Plattekill Rec. Director stepping down

By Susanna Granieri
Posted 2/10/21

Plattekill Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Doland will be stepping down from her position and leaving the state in July. She made the announcement at last week’s town board …

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Plattekill Rec. Director stepping down

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Plattekill Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Doland will be stepping down from her position and leaving the state in July. She made the announcement at last week’s town board meeting.

Doland expressed her gratitude for her time as director, and plans to assist in her replacement’s transition, provide monthly planning calendars for when COVID-19 restrictions are no longer in place and will be available for remote assistance if ever needed.

Regarding the question of the annual Plattekill summer camp, Doland offered a more concrete process to the camp’s planning.

“The Board of Health is going to contact me directly as the summer camp director if they allow us to have camp, that’s the first step,” Doland said. Next, she had submitted an application to the Plattekill school to be able to use their building in the event of a rainy day and on Wednesdays.

“If the school does not allow us to do that then we have our answer right there, we can’t have summer camp,” Doland continued. Figuring out transportation is step three, and this depends on the approval from both the school and the Board of Health, as well as the everchanging COVID-19 social distancing guidelines.

A lot of what Stephanie does is very near and dear to our heart and you can see that by the great things that she’s done since she’s been in charge of the recreation, and it definitely shows in how you’re approaching your departure. We’re all very appreciative,” said Town Supervisor Joseph Croce.

Following up on the discussion from their Jan. 20 meeting, the board decided to submit Plattekill’s emergency preparedness plan under Gov. Cuomo’s executive order. Now, there is a necessary resolution to Senate Bill S9114 Subpart D signed by the governor.

The reasoning for the bill in its entirety is to prevent evicting residential tenants who are under financial burden or are dealing with health-related issues until the bill is revisited on May 1, 2020. This bill also will prevent foreclosures against financially-struggling homeowners and small business owners, and extends both the Senior Citizen’s Homeowner Exemption and the Disabled Homeowner Exemption without recertification.

In the legislation, Subpart D states: “To authorize every governing body of an assessing unit and local assessor to extend to the 2021 assessment roll, the renewal of the exemptions received on the 2020 assessment roll; and to provide for the expiration of such provisions upon the expiration thereof.”

Croce motioned to adopt the resolution, read the updated Subpart D for the record, and the board agreed.

The board also discussed updated driveway permit and street excavation laws that caused debate from the board.

Overall, the driveway permit laws state that you must be approved for your driveway’s length, and the height at which it sits in order to prevent substantial runoff to roads before you are able to be approved for a building permit.

“A lot of it is a safety issue,” Croce said. “You don’t want to put a driveway where there’s no sight distance. That’s going to lead to accidents and people getting hurt.”

Councilman Lawrence Farrell believes it may cause miscommunications, as some people may decide to build their house in a different direction and their driveway would be in an odd spot, or they would want to extend their driveway on property they pay taxes for, which could be stirring for residents. Councilman Dean DePew agreed, and offered another concern to the board.

The law states that “driveway insurances will have a 2% minimum finished negative grade slope away from the roadway for a minimum of 15 feet.”

“Sometimes a property cannot allow that there has to be a spot for the highway superintendent to work with that person on that property,” DePew said and used his own home for reference. On one side, he meets the 15 foot requirement, but on the other he is lucky if it is higher than two or three. “That one [sentence] does not give the highway superintendent the ability to work with the property owner on the slope, so maybe that should be changed to discretionary.”

After conferring over aspects of each law and were in agreeance, the board decided to hold a public hearing at the next town board meeting on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. to discuss any concerns or questions from Plattekill residents on the implementation of the laws.