by Alex Brooks
At the Petersburgh Town Board meeting on Monday, Petersburgh Veterans Memorial Community Center (PVMCC) President Susan Nelsen said the capital improvements to the Veterans Memorial Hall are just about done. The contractor is finishing up “punch list” items. Nelsen said the PVMCC Board is working on a number of goals for the upcoming year, including creating a new brochure to advertise rental of the hall, continuing to develop a volunteer program to support its program activities, continuing to explore for grants that might support its activities, developing annual fund raising events and exploring possibilities for the “greening” of the PVMCC.
Nelsen then asked what was the outcome of her request for assistance with the cost of oil for the 2009 budget season. Bill Seel said they did not fund it because the user agreement says that PVMCC will pay such costs. Nelsen replied that she believes no one can find a signed copy of the most recent user agreement. This resulted in a lot of shuffling of papers and a discussion of different versions of the user agreement.
Nelsen said some of the programming the PVMCC is doing is for the youth of the Town, so they are looking to coordinate with the Town Youth Program. But she was told that the Town doesn’t really have a youth commission anymore. The Youth Program is just the summer program and nothing else.
Nelsen asked if the $1,000 that used to be paid to PVMCC for rent, which now will not be paid but remains in the budget, could be used for other youth activities. Bill Seel said his thinking at budget time was simply that the youth program exceeded its budget last year so he wanted to leave that money in the budget just to make sure the youth program didn’t go over budget. He didn’t have in mind any new programs.
Nelsen said the PVMCC is not able to continue its Friday night teen programs because “we need someone to run it.” That person would have to be either a PVMCC Board member or a paid employee. The PVMCC does not have a Board member willing to take on such a major task and does not have the funds to hire someone to do it.
Nelsen said she thought it was a shame to have kids hanging around and not be able to open the building and invite them in.
Nelsen suggested the Town Board and the PVMCC might want to form a committee to discuss how they can better work together. Bill Seel replied that they already have an agreement. Town Attorney Kevin Engel asked Nelsen to get together with the PVMCC’s new treasurer, Sue Dawes, and put together a projection of income and expenses for the upcoming year, and if there is a projected shortfall, the Board can respond to that.
Nelsen seemed unhappy with the whole exchange and left the building.
At the very end of the meeting when they were auditing bills, the Board had another informal discussion about this issue and, with urging from Town Attorney Engel, seemed more amenable to Nelsen’s idea of having a committee to work out how the Town- PVMCC relationship will work and possibly amend or restructure the agreement between them.
Dog Contract
The Board agreed to sign a contract with Pondviews Country Kennels in Stephentown to have stray dogs sheltered there when picked up by the dog officer. There is no annual payment associated with the contract. Pondviews will charge $15 per day when dogs are left there.
Library Open House
Petersburgh Librarian Sharon Hodges said the finish line is in sight for the Library’s long effort to renovate their building, and they are planning an Open House celebration for January 21 to show it off. Hodges said the renovation project was started in 1997, so it has turned out to be a process of over a decade, and when all is finished, the total spent on renovation will come to just about $300,000. She said, “We are very excited to be coming to the end of our project.” She also noted that Petersburgh usually comes in third or fourth among the 29 libraries in Rensselaer County in per capita circulation, so it is not just a nice building but a very active one. All are welcome at the January 21 Open House.
The Board looked over a document seeking its participation in a grant application to explore efficiencies that could be achieved by various government entities working together. It envisions such things as shared diesel fueling stations, shared truck washing stations, shared vehicle maintenance facilities, combined purchasing co-ops and the like. The lead group for this grant application is the Berlin School District. The agenda said the Schools Superintendent, Charlotte Gregory, would address the Board, but she was not present. The Board was unenthusiastic and tabled the matter.
The Board scheduled its End of the Year meeting for Monday, December 29, at 7 pm at the Town Hall.