Petersburgh Town Board Action – April 2012

by Alex Brooks
Petersburgh Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst said he and Town Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison met with the County Highway Engineer about the project to replace the bridge that carries Broken Wheel Road over the Little Hoosic River. Krahforst said that to keep the project on track it has to be in the works in 2013 and start construction in 2014. If the Town does not keep to this schedule, it will lose the funding. [private]The project is listed as a $750,000 project. The Federal government pays 80% of the cost, so it has $600,000 committed to the project. The State is to pay 15% and the Town is responsible for 5%. However, the Town must pay the costs and then be reimbursed by State and Federal funds, so the Town must float a bond for the whole amount and pay it back when the Federal and State money comes in. In addition to the $38,000 which is the Town’s share of the project, there may be interest costs of $20,000 or more. Krahforst said that to keep the project on track, the Town would have to budget $60,000 in next year’s budget.
Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison said the Broken Wheel bridge is the worst bridge in Town, and it is the most vulnerable to flooding. He felt it is important to take advantage of the 95% funding while it is available. The Board agreed, but took no formal action.
Assessor To Revise County IT Relationship
Supervisor Krahforst also attended a meeting with Town Assessor Craig Surprise and County officials about the Town going to what Surprise calls a “stand-alone” system for keeping the Town’s assessment information. This means that new information would be entered by the Town and then uploaded to the County’s computers rather than being entered by the County. Surprise said this will not create much new work for him because he already has to check the information after the County puts it in, and, he said, they make a lot of mistakes that he has to correct. The “stand-alone” system will make assessment information more readily available to the Town and should reduce taxes charged by the County for entering information since they won’t have to do that anymore.
Surprise said other towns are doing this also, and Deputy County Executive Chris Meyer “is comfortable with what we’re doing.” He said Meyer will send a new letter soon detailing what tasks the Town will do and what the County will do.
Highway
Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison said the FEMA paperwork is completed and signed off for three roads and checks for these may be here in a month or so. Other FEMA paperwork is still being processed.
At the end of the meeting discussion arose about getting paid for doing FEMA paperwork. In the past Petersburgh has hired individuals to help file FEMA applications for aid, most recently Charles Hamill. Much of the paperwork to get aid for Hurricane Irene repairs was done by Emily Harrison. But this apparently started informally when she was just helping out her husband, and she was never hired to do the job. Ray Harrison said he was recently informed by the Town Attorney that the Town can’t hire her retroactively so she can’t be paid for the work she did. The Board seemed to feel that she should be paid, but they needed to speak with the attorney to see what their options are.
Other Matters
Supervisor Krahforst said the little shed over the side entrance to the basement of the Town Hall has created “a lot of problems” and he wanted to have it taken down and replaced with a Bilco Door. He said the County Sheriff’s crew will take the shed down and he had a contract proposal from Jay and Joe Burdick to install a custom-sized Bilco door there for $1,825. The Board accepted the proposal.
The Board approved Craig Levesque as an additional member of the Town’s Economic Development Committee.[/private]