1988-07-25 SP 78
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
JULY 25, 1988
7:06 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Supervisor Stephen Borgos
Councilman Marilyn Potenza
Councilman Ronald Montesi
Councilman Betty Monahan
Town Attorney-Paul Dusek
MEMBERS ABSENT
Councilman George Kurosaka
BOARD MEMBERS OF LAKE LUZERNE
Supervisor Victor Grant, Councilman Harold Hayes, Councilman Horace Washburn
Councilman Thomas Diehl
PRESS: G.F. Post Star, WBZA
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE LED BY COUNCILMAN POTENZA
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- We welcome all of you to this Special Meeting of the Queensbury
Town Board meeting in joint session with the Town Board of the
Town of Lake Luzerne. As I told somebody as I came in I really
do not know why we are here, I got a message a week or so ago
that my Secretary said Luzerne Board wants to meet with the
Queensbury Town Board and they said is that possible and I said
of course. I said schedule it please and she said it was
scheduled, beyond that I really do not know for sure why we are
here. I understand that one Board wants to talk to the other
Board and since Luzerne initiated that I will let them start
off at any point they want to. Other than that I am at a total
loss, it has been a busy day and I have not had a chance to sit
down, I did not do any additional research for this. Joe, you
seem like you want to say a few words, would you go to the
microphone and identify yourself please for the record and we
can start from there. i
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JOE KRZYS- My name is Joe Krzys, I represent West Mountain Villages Inc.
and I think the reason for this meeting is probably part ours
and probably a suggestion that came out of Lake Luzerne at one
of their hearings. That was that there are some issues between
the two towns, where perhaps there are differences of opinion.
There are issues that require some kind of joint agreement and
we thought it would be important to get the different view points
about those so we could see what the difference of opinion is
so we can work toward solving those kinds of problems. The purpose
of this meeting is to get into those issues where it appears
in the past through various statements that have been made by
either one Board or the other that we just address those, bring
them up on the table, talk about them tonight to see if there
are some resolutions to settle these.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Does our council have any objection to that?
TOWN ATTORNEY PAUL DUSEK- No
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- At this point if you do would you just jump up and hit us or
something? Mr. Krogmann would you like to say anything to begin _
with on the part of Lake Luzerne?
ATTORNEY KROGMANN- I think that maybe the suggestion might have come from me and
I will take the blame or the credit but I think maybe it is the
blame since it is a nice night. It just seemed to me that it _
has been a few weeks since we had the second hearing in Lake
Luzerne I mentioned to Joe and to Supervisor Grant and the other
members of the Board that it might be appropriate at this time
which I think is just about the expiration time for written
comment.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I think it went by at 5:00 o'clock.
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ATTORNEY KROGMANN- OK. That we meet and share some common concerns perhaps and
some common goals and try to identify if we do have any areas
of concern between the two boards and simply to list them and
then decide how we are going to deal with those subjects. Since
the last public hearing, the one in Lake Luzerne, the Town Board
of Lake Luzerne, met with Mike and Joe and reviewed some major
areas of interest, not necessarily concerns although in some
cases that is the case and we identified six areas. The first
being sewage treatment which I think is probably number one,
perhaps it is the most important, the second is density and I
think the issues involving density have been resolved in this
town and are yet to be resolved in the Town of Lake Luzerne
although the Town Board has given the developer some definite
thoughts as to their Town. Fire protection and specifically
the location of the fire house that the developer has committed
to construct, and just as importantly the staffing of that
facility. General traffic questions not only within the site
but in the approach areas as far east as the Northway Exit and
specifically also number five the access roads into the facility.
Finally and not necessarily the least important is trash, the
question of recycling the question of pickup and where it is
going to be deposited, we do not know what type of orders are
being contemplated at this time and unless we can identify and
approach this issue we are only going to compound the problems
that both Boards have to resolve in the vary near future with
DEC. Perhaps there are other issues but those are the ones that
I show on my notes of July 12th.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- OK. This is not going to be a fifteen minute meeting. There
are some very interesting topics there, again I will need some
legal opinions here I do not think that the two groups can come
to any official decisions tonight but certainly we can get one
anothers thoughts and make some suggestions for positions.
Possibly we can clarify some of the issues. I will start with
number one first and who would like to speak from your Town or
from the developers side to say what you think should be and
we will indicate individually what we should think should be
because we haven't met about these and do not know about what
you are going to talk about.
JOE KRZYS- I in terms of the sewer that we came up with three alternatives,
one was to do a tertiary treatment system on our property with
some of the deposits going into a steam that is not our preferred
choice by any means. There are two other choices one is to build
a sewer treatment plant, a secondary treatment plant with effluent
going into the Hudson River and the other choice would be to
run a line from all the way to the Glens Falls Treatment Plant.
Kestner, under a contract with the Town that we will reimburse
the Town for an analysis on what it would cost for us to run
a line from our site to the Glens Falls Plant it is 5.6 million
dollars. Whereas the cost of doing a plant on the property that
all we need DEC requirements it would be a plant that would be
safe gatherer of sewage and deposit sewerage in accordance with
all regulations would cost us about a million four the real
difference is really a difference in price. In addition to which
we would be putting in sewer lines that would not only be for
our use but would basically cross the whole Town so that is one
issue, it is primarily one of cost not of favoring one system
over the other system so we are interested in your thoughts.
LAKE LUZERNE
COUNCILMAN DIEHL- What was the cost of running the pipes to Glens Falls?
JOE KRZYS- Five million six this was done by the consultant for the Town
of Queensbury...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Could you tell me Joe was that with a new line all the way or
just to the outskirts of the City and tied in with the current
City Sewer System?
UNKNOWN- ...I understand it was to the edge of the site of the ski area
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to nearest connection..
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- On Broad Street?
RONALD MONTESI- ...Den Wilhelm in that area.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- If we had a drawing it would help. I have not seen this yet.
It appears to be at Den Wilhelms. How does Lake Luzerne feel
about the proposals?
LAKE LUZERNE
SUPERVISOR GRANT- First of all we are not satisfied with the first recommendation
(tape not audible) ..2nd. and 3rd. proposals fine...want it
done right...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Mr. Montesi has been deeply involved in this thinking and maybe
he will give his position which is probably the position of most
of us. _.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- My only concern and Mike and Joe we have talked about it before,
I have never had a number in front of me, the treatment of the
tertiary is not your preferred, obviously the secondary treatment
plant would be your preferred our concern and I know I have
addressed the issue with Mike and Mike has talked to me about
the quantity of flow or water that goes down the Hudson River
it is not even something you can equate to, you measure it in
cubic feet per second or some big number, if it was a million
gallons an hour you could relate to that. My concern was when
you have a secondary treatment plant generally speaking what
we have in Glens Falls is a tertiary treatment plant, the Glens
Falls Treatment Plant, the water that goes into the Hudson River
I guess meets all the DEC specs. and what I would say is pure,
or not pure but is treated. When you have a package plant and
a secondary treatment plant this plant is going to be when it
opens the day it opens it will be at its most efficient probably,
as your development continues to grow and grow and grow more
pressure will be put on that little plant to handle more, and
more of the needs up on the mountain. I just have the feeling
that ideally the best solution is not the cheapest the best
solution is to bring that septage or effluent to the Glens Falls
Treatment Plant and have that handled by the plant. My biggest
concern is that we are in the throws of another five million
gallon expansion to our filtration expansion to our water treatment
plant and right now we are drawing, six million gallons a day
out of the river and treating it pumping it through our lines
we are just barely keeping ahead of it. ...coming before this
Town Board will be a five million gallon expansion so we are
talking a big commitment that is six or seven million dollar
commitment that we are making, boy I would be hard pressed to
think about a secondary treatment water coming out a mile or
two miles up from my water treatment plant with my intake of
water. I guess that is the biggest single concern that I have,
irregardless of the flow suppose the plant breaks some day how
do you stop the water from coming down the mountain? That is
just my concerns, I guess, if they echo the sentiments from this
Board, that is all I have.
