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Butterfield Hospital Facility Found to Have Many Code Violations
Cleanup investigation of New Street coal tar contamination to be submitted to DEC
by Michelle Woods
A recent evaluation of the Butterfield Hospital site by the Cold Spring Fire Inspector, J. Ralph Falloon, has revealed 80 code violations, including the open storage of confidential past patient and personnel files, left unlocked in the building.
At the January 30, 2007 weekly workshop meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board of Trustees, Mayor Anthony Phillips said some of the violations were "substantial," providing for "unsafe conditions," such as the storage of equipment room combustibles in the old boiler room, a deteriorating roof, interior water damage, unsafe electrics and the lack of an alarm system adding to potentially easy accessibility to the private medical records of Cold Spring residents.
Village Trustee Karen E. Dunn suggested implementing a moratorium to reassess land-use regulations as part of the Village's comprehensive planning process on the Butterfield Hospital site, presently owned by the Hudson Valley Hospital Center, who have indicated on their web site that they are seeking to sell the facility. She pointed out that while this would not affect the sale of the site, it would enable the Village to "gain control of the destiny of the property." The moratorium could last between 9 months and 1 year and would give the Village time to "formulate a regulatory approach," as articulated by the Department of State, under the Village Comprehensive Zoning Plan in response to the future development of the site. Dunn also suggested that moratoria could be used in the cases of other large parcels of land in the Village, such as the Marathon Battery site. Mayor Phillips stated that there needed to be "a valid reason for moratoria" but Village Trustee Phillip Heffernan argued that the "collective vision" of the development of the village was that valid reason and that the Board's motives were "not anti-development, but home rule."
Meanwhile, Mayor Phillips is due to meet Mark Webster of the Hudson Valley Hospital Center to discuss the code violations.
During the meeting, the Board also agreed to file a now almost-complete application to the DEC's Environmental Restoration Program for an investigation of the New Street coal tar situation. The area of concern on New Street is directly across the street from the old Lumberyard site, which had been found to be contaminated when construction efforts began for the new housing currently being built there. That contamination has since been remediated.
An ERP grant would pay for 90% of the costs of the investigation, with the Village paying the remnant. Mayor Phillips said that the final costs will not be known until the start of the investigation, but the Board estimated that the price for the Village of the investigation process could be around $10-20,000. The total cost of remediation of the site is likely to be around $1-2 million. Work on the investigation will probably begin in the Fall or Winter of this year.
Other issues that arose during the workshop meeting included a report on the progress of a challenge to the Village's access rights to the Cold Spring Reservoir. There is an ongoing title search ascertaining land use rights, but Village Attorney, Stephen Tomann pointed out that the Village has access rights because of its interest in access to and maintenance of the dam and that, if challenged, the Village can get an injunction to enforce those rights.
Karen Dunn noted that, due to a recent amendment to State law, all members of planning and zoning boards must undergo a mandatory 4-hour training each year and that the Chairs of the Boards will be notified and an inventory of training programs put together. She suggested that the public should also have a say in the kind of training programs that the Chairs should attend. It was noted that the Department of State offers free or inexpensive training programs, specifically tailored for the new amendment.
Stephen Tomann also raised the issue of proposed construction plan at 240 Main Street, under which a residence would be built overlapping the border of Cold Spring and Nelsonville. The Assistant Secretary of State for Community Development, Charlie Murphy, confirmed that a co-operative agreement between the villages would be necessary prior to building and that both villages would need to issue building permits.
Trustee Edward Mancari noted that he was putting together a draft of next year's budget and asked for projected costs.
The meeting closed with a discussion of homeowners' first party liability for iced-over water on public sidewalks in the Village emanating from their homes' drainpipes. The Board decided to promote the issue as a concern to homeowners and will issue a press release.
The Village Board meets in a weekly workshop every Tuesday at 7:30pm, except on the second Tuesday of the month when they meet at 7:30pm for their monthly meeting.
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