Town of Vienna

Town Board Meeting Minutes

April 2, 2025

 

ATTENDANCE:

Supervisor Michael Davis

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen

Councilman Darrin Smith

Councilman Jason Spellicy

Councilman Jason Lamb was absent

Town Clerk Carol Huber

 

CALL TO ORDER:

Supervisor Davis called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

 

NOCCOG: Lisa Bellinger

Tug Hill has created a reference Guide and will bring copies to the next meeting. NY State announced $90 million in funding for the Roadway Departure Safety Action Plan. $10 million can be used by local governments to support the development of a Local Road Action Plan/Local Safety Action Plan. GPS mapping services are offered to municipalities of Oneida County for free. NYS Association of Towns’ annual Town Finance School is April 22-24. NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation announced a new grant program to fund the development and improvement of municipal parks and recreation sites. NOCCOG Scholarship program is continuing in 2025. A student from Camden could receive $500 upon the successful completion of their first college semester. The Oneida County Housing Report in now out to view. All Municipal corporations are required to have a .gov domain name for their website and there are certain basic requirements each website needs to have. Material from the Tug Hill Conference will be uploaded for everyone to view.

 

COUNTY LEGISLATURE: Norman Leach

Norman Leach was absent. Mary Beth McEwen attended the Legislator meeting in March and gave updates on the meeting. The Board of Legislators filed a law suit for a temporary restraining order against Governor Hochal’s order to not hire all the Corrections Officers that did not return to work, which passed and Oneida County already hired 3 Corrections Officers. The 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution is coming up. Oneida County authorized the Town of Clinton to have a dedicated Road Patrol at $170,000 for 96 hours/week with one patrol car.

 

CONSTABULRY PRESENTATION: 7:10 pm to 7:56 pm

James Hite and Chief Mallory conducted a presentation to show a little more information on costs to start up road patrol in Vienna. According to 911, there were 1041 call in 2023 and 932 calls in 2024 in Vienna alone. Chief Redden from Camden has received grants to pay 100% of a couple of Police Cars for Camden. Some Equipment they would need to purchase would be vests, stun gun, handcuffs, baton, Glock 17 w/magazines and 60 rounds per year. DWI training will be needed. Equipment for sobriety could be used from another Town. Start up budget would be $150,000 with the possibility to be lowered with grant money. According to the Vienna Assessor, it could cost $87.94 per $100,00 assessed value per home for the year. Board Members reminded everyone these meetings are informational because there was an interest from residents that are having issues with speeding on certain roads. There will be more meetings this year.

 

Questions and responses that were discussed were:

What about a holding facility? Answer was to work with Sylvan Beach and/or Oneida County.

Will traffic tickets come to Vienna Court and how much does the Town get? Answer was yes and less than 20%.

Who will be the Boss? Answer was Chief Matt Mallory who would be paid by the hour.

Who would cover costs of accidents or incidents? Answer was insurance would cover from vehicle to any incident.

What is the yearly income of residents? Answer was $45,000.

Who calls off a Police chase? Answer was SOP/Chief. SOP’s can be adjusted. Some cities have no chase policies.

Can the speed humps be moved around? Answer was it can be discussed.

Will you get called outside of Town? Answer was that SOP’s can be restrictive.

Will taxes still go up if we receive grant money? Answer was this will need to be looked into more.

Should we go with speed signs equipped with cameras that sends tickets because patrol is only 8 hours?

James explained that cameras have no discression, but I do and I can move to separate roads.

Would this go to a Referendum by Public Vote during an election because a Public Hearing wouldn’t give enough feedback? Answer was it would be looked into.

 

Comments:

The Town will not have 24 hours coverage and is not in favor of raising taxes.

Incomes are not going up and we are taxed enough as it is. Residents are struggling.

Kimball road has motorcycles speeding all hours of the day or night, would like speed limit lowered.

Other Towns used to have private patrols and have gotten rid of them because the costs are too much.

