From the supervisor: Moving projects forward

By Janet Aaron

Skaneateles Town Supervisor

At our last meeting, the town board made several impactful decisions.

First, they took another look at the past decision to deny the Skaneateles Y a refund on a water bill that had been overcharged.

This was an issue that I spent a lot of time reviewing and researching and I was convinced that this overcharge should be refunded.  There was no one to blame as it was an honest mistake.

A meter that was meant to only be used to calculate correct sewer charges was being added to the water meter that recorded all the use and thus created the overbilling.

The Y generously agreed to receiving 75 percent of what they had been overcharged.  After months of negotiating between the Board and the Y a decision was made to approve the reimbursement.

I am an advocate for communication and working to find common ground and I am glad that this decision was reached, and expensive litigation was avoided.

I want to thank the board and the Y for this great cooperative decision.

Mottville came out in full force when an application for extending the Hamlet District in their community was brought to a public hearing.

This was a difficult decision for the Board and at our last meeting the board voted unanimously to deny the request.

In addition, the board voted to create a Hamlet Committee to look at smart growth strategies to achieve growth and development in our Hamlets while maintaining the distinctive Hamlet character.

I welcome residents who are interested in participating in this committee to contact me.

Last week we also received enough proposals to award the building of a small picnic pavilion at the Skaneateles Falls Park.

This is the last piece needed to complete the improvements to this Park. In 2015 the town board received $20,000 in funding from the County Legislature.

A playground was built in 2017 by many local volunteers and now we hope that we have a beautiful fall in order to complete this last piece.

As I discussed in a previous article there has been an amazing effort by government agencies including the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, NYSDEC, the Town and Village of Skaneateles and the Skaneateles Lake Association to communicate and work together on the protection of our lake.

For the town’s part, we established a boat washing station this year, and have funded to monitor Skaneateles Lake and Shotwell Brook for many years.

The town board is now looking at legislation that would prohibit non-agriculture use of phosphorus in the Town of Skaneateles.

While NYSDEC does regulate the use, we believe no one should be using phosphorus.

We are currently seeking NYSDEC approval of this stricter regulation.

It’s against the law to use phosphorus on lawns that don’t need it. (New York State Environmental Conservation Law, article 17, title 21 and Agriculture and Markets Law § 146-g).   This does not apply to agriculture use as they are already restricted on phosphorus use.

Phosphorus is one of the leading causes of water pollution. Even if you live far from a water body, excess phosphorus from your lawn can wash off and pollute lakes and streams, harming fish and ruining boating and swimming. More than 100 water bodies in New York State cannot be used for drinking, fishing or swimming because they contain too much phosphorus.

At future meetings the town board will be looking at contracting to provide a Community Solar project at the Transfer Station.

It has been my great pleasure to be able to move many of these valuable community projects forward as we round the corner to 2019.