Minutes, News and Notes from the January 8th, 2009 Town Board Meeting:
you may also get full, approved copies of the minutes by visiting the Town Hall
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The Meeting was called to order at 7:06 PM
Supervisor Jackson led us in The Pledge to the Flag.
Supervisor Jackson asked for a moment of silence for Keshia Pierce and Baird Voohris.
On roll call Board Members present were: Councilwoman LaPine, Councilman LaForest,
Supervisor Jackson, Councilman Wrisley and Councilman Sayward. Also present were
Audrey Hoskins, Town Clerk, Carol Pennell, Deputy Town Clerk and Lois Sayward.
Visitors included Jonathan Pribble, Wayne Gryk, Sally Johnson, Reg Bedell, Sharon Boison, Jim Van Hoven, Colleen Van Hoven, Stephen Maselli, Michelle Cassidy, Erin Hall, Mark Hall, Liz Wilson, Diane Lansing, Katherine Preston, J Bingham, Beverly Ecihenlaub, Tony Vagnois, Gretel Schueller, Cara Eisley, and Mike Olsen
Supervisor Jackson greeted our visitors and offered the courtesy of the floor.
Approving minutes
Motion to approve Regular Board Meeting Minutes of 12/11/08 made by Councilwoman
LaPine. Seconded by Councilman Wrisley. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes,
Councilman LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-yes.
Motion to approve as amended End of Year Meeting 12/30/08 made by Councilwoman
LaPine. Seconded by Councilman Wrisley. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes,
Councilman LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and
Councilman Sayward-abstain.
Motion to approve Organizational Meeting of 1/1/09 made by Councilman Wrisley.
Seconded by Councilman Sayward. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes,
Councilman LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward
Planning Board Report
Planning Board Summary
Thursday December 18, 2008 at 7PM
Stephen Levine- Special Use Permit. A concrete retaining wall on Lake Champlain,
20 Spire Way. Application was approved and Public Hearing is set for this application
on January 15, 2009.
Jan Ter Louw – Minor/Major Subdivision at 599 Walker Road in Whallonsburg. The
Board approved the Applicant’s permit to subdivide his property pending response from the APA.
Zoning Officer’s Report:
From December 10, 2008 to January 7, 2009 the following permits were issued:
· 12-15-08 A-767 Building permit for a septic system replacement to Richard Scheinin at 13 Orchard Lane $40.00
· 12-16-08 A-768 Building permit for chimney work to Ronald Bigelow at 357 Leaning Road $25.00
· 1-2-09 Z-277 Zoning permit to Jason Fiegel for house – barn conversion at 1740 Jersey Street $20.00
· 1-2-09 A-769 Building permit to Jason Fiegel for house – barn conversion at 1740 Jersey Street $60.00
· 1-2-09 A-770 Building permit to Jason Fiegel for chimney/ stove installation at 1740 Jersey Street $35.00
I continue to make inspections of on-going projects.
Respectfully submitted David Lansing
Supervisor’s County Report
Ray Thatcher, Emergency Services Coordinator has retired and Don Jaquish has been appointed provisionally as the new Emergency Services Coordinator.
There were no changes at the County Organizational Meeting. Kathy Moses is in her second term as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Jackson is in his second term as Vice Chairman.
Correspondence
The Town has received a letter from EFC on the drinking water funding. The letter Basically stated that they expect there to be funding in this stimulus package. They are urging everyone to be as close to shovel ready with their projects as possible so they
can advantage of the funding.
The Town received a letter from Barbara Kunzi on Health Insurance for volunteer Firefighters and EMT’s. The bill passed in the Assembly and the Senate allowing Towns to piggyback on the Town’s insurance. Unfortunally it is a very poorly written law
and it is impossible to implement at this time. We have the teamsters for insurance and they are not interested in adding them to the insurance. Supervisor Jackson stated that the County is trying to implement this through their insurance. The cost would be paid by the individual firefighter or EMT.
Supervisor Jackson passed out at Supervisor Spooner’s request, a copy of Willsboro’s comprehensive plan. Part of the plan is a farm protection program and they will receive $25,000 for this. Supervisor Spooner was told that if another Town wants to work with them on this project another $25,000 will be received for the project. Supervisor Jackson would like either Ann Holland or Supervisor Spooner to attend next month’s meeting to talk about this.
Unfinished Business
Water System: The Town has received twenty responses from the information packets and questionnaires sent out: two responses stated that they did not want to start a water project until the waste water treatment plant was operational; three wanted to do more studies; two (a husband and wife) who want to form a committee to look at all possible infrastructure and go from there; three who want to stay with lake water; and ten people would like to spend the money and drill the test wells and see exactly how much this option would cost.
