Civil meeting
Amadore, Glassworks projects will proceed

GUILDERLAND — Development took center stage, with two area companies submitting environmental impact statements and a third seeking a public hearing for its re-zoning request, at Tuesday’s town board meeting. 

In striking contrast to recent meetings, members of the split-party town board were painstakingly polite to each other and voted unanimously in favor of all motions, save the adoption of the last meeting’s minutes.  Councilman Warren Redlich abstained from the vote, saying that the minutes are the clerk’s purview and need not be approved by the board.

First on the agenda was the request for a public hearing from Amedore Homes, Inc., which has plans to develop 22 acres on Old State Road.  Current zoning on the land would allow for 1.4 units per acre, Supervisor Kenneth Runion said — Amedore is seeking to cluster 42 townhouses on the parcel, leaving 80 percent of the land open, John Bossilini, a project manager for Amedore, told the board.

The company is seeking to change one part of the R-30 zoning to local business, but Runion suggested it try to rezone to business non-retail professional.

“I have no objection to the rezone as it provides a reasonable transition zone from the Carman Road commercial area to the Old State Road residential areas,” wrote Jan Weston, the town’s planner, in a memo to the board.  She had also requested that Amedore include further sidewalks in its plan — a suggestion that Bossilini said he would consider.

The board voted unanimously to set a public hearing for 8 p.m. on April 1.

Another development on the horizon, Glassworks Village, came before the board to announce the completion of its environmental impact statement.  Since its public hearing in May, the company has gotten input from nearby residents, the town, and the library, which neighbors the proposed development, said Jim Schultz, who was representing Glassworks.  They have amended the plan, after discussions with the library, to eliminate a road that was to be adjacent to the library’s property, he said.

Similarly, the Northeastern Industrial Park approached the board about its environmental impact statement.  “It was a little longer than originally intended,” Steven Porter, who was representing the industrial park, said to the board after Councilwoman Patricia Slavick commended the company for its patience — it has been working with the town for several years to get its property rezoned for development.

The board voted unanimously to issue notices of completion for each company’s environmental impact statement and expects to discuss the finding of facts at its next meeting, on April 1.

The findings will likely be available for public review at Town Hall by early next week, Runion said.

In other business, the board:

— Congratulated the Guilderland High School cheerleading squad for winning first place at a national cheerleading competition;

— Heard from Harry Mesick, a town resident, that he’d like to see the board work on town business.  “I feel that before the two gentlemen in question, Mr. Redlich and Mr. Grimm, were in office, we never had a problem,” he said;

— Heard from Ted Danz, a town resident and chair of the town’s Republican Party, that he applauds debate on the board, but would like to see both parties make an effort to get along.  “We would be well behooved in this town to work together,” he said;

— Voted unanimously to authorize Runion to file a grant application with the state’s department of transportation for sidewalk construction on Carman Road;

— Voted unanimously to authorize the department of water and wastewater management to open bidding for granulated activated carbon;

— Discussed the possibility of providing closed captioning of televised town meetings.  Albert Molis wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor in February raising the issue — Runion said at Tuesday’s meeting that the equipment could cost as much as $60,000, plus the hourly cost of the service. 

Redlich suggested transcribing the meetings and then posting the transcriptions on the town’s website as a cheaper alternative; he had first made the suggestion about transcription at the last town board meeting during a heated discussion about the minutes taken at town board meetings.  

The board asked residents to contact Town Hall with their thoughts on closed captioning and transcription;

— Voted unanimously to authorize the supervisor to sign an encroachment agreement for a homeowner to maintain a shed and pool, which are partially located on a storm-water drainage easement;

— Voted unanimously to award a bid for yard waste grinding and removal at the transfer station to S. M. Gallivan, which bid $3.71 per yard; it was the lowest bidder of three and was also the company that won the bid last year, when the town ground about 26,000 yards, said Tim Spawn;

— Voted unanimously to waive the building permit fee for the construction of a pavilion in DiCaprio Park; and

— Entered executive session to discuss Civil Service Employee Association contract negotiations.