Summer Youth Program Is Canceled Because of The Pandemic
by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board discussed the summer youth program at its regular meeting on June 15, in its first in-person meeting since the coronavirus crisis began. Youth Director Cindy Mars, who has been running the Petersburgh youth programs for many years, has posted on the town website a statement saying she has researched all of the guidance offered by the State and the CDC, and consulted with the Town Supervisor and colleagues at the County Youth Dept. and concluded that it will not be possible to run a successful program that would also fully protect the health and safety of the children.
Heinz Noeding asked her to discuss in a little more detail how she came to that conclusion. She said the first problem is that half the program usually consists of going to swim lessons at the pool in Hoosick Falls, but those lessons are not happening this summer and traveling on a school bus is an occasion for spreading disease, with a lot of kids in a small enclosed space. She talked about some of the possibilities for kids activities at the Memorial Hall but she described how she came to the conclusion that restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of disease eliminate too many possibilities to construct a program that would be fun and engaging for the kids.
Katie Snyder said Grafton is planning to go ahead with a summer program, but rather than argue that Mars should reconsider her conclusion, Snyder suggested that Petersburgh consider subsidizing the cost for Petersburgh kids to go to the Grafton program. The Board was open to this idea, but it raised all kinds of questions, among them whether Grafton’s program could handle a significant number of kids from outside the town, what the cost would be, and whether County money that usually is used to subsidize the Petersburgh summer program could be used for this purpose. The Board asked Mars to learn more about the Grafton program and see if this idea is feasible.
Landfill Project
Tom Berry reported on news of the landfill project. He said at a conference call on June 11 he and Jack Barnhill learned that Sterling engineers had met with Jim Winn earlier this month at the landfill to discuss the idea of of having Winn and his highway crew handle the ditching and earthmoving needed as an initial step to improve drainage and keep water out of the landfill. Berry said he and Barnhill were unhappy that those who had set up the meeting had not informed them, so they did not know about it and they were not given an opportunity to join the meeting. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Berlin and Petersburgh says that the four members of the Joint Landfill Management Committee (two from each town) will hire all vendors. Berry said even preliminary explorations of possible alternatives for getting this work done should be shared with all four members of the committee, and this was not a good start for having the committee work together harmoniously. Supervisor Dennis Smith said he will contact Berlin Supervisor Robert Jaeger and remind him of the agreements in the MOU and the need for a collaborative process on the landfill project.
Berry said in a week or so Sterling expects to finish the preliminary scope of work for the landfill drainage and infiltration prevention work and at that point the committee can discuss the most cost-effective way to get it done.
Berry also said he had offered to mow the landfill without charge in order to save the Towns some money and someone from Berlin had responded that there might be a problem if he wasn’t covered by insurance. Others on the Petersburgh Board said they thought as a Board member he would be covered by existing insurance, but that he could check with the Town’s insurance carrier to be sure.
Heinz Noeding said Sterling should be informed that all communications about the landfill project must include all members of the joint committee. He also said that communications between Young/Sommer and Sterling need to be authorized by the committee, as such meetings are very expensive and should not be happening without the knowledge and approval of the joint committee.
Water System Renovation
Tom Suozzo and another engineer from Cedarwood Engineering were on hand to present plans for the new Water Plant, which will be one larger building housing all of the Water District equipment. It is about a thousand square feet, 22’ x 42’. It has a large pump room, another large room for the carbon filters (GAC system) that remove PFOA, and a smaller enclosed room for the chlorination equipment. It will be a metal “pre-fab” building, well insulated, with gas heat. The engineers said they expect to have detailed plans completed by the end of summer, which will then be submitted to the Department of Health for approval, aiming to put the project out to bid in early winter and start construction in early spring of 2021.
The original plans called for two smaller buildings, one housing the GAC system to be built by Taconic and the other a pump house to be built by the Town. Now that they are combined into one building, the Town and Taconic will have to work out how the cost will be shared. Taconic has approved the general concept of combining the two buildings into one, but apparently the details of who pays for what remain to be worked out.
Heinz Noeding reported on plans for scheduling two other elements of the Water District project, both of which he expects to be done “right after Labor Day.” These are installation of the new meters in all the houses served by the Water District and installation of the mixer which prevents freezing and the anodes which resist corrosion, which will be done by the same divers who are coming to clean the tank.
Noeding said for the tank cleaning and mixer/anode installation, the divers need a full tank, which at the moment is a problem. The tank is currently about 2/3 full and the pumps don’t seem to be able to fill it. Whether this is because of a leak in the system or reduced output from the pumps because of drought conditions or something else has not really been determined, but Water Superintendent Len Clapp is continuing to look into it.
Clapp’s water report said that one of the GAC filters has been successfully replaced with a fresh carbon filter, but he also said the Water District budget is inadequate, there are no tools or spare parts, and his pay is “way lower than other water operators in the County.” He is suggesting an increase in the Water District annual budget.
In anticipation of having new meters installed and once again having a usage charge for water in the Water District, the Town Board passed a resolution which institutes an “equipment surcharge” of $250 per year for any water service connection which does not have a meter installed on it. The purpose of the measure is to make sure that residents served by the Water District cannot benefit financially by blocking or delaying installation of a meter in their homes, and encourage cooperation with the contractor who will be installing the new meters in September.
Other matters discussed at this 3 plus hour meeting will be reported on in next week’s paper, because of space constraints.