& Albany County Post - The Altamont Enterprise

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6 The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, December 20, 2012 GCSD to name facilities committee to consider next bond project By Melissa Hale-Spencer GUILDERLAND — The meeting after the school board approved its last change order for a $27 million project, members were enthused about establishing a committee to consider the district’s next bond project. Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders proposed a facilities committee be set up to work with an architect and report to the board on whether a capital project should be undertaken and, if so, to recommend the size and scope of the project. The last facilities committee, he noted, was set up in 2007. In November of 2007, voters approved a $27 million project to upgrade Guilderland’s five elementary schools, improve technology across the district, and move the district offices to the high school. Because of the economy, bids came in lower than predicted and so, in the fall of 2009, the board added close to $2 million in projects — all for the same $27 million voters had approved. The added items came from what the facilities committee had termed its “wish list.” The additional work included roof replacement at Guilderland and Lynnwood elementary schools; toilet upgrades, sidewalk repairs, and drain work at Lynnwood; acoustical tile replacement in the Westmere Elementary School gym; and refinishing the gym floor at Pine Bush Elementary School. At the high school, work included resurfacing the track, making concrete walk repairs, replacing lockers and outside doors, and roof replacement. Sanders told the school board at its Dec. 11 meeting that it would take a minimum of 18 months to study and bond the new project and to get approval from the State Education Department. The earliest that work could start, he said, would be in the summer of 2015. Board President Colleen O’Connell suggested that, as with the last facilities committee, its members include people from the different buildings, community members, and workers from the maintenance department. Sanders said there would be “a variety of stakeholders.” “Doing it in increments makes it more manageable,” said board member Allan Simpson of having a series of smaller bond issues rather than waiting and having a large one. “It lets us maintain our buildings,” said Simpson. “It’s less destructive to the e d u c a t i o n a l process,” agreed Sanders, adding that small projects completed more frequently contain costs and are better managed. O ’ C o n n e l l agreed, too, citing other Suburban Council districts that wait a decade for a $100 million project. The board was so enthused that O’Connell asked if it wanted to vote to waive its regular wait untill the next meeting and instead take action immediately. Sanders recommended waiting until the January meeting when he will have the resolution ready. The plan will be to have the facilities committee start meeting in January or February and work through the school year. Other business In other business, the board: — Agreed to refinance bonds issued in 2006 for construction at the middle school, for a savings of $320,000 over eight years. The current interest rate, said Sanders, is 1.5 percent, whereas, when the bonds were issued, it was over 4 percent; — Heard from Timothy Burke, who had served on the Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee before it was dissolved, that honoring an agreement on the middle-school schedule means larger class sizes, that the reason Guilderland now has more students isn’t because of the economy but because of full-day kindergarten, and that board members should be nonpartisan and should not endorse political candidates; — Heard congratulations for Alan Fiero, a Farnsworth “Doing it in increments makes it more manageable.” Middle School science teacher, who received a $5,000 Bender Scientific Grant for students to begin a research project monitoring the restoration of the Albany landfill; — Learned that Guilderland’s program for teaching English as a second language will partner with the University at Albany so that all pre-service teachers in the university’s program for teaching English to speakers of other languages will have to do their 100 hours of work in Guilderland, which has seen an influx of foreign students in recent years; — Approved an agreement with the Rensselaer-Columbia- Greene Board of Cooperative Educational Services to provide internal auditing services for the 2012-13 school year; — Approved an addendum to the district’s contract with TRAC Services for additional physical therapy. Sanders said there was “greater student need than anticipated.” The district pays $52 for each 30- to 60-minute session; — Declared as surplus or obsolete a list of items, including furniture, storage cubbies, televisions, a typewriter, and eight buses. Sanders said the items would be put out to bid. The board will receive the sealed bids on Jan. 4; — Awarded W.B. Mason Company, the lowest of five bidders, a $59,900.40 bid for 2,520 cases of white paper. S a n d e r s s a i d the district is locking in the price for a year because prices are expected to increase; — Accepted donations of a guitar and keyboard from Joan McGrath, and $700 from the Class of 1985; — Approved a trip for April 2014 to Vienna, Venice, Florence, and Paris led by high school social studies teacher Robert Baker; — Approved a new Italian