
[24:29] handrails but no ballisters and that
really wasn't safe for little kids or
[24:34] whatever. And so, um, Cameron Newuhof,
our our
[24:39] treasurer, is also a contractor, and he
had gotten some local, I think, arch and
[24:45] sort of stripped it into um like 2 by
two ballasters, and then we had a plan
[24:50] and and the DPW guys helped make sure
that those got installed properly. So,
[24:55] you know, those are the kinds of
partnerships that that are so so
[24:58] valuable to us. And for that, all of
that and all that we're doing, I just
[25:03] want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. And we're also grateful to the uh
[25:07] Jacksonville Community Church because
they offer us space for our events and
[25:11] they co-sponsor with us the uh Ithaca
Rotary said every time you can talk site
[25:18] the Rotary Club of Ithaca for for their
financial support. And then we've got
[25:22] some private donors who who donate
money. So that ideally we would just be
[25:27] using donations to cover the
refreshments that we do at at these
[25:31] various events. So, that's what we're up
to. I'm happy to give you copies of this
[25:38] so you can peruse more at your leisure
and uh send a couple this way. Send a
[25:46] couple that way.
>> Liz, we'll make sure one gets in your
[25:49] box.
>> I have one for Liz.
[25:51] » Great.
>> So, any questions, comments?
[25:56] » Doing a great job.
>> Well, we've got a small but mighty team.
[26:01] Um
and uh we've been able to do a lot and
[26:06] what we're finding is that there are
some people who have come to several
[26:11] events and so we're cultivating uh their
interest and and hopefully they may or
[26:17] may not serve as board members but I
think we have some that are going to be
[26:22] actively involved in organizing events
and um in ways that I think will just
[26:27] make a community more connected and
stronger. Um, we actually when when we
[26:32] had our picnic, Andy Hillman, who you
I'm sure know is an arborist, um, was
[26:38] there because he lives just down the
road and was talking about a wonderful
[26:43] tree that he had seen in one of the
neighbors yards because she she always
[26:47] called him over and say, "Andy, check my
trees." And he said, "She had one of the
[26:51] finest specimens." And I'm thinking the
little part of me is like, I suppose, we
[26:55] got some pretty nice trees at our place.
So, we have a listerve. Um,
[27:01] » I put out a a a picture of one of our
trees and invited people to share some
[27:06] of their trees or plants or whatever. I
got one so far. Another might be on the
[27:11] way. But those kinds of things that find
ways to illustrate the connectedness of
[27:17] the people in the community um are are
sort of what we're about. There were no,
[27:22] as far as I could hear them, virtually
no political discussions. So, it's
[27:27] really just people connecting with their
neighbors and that's what we're about.
[27:31] » Awesome. Very nice. Thank you very much.
Sure.
[27:33] » I bet I know which tree it was, too.
>> Oh, no. Diane has one beautiful one. I
[27:39] don't know what it is, but it's
spectacular. So, she should definitely
[27:42] be on that one.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[27:44] » I don't know whether I'm allowed to take
a question directly from Vivian.
[27:48] » Yeah.
>> I just wondered if you could compare
[27:50] your budget to before town money to now
and what kind of relationship between
[27:58] that town money and all the other money
and donations that have come in.
[28:04] » Yeah. The the uh contribution from the
town has been $5,000 for as long as I
[28:11] can remember. So, we haven't gotten cost
of living increases. We always make do.
[28:16] Some years we do get like when we got
county grants, those were bigger and
[28:20] those were one time. These smaller
grants were able to write pretty easily
[28:23] and sometimes are successful. We don't
ask members to like pay a membership fee
[28:30] to belong. Um, and you know, a number of
years ago when we were just starting our
[28:37] restroom project, actually, we partnered
up with the uh conservatory and they had
[28:42] a whole sort of
sort of oldtime festival day where we
[28:48] raised uh money toward the restroom. And
uh we've had the um
[28:58] uh
Lions Club from Trumanburg actually uh
[29:03] held a chicken barbecue at Brownies for
us and and shared part of the proceeds
[29:08] from there. So we've we we try to do
those kinds of things, but uh we haven't
[29:12] really solicited a lot of donations.
Obviously that may be in our future, but
[29:17] but we have I think been been good
stewards both of the land and of of the
[29:21] town dollars. So, it's about the same,
but it is the largest piece of what
[29:26] we've had now that the county grants
have really uh dwindled, but they're not
[29:31] completely gone. And there are things
like for celebrations and whatnot that I
[29:35] mean, I did go to uh the tourism
workshop with various uh grants. It's
[29:41] just a matter of sort of what time times
available to to ask for those to
[29:46] implement them. But we are hopeful.
Actually, Tom Knip uh had some ideas
[29:50] when he came to our annual meeting last
year um some ideas about what we might
[29:55] do in terms of uh tourism promotion and
so we will pick his brain next.
[30:01] » So, thank you N.
>> Thank you so much for your time and
[30:04] attention. I know you got a busy agenda.
I look back
[30:08] » if you wanted one of these
[30:12] great
>> Did you get one?
[30:15] » I did not. Oh, maybe.
>> No, no, I got
[30:20] to make enough.
>> Thank you very much, Nancy. I appreciate
[30:22] it. Um, next up is uh privilege of the
floor. Any member of the public is will
[30:28] is able to speak on any topic about the
town for up to three minutes. Is there
[30:33] anybody want to make a comment really?
[30:48] Um, my name is Vivian Rose again. I
still live in the village of
[30:52] Trumansburg. I came before you in May
and asked you to pass a resolution
[30:58] uh declaring the 2nd through the 11th of
July uh celebrating 200 years of freedom
[31:05] days. This is a little report out. This
is the repress which has an article
[31:11] about everything that occurred. Um, this
is
[31:18] more you for your these are all the
posters for all of the events.
[31:24] Um,
these are
[31:29] little Revolutionary War soldier markers
that were placed on
[31:35] cemetery
um
[31:40] on stones of Revolutionary War soldiers
and Grove Cemetery. And at this
[31:45] memorial, which is labeled D memorial,
but this was actually a cooperation
[31:50] between the town and the local D to
install this memorial, which I added
[31:57] biographical information to the back so
people can All of these have gone to
[32:02] Grove Cemetery, so they're able to have
more tours if they wish. Um,
[32:08] and
there is this lovely
[32:13] lovely
uh
[32:20] picture of the first reading of the
Declaration of Independence in State of
[32:24] New York, the brand new state of New
York by John Thomas and this
[32:32] illustration of the first printed
declaration in the state of New York.
