Town of Ballston Town
Board Meeting
Notes taken by a resident August 27,
2019
Ballston
Town Public Hearing for Water Extension to Summerhill
Followed by
the regular monthly Town Board Meeting
Please note:
____ indicates inaudible
Present:
Supervisor Szczepaniak
Councilman Goslin
Councilman Curtiss
Councilman Antoski
Councilwoman Stewart
Debra Kaelin, Town Attorney
Matt Chauvin, Town Attorney
Carol Gumiemmy, Town Clerk
CT Male Rep, Town Engineer
members of the general public
Town Clerk
read Public Hearing Notice for extending waterline within Town of Ballston
Consolidated Water District #1 to include parcel 256.-1-7, 87 Jenkins Road (The
Preserve at Summerhill).
Scott
Lansing spoke: Started by saying he
represents The NY Development Group and The Preserve at Summerhill and the
water district extension associated with that. He stated that area is zoned Hamlet Residential,
and properties can be served with wells and septic or public water and septic. If water is allowed to that parcel, they are
allowed to have 42 lots. If individual
wells, it would be 32 lots. This project
is not on Scotchbush Rd, it’s a distance away from where there is currently
public water on Scotchbush. There is a 10-inch
line on Jenkins they are proposing to connect to, and ‘they’ went out and
tested it. The pressure measures 63psi,
and flows it was a little over 1000 gallons per minute which he stated are
excellent pressure and flows. They are
proposing 5 single lots along Scotchbush Rd.
There are 610 linear feet of waterline on Scotchbush. , connecting this
to the 10 inch line on Jenkins. There’s 1,640 linear feet of water line being
extended into the project. All of the
lines would be 8-inch lines. There’d be
63-67 psi pressure and about 1500 gallons per minute. Demand on the system would be the 5 single
homes plus the 29 homes in the project, comes to about 47,000 gallons per
day. Supply: The Glenville Aquifer has available to
pass-thru 1.9 million gallons, and the Saratoga County Water Authority has
available another 7 million gallons of water.
Project financing: Costs for all
utilities will be paid for entirely by the developer, all of the
infrastructure. All piping, valves, fire
hydrant assemblies, backfill, restoration of ___.
Sczcepaniak
then asked Matt Chauvin, Esq. to discuss the Memorandum of Agreement that has
been created to allow for the developer to pay for the water extension. Supervisor stated he’s wanted to close that
loop on Scotchbush Rd. for several years but didn’t have the money to do
it.
Matt
Chauvin, Esq: Reviewed that the
Supervisor asked Mr. Chauvin to come up with a way to close the loop on
Scotchbush, so he created a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was
agreeable to both the town and the property owners’ attorneys. The
cost to close the loop would be $263, 250.00, or $130 per linear foot. The
total number of units to be developed in that corridor is 78 and includes all
properties along the route as well as all properties in that nearby BHBL property
that is under contract for sale and could be developed for up to 49 parcels. It comes out to $3,375.00 per development
unit. This developer is extending the
water line 610 feet from the existing 10 inch main to the ___ so it received a
credit of about $78,000 against the per unit cost. They then will have to pay for each of their
29 units x $2,690 equals $685 per unit that this developer is going to pay in
addition to the cost __. The agreement states that this developer will pay for
all costs to put that 610 ft. pipe in the ground, and they won’t get the CO if
they don’t pay. They agreed that the
in-coming developer of that BHBL property (that is under contract) will pay for
their pro-rata share so if they come in with 49 units, they have to pay the
$2,690 cost per unit. The town doesn’t
have money to do this closing of the loop unless they go get outside debt
service. He said he knows that from
conversations that Mr. Whalen and Mr. Sczcepaniak are in favor of this. This
proposes that this first developer plus the second developer of the BHBL
property will ‘share the lion’s share of the cost of extending this line’. Taxpayers
would not have to pay for this line.
There of course will be a cost to homeowners along the way who decide to
connect, for the actual pipe connection.
If public water is not available to the BHBL property, that density will
decrease from 49, and they will lose 40-50% of their yield. “The entire length of the extension will be
2,025 feet 610 of it will be installed as part of this project and the
remainder is subject to future extensions however we get it.” This is currently
before the Planning Board but has not yet been approved by them.
