VOORHEESVILLE — The village board meeting this week centered on traffic issues in Voorheesville, as drivers adjust to road construction and deal with speeders.

The board discussed the New York State Department of Transportation bridge project on Route 85A just beyond the elementary school at the edge of the village. Drivers currently wait at a traffic signal to enter the temporary one-way lane to cross over a small culvert.

Superintendent of Public Works William Smith told The Enterprise that the DOT is redoing the entire bridge. Work on the culvert began in July, Smith said. The DOT estimates that the work will be complete in mid-October, he said.

“They have set two-thirds of the width of the box culvert” so far, Smith told the board. “It hasn’t really been great weather to be working in a creek.”

The project is expected to go into October because Voorheesville’s water main line runs along Route 85A. The DOT crew must move the water main out of its way to move the bridge’s abutments, Smith said. Smith said that the construction should not affect school bus runs.

Village speeding

Village resident James Hogan complained of blind spots and fast drivers on Swift Road, and asked the board to request assistance from the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.

“It’s just getting worse,” Hogan said.

Mayor Robert Conway asked if Hogan has seen sheriff’s patrols on Swift Road.

“No. No, never,” Hogan said.

Two 30-mile-per-hour speed-limit signs are on the street, he said, but one may be difficult to see because of the angle. The other is near his own driveway, at 20 Swift Road, he said.

“Up the road or down the road, they are flying,” he said.

The board has asked the Sheriff’s Department for a flashing speed-limit sign for Prospect Street. Village residents also complain often of drivers’ speeding on Voorheesville Avenue and Locust Drive.

Drivers cut through the village to get elsewhere, Conway said.

“We can always go the camera route,” he said, referring to speed-monitoring cameras.

Conway read a written request from another resident for the village to repave Swift Road. The resident noted that the road may not have been paved in eight years.

“The life cycle of a road is a minimum of 10 years,” Smith said.

“Then they’ll go even faster,” Clerk-Treasurer Linda Pasquali and several board members said.

Other business

In recent business, the village board:

—  Offered condolences to the families of resident James Feck, and Rotterdam resident Matthew Fiske.

Fiske, 43, was the owner of Fiske Construction, the company building Quail Run townhomes in Voorheesville. The townhome project is only half finished.

Fiske died in a traffic accident on Saturday night.

“Let the guy’s family deal with their loss,” Smith said;

— Congratulated Deputy Clerk Treasurer Karen Finnessey for completing requirements to be a registered municipal clerk;

— Discussed hiring seasonal part-time snowplow drivers or, alternatively, contracting drivers to plow.

Previously, Smith said, full-time employee and former Assistant Superintendent Michael Wiesmaier was part of Smith’s crew of five who drive village plows each winter. Since Wiesmaier’s recent retirement, the village hopes to realize “significant savings” by hiring part-time seasonal help, Smith said.

Both Village Attorney Richard Reilly and Pasquali expressed concern about village insurance covering contracted workers;

— Learned that the village’s new pickleball net has been installed in the village park;

— Adopted a local law to update its solid waste disposal law, agreeing to “source, separate, and arrange” refuse.

“We are simply adopting language…as [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation] DEC wants,” Reilly said; and,

— Adopted a policy denouncing and putting into place steps to prevent or report violence in the workplace for village employees.