PILOT Law Passed
by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Town Board gave final approval to a law requiring the owners of large commercial solar installations to sign an agreement for a payment in lieu of taxes. This payment will be negotiated on a case by case basis with proposed solar projects, but the general idea is to create a payment that gives the local community a financial benefit from the project, but is less than the full property tax would be, so that it is not cost-prohibitive for the developer of the solar project. 50% of payments made under this law go to the Hoosick Falls School District, 25% to the Town of Hoosick, and 25% to Rensselaer County.
Paige Group Presentation
Carrie McMurray and Allison Damiano-Traglia from the Paige Group, communications consultants from Utica, NY came to the Town Board meeting to give a presentation about a committee they have been hired to convene which is supposed to faciltate community participation in the PFOA cleanup process. Carrie McMurray spoke to the Board. She said her company has been hired by the NYS Department of Environmental conservation to convene a “Community Participation Work Group,” (CPWG) manage and facilitate its monthly meeting during its early stages, and serve as a liaison between that group and state agencies “to facilitate the flow of information.” The CPWG is supposed to serve as a forum for the community to learn about the details of the cleanup, and to have input into the decisions being made about the cleanup, alternative water sources, and so on. It is expected to be a self governing, voluntary group that works closely with State agencies, EPA and local governments on the details of the cleanup, helps to disseminate to the public information about the cleanup, and brings information and opinion coming from the local community to the state and federal decision makers who are running the cleanup. It will have 15-20 members, and those members are supposed to embody broad community representation.
Anyone who is interested in serving on the CPWG should send a letter of interest to: Hoosick Community Participation Work Group, c/o The Paige Group, 258 Genesee St., Suite 204, Utica, NY 13502, or by e-mail to: info@paigegroup.com. Letters will be accepted until May 17.
At some earlier meetings about this Group, some residents said they though local elected officials should not be members of it, but McMurray said “it is not uncommon” for local elected officials to be members of such groups, and Supervisor Surdam said that at least initially, both the Mayor and the Supervisor will be part of the group.
Train Safety Issue
Councilman Jerry McAuliffe said with the assistance of County Legislator Bruce Patire, he was able to get in touch with the Director of Safety for Pan Am Railways to discuss an area in the Village where the foundation of the tracks is unstable. It is near Railroad avenue, close to the Carey Avenue intersection. McAuliffe said this spot has been a problem since the 1980s because of a crumbling concrete culvert there that is nearly nonfunctional. He said in the late 1980s the railroad had money allocated to do work there and was about to start a renovation project, and then for some reason they didn’t do the work. The problem became much worse, though, after the flood in July 2017 when a great deal of water ran through this spot and dug a big hole under the tracks so that the tracks had nothing under them at all. Temporary repairs were made and train traffic over the track resumed, but the trains went through that section extremely slowly. Since then the railroad comes periodically to shore up the situation, but the base of the track remains severely compromised. McAuliffe confronted the safety director with the railroad’s long-term neglect of this problem and the safety hazard it poses to the many nearby homes. The Safety Director made a commitment to check the condition of the tracks in this spot twice a week from now until it is fixed, and he promised the railroad will do major work on it sometime this summer, presumably meaning that a large new culvert would be installed.
Councilman Bill Hanselman said this is great news, and he praised McAuliffe for identifying this problem and pursuing it until he got a commitment to have it fixed.
Camp Director Search
Supervisor Mark Surdam said the Town has received three applications for the Pool Manager job for this summer, but has not received any applications for Summer Camp Director or from people who would like to be lifeguards this summer. He said he will have to be more pro-active about recruiting people for these jobs, as they really should have people hired for all these jobs within a month or so.
State Line riders
A number of people from the State Line Riders came to this month’s meeting along with their attorney, because they need to begin planning next summer’s event in Hoosick very soon, and the Town has still not specified what they need to do to get a permit for a weekend of motorcycle racing planned for next labor day. They said the site this year will be the Cipperly property on Breese Hollow Road, and they said the race course will go up into the hills far from any houses.
The Town has been putting them off from month to month because the Town Board has plans to revise its mass gatherings law soon, and was hoping to get that done before issuing a permit for racing this summer. But at this meeting Deputy Supervisor Eric Sheffer said at this point it is likely that getting revisions written and approved will take 60 days or more, and that would be too late to start with planning and organizing the event. Sheer asked his fellow Board members to give the State line riders some kind of answer at this very meeting. But Supervisor Surdam and Town Attorney Schopf said the town would have to get some information about the event before they could approve it. Schopf said he would work with the State Line ?Riders’ attorney to work out the details and make a recommendation to the Board on his to proceed.
Rock Cuts
With warm weather on its way, discussion again turned to what to do about “The rock cuts,” a little beach on the Hoosick River next to Route 22, just north of Route 7. This is a very beautiful little beach that attracts visitors every summer, from sunbathers to fishermen to birdwatchers. The problem last year was that it attracted people, apparently from out of the local area, who were staying there for several days and generating a lot of trash. The place became a mess and volunteers had to be recruited to clean it up.
Town Attorney Schopf has been trying to determine who owns it for quite some time, and his conclusion is that the Hoosac School owns it, but some uncertainty remains. He said the way to resolve the uncertainty would be to have the School sign a quitclaim deed ceding any rights it may have in the land there to the Town, assuming that the School is willing to give up its ownership rights, and the Town is willing to take title to it.
This would require that a survey be done, as there is no separate deed at present describing this as a separate parcel from the school’s campus. Getting this done would cost the Town some money. Members of the Town Board expressed some concerns about the trouble and expense that would be involved in taking charge of this problem and were hesitant to jump in, but they also noted that whenever there is problem there, people are going to expect the Town to do something about it. They tabled the matter pending further thought and discussion.
Special Meetings Scheduled
The Board scheduled a Special Meeting on Thursday April 18 at 6 pm to discuss details of the pool and recreation area renovation grant, and the revised pay scales for summer employees at the pool and the summer camp. The State minimum wage, which was $10.40 last summer, will be $11.10 this coming summer, and the Board felt that the other jobs that are usually higher than minimum wage should also be adjusted by similar amounts.
The Board also scheduled a workshop to consider revisions to the Mass Gatherings Law for Tuesday, May 7 at 6 pm.
Other
Work has begun on the bridge over the Owl Kill Creek and the railroad tracks near the Moses Farm Store. Until the end of the month there will still be one lane passable while preliminary work is being done, but starting around May 1 the bridge will be completely closed for six months while it is being replaced. The detour around it for cars and light trucks is not too far out of the way, but the detour for large trucks is an extremely long way around. A map of the detour routes is posted on the Town of Hoosick web site.
Summer Roads Intern
Dog Shelter Approval