The Peru Gazette

Highlights of the Peru Town Board February 12, 2018 Meeting

Counselor Jim Langley expressed frustration that of the 114 arraignments conducted in Peru Town Court last year, 77 or 66% involved people arrested outside of the Town of Peru. Forty-one arraignments involved arrests in the Town of Plattsburgh (36%), 36 (31.5%) involved arrests in other towns and 37 (32.5%) involved arrests in Peru. He said, “It’s a duplication of work. Our ladies are having to spend their time to take care of other town’s stuff. Two years ago this was brought up. Last year it was brought up. It doesn’t seem to change.” Langley said that following arraignment the cases are transferred to the town where the crime was committed and that these towns receive any fine monies. Peru does not receive any reimbursement.

It appears that Peru’s town justices either make themselves more available or have more convenient court hours than do justices in the Town of Plattsburgh and other towns. Supervisor Brandy McDonald said he would contact Town of Plattsburgh Supervisor Michael Cashman to investigate the issue. Counselor Irwin added, “You’d think the Town of Plattsburgh taxpayers would take notice at some point.” (See 9 to 12 minute 45 second point in Peru Gazette video to view this discussion)

Plans for the latest Main Street Project are going to be available to the public at the Town Hall at the Peru Free Library and if possible on the town’s Website. A letter is also going to be sent to Main Street residents. Committee Chairman Adele Douglas pointed out that plans have to be finalized and approved by the Town Board in the very near future and that the work has to be accomplished by the end of the year. Another pubic information meeting will also be scheduled at the Town Hall. Counselor Melvin Irwin was concerned about the plan’s impact on the turn radius for trucks at the Stewart’s intersection. Douglas said she believed that portion of the plan was modified after the NYS Department of Transportation expressed its concerns.

The Board approved the purchase of a disaster recovery computer server from Northeastern Computer at a cost not to exceed $5,000 plus installation labor of $1,000 to $2,000. The server will serve as the town’s disaster recovery backup and as the server for Town Court. Funds for the server were included in the Court’s 2018 budget. $1,100 saved by not appointing a fifth council member will also be used for the server.

A workshop was scheduled for March 13, 2018 at 6 PM to discuss needed sewer system upgrades.

Highway Superintendent Michael Farrell reported that NYS Office of Emergency Management informed him that the Town is still being considered for some reimbursement for last April’s snowstorm expenses.

Peru School District engineers have approved Farrell’s plan to install drainage piping in the school’s catch basin. The School Board still needs to approve the installation. Farrell believes repairing the catch basin will reduce or eliminate Jenkins and Pleasant Street storm sewer overflows.

Farrell said four of his snowplows were down for repairs during last week’s snowstorm. Plowing was delayed but done. All trucks have been repaired.

Problems with Primelink’s phone service have been the past two Board meetings. Town Hall phones were inoperable several times in the past few days and the Peru Town Court building has experienced similar outages. Supervisor McDonald said he would contact Primelink.

The Board received a letter of thanks from the Babbie and Rural Farm Learning Museum for the Town’s $3,000 donation to the museum.

Crews for the movie Escape From Dannemora will be filming on the Rock Road, Laphams Mills Road and the Lyons Road at the end of March. More information will be forthcoming.

More donations have been made to the Sullivan Park skating rink-basketball court online fundraising campaign. As of Monday’s meeting the online total was $6,740.

The meeting adjourned at 7:26 PM.