A Prayer For Jane
by Kieron Kramer
The Berlin Town Board meeting on Thursday, February 9, began on a distressing note when Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger asked for prayers from everyone for Jane Fitzgerald. “Jane is in Albany Med and has had a couple of go-arounds,” he said. Jane Fitzgerald (aka Auntie Jane) had been a fixture at Town Board meetings for decades until her health kept her from attending regularly last year. There were meetings when the only sensible thing said in the entire meeting was one of Auntie Jane’s powerful one-liners.
[private]And, whether she showed up with her walker, as she had to lately, with her hospital cane or with her dark, gnarly, wooden walking stick (aka shillelagh) she always prodded people in the right direction whether they be the politicos, the press or the pop-offs, with her earthy common sense. When Supervisor Jaeger announced at the September 2010 meeting that Jane was to be honored at a ceremony presented by the Capital District Senior Issues Forum to honor seniors 85 years or older she replied, “All you have to do is be 85 and have done something in your life.” Another example is the letter she wrote to this paper last fall after a series of monumentally long letters to the editor appeared in these pages. (It appears below on this page.) For sixteen years Auntie Jane was the driving force behind the Berlin Fourth of July Parade. Now it seems, as Jane said, “Somebody else has to give up their dining room table.”
No doubt prayers were and are being said on Jane’s behalf, and many are rooting for her in their own way, hoping for a recovery or at least some ease.
Leaks
In his report on Water District #2 Jim Winn said that an exploratory search for the leak on the bridge on Elm Street resulted in the conclusion that there is no leak there. The search was done on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday because repairs in that part of the Water District are done on school holidays so as not to interrupt the water to the Berlin Elementary School. It was the coldest day of the winter, he said, which is not saying much. They did however locate another leak in the area that will have to wait for repair until Presidents’ Day.
The talk turned to the issue of water leaks in empty houses. Winn said that there was water running in the basement of a house near the Watipi Building and there were burst pipes in a house on Elm Street and in one on Main Street. “We have to find a better system,” Winn said. “The one on Main Street was really running; it was heard by someone walking by,” he added. Shutting off the water in these circumstances can be difficult. If there is no shut off valve in the basement, the shut off valve outside must be found. There are few dependable records showing where the valves are located, and some are under the road which would require digging up the blacktop. To stop the leak at the building near the Watipi, Winn said, “We cut the pipe hot and put in a shut off valve.”
Contacting the property owner is also a thorny problem. According to Jaeger, a lot of the empty houses are in the hands of foreclosure companies. They hold some of them for years and don’t even come look at them, Allan Yerton said. The banks put up signs that say the house has been winterized, but that is not necessarily true, said Winn. Jaeger said that the Town doesn’t know which bank owns which house, and he suggested that notices be put into the water bills that are sent to owners of property in the Water District. In the meantime, “If you hear water running, tell someone,” Jaeger said.
New Business Prospects
On a happier financial note, Code Enforcement Officer Allan Yerton reported that someone has purchased the business location once known as The Lunchbox. He also said that the owner of the Colonial Inn, also known as the Hotel, is planning to reopen. According to Yerton, Green Renewables, the company that purchased the Hoosick River Hardwoods facility, is booming and hiring lots of employees. Regarding the Colonial, Jaeger said he would like to have a restaurant and possibly a bar in the center of Town again.
Watipi Setback
The furnace at the Watipi Building shut down, which resulted in water pipes bursting. The resultant water flow in the basement destroyed the fire box in the furnace. Jaeger said that no fixtures were broken but some sheetrock will have to be replaced. Morse Heating replaced the furnace and repaired the pipes for $3,025.70. Last winter the Town put a red light in the window facing the Fire House. The light was attached to a thermostat and was supposed to be a warning if the temperature fell below acceptable levels. Unfortunately, someone had shut off the light, Jaeger said.
Rubber Stamp
For the Assessors Allan Yerton reminded the public that March 1 is the deadline for property tax exemption applications by Seniors and low income families. He also presented a resolution to the Board that would set the income levels and the subsequent percentages of property tax reduction for qualifying applicants. According to Yerton, the income levels are set by the State, were accepted by the Berlin Central School Board in a resolution and now need to be adopted by the Town. These income levels are set every few years by the State, and Yerton said, “The rates really haven’t changed.” Jaeger said that this is just a rubber stamp resolution.
