December 9, 2004
Unadilla Township Regular Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order by Supervisor Peterson at 7:31 p.m. Present: Peterson, Topping, Mahler, Krueger, Cowan. Absent: None. Pledge to flag led by Supervisor. Agenda set as presented. Motion Mahler support Krueger to approve consent agenda items as presented including Minutes of Nov. 11, and payment of bills. Carried. Supervisor explained that he would like to change the format of board meetings, allowing input and questions from the public. The first call to public should be regarding agenda items for the meeting and the second call to public can be about anything. Call to Public: Fireman Dave Curtis corrected the grant amount in the minutes to $27,860 for the FEMA grant. Zoning report: Written report available. Planning Report: Cowan explained that they have been working PUD ordinance and have a preliminary agreement to allow 30% bonus with 50% open space required. Township Planner Enos to put together a preliminary draft for next meeting. Public Safety Report: Police: Chief Cook reports that reserve officers worked 112 hours last month for the township. Two officers will be attending the shop with a cop program at Wal-Mart. He and the board would like to thank Chuck Hertzler and Chris Money for painting the meeting room at the new township hall. They volunteered their time to get this done. Fire Report: Chief Schroeder reports they will be contributing to adopt-a-family again this year. They use money from their fund-raisers to contribute to this each year. He reports that they will be purchasing $6400 worth of air packs, also coming from their fund raising money. They have 2 new firemen enrolled in school till end of March. He also reports that the Christmas lights on the street light poles are quite old and that a few of them no longer work, therefore Unadilla and Plainfield don’t have lights this year. They are looking into purchasing new ones. Action correspondence: Topping reports that we have had 7 people call interested in the Planning Commission, 1 call for the Recreation Committee and no calls for the Board of Review. Topping to try to set up interviews within the next few weeks for all boards. Motion Cowan support Mahler to add grading fee of $50 to the schedule of fees for land use permit for new roads. Roll vote: Ayes, Cowan, Mahler, Peterson, Krueger, Topping. Nay, none. Resolution 12:04-1 approved. Motion Mahler support Topping to change existing escrow language to only allow cash escrow accounts, eliminating the use of bonds for escrow. Roll vote: Ayes, Cowan, Mahler, Peterson, Krueger, Topping. Nay, none. Resolution 12:04-2 approved. Private Road Robinbird Lane. Discussion of private road off Bullis accessing 4 homes. Engineer suggests approval pending maintenance agreement approved by attorney, and all applicable county and state permits received, and a few typo corrections in plan corrected before making it a permanent township record. Motion Peterson support Topping, discussion of whether this must adhere to new ordinance or continue under old ordinance since original plan was from Nov of 03. He has been waiting for engineer reviews etc. Motion carried. Police department budget: Peterson concerned that police department is currently over budget. With the cut backs in revenue sharing over the years and the threat of more revenue sharing cuts. He recommends we cut the secretarial position at the police department. He explained that this was originally funded by a grant and has for the last few years been funded by general fund money. After much discussion Peterson moved supported by Krueger to eliminate this position effective January 1, 2005. Opposed Cowan, Motion Carried. Reduction of Township clerical hours. Peterson again stated that the budget needs trimming and that we can eliminate Wednesday morning hours, as they really are not busy anymore. Krueger stated that the extra hours were once needed because we were very busy with sewer issues, since that is now resolved he feels we can cut some. Mahler stated that she may need some extra help during some of the tax season, but that could be on a need be basis. Cowan concerned that we need to offer some evening hours to supplement and be accessible to public. Currently we have 2 office secretaries staffing Tues. and Thurs. and 1 secretary staffing Wednesday mornings. On Tuesday the clerk, treasurer, assessor, zoning administrator and supervisor are in the office, on Thursdays the treasurer, and supervisor are in the office and on Saturday the Zoning administrator, clerk, supervisor and treasurer are in the office till noon. Motion Peterson support Krueger that we have only one office secretary 2 days per week, and any additional hours needed the supervisor will supplement covering phones etc. effective immediately. Opposed Cowan. Motion Carried. Final call to public: Discussion on covering police desk and patrol hours. Motion Krueger support Topping to adjourn at 8:25 p.m. Carried.
Linda Topping, Clerk