MIKE BRANDT- Ron, to go on the record, I am Mike Brandt with the development.
I think we need to clarify what each type of sewage treatment
is. That has been a long time since I have studied sewage °
treatment so I can be in error but let me try. I think when
you speak of secondary treatment plant what we are saying that
the effluent that comes out of a secondary treatment plant has
no pathogenic organisms in it in otherwords it is free of any
bacteria that can hurt anybody. However it still has the nutrients
in the effluent that came with the sewage. A tertiary treatment
plant is one where you take out the nutrients as well and I believe
that all sewage treatment that flows that goes through a treatment
plant as I understand the law, along the Hudson River that only
secondary treatment is needed. The base flow of the river is
such that in nutrient input into the river can't be found. In
otherwords it is so diluted that you never find it. I do not
think the nutrient input to the river would effect the Town of
C3�_
Queensbury in any way, what would effect the Town of Queensbury
would be a malfunction where bacterial pollution went into the
river and that would be very bad. As you know you have the problem
right now with Warrensburg and they are still dumping raw sewage
into the Schroon River which eventually can be found in real
low flow rates in the Hudson River ... I know they are identified
quite a ways down stream, but that, lets hope will be cleaned
up. I think that what is key here to us is that what ever we
build it has to be first class it is going to have to be to meet
the law and it is going to have to be beyond the specs of the
law and it has got to work for extended periods, if there is
a power failure or whatever happens can go wrong in a sewage
treatment plant it has got to have enough capacity to have some
safety margins for that. From our view point we do not have
the finances to put a pipe line full length of what is shown
and I think that what was studied was not the total cost either
because I believe they are saying ok, the sewage starts at the
beginning of the project from this side which is near the ski
area but you would have to put several pumping stations because
the flow of the development is all in the other direction so
you have to pump back this way and I believe that would add to
the cost that is shown already, significantly. I am not an
engineer and I do not know what that amount would be from our
view point we have no problem with having our sewage treated
at the Glens Falls Plant, that would be ideal but it is a cost
problem and we do not know how to resolve that. That is the
real problem the development certainly cannot finance that.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- One of the things Mike that just while we are here talking about
it, and I am not going to go on the wall about this, those are
the raw figures that Quentin developed and it is based primarily
on the fact the point A to point B is so many feet or so many
miles and this is what it costs to run sewers, obviously he is
putting them in the ground now. I guess one of the interesting
figures might be that if your development made the decision
whatever goes up on the mountain the pipes that go in the ground
have to be done anyway. That is a cost that whether you are
going here or there those are costs that you incur. If you came
down Corinth Road to the City how much of that cost burden would
be taken by the Sewer District?
MIKE BRANDT- Let me say this Ron, by our view point what ever the cost we
are going to incur in a sewer treatment plant could be applied
toward the cost of going on that line toward Glens Falls that
is absolutely, we would be very willing to do that if there are
innovative ways to raise...
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- There are a lot of neighbors between you and the City line that
might be incorporated into a sewer district that would constitute
a lessor cost.
MIKE BRANDT- There are innovative methods for raising money for these things
that I am not familiar with, maybe Joe knows something about...
JOE KRZYS- There are several ways of doing it in some cases it requires
a referendum...
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- There are a whole bunch of ways including the tax incentive
financing and a few others that might be legally possible, it
might be double I do not know if they are politically the way
to go, I do not know if they are the reasonable way. Ron started
to indicate that potentially if you come down Corinth Road there
is need for some sewer service in that area, there will be an
i industrial park very soon a small one that probably could use
one there is a motel there now that probably could use some at
exit 18 and as stretch out toward the mountain there are probably
other areas that could use some sewer service. There is a
potential there to help in this process however ultimately the
entity that is responsible for getting the pipe in the ground
the one that is making it necessary would be the West Mountain
project so that is probably where the bulk of the financial
responsibility should be.
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MIKE BRANDT- I think that we are capable of building a first quality sewerage
treatment facility that would never show a negative impact now
stream from that facility. My intuition is that, that is the
right way to go because of its costs.
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- That is the up front capital side, there are also a lot of staffing
requirements that are extremely difficult to meet and extremely
expensive and you certainly might want to look at that, the cost
of having twenty-four hour around the clock service seven days
a week by licensed technicians is not a small cost. You would
find very quickly I think that you will eat up many savings.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- One of the things too Mike is that while that part of Luzerne
would certainly, if I was looking at it from a point of view
of Lake Luzerne and their government, a treatment plant or facility
that would provide them with sewer treatment would certainly
open up that part of Luzerne to a whole multitude of things other
than West Mountain, other than West Mountains development. I
am not sure if I was the Village of Lake George that I would
want to take on a secondary treatment plant and have the onus
of making damn sure that there would never be any bacteria count
going into the Hudson River where Queensbury would be on their
back, I mean that is a tough, you are going to say that thing
is going to run all the time and never break and this is a serious
commitment, if I was Luzerne, I think too I would be looking
at if you had to bite the bullet or somebody had to bite the
bullet and go to Glens Falls we have capacity there that can
be added to we have a sure fire way of getting that line in.
Part of the cost might be how big is that line going to be we
are talking a half a million gallons.
MIKE BRANDT- We are not against that at all, it is a matter of how do we finance
this so that we are still feasible, this is our only concern.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Quentin Kestner is presently, tomorrow night this Town Board
will be looking at a couple of extensions of our present sewer
district and that requires in order for us to act on a resolution
to start another sewer district what it requires for us is to
have a total study, cost per individual home owner. It would ---
appear that if we have a total figure now, of what it would cost
to put pipes into the ground for you from the bottom of your
development it might be interesting and it is a little costly
for a study to find out how much assessed value along that
particular route. How wide would that particular sewer district
be. When I say wide would it just encompass the homes owners
on Corinth Road and what is the impact if that became a sewer
district. If all of the area going all the way down was on a
sewer maybe the impact on Mike Brandt might only be a million
and a half or two million dollars to do that whole project, to
do it in that way.
MIKE BRANDT- We are certainly are willing to study that with you...
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- That is something that we should be doing rather expediently
because it is part our your orderly decision as to whether you
will have...