Scott
Lansing (again): This project is a
Realty Sub-Division where there are lots are less than 5 acres. We are required to have NY State Dept of
Health involved. We have had them out
there to test sites throughout the entire project. They concluded that all
sites are conducive to individual septic systems. Parcels that have some wet
design, they are outside of the areas that we are involved with so we ____a
portion of the public project. As far as
flows, it’s about 300 gallons/day per residence. The stormwater basin is on the southwest
corner of the development. There are no
plans to develop the one parcel that has 13.7 acres, but the owner may decide
one day to develop it.
Privilege of
the Floor:
Nancy Heath,
103 Scotchbush Road: “which is 4th down from Summerhill on the west side. So, I’m intimately concerned about the
wetland area right behind my house that we don’t walk into much anymore,
there’s 3 little tributaries of water and there’s a lot of ticks because the
water level has become so much more over the last ten years or so. Now, since I
and all of these houses in this area on Scotchbush Road, west and east of
Scotchbush, have dug wells in our basement.
That’s our water supply. And I’m
part of the group that signed 3 times to get the water looped to get water
there, but at the same time I’m concerned that the water being so bad that the
septic system couldn’t take it any longer.
On the north side just across the street from me, there’s Mr. Jim Schultz, and I believe he sent a letter to one of the
board members, and in it he stated that statistically what one person alone puts into the
ground, I don’t know if it was every
week/every month/every day, if someone has that with them I would appreciate
you sharing it because I am concerned about the high water levels and where it
would go and what it will do, what will happen to all of us. The wells are in our basement for one thing,
hopefully they could be kept without getting damage. There is a house behind us on Scotchbush Rd,
on the east in the woods, they built down about 12 feet, their foundation
cracked and froze this winter because of the pressure of the water coming up
from the ground.
Mr. Scott
Lansing answered a question about the flow of 300 gallons/day per home, he
stated that is for 3 people, or 100 gallons per day per household.
Nancy
continued: “On the west side of Scotchbush Rd.
where I live, will that be included in the loop of this water that
they’re proposing?”
Goslin asked
her to show where her house is on Mr. Lansing’s map.
Tim stated
the loop will not go down that far.
Nancy
continued: “Currently, the fire hydrant is right here. Why aren’t they going to bring water down
that far? ____petitions for the last 12
years. “
2) Peter Solberg, 166 Charlton Road: “One thing
that is not depicted on this is Federal wetland designation. It is not included by DEC, but Army Corp of
Engineers does reveal it, I don’t know if they looked at it or not, it will
show you generally where it is and it can be reaffirmed by Scott, I assume. “
Peter asks to go point it out on the map and goes up to the map and continues;
“The federal wetland coincides directly down to this here, this line, which
also includes this conservation area which the designated that there’s deed
restrictions, you can’t cut down the trees, but it aligns with this tree
line. There’s also a small creek that
comes down into here which focuses into this basin. And in discussions with farmers, in the
spring this gets significantly wet where they can’t even go onto it, it’s one
of the last few things that they hay because their tractors just sink, it’s so
wet here. Which also is reaffirmed by
the fact that a lot of these homes have shallow wells and so they’re putting
the septics directly on …right in these areas that are abutting federal
wetlands. They’re actually right onto
them, and so we don’t have any buffers between the septics and the federal
wetlands. There’s no federal requirement
but you can’t go onto it, so just to make you aware that there is a line right
here, federal wetlands. And it is wet, there’s
a tributary that is significantly wet.
The other, when we put this in, Scott…they’re focused on getting this to
work, right? They’re liable for these
homes, and when we’re putting this line across , this will be developed,
right?, which will add to the water table, these homes will add to the water
table, these homes will add to the water table, so the board is looking at this
as an entire project…as an entire area, and the engineers are looking at the
success of this project.”
End of
Public Hearing.
Start of
Town Board Meeting:
Present:
Supervisor Szczepaniak
Councilman Goslin
Councilman Curtiss
Councilman Antoski
Councilwoman Stewart
Debra Kaelin, Town Attorney
Carol Gumiemmy, Town Clerk
CT Male Rep, Town Engineer
members of the general public
Approval of
Monthly Bills for August, Resolution 19-141.