[32:37] Now, what ties the town of Ulyses to
these items is the people who served on
[32:43] the commit on the in the battlefield,
including all of our veterans who are
[32:49] buried in our various um cemeteries who
settled here and who served on our town
[32:56] board who actually housed our town board
when there were meetings without a place
[33:02] to um without a place to meet um who
basically created the town of Ulisses.
[33:11] I'm here to say that I was surprised at
the amount of uh
[33:18] at the at the difficulty of inviting
people to participate. It appeared that
[33:23] some uh businesses didn't want to have
posters of events about the 250th.
[33:30] um our our local uh Facebook page didn't
want to post the posters. So, it feels
[33:38] to me I came away from this feeling like
we are sitting on deep divides that are
[33:44] not visible to us and they have to do
with who we are as a people. By
[33:50] comparison, in 1976,
we had a year's worth of celebrations,
[33:56] and that had to do with the
infrastructure that was created. There
[34:01] was a staff member on the town
staff who was the D regent who helped to
[34:08] create the Ulyses Historical Society in
advance of 1976.
[34:16] And there were multiple organizations
that worked with that kind of embedded
[34:23] world, the school district and etc. So
what carried that all together
[34:33] was the churches
and the community organizations,
[34:38] not necessarily the town government.
um when the town is not able to
[34:46] uh be able to reach out to
infrastructure like that, it's not able
[34:51] to do something like this. If you go
over to our Skyler, our neighbor, you
[34:57] will find that there celebrate 250 is in
every community doing walks and talks
[35:04] and festivals and book clubs and
exhibits. and their student intern
[35:10] actually just got an award from
Representative Laneworthy for his
[35:14] citizenship, for his civil for his I
just actually as a member of the D heard
[35:21] the Skyler County historian at Ulyses
Historical Society talk about the
[35:26] British prison ships
um which resulted from a skidding butts
[35:31] kicked in September October of 1776
because one of our revolutionary war
[35:40] soldiers who's buried in Updike's father
died on one of those ships. So I wanted
[35:45] to thank you. I wanted to let you know
what had been done. Um and I wanted to
[35:50] let you know that
very few people donated to this. So I
[35:58] have made a donation to this community
of about $1,000
[36:02] for the various things that have been
produced which I was happy to do. I'm a
[36:07] proud descendant of a Revolutionary War
soldiers and I am grateful every day for
[36:14] the fact that I live in New York
which was an original colony and what
[36:18] has made it possible for us to live here
together in our own country
[36:25] in our own democracy. So, thank you for
your time. This is for you all and I'll
[36:31] put these back up on your bulletin
board.
[36:35] But the rest of this is for you. Thank
you.
[36:38] » Thank you.
>> I just want to add that Yeah, that's I
[36:43] want to add that this package and and
the resolutions and all of the people
[36:50] who participated are going in a
collection that's going to be at the
[36:56] historical society. So that there's
something about the celebration of that
[37:00] 250th anniversary here for future
generations. Thank you so much for your
[37:05] time.
>> Thank you.
[37:06] » And I'm going to sit here and watch you
do what we're so happy about and this
[37:10] country govern ourselves. Thank you.
>> Okay. Anybody else wishing to address
[37:18] the town board and privilege of the
floor? I did obviously give more than
[37:20] three minutes by a couple laps. Um but
it seemed only fitting. Um okay, then I
[37:26] would um move uh continue on with
municipal uh board and staff reports.
[37:34] Um, any any updates? Liz, are you in a
good spot to talk or No,
[37:40] » I should be.
[37:45] » And then the commission.
Oh,
[37:50] » I'm on 17. Can you hear?
>> It's okay. Do you I can give the
[37:54] commission update. I can give the youth
commission update. I was there.
[37:58] » Huh.
um youth commission um had a meeting um
[38:02] on September 1st um and it was our
annual budget meeting um and uh went
[38:11] over budget presentation numbers and had
conversations and um the recommendations
[38:16] coming out that will be embedded into
the town board's um budget um agenda on
[38:21] the 21st. the youth commission uh
representatives from the county and the
[38:26] uh school district um uh also uh prior
to that meeting interviewed um the
[38:34] gentleman who's on here for the
appointment to fill the rec specialist
[38:37] position. That's the it's that's its
title in civil service that this is the
[38:40] person who we've the town Well Nancy I'm
glad Nancy's here. Um how long has the
[38:46] town been doing put you on the spot? How
long has the town been doing rural youth
[38:49] services funding?
>> 1990. So this is a position in some
[38:53] capacity that's been around for for
quite since since I was too young.
[38:58] » There was a youth worker here in Ulyses
actually Trumanburg before the youth
[39:04] commission was created. Um the uh there
was the Ulyses Youth Unlimited program
[39:12] existed for many years just sort of
independently on its own and then when
[39:16] the youth commission was formed it
became the youth services program that
[39:23] has morphed many times that RISA was big
part of for many years and u
[39:32] had the oversight support of these
commission. So yeah, so this is a
[39:35] position that's funded in collaboration
between the county, the village and the
[39:39] town um and that's the minimum. So um we
um they gave their Hardy approval um for
[39:47] that position um for the the folks who
represented on the interview committee.
[39:51] Um so that'll be coming to you later in
the agenda. Um, Three Falls had a
[39:54] meeting um, last Thursday. Um, and kind
of going over,
[40:02] sorry, I don't know how I set my timer
off on myself. Um, the let's see, we um,
[40:08] we're talking early budget numbers.
We'll be having our budget meeting in
[40:11] October um, and going over summer
activities um, in terms of use of the
[40:17] property um, coordinating. We are still
waiting on um New York State Parks uh
[40:23] going through the environmental review
on the concept plan that uh was created
[40:28] um uh and finished up um over the winter
um and uh until until we're we're
[40:36] finalized there um we can't go forward
with any funding applications
[40:41] um or activities like that. Um was Liz,
is there anything else if you're able to
[40:46] get on that you wanted to mention?
[40:50] Okay, I think that's a headshake no.
Take that as a no. Um I know BZA didn't
[40:56] have a meeting um on the landing board's
meeting was canceled last week also. So
[41:01] I think it's fairly quiet in those
regards. Any other um town updates you'd
[41:05] like to make about committees or
anything?
