To Buy Or Not To Buy; Berliners Face An Important Choice

by Kieron Kramer
On Monday, July 19, Berliners will go to the polls to vote on whether to authorize the Berlin Town Board to use up to $495,500 of the Capital Reserve Fund to purchase the Berlin Lumber property in Cherry Plain for use as a municipal center. In a similar referendum last December 14, Berliners rejected the Berlin Lumber purchase by a 210 to 131 vote. At that time the purchase price was $569,000. The price reduction of $73,5000, which would finance the lion’s share of the renovations needed at the site, prompted a petition with 106 signatures calling for another referendum which was presented to the Board at the May Town Board meeting.
The Capital Reserve Fund was begun in the mid-nineties when the Town Board realized that an upgrade of the Town Garage and Town Hall was necessary. Stanton Goodermote was Town Supervisor at that time. As of last December there was approximately $587,000 in the Reserve Fund, money which by municipal law can only be used for Capital projects rather than for the operating budget.
Originally, in the mid-nineties, the idea was to build a new Highway Garage and to move the Town Hall into the current Garage. There were several misguided attempts to begin the project. In 1989, even before the Reserve Fund was established, the Town purchased land on Sand Bank Road that proved to be too wet and the wrong shape for the siting of a new Garage. It is used as a sand depot for the Highway Department. In 2004, when Sandi Slattery was Supervisor, there was an abortive attempt to purchase property abutting the transfer station from William Craib. In December of 2004 a petition drive for a permissive referendum led by Sheila Hewitt, who is now on the Board, resulted in a referendum in February of 2005 in which the voters overwhelmingly rejected the project. It was not entirely clear whether the voters rejected the purchase because Craib had asked $10,000 per acre for the 5.5 acre lot, ten times the assessed price per acre, or whether the idea of a new garage in itself was unacceptable. In November of 2005 an architectural consultant, Butler, Rowland & Mays, was hired to estimate the cost of the project. The consultant’s presentation in March of 2006 was that Berlin would spend about $700,000 on the garage building as well as money to acquire property and provide access to the new building. This did not include the cost of renovating the Town Garage to serve as a Town Hall.
Now it is 2010 and it is time to vote again on upgrading Berlin’s facilities. In the face of rising construction costs and a fractured economy, the Berlin Lumber Property would answer all of the Town’s need for space – heated garage space, meeting space, office space for all Town agencies, storage space and parking space. The current Town Hall would be used for the Justice Court. It has already been spruced up by grants from the Justice Court Fund obtained by Justice Joe Rechen for new carpeting, new chairs and thermal windows, which will be installed soon. The Town Clerk’s records could be moved out of Town Clerk Anne Maxon’s basement. The Town’s artifacts could be moved out of people’s houses and into a central location.
Even so, many arguments have been made against the municipal center project. One is the assertion that it is in a floodplain. According to Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger and Town Clerk Maxon, the property is not in a floodplain. Maps of the floodplain are available at the Town Clerk’s Office. One is that the property will be taken off the tax rolls thereby increasing everyone else’s property tax burden. But Berlin Lumber is a failed company which filed a tax certiorari suit in July of 2009 to reduce its property tax. The case is still in progress and will be settled either by the Town agreeing to a lower tax or by litigation, which could cost the Town a lot. Will a private purchaser buy the property any time soon in these economic times and pay the full tax assessment? So the tax roll impact is not quantifiable at this time. Another question is the assertion that the buildings need roof work. Generally in real estate transactions an engineer for the purchaser inspects the property and any structural defects found are used to negotiate a lower price in order to cover the costs of remedying the defect. Presumably the negotiations in this case would include this. Another is the blow to the village center if the Town Hall moves. Will the Justice Court fill the void? Perhaps the most coherent objection is the future maintenance costs that the municipal center would entail. Jaeger said that the County Highway Department would rent some of the space and that other revenue streams are possible, but this is not a certainty. The most powerful emotional objection is the fear of committing to something new, the fear of the unknown. It’s expressed by the question “Why now?” If one believes that Berlin does not need new facilities, then it would be crazy to vote for the referendum. If one believes the Town needs new facilities, then the question is, “Why not now?” before the opportunity is gone and construction costs continue to rise. In the short run it is safer to do nothing. But to do nothing may be crippling in the long run.
The Space Committee, with Board Member Sheila Hewitt leading it and Dave Theriault doing much of the work, appears to believe that the Town does need to upgrade its facilities. First it investigated the use of the Watipi Building. This plan was described as “a temporary solution” at Thursday’s Board meeting on July 8. Another plan, presented at the Board workshop on June 24 and again at this meeting is a plan to build a new garage on 5 to 7 acres at the bottom of Bly Hollow Road. The land  would be donated by Theriault who owns about 200 acres at that location. He uses the land primarily for sugaring which, he said, has been done on that property for over 200 years. The plan also includes the renovation of the current Town Garage as the new Town Hall with offices and storage facilities. The current Town Hall would then be turned into a Town museum. Theriault did the architectural drawings for the new garage and the renovation to the current garage. The drawings were available for review at Thursday’s meeting and they are impressive. After the workshop Jaeger took the plans to Bishop and Beaudry Construction in Colonie for an estimate. Their estimate to build the new garage was $909,149, and their estimate for the current garage rehab into a new Town Hall was $575,700, without site preparation costs in both cases. A bond would need to be issued to pay for this project. Talk about a financial burden. Regarding this new plan an inquisitive person might ask, “Why now?” with the vote to be held so soon. Curiously, the Space Committee has not researched in the past two months, since the second referendum became a reality, or at any other time, whether the Berlin Lumber property is the most suitable, least expensive way to provide these new facilities for the Town.
Now it is time for the Berlin community to go to the polls on Monday, July 19, from noon to 8 pm in the Town Hall and express its will.