Final Budget For 2021 Approved
by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board held a Public Hearing on its budget on Monday, November 16. Tim Church said he didn’t think the Board should be giving itself a raise in these tough times when people are losing their jobs or facing pay cuts. “You should be ashamed of yourselves,” said Church.
Heinz Noeding responded, saying he is not ashamed of himself. He said the amount of the raise is very small and the Board has been putting in long hours (four workshops on the budget, for instance, instead of the usual two), and the stipend for the Petersburgh Board members is lower than their counterparts in comparable towns. Church said he doesn’t care if the raise was only a dime and the board put in a hundred extra hours – it is the principle of the thing. “Does anybody on this Board need a raise?” asked Church. He said he doesn’t think so, and the matter rested there.
Katy Snyder also offered several comments on the budget. The first was about the schedule of the budget process which was a bit late this year. She said notice of the Public Hearing appeared November 13 for a November 16 meeting, which is inadequate notice. Apparently it happened this way because the budget process took longer than usual this year, with twice as many budget workshops as usual. The board resolved to complete the budget earlier in years to come.
Snyder also questioned the amount of secretarial help the Town uses. The Town Clerk position and the Town Secretary position together make up a full time job for Town Clerk Deidra Michaels, and in addition to that there is an Assistant Town Clerk and a Supervisor’s Secretary. She noted that neither Grafton nor Berlin have full-time secretarial help, and Grafton reduced hours this year for its town secretary. She wondered if “we are working smart,” considering the large secretarial staff.
Budget Approved
The regular monthly town board meeting immediately followed the Public Hearing. After reviewing department reports, the Board’s first order of business was to approve the 2021 Town Budget, which it did unanimously. A citizen in the audience complained that after hearing a number of public comments critical of the budget, the Board immediately approved it as is, with apparently no consideration of whether the public comments might be valid criticism and might warrant some revisions to the budget. Heinz Noeding responded that there were four budget workshops which were all attended by citizens who made comments and suggestions, so there was some public input to the budget as it was being put together. But he acknowledged that having the public hearing on the same night as the budget approval vote made the Public Hearing seem “perfunctory” and gave little opportunity for reflective consideration of the comments offered. He thought in the future the Public Hearing should be held a week or at least a few days before the final budget approval vote.
Discussions With Taconic
Councilman Heinz Noeding said the Town has met with Taconic to discuss issues related to PFOA remediation. He said there are three agreements being worked out. One is to put in writing Taconic’s commitments to the Water system improvement project now underway, partially funded by a NYS Water Infrastructure grant. There is some urgency to this one, because disbursements from the grant administrator have been frozen until a signed agreement is forwarded to them specifying Taconic’s contribution to the project. The second is an agreement about ongoing operation and maintenance of the Water District facilities, with the idea that Taconic will pay for costs associated with PFOA filtration and remediation. The third is an agreement to resolve all the Town’s historical cost reimbursement claims. Noeding said after the initial meeting, both sides had to supply factual information that was missing, and after they have done that there will be another meeting to try to conclude the agreements. Noeding seems hopeful that all three agreements could be completed in the not too distant future.
The Supervisor’s report showed the Water District account to be $195,900 in the red, but Noeding said a request for grant reimbursement funds from the water infrastructure grant (aka WIIA Grant) has been submitted in the amount of about $150,000, and he estimated that once that is paid and Taconic’s reimbursement of the Town’s historical PFOA costs is complete, most of that Water District deficit will be gone.
Landfill Update
Tom Berry said there was a meeting at the landfill on November 6 of representatives from Berlin and Petersburgh with the engineers (Sterling Environmental) who are working on the landfill remediation project. He said they went over the work that is to be done in the next phase, which involves some culvert work and clearing of brush aimed at diverting runoff so that it does not get into the landfill. Currently they are waiting for Sterling to finish the workplan for the tasks discussed at the November 6 meeting.
Heinz Noeding then asked if the contract with Sterling Environmental has any dollar limit on it. He said billings from Sterling have been about $50,000 so far, and it seems as though every meeting and every call has two or more people from Sterling involved when one might have been sufficient, and cost half as much.
Tom Berry said Sterling is nearly at the end of this phase of the project, so billings from Sterling should go way down soon, as for the next year or two the project will mainly consist of monitoring the leachate flow to try to get reliable numbers concerning how much leachate will need to be collected and treated on an ongoing basis.
Noeding persisted, saying he objects to an open-ended contract in which the Town must pay whatever Sterling bills without limitation. Supervisor Dennis Smith said he believes there is no dollar limit on the Sterling contract, but he said keeping a lid on their billings is a conversation he could have with Sterling, and he agreed to discuss it with them.
Michelle Todd
Supervisor Dennis Smith said Assistant Water Operator Michelle Todd has finished training and taken her Water Operator test. He said it looks like she will get certified by April, and Leonard Clapp has agreed to stay on as the Water Operator in charge until that time.
Transfer Station
Smith said the Town of Petersburgh is fully resolved not to pay any more rent for use of the Berlin Transfer Station than it is paying now. It is possible that Berlin will agree to accept continuation of the current rent of $700 per month and the arrangement will continue as before, but Petersburgh is also looking into setting up its own transfer station. Tom Berry and Jack Barnhill met with Grafton Codes Enforcement Officer and Planning Board Chairman Tom Withcuskey, who is involved in the management of the Grafton Transfer Station to learn more about the nuts and bolts of running a transfer station. Councilman Tom Berry said Grafton is spending a lot less than Petersburgh on waste disposal and it seems only fiscally prudent to look into the feasibility of doing as they do. Berry and Barnhill suggested a workshop meeting to discuss the matter.
Emerging Contaminants Grant Report
Heinz Noeding said a draft has been produced describing the findings of the study looking for alternative sources of water for the Water District. He said the study gathered all available information on both quality and quantity of water that might be found at various sites within a reasonable distance of the water plant. He said the report focuses on four or five options, and estimates the cost of each one. The leading candidate is a site in the area of Village, which was estimated to cost $1.2 to $2 million to put in a new well and connect it to the water plant.
Appointments
The Board appointed Janet Spitz to the Planning Board, Beth Dare as Deputy Registrar, and Karen Church to the Library Board of Trustees
Upcoming Meetings
Smith announced that a PFOA Informational Meeting will be held online on Thursday November 19, from 6 to 8 pm. The Board also scheduled a workshop on the Transfer Station for Friday December 4 at 7 pm, and it will also discuss revisions to some Planning Board laws at this workshop.