Litigation Looming In Petersburgh?

by Alex Brooks
Petersburgh Planning Board Chairman David Miller appeared at the Petersburgh Town Board meeting Monday night to say that two Planning Board matters “are probably going to end up in court.” He identified these two matters as “Star Ridge Way” and “O’Donovan’s Shaving Mill,” and he said both are likely to come to a head at next Monday’s Planning Board Meeting. The Planning Board will meet January 25 at 7:30 at Petersburgh Town Hall.
Miller asked the Town Board how he should go about hiring an attorney, if he needs to, and how it will be funded. Supervisor Schaaphok said there is nothing in the budget for a Planning Board Attorney, but he supposed that if necessary the Planning Board could use the Town Attorney Kevin Engel and funding for it would have to come from contingency funds. Engel then said that the matter should be discussed in Executive Session, and no more was said.
Supervisor Schaaphok later said that if an attorney is needed, the Planning Board will use Engel, but he hopes these matters can be settled with little or no litigation.
Agreement On The Veterans Hall
The Board approved an agreement between the Town and the Petersburgh Veterans Memorial Community Center Inc. on how they will handle the use of the Veterans Hall and the associated revenues and expenses. There has been much uncertainty and some contentiousness over how this relationship will work since the Community Center gave the building to the Town and the Town spent a good deal of money renovating the building.
Under the agreement, the Town will pay insurance on the building, electricity, heating fuel, water, maintenance and snow removal and janitorial services.
The PVMCC agrees to establish a written Use Policy for the building, to be approved by the Town Board, and to submit an annual budget each year by September 1. The PVMCC will be responsible for scheduling the use of the hall and making sure that all users comply with the use policy. The PVMCC will be responsible for the cost of all programs run under its auspices at the Veterans Hall, and, from whatever funds are raised by such programs, it will pay a fixed annual fee to the Town. The fee is to be set by the Town Board each year at budget time and paid by the PVMCC each year in July.
Bill Seel asked what this fee will be for this year. Supervisor Peter Schaaphok said since this is the first year that the agreement is in effect, the numbers are still a bit uncertain, but he said the number in the budget for this year is $2,000.
The motion to adopt the Use Agreement was passed unanimously, and Schaaphok said he was very pleased to have an agreement in place after about a year and a half of discussion and negotiation on the issue.
Highway Spending Policy
Supervisor Schaaphok said there were four vouchers for the Highway Department in this month’s bills that were over $1,000. The Town purchasing policy says that purchases over $1,000 should be approved in advance by the Town Board. Schaaphok noted that it is not always possible to get Town Board approval in advance – sometimes the Highway Department needs to act fast to keep its trucks running and the roads open. Because of this, the policy allows for emergency purchases of more than $1,000 if  the Highway Superintendent gets approval from the Supervisor and one other Town Board member. He consulted with the Board on whether they should raise the limit or streamline the process somehow. Bill Seel said he thought the existing policy is a good one and preferred to keep it. Town Attorney Kevin Engel suggested they consult with the Town Auditor to get his recommendation. For the time being, the Board decided to keep its policy as is.
Other Matters
The Town Board hired Callie Crisp to be the Town Secretary. She said there are some things that she cannot do as Town Clerk – principally handling correspondence for the Building Inspector and the Highway Superintendent. These things have been done by Barb Snyder in the past, in her capacity as Town Secretary. Bill Seel said it is a little unclear to him where one job starts and the other one ends, and he would like to have a job description for the Town Secretary position. Schaaphok said they will work on that for the future, but meanwhile Crisp will begin her duties as Town Secretary.
Supervisor Peter Schaaphok said the County inadvertently collected $104,000 for the Petersburgh Fire Department, when the approved budget called for a levy of $100,000. The result is that the Town will receive $4,000 extra, which it is not authorized to spend. There was some discussion of how to handle this, as it was thought that it would cost more than $4,000 to return this excess to the taxpayers. The solution seemed to be to pass on $100,000 to the Fire Department as authorized and use the $4,000 excess to offset next year’s tax levy, but Schaaphok said he will make inquiries to determine what the proper course of action should be.