But there was a good deal of confusion surrounding this rubber stamp resolution. Since none of the Board members had been on the Board when this was last voted on, Board members had questions. Board Member Tara Cinney asked, “What is different [from the last resolution], Allan?” “Nothing,” he said. Normally the income levels are adjusted for inflation, but the State made the decision not to adjust for inflation, Yerton added. Board Member Richard deLeon Jr. said, “I’m not going to sign something I don’t understand.” Cinney suggested talking about it at the next workshop. But Yerton said, “This is just for the school tax; you just have to put your blessing on it.” He also made it clear that the resolution was for Senior exemptions on the school tax. “We can’t do anything about it,” Yerton said. After this was made clear, the Board voted 5-0 to adopt the resolution presented by the Assessor. The question of why the Town Board has anything to do with this was never answered explicitly, but one can assume that since the Town’s assessors must set the amount on the property tax bill, the Town must go along with the exemption income levels.
Another Rubber Stamp
Rensselaer County has finished its Hazard Mitigation Plan and is asking towns participating in the plan to pass a resolution adopting the Plan. Participating in the Plan allows towns to be able to apply for FEMA money, said Jaeger. The County has sent Berlin a boiler plate resolution to vote on as well as the draft of the Plan and supporting documents. Jaeger said that these documents would be put on the Town website (http://berlin-ny.us/) for people to access before the public hearing. Jaeger warned that the documents are over 100 pages long, so downloading the PDFs and reading them on one’s own computer screen might be the most efficient way to read them.
A public hearing on the County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan was scheduled for 7 pm on March 8 before the next regular Town Board meeting. Town Attorney Don Tate suggested that the Board discuss the environmental impact of the plan at the workshop on February 23. This SEQR process is required before the Plan can be adopted.
Gravel Bids
Two bids were received by the Town for road materials – one from O’Donovan Sand and Gravel of Church Hollow Road in North Petersburgh and one from Quality Construction of Watson Road in Cherry Plain. Both bids included quotes on a number of different types of road materials, including #2 and #2A stone and cobbles. In the discussion after the bids were opened, Highway Superintendent Jim Winn asked if anybody knew the difference between #2 and #2A stone. No one did. “Carl [Greene] and Jimmy [Saunders] put these bid specs together; I had nothing to do with it,” Winn said. Greene and Saunders were former Board Members. Winn said that all that should be bid on is sand, item 4 gravel and bank run gravel because that is all the Highway Department uses. Number 2 stone, which Winn referred to as crushed stone, is purchased under the County bid. He has no idea what #2A stone is. He added that the quotes for trucking material were irrelevant because the Town will pick up all the materials at the vendors’ sites.
Both bids submitted included adequate paperwork and permits. O’Donovan offered sand at $6.75 per yard, picked up at his location, bank run for $4.75 and item 4 gravel for $6.75 per yard. Quality Construction quoted $7.50 per yard for sand picked up in Cherry Plain, $5.25 for bank run and $7 for item 4 gravel. The discount for the Town doing the loading is more likely to be taken at Quality Construction because the O’Donovan site in North Petersburgh is too far for the Town to move its loaders there economically. At Quality the discount will be $.50 per yard. Board Member John Winn asked if the materials being offered by the two vendors are comparable in quality. His brother Jim Winn replied, “I don’t have any problem with either of them.”
As it has done in the past, the Board voted unanimously to accept the bids from both vendors. This will give Winn the option of purchasing materials from the vendor who is closest to the highway location being worked on.
The Beautiful Bridge
The meeting ended with a comment by Mark Primeau who lives on Walnut Lane. He wanted to publicly thank Jim Winn, Donny, Tara Cinney and others in the town for the work on the Walnut Lane Bridge. He and his family can get home normally now. “It was a nice Christmas present,” he said. Winn replied, “Dave [Goodermote Excavating] did a real nice job.” In an interview after the meeting he said, “For a small contractor it turned out excellent.” Goodermote Excavating did the concrete and some of the structural work on the bridge. The cost, not counting the Highway Department’s labor and heavy equipment, was around $30,000 according to Winn. It’s a beautiful little bridge, as anyone could see in the photograph which appeared with last month’s Berlin Town meeting report.
Due to space considerations in the print version, the rest of the Berlin Town Board report will appear next week.[/private]