[41:10] Okay. Um big focus here right now is
developing the the budget. Um,
[41:17] uh, Rachel, our legislator, um, is not
in attendance or able to attend, um,
[41:22] because she has a a budget meeting
tonight. Um, but Chrissy, I think you
[41:26] already posted her, um, you already
circulated her, u July report.
[41:32] Um,
>> yeah. So,
[41:34] » August.
>> Oh. Oh, yeah. We're already in
[41:37] September. Sorry.
>> Muddling my my months. Um, okay. Um,
[41:42] next item of old business is the local
law amending chapter 200 of the town
[41:46] code. Um, Chris, I'm going to put you a
little bit on the spot.
[41:49] » Yeah.
>> To talk about this because this is uh
[41:51] related to to your departments.
>> Okay. Um, first of all, I will say that
[41:57] there um Vivian made a comment about the
20 calendar days and that is actually an
[42:04] old version.
The correct version was posted for the
[42:09] July 28th meeting in public hearing that
got cancelled. And um so that version
[42:18] includes the change of 30 days before a
penalty will be implemented.
[42:25] Um so there's that
>> is that 210 C1
[42:32] » correct? Yep.
>> Is that the only change in there?
[42:35] or yeah,
>> because this was still one of them
[42:39] posted for the meeting.
>> The one with 20 days was posted for this
[42:44] meeting, but the the correct one of the
30 days was posted prior. It was the
[42:50] version that the board
when you set the hearing.
[42:57] Um but basically this law was written so
long ago that um we wanted to kind of
[43:06] clarify some things and
make it a little bit more user friendly.
[43:12] So changing the 20 days to 30 days was
one of the things.
[43:17] um clarifying the language for the user
fees because in the way that we there
[43:23] are different ways to bill and um
because you've got to bill for water
[43:28] usage and for any debt for the water
district as well as for the operation
[43:34] and maintenance and you can do that all
on the water bill. You can do it some on
[43:39] the water bill and some on the tax bill
which is kind of what we do. So, we
[43:44] wanted to just update the language to
reflect um how we've been doing it and
[43:50] also uh leave it open so that if in the
future we decide we want to do it a
[43:56] different way, we have the flexibility
to do that. So, we're not actually
[44:00] implementing any additional um fees
right now. That's not um what this is
[44:06] about.
Um
[44:09] » can I just can I pop in on that? And and
so um as as you'll remember um and it's
[44:14] linked in actually in our on our page,
we set the fees um every January at
[44:19] organization
[44:23] » fees and rates I should say it's rates
really.
[44:26] » The other change has to do with master
meters. So we have um a a couple of
[44:34] situations where we have one meter that
is for an entire um you know for like
[44:41] several apartments or trailers and we
wanted to clarify the language and um
[44:49] it's become a little bit cumbersome for
the um water district operator to read
[44:55] all of those meters when we're also
reading a master meter.
[45:00] So, um would like to be able to focus on
just reading the mass for me.
[45:07] » Shouldn't it be easier with the video
reads just to read them all?
[45:12] » Um well, not all of them have been
updated.
[45:17] So the bigger issue is um it's not I
don't think it's fair for the water
[45:25] district to be paying for potential
water loss between the master meter and
[45:29] spread out on a private property that
has multiple residents because if
[45:32] there's a break in the line even as it's
crossing you know quite a bit of footage
[45:37] on a private property
um having all those different meters at
[45:43] all the different residential locations
can result in water loss. that that the
[45:47] water district pays for, not the
property owner pays for. And it's very
[45:51] common in residential developments for
when they're rentals um for be it
[45:56] electric, be it um you know water to
have a master meter and then as soon as
[46:02] that pro you know as soon as it's
crossing their threshold onto their
[46:05] property, it's their water. It's no
longer the town's water and so we can
[46:09] bill it for all the water. than how they
choose to break it up among their
[46:12] property owners um is or or you know
residents um units um is is their
[46:19] option. Um so that's that's one of it
because we could be relying on
[46:24] antiquated infrastructure on private
property. Um and that becomes a problem
[46:28] for the water district. Keeping water
loss costs down as much as possible
[46:33] keeps prices down for the entire
district. Um and master meters are um
[46:40] uh was recommended um by by Scott and
Cararissa as as making that as clean as
[46:47] possible. So basically when you you're
connected to that master meter at the
[46:50] edge of the property, everything past
that master meter is their
[46:54] responsibility as a private property
owner
[46:57] whether they have one unit or 25.
Although nobody has 25, but they have
[47:03] close to 20 in one. So,
>> is this a preemptive move or there is
[47:09] this responsive to you mentioned a
situation where there might be a pipe
[47:14] damage and loss of water between the
master meter and extra meters that we're
[47:20] also reading. So, are we like preempting
that or has that been a problem
[47:25] » that we are aware of? So, so we don't
know of a problem, but you don't know of
[47:29] a problem if you don't have just a
single and um we would need to the
[47:35] district would have to bear the cost of
replacing all of those not smart
[47:40] vendors.
>> Um and so that would be a cost that
[47:43] right now the district does not have the
money to
[47:45] » but we replaced almost to
>> we didn't replace all of them on all of
[47:48] those units. Now,
>> how many did we replace?
[47:50] » We replaced most of I think we replaced
all of them on the one per property. We
[47:55] did not replace them all necessarily on
individual units on a single property.
[47:59] » So the master meter will take care of
that.
[48:01] » And it already has one. It already has a
smart meter. So it's not
[48:03] » You just didn't do the ones down from
the master.
[48:06] » Yes.
>> It would have been 18 additional ones.
[48:08] » Scott still reading this.
>> Not really. No.
[48:14] » So is this thing just
Why is it a bit though?
[48:19] » Because it's extra labor for him.
>> Well, who's reading?
[48:22] » Well, we're selling the water at the
mastering gear.
[48:26] And then the tenants don't pay taxes.
Only the owner pays taxes.
[48:31] » So if you're trying to recover the water
vents, you can recover the master meter.
[48:37] » Well, it doesn't prohibit a private
property owner from putting meters of
[48:41] their own on so that they appropriately.
>> Yeah, you can read them if he wants,
[48:45] right?
