Stephentown Town Board Action – Bridges To Somewhere

by David Flint
Bridges was the hot topic at the Stephentown Town Board meeting Monday evening. Town officials are concerned that the Town could soon be faced with huge costs for repairing or replacing six bridges that the County says it is responsible for. Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt put this in the context of the woeful state of infrastructure nationwide, saying that governments at all levels have been “robbing Peter to pay Paul, and we are no different.”
Eckhardt’s statement is backed up by the American Society of Civil Engineers that says it would take more than a trillion and a half dollars over a five year period to bring the nation’s roads, highways, bridges, railways, tunnels, dams, etc. back to reasonable condition. Yet the federal highway fund is projected soon to have a negative balance. In New York State a 2007 report indicated that 26% of highway bridges are classified by federal standards as functionally obsolete and another 12% are deemed structurally deficient.
Town Bridges were discussed at a meeting with County and State highway officials last month attended by Eckhardt and Highway Superintendent Aldy Goodermote. The State lists six bridges belonging to Stephentown. (A bridge must have a span of 20 feet; otherwise it is considered a culvert.) The bridges are on Goold Road and Bert Hager Road crossing the Kinderhook, Black River Road and Newton Road crossing the Black River, Madden Road crossing East Brook and Grange Hall Road crossing West Brook. Eckhardt said the Pease Road bridge, which has been closed for 22 years, has been dropped from the list. He said none of the bridges on the list have been red-flagged or deemed unsafe, but they all get relatively low scores on the State’s inspection list indicating that they all need attention. The Black River Road bridge scored the lowest at 3.7 on a 7 point scale. The Bert Hager bridge dates back to 1912 and the Goold Road bridge was built in 1947.
Eckhardt said the money required to rehabilitate or replace these bridges is staggering and the Town cannot do it alone. The cost of replacing one bridge, he estimated, might come to a half million dollars. The Town could establish a reserve fund but would not be able to save enough money to meet such costs. That’s why he has begun to seek assistance starting at the County level. He thought also that neighboring towns might be able to band together to get more competitive bidding on contracts. Right now, he said, federal stimulus money is available only for shovel ready projects. Aside from stimulus money, the State and the County are broke and the federal government is living on borrowed money. So using the recent meeting as a starting point, the Town will immediately begin to develop a ten-year plan for the bridges, determining exactly what needs to be done with each bridge and how much it will cost. In this way, if any stimulus or other aid becomes available, Stephentown will have shovel-ready projects.
Government Baloney
Eckhardt expressed how frustrating it can be sometimes to work with the State government. Told by the State it needed to shore up the footings for the Grange Hall Road bridge, the Town expended money and effort last year to do the job after getting a permit to work in the stream. Now the Town has been socked with a $1,700 fine from the Department of Environmental Conservation because they said the Town muddied the stream. Eckhardt noted with some amusement that DEC said they had evidence in the form of photographs taken at 7:50 pm on November 10. The Town’s attorney plans to meet soon with DEC to clarify this matter.
Jim Cummings noted the irony of DEC complaining about some muddy water when they recently supervised the dropping of the Crown Point Bridge into Lake Champlain.
Eckhardt wondered about the amount needed to be added to the cost of bridge repairs or replacements by the need to be environmentally compliant.
Joel Hunt, a Stephentown resident employed by the Town of Sand Lake Highway Department, raised the question of who is actually responsible for the bridges. The County earlier owned and maintained all the bridges, even those on Town roads, but, supposedly around 1980, they transferred some bridges to the towns. But Hunt said his Department could find nothing in County or town records about the transfer. Thus he said if the County is saying we must fix the bridges, they should first prove that the Town actually owns the bridges. He also noted that the transfer of bridges was not fairly done. Stephentown got six bridges to take care of but North Greenbush got only one and Grafton got none at all.
Hunt said that in any case the Town should put pressure on the County to at least provide engineering expertise as needed for bridge repairs or replacement and also to provide assistance in seeking grant money.