Sharon Boison was the first to speak. She stated that she feels it is premature to decide on this project right now. Sharon stated that she does not want to do anything with the water until the waste water treatment plant is in place. She feels this needs to be addressed as one issue. Sharon asked why the Close property is not perfect for the waste water treatment plant, since it was so generously donated to the Town. Supervisor Jackson stated that there are two problems with the Close property. One is it is a lot more expensive to run the line to the property and two the operating cost will be twice as expensive.
Supervisor Jackson stated there will not be any7 grants for the operating cost. NY State has a minim that they require you to charge for sewer and they also have a maximum. These numbers change each year. It will be a combination of grants, loans and payment of the loans and the operating cost divided by the number of users has to equal that amount. We need to build this plant so our operating costs are as low as possible. There is not any funding for operating costs.
Erin Hall asked if the decision was final on using the Close property. Supervisor Jackson stated that the Close property is one of three properties. The Close property is the most expensive long term. The other properties would be Town property. This includes the property where the Town Hall is located and Beggs Park. Supervisor Jackson stated he does not favor either Town property. We have talked with other property owners and at this time no one is willing to sell or give the Town property. Supervisor Jackson
stated that if we are not part of the stimulus package then he doubts the waste water treatment plant will be built. Congressman McHugh is working on securing funding.
Supervisor Jackson stated that he hopes to be able to make a waste water decision within the next two months.
Diane Lansing asked how many residents are on the water system and the sewer system. Supervisor Jackson stated that there are about 150 water and about100 sewer. A question was asked by George Davis if the sewer line would be extended beyond the ferry dock. The question was asked what is the difference between down town lots and those past Library brook. Supervisor Jackson stated the lots down town are very small and septic systems fail, where as the lots past Library Brook are large and there is enough depth of soil for the system to work properly.
Supervisor Jackson stated the sewer district runs from Sally Johnson’s house she purchased from Hector Sandberg , to the Library, up to Kempster’s property and up to the old school and Allan Gardner’s.
Another statement made was that as many people as possible should be included in the sewer district. The only problem in adding more people is the plans are done and to make changes will take time and we would miss out on the funding. Supervisor Jackson
stated he would contact AES to see how long it would take to make the changes.
Sally Johnson stated the sewer treatment plant must kept out of downtown.
Water system
Sally Johnson stated that there are a great many details about the water that many people do not understand. She also stated that the Town is not in a position to make a decision on costs that seem to be pulled out of the sky.
George Davis stated that at the last meeting it was very difficult to pin down Mr. Ryan on an exact cost of the well drilling. Mr. Davis stated he understood that it is difficult to give an exact figure, since we hope to get water on the first well, but we may have to drill more than one test well. Mr. Davis also stated that the people he has spoken to agree that we need clean safe drinking water. He also stated that a concern of the people is that we have a solid plan as to how this project will be funded. Supervisor Jackson stated that he could not give a price or funding source until we have drilled test wells and
know what we have or don’t have; know what treatments will be required, determine if there is any funding available in this infrastructure package, if there is not we probably will not be able go forward with the project at this time. If we do nothing then the Town would not be on the list if funding becomes available. Our other option would be to bond the entire project. Supervisor Jackson also stated that there has been no funding available in the last three years for water projects.
George Davis asked about the cost of upgrading the pump house at Beggs Point. He felt
the estimate was high. Supervisor Jackson stated to upgrade the pump house will be around four million. The pump house will have to be torn down and completely rebuilt. the filters would cost around a million dollars. Supervisor Jackson said he felt this was an accurate estimate. Mr. Davis asked if we could put in new filter like we have now or
is this something DOH will not allow? Supervisor Jackson stated this is correct. The filters we have now are not approved for new installations. Mr. Davis asked if there is a way to make the pump house useable. Supervisor Jackson stated absolutely not. The type of filter required by DOH will not fit in the pump house. We are going through raw water sampling every two weeks. If one of the samples fails we will then be required to do a test that will cost around two thousand dollars each and this testing will last for one year. Then two years later the testing will be repeated and if we fail we will have done the expensive testing again. DOH is making it more and more expensive to use the lake water.
The question was asked as to where the best site would be for the test well. Supervisor Jackson stated it is three properties. It starts on Councilwoman LaPine’s property angles across the fire department property and it ends up on Lars Kulleseid’s property. We need to then find the absolute perfect spot to drill the test well. The fire commissioners have given us permission to drill the test well on their property if this is where we need to drill the test well. If one of the other properties is the site then we need to negotiate with the owners of the property to use their land.
The question was asked about using the Close property for both sewer and water. Supervisor Jackson said the water line is at the fire house and we would just hook up to it there. DOH would not allow both sewer and water on same property. Across the road it fine but not together.
Jim Van Hoven stated that he wanted to commend the Board for doing a thorough job.
