ROTTERDAM Water tank’s location chosen Old town landfill site to serve districts 3 and 4 BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Town officials have chosen a section of the decommissioned Rotterdam landfill as a site for a new water tank to serve water districts 3 and 4. Supervisor Steve Tommasone said engineers from Barton & Loguidice have reviewed underground soil samples from the property of Pattersonville-Rynex Corners Road and determined it would be suitable to support the tank needed to bolster the water supply in Rotterdam Junction. The town had also considered purchasing property, but decided to site it on the town land to save money. The engineers have also determined the tank won’t require the concrete pedestal that was originally planned for the project. Tommasone said the design will be a surfacemounted tank and connect through pipes that will run beneath the state Thruway. Tommasone said public works crews will remove a pair of old buildings from the site sometime this fall. He said the town will conduct another public hearing on the project and then move forward with a permissive referendum during the late fall or early winter. If all goes as planned, bid packages for the project could be sent out before February. Tommasone anticipates construction beginning in the early spring. The town is still awaiting the latest engineering results from the new site to determine how large the tank will be. Tommasone said the town would construct a tank with at least 500,000 gallons of storage. Another alternative is to build a 350,000-gallon tank, which would meet the present water usage in the two districts. If the smaller tank is built, Tommasone said, the town may be able refurbish the existing one off Leggiero Lane as an auxiliary supply. “We’ll see what the proposals are like,” he said. Despite the change in plans, Tommasone doesn’t anticipate the cost of the project to change beyond the original $2 million estimate. The two water districts with about 550 users pumped an average of 256,000 gallons per day from the existing 200,000-gallon tank; at its highest daily usage in 2007, the tank pumped 842,300 gallons, according to the town’s annual water quality report. The original project was to construct a 520,000-gallon tank on land at the SI Group’s plant off Route 5S. Company officials had offered the town an easement on the land as part of the payment-in-lieu-oftaxes agreement they signed with the Rotterdam Industrial Development Agency in February. Soil samples from the area later revealed it wasn’t suitable to support the tank and the concrete pedestal it required. The error was later attributed to faulty data compiled by an engineering company used when the town was looking at several locations. “This has really been a learning experience for everyone,” Tommasone said.
More Spring promises. In Nov 2007 the town anticipated completion by Fall 2008. We seem to be going in circles on this with new design changes to contemplate as well. Learning experience, indeed.
took the kids trick or treating out there on Holloween......what I nice area,,,setting is nice,,,houses on the river are beautiful...Mr Mallozzi has a small compound of houses that will knock your sox off,,,too bad they couldnt get some grant money to fix up main street abit......The people are real friendly too,,,,
The junction is a nice quaint community with some beautiful homes from what I remember. I really don't get out there much. There really isn't much out there. But that's what makes it so quaint.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
NATIVE GENEALOGY ROTTERDAM JUNCTION — A Native American genealogy workshop with David Cornelius, native historian, Schenectady Historical Society, will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at Keepers of the Circle, Main Street. The cost is $15 for members and $25 for nonmembers.
ROTTERDAM JUNCTION Board plans water tank hearing Bond would be funded by user fees BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Members of the Town Board will host a public hearing on a new water tank proposed for an area of the decommissioned town landfi ll off Pattersonville-Rynex Corners Road. Board members accepted an engineering report for the project during their meeting Wednesday. They also scheduled a public hearing on the project in Town Hall at 7 p.m., April 22. The estimated $2 million project proposes to build a 500,000-gallon glass-lined tank that could one day be expanded to hold 750,000 gallons. The project also includes communications devices for remotely monitoring and controlling the tank from Rotterdam’s water treatment plant off Rice Road, according to an engineering report provided by the town. The cost of the tank would be covered through a bond that would be paid for through an annual fee assessed to each of the 535 users in water districts 3 and 4. Users would pay an additional $1.39 per $1,000 of the assessed value of their property annually, meaning a home assessed at $158,000 would pay about $229 more on their water bill over the course of the 30-year bond. Supervisor Steve Tommasone said some of this cost could be offset by telecommunications companies interested in locating satellite antennas on the tank. He said the town is also actively discussing the project with state and federal legislators, in the hope of securing grant funding through the economic stimulus bill. For nearly five years, town officials have discussed replacing the old 200,000-gallon tank off Leggiero Lane. Aside from its deteriorating condition, the existing tank holds roughly 60,000 gallons less than the area’s daily usage. The town originally wanted to build the tank near the SI Group plant off Route 5S. However, soil samples from the property determined the tank would be too heavy for the site. The decision to build the tank will ultimately rest with the town board, which could vote on the issue anytime after the public hearing is closed. The permissive referendum could then be overturned and put up to a full vote among district residents if they petitioned against the board’s decision.
