Dams and roads

Between a rock and a hard place

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The county, just like other entities in the state that own dams, will likely have to lay out funds to bring the dams up to new standards. Specifically, that means the dam that forms Taxpayers Pond in Yulan may need some remediation.

At a meeting of the Sullivan County Department of Public Works Committee (DPW) at the government center on January 14, commissioner Robert Meyer told lawmakers that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had classified the dam as a “high hazard dam,” in part, because of its size and the amount of damage that would likely occur should the dam fail.

Meyer said that this means that the county must, by the end of the summer, hire an engineer with experience with dams to conduct a thorough inspection of the dam.

Lawmaker Alan Sorensen said the new dam regulations adopted by the DEC over the past year will result in expensive outlays for lake communities and dam owners across the state. He said the community in which he lives, Emerald Green, has already spent some $200,000 for engineering fees for the dams there.

He said, “We are faced with spending up to $4 million to bring the dam up to the new standards that DEC has put into place. Not to say the dams that we have are unsafe, we’ve maintained them.” But, he said, “These rules require that some dams be updated so that the spillways, in the case of a storm event, can handle additional volume, so the cost to lake communities and lake owners is going to be enormous.” He said the state needs to come up with a mechanism to help communities fund the upgrades.

Also at the meeting, a group of town highway superintendents turned out to voice concerns about the declining funding levels of the Department of Public Works (DPW) over the past several years. Dan Hogue Jr., the highway superintendent of Forestburgh, spoke for the group.

Hogue said, “DPW is at 2002 funding levels, and blacktop was $22 per ton back then, it’s $52 a ton now; salt was about $26 a ton, it’s now $54 ton. You still have the same number of roads, give or take a mile or two through abandonment, and you still have the same amount of bridges. In 1989, I believe the county DPW had about 240 employees; now you’re down to 139 to maintain the same amount of roads and bridges at a reduced funding level. I know DPW also takes care of house and grounds and a whole host of other things, but we feel that if DPW continues to be disproportionally cut… it will severely impact the traveling public, and since we have no mass transit that’s just about everyone.”

Lawmakers responded that they are aware of the situation regarding road maintenance, but county spending is seriously constrained by the sharp decline in tax revenues coupled with a drop of funds coming from Albany.