GERMANTOWN—The Town Board announced this week that the proposal for a Dollar General retail store on the west side of Route 9G just north of the Main Street stoplight will be discussed at a meeting scheduled for tonight, Thursday, January 29 at 7 p.m. in the Kellner Community Activities Center on Palatine Park Road.
The meeting is being convened by the town Planning Board as an information session. A brief initial Project Narrative, prepared by Mercurio, Norton, Tarolli, Marshal, Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C. of Pine Bush can be found on the town’s website, germantownny.org.
The proposed one-story building would measure 70 x 130 feet, or 9,100 square feet. It would have 38 parking spaces. The builder, Primax Properties, LLC of Charlotte, NC, would dig a new well and plan to hook up to the town’s existing sewer system.
“Dollar General stores typically employ a total of 8-12 people,” according to the Project Narrative, which also says, “The typical store hours are from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., 7 days per week.”
“Based upon Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual, 8th Edition,” the narrative concludes, “the proposed 9,100 square foot retail store will generate 391 daily trips and will generate 31 trips during the afternoon peak hour.”
In other business at the January 27 Town Board meeting:
- The board approved a contract with Delaware Engineering of Albany for an engineering study for repair and renovation of the town’s wastewater treatment plan. Last year Delaware secured for Germantown a $30,000 state grant to pay for the study. The required $7,500 match can come from Delaware’s in-kind services to the town.
“In order to advance this project, you need an engineering study,” Marybeth Bianconi told the board at its December 22, 2014 meeting. “You will need regulatory approvals, so you need a study to support what would be done, and all the funding agencies want to document that what they spend money on will work.” By July 2015, she said, Delaware should have a draft report for the town board to review. Repairs could be scheduled for the federal 2016-17 fiscal year
- Maintenance director Anthony Cidras was authorized to purchase one new information kiosk. Both the current kiosks were damaged when a car jumped the curb on Main Street. One cannot be repaired. Mr. Cidras has found a prefabricated kiosk of the same general design but more weather-resistant than he destroyed structure. The town will try to manage with one kiosk
- The board accepted a $7,250 Justice Court Assist Program (JCAP) grant. The money will be used to make the judges’ chambers in Town Hall more secure
- Rao Gaddipati was reappointed to the Planning Board
- Supervisor Joel Craig presented a State of the Town report. The supervisor recapped 2014 and looked ahead to 2015, saying his topics for the year are the town’s sewer system, new sidewalks, the Police Department, 4th of July celebration and budgets.
On the years-old sidewalk project, Mr. Craig said Tuesday that all the town’s work on right-of-ways and covenants had been completed and submitted to the state Department of Transportation, as required. The engineers on that project, he said, feel “that’s the last of it”—the town’s work has been completed. Once DOT approval is received, “we’re still targeting late spring or early summer [this year] to get bids,” he said. “But we’ll see.”
All board members except Andrea Dunn, and an audience of half-a-dozen attended the meeting, despite storm predictions. The next Town Board meeting is Monday, February 23 at 7 p.m.
