KNOX — Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy says it would “make sense” for the county and the town of Knox to share a highway garage in Knox.

“We don’t need to build the Taj Mahal,” he told The Enterprise. Sharing a building, he said, “would save money for Knox and the county taxpayers.”

McCoy had no estimate on what the cost might be.

Asked about the timeline on such a project, McCoy said it would have to wait until his choice for the county’s commissioner of public works is approved. He also said, “I’ve got to work with the Albany County Legislature. I’ve already talked to Chris Smith and Travis Stevens,” he said of Democrats representing the Hilltowns.

Both the county and town currently have facilities in Knox. “Our property in Knox has a better location,” said McCoy. “We’d look at the needs for the bays; some could be shared.” Other bays could be designated for either county or town use, he said.

“The town would shoulder its share of the cost “ said McCoy, adding that a salt shed in Berne was paid for partly with state funds and grant money, and something similar might be worked out for the garage in Knox.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer, to consolidate two facilities into one and have overall savings,” said McCoy, adding, “You’ve got to have public input, of course.”

The Enterprise asked McCoy about the project because of comments made at the March 14 Knox Town Board meeting.

Robert Price, a manufacturing engineer who chairs the Knox Planning Board, had drawn up plans to improve the current Knox highway garage, which he called “the world’s least energy-efficient building.”

The garage is a steel-framed building, about 40 by 90 feet, built in 1963.

Price said insulation would make the workers more comfortable — in cold weather, temperatures inside the garage don’t reach over 50 degrees, he said, and the workers pile sand to keep the wind out. He also recommended replacing the 10 plastic skylights with corrugated roofing.

Price estimated the cost at $60,000, and said it was “one of the things Amy wanted to do with with the $100,000.”

Price was referring to Councilwoman Amy Pokorny who couldn’t get a second at the February board meeting to accept a grant for an electric-vehicle charging station that, once completed, would have been the fourth item needed for Knox to apply for a $100,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for green initiatives in town. Knox was ahead of other municipalities in the Capital Region of its size competing for the grant.

Price told The Enterprise later that he had a “formal quote” for $62,000 that would insulate the building with spray foam, fix the roof skylights, replace the windows, and fix the four bay doors so that wind doesn’t come in from underneath them.

Supervisor Vasilios Lefkaditis responded to Price’s proposal by saying that Knox would be working with the county on building a new garage.

“Structurally, the building is fine,” said Price of the current Knox garage. It’s a Butler Building, he said, and a similar one was recently built in western New York for $1.65 million.

“There is no way you would replicate the building somewhere else,” Price said, for the modest sums he was talking about.

“We’ve done nothing but improve it,” Highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury said of the garage.

The board did agree to Price’s request for up to $300 to conduct tests at Bender Laboratory on the water at the highway garage.

“The worst case scenario would be the septic is polluting the well,” said Price. He urged, “Make the bathroom something that doesn’t make you want to throw up.”

“Don’t throw good money after bad,” cautioned Lefkaditis on Price’s overall proposal.

Lefkaditis had told The Enterprise earlier that money from the $100,000 NYSERDA grant — which Knox might still qualify for with one of two other “action items” in the works: LED lighting for Knox streetlamps, or specialized training for Knox’s building inspector — would be better spent on a solar array to generate continual annual savings for the town.

Price responded, through The Enterprise, to McCoy’s assertions, “Until someone comes up with a dollar number to build an aggregate Knox and county highway garage, you don’t know if you’d have a savings.”

Price said Knox currently has four bays and needs six, and that adding on to the current structure would be less costly than building a new one, even if it were shared. With six bays, the building would be about 6,500 square feet, Price said, and calculated the per-foot cost of a new building at $135 for a total of about $877,500.

“Who is going to pay for it? State and federal grants sound like tax dollars to me,” Price concluded.

Public use of Town Hall

Councilman Daniel Hanley, who had agreed to see how neighboring municipalities dealt with opening their buildings to public use, reported to the board that he had consulted with Berne, Guilderland, Voorheesville, New Scotland, and Westerlo.

“No one allows personal use of their town halls,” said Hanley, although they allow civic groups that serve the public like Scouts or Kiwanis.

“We are writing it from scratch,” he said.

“If we open the building to anyone, this is not a secure interior,” warned John Dorfman, the town’s attorney. “You have sensitive material here.”

The board members, however, agreed that the matter should be pursued, with caveats like a deposit to cover any damage, and insurance riders being applied.

Dan Sherman, the town’s building inspector and a member of the fire department, said from the gallery that the firehouse can be used for private gathering if the gathering is sponsored by a member.

Hanley said, in the case of the town board, that would be limit use of the town hall “to only people we know.” He concluded, “It should be anyone in the town of Knox.”

