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Legacy Ballfields
(See also Tree
Removal)
(Except as noted, the following summaries are for Town Board meetings.)
Wetlands permit
January 22, 2008 (work session)
Representative of Eberlin & Eberlin,
the project's designers explained need for wetlands permit to permit access
road (an extension of Strang Blvd.) There was no
opposition to this, although Bianco asked if there
could be some mitigation for the loss of the wetlands. Designer said that
some of the wetlands vegetation, such as phragmites,
was likely to reappear. Two large retention ponds on site will also be
wetlands.
In a separate discussion, Tegeder asked designer to
consider access from site to the walking trail that leads to the bridge over
the Taconic. He wanted to make sure that the site plan didn't preclude this
possible connection.
As an aside, Campisi objected to Martorano's participation in the discussion as he lives
in condos adjacent to the site and abstained in the original vote for the
plan.
Planning Board, January 28, 2008 work session
This was a referral from the Town Board (see above) relating to the wetlands
permit for the proposed construction of a new asphalt driveway with curbing,
guardrail and drainage.
The County is constructing this park, and the Town will maintain it. The
Planning Board had questions about the environmental impact of the proposed
project on the wetlands, the projected traffic count, the adequacy and code
compliance of the parking lot, the capacity of the street for parking on both
sides, turn around space for emergency vehicles and the review of the
lighting plan by ABACA.
The Planning Board expressed concern about the large amount of cut and fill
the project will require.
The Board was interested in including a plan for connecting this park with
the new footbridge over the Taconic State Parkway. Mr. Tegedger
said it was a long standing request of the Planning Department to have plans
for this connection in place to provide a stronger argument when applying for
funding grants, but for some unknown reason this was never done.
February 19, 2008, Public hearing on wetlands permit
In order to build the access road into the site, 26,000 sq ft off wetlands
buffer and 11,000 sq ft of wetlands need to be destroyed. Given the
constraints on the site (the Algonquin gas line runs through it) there are
limitations on the possible mitigation measures. The town's wetlands policy
calls for “no net loss.”
For the buffer area, during the construction period, the existing phragmites plants will be removed by hand and replaced
with a wetlands seed mix. The goal is that over several
years, as phragmites reappear and are
removed, the newer mixture of plants will take over.
For the wetlands area, alternate sites for the creation of new wetlands were
identified.
Bruce Barber said he had no problem with the conceptual plan as presented but
that the plan had to be flushed out more. The representative of the landscape
firm in charge of the project said that she hoped that final plans could be
ready in two weeks.
Westchester County will be contacting the Army Corps of Engineers (which has
jurisdiction over certain wetlands) requesting to take jurisdiction over the
site.
The hearing was adjourned pending receipt of the additional mitigation plans.
As a separate issue, DiBartolo said that the
current plan for tree removal was for town employees to cut down the trees
and that he would contact lumber companies about selling trees that had
value.
Town
Board, 3/11/2008 work session
Although originally scheduled for discussion at 8:45pm, there was a last
minute change in the agenda and the board heard from a representative of Eberlein and Eberlein at the
beginning of the work session when the CIY observer was not present. The
purpose of the meeting was to review the latest wetlands mitigation plan.
March
18, 2008
The board resumed the public hearing on the application for a wetlands permit
to construct the entrance road into the site. The landscape architect,
working with Bruce Barber, the town's environmental consultant, was able to
reduce the disturbance to wetlands areas to 2.560 square feet, down
considerably from the original 11,000 square feet slated to be disturbed. As
part of the new plan a segmental block wall will be constructed. A new wetlands, equal in size to the area being disturbed,
will be constructed and planted with appropriate species which hopefully will
overtake the phragmites. .
The Conservation Board had reviewed the revised plan and made several
suggestions that did not present any problems for the landscape architect
The board closed the hearing and unanimously approved the application for the
wetlands permit.
April 8, 2008 (work session)
Director of Labor Operations Eric DiBartolo told
the board that this would be the highest priority for all the departments
under his control in the coming weeks. He could not estimate how long the job
would take (the town has the responsibility for cutting the trees and
preparing the site; an outside firm will do the final "finishing"
for the fields.) as the DEC and DEP will only allow the town to disturb 3.3
acres at a time; as each area is stabilized, crews will move on to the next
area.
Mr. DiBartolo is investigating purchasing a used
"roller" for use in preparing the fields. The roller would be sold
when the job is finished. He estimates that renting a roller for four months
would cost $20,000-$30,000 but that he could get a used roller for
$12,000-$18,000 which he could then sell.
May
6, 2008
Mr. DiBartolo explained his plans to purchase of a
used roller to compact the soil for the planned ballfields
and then sell the equipment once the job was done. He estimated that it would
cost $35,000 to buy the equipment, which could then be sold once the job was
completed, compared to a rental fee of $22,000 per month for the six months
he would need the roller.
In response to Councilman Martorano's question
about when work would begin on the fields, Mr. DiBartolo
said, “I have no idea” as he has no control over other issues,
e.g., permits, that have to be resolved first. He did say though, that
whether or not all the permits were in place he would start the job without
them by a certain time because part of the job includes crossing two
Algonquin pipe lines which he cannot “go near” from November
through April. He explained the special work that has to be done to secure the
pipelines during the “tricky” construction process. Councilman Bianco wondered if the job might end up costing the town
more by doing the job in house.
July 15, 2008
During the "announcements" portion of the meeting, Director of
Labor Operations Eric DiBartolo reported that the
permits for the construction of the fields should be ready in about one and a
half weeks. He said that town staff will not be able to begin work on the
fields until September when they will have completed other work that has
already been scheduled. In response to the county's impatience for the
project to begin, he noted that the town has had to wait until the county
obtained all the necessary permits.
September 16, 2008
Director
of Labor Relations Eric DiBartolo advised the board
that work would begin on the fields later this month. The work will be divided
into phrases and the initial phrase will be to cover and protect the gas line
running through a portion of the property. Because the revised plans that
called for more soil to be removed from the site would have substantially
increased costs, the plan will now call for raising the site 4-5” so
that less soil will have to be removed. While this will still result in an
increase in costs, possibly $300,000 or more, he felt that the 15%
contingency built into the project should cover the extra cost.
The board authorized advertising for bids to for tree and stump removal for
the 13 acre site.
March
3, 2009
Speaking during the second Courtesy of the Floor segment, Steve Gardner
suggested that the town create a “clerk of the works” type position
to keep records of the equipment, supplies and materials being used at the
Legacy Ballfields. Such records, he noted, would
help separate costs for the project from other costs associated with the
normal operations of the highway department. (As part of the contract with
the county which is funding the project, the town is responsible for
constructing the road into the site and preparing the site for the
construction of the actual fields.)
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