Gearing Up For Water System Renovation
by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board meeting on January 21 began with the reading of a letter from the Water District Committee by Heinz Noeding. The letter urged the Supervisor and the Board to “take a greater interest” in the Water District’s problems and to include the Water District committee and the relevant New York State agencies more in the development of solutions to those problems. The letter focused specifically on the building which houses the carbon treatment system which removes PFOA from the water, referred to in the letter as the GAC building. It recited the poor planning, poor design, and the lack of construction oversight which led to the sub-standard building now in place, which has code violations, a severe lack of space, and inadequate climate control. The letter concluded by asking that the building be completely replaced with a well-designed, well-constructed, climate-controlled new building.
Noeding and others from the Water District Committee compared Petersburgh’s GAC building with the new GAC building that was constructed for the Village of Hoosick Falls at about the same time. They described the Hoosick Falls building as being everything that Petersburgh’s is not – clean, well-built, with adequate space and good climate control.
Petersburgh Supervisor Alan Webster was not at the meeting, as he had the flu that evening. The meeting was run by Deputy Supervisor Dennis Smith, who acknowledged that the GAC building had significant problems, but was not ready with a plan of action. The Town’s environmental attorney, Kevin Young, was present and he said he found it difficult to believe that DEC and DOH did not inspect and approve the building at each stage of construction, as it is usual in construction resulting from a consent order to require “as built” plans and specifications. He said he would ask DEC and DOH to check its records and see what documentation is available on the building.
Young also said “there is not a lot of sense in pointing fingers back and forth” about what was done a year ago, and it would accomplish more to focus on what needs to be done now. He suggested that Tom Suozzo of Cedarwood Engineering do an assessment of the building and what needs to be done to make it adequately sized, suitably designed, safe and code compliant, to be presented to Taconic. Suozzo, who was present at this meeting, agreed to do the assessment.
Water District Superintendent Ben Krahforst said another thing the Water District Committee had discussed was the need to have a regular monthly meeting of representatives from the Town and Taconic with representatives from DEC and DOH to make sure the plans for the Water System renovation project, including the parts to be built by Taconic, are acceptable to the Town and to the State agencies. Young replied that this would be a good idea, but it requires the Town to take the initiative to call the meeting and prepare an agenda so that participants will know in advance what issues are before the meeting and they can check with people in their own organization as necessary before coming to the meeting. All of this was a bit theoretical with the Town Supervisor not present, but everyone seems to think such a meeting would be a good idea to keep all parties apprised of the latest developments in the project, and all on the same page concerning who will get what done in what time-frame.
Young then said handling the paperwork on a big grant like this is a complicated and specialized task, and although this could be handled by either staff at his law firm or by staff at an engineering firm, he thought the most cost-effective thing to do is hire a firm that specializes in this kind of work called “Municipal Solutions.” Supervisor Webster had already mentioned this firm to the Board last month and the Board was in agreement. It approved hiring of Municipal Solutions to handle the paperwork for the Water Grant.
Emergency Medical Services
Deputy Supervisor Dennis Smith, who is Captain of the Rescue Squad and has been involved with that organization for a long time, spoke to the Board about the ongoing problems with staffing the ambulance, not only in Petersburgh, but in several of the surrounding towns as well. He said the biggest problem is covering 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays, but staffing problems are not confined to those hours. There is some doubt about whether all-volunteer ambulance squads are going to remain viable. He said there are only 5 ambulance squads in the County still operating with all volunteer staffing, whereas two decades ago there were three times that many. He cited an aging population, less local employers, and less willingness on the part of employers to let members leave work to respond to a call. He said the Captains of the rescue squads from Petersburgh, Grafton, Berlin and Stephentown have met and are looking into what can or should be done about this situation.
One solution would be to create an ambulance district with taxing authority, but he thought that would be difficult politically. Solutions might involve mergers of the squads from neighboring towns, or creation of a new non-profit organization to own and operate an ambulance or several. He said this last option “is the way most of us would like it to go.” But if the ambulance organization gets away from town sponsorship it makes it more difficult to handle the financing. Berlin and Stephentown’s ambulances are under the umbrella of the Fire Departments, which have taxing authority, and Grafton ambulance and its building are owned by the Town, even though the ambulance squad is independent and has its own governing board. Petersburgh’s ambulance is owned by the Ambulance Squad, but it is supported by an annual payment from the Town.
For now, he said the leaders of the various ambulance squads are gathering numbers concerning the cost of paid staff, the number of calls that might be expected in a merged district, where the ambulance might be based in a merged district, and many other questions. They will continue to do this research and to explore options, and then meet and discuss all of this.
Smith said if EMTs were hired for daytime hours on weekdays, it might cost $250,000 annually. If all four towns split that, it might be an average of about $70,000 annually (probably larger towns would pay a bit more and smaller towns a bit less). But if some of the towns did not want to get involved in a joint venture, it would be expensive for only three or only two towns to try to run an ambulance service, but maybe still better than the current situation.
Smith asked if any members of the Town Board would be willing to come to meetings and join in the effort to find a solution. Denise Church said she would go to one meeting at least, and see what happens after that.