by Alex Brooks
At a Special Meeting held on Tuesday February 28, the Petersburgh Town Board unanimously approved an agreement with Taconic which will reimburse the Town for a little over $35,000 in expenses it has incurred responding to the PFOA crisis.[private]
Attorney Kevin Young, who negotiated the agreement, spoke to the Board about the agreement before they voted on accepting it. It is closely tied to the Consent Order signed between NYS DEC and Taconic on November 10, 2016, which requires that Taconic meet with the Town and negotiate reimbursement of the Town’s expenses dealing with the PFOA situation. The Consent Order said that DEC may seek cost recovery from Taconic in the event that the Town did not reach an agreement with Taconic in relation to these costs.
Young said that the clause which gives Taconic a release is simply an acknowledgement that Taconic’s responsibility under the Consent Order to reimburse the Town for its expenses has been met for all Town expenses incurred through December 31, 2016. He said it is something similar to a receipt, acknowledging that the Town will not be asking for any more expense reimbursement for the time period covered under the agreement. The Town can and will negotiate for further expense reimbursements for costs incurred in 2017 and going forward.
The costs being reimbursed include about $2,950 of office staff time, about $1,065 of Highway Department time, $9,000 of the Water District Superintendent’s time, about $8,115 of legal fees from Kevin Young’s firm, Young Sommer, about $13,290 of bills from the engineering firm Barton & Loguidice, and about $938 of Town office supplies.
Young said the Town has incurred some costs related to the landfill contamination, which are not included in this agreement. He said, “That’s a whole different ball game.”
Young reviewed the landfill situation with the Board. He said in 1991 the landfill was closed, and now “leachate breakout” has been discovered and documented. DEC is now doing a “site characterization” to determine the nature and extent of toxic materials escaping from the landfill, and they are expected to release their findings in about a month. He said they will probably require a leachate collection system to catch contaminated runoff coming out of the landfill and pump it into a tank to be treated. He asked the Board to go into Executive Session to discuss possible litigation related to this, which they did at the close of the public meeting, but before doing that they had two other matters on the agenda.
The first was to choose financing for the new loader the Town is purchasing from Capital Tractor. Capital Tractor is offering financing at 3.5% and no bond would be required. Town Bookkeeper Charles Guntner found financing at Pioneer Bank at 1.88% which would require a bond. But Guntner said even after the cost to create and record the bond, the Pioneer Bank financing would cost $3,625 less, so the Board passed a Bond resolution authorizing a bond of $100,000, the proceeds to be used toward the $160,000 purchase price of the loader.
The Board also signed off on the final payment to Bette & Cring for the Broken Wheel Bridge, a check of $186,345. The State will reimburse the Town for 95% of this cost. Guntner said the paperwork requesting reimbursement will go out the following day. He also said the plan is to pay the Town’s 5% share of the cost of the bridge with CHIPS funds. [/private]