MIKE BRANDT- The other point is that when we reach our approvals we would
like to move ahead and not be held up by the resolution of that
problem, we would like to move it along rapidly.
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- I am sure that would be one of the conditions of any approval.
In otherwords that would be resolved before you get any approvals
I am sure, that is obviously a big issue and all the comments
that we get particularly from the residents on the mountain and
this way from the mountain would be impacted by the flow of
anything put in the ground and have indicated that sewage must
be taken care of and there probably nine and a half to one leaning
toward the direct connection with the City Plant at this point.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- Mike where abouts on the property on the mountain would this
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be?
MIKE BRANDT- The sewage treatment plant that we had envisioned would be at
the furthest point of the property, because all of the land slopes
in the direction at the very westerly edge of our property.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- Alright, so it would be almost as you are going over the Luzerne
Mountain Road would it be at the base of that road near that
part of the Hudson River?
MIKE BRANDT- It would be along the Corinth Road by the big dip in effect
somewhere in there, so you are talking about roughly three and
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a half four miles from the West Mountain Ski area.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- How far from the Water Treatment Plant?
MIKE BRANDT- Route by River I do not remember, it is quite a ways, I would
guess in miles or something like that.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- It is not feasible to put any entrance into the river south of
the treatment plant, everything would go north of the treatment
plant...
MIKE BRANDT- It would be above Spier Dam it would be well above Spier Dam.
LAKE LUZERNE
HAROLD HAYES- It would be 3-4 miles and a half mile from Corinth treatment
plant.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- A half mile this way or the other side?
LAKE LUZERNE
HAROLD HAYES- A half mile closer to you. You already have the jeopardy of
a plant shut down...the plant has to be designed so that material
could be recycled...if there is a motor backup...what it comes
down to is a plant failure is a serious concern, the plant is
less expensive .. then pipe line...operating personnel the cost
_ of all of that as well as investment cost...to over look that
for just the sake of installation we haven't done our homework.
MIKE BRANDT- Here we really need the expertise of some good design engineers
that have expertise in this field and I think that what we are
going to have to address and come up with some good answer to.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I think Marilyn has come up with a very good idea, the cost
alternatives are such that there is no way, first of all let
me say this that we are probably looking at a study of the
magnitude that I am talking about, I am not talking a big study
I am talking about a routing, addressing every single issue along
there in terms of assessed value,I can show you what the study
looks like, you are probably talking in that section Mike somewhere
between seven and ten thousand dollars to do that, and that gives
you a map of record to go before the Town Board for a resolution
to form a sewer district have a public hearing and wait your
thirty days in case there is a permissive referendum on it and
then form the sewer district. The other alternative and so I
throw a figure of seven to ten without talking to Kestner, I
will get that figure for you tomorrow. The other alternative
that certainly would make me and my residence feel better is
what kind of an easement can you get from the Queensbury Treatment
Plant and put that effluent, secondary effluent below our intake,
that might be an interesting concept. Obviously it will add
to the cost of the one point four but it would certainly make
a lot of people more happy. The same water that we are concerned
about goes back up onto the hill you know.
MIKE BRANDT- I drink it every day, it is good water.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- When I see bottled water up on the hill I get a little concerned
Mike.
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SUPERVISOR BRANDT- Mrs. Monahan, do you have any comments?
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- I think Ron made some very good points, I also think the cost
of 0&M are very important and I am going to be a political realist
and I think you are going to have a hard time selling the citizens
of the Town of Queensbury that the money they got invested in
the water system no matter what you tell them... they are not
going to like the idea of raw sewage being dumped above their
water treatment plant. Corinth might already have their's there
but we did not have any power over that, this one we do have
some power and the people out there I see are not going to be
very happy if we say dump it in, I am being a political realist.
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- We could go on with this topic for a long time, why don't we
breeze through each of them a little bit and then come back and
discuss it in more detail. I think we here where we are coming
from I think you hear us I did not hear anybody say they like
the tertiary plant up on top and dump it in the steam so I think
that's without taking a vote of any kind I think that is kind
of not a possibility. The other two are interesting enough to
look at, I think is I properly summed that up, what was the next
item on your list? Density...As you indicated in your opening
remarks, the Town of Queensbury seems at this moment to be pleased
and satisfied with the density in the Town of Queensbury, you
can take it from there.
MR. KROGMANN ...Lake Luzerne is prepared to take the necessary steps, allow
for the increased density that are called for not only by the
initial proposal project but by the new or modified proposed
project...
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- Your Board might not have a problem but the people of Luzerne
certainly do...people have talked to me personally certainly
have a problem.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- I think their Board is listening to their people...(tape inaudible)
MR. KROGMANN- Steve asked we what the position of the Board was and I answered
him, they represent those residents, you do not.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- That was one of the biggest item we heard I think, that was the
biggest objection.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- People who talked to me said that...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- If the density remains the same over there we at some point will
have to address the concept of cumulative impact, if that stays
the same and I am sure Dennis would agree and it may well be
in here I have not looked at least we know where you stand on
that, which is different than what we thought you would be saying
based on the public hearing. What was your next item?
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I suppose that was a very personnel decision that the Town could
make if you amend or change your density rules to conform to
that I do not have a problem with that I think the only thing
I have to address for the both of us is just what Steve said
what is the cumulative impact and I suppose it is not going to
be much different than we dealt with, if we take the three hundred
homes or the density in Queensbury and put it up on the mountain
the net difference is still there it still has to be addressed.
We felt strongly about why we were given some strong indications
from our citizenry and we responded to that, I can not say there
was anything wrong with the project we just responded from what
we were getting from our people, I do not have any problem with
that.
JOE KRZYS- Let me make a comment on why we did that, in our studies both
traffic which you need more additional data from us on from the
conversations we had from EDP, we will provide that for you.
The amount of additional impact by adding three hundred houses
the difference was insignificant when you started to look at
all the traffic and everything else. The sense that we got is
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the reason why the density was requested to be the same in
Queensbury was from the Planning Board meeting we had was that
all that they felt that you could build on based on some historical
perspective as to how the zoning got set in the first place.
So the question was not whether the impact was negative from
the other environmental aspects it was because of the reason
was why the zoning got set in the first place. That they felt
that was the total amount of units that could be put on that
site, that is why we, since we were adversely impacting the total
environment by keeping the three hundred units we were only doing
it in Queensbury that the rest of our study showed that we
qualified for those units...
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I think in one of the meetings and I am not sure when it was
that I had with Mike we talked about if West Mountain Development
conformed to the density of what we are talking about one to
one would there be some consideration on the Town Board's part
allowing some additional commercial space on top of the mountain,
the concept that Mike proposed if fairly interesting and not,
I did not think that it in any way changed the changed the density.
