This
Summer in Preble.
A report of the last three Town Board Meetings and other stuff.
I waited three months, plus a bit, to write up, from my notes,
the last three town board meetings. Struggling with my scribbling
as they faintly prodded my ever-weakening memory, I endeavored
to give it my best effort. It is obvious I will have to start
carrying my Mac iBook to the meetings from now on. I even
looked through the town's records to refresh my memory. I've
decided to cover it all as one event to avoid confusion. (My
confusion.) The issues covered over the summer were,
- Nitrates: High nitrates in the water caused quite a bit
of concern from everyone involved. Betty Pitman and Kate
Edinger spent a lot of time collecting water samples from
40 or more locations around town. The areas of concern seem
to be along route11 and 281 from 81 north and also just
south of town. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone
and with Amanda Barber and others at the water meetings
held at the Grange building in Cortland. While they don't
know exactly what the cause is or where it originates from,
most have a pretty good idea. I've decided not to go into
it any further because it is just a can of worms. I'll keep
an eye on it to see how they progress and report as required.
If you have a concern about it then have your water tested.
There was a public information meeting at the fire hall
on Oct 2nd to inform anyone about the issue.
You should have received a mailer about it. If you still
have questions call Supervisor Betty Pittman.
- New sub-division regulation:
On the surface this seems like a good idea. If your sub-division
is small and simple then instead of having to go to the
planning board with all it's delays all you do now is contact
the code enforcement officer Doug Staley, and he will give
you the sub-division. Sounds simple and easy doesn't it?
However, there is a shortcoming. Part of the delay using
the old method was informing the public about a pending
sub-division. Now the public will not know about it unless
they contact Staley or the town clerk to find out. However,
if you didn't know about it how would you know to make the
call? Secondly, we are now depending on Staley to interpret
the law correctly and that has been a problem in the past.
Remember the Song commercial well on residential property.
Staley thought that was OK. Then there was the Flying J
buffer zone issue. Staley thought that was fine even after
Judge Rumsey told him it wasn't. He is now going to be the
one to determine the status of minor sub-divisions. Sadly
we are going to have to keep an eye on this as we do everything
else in town. The new regulation takes effect November 1st,
2002. You can get a copy from the town clerk. By the way
this new regulation to make sub-divisions simpler is 27
pages long.
- Aquifer Protection District:
This is the important one. This will protect our water from
contamination from dirty companies moving into Preble. In
effect any company that located within the Aquifer
Protection District would be prevented from polluting
the water supply. It will take some work on the town boards
part but not as much work as the new sub-division regulation
took and it is a whole lot more important. We know from
the nitrate problem that our water can be contaminated and
now is the time to take steps to make sure it doesn't get
any worse. The board listened to a 45-minute presentation
at the September meeting from several people from Cortland.
I'll be going into this much more in the future because
protecting our water is important and we should do everything
we can to ensure that for Preble's future. We want to attract
clean businesses and turn away dirty businesses. That way
we will attract good people who want to move here because
of the clean environment. Preble's good clean water is at
stake. Now that the board has listened to the presentation
I expect they will be working on this for all of our futures.
- Fire lane rule or law:
This has been bandied about for months at considerable cost
to the taxpayers of Preble. Pushed by Tully resident and
Tully Town Board member John Snavlin, the fire lane issue
has been largely dropped. Turns out the town cannot enforce
a fire lane on private roads that only have one and two
family residences. My suggestion to John Snavlin was, and
always has been for him to buy the land he wants from Bob
Rittenhouse rather than trying to have the town take it
for him. Perhaps now he will work to settle his own problems
and not involve the taxpayers of Preble.
- There were other issues such as Open Burning, PWC's on
Little York Lake, Preble Congregational Church has
been listed in the National Register of Historical Places,
Town Hall roof, street lights etc. You can look at
the town's website for more information on these.
I 'think' I've covered it all. I'll be doing more timely
reports from now on. This summer was tough for me. I injured
my knee and was out of commission from July through September.
It's still tender and I wear a brace just in case. That and
other things took my mind off town affairs.
Frank Hogg
10/13/02