club, named Ciao, at the middle school. The advisor, Piera Camposeo- Iaia, won’t be paid. Students of all cultures will meet twice a month “to learn about the Italian history, music, literature, art, language, and food,” says the request form; — Heard from Wiles that the Guilderland Elks, as they have for years, gave each third-grader a paperback dictionary. “Each year, the dictionaries magically appear and I know our students greatly appreciate them,” she said; — Learned from Wiles that a plan has been drafted for “a systematic review of all our programs.” This will assure quality and relevance, she said, and also help with allocating resources and planning for the future. Three reviews are to be competed this year: technology for grades 6 to 12, self-contained special education, and teaching foreign languages and English as a second language; — Reviewed policies on parental involvement, board hearings, board policy, academic intervention services, English language learner proficiency instruction, admission of foreign students, disposal of district property, and student transportation; — In a split vote, agreed to a resolution urging Congress “to mitigate the across-theboard cuts to education that are scheduled to occur January 2, 2013.” New York is slated to lose $164 million in federal funding, largely for students with disabilities and students in poverty; cuts would average $243,000 per district but, in reality, poor districts would lose more. Board member Barbara Fraterrigo had proposed an addendum to the National School Boards Association resolution. “Every interest group is going to say, ‘I want to preserve my piece of the pie’…We all have to share in the sacrifice to get the country out of the doldrums,” Fraterrigo told the board. Not enough board members agreed with her to include the addendum. “It’s not our role to…take a position on how to get there,” said board Vice President Gloria Towle-Hilt. Ultimately, the original resolution passed 8 to 1, with Fraterrigo casting the sole dissenting vote; and — Met in executive session to discuss a potential tenure appointment, and to discuss negotiations with the Instructional Administrators’ Unit, the Noninstructional Supervisory Unit and other Management Personnel, and the Guilderland Office Workers’ Association. The Enterprise — Michael Koff Wearing smiles and bearing gifts: For the fourth year, Guilderland teaching assistants collected toys for needy children in the community. Last week, from left, Michelle Farison from Westmere Elementary, Lisa Weaver from Guilderland High School, Lynne Haley from Westmere, Georgianna Pennacchia, and Mim Dvorscak from Lynnwood Elementary gathered to wrap the gifts. Pennacchia, president of the Saint Vincent De Paul Society, said she had 17 foster-care children who, without the teaching assistants’ toy drive, would not have gifts this year. “Because of all of you,” she told the TAs, “I look forward to the party and giving all the gifts you provided.” An anonymous donor this year gave $1,000 for the purchase of big gifts like a bike and a keyboard.
The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, December 20, 2012 7 V’ville RR gates would cost $1M Quiet zone committee makes some noise By Jo E. Prout VOORHEESVILLE – A committee hoping for the creation of a quiet zone here last week critiqued the village board’s progress on reducing train-whistle noise, claiming that the board ordered a study for an unlikely solution and refused to pay for or discuss a second. In November, the board received village engineer Barton & Loguidice’s report on the proposed cost of installing a four-gate system at each of the two crossings in the center of the village. Last week, the board reviewed the report, which stated that upgrading the crossings would cost $1,015,000, and could cost individuals $66 per year if the money were borrowed and added to tax bills. Engineer Richard Straut said that the complexity of the two crossings and their local switching stations added to the costs “significantly,” over Federal Railroad Administration online calculations of $256,000. CSX, which owns the railway, would use its own engineers and add to the cost, Straut said. To get a cost estimate, the board would need to pay $50,000 for a CSX engineer’s report, Straut said. “We, as a committee, have never advocated for this approach,” said Steven Schreiber. About 10 members attended the board’s workshop to discuss the study. Schreiber said the research that committee members had done showed that medians installed on the road at the crossings were less expensive, and that the committee had asked the board to order an engineering report for medians, rather than gates.. “The results of this study are not a surprise to anyone on the committee,” he said. Schreiber asked with whom board members had discussed the proposed quiet zone, and Straut said that he had met with representatives from CSX, the FRA, the Albany County Department of Public Works, and Voorheesville Superintendent of Public Works William Smith. The lack of names prompted Schreiber to describe “uncertainty and vagueness” as keeping village residents from their goal of a quiet zone. “What exactly is the obstacle for us?” he asked. Straut said that the circuitry involved and the presence of more than one rail at each crossing increased the cost for gates. “We’re in the ballpark with these figures,” he said. “The DPW people say we may be a little low. The engineering detail hasn’t been done. There’s some uncertainty in this, it’s concept. We know it’s going to be this order of magnitude.” “The bottom line is...the people of the village are going to decide whether they want this project or not,” said Trustee David Cardona, referring to a possible referendum. “We’re not going to come up with this money. We’re going to bond it. Do we really want to spend $50,000 to get [an estimate] from CSX?” Residents asked Cardona and the board to speak louder, as a train horn blared over their remarks. Schreiber said that the residents, who earlier had collected nearly 400 signatures in favor of a quiet zone, were not committed to using one method over another, nor were they asking for a particular amount of funding. “We’re asking the board to work with us to resolve this problem. The question was, ‘What can we do in Voorheesville?’ ” Schreiber said. He said that the board had not responded to his e-mailed questions about why medians had not been included in the study. Until a study about median installation gets done, he said, residents are not getting the “right response from the board.” “Let’s cut to the chase,” said Mayor Robert Conway. “The county commissioner of DPW said ‘No.’ They don’t believe it’s a viable option.” Conway said that the state Department of Transportation agreed with the county. “The county owns the road,” said Trustee Jack Stevens. “They don’t want it.” “The county is public employees paid by taxpayers,” Schreiber said. “They are public servants. They have bosses, too.” Schreiber said that the FRA does not require DOT approval for quiet zones. “We can get you names,” Stevens said. “We’re not hiding anything.” “I want some accountability. This is not the Soviet Union,” Schreiber said. While some residents agreed that the committee would “not go away,” board members said that they would not spend $3,000 more for a local engineering study, or $50,000 for a CSX study. “To spend $50,000 to get a number, that’s a hard pill to swallow,” Conway said. Board member David Cardona said that the board had not said it would not order a study for the medians, but that the village wants to know why the county is against them before the village spends more money. The first study for the gate systems cost the village $3,000. Committee members said that they want to attend another meeting with the county DPW and the state DOT, but Straut said that the group should choose a representative or two. With more members present, he said, “then it’s not a meeting, it’s something other than a meeting.” Conway told The Enterprise that he would meet with the county DPW again after the holidays. Other business In recent business, the board: — Agreed this week to pay the village engineer $1,200 to investigate drainage problems on Pleasant Street. The street was repaved last year, and drainage problems resulting from the paving were repaired. The repairs did not fix the issues, but created more of a problem, Conway said. Further repairs could range from making a swale bigger on one side of the road to replacing old pipes along the road, he said; — Briefly discussed its contract with the Voorheesville Ambulance Squad, which did not send a representative to the board’s Tuesday meeting. “This is the second time we’ve requested their presence,” Stevens said. “Right now, we’re going to go into a new year without a contract with them.” “We went month-to-month last year, too,” Conway said; — Agreed to have Stevens find out how other municipalities restrict recreational vehicle parking. Code Enforcement Officer Glenn Hebert told the board that state-registered vehicles can be legally parked in driveways. Cardona said that the definition of a driveway becomes important. “You park your car on it, it’s a driveway,” he said. Hebert said that only 30 percent of a village lot can be taken up with structures, so that residents cannot pave yards and use them for massive parking areas. Stevens said that large RVs parked along a home can become a “12-foot- to 14-foot-high wall of vehicle”; — Discussed creating a code restricting use of portable basketball hoops along village streets, particularly during plowing season; and — Acknowledged the shootings of school children in Connecticut. “If we could have a moment of reflection for the victims of the national tragedy in Connecticut this week...” Conway said. “Thank you.” Dee Centi-Jones “The Dee Jones Team” Specializing in Guilderland and the Hilltowns Phone: 518-528-3811 DeeJones@RealtyUSA.com • NEW 1567 Berne Alt Rd. Knox. 264.9k. Huge updated Country home, Guild schools, 5 bed, 4 bath, 4 car garage on 6 private acres. • NEW Knox Cave Rd. 49.9k 10 acres, build your dream home or subdivide. Owner financing available. • PRICED TO SELL Rt. 46. 68.5k 15 acres on 2 deeds, level with views. Owner financing available. • NEW CONSTRUCTION Guild. 5006 Colonial Dr. Williamsburg Estates. 479.9k. 1st floor master, loaded w/ amenities and upgrades! Open every Sunday, many models available. Turn laundry day inTo laundry hour VoorheesVille LAUNDROMAT 12 South Main St. open 6 AM – 11 PM every Day Soft Water • Parking • Clean We wish all our friends and patrons a Joyous Holiday Season. Open Dec. 24th 11 - 9 p.m. Closed Christmas Day Main Street, Altamont 861-6002 sold PIZZA • PASTA SUPER GIANT SUBS
Page 1 and 2: The Altamont Enterprise $1.00 & Alb
Page 3 and 4: The Altamont Enterprise - Thursday,
Page 5: The Altamont Enterprise - Thursday,

& Albany County Post - The Altamont Enterprise

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?