Snapshot of a TB discussion shows dysfunction, questions on math and intent.

"...there’s no reason to distrust Mr. Goslin’s information..." - Town Board Member, Kelly Stewart

Observing the town board discussion and vote on sharing cost with the new fire department can leave you with more questions than answers. The idea proposed in the May meeting was that if it made financial sense for the town to switch to natural gas, it would be fair to share the excavation costs for the extension with the fire department. Mr. Goslin came to the June 6th meeting with his cost study findings. Town Board Member Antoski suggested the numbers should be verified only to be rebutted by Ms. Stewart. Oddly Ms. Stewart voted yes to pay for the gas line but in the same conversation said she wanted to research Solar. Would the town need natural gas if they added solar?

From BNU reporter Sue R. here is the exchange:

18-123: The extension of gas line to Goode St. to the new Firehouse, the town hall and the highway garage. Much discussion:
Mr. Goslin did research and found that gas costs 1/3 the cost of propane. Will be cheaper for the town than the current propane. The payback will be about three years. Discussion then about how once a gas line is run, anyone can come along afterwards and tap into it for free. Mr. Goslin said it isn’t fair to make the firehouse pay the proposed 50% of the cost since the size of the town hall is larger than the firehouse, and the size of the highway dept is larger than the firehouse. Supervisor proposed to have firehouse pay 1/3 of the cost instead of 50% of the cost. Mr. Goslin said that if the town pays 2/3 of $88,000, the payback is then 5 years instead of 3 years. Goslin: “ It isn’t fair for the fire company to pay $44,000 when they are faced with paying for the building of the fire department and everything else. “ Mr. Antoski asked to have time to double check that Mr. Goslins numbers are correct, and asked “ So it’s free for the town hall and the garage to hook-up if the fire department pays the $88,000?” Answer: Yes. Supervisor said he wants to vote tonite. Mr. Goslin makes motion to pay 2/3 and fire dept pay 1/3. Tim seconds it. 3 vote in favor (Stewart, Goslin, Supervisor). Mr. Curtiss wants time to get more information. Ms. Stewart said “this was discussed last month, there’s no reason to distrust Mr. Goslin’s information, I’d like to see us investigate solar options for electricity but we had several weeks to gather the info we needed, I don’t know what more info that would be gathered between now and the next meeting that couldn’t have been gathered between the last meeting and this meeting. “ Tim: we have one abstention from Mr. Antoski and one NO vote from Mr. Curtiss, motion passes.
Post meeting (and vote) Resident and Local Business owner Steve Walsh disagrees with the math and shared his finding with BNU and an email to Mr. Antoski.

Mr. Walsh's Email to John Antoski:
John,
You were correct questioning Goslin about his findings. He swayed the board to vote by misrepresenting the facts. You may know that National Grid bills are split into 2 parts:
supply and delivery. I believe the $0.47/therm that Goslin referred to is the supply portion only. I believe the delivery portion is $0.92/therm. That makes the price of propane and natural gas very close. Attached is a copy of our latest bill showing the $.50 & $0.92.
The savings discussed at the meeting are never going to be realized. Namely 2/3 cheaper for natural gas than propane. Both prices are in the same ballpark.
Steve

Steve Walsh's National Grid Unit Costs found here: SW National Grid Statement with Rates

Rewrite of Town Zoning Underway and Under the Radar

On May 29th at the back end of the Town Board Agenda Meeting the town board had what appeared to be a public hearing and discussion regarding changes to zoning.

Notably active in the discussion was a Mr. Rossi (Frank Rossi Building). Mr. Rossi is urging the town board to allow 90,000 square feet building. Currently, 20,000 square feet is proposed.  It's worth noting the new CVS building size is 13,255 square feet.

At the meeting Mr. Goslin shared part of a private conversation with Mr. Rossi. Here's a partial transcript: Mr. Goslin: “The change from 90,000 to 20,000 is a radical change, and I’m talking about the north section. I did sit down with Mr. Rossi and he said …Ya know if you want to set that to 20,000 I’ll build apartments on my property all day long because I wont be able to build any commercial buildings or any retail buildings or anything else, and that really struck home with me that we need to understand that there has to be a place in town where we build businesses and going from 90,000 to 20,000 is extremely restrictive and your enforcement of PUD’s and if some people had there way we just wouldn’t build anything bigger than that, so I guess the question the board has to decide is whether you’re going to allow anymore commercial building in town or not because these restrictions here will pretty much shut it down and that’s kind of where you are , and if you want apartments… set your building at 20,000 and you’ll have apartments all up and down rt. 50 and 67 like they’re building right now, so this is a pivotal issue and the board is going to need to understand, you have to make a decision.”
Changes to zoning were originally started and a draft completed with Public Hearing by the Professional Planner, Nan Stolzenburg, in Nov. 2017. The process is now in the hands of the Town's resident planner in the Building Department Sophia Marruso.  As of this writing, no public post of this discussion was found on the town's website but we requested the notes from the meeting and they are posted here: Zoning Work Session 2 Materials

Town Supervisor Szczepaniak Commented in the June 6th TB meeting the zoning discussion will continue at the next Town Board Agenda Meeting June 26th at 6:30PM http://www.townofballstonny.org/calendar.html

Additional transcript and notes from the May 29th meeting can be found on this site.
A link to the Town Board Minutes from the May 29th meeting:
http://www.townofballstonny.org/documents/AGENDAMEETINGMAY292018.pdf