ROTTERDAM — Town officials have posted documents regarding the proposed water tank for Rotterdam Junction in advance of a vote on the project next month. The map, plan and report can be downloaded from the town's Web site at http://www.rotterdamny.org. The town is also planning a mailer for residents in advance of a May 13 meeting on the project at the Rotterdam Junction Fire House. The project proposes to split the estimated $2 million cost among 535 users within water districts 3 and 4. Users would pay an additional $1.39 per $1,000 of the assessed value of their property annually, meaning a home assessed at $158,000 would pay about $229 more on their water bill over the 30-year bond.
ROTTERDAM JUNCTION Onrust, replica of old Dutch ship, will soon set sail Boat built without blueprints using only historic techniques BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Two hundred fifty volunteers. A hundred trees. Three years. One perfect ship. The Onrust is now a golden oak monument to the Dutch who first colonized this region. It is so large that it pokes out of the pole barn erected four years ago to protect it from the elements. Volunteers who once crouched to bend the fi rst boards must now climb ladders to paint the finishing touches. There was a time when some believed the historically perfect replica of the first ship built on these shores would never come to fruition. There are no written blueprints for Dutch sailing ships. No one knows how to make them anymore. And no one had ever before made such a ship using only historic techniques — even to the extent of bending planks by hand with steam and heat. But in seven days, that ship that no one could build will be launched in the Mohawk River to join the state’s quadricentennial celebrations. “When we started this, we had no money, no volunteers, no place to build it,” county Historian Don Rittner said as he took photos of the nearly finished product. “We set up a table at some re-enactment day here at the Mabee Farm and a guy came up and said, ‘My name is George Bowdish, and I have a portable sawmill — do you need any wood cut?’ And I looked at Greta and said: ‘We’re gonna build this ship.’ ” Greta Wagle became project manager while Rittner searched for funding. The entire ship cost $3 million, much of it in donations of priceless, century-old white oaks. The worst moment came when they ran out of wood just four trees short of completing the ship. “We were literally sitting down that day to talk about what we were going to do. We were out of wood. And that day, I got a call about some white oaks that had been cut down by accident,” Rittner said. “They were cut down, there was nothing they could do, so the town [of Colonie] suggested they donate it to us. That was all the wood we needed.” He stared up at the ship. “Things like that happened all the time.” Wagle spent a year searching for the perfect tree, one with a trunk that had grown in a half-circle and was at least 17 feet long. It would become the transom, the structural support for the ship. The trouble is that such trees were harvested extensively for boat-building during the 19th cen- tury. The only trees Wagle could find were as straight as rulers. She called all of the sawmills in five counties. Then she called every lumberjack she knew. No one had seen a tree that had grown in a half-circle. Time grew short. The wood must cure for six months, but with just three months to go before the shipwrights had to install a transom, she still had nothing. Luckily for her, someone had already cut down the tree she needed. A lumberjack in Feura Bush had chopped it down a year earlier. When she met with him to buy some straight trees, she didn’t even ask about a transomshaped log — until she saw it in his backyard. Volunteers hauled it to the Mabee Farm with just enough time to cut it in half before it had to be installed. “When you face something you think you’re not going to overcome, with this group of people, you always find a solution,” Wagle said. “Almost we’re not afraid anymore of what hurdle we’ll come across.” Next Wednesday, she will place the ship in strangers’ hands for the first time. Anderson Boat Transport will lift the Onrust out of its pole barn. Burt Crane will lower it cautiously into the river, where a tugboat from the Canal Corp. will be waiting to guide it to Lock 9. The Onrust will have full sails, but they can’t be rigged until the volunteers raise the 45-foot-tall mast at the lock. Then they will parade with more modern ships in New York City centennial celebrations in June and September, as well as welcoming tourists at Lock 9 during the local festivals. Next year, the Onrust will become a floating museum to teach children about the overwhelming, yet forgotten, influence of the Dutch. “Our ideas of tolerance, the right to petition the government, these are all Dutch. The contributions are immense, and it’s never known,” Rittner said. He fell in love with the idea when he first heard of the Onrust, built on the shore of Manhattan after a Dutch trading ship burned on Christmas 1614. Capt. Adrien Block and his crew were offered passage back to the Netherlands on another ship, but they decided to stay put and build a new boat in the middle of winter in a foreign land. With their new, smaller ship, they were able to navigate the Hudson River, which had been explored just five years earlier by Henry Hudson. Block’s maps of the rivers between Manhattan and Cape Cod were so definitive that they remained in use for more than 100 years. Rittner and Wagle can’t wait to open those maps again. Neither of them has ever sailed down the river to New York City before...........>>>>......http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01303