What we are talking about is the whole first floor of the hotel
was if you will an international mini hotel retail area. The
hotel is there, there are one hundred an fifty units in the hotel
and I suppose if you wanted to take the lobby and all of the
first floor or the basement floor and have it as a retail space
I did not think there would be much opposition from me because
the fiscal building was there. There was just some terminology
we had to address in allowing that because for instance how many
parking spaces do you need for a restaurants and how many parking
spaces or square footage do you need for this or that is that
really fixed or is there some leeway we could look at. Whether
it was office space or retail space or hotel space the fiscal
building is there and how we can fix it up to help the cost
effectiveness of the project I think that this Town Board at
least gave the indication that was pretty much black and white
and come on lets talk about it and see if we can help with making
it more cost effective.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- OK, that is a quick run through the second item, what if the
third one?
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- Fire protection.
MR. KROGMANN As a general comment, statements have been made in a general
way by Joe, Mike...want to speak to that ... a step in the right
direction, work is underway and will be incorporated in the final
draft of the environmental impact statement. Such as staffing
of the fire facility, permanent employees have the mandatory
requirement of employment as to the location of the fire house
we understand that the Town Board of Queensbury would like that
facility in the Town of Queensbury as I understand the Town Board
of Lake Luzerne they do not necessarily oppose that they obviously
want mutual protection type of arrangement, so the location is
not a major issue.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Maybe I can address, you want to address it first, ...we have
talked about this almost from the very first day of this project.
I have a bit of background in the area of fire and fire protection,
community risk analysis courses in the National Fire Academy
that kind of thing a few years of teaching fire defense planning.
Because of the location of this particular project and because
of its access ability or lack of access ability because of its
remoteness of this particular project and because its accessibility
of lack of accessibility, because of its remoteness from Lake
Luzerne fire station and the fact that it is close in air miles
from West Glens Falls but it is not close in road miles, nor
in road grade I have indicated that at least as far as I am
concerned there is no alternative but to put a fire station up
on top. There is absolutely no alternative. We cannot possibly
get fire apparatus up there even under good weather conditions
fast enough that it is within the first four minutes to really
prevent the spread of a fire. Within four minutes fire starts
to double every several seconds, from there on it explodes.
When I saw
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the original plans that called for a hundred and fifty unit hotel
and that hotel is going to be built as a first phases of the
development I understand and then the houses in Queensbury in
the first stage, I knew by all the current laws that we had that,
that would fall within the West Glens Falls protection area.
Once you get above two stories in modern fire fighting you really
need a aerial ladder or aerial tower apparatus, Queensbury Central
has one, it is the only one in the Town of Queensbury. The one
we have could not possibly get up there fast enough, so you are
looking at once you get above two stories you are looking at
an aerial tower. The current cost of that is somewhere over
four hundred thousand dollars for the tower. To go with the
tower you have to have a first class pumper and a good pumper
today depending on whether it is fifteen hundred, two thousand
gallons a minute is going to cost in the neighborhood of two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, so you are looking at about
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars of dedicated fire apparatus
it is good stuff it is not the finest but it is very good stuff.
You are looking at a cost for a fire station of probably three
or four hundred thousand dollars and you are looking at a cost
for an ambulance for emergency medical services of eighty five
to a hundred and ten thousand dollars for an ambulance plus a
facility for that so somewhere in excess of a million dollars.
What is being developed at the top at certainly a build out even
initially is really a mini village. Twenty eight hundred houses
is bigger than South Glens Falls it is bigger than Hudson Falls
it is approaching the size of Glens Falls. You are getting up
into really big numbers so a fire station is part of a normal
community it is necessary maybe two will be needed at some point
depending upon the road configuration and maybe you will need
one in Queensbury maybe a little one which is the pumper over
at the far end. Staffing is a big problem, it would be my
intention obviously to require that West Mountain Villages commit
to what would typically be known as an industrial fire burgade.
The employees would have to be trained so many would have to
be on duty minimum at any time twenty four hours a day so they
could do the initial response either as members of West Glens
Falls Fire Dept. or in lieu of West Glens Falls until such time
as the West Glens Falls Officer were to get there to conduct
the fire scene. That is not hard to do IBM does this Kodak does
lots of major corporations do, the plans are out there it is
easy to get a hold of details of what kind of levels of training
is available. I see as no alternative but to have the first
station in the Town of Queensbury because that is where the demand
is going to be. I do not know how many years before Luzerne
starts to develop but that is where the demand is. It would
have to be under the control of the West Glens Falls Fire Dept.
Unlike some other areas in town Hiland Park, unlike Earltown
that can obtain services because of the geographical conditions
from other fire stations the sole purpose of putting a fire station
on top of West Mountain would be for your project, very
specifically, without your project you do not need it with your
project you do need it. Without Earltown we still need South
Queensbury without Hiland Park we still need Bay Ridge, Queensbury
Central serves a very small part of Hiland Park. I do not think
as a listen here that there is going to be any conflict from
what I hear, I think we are thinking along the same lines,
obviously it is another burden on the developer but the developer
is creating the circumstance this is directly related to the
development, the same way Hiland Park had to put in its sewers,
the same way Hiland Park had to put in and pay for all the water
lines, they are creating the burden directly as a concept of
a benefit tax rather than a sacrifice tax. Those people, those
developments that benefit from the particular item should pay
for it in this case the primary beneficiary of that fire station
will be the West Mountain resort. I can't even in a mutual aid
circumstance see many if any cases where that apparatus would
ever leave that mountain location and come down into the valley
because that would leave the mountain unprotected even for a
few minutes, I think you will see that apparatus up there and
stay up there. It should last a long, long time because it will
not have to travel too far. It absolutely has to be up there.
That is my
8'7
personal feeling in a nut shell.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- ...You made some good points here, I never had a realization
how expensive it would be, I am thinking beyond the first year
if West Mountain does do this million dollar commitment at the
end of the first year if the hotel was the only building built
down here to they then assume the fire tax based on the budget
of that station?
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- No their property like the rest of the town all the property
owners in the entire town share in the total expenditures for
all of the departments, we don't currently we have not historically
taxed depending on where you live. If you are in Queensbury
Central you pay into a pot that gets shared according to a formula
that is going to be a little bit more formalized this year.
You share in the cost of the entire town, one company helps the
other in their own town wide mutual aid system and then of course
we are county wide. In that case undoubtly the first call of
fire there would be an automatic mutual aid response if it is
anything other than a very small fire, Lake Luzerne would be
requested to come other West Glens Falls stations would begin
to respond and Corinth could even come over.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I have one last question Mike, maybe this is just mute question,
will there be a sprinkler system in all of the commercial buildings
and or residential buildings up there, it is just something...
MIKE BRANDT- I would assume so, yes.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- The hotel would be required by law.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Any public ... probably.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Depending upon the square footage, the type of construction,
but the hotel would be required by law. You would find that
You would more than pay for the system in four years of insurance
savings.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- Steve, I think that the mechanics for paying for this has to
--- be looked at very closely, I have been thinking of what you said.
