More news for June
Indoor Recreation – I really had high hopes for the Sport and Wellness Project. I thought that not only would it provide indoor recreation; it would bring us to a whole new level of recreation facilities. We have the money to buy the facility at a price much less than the appraised value; but, because we are the Town and will do the project right, we would have to bond up to 3.4 million dollars for renovation and expansion. I had thought that due to the scale of the project it would be able to cover its costs after a few years; but, understandably, due to the economy there was a huge public backlash against the borrowing. That being said, the project is not going to happen. We will still look for a venue to provide for our indoor recreation needs.
AED Program – After an incident at one of our fields last year, John Vescio and Janet McHugh from the Rec Commission approached the Town Board and asked to implement an Automated External Defibrillator training program and to have AEDs installed at various locations in the Town. Jan just reported that they had a terrific turnout for the training session and that they have scheduled another for August. We have budgeted funding for equipment and they have received a grant from the Community Foundation. Thank you to John and Jan for your work and we would like to thank the Community Foundation for their contribution. It is people like John and Jan that make the community safer and a better place to live.
Sagamor Sewer – On May 12th the Town took over Sagamor Sewer. The charges to the people in the district for the Town to operate the system are estimated to be approximately $1,838 per year, a portion of which will be included in your annual tax bill. Due to a hold up in the closing waiting on the New York State Comptroller’s Office review, there was a double charge with the owner charging the residents as well as the Town. We will be calculating the credits and debits (those who overpaid and those who underpaid) and adjust future bills accordingly. I would like to thank Assemblyman Marc Molinaro who had his staff locate our application at the Comptroller’s Office and made sure it was processed. If it were not for the Assemblyman we would still be waiting to close. As we speak our operators are making some changes at the plant to make it run more efficiently.
Hamlet Sewer – In May we began operating our Hopewell Hamlet Sewer Plant.
So far we have flows from the Hopewell Plaza and Unity Plaza and look to having other commercial units hooking up (except for Toll Brother’s Hopewell Glen Subdivision, the sewer plant is designed to serve only commercial users). This is a plant that is designed for 500,000 gallons of flow per day – to make it operate properly we are looking to start with 30,000; but with these two sites we only have 14,000.
That being the case, there has been quite a bit of discussion regarding the district and whether everyone has to hook up. The project was originally begun in 2002 with an engineering study on the feasibility of the sewer plant. At that time separate plants were proposed for Toll Brothers, Unity Plaza, the Lake Walton Development, Village Green, and Twin Creeks. It made sense to build one plant to service all of those areas (Unity Plaza was the only project that has since been built and has been operating without sewer or septic for years – Toll Brothers has just started construction). When I took office in 2006 we had spent about 3.5 million dollars on the project and had borrowed more than that. I had some misgivings about the plant itself, it is described as a “Cadillac” plant, and I had asked the Board of Health (which approves these things) if we could build a basic sewer plant. I was told that we could apply for that, the review process would be about a year, and that we should just build the plant that was approved.
As I have said on several occasions, we could have cut our losses at 3.5 million dollars in 2006; but, with Unity Plaza built and the other projects moving along, we had to complete the project. We put the project out to bid and it came back significantly higher than the designers had projected. At the same time we hired our in-house Engineer and he has been working very hard to contain costs (we eventually finished the project under budget for the higher bids).
Now, when you propose a project such as this which includes having people in the district pay a bond (note: only those in the district pay for the sewer and operations) you have to submit to the State Comptroller what is called a Map, Plan, and Report for approval to do these things. The M. P. & R. describes the boundary of the district, number of users, projected costs, and projected bills to the residents and public hearings are held to allow public input (I think the first public Hearing on the project was held in 2003). There are a couple of different ways to calculate use / benefit to each property; the way that our contract engineers typically do this is to assign a Benefit Unit to each property; benefit units, in this case, vary due to property use (an example is a restaurant has more benefit units than, say, an office). In the end, the designers of the Hopewell Hamlet Sewer Project established 1173.3 benefit units in the district. Bonding (capital) costs are billed in the annual tax bill on a separate line; but Operations and Maintenance are billed separately on a quarterly basis. Everyone pays the capital portion; but, the O & M is based on those who actually use the system. The fewer people that use the system, the higher the O & M for those that do. These costs are determined by a number, in this case, the 1173.3 and, in my mind; everything was derived from that number which was approved by the New York State Comptroller. So, to allow people not to hook up makes it that much more expensive for those who do and is not in compliance with what was approved.
Still, due to the economy this has become a very complicated issue; but, we still have to encourage as many users in the district to hook up to lower the O & M costs. After much difficulty, we have passed a resolution stating that properties in the district have one year to hook up (one year makes it easier to budget for), we will establish a Sewer Hookup Hardship Board which will review claims by owners that it is too expensive to hook up and, if warranted, can grant up to two more years to do so. One thing that I would like to point out is that there is a value, property - wise, to having sewer available and also that this project has been on the books for sometime now. I know that some people are not happy about hooking up; but, it is in the best interests of everyone in the district to have as many people hooked up to cover the operating expenses, and help the plant run more efficiently.
Brettview / Fishkill Plains Water – We finally received Public Service Commission to purchase Rand Water. Again, thanks to Marc Molinaro for sitting with us in our meeting with Dutchess County Department of Health and checking on our application with the PSC. We hope to close on the water system in a few weeks and have been working to find a filter design that suits our needs and meets DCDOH approval. With all of the approvals necessary, it appears we will not have the filters installed until next spring; in the meantime, we will take over operations and hope to improve the water quality through immediate modifications to the system. It is our intent to provide filtered, disinfected drinking water to the six hundred homes (including the Brettview neighborhood), numerous businesses, and two schools in the district.
Well, that’s about it; or, rather, all I can think of. Things are going well in the Town and we are trying our best to provide services and watch our bottom line. Oh, one thing – the Dutchess County Board of Elections held a seminar here today on the new voting machines. A gentleman from the BOE and I discussed the machines and I must admit that I am relieved that they are pretty simple to operate and provide backups. I guess that we will be using these machines this year; so, it was good to get some idea of what we will see. The BOE will be holding more seminars throughout the County in the coming weeks.