RENSSELAERVILLE — The town is planning two structural repairs — one of its salt shed, and the other of a storm-damaged dam.

The town board voted unanimously at its July meeting to remove salt and sand from the back of the shed.
"God forbid it fell down," said Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg.
One hundred tons of salt and sand, Nickelsberg said in a letter to Highway Superintendent G. Jon Chase, needed to be removed immediately. The way it had been stored weakened the beams and it would be "very expensive to rebuild," Nickelsberg said. The building cost $100,000 and to build a new one would be "ridiculous," he said.

Nickelsberg told The Enterprise this week that salt and sand had been stored at two to three times the allowable height against the back wall, causing it to bulge out. It will have to be moved, by highway department workers, to the now-vacant center of the shed, he said, so repairs can be made.

He estimated the cost of repairs would be $5,000 to $10,000, which he pointed out is a fraction of the cost of replacing the shed.
Engineers from Lamont Engineers inspected the shed, located near the Rensselaearville’s highway garage and town hall, and noted, in their report, "There were 3 or 4 vertical support columns found to be either broken and/or deflected as well as deflected diagonal supports which appear to be the result of loading the structure beyond the recommended load-limit line (painted yellow line) on the inside of the building."

Dam repairs needed
Jack Long, who is temporarily chairing Rensselaerville’s water board, told the town board in July that the recent heavy rains "brought to a head a lingering situation."
The small dam at the head of the falls that produces the pool that is the inlet for the hamlet’s water supply has been "undermined substantially," he said.
"It’s irresponsible not to address this situation," said Long. "Where are we going to get substitute water without paying a fortune""
On July 14, engineers Frank Vedier and Doug Van Deusen, with Lamont Engineers, inspected "the impoundment structure" at the water-system intake located below Myosotis Lake and also looked at the stone dam located at Lincoln Pond, a contributing water body upstream of Myosotis Lake.
They concluded the severe storms at the end of June had "further weakened the concrete abutments at both ends of the impoundment structure."
The engineers also described, in a July 25 letter to Nickelsberg, a gravel bar that had developed over time and virtually shut off a "relief pathway" that would have directed some high-water flows around the impoundment structure, reducing the stress on the aging structure.
The engineers suggested the town contact the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to get the necessary permits to make repairs and they stressed that they hoped the DEC would recognize "the urgency to make the necessary repairs to protect the hamlet water supply system."

Short-term repairs, to be developed with the DEC, involve fixing concrete abutments and stabilizing the easterly bank, and a long-term plan is to be developed by the town and Lamont Engineers.

At Lincoln Pond, the engineers noted a number of leaks had been observed through the dike system.
"The dam did not indicate signs of deflection or eminent failure at this time," they wrote. "However," they went on, referring to the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve, "the Preserve has requested proposals from Consultants to address the safety and leakage of the aged structure."

Other business

In other business at its July meeting, the board:
— Heard a letter from Gene Smith, stating that a house on Route 352 in Medusa is "a fire hazard" and reduces the value of surrounding property.

William Ryan, the town’s attorney, said the building inspector would look into it;

— Heard a letter from Selective Insurance to Clerk Kathleen Hallenbeck advising that the playground needs surfacing of a proper depth to prevent injury from falls;

— Heard from Donald Gardeski that the dike at Potter Hollow and Catskill creeks, by the intersection of routes 81 and 145 overflowed onto his property.

The dike was built by the Army Corps of Engineers, Gardeski said, and was to be maintained by Rensselaerville; the dike needs to be reinforced, he said;

— Agreed to computerize the town’s records.
Minutes from town-board meetings, from 1976 to 2006, will be put on CD-ROM (Compact Disc — Read Only Memory) and town ordinances, which are now "scattered," said Ryan, will be put in a bound volume and posted on the town’s website.
Ryan called it "a good way to move into this century" and said, "I endorse it from a legal point of view."

It will cost $1,764 for the town minutes, with a fee of $350 for annual maintenance. The cost for organizing the legal documents is $8,800; and copies of the code will cost $60 each.

General Code from Rochester, N.Y. made the sole bid for the work;

— Heard that the Albany County Board of Elections will approve the Preston Hollow firehouse as a polling place if the thresholds are changed; the fire company is getting estimates that will come to the town board;

— Heard, from Nickelsberg, that a furnace that burns waste oil would save the town money. While the town waits for cost estimates on the furnace, Nickelsberg said, Jon Whitbeck, the town’s refuse and recycling officer, is prepared to store waste oil now in barrels.
"Folks, bring your oil to John Whitbeck on Wednesdays and Saturdays," said Nickelsberg. "We will use it next winter";

— Agreed to join the New York State Geographic Information Systems Agency, for no charge. It will allow the town to get free maps to help with its planning process, said Ryan;

— Heard Thomas Mikulka’s report on the beautification committee.
"I have planted all the trees I bought," said Mikulka. "I used up the budget."

The trees, planted near the highway building, are salt-tolerant evergreens, he said. He also said he moved some topsoil and thanked Jon Chase in advance for spreading topsoil by the old pond site that was going to be a fire-department training site;

— Heard a report from Allyn Wright, chair of the town’s planning board, on progress with developing a new comprehensive land-use plan for Rensselaerville.

He said that 250 surveys, similar to ones that were distributed 15 years ago, had been returned. If 30 more were to be turned in, that would be 20 percent of the population, a very good rate of return, he said.

— Heard from Vernon Husek that the land-use committee, which he chairs, is reviewing what other towns in New York State have done. The group was scheduled to hear Gary Kleppel, a University of Albany professor and Knox resident, speak on July 20 about planning in the Hilltowns; and

— Agreed that Chip Decker would fill in for Building Inspector Mark Overbaugh during the two-and-a-half weeks Overbaugh is in Alaska.