By Janet Aaron
Skaneateles Town Supervisor
The Skaneateles Town Board held their first Hamlet Meeting of the season on April 10 in Mottville. There was a great turnout and we heard their concerns and hopefully answered any questions they had. The newly created Hamlet Committee was there and reported that they want the community to be involved in recommendations they will be making to the Town Board. Dick Eldredge is Chair of the committee and members include Deb Durr, Ed Frank, Doug Hamlin, Chris Graham, Guy Donahue and Jill Marshall. An easy way to contact the committee is to go to Contact Us on the Town of Skaneateles website townofskaneateles.com and make sure that you indicate under “department” that it is for the Hamlet Committee.
Future Hamlet Meetings have been scheduled in Skaneateles Falls for Mary 16 at the Skaneateles Falls Legion, Mandana on May 22nd at the Mandana Inn and Shepard Settlement on May 29th at Ken and Joan Scotts barn.
After three years the Town Hall Relocation Committee has finished their report and recommendation to the Town Board. After devoting many hours to this project, this Committee, Chaired by Nancy Murray, recommended that the best option was to build a new town hall at our Fennell Street property between SAVES and Ace Hardware.
They came to this conclusion based on several factors; the Town Hall is not ADA compliant; the justice court does not meet the safety compliance requirements, the building footprint can’t be expanded and parking, at times is challenging. Members of the Committee include Chad Rogers, Chris Buff, Tim Johnson, Marsha Williams, Joe Morley and Chris Brown.
The town board thanks this committee for their dedicated work on this project.
The town board will now begin our due diligence by enlisting support from design professionals and holding public informational meetings in the future. This project will require a public referendum for approval.
There will be some disruption at Austin Park this spring/summer as we move forward with building a new bathroom facility. This project should begin within the next month.
The current building will be demolished and replaced with a building that will include male, female and family bathrooms, a first aid room and a storage room. During the construction we will provide portable bathroom facilities.
This will be a much needed improvement. We anticipate that the project will be completed by the end of August.
