Disc Jam Festival Works Out Well
by David Flint
“After all the angst…,” as Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt put it, a music festival was finally held in Stephentown that caused almost no complaints and received high praise from the Town Board. After years of being deluged with gripes and protests about loud noise from festivals such as Bella Terra, Fractal Fest and Disc Jam that extended into the wee hours over four-day periods, the Board drafted a local law in March this year to control it.[private] Most of those who appeared at public hearings thought the multi-page law much too complicated and unenforcible, so the Board ended up passing a simplified version in a few paragraphs on one page that forbids loud music Monday through Thursday from midnight to 8 am, on Friday and Saturday from 1 am to 7 am, and on Sunday from 8 pm to 8 am.
The Disc Jam Festival held at Gardner’s field June 9 to 12 apparently met the test. Eckhardt said he received only two relatively mild complaints. Councilman Bill Jennings said that festival organizers precisely adhered to the times when they said they would shut down the music. He noted too that the Fire Department reported that the EMS crew at the festival was a huge improvement over last year, everything was under control and they had nothing but praise for how things were run.
Festival organizer Anthony Scavone reported that they had about the same numbers as last year. Some people complained, he said, about the changes in the schedule but most understood that it takes a lot of cooperation and teamwork for something like this to succeed. He was pleased that there were no medical incidents. “Honest good people come to this event,” he said, and they had generously donated money to the Fire Department and food for the Stephentown Food Pantry. Jennings confirmed this, noting that the Food Pantry had received a “very large donation.” “It was a good event,” he said, “You did what we asked you to do.”
Moore Hill Road
Situation Concluded
Eight years ago, the Highway Department straightened out a portion of Moore Hill Road eliminating a dangerous curve. In order to do this the Town entered into an agreement with landowners to swap rights of way for small pieces of land. After misunderstandings and disagreements arose about the land swap, the Board in 2010 hired Attorney Craig Crist and Surveyor Fred Haley to straighten out the disagreements and plot out in detail the agreed upon conveyances and transfers. “It was a “lot of legalese to make sure that everyone involved is made whole,” Eckhardt said back then.
“We almost had it done five years ago,” Eckhardt now said, “but then somebody died and it all went to heck in a hand basket.”
So now the Board, having again enlisted the aid of Crist and Haley, has come up with two more fine print pages of legalese incorporating three resolutions. The first one officially hires Haley to do the necessary surveying and obtains the survey from him at a cost of $1,000. The second one accepts and authorizes the transfer of lands and rights of way to be used to alter and improve Moore Hill Road, and the third authorizes the Town to transfer portions of the road that have been abandoned to Joshua Hoffman, William and Marilyn Diversion and Colburn Jones in exchange for their transfer to the Town of lands that now comprise the new road.
“Does this put this to bed?” asked Eckhardt? “Yes it does,” responded Craig Crist who was present along with William Dreyer from the Dreyer Boyajian law firm, “We can now file all the documents with the Town Clerk and the County Clerk.” Crist praised Fred Haley for doing an excellent job for the town at an extremely low bargain price.
Eckhardt noted that Craig Crist, who has been serving the Town in legal matters for 21 years, will now be leaving Dreyer Boyajian and moving on to a different area of legal work. Crist said there is a whole team of attorneys remaining at the firm that will continue to provide services to Stephentown. The primary attorney would be William Dowd, a 1997 graduate of Albany Law School.
Improving
Internet Service
Councilman Gerry Robinson reported on his efforts to get some improvement in internet service in Stephentown. The approval of the merger of Time Warner and Charter Communications by the NYS Public Service Commission came with the stipulation that people in existing franchises be provided with internet service with a minimum speed of 25 Mbps at a cost of no more than $60 per month, with lower rates for low income people and seniors over 65. Additional service must be provided to 145,000 households.
The problem is that this applies to areas where a franchise already exists. Stephentown some years back, when Larry Eckhardt’s Dad, George Eckhardt was Town Supervisor, declined to accept a franchise because it would unfairly serve only residents who lived along the Route 22 corridor and leave the rest of the Town with no service.
Robinson said he has spoken with Charter Communications and they are interested in including Stephentown in the build out. Apparently this needs to be negotiated with the PSC as well as with Charter. So Robinson has drafted a letter to the PSC indicating that the Town has the need and wants to be included in its order to Charter.
The Board agreed that they would all sign this letter and send it on to the PSC.
Tax Collector’s Report
The Town’s new Tax Collector, Mary Grant, provided the Board with a detailed report that included the 2016 Tax Warrant Settlement, a Collection Summary and a comparison with 2015. The percentage of taxes remaining uncollected was similar to last year, 15% last year and 14% this year.
Grant also did some research on the feasibility of taking payments by credit card and what other towns are doing. Although only 5 people asked about it, some on the Board thought it a good idea to “join the 21st century.”
Grant started in January with office hours in the Town Hall two evenings a week and Saturdays during the day. In February and March she adjusted that to one evening a week and daytime on Saturday. Next year she will try to also have daytime hours during the week in the month of January.
She said she believed that things went pretty smoothly in her first tax season but it was a bit frustrating not having a written job description or a timeline for accomplishing the necessary tasks. Training for new Tax Collectors is a need, she said. She was able to pick up some valuable information by joining the NYS Association of Tax Receivers and Collectors.
Solar
Thom Peccoraro, noting the monthly NYSEG bill of $1,129.75, asked whether the Board has investigated the use of photovoltaic or solar panels. Jennings said that he and Eckhardt had spoken several times with different solar companies and the answer always seems be that the Town government doesn’t use enough energy for any solar provider to be interested in a power purchase agreement. And the Town Board, Jennings said, is not interested in owning any kind of solar array. He believes that solar may be attractive to a homeowner because of the tax credits, but neither the Town nor the Fire Department would be able to take advantage of that. However, one option that the Board will consider is joining with Rensselaer County in a deal that would involve multiple municipalities or fire districts in a net metering program. Under this program towns can purchase electricity at a savings from solar arrays constructed in Rensselaer County.
Website Needs
Some Attention
Pecoraro also pointed out that the Town’s website needs some work and is not kept up to date. The latest agenda for a Town meeting that he found on the website is from 2015. Town Clerk Stephanie Wagar, who maintains the website, said she took the job on voluntarily, is not paid for it and does not have the time to keep it properly updated. Other towns, she said, that have up to date websites, have paid for a professional web designer and have money in their budgets to keep everything current.
Eckhardt agreed that the Town needs to decide what they want in a website and how much they can afford to design and keep one maintained. Jennings said that one option might be to join the NYS inter-municipal cooperative called Digital Towpath.
Mortgage And Sales Tax
Eckhardt reported that the expected mortgage tax distribution had been received for the last quarter or 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 in the amount of $26,812.60. The Sales Tax distribution for the first quarter of this year has also been received, in the amount of $61,842.02.
Open House
To Honor MacVeighs
Eckhardt announced that an Open House will be held at the Town Hall on Saturday, July 9 from 2 to 4 pm to honor the many years of service of Tom and Joan MacVeigh. The Open House will also give people the opportunity to meet the new Town Assessor, Jennifer VanDeusen.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $661.14 to the Supervisor for the month of May. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town was $6,025 for the month of April and $5,663 for the month of May. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $6,083 for the month of May.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $31,862.54 from the General Account and $32,919.29 from the Highway Account, and an additional amount of $6,749.92 approved and already paid for the CDPHP payment made by the Town Supervisor on June 16, for a total of $71,531.75.
The Board set its next workshop meeting for Monday, July 11 and its next regular meeting for Monday, July 18 at 7 pm.[/private]