State Troopers have been asked to drive other roads other than Route 13 when traveling from Sylvan Beach to Camden. Maybe the Town can ask the State Police Troopers to travel other roads when traveling.

This service is applicable to the Town as a whole. It wouldn’t be fair that one neighbor is paying more than the other when getting the same service. Can payments be split more evenly?

What does property value have to do with personal safety? Answer was this will not be a special district. It will be paid from the General Fund which gets split by tax payers.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

A motion was made by Councilmen Spellicy and seconded by Councilman Smith to approve the March 5, 2025 Town Board Minutes.

Voting Record: Motion Carried

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen Aye

Councilman Darrin Smith Aye

Councilman Jason Spellicy Aye

Councilman Jason Lamb Absent

Supervisor Michael Davis Aye

 

AUDITED VOUCHERS:

A motion was made by Councilman Spellicy and seconded by Councilman Smith to approve Abstract 04 of 2025 vouchers to be paid in the amount of $117,527.91

Voting Record: Motion Carried

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen Aye

Councilman Darrin Smith Aye

Councilman Jason Spellicy Aye

Councilman Jason Lamb Absent

Supervisor Michael Davis Aye

 

SUPERVISOR'S REPORT:

Supervisor's Report is filed in the Town Clerk's office and will be posted on the Web Site.

 

TOWN CLERK'S REPORT:

Town Clerk read her report. Monies received for the month totaled $ 2569.53. Taxes remaining to collect are $711,449.41 which will be turned over to Oneida County.

A motion was made by Councilman Smith and seconded by Councilwoman McEwen to approve the Town Clerk report.

Voting Record: Motion Carried

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen Aye

Councilman Darrin Smith Aye

Councilman Jason Spellicy Aye

Councilman Jason Lamb Absent

Supervisor Michael Davis Aye

 

 

She asked the Board if they would approve the harassment & discrimination policy and workplace violence that were handed out to Board Members last meeting. Councilman Smith made a motion to approve the policies that were updated and Councilman Spellicy seconded the motion.

 

Voting Record: Motion Carried

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen Aye

Councilman Darrin Smith Aye

Councilman Jason Spellicy Aye

Councilman Jason Lamb Absent

Supervisor Michael Davis Aye

 

The Town Clerk will continue working on updating the Handbook and update at the next meeting.

 

ASSESSOR’S REPORT:

Assessor’s Report is filed in the Clerk’s office and will be posted on the Web Site.

 

CODE’S REPORT:

Codes Report is filed in the Clerk’s office and will be posted on the Web Site.

 

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:

Superintendent Conover reported that the highway has been patching potholes, sweeping roads, fixing minor repairs and the mini split unit was installed, the generator was installed but not finished yet.

He inspected the old Preston Hill Road and a lot of trees need cleaned up, pavement is missing because it has not been maintained in quite a while.

 

COUNCIL REPORTS:

Councilwoman McEwen- The Oneida County Planning Board published the housing report. It was reported that there is a potential for a housing shortage in the future. You can find it on line at OCGOV/housing survey.

 

Councilman Smith- Attended the Planning Board Meeting which had a few Public Hearings. He attended a meeting for the Old Homes Days scheduled for August 2 at the Fireman’s field. He asked if the Town can pay $3000 towards the Fireworks Display.

 

Councilman Smith made a motion to pay $3000 towards the Fireworks Display and Councilman Spellicy seconded the motion.

Voting Record: Motion Carried

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen Aye

Councilman Darrin Smith Aye

Councilman Jason Spellicy Aye

Councilman Jason Lamb Absent

Supervisor Michael Davis Aye

 

We need to look at Air BNBs zoning and inspections and maybe changing the Local Laws.

