Asks town to repair culverts Farmer waits as his fields flood
Asks town to repair culverts
Farmer waits as his fields flood
RENSSELAERVILLE Robert Seeger has waited for two years as his pastures and fields flood and erode.
He is waiting for the town to fix the culverts on Tanglewood Road that he says are causing excessive water runoff.
"We’ve lost another year when I can’t plant corn because the field is too wet," Seeger told the Rensselaerville Town Board last Thursday. "When can I expect action""
The town hired Lamont Engineers to evaluate the problem and had just received the report.
"We need 30 days," said Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg.
The report was based on a review the engineers made of Seegers land on April 27.
In his report, Lamont project manager Doug Van Deusen estimates the construction costs for removing two of the culverts and replacing the third at $27,863.
"I think this citizen is losing value because the culverts were put in the wrong way. Something has to be done," Nickelsberg told The Enterprise this week.
Asked if the town is likely to pay what the engineers’ recommended to fix the problem, Nickelsberg said, "Maybe not $27,000, but, as long as water from the town is making it hard to plant corn and feed his cattle, we have to find a solution. That’s our job."
Asked why it has taken so long, Nickelsberg said he couldnt speak for what went on before he took office 18 months ago, but he said he looked at the property once he realized there was a problem.
"I saw it was serious enough to get the highway superintendent and an engineering firm involved," he said. "It doesn’t move quickly," he said of the process, "but it definitely moves."
Nickelsberg said he would like "to have a plan in place" at the town board’s next work session, scheduled for July 11.
Patient man
Seeger had told the board, in a letter, at its April meeting, "My property value is depreciating, and I have spent several thousand dollars on drainage pipes, culverts, and excavating, desperately trying to alleviate these problems with limited success."
He also said he had had trouble getting any response from the highway superintendent and went on, "Over the past four-and-a-half years, I have tried to do things diplomatically and avoid seeking legal action against the town or anyone involved as I want to be a good town citizen and neighbor and not one that causes trouble....
"I am now demanding answers from the town on how it is going to keep my property from being washed away. We want to keep our 100-plus acres for agricultural use. We have a small herd of Hereford steer that we plan to expand, and want to use our fields for crops. It is more and more difficult to do that when water is washing away our good topsoil and eroding our fields and forest."
The engineers report says the three Tanglewood Road culverts have, according to highway-department records, been there for 65 to 70 years but were replaced within the last nine to 10 years.
The two culverts that the engineers propose removing "do not have receiving channels and the discharge from these culverts is dispersed onto the Seeger property," the report says.
The third culvert, it says, discharges near the remnants of a stonewall that partially directs the discharge flow to a drainage channel that ultimately reaches a tributary to Potter Hollow Creek.
The report also details "several conditions that would contribute to wet and soggy conditions that on their own could result in the erosion damage to fields." This includes soil conditions, naturally sloped terrain, a pond that has no emergency spillway to a controlled outlet, and an agricultural diversion ditch that is "spilling drainage randomly overland towards the lowermost fields."
The engineers recommend that Seeger consult with the Albany County Soil and Water Conservation Service or the regional office of the Natural Resource Conservation Service to develop a land-management plan and "implement specific practices that would help manage seasonal and natural wetness...."
