NEW SCOTLAND — The town hopes to hire former New Scotland assessor Deborah Corbari as its new part-time assessor.

The town is also waiting for state funds to arrive for construction of the Youmans Road connector road, so the railroad crossing can be closed.

New assessor

Corbari had worked for the town as assessor for one year, said Supervisor Thomas Dolin. She is currently a member of the town’s assessment board of review. The town has received several applications, but the board will interview only Corbari, unless negotiations with her fall through, Dolin said.

In October, full-time assessor Julie Nooney resigned because the town board was considering combining assessment services with nearby towns, or hiring a part-time assessor.

 “Because of this, I was not reappointed October 1, 2007,” Nooney said in September. “I stayed on with the town as a ‘hold over’ assessor and, after just over one year without any decisions by the town board, I thought it was best to open up the possibility to move on.”

Dolin said that, of the applications he received, the board chose Corbari alone to interview.

“We more or less focused on her,” he said. “She had the best qualifications.”

In her application, Dolin said, Corbari requested 15 hours per week of work. Dolin hopes to meet with Corbari to decide the hours and the salary for the position, he said. The salary range budgeted is between $20,000 and $25,000, he said. The salary paid for a full-time assessor, including benefits, was $58,000.

After leaving New Scotland, Corbari told The Enterprise, she received her appraiser’s license and worked at Fleet Bank. Corbari stayed home with her two children after working at the bank, and then got her Realtor’s license.

“I work as a Realtor, and I’m home with my kids, too,” Corbari said. She is now employed with Team Shillinglaw with Keller Williams Realty Capital District.

If she accepts the assessor’s position, Dolin said, Corbari will have to agree not to participate in any New Scotland listings.

“I knew that before I put my résumé in,” Corbari said. “It would be a conflict of interest.”

Corbari said that she has listings throughout the Capital District, including in Bethlehem, Colonie, and Guilderland. Corbari is a Voorheesville native and has been “all my life,” she said.

Dolin said that the board has not finalized its decision to hire Corbari. The board will discuss the position at its Dec. 29 meeting, he said.

Youmans Road connector

At the town board meeting last week, the board unanimously agreed to hire Stantec, the town’s designated engineering firm, to build the connector road between Youmans Road and Great View Terrace — a project with a budget of $450,000.

The connector road, which was planned years before, will be built so that the CSX railroad crossing on Youmans Road can be closed, after a recent near-death accident on the tracks. Youmans Road resident Peter Salerno and his two daughters were in their Land Rover when two trains struck the vehicle on Nov. 22. No major injuries occurred. He was charged with not stopping at the crossing, a misdemeanor; the case, scheduled for Dec. 18 in New Scotland Town Court, was adjourned.

The town, state, and railroad authorities agreed to close the crossing because of the approaching slopes to the tracks, limited sight-distance, and the lack of crossing signals there.

The $450,000-project will be funded by the state.

Dolin said last week that $120,000 of the total budget would be available to the town within a couple of weeks.

Of the 10 firms considered for the engineering work, Dolin said, Stantec ranked highest on a points system, beating out Barton and Loguidice, and Laberge Engineering and Consulting. Stantec also created the design that the state’s Department of Transportation is considering for the project, Dolin said.

“They provided the meat that DOT used to come up with $450,000,” Dolin said. “I was impressed. They were telling the state DOT [representatives] they couldn’t do what they said because the federal standards were stricter.”