At Malta’s Town Board meeting on Tuesday, May 7, many issues were discussed – though the proposed expansion of the highway garage rose to the surface. In the end the board voted unanimously in favor of the project’s schematic design and to establish a Capital Budget for the expansion.
Last year the town hired consultants Clark Patterson Lee to look at the town’s complex of buildings in order to prioritize needs among them within the next five years for Capital Projects. The 35-year-old garage landed at the top of that list.
“It became apparent that we needed to look at the garage. …The building is not properly sized, we need a larger facility,” said Town Supervisor Paul Sausville.
Highway Superintendent Roger Crandall said that for the past ten years there has been the need to expand due to the increase in area developments, especially within the Tech Park. “Last year we took on 22 percent more lane miles of roads… We’ve got over $1 million in equipment that’s sitting outside. That’s not the right way to take care of it,” he said.
He also said that the condition of the garage is poor and repairs are needed to the roof and some painted areas, among others. Expansion plans intend to keep the main building as cold room storage and the other two buildings will be taken down and replaced.
A price-tag of around $300,000 was put on completing the necessary repairs, along with other options including building a modern facility nearby or tearing down the entire garage in order to rebuild. Expanding the existing building won out.
Total cost for the project is set at just over $2 million. Funding for the expansion will come from a number of places including the town’s building reserve and fund balance, according to Sausville.
Crandall’s said that his goal is to “keep costs down while building a garage that will accommodate the town’s growth for years to come and properly maintain and store over $3 million worth of equipment.”
While there is much support for the expansion, a few board members did express concern for the speed at which the matter was presented and decided upon.
Councilwoman Maggi Ruisi said, “I would just like to make a comment, not necessarily on the resolution but how we got here. Last week we were provided with these numbers. Monday…we had a fifteen minute presentation and a five minute talk and decided on a $2 million figure. I support it and I will vote yes on it but I would ask that next time when we have issues that are this large that we take a little more than five minutes to talk about it. …I would not like to see this happen again.”
Councilperson Tara Thomas agreed with Ruisi’s comments saying, “I too was disappointed in the fact that we received the proposal Monday, on the day of our agenda meeting. That was the first time that this governing body had the opportunity to review it…This is a large financial commitment that the taxpayers will be making, we need to be cautious.”
Councilperson Peter Klotz also weighed in on the issue reminding the board that the proposal was not seen “in its current form until last week.”
“What we’re doing is setting an upper limit, for planning purposes at this point we will not be making the decision to actually spend any money until we see the actual proposals and bids from contractors and so I see this as a step along the way. We have not committed to spending $2 million,” he said.
Nancy Fodera, an administrative assistant with the Highway Department said, “We have to wait 30 days from the resolution vote first then proceed with official blueprints and prep site.”
In other news, the board also adopted amendments to the Saratoga Medical Park which includes changes to the existing plan. One of the major changes involves constructing a helistop instead of a helipad next to ambulatory care building. A helistop would ease the burden on ambulance services to transport patients from proposed Area 8 to 3A instead. This change will maximize the helistop area.
Other changes concern mitigation of fire services, side yard setbacks and placement of the ambulatory care facility.
Preceding the meeting, Saratoga county Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom Wood presented to the board what transpired at the State of the County address of April 19. See (http://www.saratogacospotlight.com/news/2012/apr/25/saratoga-leaders-hope-worst-over)
Wood also discussed plans for the landfill in Northumberland saying, “We have put out what’s referred to as a 120 RFP to get some possible proposals from organizations that might be interested in operating a landfill.”
Regarding Malta’s employment opportunities and the presence of GlobalFoundries, he said that there are probably more opportunities for residents in the “spinoff jobs” as opposed to the more specialized jobs.