If this is going to be a branch of West Glens Falls and we collect
a fire tax that pays for our different companies and yet we have
a station out there that will only serve one area of Queensbury..
it cannot be used to used in mutual aid as you said.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- It could be, I do not think that it would very often, it would
not be wise, but it could.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- The station up there its primary purpose is to serve a mini village
with mutual towns, I think we have to give very serious thought
as to how this is going to be financed in the future, I think
this is too fast and too quick an answer what do we do once we
get past the initial financing that West Mountain is going to
do. I can see some problems, I think that this may have to take
some innovative financing for the years coming up and I can see
a lot of things, if the people of Queensbury feel that they are
going to get this burden dumped on them they are not going to
like it.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I think you misunderstood the crust of what I had to say. The
developer would be expected to pay out right the full cost of
all the equipment, the continued maintenance, I thought the thrust
of their question would be would that be the end of it, no.
Their property owners would still have to continue paying the
-- taxes, what you are saying is introducing another concept and
that is interesting maybe another intermunicipal agreement that
would form some kind of special financing just for that area
if Luzerne was interested to share in that financing or Luzerne
... can build their own station.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- That was the point that I was making too.
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COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- Until we really know what the assessed valuation of the home
owner up there we do not know whether that area can carry in
the operation and maintenance question I am talking about now,
whether of not they could carry it or whether it has to be kicked
into some other area, so if this is true I think you are going
to find again the people objecting to the fact that they are
helping a developer to finance his project if not now, in the
future.
MIKE BRANDT- What about the people up on the mountain today, wouldn't it be
a shame if we had our own district and we couldn't go there
and help put out a fire in theirs and West Glens Falls couldn't
get up the mountain to help, I think that is absorb, I think
if you really get down to it you look at your own law you have
one fire district in the Town of Queensbury. There is a town _
wide district if you want to fragment that over this development
I think you better look at that awful hard, you might have a
bigger can of worms than you care to sort out.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- ...What I am saying is that you have to carefully look at the
impact before we start making the decision along those lines,
we have to know what we are talking about in dollars and cents.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I was thinking in just the opposite way, this is an unusual thing,
I do not think we ever had someone buy a piece of equipment and
give it to the town...
MIKE BRANDT- In a fire district.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Yes, in a fire district, what I am saying is if I could walk
up onto West Mountain and have two vehicles a pump station and
a station there ready to go and have training facilities here
what I am saying is after the first year I am not sure that,
that group has to pay the same fee that everybody else is, we
have a free engine at that point. Obviously there is some money
that would have to be paid because there is an operating budget
that has to be maintained and there is also a budget that you
have to look to as most of the fire houses do for the future.
MIKE BRANDT- I think, having done some budgets I know you have one tax district
for the entire town for fire and what you do, you look at your
contractual cost of all your fire departments add them together
and that becomes your town fire tax and I think you will find
that the assessment of the property of West Mountain will carry
its weight with any other part certainly some of the other sections
of Queensbury that exist, I do not think that we will cost an
undue burden on anyone. I think that it is also, we should not
be isolated and say that it is purely a district for our own
benefit if my neighbor on Cormus Road had a fire I certainly
think we ought to be there trying to fight it if we can get there.
I think we should look at the common sense safety of the whole
thing and I think all of these things will settle into place
in good shape. We certainly are for a fire station we believe
in it as much as you do we have said that from early up and we
are prepared to provide that.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- •The savings to your proposed residence, the saving in insurance
costs alone probably within one year would pay for the cost...
MIKE BRANDT- I think also we are looking at the feasibility of intergrating
the snow making system at West Mountain at the ski area with
that as a supplier of water for fire fighting and I think we
can solve these problems and do a real first class job by
intergrating different systems with it. I think everybody has
something to benefit including people that may not be on our
development.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Obviously a hot topic, I hate to say that, the EMS, the Emergency
Medical Service the same way you have to have some trained EMT's
on staff they are not hard to find anymore people want to do
that again there would be an ambulance there, West Glens Falls
District, important for you, your people will want to know what
is the fire and ambulance protection like, how fast, and you
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are going to have it. Very, very critical items, I do not think
that the thinking is too far off on this one then either. What
do we have for the next item?
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- Traffic.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Traffic, let somebody else touch this one. I have a lot of traffic
letters on my desk.
MIKE BRANDT- Lets hope that by saying that basically when we proposed this
proposal, this development we said we wanted to access from the
old Luzerne Mountain Road, there has been a lot of discussion
between the Town of Queensbury and ourselves and we concluded
that, that is not a practical answer and that instead that could
be an emergency entrance point but not a general traffic point
and we feel that, that make sense. We had discussions with the
Town of Luzerne and I think they agreed to that also, is that
correct, am I correctly saying that? That the entrance from
the old Luzerne Mountain Road would be an emergency access only.
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- (tape inaudible) noted that at the hearing was the first time
they were aware that Luzerne Mountain Road would only be used
for emergency access.—questioned why are you opposed to that
being another exit or entrance to the property?
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- OK, briefly, just turn me off, if you want to turn me off at
some point, I lived up there for ten years I know every inch
of that. Historically the big argument from day one has been
that the Luzerne Mountain Road from this side on the Queensbury
side is not the worlds finest road. It may be smooth but it
is tricky, you have to be careful. When you get into Luzerne
you breath a sigh of relief, the roads are wide, the slopes are
gradual note bad, the capacity of that road is tough. Right
now, even last winter, I went up there on a cold dry day with
snow banks but no ice on the road and a car just in front of
me went off the road into the snow bank coming down what is known
as Black Snake curve. It is a tough road to drive if you start
to look at I think that the current traffic is about three hundred
cars a day or four hundred a day something around there, if you
start to go up to what they are talking about initially of six
or eight thousand cars a day there is no way on earth that could
accommodate that. The cost of redoing that road the permitting
process with the Adirondack Park Agency the cost of land
acquisition it would be in the multi million dollar range many
millions of dollars.
MIKE BRANDT- Let me jump in with something else we have been doing a study
and its falling into place we do not have all the answers yet,
but one of the things that we are very concerned about is parking
on the summit of the mountain. The environment at the summit
of the mountain can be damaged severely we feel aesthetic wise
by making a lot of parking up there. Since there is going to
be a commercial center with a fair amount of usage associated
with the hotel, and village center, we have been studying
alternative methods of moving people up and down that mountain.
One of the alternatives that we have been studying is called
a funicular its is basically a rail system that is somewhat like
a ski lift, they are systems that were first built in the Alps
in the late 1800's and they have been very, very successful.
In effect they are a ski lift drive where you have one car at
the foot of the mountain where you have one car at the station
at the top of the mountain and when the drive starts the two
cars switch points. They are very fast they are very high capacity
they are also very expensive. We have been looking at this as
a people mover and more and more indications are that it is
feasible, that it might work. It is very unique, it would be
the only one anywhere around this part of the east coast but
the advantage is that they are high capacity they are low
maintenance they have a long life. They are relatively inexpensive
to operate but they are very expensive to build initially. From
our view point it may not make much sense to have an entrance
at the top of the mountain
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that is a duplication of effort and I throw that in because there
are more and more indication thats the direction that we may
want to go anyhow.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Just to pick up on you, I want to be sure he answered the question,
mostly the safety cost effectiveness, permitting process problem
a whole bunch of problems.
