pCARTHAGE — Moving forward with the establishment of a cooperative planning board for the villages of Carthage and Deferiet and the town of Wilna, the village of Carthage will hold a public hearing Monday. /ppIf established, the Cooperative Joint Planning Board will carry out the functions of the village and town planning boards. The village planning boards will be abolished./ppAt the end of last year, village President G. Wayne McIlroy spoke with Wilna town Supervisor Paul Smith about the town Planning Board taking over the duties of the village planning board./ppMr. McIlroy noted the board rarely met and some of the members do not have the required training. During a village meeting, Deputy President Michael F. Astafan said he felt a village resident should be on the town Planning Board if the change were made./ppFaced with a similar situation, the village of Deferiet board joined in the conversation./ppAfter an initial meeting, facilitated by Tug Hill Commission Director of Planning Philip Street, Mark G. Gebo, attorney for both the town and village of Carthage, drafted an agreement./ppUnder the proposed intermunicipal agreement, the new board would serve the planning needs of the three municipalities. It would be expanded to a seven-member board, keeping intact the current town of Wilna Planning Board and adding a representative appointed by each village. Board members would be appointed for a seven-year term on a rotating basis, fitting in with the terms of the current town members./ppIn addition, one of the town’s appointed members will have to be a village of Carthage resident. The municipal heads also agreed the board would elect its own chair annually./ppThe town of Wilna would be the fiscal agent for the board, paying the board members and overseeing administrative costs. The joint planning board would deal with site reviews, issuing special permits, approving subdivisions and any other matters within the three municipalities. /ppThe board would follow the local laws set forth by each separate municipality. In addition, the board may be called upon to advise the respective municipal boards on matters such as drafting laws or updating or developing comprehensive plans./ppThe municipalities will retain fees paid for building permits and installation of mobile homes, septic systems and swimming pools or other matters which the code enforcement officer deals with./ppHowever fees associated with subdivisions, variances or special use permits which may come before the board would go to the town./pp“I have no problem with a fee to review applications which come before the board,” said Mr. McIlroy during a May 12 meeting. “But I have to retain fees to pay Bob Ball (village code enforcement officer) to go inspect.”/pp“I don’t mind helping out but I don’t want to give away the farm,” Mr. Smith said./ppMr. Gebo clarified that the final intermunicipal agreement would reflect that fees specific to Planning Board reviews would go to the town and other fees would be retained by the villages./pp“They would follow each municipality’s fee schedule,” said Mr. Gebo./ppMembers of the committee noted that uniformity in the fees would be beneficial to all the municipalities./ppMr. Gebo noted that with Wilna as the fiscal agent, the cost of the planning board would be on the townwide budget./pp“Everyone would contribute,” the attorney said. “The only problem would be if Herrings doesn’t dissolve.” /ppIf Herrings remained a village, the residents would be contributing to support a board on which they were not represented./ppTraining of the board members was also discussed, since one reason for forming the joint board was that members of the villages’ boards had not received the required four hours per year training./ppMr. Gebo and Mr. Street said that could be easily remedied and tracked./pp“Members are not eligible to be reappointed if they have not received training,” said Mr. Gebo. “There are a lot of opportunities to get training.” /ppHe noted there were online courses and training available through the Jefferson County Planning Department./ppMr. Street said their office could provide individual training./ppAccording to Mr. Gebo the village of Deferiet and town of Wilna also will have to hold public hearings to establish the joint planning board./ppThe hearing is set for 6:10 p.m. in conjunction with the Board of Trustees regular meeting, held in village offices, 120 S. Mechanic St. /p
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