Penn Yan village budget is up slightly

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Penn Yan village budget is up slightly PENN YAN—The first portion of the April 21 meeting of the Penn Yan village board was devoted to budgets for the upcoming year. Information on those matters is included in a separate article. Following public hearings on the budgets, trustees moved into the regular agenda. A public hearing on revisions to the village sewer use law drew no comments. • The annual Little League parade at 10 a.m. May 2 was approved. Parade route will be from the boat launch area off Keuka Street to Elm Street and the ball fields. Games will start about 11 a.m. • Trustees approved a request from Wendy Warren and the Helping us Build Better Assets (HUBBA) from Penn Yan Central School District to clean and spruce up two village parking lots May 15. Police chief Gene Mitchell and Recreation director Dan Doyle will handle logistics. • Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 745 was granted permission for the annual Memorial Day parade at 10 a.m. Monday, May 25. The route will be from East Main Street to the courthouse lawn on Main Street where ceremonies will be held. • Mayor Douglas Marchionda Jr. announced U.S. Census employees will be visiting the community between April and July to collect and identify addresses of all housing units in preparation for the upcoming census in 2010. Vice mayor Willie Allison said, “It’s important for citizens to cooperate with the census. It can affect some areas of funding.” Brownie troop 207 was granted permission to plant flowers around the village during May. Deputy village clerk Mary Ann Martin said the target areas will be the Main Street mini park, the police department and the firehouse. A request from Yates ARC to use the board room or downstairs room for monthly meetings was discussed. Police chief Gene Mitchell said he preferred that the board room be used for security reasons. Trustee Rich Stewart noted the village doesn’t have a formal building use policy. Marchionda said, “When the building was built, this room was to be used for the village board.” He said he would like to see the downstairs room used. Village clerk/treasurer Shawna Wilber said the downstairs room is currently being used for work on village records. Allison said he would approve the request with a building use policy forthcoming. Public safety committee chairperson Nancy Taylor thanked outgoing fire chief Brian Winslow for his service as fire chief. Marchionda added his thanks, commenting, “It was not an easy couple of years.” Finance committee chairman Bob Church said, “Thank you to Brian for staying in budget and working with us.” Winslow added, “Thanks to the board for everything, especially Mrs. Wilber. She has been a pleasure to work with. She is very professional. It’s been an interesting two years. Everyone talks about time. I don’t think people realize the amount of time is spent in training hours. Firefighters put themselves in harm’s way constantly. They don’t get paid a red cent. I want people to know and understand the time they put in. I’ve been proud to serve the last eight years.” New chiefs were announced. Rick Retorick will assume the duties of chief. Rick Simpson will be first assistant chief; Jeff Housel, second assistant chief and Mike Clancy, third assistant chief. Patrick Breuer was elected as a member of Ellsworth Hose Company. Soldiers & Sailors Hospital manager of facilities Scott Hafleigh asked the board if they would consider waiving the $1,700 cost of renewing the building permit for the hospital renovations. He said the project is 60 to 70 percent complete. Code enforcement officer Bruce Lyon said building permits are issued for one year, adding, “I give Scott a tremendous amount of credit for moving the project along. I think it’s a reasonable request.” Marchionda said, “I think we can put special circumstances on this.” The request to extend the building permit was granted for a period of one year. Changes to village code on signage was discussed briefly. Doyle and recreation committee chairman Mike D’Abbracci spoke about the possibility of Finger Lakes Boating Museum locating their facility at Indian Pines or at the boat launch area. D’Abbracci said the museum has been offered a site in Geneva. He said they sounded interested in the Indian Pines site, but the question there was the traffic pattern. Doyle said the group liked Keuka marsh for the quiet water, but the site in Geneva is near the thruway and the building would be virtually free. Another plus was the fact that Seneca Lake is not landlocked. The Seneca Canal allows boats to access Lake Ontario and beyond. Doyle and D’Abbracci spoke about a fee structure for parking boat trailers at the launch sites. Doyle said only non village residents would be charged and only if they were parking boat trailers at the site. D’Abbracci said they will try to see if it is worth it to charge. Doyle spoke to the board about a bus fee for Operation Graduation. He said he has been approached about the village paying for the buses, which are owned by the school district. Operation Graduation is a program that provides activities all night after graduation. Doyle said the school district cannot pay for the buses because the graduates are technically no longer students in the district. The board discussed the possibility of Yates County taking over all election functions for the village. Taylor asked if they would do it at no cost to the village. Following discussion, village attorney Ed Brockman suggested the village look into the proposal. Marchionda said, “Fundamentally it isn’t a problem but we must check all the details before making a decision.” Allison said work is progressing on the drainage project on East Elm Street to correct a potential landslide problem. He commended TRT Masonry and village crews for doing a great job. Assistant superintendent of public works Dick Osgood presented an update on the firehouse renovation project. The next meeting of the village board will be at 7 p.m. May 19 in the village hall on Elm Street in Penn Yan.		$element(adman,groupads,YatesRight14)$ $element(adman,groupads,YatesRight2)$ $element(adman,groupads,YatesRight9)$

Penn Yan village budget is up slightly

Penn Yan village budget is up slightly

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