Passed unanimously.
Presentations:
Update of
Carpenters Acres and Sewer Feasibility Study from CT Male:
There are
two options presented in the study. The
2nd option is the focus of the presentation; it reduces the area of proposed
district. On page 2 is the cost
estimate. Takes the new district along
Cindy Lane (eastern portion) and also takes Robert Drive and a portion of
Moonlight Drive as well. Cost: Total capital cost for installation is
$730,936.00. EDU’s : each property is 1 edu since all properties
are family residential. 48 edu’s in this
proposed option. Annual debt service is
$33, 527.64, so the annual portion per property would be $698.00. Operation and maintenance costs are $240 for
Saratoga County Sewer District. Total
cost is $938.00 per year per property. A
resident gave him a map of properties that he surveyed as far as which
properties want or do not want to be included in the district and he came up
with 2 more properties that may want to be included and if that is true, it
will reduce the cost by $28 so the cost would go from $698 to $670.00.
He continued
to say there is one more piece on the cost:
NY State Comptroller office publishes guidance on special districts and
this sewer district would be a special district, and they use the average of what typical
sewer district costs are per edu , “in 2019 that number was $845 per year. So, we’re a little less than $100 over the comptroller’s
threshold. If the town board was to
create a sewer district, we would submit that Map Plan and Report to the Comptroller’s
Office on behalf of the town for essentially their approval for exceeding that
threshold. Typically what we see is that
if the residents are in favor and are asking the town to consider the sewer
district, and are in favor of the dollars that are presented and the cost
associated with the sewer district. The Comptroller’s
Office typically approves those. This is
actually pretty close to what the threshold is.
So that’s the quick thumbnail.”
Sczcepaniak
asked if the new cost would be $910/year if the two properties agree to join
and the answer was YES.
Goslin asked
“the difference between option 1 and option 2:
one is 50 edu’s and one is 48.
The one obviously requires an additional pipe on, through Corner Star or
Court, whatever it’s called. How did you
get away without that for the same number of….?
Answer: “I’ll
see if I can get it to you, specifically.
So, there was. I don’t think I
know this off the top of my head.”
Goslin: “What
is the difference between option 1 and option 2? Is it just the cost?”
Answer: “Essentially
just the length of pressure sewer that’s needed.
Goslin: “That’s
really all the difference?”
Answer: “Yeah,
I think so, I think so.”
Stewart: “What
was the result of the survey?”
Answer: “So
I know that Ms. Lauren (?) has some information. I can tell you what the results were. 29 people responded in favor. 8 responded NO or they were not in favor. And 13 were no replies. “
Stewart: Spoke low but responded saying “the way that
it was defined is the people that were not in favor are being put into this
____option ____.”
Answer: “That’s
correct.”
Sczcepaniak
invited the public to come to microphone to speak on this.
Speaker 1:
Ruth Osterlitz,
Magnolia Lane. “I have a question, when
did it be decided that it included people that were not in favor? Because the Supervisor…you…announced at the
meeting I was at that you were not going to….you were only going to do this
district for the people that were interested and not include those who weren’t
interested. “
Sczcepaniak:
“Again, they did this, we have a resident in that Carpenters Acres that went
around and got all the names of …”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “I understand that but there’s 8 people that don’t want it that are
in the district and Councilwoman Stewart just said that they are going to be
forced to be in it? “
Sczcepaniak:
“Yes, for that area there, yes.”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “But they said at the previous meeting that you weren’t going to
make people be in the district. “
Sczcepaniak:
“Well I guess, umm, with this EDU, with this being designed the way it is, that
they would be included.”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “So when did that happen? I
don’t remember that being publicly announced.”
Szczepaniak:
“this is the new options, the new plan.”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “So you’re going to have a public hearing on this? Because ..”
Sczcepaniak:
“well this has to go through a lot of process, just like we had for the past
sewer project, it goes through a process.
Nothing different.”
Goslin: “Well
it’s a feasibility study, how the board chooses to proceed and who gets
included and not included is a ___ decision.”
Szczepaniak:
“Yup.”
