Living in Dryden: Environmental issues at July Town Board meeting

July 12, 2004

Environmental issues at July Town Board meeting

The Environmental Planner's report examined the need to revise the Town Hazard Mitigation Plan and a kiosk on the Jim Schug Trail.

Debbie Gross reported in a letter (247KB PDF) that while "Dryden chose not to participate in [the county hazard mitigation plan] process because Dryden already had a recently developed plan... Dryden needs to go through an update process... this is a good opportunity to take advantage of the work already begun by the county, and to seek opportunities for cooperation."

There was some discussion about why Dryden wasn't involved in the county planning, which seemed to come down to Dryden's having a plan already while other municipalities were starting from scratch.

Environmental Planner Debbie Gross discusses hazard mitigation with the Town Board

The letter noted that the Town and Villages had cooperated on the earlier plan, which is focused on preventing disasters, and asked for suggestions for new participants. The fire companies were added to the list of prospects. Gross also suggested that the plan include an implementation plan.

Gross presented two plans for a kiosk along the Jim Schug Trail. After some discussion of positioning the kiosk to reduce vandalism, the board opted for the cheaper of the two plans.

Gross also distributed a flier on Phase II stormwater control issues (317KB PDF) to board members and read a message from Planning Board member David Weinstein remembering volunteer Jarrett McLaughlin, who was killed in an automobile accident in Newfield recently.

Councilman Michael Hattery also wanted to know about the status of the Draft Comprehensive Plan, asking Gross, "Is that ready to be handed over to us?"

Gross reported on the "agricultural community's... concerns about the zoning that could come out of the plan" and noted the offer by Craig Schutt, Chair of the Conservation Board to work toward a solution. She said the goal "is to move it forward as quickly as possible".

Hattery replied that "I'm concerned that... the proposed Comprehensive Plan will require changes in the zoning ordinances to be compatible with it... I'd like to get communication going. If the proposals in the Comprehensive Plan are things that we're not going to want to make changes... to some degree we need to get communications going, I don't want them spinning their wheels."

Gross offered to get the board recent copies of the changes to the plan, and pointed out that the plan doesn't include an implementation plan, something she might want to draft notes for. The board also asked if the Town was still paying consultant George Frantz additional money on the project, which has been going since 1998. No one seemed to know. Councilman Christofferson noted that implementation is going to take a while as well. Gross offered to act as a liaison between the boards. Christofferson said he could as well, and said "it's got to get wrapped up... something's got to get to us to take a look at to get some feedback to you guys."

Gross suggested the board start looking at the last draft, saying that changes so far were "pretty minor."

Posted by simon at July 12, 2004 7:30 PM in
Note on photos