 | Town of Marbletown CDC Minutes for March 10, 2005
Attendees: Rev. Bob Mitchell, Steve Wood, Brooke Pickering Cole,
Maggie Colan, Vin Martello, Amy Moses, Jenna Brantmeyer, Lou Cardinale,
Carl Pezzino and Valerie Wilcox (Guest).
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by Chair Lou Cardinale.
Items for action by subcommittee or individuals are highlighted in BLUE.
Supervisors Report:
1) Work on the D&H Canal Five Locks walk enhancement has begun. Work expected to be completed by mid-Summer.
2) Rte.
209 Corridor alliance of 5 towns grant has been approved. Also, 40 mph
speed limit on Rte. 209 from North Marbletown Road to traffic light at
Davenports has been approved by DOT. No set date for new signs for
same.
3) Exemption
of town assessment for improvements/additions for parents or
grandparents of place of residence property owners was approved by Town
Board. Limit is 20% of total assessed value.
4) Acquifer Study is completed. Was presented at March 14th Open Space Forum with three major acquifers identified. Also many conglomerate acquifers.
5) 95% of proposed conservation sub-division ordinance has been written by Dan Shuster and Vin.
6) Annex
at Community Center is in process of reconstruction.. This will
provide additional meeting space for the town as well as an
information/cultural focal point. MBA will play a part in
business/tourist information stop. Vin emphasized keeping cost of this
project down.
7) Feasibility
study has begun on the needs of the potential renovation of town hall.
Staff at town hall are being consulted. Steve W. advised that there
may be grant $ available from federal government for art to be
purchased from local artists to decorate any new construction.
8) Vin proposed a community wide forum on Economic Development to get a sense of the economic assets in town. Vin will get with Laurel Sweeney, MBA president, and High Falls Civic Association to discuss possibilities.
Lou requested subcommittee reports as follows:
Town Wide Survey
Status letter from Andy Lutz was read by Maggie as follows:
Marbletown Community Development Committee
From:~ Andrew Lutz
Re: Survey of Public Opinion
Date: March 10, 2005
After several attempts at finding colleges who conduct research and
surveys, I was able to meet with Dr. Ray Bromley from the Department of
Geography and Planning at SUNY Albany on March 2, 2005.~ SUNY Albany has
the only accredited graduate planning program in eastern New York,
outside of New York City. Dr. Bromley identified several areas where his
Department, using its graduate students, has provided extensive planning
services:
1. A graduate planning student internship that could be connected
with Peter Fairweather Associates, projected cost: $1750/month would
also add auto expenses to that amount.
2. A summer project for 1-3 students under supervision from SUNY
Albany: Cost $1750/student/month, also depending upon the expenses for
car, etc.
3. A Planning Studio: a capstone team project for the graduating
class ( using teams of 7-15 students) see earlier projects profiled at
http://www.albany.edu/gp/facilities/plnstd/index.html
Studio projects cost between $6,000 and $14,000
depending upon the length and scale of the project, and the quantity of
final reports to be produced.~ They usually put in between 2000 and 4000
hours, including fieldwork, detailed surveys, community meetings, etc.
4. Site Planning Project:~ They just completed one for the Town of
Guilderland after 6 weeks of research by 4 teams of students culminating
in presentations of four alternative site designs for a 56 acre site in
the middle of Guilderland, with participation of local officials and the
landowners.
My sense after chatting with Dr. Bromley is that if we had a planning
problem that was interesting enough to warrant publication in planning
journals, they would consider offering to do a project for us, but that
they were not interested in simply writing and conducting a survey.
Peter Fairweather of Fairweather Associates met with us in February ,as
you will remember.
He returned to us his proposal for a survey that will be conducted and
tabulated by the CDC.
Fairweather Consulting will:
1. Design the survey and the analysis plan for the survey
(8 hrs. at $115/hr.) $920.00
2. Design the sample for the survey (4 hrs. at $115/hr.) $460.00
3. Conduct the analysis (including any supplementary analysis of
Census data and other sources)
( 4 hrs. at $115/hr.) $460.00
4. Conduct analysis of Census and other data~ ( 4 hrs. at $115/hr.) $460.00
5. Prepare a survey report detailing the results~( 8 hrs. at $115/hr.) $920.00
6. Train volunteers to conduct the survey~~~~~~~~ ( 2 hrs.~at $115/hr.) $230.00
7. Train data entry team ( 2 hrs. at $115/hr.)~$230.00
Total projected cost $3680.00
Remember that the survey would be conducted by the CDC and any
volunteers ( seniors, youth, etc). that we must recruit. Mr. Fairweather
offered to reduce the fee for any of the above services that we would
want to take on ourselves.
Obviously, my recommendation is that we hire Mr. Fairweather and recruit
volunteers.
Andys report was well received. Much discussion on timing followed.
CDC decided to wait until spring of 2006 due to so many on going
committees dealing with last 2003 focus session requests. Subcommittee to continue work on design, format and questions, PR. There was some discussion on targeted focus sessions. Decision was to go with Fairweather Consulting in any case.
The committee thanked Andy for his excellent report.
Trails
Trails meeting held on March 11th subsequent to this CDC meeting resulted in a
positive list of things to do to get to a point of grant project agreement with
DOT. Vin will get with attorney regarding Right of Way requests. Steve
Rice will provide three maps for rights of way being considered.
Emergency Services
No action taken at this time on current activities. Expect first meeting sometime after April 15th. Lou
reported on FASNY movement for tax relief to be extended to volunteer
fire and rescue members at the school district level. Lou will contact Maureen Sheehan of the RV School Board to get her opinion.
Discussion followed on recruiting of young adults into ES.
CAP Enterprises offered $100 Award for best recruitment poster by a
Teen Center member. Lou will contact the Teen Center (Cate Evonich)
director to present poster contest request.
Lou working on one member application for all fire districts. This
could be placed at Town Hall, the new information center at the Annex
and our town website, also Vin offered an article in the next town
newsletter.
Steve Wood will contact Bill Cafiero, princilpal at the High School, regarding an assembly for ES in May/June timeframe.
Affordable/Senior Housing
Vin and Amy will try to meet again with RUPCO to discuss housing opportunities within the Town.
Carl and Andy Lutz will meet with seniors at their next Friday meeting at Community Center to discuss their needs on housing.
Other Commission/Organization Reports
Rev. Bob reported on the Historic Preservation Commission Monthly Meeting.
The HPC is working on getting their by-laws completed. They are reviewing
HPC processes from other towns. They are getting and consolidating their
maps of our historic districts. Three maps remain to be gotten.
Commission gave its non-binding position on the proposed High Meadows
school building to the Planning Board. Main concern was the size of the building
especially as viewed from Leggett Road which may be reviewed as a Historic
District by the HPC.
Rev.
Bob also asked for volunteers to help with ushering or car parking at
the Chamber Arts Festival to be held on the last weekend in May and the
first weekend in June.
Ann could not attend by e-mailed the following report for the Marbletown Arts Association:
My apologies, all - I in a play and have rehearsal so won't make it.
MAA news:
Scholarships moving forward
Upcoming
events that we will participate in include May 1st opening of D&H
Canal Museum, Library Fair, Illumination concert (prob. Aug 13th),
summer gallery shows in D&H chapel space. Art Harvest 2005 will be
spread out over 2-3 weekends to make it easier for participants and a
new emerging filmmakers event is scheduled.
All is well!~ Our next full membership meeting is April 12th.
~
Best,
Ann
The Meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Carl Pezzino, Secretary
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