Supervisor Golden called the Public Hearing to Amend the Wind Farm Moratorium to order at 6:20 P.M. In attendance: Supervisor Golden, Councilmen Johnson, Schreib, Madill and Countryman, attorney Gebo Zoning Enforcement Officer Suzann Cornell, Assessor Sandy Cornell, Bookkeeper Gotham, Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Harry Staudenmayer, Historian and Cemetery Supervisor Julia Gosier, Superintendent Tom Parker, Deputy Superintendent Jim Price and Clerk Kim Wallace.

Article 1. – Statement of Authority. The Town Board of the Town of Lyme, pursuant to the authority granted it under Article 16 of the Town Law and sections 10 and 20 of the Municipal Home Rule Law of the state of New York, hereby enacts as follows:

Article 2. – Statement of Purpose and Findings. The Town Board of the Town of Lyme has previously adopted a six-month moratorium regarding wind power generating facilities. There has been some question raised as to the breadth of that moratorium with respect to related wind power generating activities. It is the purpose of this local law to amend the definition of wind generating facilities in that local law establishing the moratorium to provide a broader scope.

Article 3. – Enactment. The Town Board of the Town of Lyme does hereby amend previously enacted Local Law #1 of 2007 establishing a six month moratorium on wind power generating facilities to amend the definition in Section 1 of that Law which definition, as amended, will read as follows:

Section 1. Definitions

Article 4. - Severability. If any part of this Chapter shall be found to be void, void able or unenforceable for any reason whatsoever, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any remaining section or provision of this Chapter.

Article 5. – Effective Date. This local law shall take effect immediately upon filing with the secretary of State.

Julia Gosier asked what the purpose of the change was considering that there are only two months left on the moratorium that is currently in place.

Councilman Schreib answered by stating that when the original moratorium that was issued by the Town Board did not consider metering towers or transmission lines. These issues were neglected to be part of the Local Law. It is the consensus of the whole Town Board to amend the law for clarity and the importance of acknowledging all aspects of this issue.

The Public Hearing was closed at 6:25 p.m.

The Regularly Scheduled August Monthly Town Board Meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. Supervisor Golden opened the meeting with a Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

A Motion was made by Supervisor Golden and seconded by Councilman Madill to go into Executive Session at 6:35 p.m. and the Meeting was called back to order at 6:43 p.m.

Hester Chase and Kris Kirch took a few minutes to introduce the idea of Municipal Power. They gave a 10 minute synopsis of research they had done regarding what it would entail for the Town to consider it’s own generation of electricity throughout the community. They feel that green renewable energy is important. Wind is truly a resource and BP is not our last option.

Superintendent Parker there is a possibility that the Highway Department may have to purchase a sander before winter. The one they have now is in bad shape; the bottom has basically fallen out. The new sander would go on truck #145, Ron Cheal’s, although it is interchangeable.

Superintendent Parker continued with suggesting to the Board that he would like to put modified binder on 6/10 of a mile on the Three Mile Point Road and 3/10 of a mile on the Cheever Road.

In continuation, he requested that the Town Board consider a new loader for the Highway Department. The existing 1997 Loader is “on its way out and is the heart and sole of the Highway Department”. It’s showing signs of aging and getting weak. A brand new loader would be approximately $122,000.00. The trade in value of the existing loader would be between $20,000.00 and $25,000.00.

The Highway Department, in conjunction with the Cape, has just completed a mile of the Valley Road (County Route 6). They turned in approximately $35,000.00 and will soon be getting paid for that project.

The cost of salt has gone up $6.93 per ton. American Salt has gotten the bid this year and we will be paying $41.98 this year compared to $35.05 per ton last year. The Town of Lyme uses between 1200 and 1400 ton per year. This increase will affect the Highway Budget.

There is a good chance that Jim Price will be retiring in September. If this occurs, Mike Allyn would go to a full time position. The full Board will meet with Tom regarding the situation in a private meeting.

Councilman Schreib asked Tom what the status was on the Bates drainage situation. Tom has been in contact with all parties involved and he will be addressing the matter in a few weeks. He does not feel it will take much to get the pipe in place.

Superintendent Parker has continued work on the Morris Track Ball Field. He has not been able to complete the project. He had worked on parking lot, infield and fence.

The Madison Street Paving Project with the Village will take about three days.

