Petersburgh Town Board Action – April 2011

by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board meeting was run this month by Deputy Supervisor Dave Green because Supervisor Peter Schaaphok was recovering from surgery.
Dogs
Dogs were again a topic of discussion because Dog Officer Lynne Torello-Burns has written some ticket violations of the dog law, and the court has been throwing them out because there is no one at Court to prosecute them. Torello-Burns has been submitting depositions, which, she said, has worked fine in Stephentown.
Town Attorney Kevin Engel spoke with Rensselaer County DA Rich McNally, and McNally agreed to have the Assistant DA, who is going to the Court to prosecute other matters anyway, handle the dog cases.  If one of them went to trial, Torello-Burns would have to be present, but this would take care of all the routine matters.
Torello-Burns also said she thought she could arrange her work schedule so that she could be present at the Court most of the time, as long as she knew a month in advance when it is.
The Board also deliberated on changes to the dog law concerning penalties for violations.  The law says the minimum fine is $50. The language about maximum fines was changed to read, “not to exceed $100 for the first violation, not to exceed $250 for the second one and not to exceed $500 for the third and all subsequent violations. The law gives a dog owner thirty days to get a dog licensed after an unlicensed dog complaint from the dog officer. The fee to license a dog is $3.50 for a spayed/neutered dog, and $8.50 for non.  There will be a public hearing on these changes to the dog law.
Mowing
The Board hired Ed Jones to mow the Town buildings complex, the Town Park and the cemeteries at the same rate as last year.
Reval
Craig Surprise came to the Board to say that the Town should do a revaluation sometime soon. The last reval was in 2002, and a lot has happened to real estate prices since then. He said to keep the assessment roll in good shape, you have to do a full revaluation on a regular basis, and he told the Board it should be done soon. Surprise didn’t have any exact figures, but he told the Board it would probably cost more than $20,000, and if a reval is planned, money needs to be put in the budget for it.  Some of the cost is later reimbursed by the State.
Planning Board News
Planning Board Chairman Dave Miller told the Board he is going to hire a civil engineer to help the Planning Board write road specifications as part of their current effort to update the regulations. Miller also asked Fire Chief Bill Seel to give him an idea what the maximum grade ought to be so that fire trucks can drive up the road.
The Board reappointed Dave Miller to another term on the Board of Assessment Review.