by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board accepted the resignation of Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison at its October 20 meeting. His last day working for the Town will be October 31.
He has taken a job working for the County highway crew, and he will start there at the beginning of November.
[private]Harrison said he resigned because he feels he is being harassed and disrespected by people who have taken it upon themselves to criticize his management of the Highway Department and he is “fed up with it.” He said he can make the same money working for the County without all the headaches that come with running the Petersburgh Highway Department.
Town Councilman Jack Barnhill has expressed some interest in taking on the Highway Superintendent position, but the process of deciding on a replacement for Harrison has not progressed very far yet. The Town Board is required to appoint someone within five days of Harrison’s departure.
The Town Board scheduled a special meeting for Monday, October 27, at 7 pm to discuss Highway Department issues. The Highway Department is seeking to hire two new people for the highway crew also. Supervisor Krahforst said they had two applicants but their salary requirements were higher than the pay that is offered.
Emergency Contractors
The Board received another bid to provide contracting services to the Town in an emergency situation. It was from Quality Construction. It listed hourly charges for a variety of equipment that would be available to the Town if needed. This is the third company that has submitted such a bid, so the Town would now have three companies to choose from when it needs emergency construction services. They previously received bids from Duane Goodermote and Sean O’Donovan.
Procurement Policy
The Board discussed its procurement policy, and they seemed to come to agreement on the basic contours of the policy, but they wanted Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo to redraft the policy in its final form before they approved it. The idea is that purchases of $3,000 or more must be put out to bid, but in an emergency purchases up to $20,000 could be made without bids.
Length Of Public Comments
Town Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst recently changed the time allowed for each person’s comment to the Board from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. Because he was criticized for that, he brought it to the Board for discussion. The Board discussed it for a while but didn’t all agree on a policy so they eventually just tabled it.
Broken Wheel Bridge
Supervisor Krahforst said the program that will be paying for the replacement of the Broken Wheel Bridge went over its budget and were looking for things to cut, which put the project in jeopardy. They ultimately voted to continue the project, though, so it is still on track. However, they put it off a year, so it is now scheduled to be built in 2017 instead of 2016.
Krahforst said the way the program works is that the Town pays the bills and then submits them for reimbursement, which is supposed to take 1 to 3 months but can sometimes take longer. Now, during the design phase, the cash flow numbers are manageable, but when construction starts the Town may need large amounts of cash to pay the bills while they are waiting for reimbursement. He said he hopes to avoid the costs of floating a bond but is not sure if that will be feasible.
103 Millyard Road
Building Inspector Martin Conboy told the Board that the old shirt factory in the mill yard had been sold by the County once again to a buyer who did not come out to look at it before buying it. The buyer thought he was buying a house and was shocked to find only ruins with a rickety facade in front. This is the second time this has happened – apparently the County’s auctioneer is not fully disclosing the true state of the property. It appears that this buyer is going to walk away from the property as the last one did, and the whole process of taking it for unpaid taxes will begin again.
New Planning Board Regulations
Tim Church asked the Board if they had made progress on approving the new Planning Board regulations. Krahforst said Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo is reviewing and revising them and he has not been in touch about it yet.
Other Matters
Krahforst said the Planning Board is still looking for a new member.
The Town Historian said the donation of $1,000 from Sean O’Donovan for a display case for historical materials has been received so the display case will be ordered and the historical display may soon be set up at the Town Hall.
Krahforst said he has been trying to get NYSEG to change the mercury vapor streetlights to LEDs because that would save about 60% of the electricity being used, but so far, he said, “I have got nothing but the run-around.”[/private]