While Cicero Police Chief Joseph Snell recommended that the town install a stop sign on the northwest corner of Matilda Gage and Asa Eastwood, neighborhood residents said at a June 10 public hearing that they wanted to see more enforcement of speed limits rather than more signage.
Resident Bill Hotaling suggested the Cicero Police Department deploy patrols with unmarked cars to catch speeders in the area. Hotaling also suggested the town look at decreasing the speed limit there.
“Thirty miles per hour on any residential street … is way too fast,” he said. “There’s a lot of young kids out on the street now. Something needs to be done.”
Hotaling said the worst times for speeding are the morning and evening rush hours: 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and around 5 p.m.
Resident Edward Thayer said drivers already ignore an existing stop sign in the area, so another sign wouldn’t do any good.
“They don’t even slow down for it. In the morning, the school buses don’t even stop for it,” Thayer said. “What we need is patrols down there and tickets. Another stop sign isn’t going to help.”
Resident Tom Beaulieu said the state Department of Transportation says that “stop signs are not speed control devices.” Snell agreed, but said more than half the residents in the area were in favor of installing a stop sign.
Councilor Mark Venesky said more than 20 residents had signed a petition in favor of this stop sign.
Snell said the police department could take 30 to 45 days to increase patrols the area before revisiting the issue. He also suggested the town look into a three-way stop for the intersection, which would require a new public hearing and resolution as the June 10 hearing only concerned one stop sign.
The town board will revisit the issue next month.
‘Illegal meeting,’ part two
In addition to speeding, Councilor Mike Becallo wants to put a stop to what he considers repeated “illegal meetings” of the town board. Supervisor Jessica Zambrano was absent from the June 10 meeting. Deputy Supervisor Bill Meyer, who is not a voting member of the town board, presided over the meeting in her absence.
During the April 22 meeting, Becallo objected to Meyer’s presence and voted no to most of that agenda’s resolutions on the grounds that he believed the meeting was “illegal.” Becallo contended that the town had never established the position of deputy supervisor, though the minutes of the Jan. 12, 1970, meeting of the Cicero Town Board show that Supervisor Roy A. Mallette made a motion to “delegate the position of deputy supervisor so that in the event of absence, illness or inability to act by the supervisor, the deputy would be in a position to carry on.”
At the June 10 meeting, Becallo voted on the agenda items, but he said after the meeting that he considered the June 10 meeting illegal.
“I still believe that the office of deputy supervisor was not legally established, but until there is a consensus within the town board on what to do about it, I still have to do the people’s business, but this issue will remain open until resolved,” Becallo said in an email to the Star-Review.
At the May 27 meeting, Becallo withdrew a resolution that would appoint Councilor Vern Conway as deputy supervisor in case of Zambrano’s absence. Zambrano said she believed the motion was not “appropriate.” Becallo said the matter is “still being discussed” and did not say whether his motion would appear on a future agenda.
Becallo also took issue with what he saw as a quorum prior to the June 10 meeting. He said councilors Venesky, Vern Conway and Dick Cushman and Deputy Supervisor Bill Meyer were discussing town business in the town hall before the town board meeting.
“Don’t do it. I’m sure you guys weren’t doing anything wrong, but please follow the rules,” Becallo said, referring to the New York State Open Meetings Law, which requires that the public be notified of a meeting of a quorum of a public body. Since the Cicero Town Board has five members, a quorum would be three members.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Meyer said of Becallo’s accusations after the meeting. “They were picking up their mail. It was just reviewing with them who gets what item [to read] on the agenda.”
Meyer said he had made notes about which items Becallo was to read at the April 22 meeting, but Becallo refused to read the resolutions. Meyer said Becallo did not contact him about any of the June 10 agenda items.
Venesky also said that he and his fellow councilors were at their mailboxes before the town board meeting and they were discussing who would read which resolutions.
“There’s no pre-set meeting,” he said. “We wouldn’t do that.”
‘Tax on fun’
Becallo cast the only dissenting vote on the town’s new fee schedule, calling the $25 block party permit fee a “tax on fun.”
Becallo said such a fee forces residents to pay “to enjoy camaraderie with neighbors.”
“Is Cicero really becoming a no-fun town?” he said.
Venesky said the town board had held a workshop to discuss the fee increases, which Becallo was unable to attend.
“All we’re looking to do is cover our costs on that, not prohibit people from having a block party,” Venesky said.
The new fee schedule can be viewed at bit.ly/cicero610.
Brewerton Revitalization Project funding
The town will appropriate $23,500 from its General Fund A balance for Phase III of the Brewerton Revitalization Project.
Venesky said the town was looking at an additional funding source to bring the town’s contribution to $45,000, about half of the $90,750 Zambrano had asked the board to approve May 27.
“That satisfies the requirement of the current grant to keep the project active,” Venesky said.
Venesky declined to say whether the additional funding opportunity was a grant or private donation. He said more information would be available at the end of the month.
