2006 in Altamont
Comprehensive plan, new water source, SOP for police and Sunoco arrives



ALTAMONT — This year saw the creation of an updated comprehensive plan for the village, the near completion of a new water source, some changes in the police department, and a tough transition for a village landmark.

The village board began 2006 by hiring a planner and ended the year receiving a copy of the final comprehensive plan, now awaiting approval. Chaired by Trustee Dean Whalen, the committee surveyed village residents and business owners through mailings and meetings to gauge community needs and desires.
Some parts of the plan might not be possible, Whalen said, when asked how much of the plan he expected would be implemented. He added, " We have to look at at least 50 percent of the things in the next couple of years." Zoning, the business district, and the noise ordinance are things that are important to act on soon, he said.
The gray water pilot project is one item that Whalen identified as probably being cost prohibitive. The idea behind the project is to connect a pipe system to buildings in the village to collect "gray" water — washing water rather than sewage — to be used elsewhere rather than treating it like waste water.

Also listed in the green-initiatives section of the plan is support for geothermal systems in municipal buildings, an idea that Whalen thinks might be more feasible. Geothermal heating and cooling is a method that involves drilling into the earth, to reach a depth that remains a constant 55 degrees, and running water through the system so that the stable 55-degree temperature is transferred to the water.

In the winter, setting the thermostat at 65 degrees would require only energy enough to heat the water 10 degrees, rather than, like a traditional system, heating air that comes in at 20 degrees to 65, he said, as an example, and cooling is almost free.
Of the 44-page plan with 71 pages of appendices, Whalen said, "It has a lot of broad-stroke references and reminders and dreams."

Water

Altamont made headway on its two-part plan for improving water availability in the village this year. The first phase of the project, getting the recently-purchased Brandle Road well connected to the municipal system, is nearly completed. The second part involves replacing parts of the water-distribution system, some of which are over a century old.

To help pay for the $2.5 million project and ease the burden on taxpayers, the village board and Mayor James Gaughan proposed a fee of $2,500 per unit for each new residential unit hooking into the new Brandle Road water system. The board voted to implement the fee at the village board meeting in March.

The village closed on the Brandle Road property on April 25, after reaching a settlement with Michael and Nancy Trumpler. The year before, in April of 2005, the Trumplers filed papers in Albany County Supreme Court, seeking to get out of a contract to sell their land to the village and asking for a judge to rule on its validity. The Trumplers objected to Altamont’s plans to give water to developer Jeff Thomas, for a senior housing project outside the village. The amount of water available to the village’s own residents is insufficient, the Trumplers argued, and their intent had been for the water to go to the village.

Thomas has proposed a 72-unit senior-housing complex, also on Brandle Road, to draw water from the village.

The Trumplers didn’t sue for any money. In the April settlement, the village paid $225,000 to the Trumplers for five acres for the well, plus 32 adjacent acres to be preserved for Michael Trumpler’s lifetime.
In August, the village asked for easements from property owners along Brandle Road so that the pipe line could connect the well to the water system; it offered to waive the hook-up fee as an incentive to gain easements. Mayor Gaughan said that the village would go ahead with its plan regardless of whether it got waivers from all the residents; it would cut into the roadway in front of the properties that didn’t grant an easement. He began having monthly meetings with the village’s engineer and Thomas this summer "to keep him apprised of where we are, so we can move in lockstep," he said.

Workers began laying the pipe to connect the well this month and Mayor Gaughan expects that the project will be completed by mid-February.

Police

A harassment complaint started the year for the Altamont Police Department.

Colin Abele, a clerk at Ketchum’s lodged a complaint that officer Joshua M. Davenport harassed him at his job in the convenience store and threatened to write him tickets for speeding violations he hadn’t committed.
After looking into the complaint, Altamont’s public safety commissioner, Anthony Salerno, said, "Some things have been substantiated" They have been addressed," although he declined to say what was substantiated and how it was addressed. Davenport was suspended for a week and was then reinstated.
On Sept. 22, after having been suspended for a second time, Davenport wrote a letter of resignation that said: "I release the Village of Altamont and any and all of its employees from any claim or claims against them which I may have had."
In March, Terri Gockley made a complaint to the village board about Salerno. A single mother of two and a teacher at Guilderland High School, Gockley claimed that Salerno was responsible for "excessive and bullying treatment" of her and her son.

Her major concern was over Salerno’s conduct during his arrest of her 18 year old son at an under-age drinking party. She also mentioned several other instances of more minor harassment of her son by the village’s commissioner of public safety.
A committee concluded that "the conduct of the commissioner was proper," according to Mayor James Gaughan. He and Trustee Kerry Dineen were the only members of the committee. The village board accepted a resolution to that effect.
Salerno presented the board with a Standard Operating Procedures guide this year, which he created from "disks" that were part of a national set of guidelines, he said. Although Altamont doesn’t have a sergeant, lieutenant, or investigator, the duties assigned to those positions are laid out in detail in the manual and referred to regularly throughout it. Salerno said that the village should prepare for growth.

The board adopted the procedures in a split vote; Trustee Harvey Vlahos, who raised some concerns about the manual, was the only dissenter.

Ketchum’s changes hands

The convenience store and gas station that served as a village hang-out stirred controversy this summer when long-time owners Sarah and Thomas Ketchum sold their store to a Connecticut-based company.
Altamont Petroleum, which bought the store in July, is a special-purpose entity created by GRGH at the request of its mortgaging bank, American Community Bank, according to Matthew Sgambettera, the company’s lawyer. Altamont Petroleum was created "specifically for this particular station," he said. Though this is the only station that Altamont Petroleum owns, GRGH owns 22 gas stations in New York, as well as stations in New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut.
Originally, GRGH had David Singh, a 20-year employee of the company, acting as the manager of the store, but, "The community just didn’t want him," said 10-year Ketchum’s employee, Stacy Deligan, in August.
"Honestly, I think it was a little bit of people being prejudiced and a lot of the way Dave was with customers," said Michael Dingman of why he thought Singh left and GRGH offered Dingman oversight of the store, he took the reigns of the 10-year lease officially on Oct. 1.