Submitted by Jim Goldstein, Town Supervisor
(Randallsville, NY – Oct. 2013) The Lebanon Town Board will hold its October monthly meeting on Monday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Smith Valley Community Center in Randallsville on River Road.
The public is invited to attend.
Items on the agenda include:
1. Resolution of a proposal to contract with Delta Engineering to finalize a road use law in the township that would protect town roads from high impact utilizing the firm’s road engineering services that have been implemented by 52 towns and two counties in the southern tier of Upstate New York. Town Attorney Steven Jones will be present to review the original road use proposal he developed for the town that a public hearing was held on in the spring and his reasons for recommending the Delta law after more review due to its combination of legal and engineering elements that he views as much more defensible in any court action. The draft resolution is attached. The law utilizing Delta would cost $10,000 to be implemented but will be reduced to $7,900 if Lebanon agrees to this approach and joins with the towns of Hamilton and Brookfield, who have already voted to pursue a road use law with Delta and were anticipating Lebanon would be the third partner to reduce costs for all who have adjacent townships and similar concerns. Brookfield is expected to extend its own natural gas development moratorium in preparation to implement the law.
Supervisor Jim Goldstein introduced the measure at the August 12, 2013 town board meeting, which was seconded by Council Wilcox. Board members Lois Hartshorn, Carol King and Marie Morgan issued multiple objections to the proposal so the matter was tabled pending review of the proposal by Attorney for the Town Steven Jones, who recommended the Delta proposal as being in the best legal interest of the town after having drafted a prior road use law (on the town’s website) that he said he now felt was not strong enough. Highway Superintendent Alex Hodge, after reviewing the Delta proposal (resolution attached), said he favored it because of the engineering backup it would provide his office for documentation when disputes with developers arise as they have in the past. The town currently has a road repair agreement with Norse Energy and its successors that only provides for a $25,000 bond and which Goldstein and Hodge have noted is inadequate for protecting town given the difficulties encountered in the past and the new potential types of drilling and pipeline activity anticipated for the township. Emkey, the successor to Norse, was asked to raise the bond to a minimum of $100,000 but has declined to do so up to this date. Goldstein has pointed out to the town board multiple times how close a call the town had getting Vosburgh Road repaired to the tune of $82,500 and how Norse delayed for nearly a year, was in the process of pulling out and going bankrupt to the tune of $100 million as a gas development entity and taxpayers were almost on the hook for what would have amounted to 17 percent increase in property taxes because the town lacked a law that would have ensured payment prior to any drilling activity and road impacts. Goldstein said he and Supt Hodge have concurred that after many difficulties securing road repairs under the existing structure the town has in place, the road use law with Delta was their best recommendation as well.
2. Discussion with Time Warner cable officials of their proposal for service expansion to the Lebanon Reservoir – Reservoir Road/Geer Road/Lakeshore drive area and the cost of increasing expansion to other parts of the township.
3. Adoption of the preliminary 2014 town budget and setting budget hearing and workshop dates.
4. Discussion of the final audit results of the Office of the State Comptroller regarding former Justice John Bartlett.
5. Reviewing a junkyard law violation by HR Refuse that has yet to be resolved by the company.
6. Discussion of options for applying for a Certificate of Need for ambulance services in the township to ensure continuation of the Georgetown Ambulance service area due to state Department of Health bureaucratic requirements.
7. Natural gas development updates – Emkey Resources is now drilling in neighboring Smyrna.
8. Updates on the likely 2014 Madison County budget tax cap override.
At the Sept. 9, 2013 town board meeting, Lebanon officials took the following actions:
*Re-appointed Assessor Brian Fitts for another six year term after reviewing favorable reports from the public.
*Adopted a resolution to seek a Justice Court Assistance Program grant through the office of Justice Bryan Forsythe that would seek $11,700 in state court funds to address furniture, storage, heating system, supplies and equipment, and assist in repairs of the Justice Office heating system which has had major problems with excessive heat use for years.
*Approved fund transfers and resolutions to address changes in the highway road plan to accommodate upfront costs related to FEMA flood repair reimbursement. FEMA officials were in Lebanon Oct. 8 with Highway Superintendent Alex Hodge inspection all repair sites.
