By Joshua Walther
COBLESKILL - On Monday, the Cobleskill Town Board halted any actions toward approving potential battery storage sites within their borders.
The reasoning for the move came from Town Supervisor Werner Hampel, who said that their policies weren’t prepared correctly if such a project approached them.
“Out of all the energy conservation tools we have, we haven’t looked into this and protected ourselves yet,” he stated.
And the risks associated with a battery storage site are unpredictable. Supervisor Hampel said that such hazards include lithium fires, toxic runoff, and fumes.
Not only are these risks dangerous for the first-responders that might have to deal with such an issue, but to surrounding homeowners as well, prompting the Board to look into their zoning to find an ideal location.
“I personally don’t believe that we’re equipped to zone for this just yet,” Supervisor Hampel further noted.
In order to come to a resolution, the Board has approved contracting with Dylan Harris and his law firm to “look into” battery storage and find where they could feasibly zone a project like that.
In other news, Supervisor Hampel expressed his desire to coordinate the joint highway committee with the Village early next month for an “after-action report” of the winter’s snowfall.
During the course of the season, both the Town and Village entered an exchange where they debated the costs and obligations of their shared highway services, but ultimately settled on the Town handling the Village’s snow removal at a fixed price.
Now, after monitoring their salt and sand usage and calculating their limited manpower and financing, Supervisor Hampel wants to know exactly where the two entities stand.
“This gives us a chance to see the costs of everything,” he said, and explained that he will try to reach out to the Village to set up a new meeting together.
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