North East board steers talk to driveway improvements
By WHITNEY JOSEPH
July, 02, 2009
NORTH EAST — Plans to redo the driveway and parking area at Town Hall, which were first introduced back in September 2008, were discussed again at the June 11 Town Board meeting. Currently the driveway and parking lot is a mix of mud and gravel that tends to spill over into the neighboring property and makes a slippery mess when wet.
Supervisor Dave Sherman said sketch plans for the driveway and parking area have been discussed with the board.
“We’re thinking about how to accommodate the neighbor’s needs at the doctor’s office, not to provide parking there, as that’s not our job, but to provide access and ingress and egress to their property,” he said.
Dr. Kristie Schmidt has a medical practice at 37 Century Boulevard, in the building next door to Town Hall. According to Sherman, before that was turned into an occupied structure it was a carriage house.
Sherman and town Councilman Carl Stahovec have been working on the plans for the parking area, along with the town’s engineers from Morris Associates. The engineers will likely realign the parking area and plan for some drainage so the water can flow onto the streets and sidewalks, making it possible for the area to be paved. Curbing will likely also be installed.
“[We’re trying to make it so] people can get in and out of here without trouncing through mud,” Stahovec said. “Doing a parking lot is not rocket science.”
Stahovec said he and Sherman have been “back and forth” with the engineers, all the while on the clock, assessing the situation. He also pointed out that the highway superintendent is in charge of the roads.
“For a little plot area it’s a simple process. Drain it off, slope it to where it needs to go,” he said, exasperated. “After this many years messing around with the plot, [just do it]. It’s a simple plot and I’m getting frustrated — do the damn plot. Put what needs to be there and call it done.”
“I don’t know what your beef is,” Sherman said.
“He suggested doing away with the road and increasing the width and making one big square parking lot,” Stahovec said, adding he thought that idea was worth little enthusiasm.
“I would just black-top it and get it done,” Councilman Dave McGhee said. “We’re not here to do [somebody else’s lot]. And I can’t see making it a dead end.”
Stahovec said Sherman made a good point that black top would not have as much water run off and would also be easy to plow in the winter.
“It’s a simple parking lot,” Stahovec said. “Let’s just black-top the damn thing and be done with it. I can’t see spending more and more time with it.”
“We don’t have to spend more time,” Sherman said. “I don’t know if you’re objecting to my being involved in this?”
“No,” Stahovec said. “Let’s just be done with it.”
Sherman then listed some of his concerns. One had to do with the fact that people would be driving over the septic tank unless it were sectioned off with curbing. Another related to snow removal, and the question of where the excess snow would be placed. There was also a discussion about who will do the work; the town’s highway crew may do some, but its schedule is very busy and will likely prevent it from doing all of the work. A bid package will therefore go out for $20,000; $10,000 for the purchase of materials and $10,000 for the project work. The town is hoping to purchase the materials by making a bid itself, thus saving on that part of the bid package from an outside source.
“If we can use the town’s bid on that, that will help a lot,” said McGhee. “I think we’ll do alright, I do. They can come in and do it, and that’s that. And in a timely manner, too, not in three months. They’ve got three weeks.”
© Copyright 2009 by TCExtra.com
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