More Flooding In Village Complicates SAM Grant Planning
by Alex Brooks
The Hoosick Town Board meeting on June 10 began with Rick Tinkham giving an update on the state of HAYC3. He said all local debt has been paid off, but HAYC3 is still discussing with the Village a loan given for renovations to the Armory building. He said the community has been very generous and the organization is in better shape now than he would have expected. He said there are only four of them on the Board, and three of them are putting in 30 hours a week or more, which may not be a sustainable situation.
Assessor Tony Rice said Grievance Day was held two weeks ago. There were about 35 grievances (compared to 140 last year) presented this year, some of them still about the revaluation, from people who didn’t manage to file grievances in time last year. Rice said the Town’s equalization rate is 100%, and new sales are coming in close to or slightly above the assessed values, suggesting that the revaluation values are mostly about right.
SAM Grant & Flooding Concerns
Supervisor Surdam said he had received a draft design for the SAM Grant project from Clough Harbor Associates, but the rest of the Board had not seen it yet. One concern about the project arose from the flooding that occurred on Wednesday June 5, after the Town received over two inches of rain in less than five hours. Surdam said some drainage structures were installed at the bottom of the hill coming down from the country club to keep water from flooding the Town athletic fields and the skating rink, but there are also pine trees there, and the opening into those structures had become clogged with pine needles and mud so that they didn’t work. He said the skating rink was flooded and some mud washed onto the tennis/basketball courts. Councilman Hanselman said if an expensive turf field had been installed in the skating rink, the flooding could have been “a disaster,” and he suggested that the flooding issue needs to be addressed before the Town makes a major investment in that building.
Supervisor Surdam also said there are significant cracks in the concrete floor of that building, and they seem to be getting worse lately. He wondered if the Town needs to assess the condition of that floor carefully before putting a turf field on it.
Surdam said the hazard mitigation plan he is working on with the Village may be able to lay out some kind of a game plan for reducing flooding risks, and a grant-funded flood mitigation project is about to get underway, which should also improve the situation. He said Village Highway Superintendent Niel Stowell has some ideas for improving drainage. It appeared that flood control in the Village is a complicated and challenging problem involving many players, which will require a sustained and coordinated team effort.
Cornell Roads Program
Councilman Sheffer said Michelle Gocio, the intern hired to do an inventory of Town Roads and evaluate their condition, began work this week, and high hopes were expressed that this could be the beginning of a more comprehensive, planned approach to maintenance and improvement of the Town roads.
Defibrillators
The Town currently has only one defibrillator, which is moved from the pool in summer to the ice rink in winter. There was an incident at the Town Hall recently, and no equipment was available. After discussion, the Board decided to purchase two more for a total of three, one for the Armory, one for pool, and one for the ice rink. The feeling was that there may increasingly be summer use of the ice rink building, so moving one defibrillator between the two sites seasonally is no longer an adequate solution. The cost of the two new defibrillators is expected to be in the neighborhood of $2,500.
Mass Gathering
Town Attorney Jonathan Schopf delivered to the Board a draft of the revised Mass Gathering Law, incorporating the revisions that the Board has called for. The Board scheduled a public hearing on those revisions prior to its meeting next month, at 6:15 on July 8.
Historian
Town Historian Phil Leonard said the Historical Society is planning “Natty Bumppo Day” for Saturday, July 13, with festivities at 1 pm. Natty Bumppo is the hero of James Fenimore Cooper’s five Leatherstocking novels. He based the character on a woodsman who lived on Cooper’s father’s estate in Cooperstown when the author was growing up there. People in Hoosick Falls have claimed that this man was Nathaniel Shipman, who spent his declining years in Hoosick Falls and was buried here. However, when people from Hoosick Falls sought to put up some kind of monument commemorating Shipman, back in the nineteenth century, people from the Cooperstown Historical Society aggressively challenged the idea that Nathaniel was the model for Natty Bumppo, and claimed that the character was based on David Shipman, who is buried in Cooperstown. They threatened to sue if Hoosick Falls claimed otherwise. No monument to Nathaniel Shipman was ever put up, and the argument over who the real Natty Bumppo was has continued off and on for over a century and a half. The Historical Society will be unveiling a new headstone to be placed where Shipman’s remains are believed to lie, in the old burial ground behind the Baptist Church in Hoosick Falls, and a state historical marker. This marker is red, to signify that it is a marker of “legends and lore,” different from the blue historical markers which recount settled history.
Rock Cuts Revisited
Councilman Eric Sheffer said there was discussion at the most recent Hoosick Rising meeting about the beach at the Rock Cuts. Sheffer said there were people there who were enthusiastic about preserving the site as a recreational resource, and a number of ideas were expressed. One of those, Tom Vallone, came to the Town Board meeting and expressed his feelings about it. He said he read in the paper of plans to block the site off and not allow anyone to go there, and he thought it would be unfortunate to lose access to a beautiful site like that which could be a great civic asset.
Supervisor Mark Surdam said the Hoosic River Watershed Association has over the past month taken an interest in preserving access to the site, but it is not clear yet what they will be able to do. He expressed caution about the Town getting too deeply involved in managing or improving a site that it does not own, but he was also concerned that something be done to head off a repeat of last summer’s nightmare, in which the site was covered with trash.
Councilman Hanselman said he thought the Town should stay out of it since it is not a Town property, and allow the owner, Hoosac School, to work out with groups like HooRWA and Hoosick Rising what will become of the site.