>> You know, do that. But that's not really
[48:48] an US thing. And you know, as people are
adding on more AUDs, what we also talked
[48:53] about is we don't want to be in the
middle of a landlord tenant dispute
[48:57] about how much water is being used and
and who's responsible and all of that.
[49:01] If you have a master meter, it's at the
edge of the property. It's by the
[49:04] property owner. It's a very clear you
you know, a clear this person is
[49:08] responsible and if they don't pay, it
goes onto the
[49:10] » So, if you have an AUD, you don't have
to put another meter on. You have to
[49:13] master meter.
>> If in this in this case, that would be
[49:16] the case. Yes. You wouldn't have to have
a second one. This would be a single one
[49:20] per property. And then if the private
property owner wants to put on a meter,
[49:24] then that's their prerogative. But
they're going to be responsible from the
[49:27] master meter line or the master meter um
where it's connecting the line on their
[49:32] private property will be their
responsibility, right? If they have a
[49:35] water leak in the middle of their
property between their house and an AUD
[49:39] that's 100 ft away, right? That's going
to be them that they're going to have to
[49:42] figure it out, but they're going to be
responsible for it. the town's not
[49:45] getting in the middle of it and saying,
"Well, because we with it's it's
[49:49] difficult. We we only want to be
responsible for that which we can
[49:52] evaluate, right? Like if there's a leak,
we want to be able to track it on our
[49:56] own town district lines. Um, and when
you get with all these other meters, it
[50:01] just becomes something that's not
feasible to do." Um, so this would clean
[50:05] up the process. And so as people add um
you know an an AUD they can
[50:12] they have a master meter and if they
choose to put on their own meter to read
[50:16] it at the AUD then that is that's their
prerogative but it's not our
[50:20] responsibility to like be parsing it
out. Um it's much easier if we have a
[50:25] single meter and if the bill is paid you
know the bill is not paid the way it
[50:28] works right if it's not paid after a
certain point at the end of the year
[50:31] it's remitted onto their taxes. So, we
want have it's it makes sense to have it
[50:35] cleanly attached to um to a property
because you also wouldn't want um I can
[50:41] see the reverse side, right? If you're a
landlord and you don't realize that you
[50:44] have a tenant who has been racking up
significant bills, right? Um, and you
[50:50] don't know there's a water problem
because they haven't told you. And then
[50:53] at the end of the year, you're getting
smacked with
[50:56] » a landlord. You see the water meter, you
see the water bill
[51:01] every quarter
>> with a master meter. You do.
[51:05] » Yeah.
>> If you don't have master meters though,
[51:07] you wouldn't necessarily, right? So, if
you think about it, if you have a
[51:10] property with 10 units and you don't
have a master meter and each of them are
[51:14] getting metered individually,
if they don't pay their water bill, what
[51:18] happens to that water bill? Right? It
gets emitted remitted onto the tax bill.
[51:21] But if they're receiving the bill
directly for their water and it's not
[51:25] going through the landlord, the owner of
the property, that landlord can be
[51:28] surprised with something at the end of
the year if something isn't paid. Does
[51:32] that make sense?
>> Well, doesn't it have to go through the
[51:34] landlord? cuz that's the address of the
ownership of the where the bill would go
[51:38] to the owner of the property, not to the
tenant.
[51:41] » Well, it depends on if you have if we're
going to install a meter though on each
[51:44] if we in the theory where we're
installing a meter on each individual
[51:48] residence,
then the then then the expectation,
[51:53] right, is that residence is paying for
the bill, right?
[51:55] » Yeah.
>> But that's not necessarily the landlord.
[51:58] » It depends on the leases, right?
>> Sure. Absolutely. But at the end of the
[52:02] day, do you want to if we don't change
the law, we're going to need to pay for
[52:07] out of the water district, which does
not have the money. So, we'd be raising
[52:09] taxes for the water district to pay for
it. Um, a a chunk of new meters or and
[52:15] then we'd be relying on the
infrastructure on private property in
[52:18] this one particular case, not counting
there are other cases, there are other
[52:22] properties as well. um we'd be relying
on infrastructure that's transmitting
[52:26] that water from the the edge of the road
where the pit is to the different
[52:31] properties with potential leaks that
we're not aware of. The reality is is
[52:34] the recommendation has been that putting
a master meter pit um at the edge of the
[52:39] property and knowing how much water is
going in there is in the best interest
[52:43] of the water district so that we can
keep track of water loss because water
[52:48] loss is an expensive thing. um you know
unintended water losses can really drive
[52:54] up the cost because the district bears
those costs not just an individual
[52:58] property owner.
>> So have we ident we've had leaks in the
[53:01] past.
>> Oh we have yeah leaks happen.
[53:03] » Yeah.
>> So are we monitoring those?
[53:05] » Of course with the meter.
>> Well we're monitoring to those meter but
[53:08] that's not the only place you get a
leak. Right. We work with Bolton Point
[53:11] um to they have a GPS system um that we
can use. Chissa what are some of the
[53:16] other ways? They do fire they do
inspections of the fire hydrants. Um,
[53:20] what else is on that list of things we
do to
[53:24] Scott's really in charge of that
>> point can monitor the water use. So if
[53:28] there's a big pull from
it, they get alerted. It's all all
[53:34] connected to the internet.
[53:47] Okay. So, any further discussion on it,
questions, concerns?
[53:53] » This sounds this sounds like we're
bringing code in line with a um a
[53:58] proposed idea that also aligns with some
things that are effectively already
[54:03] happening, right? That we're not
necessarily reading or actively reading
[54:07] meters that we could curious about the
workload that this adds to our team
[54:14] install. You mentioned installing new
master meters and there's there was
[54:19] previous master meters installed. Is
there just thinking about the cost and
[54:24] the time
for I'm assuming I'm I'm asking I guess
[54:29] are are we then the town installing
master meters at these locations that
[54:34] don't currently have them? And
what's that cost and time like how long
[54:40] does that take? Is that a couple months,
a couple years over time? I'm not aware
[54:44] that we need to install any master.
It's the opposite. We're trying to not
[54:49] reinstall all the submeters associated.
[54:54] » We're just saying we're going to rely on
the reading of the master meter and not
[54:58] get into the reading of all the
submeters on private property.
[55:02] » Okay.
