Photo by J. Ronald Lee, 2011. Via Flickr.
Sixty percent of the water that is pumped through Phoenicia's water system is vanishing before it reaches its destination, Alfred Peavey, the chairman of the committee for the Phoenicia Water District, told the Shandaken town board last night at its regular August meeting.
That figure is much higher than usual for a municipal water system, Peavey said.
“Normal water system loss would be 20 percent,” he said.
Peavey told the members of the Shandaken town board that studies are being conducted to determine the cause of the unusually high water loss, but at this point it is not clear where the water goes.
He said he believes the main reason for the loss is the age of the system.
Other water woes plaguing Shandaken were discussed last night. The town council members voted unanimously (with council member Timothy Malloy absent) to put out a request for a flood mitigation consultant to help the town of Shandaken develop a flood mitigation plan in 2012. Phoenicia was hit unusually hard by flooding this past year.
Town supervisor Rob Stanley said that the flood mitigation plan should “help the town in lowering flood insurance rates for town residents.” The consultant will be paid through a grant from the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program and will work with the town's new Shandaken Area Flood Assessment and Remediation Group (SAFARI).
Plans to install a sewer system in Phoenicia, which dominated the discussion of July's town meeting, were not discussed last night because a meeting between the town and New York City's Department of Environmental Protection had to be postponed until mid-August, Stanley said in a statement.
But Stanley announced that the Catskill Watershed Corporation, which is awaiting a report from a subcontractor on wetlands sewer treatment systems, has requested a special meeting in September to present its final report and recommendations to the town. Stanley said that he has scheduled the special meeting for "sometime around the week of September 19th or so."
The final draft of the Pine Hill Sewer Use Law will probably be available for the September town board meeting, Stanley said, and there are plans to have a public hearing on it when it is released.
In other business, town councilman Jack Jordan announced that the official reopening of the Shandaken Museum, on Academy Street in Pine Hill, will take place on October 9.
It will be a “fairly large celebration,” he said, adding that a list of dignitaries are being invited to the event.
In the meantime, Jordan said, people are visiting the museum every Saturday. In preparation for the grand re-opening, replacement doors and the installation of a security system are planned, and mannequins for the display of antique clothing have been purchased. A plaque commemorating the 125 people who have donated artifacts to the museum will be installed, and there are plans for a new gift shop, which will have some items for sale at Shandaken Day this year. Jordan reported that the 100 copies of the historical book on Shandaken published in 2010 continue to be missing.
The two founders of the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice gave a short presentation about the festival, which begins this Thursday.
Maria Todaro emphasized the outpouring of support from hundreds of people in the community helping to make the festival a success. She said that the organizers have no idea what the attendance will be, but that they hope for thousands. She mentioned that there would be no vendors at the site of the main performance venue in Parish Field Park so that people will shop in the regular Phoenicia stores. New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United Nations will be present to give thanks to the Voicefest for helping Christchurch, New Zealand during the floods it suffered last year, she said.
Louis Otey thanked the town for its support of the festival, saying, "We hope that people will come to the area [and] love the area. Not just Phoenicia, but the whole area, because there are great things going on. We thank all of you for helping all of us do that."
Todaro mentioned that the Festival of the Voice is part of the developing Catskills Performing Arts Alliance, which brings together performing arts centers throughout the region to help create a new cultural path in the Catskills.
The next regular Shandaken Town Board Meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 12, 2011 at 7:00PM.
Rusty Mae Moore is the Watershed Post's Shandaken town government reporter. She owns Pine Hill Books in Pine Hill. To see Moore's collected Shandaken coverage, click here. To see her blog, click here.
For more news and info about Shandaken, visit the Watershed Post's Shandaken page.
