Petersburgh Town Board Action – Petersburgh To Enforce Building Codes

by Alex Brooks
At its meeting on Monday, September 19, the Petersburgh Town Board discussed the wording of a letter they intend to send out to all Town residents about the need to get building permits for their construction projects.
Not long after the current building inspector, Doug Hull, was hired in June of 2009, the Town sent out a letter to all residents reminding them of the need for building permits and declaring the Town’s intention to enforce State and local building regulations. Town officials believe that some in Town have done major building projects without permits after that letter was sent out. They now plan to send out another letter to the Town, affirming the Town’s intention to enforce permit requirements. At the close of the meeting the exact contents of the letter were still under discussion, but Supervisor Schaaphok said the letter will be finalized and sent out within a week.
Highway
Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison said that 23 of the Town’s 34 roads were washed out by Hurricane Irene – just about 2/3 of all the roads in Town. He and his crew have been working very long hours trying to get all the roads repaired. He is waiting for delivery of several culverts. He expects the first of them to arrive next week. Bill Seel thanked Harrison for all he has done in response to the storm.
Harrison said this week they are drawing gravel out of the Little Hoosic River behind the State highway garage. He obtained an emergency permit from DEC to do this because the river channel was clogged with the gravel in a way that threatened the Webster Road Bridge behind Paulson’s Lumber Yard.
Schaaphok and Harrison met on September 19 with FEMA officials and are expecting quite a bit of aid from FEMA for rebuilding the damaged roads in Town, but they did not have an estimate of how much money that will be.  Schaaphok did say that he was worried about the Town’s cash flow. Since FEMA works on a reimbursement basis, the Town has to front the money for all the road repairs and later gets it back from FEMA. Schaaphok said he would like to get a Revenue Anticipation Bond from a bank once they have a pretty clear idea of what they will be receiving from FEMA, to make sure there’s enough cash until the FEMA check arrives.
Harrison said the County has been working diligently to repair the massive damage to Dill Brook Road. They have re-opened the section from Potter Hill Road to Route 22, and they hope to get the rest of the road open soon.
Town Clerk Callie Crisp pointed out that both Harrison and his crew have been working about 80 hours a week, and while the crew gets overtime for the extra hours, Harrison is on salary and gets nothing extra. She wondered if the Board wanted to offer some kind of extra pay for the extraordinary demands of the hurricane response. Town Attorney Kevin Engel wondered if the salaries of elected officials can be augmented in mid-year after being set by statute at the beginning of the year. No one could think of anything like that being done before, and Dave Green suggested that the usual way of adjusting for extra hours in a crisis is to take “comp time,” extra time off once the crisis has passed. But while the Board had no immediate response, they agreed to think it over and research the matter.
Temporary Employees
Supervisor Peter Schaaphok said a temporary employee who worked for the summer youth program filed for unemployment when she was laid off from her regular job, and the Town will be required to contribute. Schaaphok was surprised that the Town is on the hook for unemployment for a short term job that was paid through a 1099, as an independent contractor. The Labor Department told the Town this position should be a Town employee paid through a W-2. Schaaphok concluded that the Town has to re-think how it handles temporary employees, and re-consider this from a budget standpoint, because nothing had been budgeted for this year for unemployment compensation. He desired in the future to be better prepared for such an eventuality.
Budget Process
Schaaphok said his preliminary budget is due by the end of the month, and the Board scheduled a budget workshop for Wednesday, October 12, at 7 pm to go over the budget for next year.