ROTTERDAM Construction of new water tank gets nod BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
After nearly six years of discussions and more than $110,000 worth of studies, the town has approved a multi-million dollar project to construct a new 500,000-gallon water tank in Rotterdam Junction. Members of the Town Board soundly approved the construction of a tank following more than an hour of discussion during a public hearing at the hamlet’s fire station Wednesday. Most of the residents who spoke during the meeting seemed to support the $2 million project, which will be funded through user fees in Water Districts 3 and 4 over 30 years. “Construction will start in the summer, and we’re hopeful we’ll have it up and running in the fall,” said Supervisor Steve Tommasone. Town officials estimated that a resident owning a $158,000 home will pay an additional $229 on their 2010 water bill. In Water District 3, the average bill for a residence will be about $530, according to town estimates. Tommasone said there is a chance that the project could receive grants through the federal economic stimulus bill once the state Legislature begins delving out the funding. The cost could also be mitigated through contracts with telecommunications companies. The town receives about $215,000 annually through fees paid by companies that keep satellite equipment on Rotterdam’s other water tanks. Once construction is under way, Tommasone plans to market the tank to cellular providers. New development in Rotterdam Junction could also reduce the cost to residents. Tommasone said the town plans to increase the $750 hook-up fee for new users in Districts 3 and 4 to help defray some of the cost. “Hopefully you’ll see the payment drop,” he told residents. The town began discussing options for the decades-old partially buried cement tank off Leggiero Lane after a 2003 study revealed 10-foot cracks in its cement cover. Public works employees also suggested moving the 200,000-gallon tank because its location near the train tracks made it difficult to maintain. ...............>>>>>>......http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01302
This is great news for the people of Rotterdam Junction. Hopefully this finally takes care of some issues that they may have been having out there for some time.
I am glad that they didn't decide to go to the Feds for a grant of some sort.
ROTTERDAM Historical society gets clearance to build educational center BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Rotterdam’s Planning Commission gave the Schenectady County Historical Society the goahead Tuesday to start building the long-awaited George E. Franchere Educational Center at the Mabee Farm. Commission members unanimously approved final site plans for the 13,000-square-foot structure slated for the 27-acre property off Route 5S. Now all the historical society needs to do is find a way to fund the estimated $2 million project. “It’s an ongoing effort,” President Ed Reilly Jr. said of the society’s fundraising for the project. Reilly said the society remains about $800,000 short of the anticipated costs to build the center. However, he said, that amount could change markedly once construction bids come back this summer. “We won’t know until the bids come back,” he said. Ground-breaking on the project is tentatively scheduled for late August, with construction continuing through the fall and winter. Reilly said the goal is to open the center in late 2010 so that the historical society can operate its programs through the late fall and winter months. ............>>>>............>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01002
ROTTERDAM Keepers of the Circle to hold annual powwow this weekend BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
Keepers of the Circle will conduct its fourth annual powwow Saturday and Sunday at the nonprofit group’s educational center on Route 5S in Rotterdam Junction. The event will feature American Indian music and dances, vendors, food and demonstrations of archery and spear throwing. The powwow is the keepers’ main fundraiser of the year. White Buffalo will provide drumming, and Kathy “Walks Not Alone” Johnson will be the head female dancer and Timberwolf Lamia the head male dancer. Special activities are planned for children involving arts, crafts and storytelling. The two-day event will allow people to become immersed in American Indian culture, said Suzanne Rancourt, events coordinator. “Powwows are like church socials. They are a place where people come together in community,” Rancourt said. The powwow is not a religious event, she added. ............>>>>............>>>>.............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01003
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