Stephentown Town Board Action – April 2013

by David Flint
Stephentown’s sole Assessor, Tom MacVeigh, resigned as of April 11. His retirement was formally accepted by the Town Board at their meeting Monday. Then the Board passed a second resolution reinstating MacVeigh as the Town Assessor.
[private]MacVeigh, who has put in 37 years of public service, only recently applied for a pension from the State Retirement System. For years he was told he was not eligible as a part-time official, but sometime along the way the State changed the rules. Now he will be credited with 18½ years of service but was told he had to be out of office for 24 hours in order to start collecting. He informed the Board last month that he “would like to be reinstated” after retiring.
Audit
Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt reported that a copy of the final State Audit and the Town Board’s response is available at the Town Clerk’s Office and will also be posted on the Town website. He said the auditors had a lot of questions about procedures for the Transfer Station and for Town Board meetings but their biggest concerns had to do with problems with the Annual Update Documents (AUD). Year-end numbers in these documents have to match and balance with the numbers for the previous year, and it was found that incorrect numbers had been sent in for 2008 and nothing balanced with 2009. Eckhardt said it took a long time to correct this. The AUDs for 2008 and 2009 have now been submitted and OK’d, and the Board is continuing to work on straightening out the AUDs for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Assuming timely response from the State Comptroller’s Office, that work should be completed by the end of this year and the AUD for 2013 will be submitted in January of next year.
Another thing that took some time to figure out, partially because most of the bank statements from 2008-09 could not be found, was that it turned out that the Town had $40,000 more in bank accounts than the accounting program indicated.
Eckhardt expressed some frustration that the auditors took from December 2011 to March of this year to complete the audit and then demanded a detailed response in 22 days. “But we got it done,” he said.
Youth Commission Swim Program Returning
The Board passed a resolution to move $2,000 from unexpended fund balance accounts to Youth Services to enable the Youth Commission to hold a two week swimming safety program this summer. The swim program was suspended last year. Board Member PJ Roder reported that the swim program would be held from August 4 to August 16 at the Hoosick Town Pool. The program is conditional on at least 20 youths signing up, and no more than 30 will be accepted. Eckhardt remarked that, “I’m glad we are looking at this as a real possibility because I think the swim program is really important. For a number of our young people in Town it’s probably the only chance for some instruction in swim safety.”
Roder said that the Youth Commission would hold Summer Camp from July 8 to August 2 from 8 am to noon each day. Activities will be at the Town Hall and, weather permitting, at the Fire Hall pavilion. In partnership with the Stephentown Memorial Library, an after-camp program will continue from noon to 2 pm at the Library and lunch will be offered. Applications for the Summer Camp, the After-Camp program and the Swim Program will be available at the Town Hall and at the Library beginning on May 1.
Truck Financing
The Board approved a financing agreement with First Niagara Bank for the Highway Department’s purchase of a new tandem axle dump and plow truck. The cost of the 2014 International Model 7600 truck from Delurey Sales & Service of North Hoosick is $118,750 and the price for the body, plow and sander equipment from Zwack, Inc. of Stephentown is $75,095, for a total cost of $193,845. This amount, with financing charges, will be paid in four annual payments, the first of which in the amount of $50,351.38 was authorized at this meeting.
Code Enforcement Officer
An attorney for a couple involved in a property dispute on Brainard Road requested at last month’s meeting that the Board act to revoke a temporary Certificate of Occupancy granted by Code Enforcement Officer Dean Herrick to a neighbor who apparently built his house on their land. Herrick has said that he acted to allow time for the parties to reach an agreement. Eckhardt reported that the matter is being resolved by Herrick with some guidance from the newly appointed Town Attorney, Michelina Wojton. “The matter is proceeding the way it should,” he said, though “probably not the way everyone wants it to,” but in a way which pretty much “leaves the Town out of that matter.” Regarding Herrick, Eckhardt added, “He’s very seldom wrong.”
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $619.50 to the Supervisor for the month of March. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town was $2,735.
The Transfer Station deposited a total of $4,476 for the month of March. Councilman Bill Jennings reported that this is about $1,000 less than the income for March of 2012. According to Jennings, there was better weather a year ago that month but it may also be an indication fewer people are taking their trash to the Transfer Station.
Eckhardt said there have been a number of complaints lately about trash being dumped along Newton Road. “It doesn’t quite make it to the Transfer Station,” he said. He pledged that the Town would investigate by looking through any illegally dumped trash, and, if the culprit is identified, the Town will prosecute, as they have done in the past.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $69,493.98 from the General Account and $21,205.93 from the Highway Account.
Eckhardt expressed his displeasure about one of these bills, in the amount of $3,800 from CHA (formerly Clough Harbour Associates) for engineering consultant services to the ZBA. Part of this apparently was to pay for mailing out a 312 page report on comments and responses on the Motocross Environmental Impact Statement. Eckhardt thought that sending out 17 copies of this document, certified mail with return receipt, to members of the Zoning Board, Planning Board and Town Board was “a bit of overkill.” The money should be reimbursed by the applicant, Howard Commander, but in any case Eckhardt thought that, “It was uncalled for.”
The Board set their next workshop meeting for Monday, May 13, and their next regular meeting for Monday, May 20, both meetings to start at 7 pm.[/private]