The town of Nelson is looking into the possibility of approving a town road use agreement as a way to protect its roads from damage caused by heavy industrial trucking. The board heard a presentation from Delta Engineers, of Endwell, N.Y., concerning its Delta Road Protection Program, which would survey and inventory the condition of all town roads, require any heavy industries to file road use information so the town can determine potential road damage to be caused by trucking and, if a company’s trucks cause damage, require the company to fund the cost of protection or repair measures.
“We have a simple, uniform, unbiased approach to get the information … and we try to minimize the paperwork involved,” Delta project manager Aaron Falkenmeyer told the board.
Delta has been the “predominant engineering company for this” throughout Madison County, said town Supervisor Roger Bradstreet. The company has worked with numerous local towns on road protection plans, and most recently signed an agreement with the town of Cazenovia. Delta representatives also gave a presentation to the Madison County Board of Supervisors last year.
“I’ve been talking with Aaron for a couple of months now,” Bradstreet said. “So this is not new for Nelson as a board.”
If the board decided to contract with Delta for the program, it would take about two months to get it up and running, Falkenmeyer said. The agreement, if approved, would not have any power to regulate heavy trucking on county or state roads in the town.
Also at the meeting, the board:
—Approved two resolutions that would allow them to purchase a 2013 John Deere 624K loader to replace their current loader, which is about 20 years old. The new loader would cost $134,554.71, for which the town would need to bond for $100,000. The board first approved a resolution to borrow the $100,000 with a repayment time of five years, after which it approved a resolution to move forward with the purchase of the new loader through state contract.
—Received the draft resolution from Town Attorney Jim Stokes regarding emendations to the town land use and development law. The current land use regulations were approved more than two years ago and “had a couple of weak spots,” which is the reason for the changes, Bradstreet said. The changes were mainly to add clarifying language to the law and fix a couple of typographical errors. “Nothing earth-shattering here,” Stokes said. The board will consider the draft law at its July meeting then plans to hold a public hearing on the issue in August.
—Appointed John Tobin, the current interim chair of the zoning board of appeals, as the permanent chair of the board.
—Discussed taking steps to improve building security at the town office, including adding surveillance cameras inside and outside the building and possibly building a wall with a customer window behind which the town clerk would sit. “I don’t want to make the town unfriendly, and we’ve had no incidents, but you just never know,” Bradstreet said.
—Received a petition signed by 570 people calling for a new town zoning amendment to prohibit high volume hydraulic fracturing in the town.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
