Hector town board 6/8/10
Meeting: The Hector town board met Tuesday, June 8.
Attendance: All board members were present. Five members of the public attended.
Action: The board approved a series of resolutions to establish the final administrative preparations for the season at Smith Park, appointing a park laborer and a water safety instructor to assist the manager.
• The board opened sealed bids received for a surplus truck. They accepted the only bid received from Jessie Shepard, an Ovid resident, in the amount of $250. The board deemed the bid to fairly represent the market value of the truck. A second round of sealed bids was opened for a newer and functioning Ford Ranger truck. None of the three bids was accepted since they were well below anticipated market value.
• The board approved without dissent a resolution to enable the town to establish a permissive referendum for a special ambulance district to raise tax money in partial support of the Trumansburg emergency medical services (EMS) delivery in northeast Hector near the village. The ambulance district fees will supplement direct insurance billing for EMS which the village plans to introduce in the coming months. According to the town’s attorney, the ambulance district must be formed separately from the fire district also served by Trumansburg when the village decided to begin direct insurance billing.
Discussion without action: A member of the public raised concerns about the disposition of the town dump truck driver who was involved in an accident on Route 414 and was found at fault for the accident. The driver cited equipment failure. However, the town has not yet received the police report, so the controversy over the accident remains a matter of speculation and discussion.
• Another member of the public reminded the board that the Schuyler County taskforce on energy was still meeting and planning a follow-up report to the Council of Governments in late July. He congratulated the board for beginning a comprehensive road survey to establish a baseline road conditions report prior to any heavy truck traffic related to gas drilling activity. The town of Catharine has also signed with the same engineering firm, Delta Engineering, for a similar study. It is important to note that, even if gas wells do not appear in Hector in the near future, there are still many ways Hector could experience the side effects of gas field development. A matter of high concern is the potential use of old vertical gas wells in Hector being tapped for use as so-called “injection wells,” a place to pump waste water produced from the Marcellus shale hydrofracturing process. Recently, a permanent storage injection well was blocked in the town of Pulteney near Keuka Lake by public action, stopping the gas industry from using a convenient, cavernous old well to store waste from operations in Pennsylvania. Heavy truck traffic can occur even in areas that do not have well pad sites.
• The town acknowledged receipt of a notice from the town of Enfield in Tompkins County advising that the Enfield wind farm project would be moving forward with massive wind turbines lining a crest of the Connecticut Hill area. There is potential for heavy truck traffic on a few Hector roads during construction of the wind turbines.
• The town also acknowledged the fund raiser for the Valois-Logan-Hector firehouse and Library expansion.
Upcoming meeting: The next regular meeting of the town board will be Tuesday, July 13, starting at 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend all town meetings. |
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