By Peter Boody Like a hard-nosed negotiator who just wouldn't take "no" for an answer, Silver Beach Association President Julius Manchise did his best earlier this month to make the Town Board cry uncle and agree to obtain a permit and at least help pay for the dredging of Crab Creek. He began his push by accusing the board of having failed to manage the town's waterways. "In 1998 we asked about Crab Creek," he told the board at its June 7 work session. "Seven years later, we're still asking." He said the association is always told "nobody knows, nobody's sure ... You nice people are the managers" but "there seems to be a wall that comes up" when the issue is maintaining waterways. "We'd like to get to the bottom of what we can do with Crab Creek. We believe it has to be done" because it's silting up and its water quality is declining. Supervisor Art Williams told the insistent Mr. Manchise that the controversial issue of dredging Crab Creek had come up before; that the county would not dredge it because it is not navigable and there are no public safety issues; that the state DEC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Baykeeper Kevin McAllister have all said the creek is healthy, despite some neighbors' complaints that it is clogging up and dying; and that the town had too many other public works projects with a higher priority to deal with. "It's closing down. The shell and the fish life was so much better six or seven years ago," said Mr. Manchise. "Can't the managers of the town get the permit and is anyone here open to funding it?" The answer appeared to be "no," although Councilwoman Chris Lewis later seemed to relent a bit when she asked Mr. Manchise how much the work would cost. He said between $6,000 and $10,000 and that the association, neighbors of the creek and the town could share the bill. The discussion went on, with the Town Board resisting and Mr. Manchise insisting. In the end, he got the board to agree to schedule a special meeting with him on the subject on July 6 after the Silver Beach Association has its own community meeting on the topic to discuss sharing the costs. No fee for Fire Dept. Also at the June 7 work session, the board agreed to a request from Hoot Sherman, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, to waive the $100 application and $100 clean-up fee for the public-assembly permits the fire department needs for each of its two summer fund-raisers, the Chicken Barbecue and the Country Fair. It's not the money, it's the idea of the fees that is "kind of a kick in the gut," he told the board, what with all the assistance the fire department gives the town without charge. The board readily agreed. Drywells and Hilo Shores There was a sometimes heated discussion last Tuesday, June 7 -- and again at this week's work session on June 14 -- of the town's ongoing program to install dry wells to prevent stormwater runoff, part of which is being funded under a state grant to protect local bay waters from contamination. Under the program, long-planned dry well and catch basin installations are to be installed by town crews at Hudson Avenue and North Cartwright Road; the Wades Beach parking lot; and an area from Stearns Point and Behringer Lane into the Hilo Shores community. Tempers flared when the plan for installing two sets of catch basins and dry wells on Community Drive in the private Hilo Shores community came up for discussion at both work sessions. Hilo resident Emory Breiner last week angrily accused Supervisor Art Williams of having failed to deal with a related issue for years -- a plan by officials of the community's private association, according to Mr. Breiner, to raise part of Hilo Drive to force runoff that collects on it into nearby West Neck Bay. Mr. Williams told Mr. Breiner that his problem was an internal one within the association and that managing the dry well projects is up to Mark Ketcham, the commissioner of public works, not himself. Originally the state would not fund a dry well in Hilo because it is a private community but Supervisor Williams said there had been a new opinion from Albany. Now the state has agreed that a public benefit would be served by the work because the dry well would protect the bay, once a prime source of scallops before the brown tide blight in the 1980s, from pollution. From the audience on June 7, former Supervisor Jeff Simes renewed his criticism of the proposed work, telling the board that town employees and equipment -- which would be used to implement the state grant -- should not be used to benefit a private community. At this week's work session, Highway Superintendent Mark Ketcham provided an overview of the stormwater runoff abatement effort and agreed that the state had reversed an earlier opinion and now agreed that installation of two dry wells in Hilo Shores as part of a larger project involving runoff on Stearns Point and Behringer would serve a public benefit. The Town Board seemed to have no objections although Supervisor Williams told Warren Moore, president of the Hilo Shores Association, that the town would want the association to assume ownership of the dry wells and to help fund their maintenance in the future. Mr. Breiner, this time with a poster labeled "Hilo Shores' Problem" with photos of flooded roadways, this week renewed his charge that the association was planning on raising the level of Hilo Drive to solve a ponding problem caused by runoff. "What does that have to do with the project?" Mr. Williams asked. "It's not our problem." "Yes it is. You know about it!" Mr. Breiner said, arguing that raising the road would undermine the goals of the town project by diverting runoff into the bay. "The grade of these (private) roads is up to the homeowners' association," Mr. Williams said. "They'll need DEC and town wetlands permits" before any such work would be allowed. "So what's the problem?" Mr. Moore told the board the association has "no plans for any road changes at this time and when we do we'll tell" the appropriate agencies. He said the association wanted to see how much of the problem is eased by the installation of the dry wells before deciding on any further roadwork. He added, "This is a Hilo Shores issue not a town issue."
|
