DPW - COMMITTEE
Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 9:30 AM
Robin DeLoria, Chairperson
Clayton Barber, Vice-Chairperson
Chairman DeLoria called this DPW Meeting to order at 9:30 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Matthew Brassard, Robin DeLoria, Shaun Gillilland, Ken Hughes, Charlie Harrington, Steve McNally, Cathleen Reusser, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Clayton Barber, Derek Doty, James Monty, Favor Smith and Davina Thurston were excused. Chris Clark was absent.
Department Heads present: Doreen Abrahamsen, Jim Dougan, Judy Garrison and Michael Mascarenas.
Also present: William Tansey and Alice Halloran.
News media: None present.
DELORIA: We will call this meeting to order. Stand for the pledge please. Mr. Dougan.
DOUGAN: Good morning.
DELORIA: Do you want to start with your resolutions Jim?
DOUGAN: Yes, so my first request is authorizing the issuance of a permit to the Wilmington Historical Society. This is for the 2025 Wilmington Whiteface Whiskey Run 5k and 10k that’s going to be on Saturday, June 21. They will be using two county roads, typical legal work says have the County Attorney approve the conditions and coordinate with the County Sheriff’s office.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF A PERMIT TO THE WILMINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR THE USE OF THE COUNTY ROADWAYS FOR THE 2025 WILMINGTON WHITEFACE WHISKEY RUN 5K AND 10K TO BE HELD ON SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2025. Brassard, Stanley
DELORIA: Any questions on that? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number two, we are continuing what we’ve done the last couple of years where we have rented that four speed loader to help us more efficiently do shoulder removals so I’m looking for a resolution authorizing the purchasing agent to award a purchase order in the amount of $28,800.00, to Stephenson Equipment that’s for the rental of that four speed loader for a period of two months. It’s state contract rate of $14,400 a month.
RESOUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO AWARD A PURCHASE ORDER TO STEPHENSON EQUIPMENT, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $28,800.00 FOR THE RENTAL OF A FORCE FEED LOADER IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS, WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE SAID PURCHASE ORDER. Stanley, Wright
DELORIA: Any questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number three is regarding the replacement of the bridge on the Moss Road in the Town of Lewis. We are going to be utilizing temporary bridge components that we have in stock that we can no longer buy pieces to match up to those but there is enough of these pieces to do that bridge permanently. I’ve got to go back to the original manufacturer Acrow this would be in the amount of $7,500 to have them provide certified stamped PE calculations on the bridge load rating to satisfy DOT when we are done funding will come from a grant from US Fish and Wildlife.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO AWARD A PURCHASE ORDER TO ACROW IN THE AMOUNT OF $7,500.00, FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES TO INCLUDE CERTIFIED AND STAMPED CALCULATIONS OF BRIDGE LOAD RATINGS FROM A NYS LICENSED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER FOR THE MOSS ROAD OVER THE NORTH BRANCH OF THE BOQUET RIVER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED/GRANT FUNDS AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE SAID PURCHASE ORDER. Wood, Stanley
DELORIA: Any questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number four is one of our ongoing projects at the public safety building. We talked about those heat exchangers and how many times we had to replace those and so we purchased last year some indirect water heaters which we are going to use to provide hot water and we are going to use the original hot water heaters which were almost 1000 gallons and we are going to use those to take hot water off the boiler so when the boiler kicks on it will first go to those 1000 gallon tanks and then circulate through the building instead of every time there’s a little need for heat turning that boiler on at 100 mph and then slamming it shut so we are doing some of the work ourselves with some help from Jeff Rushby Mechanical so this would be a contract amendment we had him on term contract for hourly rates, in an amount not to exceed $15,478.89 for labor and materials to do that work coming from budgeted funds.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH JEFF RUSHBY MECHANICAL IN THE AMOUNT OF $15,478.89, FOR LABOR AND MINOR MATERIALS TO PROVIDE BOILER SYSTEM PIPING MODIFICATIONS TO INSTALL OWNER SUPPLIED INDIRECT HOT WATER HEATERS AT THE PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED FUNDS. Brassard, Harrington
DELORIA: Any questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number five is regarding the old jail demolition. Decided to have Atlantic Testing be here, be present to do a certain amount of air monitoring while that demolition goes on. It’s not required by code but as close as we are to all these buildings that are operating we thought doing an air monitoring would just make everyone feel better. We don’t know what the dust levels are. ATL is under contract again hourly but this is a contract amendment not to exceed $9,280, for those air monitoring services.
