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Highway Department likely to get requested equipment

REPORTER FILE PHOTO
REPORTER FILE PHOTO

The Town Board appears poised to acquire $1.5 million worth of new Highway Department equipment. The only question remaining is whether the items should be purchased with bond money or leased with an option to buy.

Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr. last week asked for three new snowplows with sanders, a “brush grinder,” and an excavator with a trailer.

At Tuesday’s Town Board work session, there was a general consensus the acquisition of equipment should be approved.

“We need to do this and I think we need to bond to do it,” Councilwoman Chris Lewis told her colleagues. Describing herself as the “queen of whining about infrastructure,” she said, “I’m in this office for the next six months and I have to do what’s right.”

Ms. Lewis has announced she will not be seeking another term on the Town Board in November.
“I know people don’t like to have their taxes raised,” she added. “I don’t like to have my taxes raised,” but when the snow comes, everyone wants it removed.

Councilmen Jim Colligan and Paul Shepherd and Councilwoman Amber Brach-Williams agreed that acquiring the equipment was a good idea.

Supervisor Jim Dougherty had some questions about the lease numbers Mr. Card provided, with the latter explaining he hadn’t suggested bonding because that’s not his area of expertise.

Mr. Dougherty will speak with the town’s bond counsel for information on bonding costs versus leasing and it’s likely the board will push forward one way or another this month.

ACCESSORY APARTMENTS
There’s a difference of opinion between Ms. Lewis and Mr. Shepherd on proposals to change town code affecting accessory apartments.

Ms. Lewis said she thinks there’s a need to insert some language into the code affecting how accessory spaces can be used in order to avoid creating an overuse of water. But Mr. Shepherd said he didn’t like making rules based on what people might do.

Ms. Lewis said her information was based on what Building Permits Coordinator Lori Beard Raymond had told her — there’s an increasing number of requests for large structures that would be used in an accessory capacity.

Mr. Shepherd argued that he had spoken to people in the Building Department who didn’t want to be quoted but had a different view.

After sparring for a bit, Mr. Dougherty said it’s important to set a date for a public hearing to listen to residents’ views on the subject. That date will, presumably, be set at the next regular Town Board meeting.