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ROTTERDAM
Town, county at odds over flood funds
$35K to be used to demolish two derelict homes
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Money that was originally earmarked to protect the Rotterdam and Schenectady wellheads along the Mohawk River from fl ooding will instead be used to demolish two dilapidated houses that have stood derelict near the Great Flats Nature Preserve for more than a decade.
    The use of $35,000 from the SI Group for the demolition concerned at least one town offi cial, who says the county is wrongly appropriating funding that was dedicated to Rotterdam. Town Councilman Robert Godlewski said the town should be allowed to use half of the money to protect the wellheads, which were nearly inundated by contaminated water from the swollen Mohawk after Tropical Storm Irene last summer.
    “The intent was always to use that money to protect the wellheads,” he said. “The county does not have the authority to use our money and that’s the bottom line.”
    But County Attorney Chris Gardner blamed the town and city for not crafting a plan to use the money in accordance with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which collected the funding from the SI Group as part of a settlement. Gardner said the town and city never responded to communication from the DEC indicating their plans to improve the wellheads were inadequate.
    “The written record contradicts what Bob Godlewski says,” he said. “At some point, you have to utilize the money, otherwise it’ll get swept away.”
    The wellheads narrowly avoided disaster during last year’s fl ooding, acknowledged county Emergency Management Director Mark LaViolette. Members of the state Naval Militia were deployed to stack sandbags around both facilities during the peak of fl ooding to prevent potential contamination in case the water got any higher.
    “There was a potential threat,” he said.
    The wells serve as the primary water source for Rotterdam and Schenectady. Had flood waters contaminated the wells, a large portion of the county would have needed an alternative water source.
    “If they get contaminated then we have to start pulling water from some other source,” LaViolette said “We would have been in a world of hurt.”
    LaViolette acknowledged the unusual nature of the fl ooding, but said he’d rather see both facilities safeguarded in the event of another catastrophic fl ood.
    “I definitely would err on the side of caution,” he said.
    The funds initially came to the Schenectady County emergency management office as part of a consent order that the SI Group reached with the DEC after the company’s Rotterdam Junction plant exceeded the amount of waste it could discharge into the river during several periods in 2005. The consent order stipulates the money should be used “for the protection of the city of Schenectady and town of Rotterdam wellheads on Rice Road [in Rotterdam] from fl oodwaters,” according to the order signed in 2006.
    But neither municipality came up with a plan to do work that matched the scope outlined by the DEC, according to internal communications with the agency released by the county this week. As a result, the money went untouched until county officials approached the DEC with a project to demolish the two abandoned homes near the Great Flats trail entrance on Campbell Road.
    DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said the agency has approved the new use of the funding. He said the project will help clean up a sensitive recharge zone for the Great Flats Aquifer.
    “The properties have been used over the years for illegal dumping, and their demolition will not only remove the dilapidated structures but also the associated waste material on the site,” he said. “This will help prevent contamination from entering the Great Flats Aquifer.”
    Just prior to the change, Clark Collins, the senior water treatment plant operator, was lobbying for the money for wellhead protection. In January, he wrote a letter to Rotterdam town Supervisor Harry Buffardi, imploring him to persuade the county to release money so that “numerous upgrades” could be done to the plant in accordance with the consent agreement.
    “This money would help us do needed work and not impact the current budget or cause an increase in taxes for the residents,” he said in the letter. ...............................>>>>......................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01302&AppName=1

Quoted from Patches

Does this government know how to save for a rainey day???

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rain·mak·er   /ˈreɪnˌmeɪkər/ Show Spelled[reyn-mey-ker] Show IPA
noun
1. (among American Indians) a medicine man who by various rituals and incantations seeks to cause rain.
2. a person who induces rainfall by using various scientific techniques, as the seeding of clouds with silver iodide crystals from an airplane.
3. Slang . an executive or lawyer with exceptional ability to attract clients, use political connections, increase profits, etc.: The president has several rainmakers among his advisers.

Quoted from Hamburg

GFY..   none of you have any idea how much SAFER our town is with the Nayboobs OUT of power.....