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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
Intentional Second Exposure The Altamont Enterprise - Thursday, December 25,2008 Federal stormwater regs may affectgthree projects By Jo E. Prout NEW SCOTLAND—The costs of implementing new federal requirements for stormwater management are being passed down to the local level. The new Environmental Pro- tection Agency restrictions could EPA or state Department of Environmental Conservation criteria, Dolin said. Three proposed developments currently under discussion in the town that exceed the five- acre minimum are the Charles Carrow senior housing develop- \As usual, they've passed down the cost to the local governments and the local taxpayers.\ apply to three proposed develop- ments in New Scotland. \The idea is to keep storm- water from polluting streams and rivers,\ Supervisor Thomas Dolin said this week. \It has a good purpose. As usual, they've passed down the cost to the lo- cal governments and the local taxpayers.\ Last week, the town board discussed the new requirements at its Wednesday meeting. L. Michael Mackey, the town attorney, toid the board that the restrictions were meant to keep sediment from new developments from getting into the Hudson River. Mackey called the require- ments \expensive to maintain\ and an \unfunded mandate.\ The board discussed con- solidating retention basins for multiple housing developments. Town engineer Keith Menia said that the new retention basins need more maintenance than previous designs. The board is considering ac- cepting, the responsibility for the expenses as it would for street clearing, or requiring de- velopers to create bank accounts from which the maintenance costs could be paid, perpetually from interest. In some cases, homeowners' associations could be responsible for the costs, but, Dolin told The Enterprise, such associations can run out of funds. \No matter what happens, we're going to end up owning them,\ he said of the basins at the meeting. \Correcti\ Menia said. The restrictions apply to any new development that exceeds five acres, if an engineer deter- mines that the site meets the ment, the Colonie Country Club Estates, and the Kensington Woods housing development. At the meeting, Menia said that a $10,000-per-lot fee in each development could be used to set up ah account to pay for the esti- mated annual town maintenance cost of $60,000. \Ten thousand dollars is a couple of bucks a month\ in a mortgage for people buying $350,000 to $1.2 million homes, said resident Saul Abrams. Rather than applying a special assessment to the future resi- dents of the homes, Dolin said, the town could decide to share the tax burden among all tdwn residents. The town, he said, giving an example to explain the argument, will have to pay to update the roads in 30 years. The town pays for services for its residents, he said. \We've been exploring what other municipalities are doing,\ Dolin said this week, ' . ... \The calculations we've seen could be as high as an annual increase of local taxes at $20 per household. Some of the as- sumptions [for the calculations] have to be looked at,\ Dolin said. \That's where the discussions are right now.\ He hopes to continue the dis- cussion with the board in Janu- ary, he said. \We've been advised that we're not holding up the ap- proval process\ for the current proposed developments, he said. \It's more a question of who's going to bear the expense. Also, what's fair? And, what's legal? If you tax to individuals, you must show a special benefit. That's not always legally easy to define,\ Dolin said. The Enterprise — Saranac Hale Spencer Corridor intact: The view from Voorheesville, stretching towards the Port of Albany nine miles away, may soon include cross-country skiers rather than abandoned track. Albany County Executive Michael Breslin signed a contact this month to purchase the rail trail from Canadian Pacific Railway for$70Q,000. Breslin signs rail trail deal, linking Albany to V'ville By Jo E. Prout ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County Executive Michael G. Breslin signed a contract this month to purchase the long- awaited Albany County Rail Trail from Canadian Pacific Railway. The trail will run from the Port of Albany, partially through the town of Bethlehem, and end in the town of New Scotland in the village of Voorheesville. The , ; non-pj;ofit organization Scenic Hudson and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation each contributed $350,600, meeting the sale price of $700,000. Environmental assessments of the rail trail have already begun, according to Breslin's office. After a 300 day due diligence period, environmental liability for the trail will be assumed by the county; said Kerri Battle,, the di- rector of communications for the county executive, in August. This week, Battle said that the assessments began Dec. 12. Bridges along the trail are being inspected now, she said, and the results could dictate how soon the trail would be open to the public. \We are aiming for the end of 2010,\ she said. Engineering firm Greenman- Pederseri, Inc., with headquar- ters on Long Island and an office in Albany, is doing the assess- ment, Battle said. Patrick Kemieally, a vice- president with GPI, said that the firm has had an office in Albany for 30 years. \All of our Capital District work is done in our Albany office,\ Kenneally said. \We're happy to be doing it.\ Traffic signs and diversions for the eight bridges in the rail trail are in place, he said, and the inspectors are trying to dodge the wintry weather, Albany County Legislator Her- bert Reilly Jr. represents New Scotland and was a principal sponsor of the program five years ago, he said in August. Reilly said that the legislature has money set aside to do improvements like adding guide rails where the rail had run over a creek. Highway crossings already have guide rails, he said. The county will put in a 10-foot-wide strip of leveled and graded crushed stone N a surface that would be good for a runner's ankle, he said. The county cost will be $2.9 million, which will be used to refurbish the trail, according to Albany County Legislator Wil- liam Aylward, who represents Guilderland. Aylward and Reilly are members of the legislature's conservation and improvement committee. Of that, $2.4 mil- lion will be federal funds and interested groups will raise the remaining $500*000, Aylward said: in August. \We thought it would be a tre- mendous asset to the county and the town [of New Scotland], and now for Bethlehem, too,\ Reilly said then. Since 1995> when Reilly was supervisor for the town of New Scotland, the project has been negotiated and altered several times. Originally, he said, the proposal included the rail from Albany to its end in Delanson. Now, Canadian Pacific Railway, which owns the line* will keep the spur from Voorheesville to Delanson, Reilly said. Reilly told The Enterprise in August that he had ridden on the line, \It's a very scenic route. 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