Town Board

May 2, 2017

1. Presentation on plans for Hallocks Mill Sewer District

Supervisor Grace explained the “broad strokes” of his plan to construct sewer laterals for approximately 450 existing homes, including the Sparkle Lake neighborhood, Sunrise Street, and 351 homes in the “Birch St” area that encompasses several streets.  He estimated that out of 1,024 unsewered parcels in the sewer district, it was feasible to sewer only about 700 and that the remaining 250 unsewered would have to wait until the town gets a variance from the DEP that would pave the way for the town to get a permit from DEC to treat more sewage at the treatment plant on Greenwood St. (The plant can physically treat 2.5 million gallons per day (mgd) of sewage, but the current SPDES operating permit is capped at 1.5 mgd.)

The Supervisor acknowledged that with a total of 26 unsewered subareas, only some can be sewered at the current time and that there’ll be winner and losers. He said he hopes to meet with the different neighborhood to learn how interested they are in being sewered. The result could be deleting some streets and adding others to the list of 450 homeowners to be sewered.

To make the cost of constructing the sewer lines more affordable for the 450 homes, the supervisor explained that he plans to spread the cost of the roughly $19 million project over the entire sewer district that includes 4,000 already sewered property owners.  (Only $9 million would have to be bonded as $10 million will come from money set aside for Yorktown in a special East of Hudson fund.) The supervisor said that the $19 M cost figure includes a 30% contingency which he anticipated would be less once final plans were developed.

The capital cost differential would be $1,167 each for the 450 homeowners versus $111 if the cost was spread over the 4,450 homeowners. In addition to the capital cost, there is an annual operation and maintenance tax that is $577 in 2017. Also, properties connected to the sewer plant pay a surcharge on their water bill ($1.20/1,000 gallons); he added that this rate hadn’t been increase since 1996 and he would be looking into whether this should be raised.

The supervisor anticipated that once 450 properties were hooked up to the treatment plant, the operation and maintenance tax would decrease by about $50 so that the net increase to already sewered taxpayers would be $61/year.

The supervisor’s justification for charging the already sewered for the cost of sewering the 450 homes was one of equity.  Using two side by side maps, he said that while the unsewered property owners paid for the 1970 expansion of the treatment plant, they were never allowed to hook up to the plant. But, over the same period of time, many properties that hadn’t paid for the sewer plant expansion were able to hook up.  When a homeowner asked whether an unsewered property would have to pay for the sewers for the 450, the supervisor’s answer was, “there are a lot of moving parts” to the issue.

In a related issue, the supervisor said he was abandoning an earlier plan to reroute the sewage currently being treated at the Chelsea pump station that’s in the Peekskill Sanitary Sewer District to Yorktown treatment plant.  He said he didn’t want to take up any of the remaining capacity at the Yorktown plant while there were more unsewered homeowners in the Hallocks Mill district waiting to be sewered. He did not say what the alternative plan for the pump station would be.

2. Public hearings on traffic issues

The board open and closed separate hearings on the following 3 traffic related issues. There were no comments at any of the hearings and the local laws were passed.

            a. installation of a stop signs at intersection of Amazon Road & Mogul Drive and Amazon and Sylvan Rd.

            b. relocating a traffic sign on the south side of Bank Road

            c. relocating a traffic sign on Crow Hill  Rd.

3. Miscellaneous resolutions

Road paving: Highway Superintendent Paganelli reported that the town received what he called a “good” price for paving materil for the upcoming season.

Water Department: The board authorized department employees who are on standby duty for emergencies to take town vehicles home.

4. Courtesy of the floor

Microphones in the room:  Mark Lieberman and Mel Tanzman repeated their requests that the board use a PA system in the room at work sessions so that the public could hear what was being said. Mr.Tanzman reminded the board that the town was in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act by discriminating against hard of hearing residents.  There were no comment from the board.

Tree law: Paul Moskowitz noted that during the public hearing on the Wetlands law, Supervisor Grace indicated that he would include town owned land in a revised law. Supervisor Grace confirmed that that was what he had said. When Mr. Moskowitz asked if the supervisor would now support including  town owned land in the Tree law , the supervisor said he would considering putting that back into the law if “that makes you happy.”