Berlin Seeks To Raise Transfer Station Rent
by Alex Brooks
At the September meeting of the Petersburgh Town Board, Supervisor Dennis Smith said the Town has received a proposed renewal from the Town of Berlin for the contract for its use of the Berlin Transfer Station. The current contract runs through April of 2021. Smith said the proposed renewal contract contains all the same terms as the previous contract, except that the monthly rent is increased from $700 per month to $1,000 per month. Smith said he asked why Berlin needed to increase the rent by so much, and he was told that is what the Berlin Town Board wanted. Smith said there is no way that Petersburgh can accept a rent increase of 43% without any justification.
This of course raised the question of what Petersburgh would do if it does not renew its contract with Berlin. No one had ready answers to that one, but there was some determination to develop alternatives so as not to be stuck with Berlin and its rent increase.
Water District
Water District Superintendent Len Clapp said, “the water tank is back online now.” He said the truck that has been serving as a temporary water tank is completely disconnected and will be picked up in a couple of days and returned to the County. Clapp said he hopes to lift the boil water order in a week or so. He said there were some minor leaks where the new anodes had been installed, but the divers came back on Wednesday October 14 and fixed those leaks. Clapp said it would have been more efficient if the mixer had been there and the divers could have installed that at the same time. Now they will have to come back to do that. Heinz Noeding said the mixer has not been ordered yet, and he will try to get it here as soon as possible.
Clapp said 40 of the water meters have been installed, 13 require change orders so they have not been done yet, and three require larger meters. There are some Water District patrons with whom they are having trouble scheduling the installations. Clapp said seven of them do not have phone numbers. He and Assistant Water Operator Michelle Todd are working to get all of those installations scheduled, but it is not clear how long it will take to complete the project.
Landfill Update
A draft report written by Sterling Environmental detailing work done so far on the Petersburgh/Berlin landfill was given to committee members on Friday October 16. Petersburgh Councilman Tom Berry said the report said monitoring of the volume of leachate seepage had begun but Berry said a culvert pipe is still dumping water near where the leachate seeps out, so accurate measurement of the leachate volume is not possible until that pipe has been removed or relocated, and he asked Sterling to revise its report to clarify that point before submitting it to the State DEC. Berry said the committee will meet with Sterling in the coming week to make a plan for moving or removing that culvert.
WIIA Grant
Heinz Noeding said he and a person from the Town’s grant management agency, Municipal Solutions, have been working on a revised budget for the WIIA Grant to be submitted to the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) which oversees that grant. He said it is just about done now and will be submitted soon. EFC has put a temporary limit on how much of the grant can be disbursed until the revised budget and a signed agreement with Taconic have been approved. So with the revised budget just about completed, the focus is now on getting a written agreement with Taconic, putting in writing the verbal commitments that Taconic has made to the project.
Emerging Contaminants Grant
Noeding said the report from this study of possible new water sources for the Water District has not been completed, although it was promised weeks ago. It is now promised by the end of the month.
Tri-Town Ambulance
Although the question of Petersburgh signing on to the proposed Tri-Town ambulance proposal was not on the agenda, Katie Snyder brought it up during public comment time at the end of the meeting, and she was skeptical about it. She called the new ambulance service a “start-up” and questioned whether the people organizing it have the management ability to make it work. She said the Petersburgh Board should ask for a “business plan” and evaluate it before signing on.
Dennis Smith said the project is not that complicated – there are no new buildings to be built, no major equipment purchases to make at the start, no marketing to do – it’s just a matter of managing and paying the EMT staff.
Heinz Noeding said, as he has in the past, that having the Grafton Volunteer Ambulance finances combined with the Tri-Town Ambulance finances creates a muddle that is likely to result in Petersburgh and Berlin subsidizing the Grafton volunteer ambulance. He said if the Tri-Town Ambulance could segregate its finances from those of the volunteer ambulance, he would be much more inclined to have Petersburgh sign on.
Dennis Smith acknowledged that having the two services combined in one organization makes the situation more confusing, but he said the bottom line is that sooner or later everyone is going to need to have an ambulance show up at their house. “What we’re trying to arrange is to make sure an ambulance will show up in a timely way when it is needed.” He said the Town’s commitment would only be for a year, and if it didn’t work out well the Town could make a new plan at that point.
But Snyder disputed that, saying once the Town signs on it will be difficult to pull out of it. She was concerned that the Shared Services grants that have been discussed as paying a significant portion of the cost may only be for the first year, and the true costs of the new ambulance service will only become apparent in subsequent years.
Tom Berry noted that some new people have been training as EMTs and seemed to hold out hope that a resurgence of volunteers might make the volunteer ambulance viable during the daytimes at least for a few years, despite a pervasive trend over many years and many towns toward shortages of volunteer EMTs.
Smith said the organizers of the Tri-Town Ambulance are hoping to get the service up and running by January 1 so they need to know if Petersburgh is going to be a part of it. He said he hopes to clarify all of the factual issues and have an up or down vote at the November Town board meeting.
Town Hall Cameras
Councilman Tom Berry, who is an expert on security cameras, gave the Board an estimate of $1,500 for the purchase of eight security cameras for the Town Hall, and offered to install them without charge. Councilman Heinz Noeding asked if he could also put 4 cameras on the Highway Garage, and Berry agreed to do that also. The Board asked Berry to go ahead and purchase and install those cameras, at a cost expected to be about $2,300.
Generator
Supervisor Smith said NYSEG had told him that the Town can’t use one generator to supply backup electricity to several different buildings that are on separate meters, so each of the Town buildings will have to have its own generator. He said he believes the Town should focus on getting a generator for the Memorial Hall, which is the Town’s designated emergency shelter. It is not clear if the Town has any immediate plans to purchase such a generator. The issue was raised because the library’s generator needs to be replaced, and the Board had discussed having a generator that would serve several buildings. Library Trustee Bill Alston said the library plans to replace its generator with privately raised funds, so the library is no longer asking the Town Board for assistance with its generator replacement.
Board of Assessment Review
Supervisor Smith said two long-time members of the Board of Assessment Review are not able to continue serving. The Board has been five members, but in recent years it has had not much to do, and Smith suggested that a three person board would probably work fine. The Board agreed, and passed a resolution making it a three person Board.