Major Sewer Project Nearly Ready to Go
Now that the Village has completed purchase of the property at 22 Lyman Street, it is nearly ready to start construction on a major improvement to its sewer system, which includes a new pump station at 22 Lyman Street (at the corner of First Street). The project, which will cost $3.79 million, still needs two things before it can move forward. One is an easement to lay pipe through the back yard of a property with frontage on Classic St. (known as the Cataneo property) in the area between Doug’s Oil and the Culnan Insurance Agency.
The other is to get in writing an agreement with Pan Am which they have already approved, to lay pipe across some land they own at the North side of the Greenway.
The Board, at its October 10 meeting, approved moving forward with an eminent domain proceeding concerning the Cataneo property. They are continuing to try to negotiate with the property owner as Village Attorney Andrew Gilchrist said eminent domain proceedings can take quite a bit of time, and it would be preferable to reach an agreement with the property owner. But in case the Village of Hoosick Falls cannot come to any agreement, they feel the need to begin eminent domain proceedings as a backup plan. Accordingly, they scheduled Tuesday November 14 at 6 pm for a Public Hearing on acquisition by eminent domain proceeding of a permanent utility easement across the Cataneo property for a sewer main.
The engineer for the project said he hopes to go out to bid by January or February and have shovels in the ground by April, but the schedule remains uncertain until the necessary easements have been secured.
The project has just received $948,000 of funding for this project from the New York State Water & Infrastructure Improvement Program.
Police Department
Hoosick Falls Police Chief Robert Ashe said the security access system for the Village Municipal Building is up and running. It cost about $35,000 and was paid for by drug bust money. He also said a new police car is arriving this week, ready for service. It cost $35,000 and was also paid from the drug forfeiture funds.
Ashe also discussed the challenges of keeping his Department staffed. He said his Department can’t afford to pay for police officer training. The Hoosick Falls Police Department sponsors trainees, but they pay for their own training. The result is that full-time police officers only stay with the Hoosick Falls Dept. for a short while. “We are a part-time police department,” he said, adding that Hoosick Falls often serves as a “training ground” for other police departments. He said the Troy Police Department has decided to hire a bunch of officers, and they are hiring some of them from the Hoosick Falls Department. He said he is expecting to lose about 4 officers at the end of the year. He was quick to assure everyone, though, that he is not having a problem staffing his patrols, and police coverage in Hoosick Falls is not compromised by this situation. He was just letting the Village Board know that there are challenges in staffing his Department.
This discussion again brought up the question of the Village Police covering the Town. Ashe said his Department does get quite a lot of requests to go outside the Village. He said every Mayor that he has worked under has told him that “if someone is calling for help, we need to go.” He gave an example from last year when the Subway on Route 7 was robbed. His officers responded, and were able to catch the perpetrator because of their local knowledge. Hoosick Town Supervisor Mark Surdam said on behalf of the Town, “Town-wide policing is worth discussing,” but was non-committal.
Trustee Kevin O’Malley noted that the Elks building has been taken down to make way for an enlarged parking lot for the Cumberland Farms store. He said the plaque about the history of the Elks Club has been ordered and will be installed at that location, and ornamental lighting that the Village asked for has also been incorporated into the plan for that site.
The question of the Village-owned house at 62 Mechanic Street came up again and the Board decided to offer it for sale. Trustee Brian Bushner, who had said last month that he would only support a sale for redevelopment as a single-family house, said because of the high cost of demolition and because it is already a two family, he will support the sale for redevelopment as a two family house.
Civicure
Mayor Allen conveyed a request from Civicure asking for assistance with the cost of applying for a grant to renovate the Wood Block. They are working with LaBerge Engineering to prepare an application for RestoreNY funding. These grants can be for up to $1 million. The cost for LaBerge to prepare the application is $10,000 and they were hoping to have the Village pay half of that and the Town pay half. Several Trustees had different takes on this. Bushner said he is not a fan of LaBerge, and he would be happier about supporting this if Civicure was using a different engineering firm. Trustee Ben Patten said he would like to see Civicure raise some of the money independently, rather than having the Town and the Village pay the entire cost. He thought it might be better to have the cost split three ways between the Town, the Village, and Civicure. No one from Civicure was present to respond. Mayor Allen said he thought that since the grant requires a 10% local match, the idea was that Civicure would raise the 10% match (possibly as much as $100,000) and that would be their contribution.
The Board decided to table the matter to think it over and gather more information before committing money to it, but they authorized the Mayor to send a letter of support from the Village for Civicure’s application.
Attorney Patterson’s Last Meeting
At the close of the meeting, Trustee Bobby Ryan said he wanted to recognize Village Attorney John Patterson for the 37 years that he so ably advised the Village. Patterson started as Village Attorney in 1980, and has served six mayors – Bernard Greaney, Don Bogardus, Laura Reynolds, Matt Monahan, David Borge, and Robert Allen. There was a lengthy round of applause for Patterson, after which he said, “I’m going to miss you guys – you all feel like family to me. God bless all of you – future generations will thank you for your service to this community.”
The Board then went into executive session.