>> So, the expectation is that there's no
[55:04] new cost associated with this. And then
we do have a cost. So if somebody builds
[55:09] a, you know, there's a subdivision of
the house, someone puts up a new house,
[55:13] there's a cost for them to have all of
that stuff installed. So we don't, so
[55:17] there's no expectation that this is
going to create any new expenditure. In
[55:21] fact, it reduces expenditure.
>> Okay.
[55:23] » So on our vouchers today,
we have $43,698
[55:29] in water.
>> Of which $10,452
[55:33] is water loss. So that's like a third of
the whole bill is water loss. Is that is
[55:40] that normal?
>> Nope. And that's why we got alerted to
[55:43] it. And Scott thinks he's tracked down
what it is. And it was a fire hydrant.
[55:47] And so they did a repair what, a week
ago?
[55:51] » Yeah. I think on Thursday he's going to
be able to pull a log from the last week
[55:56] and see if
>> that's what did it.
[55:57] » The reads are still high.
>> Yeah.
[56:02] » Who alerts us to that? You said we got
an alert or we got ben point.
[56:07] » Yeah.
>> What's their what's the red flag number?
[56:09] Do you know it's like I don't know. It
is
[56:12] » well
>> is a percentage increase or
[56:15] » us actually doing that math and getting
the bill from Bolton boy compared to
[56:19] what we build out and saying well
there's a big discrepancy.
[56:24] » So we just had a meter reading and so we
did catch it wasn't caught really until
[56:28] our last meter reading which was what
two weeks ago.
[56:32] » Yeah. So,
>> so the water district is paying for the
[56:35] water loss,
which isn't a good thing.
[56:39] » No,
>> but legally there's no one else to,
[56:42] » right? Yeah. No, no, I got that. So,
>> you're saying this is very large loss.
[56:47] » It is. It is.
>> We're glad if Scott found it.
[56:53] » So, hopefully he did. Yeah. Hopefully
that's that's what did it.
[56:58] But um you said on Thursday they're able
to pull
[57:01] » I think that's what Lori said. Yeah.
>> Yeah.
[57:04] » So that'll check to see usage and see do
a comparison to see if that's resulted
[57:09] in a decrease.
>> Thank you. So
[57:11] » can we get a report or just another
report on that at the next meeting?
[57:15] » Um it's got to happen.
>> Yeah. I think usually Scott puts that
[57:17] stuff in his report. So it probably
would be in his report for the next
[57:20] meeting.
>> His highway report.
[57:24] » Any other questions about this?
[57:29] Okay. Well, I am going to uh there's
it's a standalone resolution.
[57:35] » You're going to move it.
>> Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and move it.
[57:38] Um it's a second standalone resolution.
[57:43] » Um
so, I'm just going to read the resolves.
[57:46] Uh now, therefore, be it resolved that
the town board of the town of Ulyses
[57:49] hereby adopts a local law titled a local
law amending chapter 200 of the town
[57:54] code. And be it further resolved that
the town clerk is hereby authorized and
[57:57] directed to file the local law with the
New York State Secretary of State in
[58:00] accordance with the municipal home rule
law. And be it further resolved that the
[58:04] town clerk, town attorney, and such
other count town officers and employees
[58:09] as may be necessary are hereby
authorized and directed to take such
[58:12] additional steps as may be necessary or
appropriate to carry out the intent of
[58:15] this resolution and effectuate the
filing and implementation of the local
[58:19] law. So I'll move that.
>> Thank you. Any further discussion?
[58:25] Okay. Uh, all those in favor?
>> I I
[58:31] Liz, are you voting?
>> I Yeah, there you go. Assuming that
[58:36] assuming that's denying.
Um,
[58:40] okay. So, next up is a local law to over
tax cap limit for 2027.
[58:47] um as a precursor of what's coming in
the budget season. Um
[58:53] the to stay under the tax cap means we
would have to stay under $65,000
[58:58] increase and um the precursor is I'm
looking at over $104,000
[59:03] exclusively related to fire and EMS.
>> So when you subtract those numbers
[59:09] » increase
>> Yes.
[59:10] » Yes.
>> Yeah.
[59:12] 100. It's approximately 104,000.
Um, fire uh budget. The meeting is
[59:19] tomorrow. If anybody wants to attend, if
you plan to attend, please let Kissa
[59:22] know. Um, there'll be a 6 p.m. meeting
at the village hall um for fire and EM
[59:28] um the annual meeting. Um
and our fire is expected to our shares
[59:38] going up. Um mostly related to the
five-year transition that we've been
[59:42] making um that moved it more towards
property tax based or property
[59:47] assessment based. Ulyses is the biggest
dog in the in the kennel when it comes
[59:52] to um the property or the municipalities
participating.
[59:57] Um, EMS is a sizable increase. Um, uh,
budgetary impact looks like it's going
[1:00:03] to be about 18%. Um, our shares 14% of
the total, but or not 14% of the total,
[1:00:08] it's a 14% there. But when I'm looking
at preliminary increases in taxes, um,
[1:00:13] that's uh, related to to largely fires.
And to put that into perspective, we
[1:00:19] would have to get rid of zoning and
everybody related to zoning in the town.
[1:00:24] And that would about cover the cost of
the increase of these two services for
[1:00:29] one year. It would not even touch. We're
going to be we're going to be breaking
[1:00:32] $900,000 for buying EMS services alone.
>> Insane.
[1:00:37] » So um we're looking at uh 20% I'm sorry
19.5 uh roughly in health insurance
[1:00:45] alone. We're estimating a minimum of 10%
for um uh services uh related to
[1:00:52] insurance.
um and um benefits. Um so I mean the the
[1:00:59] numbers are are sizable. Um counting
cutting out, you know, youth recreation,
[1:01:05] um anything related to that, we wouldn't
even begin to touch the increase
[1:01:08] percentage wise. Um it's just these
numbers are so big. Um they're creeping
[1:01:13] up towards the 50% of our entire uh
taxable levy. Um, good news is if you're
[1:01:19] um not in if you're if you're a village
resident um you pay those bills, you pay
[1:01:24] fire and EMS through the uh through the
village. Um these are for the the 104
[1:01:30] roughly is connected to uh the town um
residents outside the village. Um and
[1:01:37] that's born exclusively by them. Um so
yeah um these are just incredible years
[1:01:44] uh incredible year in terms of cost
hikes. Um
[1:01:49] so it'll be interesting. Uh but I when I
saw the preliminary numbers those are
[1:01:54] those are what we're working with.
