Petersburgh Town Board Action – Personal Use Of Town Equipment

by Alex Brooks
A citizen came to the Petersburgh Town Board meeting this month to report that Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison had used a Town loader to put a vehicle and some old farm equipment onto a trailer to be sold for scrap metal. He said he thought this was an improper private use of Town equipment.
Town Supervisor Peter Schaaphok thanked him for bringing the matter to the attention of the Town Board and said the Board would discuss it in executive session after the public meeting.
Schaaphok later said the Board agreed that this had been “an error in judgment” on Harrison’s part, and they would issue a “formal reprimand” to Harrison and require him to reimburse the Town for the value of the Town equipment use. They will henceforth make Town policy on the private use of Town equipment very clear and explicit.
Water District Rates
The Petersburgh Water District had costs higher than its revenues in 2009, which led Town Supervisor Peter Schaaphok to call a meeting of the Water District patrons last week to discuss increasing the fees and other issues about the management of the District.
The problem from a fiscal point of view is that the number of patrons has been decreasing while maintenance costs of the aging system have been increasing. In 1986 there were 105 units, and now there are 76. An expensive pump has burned out twice, once last year and once this year, in electrical storms. Although the main water lines are fairly new, the hookups to the houses  are old and liable to fail.
The consensus at this meeting seemed to be that the basic annual cost paid by all patrons should be raised modestly and the usage fee increased. The basic fee is now $131.80 paid twice annually, plus $1 per thousand gallons of usage. The Board proposed an increase to $140 every 6 months and a usage fee of $2 per thousand gallons of usage. The Board also proposed that those without meters pay $250 every 6 months, to make sure that patrons cooperate with the installation of meters.
Because rates were set in local law #2 of 1986, an amendment to that law is required to change the rates. This will require a public hearing. The Board is aiming to get this change made in time to include it in the bills that will be sent out at the end of  June, which is a tight schedule for amending a law.
Ambulance Service
Dennis Smith  from the Petersburgh Ambulance Squad came to speak to the Board about proposals that are being floated for having professional ambulances on call. He said there are no licensed paramedics based in eastern Rensselaer County. When our local ambulances need “Advanced Life Support,” (ALS) they usually make arrangements with an ambulance from Bennington, Pittsfield or Troy to meet them en route. Smith said Rensselaer County Sheriff Jack Mahar is proposing an “ALS intercept service” that would provide such a service in Rensselaer County, and the proposed budget for it is $1.3 million. Here’s the problem, said Smith – lives can be saved by having quick ambulance response times and more advanced medical services available on the ambulance, but it gets very expensive to provide such service in a rural area. In another illustration of the cost, he said Berlin and Stephentown had asked Empire Ambulance what it would cost to have an ambulance here ready to roll from 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays, and the answer was in the neighborhood of $360,000 annually.
Smith said he had come to no conclusions about this, and clearly a lot would depend on how it was funded and how many Towns participated. But he said daytime ambulance service is a perennial problem in these towns and this is a topic that is certainly worth discussing.
Other Matters
• The Board approved doing a revaluation of Petersburgh property for 2012. Data collection for this will begin this year.
• The Board looked at proposed contract language for replacement of the gas tank at the highway garage. Town Attorney Kevin Engel pointed out that it was technically complicated and should really be overseen by an engineer. The Town does not have an engineer. Highway Superintendent  Ray Harrison said he would consult with the County Engineer about how to go about this.