Grafton Adopts Building Permit Amnesty Program

by Alex Brooks
At its regular April meeting, the Grafton Town Board introduced a resolution establishing an amnesty program for those who have built buildings or additions without getting a building permit. The preamble says that the Board has been informed that numerous structures have been built without permits and goes on to say that Grafton would like to “afford its citizens the opportunity to avoid penalties related to the past failure” and help them to come into compliance with the Town law.
Under the amnesty, any property owner who applies in writing for a building permit by June 30, 2011, will be allowed to avoid prosecution for failure to obtain a permit and will be excluded from collection activities for back taxes related to such unpermitted improvements.
Apparently this amnesty program represents the carrot of an initiative that will also include a stick, as the resolution goes on to proclaim that any property owner who does not apply in writing for a permit by June 30 and is found to have built without a permit will be prosecuted for such violations and will be liable for back taxes that should have been paid on those improvements as well as any penalties specified in law.
The Town plans to get the word out about this amnesty program by posting the resolution at the Town Hall and on the Town web site and by sending it out in a town-wide mailing prior to April 30. The resolution passed unanimously, 4-0. Board Member Mike Crandall was not in attendance this meeting.
There were a number of mildly critical comments of this resolution offered at public comment time. The most vehement were those of David Buckley, who said, “It stinks – it rewards people who cheated.” Buckley asked how all these building projects slipped by the Code Enforcement Officer. Councilman Fredricks replied, “There’s no way Tom can know everything that is going on.”
Other speakers were concerned about an initiative to prosecute unpermitted building projects and urged the Town to proceed cautiously.
Minutes On The Website
On another topic, Buckley commended the Town for putting the minutes of Town Board meetings on the website and said once again that he thinks the Town should put the Town laws on its website. He said they were on there in 2006 but sometime around 2008 they were taken off,
The laws were updated and collated by an outside contractor early in Tyler Sawyer’s tenure as Supervisor and put on the web site soon after it was first created. Supervisor Allison Kirchner said she took the laws off the web site because they were out of date. She sought bids from an outside contractor to update them, and the company offered to update them for $3,000 and maintain them for $1,500 per year. She declined, because she thought these services were too expensive, but she announced late in this month’s meeting that she was able to get the current laws scanned and ready to be put on the web site for $163 and said she will put them up as soon as they have been checked and proofread.
Rescue Squad Report
The Ambulance responded to ten calls in March and was unable to confirm crew for three others. There were three MVAs, two Mental Health, two sick persons, one vehicle fire, one unconscious person and one difficulty breathing. They traveled 187 miles and logged 55 volunteer hours.
Four new people have applied for membership and will be sworn in at the next meeting. New members are encouraged to apply. There is a particular shortage of crew weekdays during the daytime. At present most calls during those hours are responded to by the mutual aid provider, Mohawk Ambulance.
Code Enforcement
Code Enforcement Officer Tom Withcuskey reported he has given six building permits this year to date and there are now 35 outstanding. He said he had sent out 17 letters about unregistered cars being stored illegally on properties in Town. Twelve of those people have responded. The other five still have a few days to respond to the letters, but after that they will be cited for the violation.
New Hauler
Herb Hasbrouck said the Town has hired County Waste as its new hauler for garbage and recycling, and he said this will dramatically reduce The town’s costs. The garbage will be $450 a month instead of $715, C&D will be $140 per haul and $60 per ton instead of $156 per haul and $67 per ton. Single stream recycling will be hauled for no charge, rather than $156 per haul and charges for TVs and computers will be much lower also. Councilman Fredricks thanked Rick Ungaro for helping to make these arrangements. Ungaro said, “It’s my pleasure.”
Historic Fire Tower
The Town received a letter from Ruth Pierpont at the State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation saying that the Dickinson Hill Fire Tower has been put on the State list of Historic Places and has been nominated for the Federal Historic Register.
Public Comment Go Around
There was some verbal sparring during the public comment towards the end of the meeting. David Buckley said after speaking for four minutes that he would yield the floor but reserve the balance of his time, and Supervisor Kirchner, exasperated by his assumption of rights to the floor during a period called “privilege of the floor,” told him he couldn’t tell the Board how to run the meeting, and there was an exchange about that. Then Rick Ungaro objected to the presence of Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo. He said, “I object to your being here intimidating people.”
Sal Ferlazzo then advised the Board that if people in the audience are being aggressive and disruptive, they can be asked to leave the meeting. David Buckley objected to this comment, interrupted Ferlazzo a couple of times to say so, and Ferlazzo said this was a good example of the kind of behavior that should not be tolerated. Buckley said he wasn’t going to leave, but nobody told him to do so, so it didn’t matter.