So
[1:02:00] uh so I don't see anything we can do but
pass this. um and see, you know, we're
[1:02:06] bringing I'll bring with Blixie I'll
bring a budget on the 21st um that you
[1:02:12] know,
you know, we'll we're doing what we can,
[1:02:16] but I don't have $104,000 hiding in the
cushions. Um part of the problem is EMS
[1:02:23] revenue has been flat since 2016. So, in
2016, our EMS revenue was uh $80,000. In
[1:02:29] 2025, our EMS revenue was $80,000, which
means it's less money than it was in
[1:02:35] 2016.
>> So, this new new group get billing
[1:02:38] situation isn't really helping.
>> Well, it it's helping a little bit, but
[1:02:41] because it's better 2025 is better than
2024, but Medicare doesn't has an
[1:02:46] increased rates of reimbursement, and
that happens to be one of the biggest
[1:02:50] drivers. Medicare and Medicaid um
insurance uh are huge drivers of um
[1:02:56] reimbursements
>> because those are frequently the
[1:03:00] populations that that um are are needing
ambulance care, which is which makes
[1:03:05] sense. But when your average transport
costs $900 and we get $180 back, can't
[1:03:11] make the ma the math doesn't math. So,
it's being it's being subsidized at the
[1:03:15] the rate of the taxpayer, but I've yet
to have a single resident in the entire
[1:03:18] town ask me to cut EMS services.
>> So, um you know, uh that's that's really
[1:03:26] where our costs are significant.
Um and going into going in we going into
[1:03:35] this year like I said you know we're
effectively flat which means it's a loss
[1:03:39] for revenue and costs before this before
2027 had gone up 67% from 2016. So when
[1:03:48] your costs go up and your revenue
remains flat there is a a um share of
[1:03:53] the tax it becomes a tax burden.
So,
[1:04:00] um,
so that's that's kind of where we are.
[1:04:05] So, I'm, you know, we can certainly talk
more about it, but I'm going to go ahead
[1:04:08] and and move the the tax cap the
resolution um adopting a local
[1:04:17] uh resolution approving a local law that
overrides the tax cap for 2027. uh to
[1:04:23] override the tax levy levy limit
established in general municipal law 3C
[1:04:29] » second.
>> Thank you. Any further discussion?
[1:04:32] » This is going to be local law number
four since we just
[1:04:37] » Thank you.
[1:04:41] » I mean we in past years talked about
maybe talking in bangs to see if there's
[1:04:47] other options.
I based on based on my knowledge of
[1:04:52] what's been discussed at TECOG um and
what's been presented to the county and
[1:04:56] the news reports that's not the case. Um
you know I'm grateful it's a and it's
[1:05:02] expensive bill but I'm grateful we have
an EMS service here. They're looking at
[1:05:05] response rates where banks can come in
or mutual aid can come in of Enfield and
[1:05:09] Newfield to 25 28 minutes. You know
that's just an inconceivably long time
[1:05:14] to wait for medical medical services. Um
the most recent thing I continue to hear
[1:05:19] is that um banks has never been
interested in signing contracts with
[1:05:23] municipalities uh because that limits
their coverage area potentially. So
[1:05:27] that's not they're stretched thin. It
used to be that there was a lot more
[1:05:31] mutual mutual mutual aid, right? Where
um they were they were coming in and we
[1:05:38] were backfilling them and you know there
was there was a lot of parody and then
[1:05:41] after co that's not been the case. We're
looking at an average of between 10 and
[1:05:44] 15% of calls are going out of district.
Majority of those ambulance calls are
[1:05:49] going into the city of Ithaca. Dryen is
looking at 40% are going outside their
[1:05:53] district into areas that um right are
not paying for uh municipal ambulance
[1:05:59] service. So, City of Ithaca residents do
not pay a dollar for for ambulance
[1:06:04] services. Not a dollar. They don't pay
any taxes for ambulance services. They
[1:06:09] have paramedics who work for the fire
department. They have a paid fire
[1:06:12] department, but you can't transport a
patient on a firet truck. So, they need
[1:06:16] an ambulance to show up and they're not
paying for it. The only this is this is
[1:06:20] a it's, you know, it's my soap box. This
is going to explode. This is this is a
[1:06:24] crisis that everybody knows about. The
county knows about it. They've had a
[1:06:28] report that said as much. And what the
reality is is we need countywide
[1:06:34] emergency services for ambulances the
same way we have a sheriff's department.
[1:06:39] And it's just a matter of time to when
there'll be enough political pressure
[1:06:42] put on by constituents to demand it.
>> In terms of talk about their recovery
[1:06:47] from out of district calls,
>> I mean, they bill for out of district
[1:06:52] calls, but they're in the same boat we
are that we bill and if somebody doesn't
[1:06:56] pay, they're still, you know, there's
there's a lot of what they're doing are
[1:07:01] second calls. So, they're there as a
backfill to to an to to Bang. So they're
[1:07:07] in the city of Ithaca because Banks is
tied up and and they need a second
[1:07:11] ambulance in accessible. Um and so
there's no money made there, right? Like
[1:07:16] if you're not transporting, you're not
making any money. Um so they do bill. Uh
[1:07:21] but they're in the same boat we are as
if we bill and someone doesn't pay,
[1:07:24] quite honestly, we don't we don't go to
collections for them.
[1:07:27] » Were they transparent about it though?
Because they were putting We never saw
[1:07:30] that on the when we'd go to the meetings
and they'd give us the budget sheet. I
[1:07:35] never saw that line item on there
>> of revenue generated. Um I haven't
[1:07:38] looked that thoroughly at this one. Um
Blixie um Blixie is coming to the
[1:07:42] meeting tomorrow night and she has a set
of questions I can ask her about that. I
[1:07:46] didn't delve into that that aspect of
it. I was
[1:07:49] » primed that before the meeting so we're
not blindsided with it.
[1:07:53] » Yeah. Um the a village is seeing a 19.5%
increase in theirs um because of the
[1:07:59] call volume. Um EMS is all call volume
related.
[1:08:03] So their their their shares going up for
EMS. Also, their fire bills are going
[1:08:08] down.
[1:08:12] Um,
[1:08:18] okay. Well, I moved it. Michael seconded
it. If there's no further discussion,
[1:08:22] call for a vote. All those in favor?
>> I I
[1:08:27] Liz voted I.
