Joint solutions to separate sewage & water problems
Now that the furor has died down somewhat over the specter of a sewage plant possibly being sited next to New Paltz High School, it seems somewhat ironic that reluctance on the village’s part to accept town-generated waste into its system of sewer pipes was seen very recently by town officials as an insurmountable obstacle. In fact, at last Thursday’s joint meeting Mayor West actually claimed that the Village Board was “pushing” the Town Board to hook up the two systems in an effort to address their several challenges.
West stated that, although village law requires “annexation” in order for the town to tap into its sewage infrastructure, he and the Village Board were “willing to waive that” requirement in this instance. He said that both municipalities had “engineers working on cost projections” to create a merged system. “If we can use existing infrastructure, why wouldn’t we do that?” asked Town Board member Dan Torres rhetorically.
The essential next step after hooking up the pipes, of course, is to find funding to construct the much-discussed big new sewage plant near the northern end of Huguenot Street that could handle the wastes of both communities. Supervisor Zimet recalled a meeting that she, Mayor West and engineering consultant David Clouser had had with representatives of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), seeking help with repairing or replacing the failed Sewer 6 facility. “The DEC said, ‘We don’t want you to replace it; we want you to turn it into a pump station and pump the sewage down to the village.’ What they really wanted us to do was build a state-of-the-art solar plant down past the golf course, on higher ground.”
Zimet also noted that some funding had already been set aside by the New York Rising storm mitigation program to “harden” the existing village sewage treatment plant against future flooding. She added that the head of Ulster County’s Planning Department, Dennis Doyle, with whom she met recently, “doesn’t want to see four package plants built in New Paltz.”
A meeting with the new DEC administrator for this region to discuss the sewage issue, which would include Clouser, engineer Dennis Larios and representatives of both the Town and Village, was already being set up, according to Zimet.
With regard to the village’s water woes, as the date of the shutdown for repairs of the Catskill Aqueduct looms closer, Town Board member Jeff Logan and village trustee Tom Rocco reported that attorneys for both municipalities were working on drafts for an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the town and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and an intermunicipal agreement (IMA) between the town and the village. “The IGA will define the reimbursement portion of it — how we sell water to the village. They want a guarantee that we will supply enough water,” Logan explained.
Once these documents are finalized and signed, the two municipalities can collaborate on design and construction of infrastructure improvements that would make town water available to help the village weather upcoming periods of supply disruption in 2016 and 2017. According to Rocco, the municipalities would also “negotiate a new water supply agreement to update the 1928 agreement” under which the existing division of infrastructure was defined.
Comprehensive Plan back on track
“We thought we were well on our way” to launching a joint Comprehensive Plan for the village and town, said trustee Sally Rhoads, recapping the village’s process in the fall of 2014 of trying to select a planning and design firm for the project. Three candidates put on impressive presentations before the Village Board, “but what we were hoping would be accomplished wasn’t.”
The impediment to progress in this case was Supervisor Zimet’s unwillingness to commit to a joint master plan when she believed that the village was not open to helping the town resolve its sewage issues. Now that the two municipalities have ironed out their mutual ruffled feelings, the way lies clear for the Comprehensive Plan project to move forward.
But hiring one of the three firms that applied for the job might not turn out to be the path that the two boards decide to follow together. Noting that the Village Board had just accepted the resignation of village planner Bren White, who “must return to Georgia for personal reasons,” Trustee Rhoads floated the idea of hiring a joint planner. “Maybe we should dispense with the idea of an outside person,” she said, observing that the $50,000 each allocated by the town and village to pay for the Comprehensive Plan consultants would be more than enough to hire someone well-qualified for the task.
Mayor West countered the suggestion with a recommendation to replace White with someone who would remain a village employee, but draw up an IMA with the Town of New Paltz for “joint project services.” Zimet concurred with this arrangement, noting that “We have less to do than you do” because the Town “spent $70,000 on a master plan six years ago. They didn’t adopt it, but a lot of good work went into it.”
“We need to formalize this,” said Rocco. “What we’re doing now is agreeing in concept.” Noting that 42 applicants had submitted their résumés in hopes of replacing White, of whom “There are four we want to interview,” West asked for a little more time before cementing the relationship.
“You need to move forward,” urged Zimet. She offered to share the compiled data from the aborted town master planning process with the village, and Logan handed over a DVD containing the information to the Village Board before it adjourned its portion of the meeting.
