Board Declines To Appoint A Highway Superintendent
by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board went into an executive session during its meeting April 20 to discuss applicants for the vacant Highway Superintendent position. Former Highway Superintendent Ray Harrison resigned from the position last month. When they came back into regular session Supervisor Dennis Smith said they had decided not to appoint anyone to the position at this time, but they will be increasing the pay for Deputy Highway Superintendent Adam Beaudry to compensate him for the added responsibilities that will fall on him in the absence of a Superintendent. The pay for Deputy Highway Superintendent will be temporarily raised by $500 per month. The board also set up a special subcommittee of the Board to advise and assist Mr Beaudry in his duties “during a transitional period,” to help him with planning and budgeting. Alan Webster and Tom Berry were appointed to serve on this committee.
At public comment time Mark Murray asked what was the reason for not making a Highway Superintendent appointment. Smith said the Town Board was not fully satisfied with the qualifications of any of the applicants for the position.
Highway Super – Elected or Appointed?
The Board unanimously passed a motion to put a referendum question on the ballot next fall to make the Town’s Highway Superintendent an appointed position rather than an elected position. This will create a somewhat confusing situation, as there will be an election going on for Highway Superintendent at the same time as a question that would nullify that election and instead allow the Town Board to appoint its preferred candidate at the January organizational meeting. If the question is rejected and the position remains an elected one, then the Highway Superintendent candidate who won the election is in office until the end of the unexpired term of Ray Harrison. But if the voters choose to make it an appointed position, that would begin in January 2021. The Town Board could choose the candidate who won the election, but they would not have to choose that person.
A Public Hearing on the local law that would put the question on the ballot was scheduled for 6:30 pm on May 18, prior to the regular May meeting. Both Supervisor Dennis Smith and Deputy Supervisor Alan Webster said although they voted to put the question on the ballot in order to let the voters decide, they both plan to vote for it to continue as an elected position.
MOU With Berlin for Landfill
Supervisor Dennis Smith notified the Board that Berlin had passed a different version of the Memorandum of Understanding between the two towns which will govern their collaboration on the landfill project. He said the sticking point for Berlin is that they want to retain Young Sommer as environmental attorneys and Sterling Environmental as the landfill engineers. The Petersburgh version had proposed a bidding process to choose an environmental engineer, even though Sterling has been working on the project for six months already, and is working under fairly tight deadlines imposed by the consent order signed with DEC in March.
Smith said Berlin Town Attorney Donald Tate and Petersburgh Town Attorney Dave Gruenberg are trying to work out the two towns’ differences on this matter.
Water District
The Board learned that after a leak in the Mill Yard was fixed recently, the water tank filled quickly and is now completely full. There was considerable discussion about where the leak was and who therefore is responsible for the cost, and found that it was in the connection to the curbcock and was therefore a Water District responsibility.
Heinz Noeding said the Water District Committee had examined the first bill from Municipal Solutions, the company which is handling the paperwork for the Water District’s renovation grant. He said it was for $3,700. He said they are billing their time at $142 per hour, and at this rate they are likely to exhaust the funds in the grant budget allocated to the billing and bookkeeping that they are doing. Noeding suggested that the Town try to find someone to do this work at a more reasonable price. Supervisor Smith said he would be glad to have someone else do it because Municipal Solutions has been “a nightmare to deal with.” Smith said we keep sending them the same invoices over and over again, and the town has still not received any money from the grant. Noeding suggested that he take the lead on this matter, and the Board was glad to have him volunteer.
Tom Suozzo said there was only one bid submitted by a company seeking to put in the new water meters for the Water District. The bid for meters with a “drive-by” reading capacity was $89,500, which is well over the budget of $62,000 for this item. Suozzo asked the contractor, George Oram, to come to Petersburgh and look more closely at the job. After he did that, he said he was willing to do the job for $75,000. Although still over budget, this is in the ballpark and Suozzo said further negotionation may be possible. Suozzo said the choice would be either to negotiate a price with George Oram, or to purchase the materials only, and ask a local plumber to install them. Heinz Noeding volunteered to work with Suozzo on negotiating with Oram and pricing the alternative of having a local plumber install the meters, and bring the choices back to the Board next month.
The Board voted to reject the $40,000 bid from AquaStore recieved at the last meeting for installation of a mixer (for freeze prevention) and replacement of cathodes that protect the tank from deterioration. Tom Suozzo said he called the company and sounded them out about whether there are options that would lead to a lower price. He said, “it didn’t go well – there is very little give in that price.” Suozzo said he believes the equipment can be purchased for $13,500, and the divers who are coming to clean the tank can install them at the same time they are cleaning the tank. He said the divers would charge $9,500 to clean the tank and install the eqipment, so it would cost $23,000 for both mixer and cathode installation and cleaning. The board liked the sound of that, and asked Suozzo to try to set it up and get those things done.
Smith said Jeff Mirarchi from Taconic called and said it is time to change out one of the GAC filters at the water treatment plant, and the Board said by all means give him the go-ahead to do that.
Planning Board
Sometime in the late fall, Petersburgh discovered that the Town administration was unable to find the enabling legislation for the Planning Board, which was thought to have been written and passed sometime in the 1980s. To remedy this situation, the Board decided to pass new legislation establishing a planning board anew. This was presented as Local Law #1 of 2020. It designates the Planning Board as the authority designated to act pursuant to Local Law #4 of 2010, Local Law #3 of 2014 and Local Law #5 of 2015 which apparently contain Planning Board regulations. Supervisor Dennis Smith sought to schedule a public hearing on this proposed law, but Jack Barnhill moved to table the matter until next month because he had just received the law and had not had a chance to read it yet. The Board agreed to table it, although Dennis Smith voted against the motion. No one from the Planning Board was attending this virtual meeting, and Heinz Noeding said he hoped that a member of the Planning Board could attend next month’s meeting when they discuss the matter. Noeding said he thought there should be some grievance procedure for those dissatisfied with Planning Board rulings. Town Attorney Gruenberg said the statutory remedy is an Article 78 proceeding. While acknowledging that this is a difficult and expensive procedure that might put it beyond the reach of some people of modest means, he said the Town Board can’t serve as a “court of appeals” for Planning Board decisions. He said to Noeding, “I don’t think there is a procedural mechanism for what you’re concerned about.”
Tom Berry then said he had objections to Local Law #5 of 2015, which is one of the three laws cited in the enabling legislation, because “that is enforcement, and the Planning Board is not an enforcement body.” Berry also said the Town Board should be able to remove someone from the Planning Board. Supervisor Smith pointed out that the law does allow the Town Board to remove a member of the Planning Board for cause, which is deemed to include failure to meet attendance or training requirements. Town Clerk Deidra Michaels pointed out that there is a Town law which prohibits the Town from requiring training for Planning Board members. Gruenberg said this new Planning Board legislation would supercede all previous Planning Board legislation, so that old law would be rescinded. He also noted that State law requires minimum training for Planning board members.
There are clearly quite a few unresolved questions surrounding the Planning board legislation, which perhaps will become more clear when the issue is debated more fully next month.
The Board received only one bid for mowing its various properties, From A&E Landscaping, which has been doing the mowing over the last few years. They said they would mow the Water Tower property for $50 each time but they said it would be 2x annually when the bid asked for once a month. They said they would mow the Town complex for $50 and the Town Park for $65 each time, but they just said “every ten days,” when the Board was looking for a specified number for the whole season. Supervisor Dennis Smith said he will call the company to clarify the bid and bring it back for a vote later.