Town Board Meeting, February 10

This article appeared in the Townsman, February 12 edition

Woodstock, February 10, 2009

The federal stimulus package, at this moment still stalled in the congress, may put a new wrinkle into the controversy surrounding the Town Hall versus Elna Ferrite issue. Councilwoman Liz Simonson, having had a conversation with Dan Ahouse, aide to congressman Maurice Hinchey, informed the board of the possibility of obtaining federal grants to offset possibly as much as 80% costs of creating an energy efficient facility. The Town Hall renovation project, completely designed for energy efficiency, but stalled on bids that exceeded the bonding authorization, may qualify for such funding. Simonson expressed the concern that pursuing the Elna Ferrite building may take so long that the Town would lose the grant opportunity.

Old arguments were rehashed concerning the Town Hall’s inadequacy with regard to enough space for the departments to be housed in it and its inadequate parking, versus the potential for the Elna Ferrite building to house all the Town’s departments, with Councilman Chris Collins advancing the former and supervisor Jeff Moran taking the latter.

In the meantime, Dennis Larios of Brinnier & Larios, the engineering firm that helped the Town construct the new highway facility, offered to walk through the Elna Ferrite building and advise the Town on how to proceed with its consideration of that location.

Moran hopes to assign a task force to study the alternatives.

The meeting of the Woodstock town board began with a recommendation by Paul Shultis Jr representing the Skate Park task force that the town spend approximately $42,000 to install a new, ten-foot high fence around a portion of the park and cloak it with a special sound-deadening sound blanket. The task force had been appointed by the town board to investigate means of abating the annoyance to neighbors caused by noise from the skate park adjacent the Woodstock youth center. Chaired by Shultis, the members included councilperson Terrie Rosenblum, youth center director Fern Malkine-Falvey and Jay Cohen.

Shultis and Cohen, while admitting that there can be no absolute guarantee the project would completely satisfy the affected neighbors – none of whom had attended the last three task force meetings – they felt the sound barrier would certainly bring the park within compliance of the law as it pertains to decibel levels.

Cohen, at the request of the board, will obtain references and testimonials from users of the product, and assuming that goes well the “ball will be in your [the town board’s] court,” said Shultis.

David Lewis, who had been tasked last December with investigating the possibility of instituting bike lanes on town, county and state highways, in his preliminary report described the idea “as an amazingly complicated issue” and asked that his final report, scheduled for March, be put off until May.

Meira Blaustein, representing the Woodstock Film Festival, asked for and received an assurance from the board that rental rates for use of the Community Center and the Town Hall for the 2009 film festival will not be increased. In 2008 the festival paid the Town $1744 for the six-day use. The 2009 festival is scheduled September 30-October 4.

Assessor Marc Plate urged the board to adopt a resolution in protest of Governor David Paterson’s proposal to cap the state’s payment of property taxes on state lands. Although the impact to Woodstock would not be extreme by itself, coupled with less state aid to education, plus mandated relief to property taxes paid by utilities, including cable and telephone, Plate felt the cumulative impacts called for a Town remonstrance from the Town. New York State owns lands valued at $13 million dollars in Woodstock. The board unanimously adopted such resolution, and will forward it to state and county officials.

At the invitation of Collins planning board member Peter Cross, a professional wetland delineator and surveyor sought for his advice on helping construct the “base document” that is needed to execute the Comeau easement with the Woodstock Land Conservancy, advised the board to perform a new survey in CAD (computer aided design) format. He estimated such cost at about $13,000. The “base document” would be a description of the 76 acre parcel in its present form, including existing buildings, topography and parking lots and a delineation of portions reserved for municipal purposes, including potential future improvements. The board reserved judgment as to whether to conduct such a survey until further consultation with the Conservancy.

In a matter also related to the Comeau property, Paul Shultis Jr, who is involved with the Woodstock soccer program, asked the board to consider creating a new, separate ingress to the upper parking lot, claiming it would improve traffic safety. The board has budgeted to improve the parking lot, a project currently awaiting an interpretation from the Woodstock zoning board of appeals to see if the proposed expansion of the lot, also to increase traffic safety, would require a variance from the zoning law.

The board had yet another endless discussion concerning building rental rates, which finally ended in the decision to take the matter up in March.