WESTERLO — After voters soundly defeated a 2015 plan to build a new town highway garage, Westerlo officials are now applying for a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, known as NYSERDA, to make repairs on the old garage.

The grant would fund 80 percent of the cost of repairs to the garage, which also houses the town court and state police barracks. Nicole Ambrosio, a grant writer hired by the town at the end of last year, said she had visited the garage and saw parts of the ceiling falling in.

Ambrosio is currently working on a consolidated funding application — a type of streamlined grant application — through NYSERDA. But the town board would need to approve submission of the application, said town code enforcement officer Ed Lawson, who is preparing the required State Environmental Quality Review for the project.

“All we need is your blessing to go forward with it,” said Lawson, after urging the board several times to approve completing and submitting the application during the board’s April 3 meeting. Ambrosio said she’d like to submit the application this month, although there is no deadline for a submission.

Lawson said that the project would likely fund roof repairs and create a new pitched roof on trusses to prevent further weather damage. Costs are still unknown, he said, but added that the town could fund the project through a bond anticipation note.

Ambrosio said that repairs could be proposed in phases, ensuring that the most basic needs are funded in an initial phase but also allow for further repairs if possible. She said that the town could pursue other grants, too, giving an example of getting a grant to make a bathroom accessible to people using wheelchairs.

Planning board member Ned Stevens asked why the garage couldn’t be torn down using grant money. Lawson responded that plans to tear down the garage had been rejected before.

“Who rejected it?” asked Westerlo resident Anita Marrone, from the gallery.

“We did,” responded a number of residents seated alongside her.

The residents were referencing a September 2015 vote to allow the town to borrow $2.75 million to renovate the town hall and build a new garage. Residents voted it down, 341 to 162. A year later, voters narrowly defeated plans to borrow $887,000 to renovate the town hall.

Ambrosio said that the cost of demolishing a building, hauling away the remains, and rebuilding the foundation of the building would easily cost over a million dollars.

Financial concerns appeared to be on residents’ minds during the meeting. Lisa DeGroff, the town’s GOP chairwoman, asked repeatedly how the public would have a say on the matter.

The board ultimately voted in favor of moving forward with the application.

At the meeting, Ambrosio also introduced Jill Falchi, a Westerlo native and an outreach coordinator for NYSERDA’s Clean Energy Communities Program at the Capital District Regional Planning Commission. At the town board’s May meeting, Falchi intends to speak about the Clean Energy Communities grant, which would award money for a clean-energy project so long as the town completes four out of 10 energy-saving items. The neighboring Hilltown Knox is currently taking the final steps to receive a NYSERDA grant to repair its own highway garage.

Money worries could lead to new committee

Michael Conners, the Albany County comptroller, spoke at the April 3 Westerlo board meeting about the county’s declining sales tax revenues.

“We’ve been running around trying to scare everybody with what’s going on with sales tax revenues,” he quipped.

Conners said that the county’s sales tax revenues are decreasing — which means less revenue for Westerlo in the long run. This has been driven, he said, by the increase of online shopping that is not taxed by the state, as well as by fewer out-of-county visitors to the shopping malls and retail hubs in Albany County.

Later in the meeting, Richard Filkins, who was elected to the board this past November, said he thought the board should form a finance committee. He cited both Conners’s warning of an oncoming loss of revenue as well as Supervisor Richard Rapp’s handling of the town budget.

“[Rapp’s] age is starting to come into factor here,” said Filkins.

Filkins replaced former town board member William Bichteman who was not re-elected. Bichteman had headed several town projects after Rapp suffered from a stroke. Filkins and other residents had questioned who would take charge of town issues after Bichteman was ousted.

While Rapp defended his consistent drafting of the town budget, Westerlo resident Diane Sefcik protested from the gallery.

“We can’t keep doing things the same way,” she said. “Because we have new challenges.”

Sefcik and Leonard Laub, a Broadband Research Committee member, asked if the board would act on this quickly.

“If [Filkins] wants to do this, he needs to bring that to us,” said Councilman Joseph Boone, of discussing the proposed finance committee at the town’s workshop meeting.

The board’s workshop meeting was already scheduled to include about an hour of interviews for a new zoning-board-of-appeals member.

Solar plans continue

Planning board Chairwoman Dorothy Verch said that the planning board had held a public hearing for a proposed solar array near Strawberry Lane in Westerlo. The array would be built by the companies Costanza Solar and Cypress Creek Renewables. Verch said that the board heard from neighbors who were concerned about the access point to the site going through or near their property.

Verch told The Enterprise last month that the hearing would be adjourned until the April 26 meeting. She said that the deed for the property states that it is for residential use only, which would not allow for the array to be built there. Verch also said that the town’s attorney, Aline Galgay, would be working with Costanza Solar to remediate this.

Other business

In addition, the board:

— Heard from Boone and Laub that they were working together to find new customers for Mid-Hudson Cable, in the hopes that the town could have a cheaper franchise agreement with the company;

— Approved the planning and zoning board members to take solar law training;

— Discussed holding a hazardous waste day with the town of Berne; and

— Heard from Sue Fancher, of the town’s historical society, on the history of the production and prohibition of alcohol in Westerlo.

“There were stills in the wooded areas, there were stills in the cellar, and there were stills in the attic,” she said.