DELORIA: That wouldn’t be a Department of Health regulation for air monitoring on something like that?
DOUGAN: It’s actually Department of Labor when asbestos is involved it’s required the third party air monitoring. We’ve already abated it but we just felt that it was a nice safety precaution for everyone that is going to be working or visiting the campus.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH ATLANTIC TESTING LABORATORIES, LTD., IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $9,280.00 FOR AIR MONITORING SERVICES DURING THE OLD JAIL DEMOLITION PROJECT WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED ARPA FUNDS. DeLoria, Stanley
DELORIA: Any questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number six is requesting authorization to bid the asbestos abatement and controlled demolition of Main Street of Frontier Town this is just a request to bid it.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO GO OUT TO BID THE ASBESTOS ABATEMENT AND CONTROLLED DEMOLITION OF FRONTIER TOWN MAIN STREET AREAS WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM BUDGETED/RESTORE NEW YORK GRANT. Harrington, Wood
DELORIA: Any questions on that? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: The next four are all regarding our July storms. I didn’t realize on some of these I hadn’t brought to the board so these are projects that have been moving forward that are pretty much complete that we have contracts but we don’t have individual contract amendments for each of the sites. So the first one would be a contract amendment with J. Hutchings it’s in the amount of $66,014, that’s the culvert repair project that happened on Raymond Wright Road, County Route 79 in the Town of Moriah funds to come from FEMA and budgeted funds. This particular culvert was a big, big pool was created with all that storm water and basically scoured out underneath the culvert and underneath the road and so we got down it was probably close to 12 foot deep, got down, brought that back up, added riprap stone to protect the sides, extended the culvert to protect the road.
DELORIA: Wide enough for the fuel truck for that extended culvert there?
DOUGAN: Different project.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH J. HUTCHINGS, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $66,014.00 FOR CULVERT REPAIR PROJECT ON COUNTY ROUTE 79 (RAYMOND WRIGHT ROAD) OVER AN UNNAMED BROOK, LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF MORIAH WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM FEMA/BUDGETED FUNDS. Brassard, Wright
DELORIA: Any questions?
REUSSER: Is that a requirement of FEMA in addition to business with the county? Are you required to submit these resolutions to FEMA?
DOUGAN: FEMA wants to know that you have a contract. We have a contract but it was, the way that term contract was set up was when we develop a scope of work we need individual amendments set up for each one of them so FEMA wants to know that contractor didn’t just run them up but that we have a contract similar to adding a drawing from DEC or a permit that’s how FEMA likes to see anything that we’ve done in a time and material bases that your holding a contractor to a plan and you’re holding them to a contract.
REUSSER: So do they require a resolution?
DOUGAN: We require a resolution but not FEMA.
REUSSER: But they do not? That’s all I’m driving at. Thank you.
DELORIA: Anything further? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number eight again this is with J. Hutchings, this is in the amount of $44,070.00. This is on County Route 6, Tracy Road just East of Roe Pond whenever Roe Pond the dam floods this has happened in 2019, it happened in 2023, it happened again in 2024 there’s a driveway culvert immediately downstream. We’ve upsized it in ’19 and ’23 but there’s so much flow that comes over the top of that dam and then it doesn’t follow the brook it follows the road we upsized that culvert to a precast concrete culvert even though it’s going to a driveway it’s 2’x3’ and there’s two sections ten foot long so perhaps things around it will be washed out in the future but it won’t be a culvert. It’s going to come from FEMA funds.
DELORIA: Is there any down time on that? You say it’s a driveway I mean as far as access there?
DOUGAN: We’ve dealt with it already.
DELORIA: Okay thank you. Good
DOUGAN: Less downtime than typically after each storm event.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH J. HUTCHINGS, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $44,070.00 FOR CULVERT REPLACEMENT PROJECT ON COUNTY ROUTE 6 (TRACY ROAD) LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF MORIAH WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM FEMA/BUDGETED FUNDS. Brassard, Wright
DELORIA: Any other questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: Number nine is J. Hutchings again. This is a big one. This is Stacy Brook over on Stevenson Road in the Town of Westport this is where we used those Tappan Zee panels that we had in stock. It’s a contract amendment in the amount of $585,275, that’s to change that what was a 6’ diameter culvert into a 50’ long span bridge using those Tappan Zee panels again, FEMA and budgeted funds.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH J. HUTCHINGS, INC., IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $585,275.00, FOR CULVERT REPLACEMENT PROJECT ON COUNTY ROUTE 44 (STEVENSON ROAD) OVER STACY BROOK, LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF WESTPORT WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM FEMA/BUDGETED FUNDS. Stanley, Wright
DELORIA: Any questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried.
