SYRACUSE – At the monthly Syracuse Town Council meeting Tuesday, appointments to Syracuse positions for 2017 were discussed and approved.
Positions approved were: Vern Landis, town attorney; James Layne, town marshal; Jeff Nicodemus, park board; Jerry Riffle and Rob Merchant, tree board; Joe Leatherman and Ben Plikerd, Syracuse Board of Zoning and Appeals; Tom Hoover and Larry Martindale, fire territory board; and Larry Siegel, Paul Stoelting, Ernie Rogers, Dan Van Lue and Henry DeJulia, Syracuse Redevelopment. The council also passed a motion to recommend Randy Cox to an open position on the fire territory board.
Council President Larry Siegal nominated Hoover as 2017 town council president. Hoover then appointed Bill Musser as vice president. The council approved all appointees.
Public Works Superintendent Rob Merchant presented the 2017 water and wastewater budgets for approval. The budget for the water department was higher due to maintenance costs.
On the wastewater side, the town electricity allotment was substantially higher for 2017 due to changes to the wastewater plant put into place over the summer. Merchant explained that the power usage to date is already $24,000 over the amount from last year. The wastewater plant went from paying costs for one unit to a proposed use of four units that use twice as much energy as the old units. “My recommendation is that we find something else. We can’t keep throwing money away at something that may or may not work,” said Merchant. “Because we’re looking at potentially up to $35,000 to $40,000 more per year just in electric use. And that’s if it works. We could buy new equipment in eight to 10 years with that sort of expenditures.”
Merchant noted that he contacted Triad and asked them if they would send the other two equipment manufacturers the updated data that should have been sent out originally with the peaking factors.
“Aeration Industries tried to do what they could,” he said, “but based on the information that they have now, which should have been the information they had originally, their original proposal was shy by 40 to 50 percent of what we needed with their equipment.” Merchant explained that now that Aeration industries has the data it was originally supposed to have, the specifications it is coming up with would have been something that wouldn’t have been considered as an option for Syracuse due to the costs involved.
The council moved to pass the budgets for 2017 and agreed that the issue needed to be addressed with Landis.
Layne asked for an amendment to Ordinance 2013-3, which regulates town pier rights of way. Park Superintendent Chad Jonsson explained that the original ordinance had allowed for the parks department and the police department to share the duties around town piers. The amendment was to give all responsibility to the police department. The council passed the motion approving the amendment.
Layne also asked to be able to install a four-way stop sign in the alleyway beside Syracuse Hardware, south of West Main Street. He had received complaints on the dangerous nature of the crossing. The council approved the installation.
Hoover asked Layne if there was a town ordinance regarding keeping chickens and ducks, due to there being a property near him in which 20 ducks are being raised. Layne responded that keeping farm animals is not allowed in city limits.
Jonsson reported that the Syracuse ice rink is open, and Clerk-Treasurer Paula Kehr-Wicker announced that the town hall will be closed Friday through Monday.
(BY JUDE STRIEBY-RASKA, Times-Union Correspondent)