JOE KRZYS- I think in terms of this funicular we just got the feasibility
study back today on it, there are some people that do this and
primarily what it would do, we already have all the parking lots
at the bottom of the mountain for skiing they are already adequate
enough to handle what are probably day tripers or one day users
at the top of the mountain, what it would do is cut down on all
the traffic going all the way down Corinth Road to the back,
our plan then would be to make the back entrance to the property
only open to homeowners and probably Lake Luzerne residence sense
they are already back there if they want to go to use the Hotel
or whatever. So the whole idea would be that anybody that would
be coming from the south or the north that would be going to
West Mountain instead of going all the way around we have them
go into the ski area take the funicular to the top and we basically
solve part of our traffic problem, also in terms of the number
of people that would be going the whole length of the road.
The other part is in terms of traffic, I think that our traffic
study showed, you again asked for more information about the
data and the details that backed that up, but our traffic studies
showed that at certain points in time that we are going to have
certain impacts on the road. In some cases we have to go to
an additional turning lane and traffic controls and if there
is a point in time in which it would require for us to continue
to build we would have to go to four lanes on Corinth Road and
I think we will provide the data for that as to what periods
of time that occurs. What our traffic studies show is not
inconsistent with the studied that the town had done what said
basically the Corinth Road ultimately would go to a four lane
road that, that is a necessary thing. Our study shows that when
you take us at full build out that a four lane road in fact
satisfies all the traffic needs, the traffic would not be slowed
down or it would not be over traffic but in fact it would all ---
work. I think that some of the things that we are doing is that
we are looking at a funicular that would be an offset against
some of the long road costs and divert a lot of people and just
put them into the parking areas that are already being used,
and move them to the top of the funicular which also doubles
as a ski lift in the winter.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- But, Joe you would still use the proposed road, Luzerne Mountain
Road and that proposed road going into small retail area, you
consider that an access road then right?
JOE KRZYS- No, I think that the road that we had coming out to go to Luzerne
Mountain Road which was our original main entrance before, I
think that we are just looking at that with everybody being
agreeable to that, we are looking at that as just an emergency
road so we can get fire vehicles emergency vehicles up there.
But not necessarily having that a major egress out of the property.
Lets be practical about it, if you drive that road it is a bad
road.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- Anybody that drives that can see that my concern is that you
are not, this people mover is conceptual is a wonderful idea
but it still does not solve the problem of the access road going
in and out for deliveries and for you know, fire safety and police
and whatever else, the road is necessary mainly for that purpose
not for the tourist and not for the residences necessarily.
JOE KRZYS- We are not looking for that to be tourist or homeowner traffic
also this funicular moves a tremendous amount of goods and things,
it has a little cab behind it you can put on early in the morning
and move things up to the top you cannot hear the thing it has
91
all rubber wheels and that kind of thing it is also a goods mover
as well as a people mover. We can collect food and things going
to the hotel ... (tape changed) for purposes of emergency vehicles
it is one way in.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- An emergency vehicle can go either way on a one way road..
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Let me get something phased right, there is still part of this
proposal is from what we call Call St. or Corinth Road there
is still a major I am going to call it a Boulevard a major access
road into the development from the Corinth Mt. Road.
JOE KRZYS- Absolutely, we have not changed that at all.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- The question of whether Luzerne Mountain Road will be used in
any way shape or form is pretty much being resolved now, the
funicular is, if I was to go to dinner up the mountain, probably
the most desirable thing I could do would be to drive to the
West Mountain and ride the funicular to the top. That is the
concept, on a build out basis and I am looking at trying to help
people understand basically they really don't all the see is
twenty seven hundred houses sometimes if the first thing that
gets built is a hotel complex with an adjoining retail and major
access road in from Hall Road and a funicular that is Phase I
and in essence whatever ensuing water and sewer lines that have
to go with it, that is pretty much designates Phase I.
JOE KRZYS- With some housing a golf course, the recreational things.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- Joe when we talk about Corinth Road being a four lane road I
would be interested in the people impact, what property will
be have to take, who's front yard, which house is going to be
move...I hope that will be in the impact statement.
JOE KRZYS- We will consider that sure. Sooner or later, our intention has
never been to disrupt people's lives our whole purpose in this
thing when we started to conceive this is to improve the quality
of a lot of lives in Queensbury by providing a whole bunch of
recreational facilities that do not exist here right now, or
do not exist in enough abundance to satisfy the needs. I think
that was our intent, as well as to build the housing and everything
else. You just cannot look at things in isolated ways if you
go strictly to make money and you do not care about the other
stuff you are not going to make the money. There is just no
two ways about it.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- We are going to have a lot of development in this town, most
of my fellow board members live in subdivisions they don't feel
a lot of those impacts, I happen to live on a small road...we
want to know what the impacts are before it is too late to change
some of the methodology...
JOE KRZYS- Are there any more comments about the traffic situation?
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- One more comment about Luzerne Road ..looking back through the
hearing data before you allowed the people to speak the second
time around I had listed twenty one speakers six of those people
were concerned with traffic and those problems and two with density
so we really have not been bombarded this is a big project,...
in the next twenty years if this goes through, I have talked
with a lot of people I haven't found hardly anyone that was
concerned with density...
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN I think they are concerned with the density because of the traffic,
they are putting the two of those together.
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- I would not like anybody to get the impression that the Board
is turning a deaf ear toward anyones complaints on density...over
the next twenty years of this project which has been indicated
as the longevity of it, we can see and I expect people to recognize
92
the adjoining property values at the top of the mountain there
is already action because of this development.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I am sorry that I sold mine.
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- ...(tape not audible) noted that smaller developers could come
in and find that the traffic pattern effected without any control
over it also occurs to me that if that road was developed and
made better...that would relieve the situation on the Corinth
Road greatly relieve the situation at exit 18 and shift it to
19 or another exit which I am sure one day will be built on Luzerne
Road...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- That is exactly, we have our problem now on Exit 19, we have _
a problem at Exit 18 anything that would put more traffic in
that direction would be bad, our housing, our residential
developments in the so called west end of town so that anything
that would burden West Mountain Road, Luzerne Road, Sherman Avenue
any of those major roads, although we just recently widened and
upgraded them would be a very big negative in our minds.
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- Is there any plan at any time to put in an exit on Sherman Avenue?
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I think somewhere between Exit 18 and 19 you will see another
exit, maybe two but the State says we do not have any money,
we think there should be just to relieve some of the traffic,
not a commercial exit a residential use exit only no commercial
zoning in that area, but I think you will see it.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- George Kurosaka one of our Board Members who is not well tonight,
was the engineer of record when the Northway was coming through
and he noted that Sherman Avenue that the State owned three hundred
and fifty feet on each side, it looked like they had purchased
that in anticipation of someday having exit 182 or 192 what ever
direction you go, the only thing I can tell you about that is
that when I moved up here in 1968 it was a long time before that
sign came down that said exit seven to be built. How fast could
we get that to happen and is that a necessary growth that we
would want to see, I think we have already started looking at
that and trying to think about where the next exit would be.