DOUGAN: The last request is a contract amendment with Kubricky. This is for County Route 80, Lakeshore Road very close to where it ties into Route 22 in Westport. It’s in an amount not to exceed $91,200 there we changed out a 30” culvert into a 72” culvert and then we also to meet DEC’s requirements had to flood the bottom of that with concrete and build grade control devices on the inside of it again, FEMA/budgeted funds.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT AMENDMENT WITH KUBRICKY CONSTRUCTION IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $91,200.00, FOR COUNTY ROUTE 80, LAKESHORE ROAD OVER A TRIBUTARY TO THE BOQUET RIVER CULVERT REPLACEMENT PROJECT, LOCATED IN THE TOWN OF WESTPORT WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM FEMA/BUDGETED FUNDS. Brassard, Wood
DELORIA: Any questions? Being none, all in favor, any opposed – carried. Well, that was painless.
DOUGAN: Next week at ways and means I hope to have a report done on what we feel that the disaster has cost us thus far and give you an idea of what we should get back from the State even what we are applying at 5% administrative cost what we put into with our own trucking our own guys labor and when we originally did the budget amendment to set up funds for this we didn’t even know for sure if FEMA was going to be involved, we knew the State was applying. We only asked for $4million at the time right now it looks like we are going to be around seven I think our estimate a while ago was eight but I hope to give you that update I just wasn’t quite ready to give you real numbers as we talked about today.
DELORIA: Does that have to pass through the Albany checking account before we get it or does it come directly?
DOUGAN: Everything goes through the Albany checking account.
DELORIA: That’s the open one or the closed one?
DOUGAN: The closed one. We haven’t heard if the state is going to chip in their 12.5% I think it might be worth us sending a letter. It’s been seven months, don’t know that they will but there’s got to be other counties other than just us and I’m talking my numbers and a lot of you are effected almost as much as we are.
TYLER: We are better to send a letter to the Albany Times.
GILLILLAND: The Governor’s budget is $16 billion dollars higher than it was last year.
DOUGAN: I just have a couple of other announcements otherwise. The old jail if you looked out back you’ll see the excavator is there. If it wasn’t so cold these first few days this week, they were going to start this week but they plan to start on Monday the 27th tearing that down.
TYLER: How long of a project do you think that is?
DOUGAN: About a month is what we’re figuring we think they will be there less than that but a month is what we’re figuring. I’m going to get an email out to all of you and to all the departments later today trying to describe the area, describe the work zone remind everybody that we already dealt with the asbestos so that maybe we can ward off a few of those questions.
DELORIA: Are they working just during the week or is it extending on the weekends?
DOUGAN: Right now it is just during the week but they are supposed to – they are going to do what they call selective demolition they brought in basically they are going to grab small pieces they aren’t using a wrecking ball, they brought in a shear to actually cut through most of the steel so we’ll keep you all up to date.
TYLER: Are you prepared for all the protesters?
DOUGAN: Yeah, we are going to give them hard hats and put them to work. Regarding FEMA I got notification on Thursday or Friday last week that FEMA has finally signed off on that final Hurricane Irene project on Haseltine Road in the Town of Jay and has agreed to our final cost is and the check is in the mail. I can’t tell you I’ve got the check yet they just finally agreed to it almost 14 years later.
REUSSER: It does seem that they are cleaning up old news, old projects.
DOUGAN: That’s all I had unless anyone has questions for me?
DELORIA: Questions for Mr. Dougan?
WRIGHT: Jim I just wanted to say thanks for all the information and updates on the Alexander Bridge construction it was very beneficial and surprisingly there were few complaints at least to me.
DOUGAN: Thank you I will pass that onto Andrew Stanley and others who really oversee that job but I appreciate that, nice words. I will always pass it along. I did pass along the nice words about the tree cutting and the guys do appreciate it when they hear those things so thank you.
DELORIA: Thank you. Ms. Halloran.
HALLORAN: Good morning. Interesting news for us our tree sale is out and we already have about twenty orders so spread the word and we’ll probably sell out fast.
Our next thing is our board approved a small salt reduction funding similar to the large edge plows we did for towns. I think it was in 2023 so I’ll be sending a letter to the highway superintendents about that probably this week and then the last thing is the rural roads funding some towns have taken advantage of small roadside projects, sometimes it can help with a small culvert replacement. We were able to assist with some of the storm clean up on that. It’s small amounts of funding they are going to be putting more money behind that it comes to districts from the state so we’ll keep getting out to the highway departments in trying to get all the towns involved in utilizing that funding. Any questions on anything?
