by David Flint
The Stephentown Town Board is not at this time taking any position regarding Kinder Morgan’s proposed gas pipeline, but they are listening to citizens’ concerns and plan to stay involved. A group of Town residents associated with the Stop New York Fracked Gas Pipeline (SNYFGP) organization attended the Town Board meeting Monday evening. [private]They included Tom Pecoraro, Sandy Nathan, John Serio, Millie Smith, Jack Spillman and several others. In answer to their opening question Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt said that the Town still has had no formal contact with Kinder Morgan but they have received packets of information including detailed maps of the proposed route through Stephentown. They also received by email a schedule of Kinder Morgan’s schedule for “open house” meetings which includes one at the New Lebanon High School on February 9 and one at Berkshire Community College on February 10, both to run from 6 to 8 pm.
Millie Smith thought it astonishing that none had been scheduled for Stephentown or anywhere in Rensselaer County. Eckhardt said he would contact KM and suggest that an open house be held closer to residents affected.
Eckhardt said that he has spoken briefly with the Town Supervisor of Nassau about the currently proposed pipeline and also with the Supervisors in New Lebanon, Chatham and Canaan to find out what actions, if any, were taken earlier by those towns. He said, too, that the Stephentown Board has received a lot of emails and phone calls about this from concerned residents and they discussed it at the Workshop meeting on January 12. He said they will continue to gather questions and concerns and try to determine the best resource for getting answers. Eckhardt said that the Planning Board has also been apprised of the proposed pipeline. The Town Board will also consider holding a public hearing or public forum once the situation becomes clearer.
A Troubling Thought
Eckhardt noted that one item that came up at the workshop meeting was particularly troubling, that being the possibility of a 100 year storm causing a breach of the Cherry Plain dam, an event that could wash out a pipeline where it runs under or near by a stream.
Sandy Nathan urged the Board not to be over cooperative with KM’s requests for information. In other towns in Massachusetts, she said, KM has tried unsuccessfully to FOIL information that they are not entitled to. She said she understands the Board must provide what they legally can but they do not have to provide it synthesized and organized in whatever format it is asked for.
Nathan said her group would like to make a presentation before the Town Board and the Planning Board. The Board was not receptive to that, but Councilman Bill Jennings said they could and should have their own public meeting in Stephentown at any time. He noted that the Town Board has no official role in this, no authority to approve or disapprove. What they can do is facilitate the dissemination of information. To Nathan’s contention that many towns in Massachusetts have taken an opposing stance to the pipeline, he asked that a list of these towns be provided so that the Board could see what process they used to come to that decision.
Eckhardt said he believes that SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) will come into play at some point. The Town Board will decline to take lead agency status in that process, he said, but it will provide input.
One action the Board was willing to take at this time was to move their next workshop meeting up to the first Monday in February in order not to conflict with the KM open house scheduled for February 9 at New Lebanon High School.
Youth-To-Youth Seeks Support For Alcohol And Drug Abuse Prevention
The TRACs group (Together Reducing drugs and Alcohol in our CommunitieS) has been active in the Berlin School District for six years. Sue Brisette-Cass brought a group of four student members of the local Youth-To-Youth group to tell the Board of their accomplishments and seek support for future plans. Brisette-Cass said that there has been a profound impact on the way that local teens look at alcohol and drug abuse. The 2014 New York Prevention Needs Assessment Survey shows that the number of students using alcohol had dropped from one in three to one in five. The number of those reporting use of marijuana has also decreased from 25% to about 13%. Other indicators of risk show improvement also. Among older youth, however, Brisette-Cass acknowledged that alcohol and drug use is still higher than the national and county norms. “The community still has an alcohol and drug issue,” she said, “We have made progress, but there’s a long way to go. And even if we get down to the national and county norms, those norms are still too high.”
The four students from Youth-To-Youth, Annie Cass, Rylie Kells, Rachel Cahill and Amanda Despart, showed slides from previous Youth-To-Youth conferences that they had attended and spoke of their experiences. These conferences, they said, are fun and informative, and above all they instill in the students a self confidence that enables them to bring the message back to their peers. One of the students, Rylie Kells, said she had not yet attended a Conference but would much appreciate a chance to go.
Brisette-Cass said it has been a fabulous way to bring back good energy into the community. She said that TRACs is asking each of the towns in the Berlin School District to sponsor two students to go to the 2015 Conference. This would cost the Town $850. The Town would sign a contract with TRACs, and the students would sign a contract with the Town. The students would commit to giving a presentation to the Board about strategies learned, and they would commit, also, to bringing that information and energy back into the community.
The Board decided that such a contract for services would be well worthwhile to the community, and they authorized the Supervisor to enter into it for two Stephentown students to the tune of $850 from the Youth Commission budget.
Seeking ZBA Member And Deputy Clerk
The Board authorized the Town Clerk to advertise for two vacant positions. The Deputy Town Clerk position pays $4.50 per hour for a maximum of $2,000 in the year. A position on the Zoning Board of Appeals also needs to be filled – no pay for this one. Deadline for responding is February 20.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $1,046.71 to the Supervisor for the month of December. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund has not yet been reported. The Transfer Station deposited a total $13,762, including $12,584 for pink bags – bought before the price went up from $2 to $3 per bag.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $15,606.23 from the General Fund and $17,744.01 from the Highway Account.
The Board set its next workshop meeting for Monday, February 2, and its next regular meeting for Monday, February 23 (a week later than usual), both meetings to start at 7 pm.
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