Councilman Schreib suggested to Tom the Cornell Program. They help determine a plan for future paving and roadwork. The Cornell methodology basically classifies the roads and different conditions then determining what needs to be paved in a rotating schedule; helping future budgets and work schedules. Tom stated that he would classify the road conditions and get back to the Board with the information.

Bookkeeper Gotham reported that during the month of July we received almost $200,000.00 for our quarterly sales tax. That was up approximately $11,000.00 over last year.

Budget requests will be going out by August 20^th and expected back in by September 20^th.

Councilman Schreib asked Roz to create some account numbers that could be put in the budget for the Shared Services, a place to collect the costs when we share services back and forth. That will be for the Highway and Buildings.

Councilman Schreib reported on the recycling of computer ink cartridges. There will be a collection box at the transfer site for the used cartridges to be disposed of. The Town will be reimbursed at least $1.00 for each recycled cartridge.

Supervisor Golden stated that we have only received one bid for the retaining wall at the Transfer Site.

Councilman Schreib reported that we now have a complete set of emails that will be published in the Lyme Light and the Web Site. Anyone involved with the Town will now have an email address. They will need to get information from the Clerk; email address and password.

Suzann Cornell introduced everyone to Roger Covey, he is being recommended by her, as the new Deputy Zoning Officer. Mr. Covey resides on Three Mile Point, moving there permanently approximately one year ago. He is originally from the Town of Brownville, Pillar Point. He has spent 30 years of his life working for Westinghouse, as a manager, as a construction specialist. He feels this opportunity will give him a good chance to keep his fingers in it and stay active.

Councilman Schreib and Countryman will schedule an interview session with Mr. Covey prior to him being officially appointed.

ZEO Cornell submitted a written copy of the July’s Zoning Report. See attached document.

Sandy Cornell reported that historically in July and August they wrap up their paperwork and will be starting right after Labor Day to do their fieldwork again.

There is still a problem with the supply line going into Fern Comins’ house. The Board had agreed to have that repaired and as of today it still has not been done. Bill Scarpcchi had been authorized to do the work. If he cannot do the work himself, Travis Fulmer could be hired for the job. The Water Board will make certain that this project is completed.

ZBA – report submitted by Harry Staudenmayer – see attached document.

Julia Gosier reported that last month a bill from the Hardware Store was brought to her attention, he did not belong to the cemetery account. It has been straightened out.

Last month councilman Schreib asked about the balance in the Cemetery Budget. The reason it looked as it did was because the Cemetery has two accounts, the checking and savings. Money is not transferred from the savings account until needed.

Julie was personally given the original blue prints for the old Chaumont lift bridge. She decided that she did not have a place for them in her own home so she decided to have them archivaly framed and hung this afternoon. The money did come out of her Historian’s expense account for the framing. These are very important documents that are a good addition to our collection here. There is a blue print of the actual lift bridge that was built in 1911 and stood until 1956. The small pictures are also of the actual bridge. These bridges were extremely rare, there weren’t that many of them around. Having the original blue prints for it is a real find. The other blue print was submitted in 1901 to for rebuilding the old lift bridge, which had been built in 1859. That design was never used.

RidgeviewTel – When RidgeviewTel was here about a month ago, the Town Board set up two conditions. First, they would be able to service the whole Town and secondly it was contingent upon Attorney Gebo’s approval.

Attorney Gebo had some concerns and feels conflicted about the contact. Every place Ridgeview has gone and done this they have done good work, they have been responsive, good to work with both before and after the fact. They have a track history that is very good. The contract is written very much one way. Attorney Gebo feels we should change it a little bit. We need to be sure that what they will be putting on the water tower is not going to interfere, do damage to or cause any addition maintenance. As far as he can tell wherever else they have been located this has not been a problem. We will still need to address these items in the contract. Access must be given to tower 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We have to be clear whether or not the road has to be cleared to the tower. Ridgeview has the right to terminate at any time. The return for this is basically free Internet service at specified locations. They have been very good about adding to the list.

One thing that does bother Mark a little bit is the fact that they can sign their rights under the contract at any time to any one else. Which means that you could sign a contract with them today and tomorrow you are working with somebody totally different. The next party may not be as responsive as Ridgeview. The contract also indicated that they could make whatever improvements to the site, not needing any prior approvals. The interference section is backward, saying that if anything on the tower is in their way they can move it. Insurance should be addressed.

The contract should be tweaked. Attorney Gebo will address the matter, make the changes and send them to Ridgeview.

Will County be paying for the electricity used?

