Town Board getting serious about infrastructure demands

After years of Town Board members agreeing with Supervisor Jim Dougherty about not borrowing money to pay for infrastructure repairs and maintenance, he could find himself outvoted 4 to 1 when the subject comes up at budget work sessions next month.

“Four of us are in agreement about borrowing,” Deputy Supervisor Chris Lewis said in Mr. Dougherty’s absence as he recovers from cardiac surgery.

The subject came up at the board’s Tuesday’s work session when Town Engineer John Cronin introduced interns presenting work they’ve done this summer, including an assessment of infrastructure programs needed to bring town assets — buildings, roads, major equipment, among others — up to par and then maintain them.

Mr. Cronin and Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr. have been campaigning for two years to get the board to adopt a regular schedule of repairs and maintenance.

As both men have pointed out, there is grant money for a number of projects, but is only paid after completion of the work and often takes as long as three years to find its way into town coffers.

The result is projects not started because Mr. Dougherty has insisted during his tenure that he has effectively kept taxes low — the lowest of any East End municipality — while everything operates smoothly.

But there are projects such as the Medical Building roof that became critical and others that are headed in that direction if the town fails to borrow money to fix them in a timely fashion.

With interest rates still relatively low, board members agreed this would be the time to take a $1 million loan that would cost the town about $12,000 in interest costs to get critical projects moving.

A subcommittee will begin prioritizing projects to determine which could be undertaken in 2017 and then setting priorities for future years.

Among possibilities could be the purchase of a grinding machine for compost materials. Mr. Card said it currently costs about $70,000 in man hours and other expenses by not having the machine. It could be purchased over a five or six year period at a cost of about $75,000 a year and when it was paid for, he said, would have at least 15 years of life.

Bathroom repairs at Crescent Beach is another major project approaching “critical mass, Mr. Cronin said. If they had to be shut down, the beach would have to be closed, he said.