Conesville Board Seeks to Make School Bus Stop Safer

By Chris English

CONESVILLE — Conesville Town Board members are looking to see what can be done to make a school bus stop on State Route 990V safer.

At the Tuesday, Dec. 9 meeting, board members considered a resolution asking the state Department of Transportation to install appropriate signage near the stop at 973 State Route 990V but then tabled a vote on the resolution until the January meeting. In the meantime, board members will take a closer look to see what signage might already exist.

There were different accounts of that, with Councilman Carl Fancher saying he believed there were already signs in both directions on the highway, Town Supervisor Bill Federice saying he doesn't remember seeing signs and a resident saying there was a sign going in one direction but not in the other.

The resolution states there were not previously school-age children residing in the house at the location but now there are. The location "has no visibility of the current school bus stop until approximately 100 feet from the bus stop" and the "current speed limit of 55 miles per hour and the short sight distance of the school bus stop is hazardous to students, bus drivers and motorists," the document reads.

It asks the state Department of Transportation to "install appropriate signage indicating the short visibility of the school bus stop...in addition to any other remedial action that the New York State Department of Transportation deems necessary for the safety of students and motorists."

Federice said "I'm all in favor of making sure what is necessary is there. We all need to take a look at it and come back."

In other actions from the Dec. 9 meeting, the board voted to increase the yearly fee for the 23 customers of the West Conesville Water District from $425 to $450 in order to better cover expenses associated with running the system.

Federice said the only other way to raise the needed money is to borrow it, but a loan would not be approved for a water system with only 23 customers.

The board voted to discontinue electric service at a town-owned structure at 700 Potter Mountain Road that houses a recycling center, a move Federice said would save Conesville $2,000 a year. He reasoned there is not need to heat the structure and that needed light could be provided with a battery/solar operated device that could be purchased inexpensively.

"We can always restore service if we find out there is a need," he said.

In his Schoharie County report, Federice — who is chairman of the county Board of Supervisors — recounted the recent budget adopted by the county Supervisors that had an 8.17 percent property tax increase when initial estimates had the increase being between 12 and 16 percent.

"Nobody is getting laid off, that's the important thing, but everything is very tight," he said.

Federice added that the closing on the town's recently-approved $334,000 bond to pay for a new plow truck will be held at a bank in Grand Gorge on Dec. 23. The bond is to be paid back over six years at annual interest rates of 3.99 percent.

Highway Superintendent Ward Apgar reported that his crew did a good job clearing roads after the recent snowstorm. That included two new drivers who had no previous experience plowing snow, he and Federice added.