Town Finalizing Its Application For Water Project Funding
By Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board passed a bond resolution for the Water District renovation project at its July 16 meeting. This year’s round of grants for water infrastructure have been announced, and applications for funding are due September 7. The total amount of the water project in the latest engineering report is $1,075,500, and that was the number included in the bond resolution. The Board also passed a SEQR resolution for the project dealing with the environmental review of the project. The water infrastructure program pays 60% as an outright grant, and asks the applicant to provide the other 40% of the cost. This means that $645,000 will be paid by the grant, and $430,000 has to be provided locally.
But state officials have told Petersburgh that the work that Taconic is doing on the water system is part of the project and will count as part of the local match. The exact amount of Taconic’s contribution has not been exactly determined yet, but it appears to be in excess of $300,000. No updates on these numbers were provided at this month’s meeting, as discussions with Taconic are ongoing and apparently agreements about who pays for what are not final yet.
The Board also scheduled a public hearing on the Water Project and the Bond Resolution for it. It will be held on Wednesday August 1 at 7 pm. Presumably information will be available by then about what the final impact will be on the ratepayers of the Water District from this project.
The Town is also seeking to document the income of the ratepayers of the Water District through a survey. This survey will be sent out soon, as the Town is trying to include the results as part of its application package. To be valid, the survey must be answered by 84% of the households in the Water District. The form is very short and simple, and the information is to be kept confidential.
The results of the survey will affect what interest rate the Water District will pay on any new debt taken on to pay for a part of this project. Supervisor Alan Webster said, “This grant is critical,” as the Water District facilities urgently need work and this grant provides a way to get that work done without burying the Water District in debt.
Lewis Hollow Road Bridge Supervisor Alan Webster said the Lewis Hollow Bridge has been “red-flagged,” and will need extensive repairs. It will be closed starting on Monday July 23, and will remain closed for two to three weeks while the contractor does the repair and renovation work. The project will cost about $60,000, which the Town will pay from its allotment of CHIPS funding (State aid for local road construction) for this year.
Games of Chance In response to a request from the Library to hold a 50-50 raffle to benefit the library, the Town has undertaken to pass a law allowing games of chance for non-profit organizations in the Town if the funds are used to support their mission. Town Attorney David Gruenberg has written a law to this effect, which he said contains restrictions aimed at “keeping it local and keeping it focused in charity.” A public hearing was held on this law because it had been previously scheduled, but Gruenberg said this hearing is not valid because the text of the law had not been available for ten days prior to it. For this reason another public hearing on this law was scheduled prior to the August meeting, for Monday August 20 at 6:50 pm. After this hearing, the Town Board is free to pass the law, but it does not take effect until it has been voted on by the whole town in a general election. So it is expected to be on the ballot in November’s election, and if it passes, the law will be enacted.
Records Management A public hearing was held on a records management policy that has been developed for the Town. The policy is about 56 pages long, and is the result of collaboration between Town Clerk Deidra Michaels and some consultants hired under a grant the Town received about a year ago. Supervisor Webster described the consultants as “passionate about records management,” and said that Deidra has put a great deal of work into this project, and has received extensive training from the consultants. Michaels said, “now we can find stuff.” She noted that the well-organized records make it much easier to respond to FOIL requests.
Heinz Noeding asked about fire suppression measures taken to protect the Town records. Michaels said the records room was built to a fire-resistant standard, and there are smoke detectors in the area that are wired to notify the fire department when they detect smoke, but there are no smoke detectors in the records room itself. Noeding suggested that a smoke detector be installed in the records room.
Bargaining With Highway Workers The Board went into an executive session at the end of the meeting to talk with the town attorney about upcoming negotiations with a newly certified union for the Highway workers. Gruenberg said in the past year the Teamsters union has been certified as representative of the Petersburgh highway workers, and the Town has been contacted by a representative from the Teamsters to begin contract negotiations.