Vandalism Raises Concern About Petersburgh Youth

by Erin Hogan
At The Petersburgh Town Board meeting on Monday night the Board discussed vandalism at the Library and elsewhere. Recently smiley faces were spray painted along with “658” defacing the Library in some areas. Also, there was damage to the roof of the Library as well. It was pointed out that the roof damage might not be from troublemakers because the building is 31 years old. The Board resolved to have Dennis Smith to do repairs.
That doesn’t change the fact that vandalism has indeed been happening. The Library graffiti opened a long discussion about Petersburgh youth. There was more spray painting, reading “Steveo 658,” on the guardrail on Dill Brook Road. The tree in front of the Town Hall has also been tagged with “658.” There is a major concern about the youths hanging out around Big Bridge causing trouble and endangering themselves and others with risky behavior. Board Member Bill Seel said that he has spoken to the County Sheriff and is hoping to see some action. There was agreement that the Town needs better policing. One outraged member of the community said that first the children causing the trouble need to be identified and then their parents notified. There were cries for “[police] out here” and “parent control.”
New Building
Inspector Is Active
Doug Hull, the newly appointed Building Inspector informed the Board about the issues he is working on. Hull sent a notice to Curtis Main about the junkyard on Potter Hill Road and met with him on June 15 to discuss it. Hull said he had to check the State regulations on junkyards and would get back to the board. Also, he said that there is a trailer on Route 22 that needs to be removed. Hull said he told the owners that they have 30 days to do so.
Hull then moved on to a discussion with the Board about permit inspections. Inspections need to be done on the Library and the Church. The problem of outdated permits on public buildings was raised. Different ideas about how to approach people with no or expired permits were discussed. Suggestions ranged from approaching the people first or starting with sending them fines. The Board’s consensus was to send out notifications and give the homeowners 30 to 60 days to get a permit and then, if they took no action, to fine the owner. There was concern expressed about new construction not being able to meet those guide lines because of contractors not working fast enough. It was decided that it wouldn’t be a problem with a 30 to 60 day time frame.
Acting Town Supervisor Peter Schaaphok expressed worry that if the homeowner or builder didn’t live in the area that he wouldn’t get the notice. Hull came up with the solution of calling the County Tax Department to get mailing address labels. This way he could get correct addresses for the violators. Hull was asked to draft the notice that the Board would read and revise.
Public Hearing
The evening had begun at 7:02, with a public hearing about whether a new franchise agreement should be signed with Charter Communications, the Cable TV provider for the Town. There was not a single comment from the gathering. Even though there have been problems with this cable company regarding the reception, the worry is that since Petersburgh is such a small area no other company will touch it. The Board expressed concern that Petersburgh wasn’t a big enough market.
At 7:04 the Board began the regular meeting. After the Pledge of Allegiance and the acceptance of the minutes of the last meeting the Highway Superintendent gave his report. He reported that culverts will be put in on Stewart Road.
Some Problems At The PVMCC
Sue Nelsen spoke about the Petersburgh Veteran Memorial Community Center or PVMCC. She said there had been a littering problem that had to be addressed. It was taken care of and is no longer a huge issue. She reported that there ware items stolen from PVMCC including her “cool phone” and a part of her computer.
Nelsen suggested a town-wide tag sale that would include having tables for rent in the PVMCC for people who wished to be inside. There would be a map with all the places selling items that would cost $5 to get onto. It was suggested that there be tables on the Town Hall lawn. The only concern the Board had was that people who brought items to the PVMCC and the lawn would leave them. Schaaphok made it clear that if you brought it you were expected to take it back with you. As Amy Manchester said make sure its “like a State park.” After this discussion the idea was approved, and Petersburgh will be having their town-wide tag sale on Saturday, August 22.
The PVMCC is looking for more Board members. If interested, please see Sue Nelson. She thanked the current members for all their time and hard work.
The next topic was the Summer Youth Program. The Program is hoping to get a new plastic picnic table for crafts and lunchtime. Ms. Mars expressed her wish to make the Summer Program safer by making it secure, like the schools in the District are. What is planned is to have parents sign their kids in and out and have more contact with the parents. With these procedures, all kids are accounted for and not just dropped off and not known about.
AT&T has contacted Petersburgh again expressing its wish to co-locate on the Verizon cell tower. AT&T hopes to do this in the coming months, but they have contacted the Town in the past and nothing has happened. Also, there was contact with the Federal Emergency Management Association or FEMA about the Town’s reimbursement for damage from December’s ice storm. The Town could receive as much as $60,000 in reimbursement funds.
Mill Yard Building To Be Razed
The dangerous building at 103 Mill Yard is still standing and needs to be torn down. The Board decided to declare this a state of emergency in order to get the ball rolling and get this building down as soon as possible. The plan is to have bidding on the job to tear down this building and remove the debris. All bids must be in by June 26, and the job must be completed by July 13. After the building has been torn down and the rubble removed, the Town will move in and fill in the basement hole. This is the most efficient way to resolve the problem that everyone agrees has been going on too long.
There was a proposal to change from road sand to a fifty-fifty mix of sand and salt when trying to subdue wintry roads. Peter Schaaphok had some rough estimates that he discussed in the meeting. He said he wanted to investigate the pricing more to see if the Town would benefit. Also, there was discussion on whether the sand salt mix is better at de-icing the roads than just the sand. It was said that there are varied reviews for the mix, and so it was suggested that next winter the mix should be tried on one road to see if the performance is any better than just the sand alone.
Time For A Change?
Another issue on the agenda was the problem that the Town has been having with Bank of America. The Town has been getting zapped by hidden bank fees. The Board is upset because they don’t believe that municipalities should be being hit by these fees. There was discussion about switching banks and maybe even going over to a credit union. The argument for staying with Bank of America is that it is far more convenient than driving to Troy to make transactions. This issue will be investigated further in the future about whether to stay or go.
Pam Eggsware raised the issue with her water units that she is still paying for on property that she cannot use. Eggsware had a house that burnt down. The property, by today’s standards, is too small to rebuild on, and she still has unused water meters on the property that she wants taken off. The Town is still working on getting the meters removed. The Board was very concerned about Eggsware being charged unfairly and is trying to concoct a way to pay for the water bill from January to July. The next discussion was about how to avoid this in the future. There have been past problems getting the meters removed, and the Board is going to work on making a standard plan on what to do in the future.
The last bit of discussion in new business was on Sue Nelsen’s idea of putting a port-a-potty in Petersburgh Park. This idea was immediately shot down for the fear of what would happen to it once the youth got a hold of it. Which brought the discussion back to how the youth needs to be controlled better.