April Update
In January, the Town of Hillsdale Highway Superintendent Briggs proposed a 284 Agreement for the Expenditure of Highway Moneys which included the controversial chip seal paving of Apple Tree Lane and Texas Hill Road, two of our community's last remaining dirt roads. Residents, landowners and farmers on these roads and in the area of the Taghkanic Creek Headwaters overwhelmingly oppose paving these dirt roads due to, among other things, concerns over safety, the environment, and rural and historical character.
At the March 18 Special Meeting, the Taghkanic Creek Old Road Society provided our second group opposition letter and informed the Town Board of our intention to set up a 501(c)3 non-profit to organize our coalition of rural neighbors deeply engaged in the preservation of dirt roads. The goals of this organization will be:
- To promote the environmental protection of the dirt roads and the enablement of public use and enjoyment of these roads for recreational purposes.
- To engage in education initiatives within the local community to provide information about the value of these roads to the community.
- To coordinate and interact with similar organizations, such as the Chatham Dirt Road Coalition, amongst others.
- To engage with local, county and state government entities and officials to encourage the conservation and protection of our dirt roads.
- To raise funds to support and promote the achievement of these goals.
Superintendent Briggs and Supervisor Dvorchak, to support the proposal to pave these roads, publicized various unsubstantiated cost analysis and savings projections. A resident of Texas Hill Road and Councilperson Carano Nordenström pointed out that Superintendent Briggs and Supervisor Dvorchak’s financial analyses were obviously not accurate and alarmingly “misinforming”.
Further, Councilperson Carano Nordenström made an information request for the remaining documentation she stated her Board did not review and which was not provided by the Town Clerk in the response to our FOIL request. She requested the following documentation:
- Highway Fund Ledgers 2014-2024
- Dirt Roads Project Budgets 2014-2024 - Historical and Current Working
- Paved Roads Project Budgets 2014-2024 - Historical and Current Working
- CHIPS Supporting Documentation Filing Checklist including materials, invoices, rented equipment, force account equipment and labor records that the municipality is required to retain for thirty-six (36) years to comply with Federal Tax Law. (NYS Department of Transportation. Guidelines for CHIPS, EWR, PAVE-NY, POP and STR PROGRAMS, Revised August 2024.)
Councilperson Carano Nordenström insisted that assumptions and projections of costs and savings should not be publicized without the use of historical project budgets and “empirical data” to substantiate analyses.
Despite an incomplete, inaccurate and misleading record and Councilperson Carano Nordenström's call for further review, Supervisor Dvorchak moved to an unscheduled vote, approving the 284 for the paving of Apple Tree Lane and Texas Hill Road. (4-to-1) The Board also granted the project a Negative Declaration under SEQR insisting that the project would not "impair the character or quality of important historic. . . or aesthetic resources" of our area. (4-to-1)
Without accommodating further review and discussion, Supervisor Dvorchak then insisted that "there is a way to maintain a dirt road and that is to gift the Town". He continued, "This is [legal]. This is a law in New York State." He then motioned to appoint himself, Superintendent Briggs and Town Clerk Ward to a "Gift Committee" so they could "investigate . . . further and come up with the ways that this can move forward". No vote was discernible.
However, a March 19 article in The Register Star and the April 1 Town Newsletter later announced that a new committee called the "Loose Gravel Road Gift Committee" had been formed to "review and advise the Town Board on any potential gifts from residents who prefer that their roads remain loose gravel". It stated: "The potential gifts would defray the added costs of maintaining loose gravel roads to Hillsdale taxpayers."In later correspondence, Town Clerk Ward stated that “written requests [would] be reviewed by the committee [and] any recommendations from the committee [would] be forwarded to the Town Board at a Town Board meeting”.
Amy Davidsen, resident of Texas Hill Road and member of the Town’s Conservation Advisory Council, sent this letter to the Columbia Paper in response to the meeting.
We are seeking greater insight into how the Town will operate the “Gift Committee”. We also continue to request that any “added costs of maintaining loose gravel roads” be transparently documented to the public.