Credit: R. A. Hermans
The public comment section of the Pine Plains Town Board meeting on June 20 raised several issues that led to useful discussions.
A resident from Lake Shore Drive inquired about when the culvert repair on Woodward Hill Rd. would be complete. The six-week estimate for the construction period has now been exceeded by two weeks. Highway Superintendent Carl Baden said the work is nearing completion, the road has been repaved and the main work still to be done is installing guardrails.
Stan Hirson, whose Pine Plains Views holds a host of past Pine Plains videos, asked about the state of the town’s website which he said was “in terrible condition.” He suggested that Pine Plains look to other town’s websites, such as Red Hook, to see how useful and attractive a town website can be. Town Supervisor Brian Walsh asked that people give the town input on what changes they would like to see, but that there was no current effort to work on redesigning the town’s website. Board member Kevin Walsh suggested that a notice be posted on the website asking people to make improvement suggestions.
Two people living near Stissing Lake complained that on recent weekends very loud music has been coming from the Lions Pavilion in to the early morning. Even though there is a house rule at the pavilion that music is to stop at 11 p.m., that rule has not been enforced recently and the town does not have a noise ordinance. Town Board member Matt Zick, a member of the Lions Club, said the issue would be raised at a meeting the Lions are holding on Monday. Town Attorney Warren Replansky offered to draft a noise ordinance that could be reviewed at the next board meeting.
New Town Hall News
Town Engineer Ray Jurkoswski brought the news that the town’s request for proposals from architects to design a new Town Hall had resulted in two firms showing interest. The board will ask that the two respondents attend next month’s town board workshop meeting in July 15, so they can be interviewed. The board will use email in the interim to fashion their questions for the applicants. Jurkowski also reported that updated water meter software will be installed next week, which will provide better usage history and make billing clearer for water district users.
Brian Coons and Andy Anderson reported that the town’s summer camp is ready to get started. The board approved the hiring of counselors for the summer.
Planning Board Chairman Michael Stabile stated that the committee working on revising the town zoning law is close to crafting a survey about people’s opinion of short term rentals. The survey is expected to be posted on the town website late next week and there will be paper copies available at Town Hall and the library.
Board member Jeanine Sisco encouraged the town to look into applying for an auxiliary dwelling unit grant that State Senator Michelle Hinchey has indicated will be available in the fall. Municipalities must apply if their residents can be eligible for state assistance. Neither Dutchess County nor Pine Plains applied for the first round of this funding.
The library has asked the Town Board for comment on a new sign they have designed and help in installing it once it is ready. While there seemed to be support for this, the discussion turned to what approvals might be needed from the New York State Department of Transportation as the sign will be larger than the current sign and may encroach on the right of way for Route 82.
Sisco noted that a committee to organize a Community Day is in formation, with hopes that a date for such a celebration will be determined soon.
In 2018, the Town of Pine Plains ad hoc website committee hired a local webmaster to create a new website. That was done and both the Secretary to the Supervisor and the Town Supervisor were trained in how to use it and keep it up to date. Since 2022, that work has not been done except for a few columns maintained by the Town Clerk, whose job description does not include this work. It is up to the Supervisor and his secretary to maintain the website with the most current minutes and news. The site was designed to highlight alerts and more immediate concerns at the top, for easy perusal by constituents. It is apparent that the Secretary and Supervisor were never trained in website use. That would be easy, since the webmaster is local. In addition, there are webinars available for free that train people in this kind of software. Town taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for people to be brought in to fix or maintain the website. All that requires is someone to learn some easy skills. Dutchess Community College offers classes in office skills which might be a good investment to make in our staff, so that they learn new skills which will serve them after they leave town jobs.