Speaker
2: A woman who did not state her name or
address but came to the microphone holding what she said were copies of the
result of the survey that was done, appearing to perhaps be the one who did the
survey in Carpenters Acres. She handed
the copies to the board. She stated “I
do have handouts so you can see a birdseye view of option 2. So that’s __attached __responses, just so you
guys have a better indication of what you’re looking at with respect to option
2. I worked really closely with my
neighbors who are in favor of this project so __you have options for us I’d be
happy to represent, obviously speak for ___”
Sczcepaniak:
“I want to thank you for taking the initiative and all the effort, there is a
lot involved ya know, going door to door and talking to residents so …”
Woman: “I’ll
share that with others.”
Sczcepaniak:
“yeah, ___with all the folks that are involved, yup.”
Woman: “And
so not that I expect you to answer this question this moment, we’ve heard the
option so when they conclude a topic of what the next steps are and where this
board thinks we go from here.?”
Goslin: “Is
there an action on an agenda?”
Sczcepaniak: “no, no no. I think that with this, this is
just presented to us here, give us a chance to review it, and, but my view of
it and the other board members here , um, I like to , ya know, continue moving
down this road instead of delaying, we have a valid option here, it seems
pretty reasonable, so I prefer to move it forward, um, I mean…”
Goslin: “Can
we just review the steps for that? We
would do a Map Plan and Report and a feasability study, right? “
CT Male: “Yeah,
that’s correct, if you choose to move it forward, we’ll turn the basis of this feasibility study into an
official Map Plan and Report .”
Goslin: “once
we have the Map Plan and Report, we can form the sewer district if we wanted to,
right?”
CT Male: “Correct.”
Goslin: “Now,
when would we get the resident’s approval in that process? Would we do it before we establish the sewer
district? Or if we wanted to go to
referendum or if we wanted to go to petition, where would that be in the
process?”
CT Male: “If
you wanted to go to referendum, you would do that typically before.”
Goslin: “the
sewer district is formed by the Map Plan and Report?”
CT Male: “Correct.”
Goslin: “And
then same thing if we wanted to do a petition?”
CT Male: “Yes”
Goslin: “OK.”
Antoski: “Just
for clarification. The dark or the blackened parcels…”
Stewart: “Are
not included…”.
Antoski: “Are
not included. The red are the no’s and
the white’s are no responses?”
Stewart: “yes. To answer your question, Bill…if you recall, this
was scaled down to about 50 properties after the initial costs for the first
kind of___, and I think this is where ___is where her impression is coming
from. It was determined that a large
number of residents were in a survey were not in favor, and in a survey were in
favor. So, we kind of changed the
project to only include the area where there was the most need or
agreement. Do you recall about how many
residents who are included in the original sewer district and how far scaled
down this is?”
Goslin and
others chimed in briefly and someone shouted out “132”.
Stewart: “So
this is just a little bit lower than a third of what was originally proposed.”
Goslin: “Right. If you remember we had a major meeting here
where I was ____the people that definitely didn’t need sewers and then those
that definitely did.___, and so I would say if the board is in favor of moving
forward that they would do the Map Plan and Report which is basically just
straightening this down from the options to a single option, right?, and doing
the work around that, and then I would suggest
you get an official conclusion from the
residents of the proposal and I would have them petition the board. ”
Sczcepaniak:
“It appears like we have about 95% support here.”
Goslin: “Not
quite that high.”
Sczcepaniak:
“It’s in the 90’s.”
Goslin: “I
don’t know where you went to school”
Stewart and
several others laughed.
Speaker
3: Warren Wheeler, 435 Robert Drive. “I’ve been involved for awhile. The question about why the extra properties
arise. Take a look at what’s there,
what’s proposed. Where the people that
need it the most are on the west, the north side of Carpenters Acres. The houses in red are along the path you have
to get in order to get to Route 50. So since the houses, the people can choose not
to hook up. It’s a pressurized system so
they don’t have to pay……they don’t have to pay for the hook-up costs. They would be liable for the ongoing
maintenance costs of putting the pipe in the ground, but they’d also benefit
from that as well because anytime they would consider selling their property,
they have the ability to offer that, that’s the option to the homeowner can
choose, and they wouldn’t have to pay the $240 ____. So that’s the reason why
there’s a handful of residents….., and the
average isn’t quite 90, I mean I’d like it to be 90, if you take half of the
unknowns and add them you end up with about 35 out of 50, which is 70% which
still seems like a reasonable majority.
