by Alex Brooks
At its monthly meeting on April 25 the Petersburgh Planning Board met with a Civil Engineer named Clark Wilkinson whom it would like to consult about road specifications for the Town.
The Planning Board is rewriting its regulations this year and would like to set standards for construction of new roads and driveways. It would like Wilkinson to help write the specifications and also to update the list and map of Town roads so that the Planning Board is clear about which roads are Town roads. Planning Board Chairman Dave Miller indicated that the official list of Town roads is rather old and includes some roads that are no longer maintained and should be formally abandoned. There are at present about 35 miles of road designated as Town roads.
Wilkinson offered the Town a consulting contract which offers his services at $100 per hour. He has worked for 22 years in the business and for six years in his own firm, which he calls Paragon Civil Engineering. His office is in Queensbury, and he does civil engineering consulting for the Town of Queensbury.
John McMahon asked if the Planning Board had bids from any other engineers for this job. Miller said no formal request for proposals has been issued, but he has contacted four other engineers, none of whom were interested in consulting on this matter. The Board concluded that since they believe that Wilkinson is qualified and his fee is reasonable and he is ready to start work right away, they wanted to go ahead and hire him, and they voted to authorize Chairman David Miller to sign a consulting agreement with him.