Um, thank you. Um, okay. Appointment uh
[1:08:34] to fill a recreation specialist
position. This is the youth services
[1:08:37] position. This is the uh gentleman um
who will uh he's in the budget. Um Lucky
[1:08:44] um uh left us in July to go to graduate
school um uh in another state. So there
[1:08:51] was no um uh no way to do that. And it
looks like it got an older version of my
[1:08:57] resolution. So, let me pull that up
quickly while um I apologize that I did
[1:09:03] not catch that when I
in a moment so I can read it out loud.
[1:09:09] Um
[1:09:16] um so uh we'd be appointing um uh Thomas
Cronin
[1:09:22] um
uh to serve as our recreation specialist
[1:09:27] effective September 8th, 2026.
Um at a rate of uh this is the budgetary
[1:09:33] amount that was previously paid of
$23.69 69 cents an hour uh for up to 19
[1:09:38] hours um per week and that is budgeted
that's period um for clarity that is
[1:09:45] budgeted at an average of 15 hours a
week. Um and we have to stay under 19
[1:09:50] and that's what they they work but um
under 19 because after 19 it um when you
[1:09:55] average it it goes into benefit c it
goes into the benefits category. This is
[1:09:59] a position without benefits other than
our contribution to the retirement
[1:10:04] system.
Um so there's no health benefits
[1:10:07] associated with this. Um
uh Tommy is uh coming to us from Ithaca
[1:10:13] College. She's currently um doing a uh
[1:10:20] a master's certificate master's program
um at Sunni Courtland in recreation. Um
[1:10:26] and uh he's uh he's he's lovely. Um he's
worked with the middle school population
[1:10:33] before. um as part of his work as as
part of his uh program at Ithaca
[1:10:39] College, he created his own his own
program. And he's going to be primarily
[1:10:43] um running the community center um after
school um at uh the Church of the
[1:10:49] Epiphany, which is obviously secular
programming, but it's in the space. We
[1:10:52] have a lease with them. Um and that's
going to be starting, I believe, on
[1:10:56] Monday. So, we were fortunate to be able
to um do get him in place right as the
[1:11:02] school year is started. Um, but Rick
from the county and Paul Paddock from
[1:11:07] the school and Rachel and I all
interviewed him and um I think he has a
[1:11:11] lot of potential.
So I will move that. Is there a second?
[1:11:17] » Second.
>> Thank you. Any further discussion?
[1:11:24] Okay. Um, then I will call for a vote.
All those in favor?
[1:11:27] » I.
>> And Liz is voting yes also.
[1:11:33] Okay. Well, it's nice to have Nancy here
because um she's next up. Um Nancy
[1:11:37] applied to to fill a vacancy on the
youth commission. We have an open um uh
[1:11:42] seat uh for a representative of the town
of Ulyses. Um and uh uh youth commission
[1:11:49] members were were supportive of your
inclusion. Um and so I'm I'm happy to to
[1:11:54] make pass make this resolution. uh
resolved that the Ulyses Town Board
[1:11:58] appoints uh the following person to
serve as a representative from Ulyses uh
[1:12:05] uh on the Truman Ulyses Youth Commission
through December 31st, 2026. And that
[1:12:11] person is Nancy Zaylor. Thank you very
much for being willing to do that.
[1:12:15] » Um is there a second?
>> Second.
[1:12:17] » Thank you. Um
don't think much discussion is
[1:12:22] necessary, but all those in favor I.
Thank you, Nancy.
[1:12:27] And um after that um Liz would like to
hand off the board of zoning the BZA to
[1:12:34] you Rich. Were you are you willing to
take that? Sure.
[1:12:36] » She's already here for youth commissions
on the date. So she said she's happy to
[1:12:40] stay with planning board. Um but BZA,
you want to hand off BCA?
[1:12:45] » Yep.
>> Off your hand.
[1:12:48] » Great. So, I'll make the motion
>> that the Ulissiz Town Board makes the
[1:12:53] following adjustments to board leaison
positions
[1:12:58] uh replacing um Elizabeth Weatherbe,
with thanks, comma, uh for service on as
[1:13:04] a liaison to the Ulyses Board of Zoning
Appeals and appoint uh Rich Goldman to
[1:13:12] serve through December 31st, 2026.
>> Second. Thank you. All those in favor?
[1:13:21] I. Awesome. Thank you. Okay.
>> Why are we talking about the planning
[1:13:26] board and the ECA? We still have a
vacancy on the planning board, don't we?
[1:13:30] » Uhu.
>> But I think we they've had some
[1:13:32] applications. So I would you should talk
to um the committee and that committee
[1:13:38] of review was Liz Weatherbe and
Carl um
[1:13:44] and so when Liz is not here um because
that would be an executive session
[1:13:48] discussion. I think that that's a direct
conversation you guys could have. We
[1:13:52] have
>> cell phone numbers have a conversation.
[1:13:56] » Okay.
>> She can give you an update.
[1:13:58] » Hard to put Liz in executive session
right now.
[1:14:02] Um but good question. Um okay. Um
upcoming events in addition to the
[1:14:08] meeting tomorrow night. If you want to
attend um at 6 o'clock in village hall
[1:14:11] and fire at EMS.
>> Are you going?
[1:14:13] » Um
>> yes,
[1:14:14] » we have a special town board meeting um
at 9:00 a.m. on September 21st and that
[1:14:20] will be our budget meeting. We're going
to do a single day meeting
[1:14:24] and um then we have the next day our
regular town board meeting on the 22nd.
[1:14:30] Um,
and then we have I don't have any board
[1:14:35] notifications. Uh, budget modifications.
We do have budget modifications.
[1:14:43] I'm happy to walk through. Um,
so the first one in the A fund, um, this
[1:14:52] budget adjustment reflects anticipated
health insurance spending for the
[1:14:54] remainder of the year. the increase
costed due to incurring the cost of a
[1:14:58] family plan rather than the single plan
that was budgeted for in 2026. So, we
[1:15:01] had somebody who chose to go on um to u
health insurance uh for a family plan
[1:15:08] rather than the single plan. Um
the uh the next one
[1:15:16] um this adjustment reflects anticipated
legal costs through the end of the year
[1:15:19] as well as some anticipated contractual
expenditures for our new historian. So,
[1:15:23] the historian was $100. Um, and uh we're
pulling out a contingency more money um
[1:15:28] for the attorney.