Questions that were answered tonight, as I recall, were in written material that was sent
out to the residents. Mr. Van Hoven stated he and Colleen feel that the Town should go ahead and spend the money to drill the test wells and see where we are. Mr. Van Hoven asked where the twenty-five thousand dollars would come from. Supervisor Jackson stated ten thousand would come from the Town’s budget, ten thousand more from Nextel and fifteen thousand from unexpended balance. Mr. Van Hoven asked if both the sewer and water project could be paid for from infrastructure monies. Supervisor Jackson stated he hoped that would be the funding source. Supervisor Jackson said that the monies would totataly separate for each project.
Councilman LaForest stated that it looks like employment of high number of people is going to one of requirements for funding and our project may not employ a large number.
A question was asked about using the grey water. Supervisor Jackson stated we are not having two collection facilities for grey water and black water.
Todd Goff asked if we could keep the lake water system and use for other purposes. Supervisor Jackson stated that he does not think DOH will allow this. Todd also asked if our water was unsafe or if it was we are just meeting an unfunded mandate.
Supervisor Jackson stated that he could not answer the first question since it is relatively new that it was found out the disinfectant by products have carcinogenetics. Acceptable limits are still being reviewed.
It was asked what would be the repercussion of not doing anything. Eventually the DOH will condemn the filters we are using now. When this happens we will have to seek grant money, to build a supply. Another a question was what do you do if there are no resources or no grant money? Supervisor Jackson stated the Town will need to borrow the needed money and pay it back over the next twenty or thirty years.
Sally Johnson stated that this well drilling is very mystical magical. Supervisor Jackson stated he did agree and that is why they hired hydrogeolgists to do this in a scientific way. Ms. Johnson stated that their reports are filled with what she calls “weasel words.”
Jim Van Hoven stated that he did not agree with Ms. Johnson. He read the hydrogeoligst reports and said he did not understand parts of the report because it has a different set of languages. These people clearly specialize in doing this work and it looks like they did a thorough job. Mr. Van Hoven stated the Town did a good job of hiring the hydrogeogolist.
One resident made the statement that Lake Champlain is our asset and what she was hearing was that our lake is polluted and getting more poulted. She stated that she very strongly feels that we should not turn our back on the lake. We should not be drilling a well because if we start to ignore the lake as a water source then we will just ignore the pollution and it will hurt us in more ways. She also feels we should set an example and demand the Lake be cleaned up.
Diane Lansing stated she took exception to this statement because there are many residents who have lived here many many years who have done our utmost to protect the Lake and we value it as much as anybody. We are very careful about our fertilizers and lawn applications. We realize what a treasure we have and I do not think anyone is going to turn their back on the Lake.
Another person stated that we have ferries and motor boats and all kinds of other
things that go on in the Lake. Most of the reservoirs do allow recreation on there water. He also stated that water coming from the ground gets cleaned up nicely, a lot better than from the Lake. There are still many things we do not understand and we
keep finding out new things. It maybe that the time has run out for us in trying to fix the problems of the Lake which are way too big for this Town and our water system.
The question was asked as to how many other communities take their water from the Lake. Supervisor Jackson stated he did not know the numbers for Vermont. In New York he stated he knew of three communities. He also stated that we are the only community without a sewer system on this side of the Lake.
Todd Goff asked what happens if the well water is not crystal clear. What will need to be done to the water? Supervisor Jackson stated that stasted that we would have to meet all the guidelines set forth to continue. Some things are treatable such as sulfur, hard water. This is why a test well needs to be drilled so that all the required test can be run and to determine if a viable well.
Supervisor Jackson stated DOH tested his well which is a half mile from the fire house and all test result were under the required minims.
Steve Masselli stated the Rouses Point is using a very sophisticated filtration system and maybe the Board should research their system.
A question was asked if the sewer system was in use would that not help the problem
with using Lake water. Supervisor Jackson stated the problem we have never had is bacteria problems. The problem is the dissolved carbons and the sediment that is not dissolved. The turbulence is the problem, this why we have to keep cleaning the filters. The filter required to take care of this problem is what will be very costly.
There were questions as how this well would affect the neighbor’s wells and what happen if it runs dry. Supervisor Jackson stated one reason for drilling the test well is to do a twenty-four hour draw down test to make sure the neighboring wells are not affected. He also stated that Town would only need forty gallons per minute and not running twenty-four hours per day.
.There was a lively discussion on buffering the Bouquet River. There were many varying opinions on the usefulness of doing this and how effective it is.
Councilman Sayward stated he felt we should proceed with one test well. He said he was concerned with estimate of twenty-five thousand and he wanted to see something firmer as to cost. Councilman Sayward wanted to know if the twenty-five thousand covered drilling the well, the draw down test and all the analysis. Councilman Sayward stated he felt it was prudent to spend up to twenty-five thousand. Concerned about some of the other numbers we have.
