North Castle Nixes Additional Road Paving Until Next Year
The poor condition of town roads has long been a topic of concern among North Castle residents, and will likely remain so until at least next year.
Town board members decided at their Aug. 10 work session to hold off on additional road paving until current projects underway in the town are finished.
Highway department crews are already busy with a major improvement project for the roughly nine miles of road at Windmill Farm, estimated to cost approximately $1.7 million. The town completed a $10 million water main replacement project at the farm in 2014 and has spent $650,000 for paving this year.
Town Supervisor Michael Schiliro said he supported additional paving, saying it was his #1 priority and a quality of life issue for the town. North Castle will budget approximately $1 million to $1.2 million next year for paving, according to town administrator Joan Goldberg. Including the Windmill Farm paving, Schiliro said the town would complete around $2 million in paving this year. He estimated the town could spend another $120,000 in paving this year and use money available next year to pay off a bond.
“We don’t want to carry that debt in the long term,” he said. “In essence, if you decide to use next year’s paving money to pay off the bond, what you’re really doing is that instead of paving next year, you’re paving this year at the risk of maybe not paving next year.”
Councilman Stephen D’Angelo said he was worried that road work might be done at the expense of something else like snowplowing or leaf removal. He recommended starting additional paving early next year instead, a sentiment shared by other board members.
“Because the Windmill project started so late, to me getting that project done by winter is the most important thing we have to do,” D’Angelo said.
Town highway department foreman Jamie Norris told board members highway crews had their hands full with the Windmill paving project and supervising contractors. He cautioned against additional paving.
“Truthfully, I don’t see it getting done,” he said.
In September, crews will also begin leaf and brush pick-up five days a week and brush clearing, Goldberg explained.
“We have 16 men that do that,” Goldberg said. “With the Windmill project, which just hit rock as we anticipated, they are all out there working in one location. Once the contractor brings in additional crews to facilitate the work moving more quickly, we will have additional flaggers with those crews.”
After his four board members all told him they were against adding new paving, Schiliro said the board had to make road paving a priority in the next year, with work to begin as early as April.
“We are gonna start in January at work session” he told the board. “We are gonna have a plan for 2017, and we’re gonna figure out exactly how much we’re going to be spending on roads. The budget and finance committee should be done by this winter and we’re gonna have a plan in place.”
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