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- ...what we need to know I am sure you consider in your planning
all these things the interim exit between 18 and 19 where it
connects logically with Luzerne Road
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Probably not.
LAKE LUZERNE
HORACE WASHBURN- do the dollars make sense then, ...Corinth Road through those
dollars not spent there could they be better spent here, I am
sure you have considered all that. What we need to know, what
the Lake Luzerne Board needs to know is where you stand firm
so that we can intelligently do the planning that we need to
do.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- We stand firm they are not going up Luzerne Mountain Road.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I stand personally very firm Luzerne Mountain Road to be an
emergency use road only not to be changed not to be upgraded
any more than normal up grading, just the economics plus the
traffic problems.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- ...the vertical lift of that road and put on top of that we will
get a lot of people in here who are not use to mountain driving
and I hate to think what would happen.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I was used to it and I had to be pulled out a few times.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- I will say Steve, to update you on the Northway we thought we
were being smart the other weekend and not getting off at 18
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or 19 and going to 20 and found traffic backed up onto the
Northway.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- We are looking at that but I do not think that any of those
proposed or possible new connections would help your project,
that is personnel opinion we have studied them fairly closely.
MIKE BRANDT- One of the things that I would like to say that from our
prospective on the Corinth Road I think that the Town plan should
also include sufficient set backs on new construction so that,
that road when it becomes a four lane road you do not have to
buy buildings, brand new buildings that are put up,
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I think that is in there.
MIKE BRANDT- that goes with all of the major roads
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- I think that area Mike is.
MIKE BRANDT- I wrote a letter to the Planning Board years ago
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- I think in the master plan that area is being rezoned Light
Industry, for commercial use, and I think with the set backs,
with the new master plan they have taken that into consideration.
That is a very good point.
MIKE BRANDT- You look at Corinth Road today through Queensbury it seems to
me that there is quite a bit of room right now to expand it but
there has been even some fairly recent construction quite close
to the road, I think that is a real problem that we are going
to all have to face some day so if we can avoid that and we are
all going to have to work with the County, it is a County road
and again years ago I, on the old Luzerne Mountain Road I have
to tell you that I worked with Fran Eggleston and try and get
that to be a County road because as a function it really functions
as a County road, people from Luzerne and Hadley pass through
Queensbury on there way many of them on their way to work in
the City of Glens Falls. I think that functionally it is a County
Road and properly eventually it probably...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- We tried to give it free of charge to Warren County last year
and they said no thank you.
MIKE BRANDT- I know that well, there were some roads in Queensbury that probably
are County Roads that function as Town Roads too but someday
that is a can or worms that has to be sorted out. From our view
point it does not make any difference.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- I met with the Warren County Traffic Safety Board this morning
and one of the things that we looked at was the exit 18 situation
the proposed traffic signal and the other changes, I think that
you will see some changes but by next year, the traffic signal
has been delayed probably until 1989 now. You will see some
changes there you might even see some upgrading of that exit
maybe a little widening maybe a little change in construction
if your project were to go through that would seem like the logical
thing to do would be to upgrade that exit dramatically encourage
traffic then to take the shortest distance between two points
between there and your project that is where the traffic property
belongs.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Mike was there some comment at some point that not a commitment
but some comment that the Town Board wrote a letter for you that
said we were conceptually we like this idea there was some state
agency that was going to be at least beneficial or benevolent
in getting some dollars or getting some expectancy in looking
at...
MIKE BRANDT- Let Joe handle that one.
JOE KRZYS- We went to the UDC a long time ago and met with Vincent ... and
Lee Webb and Al Sullivan and based on the economic impact that
we bring to the area that they said that when you have your
approvals
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and you have local support come back with the local support,
the local political support and go through the list of items
that we talked about many of which were traffic issues. My belief
is that if we with having our approvals that is we go together
the two towns, the County with a traffic plan to the State I
think we can get some help.
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- Is there anything else on traffic? What was the next set, we
are doing pretty well.
MIKE BRANDT- Solid Waste, one of the things that we discussed within our selves
and then latter with the Town of Luzerne is that we are prepared
to ask the people in our development the homeowners to the sorting
of garbage right off the bat and we can build that system into
the home. I think it is the way to go I think it will be law _
very soon anyhow and it certainly we do not mind leading on that
one.
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- I might add that I got to know Commissioner Jorling on a first
name basis last Thursday night at dinner for what ever good it
will do us, it might get me an appointment at some time but they
do not have the answers yet no body has the answers State wide,
Nationally, Internally it is just another problem it is a very
big problem fortunately most of this will be in the Town of Lake
Luzerne most of the homes will be there, we will try and work
out a joint solution.
COUNCILMAN POTNEZA- As long as they are second home owners we could ask them to take
it home with them...
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- I understand that someone came to our landfill last Saturday,
Jim Coughlin told me, and brought four or five bags of garbage
and Jim said that will be two dollars please, and they said two
dollars and he said yes, two dollars and they said gee that would
cost us 18.00 back home. So they were very pleased to find a
good deal here...We are charging two dollars a load now for
whatever you can bring in a car or pickup truck.
LAKE LUZERNE
VICTOR GRANT- No one knows how long our landfills are going to be around I --
wish I had the answer but...the Town of Lake Luzerne will not
be responsible for the picking up of garbage at the West Mountain
area what so ever that would be up to the people who live there
to have a contract with a recycling...
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- All of Queensbury is like that now.
LAKE LUZERNE
VICTOR GRANT- if there is a recycling firm that does this or
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Or an independent hauler
LAKE LUZERNE
VICTOR GRANT- so that there would be no...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Queensbury does not provide any garbage pickup now they are all
independent.
LAKE LUZERNE
VICTOR GRANT- That is important for the record.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Where are you going to take it?
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- yes, that is the important part the ultimate disposal of it because
our landfill cannot take that kind of burden on it from two
thousand houses and a hotel and everything else.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA• That is not what Mr. Grant is saying, what he is saying is that
the Town is not going to be responsible for picking it up but
if you have independent haulers and if the residence is in Luzerne
it is the Town of Luzerne's problem at this stage of the game.
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COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- We do not allow garbage from out side of the Town of Queensbury
to come into our landfill anymore.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- That might be a problem that you do not want to leave the developer
hanging on the rope to resolve, for instance if it is a recycling
company or if it is company A,B or C that goes up there and picks
up the trash from the development the hotel and all of the
commercial and residential homes how are you going to tell where
it is coming from? Is it coming from this side of the road,
that is something...
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- That would be the same thing, ...that is not different from Glens
Falls or Queensbury.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- We should make it easy if we are looking at trying to help a
developer come in or trying to be helpful, government should
not make it difficult...we are trying to resolve this between
us. I know we have limited space.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- ...as far as the landfill you will not have space for the people
here in Queensbury in that landfill, that landfill is growing
out of space and we have got to realize that.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- you cannot expect the Town of Lake Luzerne to take garbage from
the Queensbury residences.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- I don't.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- There might be a possibility, I do not know all the details of
every square foot of your project you have twenty eight hundred
acres maybe you could be an acceptable part 360 landfill on your
own property?
