By Holly Crocco
The Patterson Town Board covered a variety of topics during its March 12 meeting.
According to Town Supervisor Richard Williams, an inspection of Club Court Park in Putnam Lake last year unveiled some deficiencies. “There’s been some changes in standards,” he explained.
The deficiencies are similar to ones that were discovered with Veteran Memorial Park in the past, in which inspectors determined the gaps on some of the playground equipment are too great and a child’s head might get caught.
After soliciting various vendors for price quotes, the town learned it can piggyback on another municipality’s bid through Sourcewell, a purchasing cooperative, and save significant funds.
While bids came in between $123,000 and $300,000 to replace the playground equipment, through Sourcewell, the town can pay $100,600 to purchase new equipment and have it installed by Liberty Parks & Playgrounds – the same company that replaced the unit at Veteran Memorial Park.
The town will be responsible for removing the current playground equipment.
“With the prices we were getting in, we were going to have to put this out for a formal bid,” explained Williams. But through the purchasing cooperative, that won’t be necessary. “This is coming out of the funds collected from subdivisions, so it is not like the taxpayers are paying for this,” he said.
Anyone in town may use Club Court Park – not just Putnam Lake residents. While some basic maintenance has been completed at the park over the years, including changing out some pieces, not much has been upgraded at the park since its construction.
Renovation plans include a larger playground system in the back and a smaller one in the front – both slightly smaller in frame than what’s currently there, as well as a spinning ride off to the side, swings, and signage. These are available in a number of different color schemes.
“I think it’s beautiful,” said Councilwoman Mary Smith of the renderings.
Councilman Shaw Rogan said he favors a green and blue color pallet.
“It’s a playground, I get it – you want it to have great colors,” he said. “But I also think about creating an eyesore where you’re driving by or you live near and you’re like, ugh, look at those.”
The board unanimously approved the purchase and installation of the new playground, with the color scheme to be picked at a later date.
Also during the March 12 meeting, the board gave its approval for the county to operate an early learning program out of the National Fire Sprinkler Association Building, which is currently occupied by Community-Based Services. Specifically, the county plans to use the upper floor to create nine classrooms to offer a preschool program for children with special needs.
The desired opening date is September.
“There is a big push to do that,” said Williams. “They currently have funding to start, and they want to get started.”
After undergoing a nine-step process to evaluate whether an infringing municipality is subject to local land use controls, the supervisor said it was determined that the project would not be subject to site plan approval – which would take too long considering the desired start date. However, the town will still have local control, and the town’s building department will oversee inspections.
“We’ve been hearing so much lately with the costs associated with getting children the services they need – the transportation costs mainly,” said Rogan. “If we’re getting services to the children of Putnam County and keeping them here, that’s always a benefit. We don’t want to spend all of our money just transporting children, having them sit on a bus for sometimes two hours just for vital services.”
Smith said it’s not just reducing long bus rides, as the county transports children up to 50 miles, but keeping these kids in their own communities that’s important.
“There’s a lot of communication lost when you’re sending them out of district,” she said. “The parents don’t have the ability to go to the school and meet with the staff there.”
The measure was enthusiastically approved.
In addition, the board approved the distribution of a survey to go out to residents who do not belong to Putnam Lake Park District or have use of Veteran Memorial Park, to determine if those residents would want the town to consider redistricting those park districts to include residents who currently do not reside in either.
“So the option would be: would you prefer to belong to Putnam Lake park, or would you prefer to belong to Veterans Memorial Park?” explained Williams.
Residents can also opt for remaining independent of a park district.
About 300 homes are currently in the “undesignated” area.
Board members said the responses will determine if and how the town would move forward with the possibility of redistricting, since it would need to be a “regional approach.”
“If there are 10 homes on a specific street and nine say they would like to belong to the Putnam Lake park system, that last person would be pushed into that system, regardless of what their choice is,” explained Councilman Peter Muentener.
Rogan agreed, saying there has to be a distinct delineation in redrawing boundaries. “It’s not going to be Hopscotch,” he said.
Williams said they would like to send the survey out by the beginning of April and have the responses back by the end of the same month.
“This is just the first step to see how people feel about what they would like to do,” he said. “It’s a very long process to change the district boundaries, and it would also take the input of the people in the existing districts – if they want to the see the boundary extended.”
The matter would also require a public hearing, to get the consensus of all residents, including those who are already part of the park districts.
Smith asked about people who may ask if they can opt out of a park district, who don’t want to pay the extra fees, but Williams said that’s not an option.
Lastly, the Patterson Town Board approved bids for HVAC and electrical work for the new EMS building planned in the hamlet. Construction bids were previously awarded.
According to Muentener, initial quotes came in much higher than anticipated – around $3.19 million, so after some “value engineering,” bids were received at about $177,000 less for the same scope of work.
Williams noted that funding for the project is coming from two $200,000 Dormitory Authority of the State of New York grants, as well as $835,000 from the American Recover Plan Act, leaving the total town cost at about $1.98 million. That total will be bonded over 30 years at a 3 percent annual rate.
“I think it’s a bargain,” said Smith. “There are houses right now for $1 million. This is a whole EMS building.”
Williams still cringed at that total.
“I’m sorry, I’m still getting used to the ‘new world,’” he said. “Things have changed so radically since COVID.”
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