Washington officials begin pool renovation talks

MILLBROOK — Washington’s town board will begin workshopping plans for renovations to the town pool next week.

At a regular meeting on Thursday, July 9, the board discussed a preliminary feasibility study on the pool and surrounding park. A monthly workshop, hosted at Town Hall, will begin to address concerns and solidify plans on how to improve the park. The first session will take place on Thursday, July 23, at 6 p.m.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend, but only as observers to the proceedings.

The feasibility study was originally presented in May. It was prepared by Mike Murphy, the Chairman of the Reimagine the Town Park Committee, and found that residents are interested in a variety of recreational improvements. The proposals include pickleball courts, extended park hours, splash pads, a third pavilion, a new pool, and updated playground facilities. Murphy estimates the cost at between $2.5 and $3.7 million.

In other business, discussions over the town’s mass appraisal grew heated.

Assessor Lisa Evangelista detailed her findings, and emphasized the incompleteness of past data collection and site surveys. She claimed at least 100 properties are still missing from their collected data. Washington’s last home valuation took place in 2006.

The town debated the merits of passing off the task to an outside mass appraisal company, and pushed to determine a timeline for completion of the town-wide property assessment.

Part of the board’s concern stemmed from the shifting nature of property values: if data collection takes too long, the information collected at the beginning could be out of date by the end of the process.

Washington and Millbrook’s wide array of properties, from single-family homes to large farms, present unique challenges. The board agreed to begin discussions with mass appraisal firms in an attempt to expedite the process.

An application for high-density housing at the former site of Green Briar Nursing Home was also discussed. The proposal would include a number of townhouses and standalone homes, for a total of 12 units. The board highlighted the complications of the application — either a use variance or rezone would be required to facilitate the build.

The town board also approved several motions. The first will allow Washington to sell surplus highway vehicles at public auction. Another motion concerned town employees’ unused sick days: under the new resolution, town employees will be able to convert unused sick days to retirement funds at the time of an employee’s retirement, with a maximum allowance of 120 days.