MIKE BRANDT- That would be expensive, ... the Town of Queensbury couldn't
do it during my administration and we tried hard. Realistically
this is a problem the whole society has, certainly we are not
different from anyone else and we are going to have to do our
share to help resolve it. I do not think that any of us have
the answers, whether you bury it, whether you sort it, you can
sort out and separate and cut back but there is still an enormous
amount of it, until markets are built I do not know who recycling
is going to pan out I do not think anyone does. I think from
my sense is there has been a period of time now where the State
has been saying to all the Towns that we are not going to accept
dumps anymore or landfills I guess that they are called. I think
that goes way back to days that I remember very well in politics
and we never could get a permit, within the law in Queensbury
and I think some of that was the State saying we are not going
to give anybody one and they haven't not very many. I think
there was a serious discussion then that it might be better
organized as a County function because a lot of the towns were
just too small to handle it. I think as a developer we are too
small to handle it, I think that it may be organized between
several counties where resource recycling is bunched together,
there is just no answers to it but I think we have to be prepared
to find the answer and we are willing to do our share both as
taxpayers and responsible citizens. I think that is all that
can be said at this point, we certainly do not have any answers
a crystal ball that anyone else has got.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I do not think your project, Mike, represents more of a problem
to me as a Town Board Member than any other number of projects
in my community except I can only relate to yours in a way that
there is a bigger number there the impact on my landfill or however
I am going to handle solid waste, it is a problem, it is not
a problem unique to your development, the impact on you or any
other is the same in town, it is a problem that I cannot solve
at this moment and neither can Lake Luzerne. My only concern
was the first three of four years of development probably the
main thrust of trash or solid waste will be in the Town of
Queensbury, if A,B,C, company is up there from Queensbury or
Glens Falls they are obviously going to bring that at a later
date to Luzerne if the landfill is closed and ours is open there
may be some
96
kind of a municipal agreement that has to get existed or that
has to happen.
MIKE BRANDT- The history with Glens Falls and Queensbury has been a good one
and I think we resolved some problems there in the past and I
am sure all municipalities are willing to work together to find
a logical answer.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- I think both of us are raising issues that we do not know what
the answer is and we are going to handle you as we would any
other resident of the town but it is not easy.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- It is obvious that it is not there in that landfill if you walk
that thing and you look at the project life is at that landfill,
...we cannot take all ... in that development I can tell you
one thing and I walk the landfill a lot as we become a more
effluent society that landfill is filling up quicker and quicker
because people are throwing out the things that they didn't used
to throw out. I thought it was very interesting that when a
class from ACC went through the landfill, our landfill supt.
opened up this bundle and one of the girls said there were better
cloths in that bundle than what I have hanging in the closet.
.� , This is what is happening in Queensbury the furniture that is
going up there...
MIKE BRANDT- They don't even pick their nickel cans out. It is a disgrace
to put them aside and carry them in.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- This is what is happening as Queensbury get affluent that landfill
is being used up geometrically too.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- Every Town, every County every place is having the same problem
it is frustrating on government side and it is frustrating on
the individual side and people ..abut at least Mr. Brandt has
made the initial rules in saying that the first thing we would
like to do is mandate as best a human being can and that is to
recycle to set up
MIKE BRANDT- Properly sort.
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- properly sort and place I don't know containers or what ever
it is, you know sometimes if you make it convenient for someone
it at least gives them the opportunity to do it rather than leave
it to their own devices to do it so I think that the move is
there.
MIKE BRANDT- I think that the public accepts it and wants it just as much
as we ...
COUNCILMAN POTENZA- They know it is coming it is not big secret, everyone you talk
to knows ...I wish Michael you had the answer you would really
be the hero then at this stage of the game ...
SUPERVISOR BRANDT- Any other comments on solid waste? There are no other major
items on your list are there any general comments about the status
of the project or other things that were not real big things
but maybe little things?
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- Can I summarize, I am going to call Quentin Kestner tomorrow
and ask him to give us some indication as to his initial concept
was for 5.6 million transmission line and what would it cost
us to get a more detailed summary or report which would include
actual cost of the whole thing with all of the assessed value
from point A to point B. The other alternative was maybe your
group was going to look at..a line down to avoid the treatment
plant and that is a nice alternative. One of the things I had —to ask Luzerne and Mike together is suppose we came back with
a figure of eight to ten thousand dollars for this study how
do you proposed that we handle the financing of that and obviously
nothing is set in concrete but is it worthy of and I do not have
the number I am trying to give you a high number just so we can
think about it, what do you think about that? Let me call you
F1
and at least give you the figure from Quentin, and I am sure
I can't get it tomorrow but I will at least start that process
going and it is something to consider something we have to consider
quickly.
COUNCILMAN MONAHAN- I just want to point out one thing Ron and I am sure Mike from
sitting on this side of the table has already thought of this,
once we try to create a special sewer district and encompasses
more than West Mountain your corporation I believe has one vote
if this ever goes to referendum and all the other tax payers
will have at least one or two depending on how many voters they
have in the house hold. That maybe an important consideration
as far as you are concerned.
MIKE BRANDT- I do not want to bring it up but I remember the end of my
administration the sewer failed at the County wide district where
it failed was West Glens Falls, was one of the places that it
failed and I think you have to look at that, you have to be a
political realist as to whether it would fly...would the people
go for it, I think it is a good thing...
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- You may find over the twenty year period your projections would
show that if you even had to pay the whole shot you might be
far ahead of what your other possibilities are, it would not
surprise me.
COUNCILMAN MONTESI- For the sake of discussion the permissive referendum issue could
be brutal because 5% of the voters in that proposed sewer district
could force a referendum and another developer for a PUD was
faced with the same situation running down a road that had four
other names and his concept was to form a sewer district, I said
wait a minute your thousand acres represents one vote the other
four people who live on an acre represent one vote it is
conceivable that you could have a permissive referendum of 5%
of the six of you and go down the tubes, so if I were you I would
pay for the line in the ground and be a good neighbor and let
the neighbors hook in...which causes us a problem now because
it is not a dedicated line now and they want to hook in....I
will get some figures for you tomorrow or the next day and you
will have at least one alternative to work on how you might be
able to round something down by pass the plant and it might be
real worthy of your consideration.
SUPERVISOR BORGOS- Any other comments or questions?
LAKE LUZERNE
VICTOR GRANT- I just want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to meet
with you..
SUPERVISOR BORGOS I think that the spirit of intermunicipal cooperation is really
shining through these days we are talking a lot and getting things
ironed out and no fist fights yet I think this is great and I
think we will see a lot more of it and certainly if you want
to meet with us again holler we will go over there or you come
over here what ever you want to do we will get along we will
honor the agreement that we have signed with you that nothing
less restrictive, I think those are the terms, nothing less
restrictive than what you approved would be approved by this
board so you set your standards and at least as restrictive and
we will be in good shape, I appreciate everyone coming out and
there is a motion to adjourn.
ON MOTION THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
Miss Darleen M. Dougher
Town Clerk
Town of Queensbury