Petersburgh Town Board Action – 2015 Revaluation Planned

by Alex Brooks
Petersburgh Sole Assessor Craig Surprise urged the Board to get started on a revaluation of real property in the Town. He said the real estate market has settled down and prices are stabilizing, so he believes it’s a good time to do it. Surprise feels it has been too long since the Town last did a revaluation. He said it takes two years to do it, so the Town needs to plan now to get a 2015 reval done. The work would be done in 2013 and 2014, and the new valuations would be in place in 2015. The Board agreed to go forward with it.
[private]Surprise said he will bring cost estimates next month so the Town can put the cost of the revaluation in its budgets over the next two years.
FEMA Money Has Arrived
Supervisor Krahforst said FEMA has paid all of the money the Town applied for and the bond that the Town took out to pay for the FEMA work has been paid off.
Krahforst said FEMA paid a total of $381,000, of which the Town still has about $100,000.
Extra Pay
At Krahforst’s urging, the Board approved paying Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison and Town Clerk Callie Crisp extra pay to compensate them for the many extra hours they put in responding to Hurricane Irene. The extra hours they worked were billable under some of the FEMA projects, so the Town has been paid by FEMA for some of those hours. The sums involved were $2,932 for Harrison and $2,654 for Crisp. The Board passed a resolution to augment their salaries by that much for just one year. It is subject to a permissive referendum, which means the Town has to wait a certain number of days after giving the public notice of these payments and, if there is no objection from the citizenry, the payments will be made.
Highway
Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison said this season’s paving and chipsealing is done and his crew has replaced a few culverts.  Supervisor Krahforst then read a letter from a “concerned citizens” group which said they don’t think the Highway Department is following best practices with regard to maintenance of gravel roads. The letter suggested that current practices are resulting in gravel being washed away unnecessarily due to lack of attention to crowns on the roadway and proper ditching.  The group offered a report on best practices. Supervisor Krahforst handed Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison the report. Harrison said nothing but seemed less than pleased with the free advice. The identity of the members of the concerned citizens group was not revealed.
Vandalism At Town Park
Harrison also told the Board that someone had driven into a gatepost at the Town Park and did “donuts” on the big field down there.
Broken Wheel Bridge
County Engineer Wayne Bonesteel came to the meeting to talk to the Board about getting federal funding to build a new bridge at Broken Wheel Road. He said the first step is to request a “Master Agreement” with the New York State DOT. When DOT responds, they will send a sample resolution for the Town Board to pass, committing themselves to the project. Current cost estimates for the project are $151,000 for engineering and other pre-construction costs and $600,000 for construction.  Under this program, the federal government will pay 80% of the cost, NY State will pay 15% of the cost and the Town is responsible for the remaining 5%. The Town must pay all costs up front, though, and then the State and Federal governments pay their share on a reimbursement basis. The Town would have to take out a bond to pay the cost and then repay the bond after the State and federal reimbursements arrive.  Bonesteel said the County will be able to guide the Town through the process, help with RFPs, contracts, reimbursement paperwork and the like. The Board agreed to move forward with the project.
Water District
Supervisor Krahforst said the Water District’s USDA loan, which has about a dozen more years of payments left on it, is at an interest rate of 6.5% and the Town is able to borrow today at much lower rates than that, He is seeking to refinance the loan. To take out a bond, the Town has to hire an attorney to do the paperwork, which Krahforst said would be about $1,500. If the Town is able to get an interest rate of 3.5%, which Krahforst calls the “worst case scenario,” it would save over $1,000 annually. If it gets an interest rate of 2.5%, the savings would be $2,000 annually.  The Board liked the sound of those numbers and authorized Krahforst to hire an attorney to get a bond to refinance Water District debt.
Krahforst also said that David Alderman had volunteered to be the Town Board’s liaison with the Water District Committee.
JCAP Grant
Town Clerk Callie Crisp asked the Board for approval to apply for a grant from the Justice Court Assistance Program, which makes State money available to local courts for improvements to their facilities. The grant would pay for some office furniture and equipment, an air conditioner and a security system for the Town Hall. The grant would pay for the entire cost of providing and installing these things. The Town’s ongoing cost would be for the electricity to power the air conditioner and the monitoring fee for the security company. Crisp said the monitoring fee would be $240 per year or possibly less than that. The Board approved the application.
Party Committee
Supervisor Krahforst scheduled a meeting for citizens interested in working on the planning of a party for next summer on the fourth of July. The meeting will be held on Thursday, September 6, at 7 pm in the Town Hall. He urged the civic-minded to attend the meeting and get involved.
Petersburgh Pass Parking Lot
Supervisor Krahforst is concerned about the lack of attention to the parking lot at Petersburgh Pass.  There are large gullies and potholes in it which he feels ought to be repaired, and he also noted that there used to be great views from there, which you can’t see anymore because trees have been allowed to grow up.  He has written letters to the State DEC and Parks Department and some recreational groups to try to get the place better taken care of. He noted that the parking lot is used a great deal by hikers and other recreational users and it is also used as a staging area by emergency personnel. It is sometimes used as a helicopter landing area in emergency situations, and the current state of the lot raises safety concerns.
Alternative Energy
Tom Berry, a member of the Alternative Energy Committee, reported on his group’s research. They found that it would cost $42,000 to install a solar array by the water tower and that it would save only $1,040 in electricity cost annually so it would not be cost-effective. They also asked NYSEG about converting the street lights to LEDs and found that NYSEG doesn’t offer LED lighting for street lights.  The Town requested that NYSEG look into offering an LED option for street lighting. The Committee is continuing to look into other energy saving options, including trying to find a grant to pay for energy audits of the Town buildings.
The Board went into an executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss “a personnel matter.”
The Generator Was Started
At the Petersburgh Town Board story last month Supervisor Krahforst stated that the Water District’s generator has not been started at all for several years. Since then, Krahforst was informed by Water District Superintendent Todd Stradinger that this is not so. Stradinger has started the generator several times each summer over the past few years to make sure it is working properly.[/private]