Hoosick Passes Its 2021 Budget
by Alex Brooks
At its November 9 meeting the Hoosick Falls Town Board gave final approval to the town budget for 2021, with no further discussion. A Public Hearing on the budget was held November 5. Both spending and revenue are down from the previous year by about $170,000, or 6.6%, and the tax levy is up by 1.49%.
Re-testing of Private Wells
Town Supervisor Mark Surdam said the Town has been notified of NYSDEC’s intention to re-test private wells in the Town. One of the reasons for this is the change in the standard for PFOA in drinking water. At the time the tests were done originally the standard was 70 parts per trillion (PPT), and now it is 10 PPT. Surdam said POET systems to remove PFOA from the water were installed in the first go-round for anyone who wanted them, regardless of test results, but some people decided not to have POET systems installed, and this new round of testing may give homeowners an opportunity to revisit that decision and to get one now if they would like. He also said it will be interesting to see the new data in any case, just to see if there have been any changes and get a more complete picture of the PFOA contamination picture.
Public Employer Emergency Planning
Supervisor Surdam said a new law signed by Governor Cuomo on 9/7/20 requires public employers to create plans to protect employees and contractors in the event of another public health emergency declaration in NYS. The plan is supposed to be submitted by April 1 and Town Attorney Jonathan Schopf is working on it. Schopf said he has a guidance document from the Association of Towns, so from there it is mostly a fill in the blank process, and he doesn’t expect it to be too onerous to produce the plan.
Planning Board Attorney
Surdam said the Town has an applicant for the position of Planning Board Attorney but has not yet evaluated or interviewed the applicant. Town Attorney Jon Schopf said in the interim he can advise the Planning Board, although he does not want to be the Planning Board’s attorney. Surdam said LaBerge has a planning department which can also be called on to advise the Planning Board until a Planning Board Attorney is hired, and perhaps even after that time.
Employment Practices Manual and
Compensation & Benefits Manual
The Board approved an Employment Practices Manual for the Town, and a Compensation & Benefits Manual. The latter was revised a bit during this meeting. The first matter was cost-sharing of health insurance premiums. The Manual, as presented said the Town pays 90% and the insured employee pays 10% as the Town has done in the past, but the Board changed that to 80% and 20%. Surdam said this affects nobody at the moment, because the Highway Department employees are covered by a union contract which supersedes the Manual, and the Town’s other two employees who get health insurance will keep the 90-10 share they have now. The change would affect any new employees hired by the Town who get health insurance coverage through the Town.
The other matter discussed was how much the Town will pay to employees eligible for health insurance who don’t need the Town to cover them. The manual originally said $12,000 annually, but Surdam said he thought that is way too high. After some discussion, the Board settled on $1,500 annually.
The Board also discussed whether or not to limit how many sick days can be carried over from year to year, but decided to continue to allow rollover of sick days.
Spectrum Franchise Renewal
Surdam said the Town has received a proposal from Spectrum for a renewal of its franchise for cable TV and internet. He said the Town does not get much money from this franchise agreement, and it really wants to make sure that people out in the country can get broadband. He suggested that limiting competition through a franchise agreement might not be the best way to accomplish that. Surdam said the current agreement was for 10 years, and the proposed new agreement is for 15 years. The Board tabled the matter for now, but Bill Hanselman asked Surdam to bring to the Board the figures for how much the Town gets from the franchise agreement.
Rink Staff Hired
The Board approved hiring Abby Philpott, Allison Perry, Ally Hoag, Rosabell Plusch, Jaylyn Prouty, Jake Sparks, Phoebe Thompson, Josh Colegrove, Aleah Stowell, Jania Harris, Lyric Kriner, Jordan Hill, Emily Gardner, and Ayla Fauler as rink staff this winter. Surdam said they are hiring extra rink staff this year in order to implement COVID protocols.
New Phone System Approved
Surdam said the Town has received two proposals for installation of a new phone system for the Town offices. The Board approved one of them, which he said is the same system used by the Village of Hoosick Falls. The cost for installation was $3,450, which is the cost of the hardware, as a $1,500 setup fee was waived. The ongoing cost of the system is $140 per month.
Comp Alliance e-mail
Surdam said an e-mail had been received from Comp Alliance informing the Town that its premium for Workers Comp insurance will decrease by 7.1% for 2021, and also a loyalty reward check will be coming once the town renews its policy for the upcoming year. Surdam said the Town has saved quite a bit of money by signing up with Comp Alliance, and the Board agreed it would like to renew for the upcoming year.
Hoosick CPWG
The Community Participation Work Group, which meets monthly to discuss remediation of PFOA contamination in Hoosick, has set up a web site at HoosickAreaCPWG.org. It has agendas, meeting materials, and meeting summaries as well as other material about the progress of the remediation effort, and also provides contact information to get in touch with the CPWG.
Stinky Naturae LLC Site
Town Attorney Jonathan Schopf said he had served the company with a second stop work order on October 12 pursuant to the Town’s claim of objectionable odor coming from the facility, and he had heard from the company’s attorney describing their plans for enhanced filtration to contain odors, but he was not comfortable discussing the matter any further in open session.
Executive Session
At the end of the meeting the Board went into executive session to discuss the Naturae LLC situation and the Town’s renewal of its lease on the town offices in the Armory.