More development coming to Lloyd

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 3/17/21

At the Lloyd Town Board meeting of March 3, Building Department Director Dave Barton said his department has been very busy.

“I just had two conversations earlier this week where I expect …

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More development coming to Lloyd

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At the Lloyd Town Board meeting of March 3, Building Department Director Dave Barton said his department has been very busy.

“I just had two conversations earlier this week where I expect 7 more commercial projects to come in, in the next few months. One is very large and is actually just an expansion of an existing building and the others are relatively small compared to the big ones that we have in the hopper now.” No member of the Town Board asked Barton to elaborate on these potential projects, coming at a time of significant public criticism on a rash of development proposals that many say will ensnare the town in a nightmare of traffic if allowed to move forward.

Seeking transparency, a Freedom of Information request was filed by the Southern Ulster Times, requesting Barton to provide a brief description of these projects: their location, the owners names (as required by the town code) and whether the projects are just in the conceptual stage or if any applications have been submitted. Barton supplied no information about these potential projects, stating in his FOIL response that “no record exists.”

Get Your Chimney Cleaned
Barton urged people who have wood burning stoves to have their chimneys cleaned by a professional firm in order to prevent a fire due to a buildup of creosote.

Police Report
Police Chief James Janso ticked off the monthly statistics for February: 1,135 calls for service; 44 accidents (5 personal injury and 39 property damage); 5 parking tickets and 56 Uniform Traffic Tickets were issued; 22 arrests; 156 hours of foot patrol in the hamlet and 9 hours of foot patrol in the schools.

Chief Janso said that on February 11 the Town of Lloyd Police Reform and Reinvention Committee met, as per the Governor’s executive order #203 of June 12, 2020. After meeting for more than 6 months, the committee has developed a policy that will be posted for the public to review and comment on at the March 17th Town Board meeting.

Also on February 11 Chief Janso was a special guest reader via zoom in Mrs. Canino’s 1st grade class; on February 16 Janso was appointed to the executive board of the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team [URGENT]; From February 19-20 Lt Phil Roloson attended New York State refresher course on the Use of Force; the department investigated two NY PAUSE complaints, and the department administered Narcan to one individual.

“This brings the total of 5 Narcan uses for the year, which is alarming. Hopefully, between all these committees and county-wide programs we can get this down,” he said.

Recreation
Recreation Director Frank Alfonso said his crew has been helping to clear snow on the sidewalks in the hamlet and on the rail trail and has been keeping the parks clean.

Alfonso is hoping to paint two rooms remaining at the town hall before the end of winter. He is in the midst of planning Summer Fun, with no trips but is thinking of inviting a magician to come in and entertain. Swim lessons at Berean Park are also under consideration.

Alfonso is bringing back tennis in August under the guidance of high school coach Mike Geller. On the weekends, starting in April, baseball and softball are being scheduled at Tony Williams Park. He will be seeking advice from the county on when to allow family gatherings at the park.

Alfonso said work at the courts at Berean Park, for pickle ball and basketball, will begin when warmer weather arrives.

“We’re ready to go; as soon as we get rid of this snow we’re gonna get the parks looking nice,” he promised.

Town Clerk
Wendy Rosinski said in February her office collected nearly 85% of the town taxes, even with some technical challenges posed by the winter storms.
“Twice we had to re-enter 3 days of work. It was a challenge but we got it,” she said.

Rosinski warned the public that with warmer weather coming, “there is a tendency to leave our pets outside longer; please do not leave your pet outside when you are not at home because cold temperatures, rain and snow can come quickly.”

Water & Sewer
Adam Litman, Administrator for Water & Sewer for the Town of Lloyd, gave his monthly update to the board. He ran a blend of reservoir and river water until February 1st and switched over to full river water on February 5, noting that river water makes up about 90% of daily production and that town wells, which are on timers, make up the remaining 10%.

Dissolved oxygen and turbidity increases the amount of flushing and back-washing needed during daily processing and makes for longer run times. Run times have ranged from 11 to 13 hours per day.

Litman said the screen and retaining systems for the clarifiers arrived in mid February. Clarifier #2 has been out of service for several months due to the failed system. When the new parts arrived his crew dismantled the unit, cleaned it out and installed the new screen and retaining systems, which took about a week to complete. In the coming weeks Litman is planning to do the same for clarifier #1, which will fix 2 out of the 3 units. He suggested that parts for #3 should be ordered.

Litman said they are still in the midst of installing a CL-17 meter.

“This is what detects the chlorine residual going out of the clarifiers [and] into the clear well. That unit failed late last year and was also noted in the Board of Health sanitary inspection.” A new one was ordered, installed and programmed but was not functioning properly and the company is sending the town another unit.

Litman said 6 displacement pumps at the sewer department are now nearing 10,000 to 12,000 hours of operation and he ordered a gear box for one at a cost of $4,200. He expects another pump will need a new gear box later this year.

Litman said he was meeting with town Supervisor Fred Pizzuto and town engineer Ray Jurkowski, “to go over all of our engineering projects, especially the generators and some of the plans for the future.” Pizzuto said they will also discuss how much money the Town of Lloyd may receive for water and sewer infrastructure projects from the new $1.9 trillion federal stimulus bill. He also noted that NYS Sen. Michelle Hinchey has introduced a bill, “for something called sweep for water. It will be a state run annual program, maybe for towns like ourselves and other towns that are struggling with infrastructure projects with water and sewer. If we have shovel ready projects we might be able to apply for those funds. We keep our fingers crossed and hope we can rely on both our state and federal officials and hopefully there’s enough money for us.”

Town Pavilion
The board discussed plans for a pavilion at the town field in the hamlet. They have reached out to engineer Jurkowski to see if he is able to lower his fee and are hoping the Highway Superintendent can also assist, which will also drop the overall cost.

The town has $150,000 set aside that came from developer’s recreation fees and NYS Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson was also able to secure $125,000 toward the cost, however a current estimate for the building is in the range of $375,000.

Supervisor Pizzuto said, “We will build it as we go as we did at the Bob Shepard Park. We know there is a need and it will be a great asset for the town. We’ll start to map out a plan for whatever we’re able to do in-kind, so we can start to get this project underway.”