Um recreation uh summer camp staff. Um
[1:15:36] it's a it's an increase of $4,200. Uh
this adjustment reflects increased cost
[1:15:41] and personnel for summer camp with the
use of anticipated savings and
[1:15:43] contractual cost covering an overage.
So, camp did get more expensive. It
[1:15:47] simply were just moving stuff around. um
health insurance. Um we have an increase
[1:15:53] of $15,000
uh uh from contingency from our
[1:15:58] contingency benefits line. Um this
budget adjustment reflects anticipated
[1:16:02] health insurance spending through the
main during the year. Uh increased cost
[1:16:05] due to incurring the cost of a family
plan rather than a single plan that was
[1:16:09] budgeted for 2026.
And
[1:16:14] um in the DA, so that was the B fund. in
the DA fund. Um we have um an increase
[1:16:20] in health insurance and it's being
pulled out of maintenance of bridges
[1:16:23] contractual. Um this budget adjustment
reflects anticipated health insurance
[1:16:27] spending through the remainder of the
year. The increased cost is due to
[1:16:30] shifting of the allocation of personnel
and benefits among cost centers and
[1:16:34] funds. Anticipated savings in
engineering costs for bridges will cover
[1:16:38] the overage. Um
and um S SW fund um we had a increase of
[1:16:46] $500.
Um the adjustment reflects anticipated
[1:16:50] spending for purification chemicals
through the end of the year. So any
[1:16:55] questions about that?
Pretty straightforward.
[1:16:59] » Nope.
>> Health insurance. It's expensive.
[1:17:05] » Okay. I will move those um budget
modifications as presented. Is there a
[1:17:09] second?
>> Second.
[1:17:10] » Thank you. All those in favor?
>> I.
[1:17:14] » Okay. Next up is payment of audited
claims. Um do we have two reviewers?
[1:17:19] » Yes.
>> Okay. Thank you.
[1:17:20] » Thank you.
>> Um
[1:17:23] so I'll read the resolution and then if
there's any discussion about anything,
[1:17:27] we can discuss it. um resolved that the
Ulyses Town Board approves payment of
[1:17:31] the following audited claims. Voucher
number 19 in the HA fund totaling 20
[1:17:35] $2,87011
and vouchers number 410 through449 and
[1:17:41] the A through SW funds totaling
$128,33.37.
[1:17:49] » Second.
>> Thank you. Any discussion or questions
[1:17:51] about the vouchers? Uh yeah, some of the
um some of them could use some more
[1:17:57] clarification on there.
>> I'm familiar with them. I've you know
[1:18:02] » would you do you have any ones in
particular?
[1:18:05] » Well, like there was the one survey one
that I pulled out that cursive very
[1:18:09] clear.
>> Oh, the survey. Yeah.
[1:18:11] » Just some of those like there'll be a
invoice for something. There'll be like
[1:18:15] a part number on it so somebody could
just say it's a you know a wheel bearing
[1:18:19] or whatever the heck but can't tell what
some of them are
[1:18:25] » just note for
>> is that something we can do
[1:18:27] » noted. Yeah, sometimes it's just for
hard for us to tell
[1:18:31] » because you don't know either.
>> Yeah, generally they were pretty good
[1:18:35] about writing them on there,
>> but this time I noticed that
[1:18:40] some of them were missing.
>> That's all. Okay, thank you. Um, we have
[1:18:47] a motion and a second. Any further
discussion?
[1:18:50] » Okay. All those in favor?
>> I.
[1:18:54] » Okay. Then go full circle back to put
them to the floor. I will take those out
[1:18:58] of your hands. Thank you.
[1:19:02] » Um, and let me get my timer.
[1:19:08] Okay. Anybody who wishes to address the
town board privilege to the floor?
[1:19:12] » Yes, I do.
>> Okay. come on up this time. I am going
[1:19:14] to set the timer though.
[1:19:19] » Yeah, there's a lot that goes on in this
little town.
[1:19:23] Uh, so my name is Vivian Rose. I still
live at 104 Pennsylvania Avenue in St.
[1:19:28] Jamesburg, New York. And I want to point
out that it's the 175th anniversary of
[1:19:32] the founding of the Union Agricultural
and Horicultural Society of Hector
[1:19:39] Cobber and Ulyses. This year they have
just successfully had an amazing fair
[1:19:45] and um they successfully
showcased not only a historic uh
[1:19:52] traveling uh their
company, the Coleman Brothers, but they
[1:19:59] also uh have had a full barn thanks to
the participation of the
[1:20:11] F the 4F
>> future farmers of America.
[1:20:14] » Yes. Uhhuh. Uh it's thanks to them and
our local reporter said in the Cornell
[1:20:22] University area that this was an
agricultural bear. This predates
[1:20:27] Cornell. It predates the a spool and it
is a treasure. So, I wanted to bring it
[1:20:34] to your attention that this treasure is
sitting on that beautiful property
[1:20:39] across from that Smith Woods. And if
there is any way to preserve and support
[1:20:44] the operation of that as an agricultural
facility for our community, that would
[1:20:52] be one way to undergur our local food
production. M
[1:20:56] » what we see is Denver Derby's parades
with fire trucks that are rural fire.
[1:21:02] That's why that parade was created
support rural fire communities and the
[1:21:07] rides.
But it's the horse poles and the cows
[1:21:15] that are the core of that historic local
community organization. That's three
[1:21:21] county organization. You already know
all this. Would you allow me to write a
[1:21:26] resolution
in honor of that association located in
[1:21:32] the town of Ulyses for this 175th year?
>> Or would you do it yourselves?
[1:21:39] » Um, well, I have a great working
relationship with the president, the new
[1:21:42] president. So, Bill Conway, who works at
DCW as the new president, and I they
[1:21:46] passed him
>> was able to hang out with him for 10:30
[1:21:49] at night on the first night of the fair.
Um, I think a resolution would be great
[1:21:54] if it's done in conjunction with the
fair board because I think that they
[1:21:57] should be a part of that and
>> of course
[1:21:59] » and so if you want to work with them on
that then sounds sounds great.
[1:22:03] » Fantastic. Thank you very much.
[1:22:11] » Okay. Um, anybody else who wishes to
address us on further to the floor?
[1:22:17] » Okay. Well, then give it back to Rich.
Move to adjourn.
[1:22:25] » It's back.
>> I need a second.