It only takes 2/3 of the senate, so.
70% is better, people who don’t want it , they happen to just be along
the path but they do get benefit from it.”
Sczcepaniak:
“Ok. Anyone else?”
Someone then
said “and we would encourage the board to move a Map
Plan
forward.”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “This raises another question, you stated that they don’t
Have to hook
up, are you having another sewer use law for this district?”
Sczcepaniak:
“Yeah, yeah, there’s a lot, we have a lot to talk through
here.”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “So that statement is not true?”
Sczcepaniak:
“Again, we have a lot of details to look into here, I can’t
answer all
of your questions here tonight about that.”
Ruth
Osterlitz: “I just want to remind you that you did tell a group of
people that
you would not require mandatory participation in this.”
Sczcepaniak:
“Thanks for the reminder.”
Presentation
from Ray Otten with Community Emergency Corps
(see Town
Clerk minutes for details, he spoke for about 45-50 minutes)
Lyn Derway
from NYCLASS Program: (see Town Clerk minutes for
Details). She works for a program that has funds for
municipalities to invest in. 75% is
invested in treasuries. Current interest
rate is 2.09%. Administrative charge is
0.12%.
Ed Hernandez
is going to talk about the Ballston Lake sewer project:
We have
about 12 bidders. We’re hopeful. The
backup plan is that we are applying for grant money and should the bids come in
high, it will create more delays, and he hopes the project will be able to be
moved along with the help of grants. He
said it’s unknown when they’ll hear about the grants, maybe December?
Library
Report- see Town Clerks minutes – speaker did not use microphone
Dr. Pierce
reported on BL Lake. (See Town Clerks minutes) “I’ve been working with Kim
Kotkowski and the rest of the committee to finalize the RP, when we get the
final draft I’ll give it to Debra (Kaelin, Esq) to go over to make sure it’s
legally sound. And then we’ll send it
out to bid. This is to write the
Ballston Lake Improvement and Watershed Protection Plan that we got the DEC
grant for. “
Financial
Report from Jeanette, who stated: Brian
Therrault gave her access to National Grid costs for Stonebridge Lighting
District #3 information. The requests
from the residents to have the remainder of that lighting put in is basically
going to double their tax bill. I wanted
to make the board and the public aware of that.
We don’t know when the lighting will be put in, maybe November. The Stonebridge lighting bill this year was
$186, so next year it will be twice that.
Also, we are having issues with BARC in terms of comments that are
coming out. I did speak with Paul Farma
(?) today who will be contacting people in Ballston Spa to request that BARC
follow through on their 2016 commitment to become a 501C3. We’re still sitting on $6.480 that was budgeted. They literally didn’t start it until last
June.
More
discussion on the Stonebridge Lighting issue:
Kaelin explained that half of the lighting was installed and then there
was a hiccup and for some reason the other half was never installed. Stewart explained that the cost of installing
the lighting poles, etc. has already been paid to National Grid, it’s just that
National Grid is just getting around to putting in the rest of the poles and
equipment. The added expense to the
residents is the increased cost of energy that will occur once the new lighting
is installed.
Motion made
to approve the financial report, motion carries.
Supervisors
report: “We’ve sent the second public
hearing and
discussions
we’ve had to the County Planning for a 2nd review, along with Ag and Markets
for their review, so our intent is to have that incorporated for the September
board meeting agenda. Also, at the end
of the meeting the boards going into Executive Session to discuss a personnel
issue and a contract discussion, we’re going to expect an action coming out of
that executive session.”
Curtiss
talked about a position that is still open for park maintenance, the position
really needs to be filled. Sound was
low, see town clerk minutes for details.
Stewart talked
about the Firemans Grove, there has been work on the
grading, she
said something about the water line but it was inaudible, the scouts are
working there but again she was talking very low. Check the Town Clerks minutes
on this report.
Privilege of the Floor for Resolutions
on the Agenda tonight:
Mr. Draina,
Outlet Road: With regard to 19-145 and
19-146 and the Planning Board position. It
states in our town Comprehensive Plan that there should be representatives on
all of the boards, all of the town boards from the farming community, the Ag
community, so I’d like to urge the board to appoint alternatives to the
Planning Board that do meet that requirement to be from the Ag community, have
farming experience, ___ represented on the Planning Board. Thank you.
