Town Board Discussed School Reopening and Beach Closing
by Miranda Sehl
The Thursday, August 13 meeting began with an invitation for visitors to speak. Adam Elabd discussed a property he is interested in purchasing for his home and business. His family has a Kombucha business in Troy, called Yesfolk Tonics. Mr. Elabd was seeking clarification on the zoning for the property, and any restrictions that may impact his business, asking about possibly rezoning the property if needed. The board referred his questions to the Zoning Board of Appeals for further clarity.
Possible Early Beach Closing
The beach may be shut down sooner due to the college student lifeguards that need to leave to attend school. Since the current staff won’t be available to keep it open, more discussion is needed.
A letter was read from a resident of Brunswick, in which she explained how much the beach is helping her and her family during COVID-19. She explained that they attend the beach almost every day, it’s a great way to do something fun while social distancing. She wanted to express her appreciation to the town for the beach being opened.
School Crossing
Brittonkill School has contacted Supervisor Herrington about the plans for opening up. Part of the concept is to keep the number of students down on the busses, so the school asked him if the town would be open to the school using the town’s soccer facilities for parking. Personally he is very interested, but there is a potential issue due to the students then needing to cross NYS Route 2. The board discussed having a crossing guard to help cross the road safely and is looking into the liability with its insurance and trying to make sure it will be safe for the children.
Other Business
Maintenance of the town is going well, the highway department is still operating and moving ahead with services, mowing sides of roads, things are fine with recycling, they came around to pick up brush several times, maintaining ball fields, cleaning out ditches and veteran banners have been assembled and installed around town. There was some cleanup on Smith Hill Rd. Tamarac High School held a virtual graduation, that is available on YouTube for anyone to check out. The town clerk William Lewis gave a reminder to sign up for the Census.
These resolutions were all unanimously passed:
• Resolution #51, This resolution appoints John A. Mainello, III, to a vacancy on the Zoning Board of Appeals for a term expiring on 12/31/2024.
• Resolution #52, This Resolution declares 1200+/- yards of biodegradable leaves to be surplus property and authorizes the sale of the same.
• Resolution #53, This Resolution adopts a July, 2020, update to the Rensselaer County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.
• Resolution #54 This Resolution authorizes the Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement and stormwater management agreement for the Borrego – Dusenberry Lane solar project.
• Resolution #55 This resolution authorizes the release of escrow funds pursuant to the Agreement dated December 28, 2017 on the Duncan Meadows project.
As has been past practice, the meeting was held in person, but also streamed live on Facebook.