STANLEY: When you say small funding for those projects what size are you talking about?
HALLORAN: It was about $40,000 for the year total so we try and spread that out among towns on some smaller projects. It’s going to go up a little bit but I don’t know the numbers yet.
TYLER: Westport already got the $35,000 of that already right?
HALLORAN: Westport has taken good advantage of it.
TYLER: Could you please mention the award a local farm got?
HALLORAN: We are supposed to keep it quiet until it is announced at the event. I know it’s kind of anticlimactic but we aren’t to talk about it publically until after.
DELORIA: Any other non-point questions for Alice?
HALLORIAN: Thank you.
DELORIA: Miss Doreen.
ABRAHAMSEN: Good morning everyone. Not much to report just our December statistics. One thing that I did not, wasn’t able to get on in my report is just difference between 2023 and 2024 for our medical transportation we went up, we had 443 trips in ’23 went up to 552 in ’24 so that’s been very, very busy and our riders and miles for 2023 we went up by 658 between ’23 and ’24 and went up by miles 7,281. A lot of that has to do with the ski and I think our numbers are coming up from Covid where they dropped and we are getting back to where we were in ’19 so that’s a good thing.
We are still looking for drivers. I lost three part-timers age, injuries and replaced a full timer but we are still in desperate need of bus drivers. We do pay to train so if anybody has anybody that might be interested.
TYLER: Do you need a CDL for that position?
ABRAHAMSEN: Yes we have a certified examiner on staff so we use our own buses, we pay while we train, we use our bus for them to take their driving license and then we can add them to the roster once that’s all completed. They need at least a Class B with passenger endorsement.
DELORIA: So they are over 15 passenger vans?
ABRAHAMSEN: All of our buses are yes.
TYLER: So they still have to take the test through DMV in order to get the CDL and all that stuff?
ABRAHAMSEN: They have to take a written test at the DMV and then they come to us and do their driving and then they take an actual physical driving test and then they pay for a permit and then they have to go back and pay to have their license.
DELORIA: It’s rather expensive.
ABRAHAMSEN: It is.
DELORIA: Is that keeping people from doing it or do we have some payment reimbursement going on?
MASCARENAS: We do for highway. Do we?
ABRAHAMSEN: We don’t reimburse. We pay for their physical which is to make sure that they are qualified to be a driver but we do not pay for their written test or getting their license. We do pay to train them which is a plus for us.
TYLER: I might think about doing that. I just know ten, twelve years ago when I got my CDL it was a bear all that stuff you had to go through, it was amazing and I was hoping –
ABRAHAMSEN: It’s still there. They do a lot more under the hood, they need to know a lot about the motor. They treat them as if they are mechanics really.
TYLER: I understand that.
ABRAHAMSEN: They have made some accommodations for the school bus drivers but that’s never included the 19a which is what we are. It’s basically the same but with the school they have to learn all the lights, no child left behind those additional things.
TYLER: They give you the test like you are going to be driving an 18 wheeler. Crazy.
ABRAHAMSEN: Yeah but yet you can drive a motor home that is longer than some of our buses.
DELORIA: And tow your car behind it.
WRIGHT: Doreen I just wanted to thank you and DPW once again for the loan of the bus for our senior bus program. Other than the price of gasoline and whether the weather is amenable to the public, that’s the one thing I get complaints about is non availability of a senior bus. I can’t control the price of gas but I can do this.
ABRAHAMSEN: I’m glad it’s working out and we are going to try and get your bus in soon. We had a few breakdowns these last couple of weeks, three weeks so we are trying we’ve got a new piece of machinery coming in so we should be able to get to it at least bring the bus up and work on it in between.
WRIGHT: Our CDL driver is extremely excited. He wants me to buy the bus and I told him there’s no way in hell I’m buying that bus. Maybe a smaller bus.
HUGHES: I’m not on the committee, but Doreen is there any type of graphic, you just listed a lot of really great information that the general public may or may not know about for those who may be interested in applying to this position. If there is an info graphic that either your department can provide? Can we get that out on social media?
ABRAHAMSEN: I will work on that and get it over to you.
DELORIA: Anything else to come before this committee? If not we stand adjourned.
As there was no further discussion to come before this DPW committee it was adjourned at 9:55 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Garrison, Clerk
Board of Supervisors