Board Discussion Turns To Emergency Preparedness
Town Budget Passed Amid Comments About Tax Cap Being Impractical
by Thaddeus Flint
“Wow, what a snowstorm!” said Stephentown Supervisor Larry Eckhardt at the Monday, November 21 Town Board meeting.
[private]Much of Stephentown was still without power from the storm which began the night of November 20th and was still going on as the Board sat down for its November monthly meeting. Originally predicted to drop around two to four inches of snow on the area, Eckhardt said that instead “we are bumping close to two feet.”
As of 6:30 pm November 21, 337 homes were still without power, most of them in the East Nassau regions of Stephentown.
The good news appeared to be that residents are now better prepared for freak storms that the weather predictors weren’t actually preparing them for. Eckhardt noted that many of the homes in areas that had no service were still lit up through personal generators.
The Town, however, has not yet caught up the preparedness of its residents.
“We really don’t have a shelter with emergency power,” said the Supervisor.
The Fire Station is the only Town building that currently has backup power. Should a storm or other emergency knock out the power in Stephentown for an extended period, setting up a long term shelter there would be problematic as it lacks the space and facilities to actively house a large number of residents.
“This is something we are seriously going to take a look at,” said Eckhardt. The Town plans to look to see if there is grant funding available which could help finance projects to update facilities so emergency power would be available. The Town Hall, for instance, could be refitted to heat with propane. At the same time a propane generator could be installed.
Broadband Discussion
Stephentown is also looking, as are many other small towns in New York, to improve what’s known as the “last mile” of internet connections. Councilman Gerry Robinson reported that FairPoint Communications was asking Stephentown for a letter of support for a grant they were seeking from the NYS Broadband Program Office. The money, according to FairPoint, would be used to one day bring “significant improvement” to those rural broadband users who are at the furthest reaches of the network. This would be done by upgrading lines from copper to fiber optics.
“It’s a good step forward,” said Robinson.
A vote found all in attendance (Councilman P.J. Roder was absent) in favor of supporting FairPoint in its grant application.
Other resolutions on the agenda, including a materials bid for Town roads, one extending the service agreement with the Eastern Rensselaer County Solid Waste Management Authority, one accepting NYSDOT’s record of the Town’s roads a total of 49.73 miles, and one adding five roads to the Town’s Local Highway inventory also passed with all in favor.
The five roads added were: Woodard Road from County Route 26 to the East Nassau Town Line, .12 miles; Winslow Road from the New Lebanon Town Line to its end at Dead End, .48 miles; Ward Road from County Route 26 to its Dead End, .39 miles; Osgood Road from South Pease Road to its Dead End, .24 miles, and CCC Dam Road from Route 22 to Berlin Town Line, .29 miles.
The Town Clerk, Stephanie Wagar, reported that some residents living along Route 22 had called in after the storm had abated to complain that their mailboxes had been plowed down. What to do? Highway Superintendent Aldie Goodermote said they could call up to the NYSDOT offices in Petersburgh but he didn’t expect much of anything to be done about it.
“It is what it is,” said Goodermote.
The meeting began with a reading of the minutes from previous meetings, one being the Special Meeting of November 14, at which the 2017 budget was adopted. Stephentown’s 2017 budget will be $1,564,851. Of this $636,790 is for the use of the General Fund, $773,311 is for Highway, and $154,750 is for the Fire Department. The budget will be funded with $587,600 from revenues, $32,450 from Unexpended Balances, and $944,801 from taxes.
The problem Stephentown, and other towns across the State, are finding is that the Tax Cap imposed on them by the State often isn’t enough to cover costs that towns have little or no control over. As Councilman Roder pointed out at the October 24 Public Hearing on the Preliminary Budget, if a town’s budget had a lot of minimum wage positions in it, their costs were going to go up because the State mandated a minimum wage increase to $9.70 at the end of 2016 (and then another .70 each year after until reaching $12.50 on 12/31/2020).
“That 2% can’t even cover the raise,” pointed out Roder. “Then the State pulls back the money they do give us and still puts the liability on you so the State isn’t giving anybody any justice.”
For 2017, Stephentown’s Tax Cap was .6%, and that wasn’t going to keep the lights on and the roads open. Therefore, a vote with all in favor approved a resolution increasing the Tax Cap in 2017 to 3.0%.
The 2017 Preliminary Budget was then adopted, also with all in favor.
Residents interested in working for the Town are advised that a list of paid and non-paid positions has now been posted to the Town’s website. Interested applicants should submit resumes and cover letters to the Town Clerk by Friday, December 16, 2016.[/private]