Paucity Of Information Stalls Grafton Board

by Alex Brooks
At the Grafton Town Board meeting on Monday, February 13, Town Supervisor Ray Darling said he received an email on February 6 from Linda von der Heide, Rensselaer County’s Principal Planner, about an initiative the County is working on with FEMA. They call it a “Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan.” The idea is to upgrade culverts and bridges so as to be better prepared for the next storm and flooding event. In practice it will mean FEMA will provide money to replace small culverts with bigger ones, or do other construction that would improve drainage and protect roads in a flooding event.
[private]Darling said when he got this email there was a very short window of opportunity to get some Grafton projects onto the list of projects to be considered for this program, and he and Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck put their heads together and came up with about a dozen projects that would be appropriate for a program like this and sent those off to von der Heide for inclusion in the planning.
But what other steps the Town is expected to take in order to participate in the program were not clear. The initial email mentioned a resolution that the Town should pass and a possible public hearing at some point. There was an item on the agenda under “new business” which said “Motion to adopt Rensselaer County…Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan,” but the Board members had no other text describing what it was. Marie Claus said she can’t vote on something with no information – she doesn’t know what she’s voting for. Barbara Messenger and Rick Ungaro said similar things.
The Board was inclined to take no action until they could learn more about it, but Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck was unhappy with that. He said, “It’s free federal money, and it’s very time-sensitive and delaying might put any potential funding in jeopardy, as it might go to other towns which acted more quickly.
The matter stalemated there. Supervisor Darling said it would be referred to the Highway Committee to decide what should be done next.
Website
Supervisor Darling said another proposal had been received from a company called North Shore Solutions to handle the Town’s website. It offered two levels of service for $455 per year and $790 per year.
Marie Claus pointed out that there is nothing in the budget to pay for building or maintaining a website. Barbara Messenger said she thought it very important for the Town to have an official website. She urged that money be transferred from some other budgeted account to pay for putting a website in place.
Marie Claus suggested that the Board gather several proposals and then hold a public hearing to allow the public to express their thoughts on it.
Town Assessor Craig Surprise said the Assessment Roll has to be available on the Town website by May 1. He urged the Board to have a website in place by then.
Later, at public comment time, Doug La Rocque said he thinks it is critical to Grafton’s future to have a website. “The internet is the future,” said La Rocque. “We can’t continue to drag our feet on this.”
David Buckley also felt it important to have an actively maintained Town website, and he offered to personally contribute to the cost of getting it going.
Assessor Computers
Town Assessor Craig Surprise said he needed to spend “up to $600” to get the two computers used by the Assessor and his clerk networked. He said the State is furnishing the hardware but he needs to hire a technician to install and configure it. A motion was put forward to approve this expenditure. All voted in favor except Rick Ungaro, who felt he needed more information. He asked for a written estimate, which was not available.
Surprise said the new system will allow him to put new data from recent real estate sales into the system instead of having the County do it. This will eliminate the County’s “chargebacks” for this service, saving Grafton residents money on their County tax bill.
Grafton Elementary School
The Grafton School building was a major topic during the public comment period. Doug La Rocque cautioned against rushing into acquiring the building. He said the Town and Fire District already own and maintain quite a few buildings in Town at taxpayer expense, and the Town has a lot of debt already and should be very careful about adding another building to its burden. He said even if the Town is able to acquire the building at a nominal cost, the cost of renovating and maintaining it may be significant.
Bill Middleton said he feels that the Town cannot afford to own that building and also added that if a business could be found to buy it and operate at that location, it would bring to the Town tax revenue and maybe some jobs.
Supervisor Darling responded that neither the Town nor the Fire District has any intention of acquiring the building in haste. He said he had toured the building with an engineer. He said it is a very nice building and it’s in very good shape but it’s “way bigger than what we need.”
Darling said the Town will take a look at the building to see if it could be useful to the Town, but he expects it will take six months or so to study it, and if the Town were interested in acquiring it, it would probably be put to a referendum.
He said he knows the School District is trying to get rid of it quickly, but he doesn’t feel pressured by that. He said there is no reason for the Town to act hastily.
Rescue Squad
The Rescue Squad responded to 11 calls in January – two structure fires, one smoke inhalation, one fall, one cardiac arrest, one back pain, one traumatic injury, onedifficulty breathing, two sick persons and one abdominal pain. The Squad logged 403 miles traveled and 94 volunteer hours. Two members attended a safety course held January 31 at Mohawk Ambulance.
The Town received a letter from Ray, Patty and Chet DuFour praising the professionalism, quick response and attention to detail of the Ambulance Squad during a recent call transporting Patty DuFour to Samaritan Hospital.
Building Inspector Tom Withcuskey said he has issued two new permits so far this year, and there are 47 existing permits still in process.
Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck said that during the recent warm weather the Highway crew had a chance to fix an oil leak on the grader and service all the trucks.[/private]