Tonight (2018-06-11) was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
As one of my other hats is that of a Zoning Board member, three actions tonight were of particular interest. Two proposed code changes, which will be going to a public hearing (July 16th), and an additional requirement for being on the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).
The code changes are for ‘Permanent Farm Markets’ and Roosters, both of which have come before the ZBA in the recent past. As I haven’t gotten a hold of the actual code verbiage yet, I can’t speak to the details, but the general ideas expressed sounded good. From past events, the language defining ‘Permanent Farm Markets’ was not the best, and this should hopefully clear up those issues, without negatively impacting the existing farmers. I suspect the rooster change will annoy one property owner in particular, but the rest of the town will likely be happier without the noise. Mind you, as the Town attorney pointed out, this is all moot for any farm that has a state agricultural exemption.
The requirement is to have read “ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS, JAMES A. COON LOCAL GOVERNMENT TECHNICAL SERIES“, as can be found at the State’s Local Government Training page. I found this amusing in that I had received a copy of this at training last month. As the date is still at 2005, there should be no difference since last time I read it (or the time before that). Still value in the review, as memory is far from perfect (despite any belief that it is).
It was mentioned that Honeoye Falls is smaller then Niagara Falls. This came up in that the Town has had difficulties with the lights on the falls, and have been talking to the same group that provides lights for Niagara Falls. A little levity at meetings makes some of the tenser topics more manageable.
As anyone driving in the area knows, there are many deer around. The Town collects the road kill, and has previously given them to a company (who’s name I didn’t catch). That company is no longer accepting dead deer, so the Town has to figure out what to do with them. Impacting most municipalities in the area, but we seem to have more cars hitting deer then our neighbors.
There was talk about disposing of an old computer server. I was going to point out, during the public comment time, that it would be prudent to wipe any data on that server before it is disposed of. Just to be safe. Well it sounds like it will be repurposed at the Highway department. As it will still be used by the town, that lessens the need to wipe data now. Down the road, well it can be covered then.
The Town has been trying to work out a sewer agreement with Pittsford, so that a housing development can use Pittsford’s sewer, while the houses themselves are in Mendon. Recently the Village of Honeoye Falls was asked to provide sewer to part of Lima. Different municipalities then tonight, but the same idea. How does one municipality provide an infrastructure service across it’s border? Can it? Should it? Nothing concrete decided tonight, but it was interesting to hear the other side of this idea.
As the ‘old’ library roof is being repaired/replaced, damage to the ‘new’ library roof was noticed. Apparently some ‘kids’ climbed up on the roof a while back and did some damage in the process. Either that damage was greater then initially identified, or it has gotten worse over time. Either way, the Town is looking to have it patched up by the same group working on the ‘old’ library. After all, they are right there doing the same sort of work. Might as well take advantage of the situation.
There is upcoming training for elected officials in how to handle the states tax changes. In particular, how the state has responded to the federal tax changes. There was a sense of ‘no one knows what is going on’, which will hopefully change with time. But it is a shame that a ‘tax problem’ is being fixed with what appears to be a shell game. Anything increasing the complexity of the tax system is a bad idea. Keep It Simple Stupid.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 11, 2018 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Link to agenda on Town website until they update it, losing the past.
Link to agenda stored on this site, for when the town lose their copy.