Hanley will continue to pursue the matter.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Heard from Judy Petrosillo, director of the Berne Public Library, which is used by Knox residents. Knox has no library of its own but contributes to both the Berne and Altamont libraries. “Our goal is to get at least as much as Altamont,” said Petrosillo.

The Berne library increased its hours this year from 28 to 32 per week. Petrosillo went over the library’s many programs and activities. It has a collection of 14,700 items, mostly books. “Circulation has gone up every year,” she said, with 15,804 items circulated in 2016. Digital use has skyrocketed in recent years.

Twenty-eight percent of the library’s patrons are from Knox (out of 1,220 active patrons in 2016, there were 343 from Knox, 820 from Berne, and 57 others), she said. Out of a total operating fund of $53,848, Berne paid $37,530 and Knox paid $4,500, Petrosillo reported. (See related story.)

“There’s no question you do a whole hell of a lot with very little,” Lefkaditis said at the conclusion of Petrosillo’s presentation;

— Heard from Lefkaditis that the planning board has its “second large-scale solar array in the works”;

— Heard from Claire Ansbro-Ingalls and Dawn Gibson, leaders of Kenneth’s Army, that its single annual fundraiser, a motorcycle run starting at Thacher Park, will be held this year on Saturday, June 3. The ride will run through the Hilltowns with stops at the Voorheesville Rod and Gun Club and the Shell Inn.

Kenneth’s Army was formed in 2015 after the Dec. 18, 2014 murder of 5-year-old Kenneth White, who had lived in Knox. Among its stated aims are “to honor Kenneth’s memory by advocating for changes in the laws that affect the placement of children” and “speaking out against child abuse and neglect.”

“A 5-year-old had to give his life for all of us to get together...He does come around and watch us,” said Claire Ansbro-Ingalls. She told the crowd, to applause, how a tricycle had turned its wheel as if to follow the motorcyclists;

— Agreed to buy protective film to be applied to the windows on snowplows after, during the last snowstorm, a plow window broke, scratching the driver on his eyes and cheek;

— Heard a request from three Berne-Knox-Westerlo students — Taryn Hanley, Vasiliki Lefkaditis, Caroline Mundell —  to use the Knox Town Hall as an after-school venue for socializing with friends and getting homework done. The sessions would be held on Thursdays, after sports practices, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and would be supervised by adults.

Any student living in Berne, Knox, or Westerlo, whether they went to BKW or to other schools or were home-schooled, would be welcome to attend, the students said. Dorfman suggested “an unincorporated association” might make a good umbrella for the group.

It was agreed the project should come under the oversight of the Knox Youth Council and the students were instructed to address the council;

— Discussed having the town’s zoning board or planning board, rather than applicants, responsible for mailing notices to neighbors about special-use permits and the like.

— Heard from Lefkaditis that the fire-control panel at Town Hall was awkwardly placed against the trusses and the builders should “get their butts in to fix it...I am not going to pay them,” he said. Dorfman was instructed “to send them a threatening letter”;

— Considered ways to publicize the revived Pucker Street Fair, which last year netted $400, Lefkaditis said. He recommended spending $150 on a reusable banner to “spread across the road” and said, “We’ll definitely do social media.” The fair this year will be held on July 7, 8, and 9;

— Heard that Mark Jacobson, a civil engineer whom Knox is considering hiring for projects, had not sent in a fee schedule as requested. “Tell him if he doesn’t have it by next meeting, he’s out,” Lefkaditis instructed Dorfman. “I don’t operate that way,” replied Dorfman;

— Heard from Councilman Dennis Barber that he is planning a town-wide clean-up day and wants to involve youth groups and civic organizations. “I was hoping to get town residents to take care of their own town,” he said. The date will be set at the April board meeting;

— Agreed to have the Village Animal Clinic in Voorheesville handle any sick or injured animals taken in by Lou Saddlemire, the town’s dog-control officer; the clinic offered Knox a 10-percent discount, said Pokorny. The Capital District Veterinary Referral Hospital in Latham will be used in off hours.

“I don’t have anybody,” said Saddlemire of a designated clinic. He has served as Knox’s dog-control officer for five years and said, “I’ve never had a sick dog.”

Saddlemire also asked, “How much money can I spend on an injured dog?”

“We’re authorizing you to do the minimum under Ag and Markets,” said Lefkaditis referencing state law. “We can get stuck with a very big bill very fast.”

The Mohawk-Hudson Humane Society will continue to shelter dogs found in town until Knox has its own shelter, said Pokorny; and

— Met in closed session to discuss what the agenda termed a “personnel matter not to reconvene to public session.”