Town Continues To Invest In The Pool
by Alex Brooks
Phil Koziol of LaBerge Engineering was on hand at the Hoosick Town Board meeting to talk with the Board about awarding a contract for the next phase of pool renovations, which is primarily a renovation of the Bath House. Bids were opened recently and there was one bid to do this work. The bid was a bit higher than the Town had planned on, so La Berge worked with the contractor to change some of the specifications to reduce the cost. Surdam said the cost was reduced by a little over $18,000, and the contract awarded was for $258,338. The Town has grant funding to pay $123,625 of that cost, and the Town will pay the remainder of that, as well as LaBerge’s fees for design and management of the project.
The bid was awarded contingent on approval by the NYS Parks and Recreation agency, as their approval is needed before the work can go forward. Someone from the Parks and Recreation Agency told Koziol that they didn’t know how long it would take to get approval, but his guess was that it would happen sometime in the next 30 days. The plan was to have the contractor get started as soon as the pool closed. The best guess was that the work would get started sometime in September.
More Work On The Pool
Surdam reported that the pumps damaged by the July 1 floods were replaced with new units on July 15. The Rensselaer County Dept. of Health (RCDOH) did an inspection of the pool on July 20, and found three issues. A broken electrical conduit was found on the far side of the pool near the playground. This will be fixed when electricians are there to install the new security system. The RCDOH said the enclosure around the Chemical Storage area, which Surdam described as a “makeshift temporary barricade,” was not adequate. He solicited a quote from a chainlink fence company to make a proper enclosure with a 5’ x 6’ gate. The Board approved at this meeting an expenditure of $793 to have this installed.
The third issue raised by the Health Dept. was the lack of bleach solution in the food service area, which was immediately corrected.
The Board accepted a donation of $762 from the Kiwanis Club to be used for the installation cost of 56’ of 5’ high chain link fence around the playground where the wood fence and towers were recently removed. They also authorized hiring a chainlink fence company to install said fence. The Town already owned the fencing materials, so there was no cost for that, just for the installation.
The Board also approved hiring J. A. Bradley to install a new security system in the pool and playground area. The cost will be $5,500, which is just for the installation – the security equipment was bought previously. Surdam said the installation was more extensive than expected because all of the cabling had to be replaced with a newer kind of wire.
At the beginning of the meeting, Kiwanis Club President Jean Andrick presented the idea of putting a large awning in the pool area for shade. She had found one which was a display model marked down from $13,000 to under $8,000 installed, and asked the Board if they would like to get it. The Board agreed that shade is very much needed somewhere near the pool, but they wanted to look at other, possibly less expensive alternatives (such as a prefabricated carport), and weren’t ready to commit to purchasing the awning that Andrick had found.
Supervisor Surdam wrapped up the subject by saying that this year has seen some of the largest crowds in recent years at the pool. The Summer Program for the kids has been very successful this year in part because regular visits to the pool have been incorporated into the program, and swimming lessons are also very popular. He thanked the Kiwanis Club for their leadership, their ideas, and their commitment to making improvements in the pool and playground area.
Tory Hill Road
At public comment time, a woman who lives near the massive hole in Tory Hill Road said to the Board it has been 43 days since the road washed out and it is time to get it repaired. Aside from the inconvenience of having to drive farther to get anywhere, there may be issues with emergency vehicles and there will be issues with school buses once school starts again. Surdam said the State has agreed to repair that road, but he was not sure exactly when it will be done. The State asked the Town to pass a resolution authorizing Surdam to sign a Shared Services Agreement with the State, which they did at this meeting. The State also asked the Town to make a formal request asking them to handle repair of that road, mentioning a dollar figure for the cost of it. Surdam said he has asked the State DOT for a dollar figure to put in his request, but so far had not received it. He said he will continue to pursue the matter with all possible speed, so as to clear the way for the work to get started. He hoped the State will start work on that road in the next few weeks. Councilman Dave Sutton said it is a very big job, and will take a while to complete. He said about 5,000 cubic yards of fill are needed, and it will take some time to haul that much fill. He estimated that if they are aggressive about pursuing the project, it is still likely to take a month or more to complete.
Highway Report
Town Highway Superintendent Bill Shiland said he thinks it will take “a couple more weeks” to finish cleaning up storm damage from the July 1 rainstorm. He said he is aware that there are potholes needing to be filled in many parts of Town. He said his crew has not been able to fill potholes since the July 1 storm because they have their hands full with repairing roads that were washed out by that storm, but they will resume filling potholes within a week or two and asked for patience from the residents. Shiland also said he has been notified that the Town will get a check from FEMA to help with damage from Winter Storm Stella which occurred last March 15 in the amount of $22,000, but he is not sure when it will arrive. He said FEMA will probably get around to giving the Town some cash assistance because of the July 1 storm, but he does not expect that to happen until sometime in 2018.
Assessor
Town Assessor Tony Rice said GAR should be done collecting data for houses in the Village by the end of the month, and will then move on to houses in the Town. He noted that the Town equalization rate for this year has ben finalized – it is 27.5, which is the same as last year.
Kids In The Town Park
Hoosick Falls Police Chief Robert Ashe came to the Town Board meeting to talk about trouble with kids in the Town Park. He said “things had gotten out of hand,” as kids have been gathering there, stopping traffic on Main Street, and being “very nasty.” Chief Ashe said his Department has been aggressive about stepping up patrols and talking with the kids about acceptable behavior. He said the kids are mostly 13 to 15 years old, with some 17 or 18. He said most of them will listen when the police talk to them, but there are a few hard cases who are defiant. He said he believes his Department has controlled the problem to some extent, and they are continuing to visit the Park regularly and asking the kids to “move on.”
Surdam told Ashe, “We appreciate the response from the Police Department. I have definitely seen improvement in the situation there.”
Signs
The Town received a complaint about signs put up by Lumber Jacks Coffee, and Code Enforcement Officer Fran Rogers has investigated. The sign law allows only one sign, and Rogers said Lumber Jacks has 5. Surdam said the law was originally aimed primarily at billboards, and he wasn’t sure the smaller signs used by Lumber Jacks ought to be limited so severely. He suggested that the Board take a look at the law and see if they would like to modify it. Surdam said, “The law is pretty restrictive.” He said he thought giving small local businesses a better chance to market themselves with signs might be a good idea. The rest of the Board seemed to agree. They are in accord with the original intent of the law, to preserve scenic beauty and limit advertising in Hoosick by out of state businesses, but they would like to help local businesses to do well, which may involve a less restrictive sign law. They will study and discuss the law with an eye to revisions.
In other business:
• Surdam reported that the owner of 9 Brady Lane has completed a cleanup of the property, and the Code Enforcement officer closed out the enforcement action. Although the Town had advertised for contractors to clean up the property, it was not necessary to hire such a contractor.
The Board granted 2 year Salvage Permit renewals to each of the seven automotive salvage yards in Town. The Code Enforcement Officer has inspected all seven, and found them in compliance.
A group of neighbors spoke to the Town Board about the name of a small road off Bovie Hill Road. The Town Board named it fifteen years ago after one of the people who lives up there, and soon thereafter rescinded the name. But in the 911 system it has remained, and there is currently discord about what the name should be, and the neighbors asked the town to get involved in determining what the road should be named.