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Siren Location Debate Stalls as Entergy Rep Fails to Attend Philipstown Board Workshop
Entergy says company will do no further work on siren without further discussion
by Mike Turton
 | | Avery Road resident Bill Sadler stands between where the first Entergy Siren was located (behind him) and where the company planned to install the new one (near the stop sign) |
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Frustration was the watch-word at last week's Philipstown Town Board weekly workshop. The focus of the April 16, 2008 meeting was to have been a second, three-way discussion among Garrison residents who live near the intersection of Avery Road and Indian Brook Road, the Town Board and the supervisor of a project to upgrade the Indian Point nuclear power plant warning system. Indian Point is operated by Entergy. As mandated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Entergy is erecting a network of one hundred and sixty-five towers equipped with warning sirens which would be activated in the event of an emergency at the power plant. Bill Sadler, a resident of Avery Road, objected when construction crews arrived on the scene, prompting the initial discussion held at the April 3rd Town Board meeting. At that meeting, Philipstown Supervisor Bill Mazzuca urged Frank Madero, an engineer contracted by Entergy to supervise the erection of the towers, to ensure that no work would be undertaken on the tower until a discussion was held with all parties at the April 16 workshop. Madero did not attend last week's workshop, effectively scuttling any meaningful discussion. Instead, residents and the Town Board vented their frustrations over the absence of the Entergy representative.
Contacted by the PCN&R on April 21, Madero said that he didn't attend the meeting because of "a miscommunication." He indicated that he "thought Bill (Supervisor Mazzuca) wanted to talk to his people first and that he would get back to me." When he didn't hear back from the Town, Madero didn't attend the meeting. Asked if Entergy would honor the Town's request to undertake no work without further discussions, Madero replied, "Absolutely. In fact I'm going one step further. I'm looking into a location (for the new tower) on Route 9." Madero said that he had tried unsuccessfully to reach Mazzuca and that he would be speaking to him in the very near future.
A year ago, while Sadler was out of town, Entergy erected a steel tower on his property without giving any notice. Almost a year later, the tower was removed because rut had begun to sink into what Sadler referred to as a wetland. When crews arrived on April 3rd to begin erecting a second tower just outside his property line, Sadler sounded the alarm. Construction came to a halt and all parties met that evening at the Town Board meeting. At that time, Sadler and other residents cited safety and "common sense" as reasons why the tower should not be placed near the intersection. At one point Madero had suggested that the stop sign on Avery Road at Indian Brook Road could be put on the tower itself. Sadler expressed the view that due to the winding and sometimes icy nature of the road, a steel tower would pose a hazard to drivers. The only other tower remaining to be erected as part of the network will be placed in Putnam Valley. That tower proposal caused Putnam Valley to notify Entergy that they would be subject to the normal process of permits and approvals before any work was begun.
In other workshop business, trustees authorized Supervisor Mazzuca to sign a contract with Svoboda Trucking to begin work on the new entrance road at Glenclyffe, site of the Philipstown Recreation Center. Ownership of the twenty-two acre property is being transferred from the Open Space Institute to the Town. One of the requirements of the transfer is the construction of the new entrance road. The Town Board also authorized the purchase of a used tandem tractor and the installation of three-phase electrical service to the Town Highway Department garage.
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