by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board meeting began with another long presentation by Tom Berry on a variety of topics. He presented to the Board thick stacks of paper which contained information about gravel, road building methods and materials and other things. Supervisor Krahforst stopped him twice during the presentation, the first time to complain that he was “lecturing” and going on too long and the second time, when Berry started to talk about his employer, to ask him to stick to Town business.
Joe Dunlop was concerned that Town Clerk Callie Crisp had cut her public hours. [private]He wondered, since her pay hadn’t changed, why she is available less hours. Crisp responded that the number of public hours does not correspond to how many hours she works. She said, “I work close to 40 hours a week anyway.”
Neil Geary also responded. He said, “Window hours are reduced, but she’s working the same amount.”
Crisp said Town Clerks have discretion to set whatever public hours they choose and pointed out that the Clerks in some of the neighboring towns have less public hours than she does.
Dunlop said the Town has been hiring more secretaries recently, but Crisp said the budget for her assistant was cut this year so she has less secretarial help than she did last year. In fact it was cut in half, from $3,000 last year to $1,500 this year.
Supervisor Krahforst said because of the budget cuts in the area of secretarial help, the Town can barely keep up with the workload. Apparently the Town has more paperwork to handle than it used to.
However, it appears progress is being made because the minutes for all the meetings this year through February 24 were ready for Board approval, and those minutes are now on the Town’s web site, as are most of the minutes from meetings in 2013.
Rubin Grant
Krahforst presented to the Board a preliminary draft of an application to the Rubin Foundation for professional assistance for the Town with improving the Town’s methods and procedures for handling information and communicating with the public. The Rubin Foundation arranges for highly skilled professionals, referred to as “Rubin Fellows,” to assist organizations to improve their capabilities. The Town hopes to have a Rubin Fellow help them evaluate their methods and improve their efficiency using modern computer capabilities.
Transfer Station Meeting
Supervisor Krahforst said a joint meeting of the Berlin and Petersburgh Town Boards is scheduled for Thursday, March 27, at 6 pm in the Berlin Municipal Complex, but he reported receiving “a disturbing email” from Berlin Supervisor Robert Jaeger, who said he was waiting for a detailed description of what the Petersburgh Board wanted to talk about and until he received this the meeting is “in question.” Krahforst was puzzled by this. He said, “I already told him we want to talk about the $1,000 per month rent that we pay on the transfer station.”
Krahforst said he will get in touch with Jaeger and discuss the matter.
Town Park Clean-Up
Supervisor Krahforst said Scoutmaster Andy Zlotnick has scheduled an environmental service project for Troop 222 of Petersburgh to clean up the Town Park on April 26 from 9 am to 1 pm. This is one of a series of Boy Scout projects organized around Earth Day this year. Earth Day is April 22. The scouts are asking the public to help support the project, either by making monetary donations or volunteering to help on the day of the cleanup. Those who would like to help are asked to contact Zlotnick at azlotnick_40@yahoo.com or 658-9066.
Appointments
The Board appointed Rossie Knight and William Shorter Sr. to the Board of Ethics.
The Board appointed a Youth and Recreation Committee consisting of Cindi Mars, Denise Church, Joan Buzerak, Sherry Bowman-Kluck and Alan Webster.
Water District
The Water District received $12,400 during the month of February and by the end of the month had a balance of $5,457. Supervisor Krahforst said a bill had been received from R. I. Baker for repair of the broken pipes in the pump house and he thought it was about $2,000. Water District Superintendent Ben Krahforst said he had repaired a heater in the pump house and a light fixture on the outside of it and things are going fine so far this month.[/private]