Town of Broadalbin corrects equipment problem
By KAYLEIGH KARUTIS, The Leader-HeraldBROADALBIN - The town is having problems with an oil/water separator it installed in the highway garage last year, but will avoid being penalized by the state because it took immediate corrective action.
At a Town Board meeting Tuesday, Supervisor Lee Hollenbeck said the oil/water separator was installed in 2007 and is designed to collect and eliminate oil runoff from the town's highway fleet. An engineer recently inspected the separator and found it to be in disrepair.
In a letter to Hollenbeck, engineer Jeffery F. Budrow of J. Kenneth Fraser and Associates said, "the shop rules for managing oil and oil spills are lax and need to be either enforced or rewritten."
Hollenbeck said the town does not have any laws or codes governing the maintenance of oil in the highway garage. When he approached the county to see what rules it has, he found it also does not have any rules governing oil maintenance.
Hollenbeck said he and other Town Board members will examine other municipalities' rules for oil maintenance and develop some laws of their own. In the meantime, the town must hire a private contractor to service and repair the separator.
Because the town is relatively new to operating the oil/water separator, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is not pursuing any sort of fine or ticket for the separators disrepair, Hollenbeck said.
"We acted on this immediately," Hollenbeck said. "We caught it in time. If we had ignored it, we would have been in deep trouble."
Hollenbeck said several town officials and a DEC employee were present when the separator was first installed.
Hollenbeck said he believes the separator was not installed properly and for some unknown reason, it took about a year before the problem was noticed.
Several residents who attended the meeting questioned why the DEC representative did not notice the incorrect installation. Others asked how much fixing the separator would cost.
Hollenbeck said he was unsure, but he estimated it would cost $1,200 to $1,500.
Handicap-accessible pier to be built at town beach
The Town Board approved the development of a handicap-accessible pier to be installed on the Broadalbin Town Beach. The DEC sought to place a handicap pier at one of its three state beaches and found Broadalbin to be the ideal location, Hollenbeck said.
Official reports growth
Town Code Enforcer Scott Everson said Broadalbin is growing rapidly. He said the town will see 13 new homes built this season.
"The growth is here," he said. Other nearby municipalities are not seeing the same amount of growth, he said. The town of Johnstown, with 11 new homes scheduled to be built, is the only municipality that approaches Broadalbin's new homes number, Everson said.
