Housing group considers funds raised for wastewater

AMENIA — Tuning into Zoom at 5:30 p.m., members of the Amenia Housing Board (AHB) continued to fine tune plans for a future community listening session and other goals at its meeting held on Tuesday, June 8.

Survey response

Leo Blackman reported the affordable housing survey was presented to the Town Board on Thursday, May 20. After survey duplicates were removed and the paper copies were added, he remarked only 12 people chose to fill in the paper surveys while the rest were done online. In total, about 180 surveys were done; out of the town’s total population of 2,400 people, this makes up 10% of the population.

As the AHB wants to ensure the survey information is recorded up to a certain standard, Blackman said town Councilman Damian Gutierrez said he has a friend who’s a statistician who offered to help.

Leo said there were significantly fewer negative responses than he expected, and while there were some people who said government should stay out of housing, “most people seemed to understand the need that was out there and I thought that was encouraging.”

Survey distribution

In terms of distributing survey results, Blackman suggested the AHB present the results to the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) as well as post the results on the town’s website, www.ameniany.gov and share them with The Millerton News and the Tri-Town Coalition. 

Once the AHB has a finished, polished document with all the identifying information removed, Blackman said it can share it and go forward. Gutierrez agreed because the survey was posted on the town website, it would be appropriate to post the results there, too.

Listening session

Regarding the AHB’s future listening session, Blackman said it was agreed by the board members that once the survey is finished, it should be presented to the town and a public forum then be held to discuss the results and the needs for affordable housing.

“[It will] basically [be] an introduction and education for the town [to] get a sense of what concerns people have,” said Blackman.

Before doing so, he said they should do certain things, such as get a facilitator, put together a kind of visual presentation and  outreach to potential attendees. Blackman asked board members for thoughts on the best day of the week and time of day to hold the session in the upcoming months.

Since school is almost out and people are getting into “summer vacation mode,” members suggested delaying the listening session to after Labor Day weekend and to do outreach before people leave town for the summer. Blackman asked if they were comfortable holding the session in the fall; the AHB said it was.

Wastewater Committee and Silo Ridge funds

After outlining some of its future goals, Blackman reported the Amenia Wastewater Committee would like to use the first part of the $50,000 in total funds donated from Silo Ridge Field Club, or a part of those funds, to hire wastewater engineers. That would amount to $17,600. Blackman shared his belief that wastewater is the most important component for affordable housing to succeed, as the town can’t do anything more than renovation work if it doesn’t have a wastewater system in place.

Since the money from Silo Ridge was specifically set aside for affordable housing the development never build, Blackman said the AHB has “first dibs.” 

However, he added, “Since I don’ think we’re in a place where we have specific funds that we need, we should express to the Town Board that the wastewater system is something they [the Town Board] should be funding.”

Blackman proposed the AHB move to make a recommendation to the Town Board to direct the funding to the Wastewater Committee to hire its wastewater engineers. The AHB approved the recommendation.