Highway Department Monthly Report — August 2023

Village of Red Hook Highway Department Monthly Report

August 2023

1. Brush Pickup

Pickup of brush, and yard debris is scheduled for the first full week of every month, pending weather conditions and scheduling. Please be patient as it takes more than one day to get all the way around the Village. As of now, pickup is scheduled for ONCE A MONTH through the Fall.

Residents are reminded to place lawn debris and brush in separate piles, and tree branches no larger than 6” in diameter. Brush that includes tree trucks, stumps, garbage, or construction material will not be picked up.

2. Scrap Metal Program

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Proceeds from this program go toward the purchase of tools and equipment for the Village Highway, Water, and Materials Management Departments. Residents and businesses interested in donating scrap metal may contact the Village Highway Department (845-758-8600 OR highway@redhooknyvillage.org) or the Village Clerk’s Office (845-758-1081 OR info@redhooknyvillage.org ). Highway Department personnel will assist property owners by picking up scrap metal upon request.

3. Highway Department Equipment

Garbage & Leaf Truck: The new garbage truck with leaf vacuum attachment (2020 International 4400 SBA 4X2) was delivered by Cyncon Equipment, Inc, on Tuesday August 8th, 2023. The purchase has been financed by a 6 month BAN (Bond Anticipation Note) as approved by the board at our July 10th meeting. Depending on the proceeds recouped from the sale of the old garbage truck parts, the Board will then determine by year's end how much of the CHIPS funding and the Highway reserve fund will be used to offset a long term 10-15 year bond for the remaining balance.

Line Striper: Highway Foreman Jake Smith has proposed that the Village purchase a Paint Striper in lieu of contracting out annually for repainting Village street lines. Purchasing the proposed line striper would be a one time cost of 5K rather than the 4- 5K approximate annual rate of both borrowing a machine along with paying for an operator’s time to run it. For the Boards consideration I have gathered quoted estimates for routine repainting of stops, bike signals, pedestrian walkways etc in recent years for comparison.

$4,750 on July 14, 2021, by Seal and Stripe Pavement Maintenance Specialists $4,220 on June 7, 2019, Easystreet Cleaning, Inc.

4. Seasonal Projects

Catch Basins: An estimated quote for annual Catch basin cleaning of $8,400 for 3 days service was received from “Custom Street Services, Inc.”. Allocations from Maintenance of Streets – Catch Basin Culvert (5110.46), will be used to fund this service. The estimate is lower this year because many of the catch basins cleaned on a bi-annual basis were just cleaned in 2022.

Annual Repaving: Foreman Jake Smith has prepared a list of road repaving projects to be financed in whole, or in part, by the NYS FY2023-2024 CHIPS (Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program), PAVE-NY, EWR (Extreme Winter Recovery), and POP (Pave Our Potholes). Estimates are being prepared. Work on these projects is anticipated to be completed by Fall of 2023.

The following amounts have been allocated to the Village of Red Hook from NYS DOT:

Annual Water Valve exercising: Exercising Water valves will be beginning this month with the newly purchased Valve exerciser which should improve the time spent on the task substantially. Also new to the process is entering the data of each exercised Valve into the Village’s Diamond Map system, which should help create a more regular maintenance schedule moving forward.

Village Tree Pruning & or Removal: Damaged or ailing trees in the Village right of way have been identified and marked with marking tape. A list of trees and the quote for removal will be shared in my next month’s report.