Berlin Evaluates Response To Irene

by Kieron Kramer
After discussing the Berlin Highway Department’s response to the damage caused by Hurricane Irene at the Berlin Town Board meeting held on Thursday, October 13, the Board spent some time evaluating how well the Town’s disaster plan worked during the weekend of August 27 and 28.
Thank God For Bly Hollow Road
At one point the only way in or out of Town was Bly Hollow Road to Taborton Road over the hill. Ivan Wager, the architect of Berlin’s Disaster Plan said, “Thank God For Bly Hollow Road; it held up. It was the only way I could get home after 15 hours at the [County] Emergency Operations Center.”
The Berlin Fire Department was commended by the County for providing emergency shelter during the stormy weekend. The setting up of the Fire House took many hours of Fire Department work and work by volunteers. There were meetings before the storm to get the school buses and drivers ready in case the Town decided to issue an evacuation order. Cyril Grant at Berlin Central School was called on to supply the sleeping mats which were used in the Fire House.
Mark Primeau, speaking for the Fire Company and the Fire District said, “Jim [Winn], Rob [Jaeger] and State Senator Roy McDonald deserve a good thank you” for their work during Irene.
Nevertheless there were some rough spots in the Town’s response. “The command post went fairly well but improvements are needed,” Wager said. For instance, Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger declared a state of emergency on the weekend but, he said, he did not draft a letter regarding the restriction of vehicular traffic. “On the whole everything went pretty well,” Wager said. “The hours the volunteers and Fire Company put in after being there all night long on sleeping mats, god bless them,” Jaeger said. Wager said that the public still needs to be educated regarding the proper response to a disaster in Town.
Wager indicated that there were minor problems that the County has to iron out as well. “The Red Cross didn’t do much anywhere in the County,” he said, so the County had to provide all the aid to displaced people without Red Cross assistance. “I have never seen that happen before,” he said.
Animal Cruelty
Dog Control Officer Doug Goodermote reported that he has been dealing with an animal abuse case in Brookside Park. Goodermote spent several hours with a NY State Trooper and a Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Deputy investigating the complaint that Goodermote received. “The dog was thin and had big sores on it,” Goodermote said after the meeting. The neglected dog is a five year old mixed breed which belonged to the husband of the granddaughter of the people now responsible for the dog. Goodermote said the husband had moved to Petersburgh and didn’t take the dog with him. The owner was told to take the dog to the veterinarian within ten days, which was done. The vet said the dog “was full of worms and the sores were because the dog was full of fleas,” according to Goodermote. The owner has been given 30 days to “doctor the dog;” if he doesn’t he will be arrested and charged with cruelty to animals, Goodermote said.
Wind Energy Hearing
The evening began at 7 pm with a public hearing on the proposed Wind Energy Law that was being presented by the Planning Board that night. Unlike most hearings of this kind, in which no one has much of a comment, this hearing lasted a full 30 minutes and was full of acute analysis of the proposed law, both of its technical aspects and the vagueness of its language. Everyone agreed that it is important to encourage the move to renewable energy, both commercially and privately, in Town. Commercial development might not bring the tax benefits originally contemplated because the State waives tax liabilities on large wind power installations in order to make them financially viable. The Town could override the tax exemptions by resolution, however. The proposed law would protect the Town in much the same way that the cell tower law protects the Town; for instance, the developer must cover the expenses for the Town to review the project and must be bonded for insurance.
Such issues as setbacks for height and blade throw were discussed with Scott Abbot, a private contractor working for Williams College, which is still interested in wind power on the crest of the Taconic range at Berlin Mountain. In 2003 Williams had approached the Town about the possibility of constructing a temporary windmill for wind pattern research on their property on Berlin Mountain and had had the project rejected. Times have changed.
In order to encourage private use of wind power the law has very different requirements for the shorter towers that individuals might use to generate power for their homes. Board Member Sheila Hewitt pointed out that one of the problems with the law as presented is that the requirements for the commercial projects and the private projects are not clearly differentiated. Several typos and other small inconsistencies were pointed out to the Planning Board.
Planning Board Chair Pam Gerstel and Member Frank Mace answered as many questions as they could about the proposed law, which is available for public review at the Bank of America, the Town Clerk’s office, the Library and on the Town website (http://berlin-ny.us). Basically the Berlin law is based on the law adopted in the Town of Ellington in Chautauqua County. The legal issues are being overseen by attorney Dennis King, who handles lots of planning law for area towns.
The Board decided to rework the language of the proposed law at its next workshop and return it to Gerstel and King to be reviewed and resubmitted for next month’s regular meeting.
According to Gerstel, the Planning Board has been working at full steam, meeting with the ZBA several times a month to work not only on the Wind Energy Law but also on updating the 1988 land use regulations. She also reported that Tim Giumarra and Yolanda Dalessio, alternate members of the Planning Board, have not attended meetings in six months. The Town Board voted 4-0 to remove both people from the Planning Board.
Derek Burhans was re-appointed for a five year term as the Chairman of the Board of Assessment Review (BAR).
Jaeger announced that budget requests from the various departments have been received and that one big variable in the budget rests on the negotiations with the union that represents the Highway Department workers. A brief discussion was held concerning Governor Cuomo’s 2% property tax cap and how the Town could override it. Jaeger seemed to think that the 2% cap would adversely affect Town projects like sidewalk repair. For the past several years Berlin’s tax levy increase has been 1.8% or less so the concern about the cap and the discussion of how to override it seemed pointless given the Town’s admirable history of holding property tax increases to below 2%.
Odds And Ends
There has been no progress yet on putting a stop sign on the intersection of Bly Hollow Road and Watson Road.
Water District #1 up at Taborton is closed for the season, Leonard Clapp reported. Winn reported that “all is quiet” in Water District #2 and that the Fire Department did a flow check of some of the hydrants in the system.
Regarding the transfer station Ivan Wager reported, “Things are going pretty good; haven’t heard any complaints.” Wager said that the station has been “getting some money out of the tire recycling” and is getting “hooked up” with a company that buys plastic. “If we can get trucking expenses out of plastic it would be good,” he said.
Verizon continues to drag its feet putting the cell tower in Cherry Plain into service in spite of Jaeger’s continuing attempts to get them started. He contacted State Senator McDonald’s office to put some pressure on Verizon, but they got the “same run around,” Jaeger said.
When the bills were read, Hewitt requested that Donna Mace’s bill document the many hours she spent typing the Wind Energy Law in order to avoid any complications when the State Comptroller’s Office audits the Town’s books.
Two people have shown interest in cleaning the Town Hall and the Watipi Building, a job which will take two to three hours per week. The Board will decide who to hire after Board Member Richard deLeon Jr. contacts them for more information.
The Board restated its decision at a workshop several months ago to authorize the purchase of a laptop computer and tax collection software so that Town Tax Collector Pam DeShane can collect taxes at the Town Hall.
Jaeger reported that the mold remediation work in the Town Hall and in the Watipi Building has been successfully completed.