Councilman Wrisley stated that with the road blocks the State is putting up with
our present system sooner or later it is going to get costly. Maybe next year or in ten years we are going to have to spend three or four million dollars. Councilman Wrisley feels it would be prudent to invest in the test well to know if we have a viable option
or not. By spending the money we will know which route to go to.
Councilman LaForest wanted the money sources clarified. Supervisor Jackson said that ten thousand will come form Nextel. Councilman LaForest stated that means we will need to go into our budget and get the fifteen thousand. Supervisor Jackson said this will come from unexpended balance, which would be loans and would be paid back to the Town.
Councilwoman LaPine stated she agreed with Councilman Sayward. She feels we need to investigate the wells to see if we have enough water there. Councilwoman LaPine has concerns about the cost projection from AES which seem to be high. Councilwoman LaPine wanted clarifications as to exactly what the Town would get for the twenty-five thousand dollars. She understands the following is what we get; one well located and drilled. All the test needed to determine if this a viable water source. Councilwoman LaPine stated she could accept this as long as the cost is twenty-five thousand dollars.
Supervisor Jackson stated that he would get a contract from Hydro source as to
exactly what the cost are.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM for Supervisor Jackson to get the Hydro commitment letter for the Board to review.
Meeting reconvened at 8:45 PM.
The Board decided to table a vote to seek clarification on certain points in the letter.
There will be a water meeting Monday, January 12 at 7PM and we will go over the new contract at this and vote.
There was a discussion about going to visit a waste water treatment plant. Supervisor Jackson stated he would see what could be set up.
Steve Maselli asked why can we not utilize the waste water treatment already built in Willsboro and have we considered the staff that may be needed to run the new plant. He says it is very appealing with an under utilized plant just five miles from us that is staffed and ready to go wanting more load and we sit here building our own plant. He also stated that AES statement that it would be too far to pump was extremely deceptive. He feels this solution has great potential and a very simple construction and that is was never adequately investigated.
Supervisor Jackson stated the he would not argue the point. He said that just the electric cost of pumping to Willsboro would be very expensive.
Supervisor Jackson stated that the well shed roof and the waster water treatment plant roof would have solar panels which would reduce energy cost.
It was suggested that some of the information the Town has is outdated and that there could be new sources of funding and other options for these projects. Supervisor Jackson stated that he has contacted people in Albany and Washington looking for grant money. He also stated that Vic Putman , who has twenty-five years experience in finding money these type of project has been working diligently on securing funding for these projects. Supervisor Jackson was asked if the Town would be open to new ideas and he said the Board was willing to listen any ideas the resident came up with.
Councilwoman LaPine stated that this has been an on going project for nearly forty-five years and we have tried to everything that we could. We have come a long way. She also stated that Supervisor Jackson has worked overtime on these projects. It is not like we want to pollute the lake, the water system we have now is one hundred percent better than we had before. When you live in Essex things come slowly.
New Business
Motion to give permission to Supervisor Jackson to sign ACAP contract made by Councilman LaForest. Seconded by Councilman Wrisley. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes, Councilman LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-yes.
Motion to give permission to Supervisor Jackson to sign BRASS contract made by
Councilwoman LaPine. Seconded by Councilman Wrisley. Roll call: Councilwoman
LaPine-yes, Councilman LaForest-no, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-no.
Supervisor Jackson informed the Board that Gayle Perry has been nominated to be our representative on the BRASS Board.
Motion to give permission for Supervisor Jackson to sign Life Flight contract made by Councilman LaForest. Seconded by Councilman Sayward. Roll call: Councilwoman
LaPine-yes, Councilman LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-yes.
Plans for the Senior Center should be printed and sent to us very soon. When the Board members have reviewed them we will set a date for a meeting.
Discussion of Bills
General $3134.09
Water 695.54
Lights 550.00
Highway 3,007.32
Highway Prepay 300.00
Motion to pay bills as presented made by Councilman LaForest. Seconded by Councilman Sayward. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes, Councilman LaForest-
Yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-yes.
Supervisor’s Financial Report
Motion to accept Town Clerk’s report as presented made by Councilwoman LaPine.
Seconded by Councilman LaForest. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes, Councilman
LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-yes.
Motion to accept water rents as presented made by Councilman LaForest. Seconded
By Councilman Sayward. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes, Councilman
LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and Councilman Sayward-yes.
Motion to accept Supervisor’s report as presented made by Councilman LaForest. Seconded by Councilwoman LaPine. Roll call: Councilwoman LaPine-yes,
Councilman LaForest-yes, Supervisor Jackson-yes, Councilman Wrisley-yes and
Councilman Sayward-yes.
Meeting adjourned at 9:23 PM.
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