Resolutions:
19-143 to approve the MOU between the town of
Ballston and NY Development Group/Saratoga, LLC dba the Preserve at Summerhill
regarding the extension of a water line within the Town of Ballston
Consolidated Water District.
Discussion: Antoski said “the concern I hear is not necessarily about
this MOU, its …I’m hearing about whether its density or runoff or the actual…to
me that’s a Planning Board item. I don’t
, in my opinion this MOU is for the extension of water with the hope that we
finish and complete that extension so we have an open loop or a closed loop, I
just wanted to make that clear, this isn’t about any actual development, this
is about the water so that it can happen.”
Sczcepaniak said ‘Yup, that’s correct.” Goslin said he agrees with Antoski’s
assessment that the issue before this board is do we extend the water or do we
not extend the water. The developer said
that that development will work either way, whether they extend the water or
whether they don’t extend the water. Goslin
feels it’s in the “best interest of the town and residents there to extend
water even though there may be some obstacles for the new developer.” Sczepaniak said he agrees with Goslin.
Roll call
vote on this: Curtiss- NO. Antoski, Sczepaniak, Stewart and Goslin all
yes. Passes 4-1.
19-144
Approve the extension of waterline within town of Ballston consolidated water
district #1 to include the Preserve at Summerhill.
Mr. Curtiss
said that adding water to an already saturated area is not a good idea. Role call vote: Curtiss- NO.
The other 4 were Yes. Passed 4-1.
19-145
Consider accepting resignation of Planning Board member Dan Shorey. Passes unanimously.
19-146
Consider approving Alternate Planning Board member Dave Blair as a regular
member effective 8/27/19 and concluding 12/31/2025. Passes unanimously.
19-147
Accept Town’s share of the 2020 sales tax revenues in cash. Passes unanimously.
19-148 Approve the Town’s updated sexual harassment
policy. Passes unanimously.
19-149 Approve to provide mandatory training on
sexual harassment and workplace violence for Town employees in an amount not to
exceed $2000. Passes unanimously.
19-150 Approve Judge Keith Kissinger to attend the
NYS Annual Magistrates Meeting in Lake Placid 9/15-18 at a cost of
$707.25. Passed unanimously.
19-151 Authorizing
the Supervisor to enter into a memorandum agreement in regards to installation
of a septic system to connect to sewers in regards to 72 Connolly Road, lands
of VanDerwerker. Passed unanimously.
Privilege of
the Floor:
Peter
Solberg, 166 Charlton Rd.: “So one of
the things that I brought up at the Public Hearing that was noted in the final GIS report was that our
zoning requires that the Zoning Board of Appeals report prior to the public
hearing on zoning changes, and it didn’t occur.
As members of the Zoning Board affirm that that was not reported to them
prior to the public hearing. I do
appreciate that the information is being sent to the county and also to Ag and
Markets. I just want to make sure that
we’re not opening ourselves up to litigation when this ____goes through in
September, that retroactively since the process wasn’t executed in a forum in
which we designated in our zoning that we’re not opening ourselves up…”
Sczcepaniak
interrupted here and said “yeah, and that’s absolutely not the case, Mike
Lesniak, Chairman of the committee received it in full, yup.”
Peter
Solberg: “So just the head of the Zoning Board, or the …”
Szczepaniak:
“all that, yup. That’s what I’m saying.”
Town Clerk:
“Question wait, what was the question?”
Szczepaniak:
“As far as …”
Town Clerk:
“the Chair, Town Board Chair, Zoning Board Chair, “
Peter
Solberg: “Ok, and they do not distribute to the remainder of the Zoning Board?”
Town Clerk:
“I don’t know.”
Peter
Solberg: “I just want to make sure that we’re not opening ourselves up for
litigation.”
Town Clerk:
“I would assume it’s the Chairman’s responsibilities to give it to the members
just like that’s they we have a Chair for the committees.”
Goslin: “I
would just ask that we follow up on that.”
Sczcepaniak:
“Yeah, we will.”
Motion to go
into Exec. Session. Meeting ended.
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