*Adopted a resolution agreeing to adhere to the 1.6 percent tax cap state imposed limit for 2014.
*Discussed the former Town Justice audit and status of missing funds.
*Reviewed consideration for increasing bookkeeping costs due to increased time required for state and federal requirements and the frequency of FEMA related record keeping.
Supervisor Goldstein will discuss the tentative and preliminary budgets with town officials at the Oct. 14 meeting. The synopsis of the budget is below.
1. The tax levy will increase less than 1.6 percent to be in compliance with the state tax cap although I believe that given our no tax increase performance of five out of the last six years, we would be entitled to increase the budget and still be in compliance should the Town Board want to consider that. I would note, however, that Madison County is anticipating a very difficult budget year and will have to exceed the tax cap while still anticipating significant cuts to services.
2. The major increases in the General Fund portion are due to anticipated bookkeeping expense increases, state retirement, workers comp, anticipated increases in legal fees based on the pattern of the last few years (related to Code Enforcement and natural gas development issues), a slight increase in the Assessor salary due to increased parcels, and an increase in the Cemetery Association requests.
3. The major increases in the Highway Fund portion of the budget are due to an anticipated 50 cent per hour increase for full time highway employees, a Bond Anticipation Note for the Pay Loader that will be due in January and paying off the new 2011 Stadium International heavy duty highway truck. Highway Superintendent Hodge will request that we acquire another Heavy Duty Highway Truck for 2014 (bonding would start the payment cycle again in 2015) and he is looking at Mack trucks on state bid as he is not happy with how the state bid Stadium Internationals have been working out, and the 20 year truck has become a 10 year truck now due to the use of imported recycled steel from China in the construction. We also see increases in state retirement and workers comp in Highway. The big shift is money from Machinery/Equipment to BAN principal and interest to account for the two Bond Anticipation Note payments we expect for 2014 – $22,000 for the Pay Loader plus interest and $43,000 for the last year of the 2011 Stadium International plus interest.
4. We have seen a drop in our tax base from $82,566,106 in assessed valuation for taxes to $80,589,861. This drop is due to falling gas production revenues.
5. Our proposed tax levy of $361,422 is $5,229 or 1.46 percent higher than in 2013 when it was $356,193. Our tax rate is projected at $4.485 or $.351 higher than in 2013 when it was $4.314. This means the average $100,000 assessed home in Lebanon will pay $448.50 in town taxes vs. $431.40 in 2013 or about $17 more.
6. Total fire and ambulance district costs are projected to be $250 less than in 2013.
7. Sales tax is up about $7,000 from 2013 to help offset spending increases.
8. I am estimating we will have $133,000 left over in our 2013 General Fund budget alone at the end of 2013 due to the significant influx of $99,216.30 in Mortgage Tax payments related to natural gas asset transfers in our town between Norse and Emkey. This is a conservative estimate.
9. I estimate we could have $50,000 remaining in the Highway Fund at the end of the year but this is a harder one to call given the FEMA reimbursement is not clear and there are other factors. We are already about $32,000 over anticipated revenues and the big question is whether we have a difficult November and December weather wise but the one person plow and salt brine program appear to be saving money. We will have to fully reassess this after a full year of operation.
The town budget was submitted to the Town Clerk on Sept. 30, 2013 in accordance with town law and has been submitted to all town board members for review prior to the meeting.
Reserves will allow the town to offset budget costs with unrestricted fund balance and to consider how much of a down payment to make on highway equipment expenditures that are anticipated. The Town proposed road use law with Delta, if adopted, would reduce those costs from $10,000 to $7,900 and Delta will permit a three to five year payment plan and implementation for any town dependent on its budget needs. Lebanon just received over $99,000 in mortgage tax fees last spring, the majority related to the Norse Energy-Emkey asset transfer, so Supervisor Goldstein has stated that there are more than adequate funds to cover the cost of this implementation at no impact on the tax levy.
For more information, contact Supervisor Goldstein at 837-4152.