Town Board removes hydrant district, assesses lighting for Trail to Train

AMENIA — Gathering for its first March meeting, the Amenia Town Board looked into eliminating the town’s hydrant district and delved into a discussion on lighting for its Trail to the Train project on Thursday, March 7.

To provide the board with some context about the hydrant district, Attorney to the Town Ian Lindars said the New York State Office of the State Comptroller is conducting a project to determine and verify all of the special districts in local municipalities. A special district is defined as “a geographic area within a town or county established to provide improvements or services within that district.”

Lindars said the comptroller has asked that the town verify a list of its districts to make sure the information is true and accurate. Though a hydrant district was included in the list of districts in Amenia, Lindars said that he spoke with town Supervisor Victoria Perotti, and neither she nor other Amenia personnel had any knowledge of a hydrant district in Amenia.

Since the comptroller’s office has a date for the district’s creation listed as Sept. 27, 2005, Lindars said he requested records from Town Clerk Dawn Marie Klingner, which they reviewed to reconstruct when the district might have been created. Throughout the course of his research, he said he contacted Dutchess County Real Property, the Office of the New York State Comptroller, Amenia Fire Chief Aaron Howard Jr. and Amenia Public Water Supply Operator Marco D’Antonio — none of whom had any knowledge, records or documentation of a hydrant district existing.

The board authorized Perotti to edit the special district spreadsheet provided by the comptroller to reflect that the Amenia hydrant district should be removed from the special districts.

Moving forward with the Trail to the Train lighting discussion, Perotti invited Trail to the Train Project Manager John Komsa to talk. Komsa explained that the bid for the Trail to the Train project was originally sent out as a base bid, which included all the project’s boardwalk, striping, signs, paving and other work of that nature. The lighting portion, he said, was a base bid, so everything from the concrete bases through the solar lights and poles were an alternate bid to the base bid. At this time, he said they are working on completing the base bid for the project.

Councilman Damian Gutierrez inquired about the board’s previous discussion about completing the lighting bases as part of the original body of work for the project. Komsa said that he hadn’t heard it was a requirement for the work, and Councilwoman Vicki Doyle inferred that none of that infrastructure work had been included in the original base bid.

Gutierrez asked how much of a priority it is to incorporate lighting into the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.

“I will say I have personally walked [Route] 22 at 5:20 in the morning in pitch dark and if I’m going to the train really early and we’re using the trail, it would be nice to have some lighting,” he said. “I know some other folks in town that take that walk to get to the train as well.”

On the other hand, Gutierrez acknowledged that there are people in the hamlet of Wassaic who don’t want the lighting to invade their backyards. He added the New York State Department of Transportation isn’t forcing the town to deal with the issue immediately, so he persuaded the board to further discuss lighting before making a decision.

Councilwoman Michele Somogyi asked whether lighting the pathway on the trail leading to the train was part of the project’s original design; Perotti replied that it wasn’t. Komsa clarified that it was part of the original plan, but that all items pertaining to lighting in the plan were placed in a separate bid. Gutierrez noted that it would be worth looking into grants for lighting; Perotti said they are.

After further discussion, the board opened the meeting for public comment.

Resident Sharon Kroeger noted that the section of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail included in the Trail to the Train project fulfills two different functions as an extension of the trail and as a means of getting people from Wassaic to the train station.

Fellow resident Lauren Was said she didn’t want the lighting on the trail. However, if the town decides to move forward with lighting, she said she would prefer if the town looked into a low-lit system or a system in which the lighting is focused downward on the ground instead of shining up.

“I feel like the lighting might attract more people to come to that space at an unsafe time and I think that could be a problem,” Was said.