Altamont seeks comments
County considers right-to-farm law



ALTAMONT — As development encroaches, farms will likely remain a part of this area.

The county is currently surveying municipalities on a county-wide right-to-farm law.

A letter from Mark Fitzsimmons, the director of Albany County’s Department of Economic Development Conservation and Planning, asking for the village’s input on the law was mentioned by Mayor James Gaughan at Tuesday’s village board meeting.

Gaughan said that he has asked Joseph Abbruzzese, an owner of Altamont Orchards; Bob Santorelli, president of the Altamont Fair board; and local agricultural landowners for comments before crafting a response to the county.
Notification to potential property buyers that there are nearby farmlands and a dispute resolution system were two aspects of the law that the mayor highlighted when asked about it after the meeting. He emphasized the importance of "farmland heritage" to this area.
"I would not like to see unnecessary conflict between new developments and farmlands," he said.

Fitzsimmons also pointed to the conflict resolution portion of the law as significant. Sights, sounds, and smells from working farms aren’t always compatible with single-family homes, he said. With a conflict-resolution system, complaints can be dealt with outside of court.
"Lawsuits are easy," he said yesterday. "But they’re expensive and time consuming."

Protecting farms and farmlands is important because agriculture is a large part of the local economy, he said.
"It is the number-one industry in the state," Fitzsimmons said. "It is still a very important economic feature and farmland itself is a non-renewable resource."

Since the law will affect all of Albany County, Fitzsimmons said that he hopes to get as much input as possible from municipalities and he expects a range, from detailed reviews to general opinions.
"Anything is going to be helpful," he said, adding that there is no firm timeline for the project and he hasn’t asked for responses by a specific date.
Gaughan expects to give the village’s response to the county in about a month and said, "My personal predilection is to be in agreement with this."

Other business

In other business at recent meetings, the board:

— Honored former police chief and local documentary film producer, George Pratt, who made a film about cowboys in Florida. After Pratt retired, he began working on the ranges in Florida.
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The movie, Cowboys of Florida, was one of 10 finalists, chosen from a group of 350 international submissions, in the documentary category of the Palm Beach International Film Festival;
— Heard from Trustee Dean Whalen that the master-planning committee is working on cross-tabulations of the information gathered in the surveys that were sent out to village businesses and residents. "We’re really in the same stage as Harvey reported on two weeks ago," he said, referring to Trustee Harvey Vlahos;
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— Heard from Keith Lee that Carl Schilling has been meeting with engineers regarding the Maple Avenue park. Schilling has volunteered to build a pavilion, which will mimic the train station overhang where the farmers’ market is held, as part of the second phase of a four-phase plan for the park. Gaughan said that the third phase will produce a children’s playground and the final phase will complete the planting on the hill;
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— Heard from Gaughan that volunteer firefighters will be honored on the Saturday of Altamont Fair week in an event sponsored by the fair. It will start at the podium at 2 p.m. with a parade;
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— Heard from Gaughan that a federal grant will be available in the fall for the purchase of a new senior van. The grant requires a 20-percent capital match. Gaughan said that the senior organization would be the applicant and the town would be the sponsor for the grant;
— — Heard from Trustee William Aylward that he has been looking into soundproof fences to help contain noise at the fairgrounds. He said that the only local price quote he could get was $200 per linear foot. That fence is hollow, he said, and, when it is used for noise abatement, it is filled with old tires. He left the board with a rhetorical question – is it our responsibility or the fair’s";
— — Heard from Commissioner for Public Safety Anthony Salerno that WGNA, which organized Countryfest, has paid the village $4,040 in compensation for the police on duty during the event. "We’re trying every way we can to bring money in," he said;
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— Heard from Salerno that Gaughan and officers Patrick Thomas, Kenneth Lebel, and Matthew Hanzalik, completed the National Management Course, which is required by Homeland Security;
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— Voted unanimously to accept a bid for $3,700 from ABC Tree Company to remove trees on Lincoln Avenue; this was chosen from among four bids;
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— Voted unanimously to appoint Larry N. Adams Jr. as an operator at the water treatment plant and Heather DeSarbo as court clerk from the Albany County Department of Civil Service’s list of eligible residents effective July 25, 2006;
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— Voted unanimously to authorize Gaughan to sign property easement contracts for 15 properties along Brandle Road, which will allow the village to enter five feet into each property so that it can install a pipeline, eight inches in diameter, from a well for village use recently drilled near the road; and
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— Voted unanimously to authorize the destruction of records retained in the village office beyond the required six years under New York State laws, following a review by the village historian for archival significance.