By Liz Page
HOBART/HARPERSFIELD – Stamford Mayor Robert Schneider was on the road last Wednesday, asking two local townships to give him a few feet of right away that will allow the village of Stamford to repair a stone culvert on the upper end of River Street in the village of Stamford.
It's unknown exactly why the village doesn't own all of it and it likely reverts back to a time well before any of the current municipal boards existed.
Schneider appealed to the Stamford Town Board and then made his way to the Harpersfield Town Board meeting on the same night, to explain the need for the right of way.
The state Department of Transportation is requiring a clear right of way and a promise the village will be responsible for maintaining it before it will issue its approval of the project.
A survey of the area where the headwaters of the Delaware River flows along River Street and the bridge crosses it indicated the town of Stamford owns a few feet of the right of way to the southeast of the culvert and the town of Harpersfield owns a few feet to the northwest. It is an area where property has been annexed. There was once a grist mill and the town of Stamford still owns Campagna Road.
"We thought all of River Street was in the village of Stamford," said Schneider. However, the county has researched it and can find no solid agreements between the towns and the village. They suspect it was a gentlemen's agreement with no clear resolution delineating the stone culvert and the right of way. The village has maintained it as part of its inventory.
There was also some agreements made with the closing of the dump and annexation of property from the town of Harpersfield in 1998.
Harpersfield will continue to research the issue because Highway Superintendent Russell Hatch said none of it shows on his road inventory, which leads him to believe it was changed through official channels. However, that did not stop the Harpersfield board from approving the right of way. Stamford did the same.
Harpersfield Supervisor Lisa Driscoll asked that the gentlemen's agreement be solidified once it has been fully researched.
Schneider said they are still awaiting a report from the state Office of Historic Preservation regarding any possible artifacts before they may move forward, receiving a Bridge NY grant from DOT to replace the stone culvert.The deteriorating culvert on River St. now has a weight limit which prevents school buses and fire apparatus from using it. The village approved hiring an engineer for the project last year to provide the preliminary engineering plans, the cost borne by the village along with any right of ways and easements. The village will then be reimbursed for all of the eligible costs once they are approved under the Bridge New York Project through the state DOT.
Harpersfield board members asked about the stone culvert (bridge) on South St.. It is a similar structure with the county taking over repair of that bridge. It has been on the list of repairs by the county Department of Public Works for a couple of years and Schneider said the River St. bridge may be completed before the South St. bridge, which currently has a temporary structure in place to keep the street open. That project involves acquiring a property to enable a larger right of way to properly fix that culvert.
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