Highway position “de-funded” and plowing contract agreed to
Posted November 4, 2008 by John T. Ryan
Elimination of a highway department position and payment for plowing county roads were the primary topics of discussion at the Monday, November 3, 2008 Special Town Board meeting. The Board voted to “de-fund” a highway department position that became vacant when an employee retired in early 2008. Counselor Powers appeared to express the Board’s consensus remarking, “We’ve been trimming the budget and trying to maintain a flat tax rate. The position hasn’t been filled and everything seems to function.” When fringe benefits are taken into account the town should save almost $50,000 annually by not filling the position.
The Town of Peru plows 23.7 miles of Clinton County roads every year and the town-county contract is up for renewal. After several weeks of negotiations between local towns and the county, a two-year contract will give the towns a 14% increase in 2009 and 6% in 2010. Highly used highways within the town such as the Military Turnpike Extension, Union Road and River Road are county highways. Supervisor Covel said that the county initially offered an 8% increase over last year’s per mile plowing rate and that several town supervisors did not think that the proposed increase would cover today’s costs. He said that the Town of Plattsburgh reacted to the 8% proposal by stating that it will no longer plow county highways. Citing resident safety and the Peru Highway Department’s ability to keep the roads open Covel said he believed that the Town of Peru should continue plowing county highways. Without county plowing funds, the town would have to consider highway department cutbacks including personnel. Covel said, “I do not want to eliminate people who have been developed and trained all these years.”
Town of Au Sable Highway Superintendent Tim Booth was in the audience and offered his comments. Booth and Covel both made the point that towns need to begin documenting their county road plowing costs. Covel said that this winter highway crews will be logging all the time spent on county roads. He said, “We’ll know what our true costs are.”
The agenda item “Highway Superintendent Salary” was postponed until the board’s November 10th meeting.
Posted: November 4th, 2008 under Town Board News.