Open Burning
Assistant Fire Chief Rik McClave reported that Fire Department officials had met with Regional Forest Ranger Joe Hess to clarify the new State regulations on open burning that took effect in October. Despite some talk to the contrary, McClave said that there is nothing in the new regulations that prohibits burning brush at the Transfer Station. The regulations permit the burning of brush including tree limbs with attached leaves. The limbs can be up to 8 feet in length and 6 inches in diameter. The law also permits small campfires and ceremonial or celebratory bonfires, with some restrictions. It prohibits burn barrels or burning of leaves or household trash.
McClave noted that the 1981 Town law on open burning is still in effect and burn permits for brush must still be requested from the Fire Department. This local law, he said, had given Stephentown more control over open burning than other communities in the area.
People have been restricted from bringing brush to the Transfer Station since October. The Town will now allow it. Periodic burns will be held under the supervision of and with a permit from the Fire Department. There will, however, be no burning of brush at all anywhere in town from March 16 to May 15.
Eckhardt suggested that the Town should start charging a fee at the Transfer Station for residents adding brush to the burn pile, with the revenue to be split with the Fire Department. Brush will be accepted for now free of charge until the Board decides what would be a reasonable fee to charge.
In response to a question about operating a chipper at the Transfer Station, Eckhardt said they had looked into it and found the cost prohibitive. The idea of a compost pile for leaves and such was also explored but rejected as having too many complications as far as care and maintenance, keeping out non-degradable materials and meeting State requirements for runoff.
Reconciling With The Bank
Faced with a $1,200 bill for banking services from the Bank of America, Eckhardt met with bank officials last month with an eye to possibly moving the Town’s accounts to another bank. The bank people explained that with the spending down of a good portion of Town reserves, the Town’s average daily balance had dropped. This, in conjunction with the prime rate now being close to zero, had resulted in less credits for the Town. The Town is now close to having to pay for banking services, but the $1,200 charge was evidently a mistake and has been rescinded.
Eckhardt said he has been advised that certain types of accounts pay higher interest rates so he will be looking to distribute Town funds to accounts where they will earn the most interest.
Switching To Another HMO
Faced with a huge increase in health insurance premiums from MVP – it was reported last month that they could climb to $70,000 when only $51,000 was budgeted – Eckhardt called around to a lot of insurance providers and met with the Town’s insurance broker to work out a solution. He found that CDPHP offers a much better rate than MVP so the Town will probably be moving soon to the CDPHP HMO. Eckhardt said there would still be an increase but only a little over 10% versus the much larger increase from MVP.
Straightening Out Moore Hill Road
The Highway Department two years ago straightened out a portion of Moore Hill Road eliminating a dangerous curve. In order to do this the Town entered into an agreement with landowners to swap right of way for small pieces of land. Since some misunderstandings and disagreements have arisen since then about the land swap, the Board hired Attorney Craig Crist and Surveyor Fred Haley to straighten out the disagreements and plot out in detail the agreed upon conveyances and transfers. At this meeting the Board passed a resolution to authorize the Town Supervisor to execute the legal contracts in conjunction with the landowners. Eckhardt said it was a “lot of legalese to make sure that everyone involved is made whole.” There would be no cost to the Town in the swaps.
Accounts Reconciliation
The Board passed another resolution authorizing the Supervisor to make the necessary end of year account transfers to reconcile the books. Eckhardt said it’s just a matter of shifting funds from items that were under budget to items that were over budget at the end of 2009. The Buildings item in the General Fund, for example, was budgeted at $18,410 but $32,000 was spent as it became necessary to rebuild the doors and roof on the Town Garage. The Highway Department’s line item for General Repairs was overspent by $19,500, largely due to the flood last summer. Joan MacVeigh noted that the Town used to take care of this housekeeping task at an end of the year meeting as the Town of Berlin does.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk reported she had turned over to the Supervisor the sum of $472.65 for the month of January. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town was $2,692.50.
The Transfer Station deposited a total of $3,674 for the month of January.
The Board audited and approved claims for the end of 2009 in the amount of $13,159.78 from the General Account and $27,237.14 from the Highway Account.
The Board set their next Workshop meeting for Monday, March 8, at 7 pm and their next regular Town Board meeting for Monday, March 15, at 7 pm.