 

Councilman Spellicy-NY law passed in January to pay bed taxes from registered short-term rentals. Now even a single room is taxable and more than 3 units have to be occupied full time. The Town of Verona will be looking into this. Old Forge has revamped their laws. Remember that demolition permits are required and important for the Assessor if buildings need removed from your tax parcel. Councilman Spellicy read a letter to be sent to Senator Schumer’s office for more funding of the Far East Water District. The Post Office engineers report had mentioned 4x about asbestos, but was not tested. If the entire floor was recovered with a new floor, it would cost $10,000. The total amount of the estimate of construction is $45,000 with inflation rate of 10%, incidentals and a contingency. A 5-10 year program would be around $63,257.60.

 

Supervisor Davis- The Postal Service has not responded and is still paying the rent. They must have paid for the $7,000 toilette. We received an application for the Comprehensive Plan Committee. If we do not receive anymore, then we will just go with the two volunteers from Planning Board, 2 from the ZBA, and 2 from the Board.

 

 

OLD BUSINESS:

Post Office was reported earlier by Jason Spellicy.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

New Far East Water District Bond Resolution

Supervisor Davis read through the Article 12 Bond Resolution; Establishment Proceedings done by Town Counsel.

A motion was made by Councilman Spellicy to accept the Bond Resolution and Councilman Smith seconded the motion.

Voting Record: Motion Carried

Councilwoman Mary Beth McEwen Aye

Councilman Darrin Smith Aye

Councilman Jason Spellicy Aye

Councilman Jason Lamb Absent

Supervisor Michael Davis Aye

 

Paperwork will need to be sent to the New York State and published in the newspaper.

 

Old Preston Hill Road

A resident is asking to find out where the right of ways are, to be able to put power line polls in with National Grid, he gave the Board information that he found on the history of the road. One concern is, will the Town have to put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the road to fix the road because it has not been taken care of. The roads should be 18-20 feet and then the right of ways on the sides of the road need cleared.

 

Supervisor Davis said if it was to be abanded, then everybody who has a property around it, now would have shared easements. The Town Attorney, Evan Rossi, is looking over the information to determine what is going on with the road.

 

Sandy Zorn said that the County has it as an open Road.

 

PUBLIC CONCERNS/COMMENTS:

Dr. Carriann Ray attended the Camden Town meeting where they talked about the Lamprey and Eel abatement. Councilman Lamb also attended the meeting. Dr. Ray said that the Queen Central has an article in the newspaper about the meeting. This is for anyone who has property along Fish Creek or Little River. A Canadian Company comes here to put toxic chemicals in our water to kill eggs. The Company did not know that residents along these waters have wells they use to drink from. There is no communication happening. They have been dumping the chemical along Preston Hill Road into the waterway. The head of the program is located in Michigan. They openly admitted they are not notifying anyone like they are suppose to. Fish Creek had 2 rounds of chemicals and residents have not been able to have their water tested. Testing is not being done. DEC hired a company to do a job and nobody has informed anyone. I have been interviewed by a local tv channel and participated in a POD CAST, which can be posted on your website and have been in contact with Erin Brockovich’s Company.

 

Jason Lamb is going to work with Mr. Christmas from Camden and contact the DEC.

 

Brian Kirch (Vienna Farmers Market) will be at the North Bay Fireman’s Field starting May 8^th from 2:00 to 6:30 pm. There will be cookouts, music, food presentations, and vendors. They would be interested in working with the community garden with youth groups to learn to grow vegetables and have a road side stand to sell. He asked if we can post his flyer on our website.

 

Rick Roberts asked what happened with the sand hauling bill last meeting. Clayton Conover explained that it was so busy they needed extra haulers.

 

Mike Piper if the comprehensive plan members will be given a copy of the plan. Answer was yes they will and it is also on the website. There will be informational meetings for the public before it will be adopted by the Town Board.

 

Mrs. Ackerman had submitted a letter to Supervisor Davis to lower a speed limit on a State Road. Supervisor Davis explained that it can take 2 years to do a study.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION: Not entered

 

ADJOURNMENT:

Councilman Spellicy made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:06 pm and Councilwoman McEwen seconded and all were in favor.

 

Respectfully,

Carol L Huber

Carol L Huber

Town Clerk