The Town needs definitive plans for covering the Town in its entirety with the service.

Judy Tyndall reported that the Planning Board had sent out over 2300 wind surveys. They went out Friday afternoon. She was totally amazed at the number of taxpayers who did not live here. The deadline had been extended to August 30^th. Once the responses come back they will be entered into a database. The residents of the Community are looking for more information to help them formulate their own decisions.

Dick Nagel commended the Town Board and Community for what they are doing. It is nice to see a real process where all of the inputs are there. He would like to compliment the Board for what they have done. He didn’t think it was a wise idea in the beginning but now he thinks it’s absolutely super.

Bruce Kingsley referring to the survey. Wanted to know if the board approved the survey prior to it going out. The Board answered, yes they did approve of it. He had a problem with question #9 regarding ambient noise and he felt it was bias. He felt they should have clarified the information before the surveys went out. He objects to that.

Bill Brown stated that one of the wind power companies wanted to put a test tower on his property. There was nothing in our moratorium that said they couldn’t. The permit for the tower was given before the moratorium was changed. The permit was rescinded and he wondered why.

Councilman Madill answered by saying how would people perceive the Board if they let people start the work toward a wind farm while the moratorium was in place.

Mr. Brown asked how the Wind Farm companies could collect information if they couldn’t get an extremely vital piece of equipment operating. This project means money in his pocket.

Councilman Schreib answered by stating that the intent of the Board was that anything to do with wind power would not be acted on.

Julia Gosier feels the audit is extremely overdue and she has heard nothing about it.

Councilman Schreib stated that Marsha had sent out several letters to auditors around the North Country.

Julie also had concerns with the wind surveys. Multiple landowners got more than one survey and some got none. She is aware that the process can’t be perfect. She feels it is important to use the ideas from the surveys. She went on to say that she felt the surveys were very biased and sensationalized, many others feel the same way. People walked out of the meeting at the school, in disgust when Paul Carr did his presentation. The Town needs to get more accurate information to the public.

Bruce Kingsley felt the sound could have been done differently; let the public decide on the decibel level. The pictures of the towers falling down and broken, ice chunks flying off and hitting school buses are an over dramatization.

Dave Henderson worked in aerospace for 23 years. Felt the presentation was lacking. Parts of Paul Carr’s presentation were very good. He does support wind towers in the right place.

Judy Tyndall said that ice flying of them is not a concern due to the fact that they shut down automatically with ice build up.

Tina Feheringer suggested that people interested in seeing the wind towers, visit Maple ridge Wind Farm, they will give you a tour.

Peggy Boshart asked if once the surveys are completed will the information be published? After the Moratorium is over what rights will there be for people to come in and put up towers?

Councilman Schreib replied by saying that the whole idea of the moratorium was to get zoning regulations into affect and address the towers. The whole idea is to have a set of rules and regulations to go by. Clayton and St Lawrence County had some that we used as a model.

Don Metzger has three concerns. He would like to see the Board take into consideration the adversity that the blasting of the foundations for the towers can have on private wells, many people from the Community depend on them. BP is the second largest oil company on the planet. They could afford to do some testing before and after the blasting. This process can adversely affect wells. If they would like to use our neighborhood for generating electricity they should consider this.

BP should designate 1600’ radius delineation around the base of the towers. Whatever would be appropriate for ice throw or shed for safety purposes. Maybe they could place orange sticks at the outer edge of the radius.

Mr. Metzger hopes that the Town Fathers will make it clear to BP that we will not accept any loss or degradation of TV or radio signals, AM or FM in homes, offices or cars. We should not accept any loss of cell phone service for the importance of Highway trucks or school buses. They should take a survey of all magnetic radiation of the whole town before and after. The signals were here long before we ever considered wind power. Signals may change daily. Signal strengths should be tested at all different points of the compass. Blades change direction every day.

Sandy Cornell has attended several Planning Board meetings and she feels the Board deserves a great deal of credit for getting the surveys done and they worked hard getting them in the mail. Maybe the surveys aren’t perfect but the Planning Board deserves a big hand.

Councilman Johnson echoed the sentiment. Everyone has done a great job with a difficult issue. He feels they came up with a good finished product.

Tina Feheringer asked if the Board had considered the proposal for opening committee spots for seasonal residents. The Town Board had decided they would not allow this. She feels it is ridiculous due to the fact that over 50% of the taxpayers are seasonal.