HomeMy WebLinkAboutPB-08/22/1960-JOINT M I N U T E S
A meeting of all Highway superintendents, supervisors,
town planning boards,,. Mr. H. L_ Bishop, Commissinner,,. D.P.W.*
and all members of County planning board was held August 22,
1960, 2: 00 P-M. ,, in the Board Room of the County Supervisors
at the County Center.Riverhead, New York.
There were present from Southold: Mr, Archibald Young,
Vice-Chairman, Planning Board, William tTnkelbach, Planning
Board, Otto W. Van Tuyl, Consultant, Harold Price,,, Superintendent
of Highways,. and Howard M. Terry.,. Building Inspector.
The meeting was called to order at 2x15 P.M. by Suffolk
County �xecutive H. Lee Dennison who announced that the meeting
was called to consider highway matters. Mr,.Dennison gave a
resume of facts and proposals more or less as follows:
The overall population of the County of Suffolk is
increasing 110 people per day. They are building new homes
at the rate of 1000 a month.. They expect the population to
be 2„000, 000 by 1575. The highway transportation seems to be
the most important problem we have facing us at the moment..
There is no complete plan for a highway system. We should have
a complete survey of all items and be preparing for the Express--
way to reach Riverhead and Southampton in 1967. The Sunrise
Highway will reach the Riverhead-*Moriches Road this year. The
Expressway will reach Islip Avenue this year. The Towns must
get all local feeder roads planned. Such local roads will be
the Towns responsibility. There are 5400 miles of highway and
4400 are local roads. He said there are 14 items which the
County is primarily interested in_ They are as follows:
1.. Coordinated town highway plans.
2. Standard highway specifications for all towns.
3. Centralized purchasing agency where all towns can
purchase materials at certain price, procedure and
quality,
4. Establish an equipment pool where towns can swap
machinery as 'needed to get more work out of the
machinery.
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5. Central laboratory for testing materials for both the
county and towns.
6. Should modernize the local highway law as to established
grades and legal procedures,
7. Should have more complete highway records and more complete
monumenting of highways.
8. Clarification of interpretation of private roads..
9. Acquisition of right-of--ways for town or county for
future roads*
10. A resurvey of county highway drainage.
11.. A resurvey of town roads for drainage..
There were two or three other items which Mr. Dennison
elaborated on.
He stated that in the last 30 years the towns have spent
$115, 000,000 on maintenance of town roads and in the last ten
years they have spent $70,, 000,t000 on the maintenance of town roads..
Last' year alone they spent $11,#,0004000 on highway maintenance_ Of
this, snow removal was the largest part of the expense.
Mr. Dennison. estimated 20/ of the town and county roads
should be regraded and realigned at a minimum cost of $25,000
per mile. He estimated that there are 400 miles of new town
roads needed immediately„ at an estimated cost .of $50, 0001 per
mile for a good type of road. They have plans now for 150 miles
of new county roads. He estimated thtt we will need at least
200 miles of marginal roads for the Expressway. and Sunrise High-
way. , He is asking for an increase in road funds from the State
and additional State aid. They estimate to spend $50, 000,000
on a 10 year program for roads and improvements.
Dr. Leonard, Planning -Consultant for the County Planning
Commissinn spoke on the requirements of Section 239K of the
General Municipal Law.. He read part of the law. He stated
there were 116 subdivisions filed this year. 16 were on County
roads. Only two plans were Bent to the County Planning Board
or. to the" Department of Public Works. He stated it is required
that layouts for subdivisions must be check by the County Plan-
ning Board and Department of Public Works for sufficient exits,
etc., and it is the County Attorney's opinion that all subdivisions
should be submitted to the County Planning Board for approval
before local Planning Boards give final approval to same.. .
Superintendent of Highways from Brookhaven Town spoke on
goordination and consolidation and standardizing highway
specifications for development streets,. etc. He also stated
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that it is his experience that an equipment pool would not be
feasible because most every highway department would be doing
the same type of work at the same time of the year_ However
to interchange equipmeiit. as much as practical at the present
time-, He also stated that central testing of material has not
proved to be practical as most towns do not yet have standardized
. . and technical specifications for materials to be used.. He also
stated the present highway law hampers developments. It is npt
clear in many instances.
There was a discussion by the supervisors of the town road
costs_ Most towns have built some roads as well as development
roads. They all agreed that they should have better specifications
for town highways_ Islip Town has the most rigid specifications
and estimates the cost of61000 per building lot to put in the
town requirement improvements including roads„ drainage,, etc.
Mr. Dennison stated that the County Planning Board should
be close to the. Town planning Board and attend- all its meetings
as a lack of cooperation and coordination on drainage has caused
big problems in the western towns. He suggested parks as buffer
zones between residential and industrial districts. The -basic
need for . the countyoverall is a good water supply and adequate
sewage disposal.
In general discussion it was agreed that highway superin-
tendents should have a four year term rather than the present
two year term in order that they might more efficiently carry
out programs initiated during their administration.
Mr.. Gardiner, one. of the ,owners of Gardiners Island spoke
his thoughts on the development of Suffolk County., and he thought
it would be best to adopt tough rules and regulations for the
beginning and carry them out strictly to the letter rather than
have high maintenance bills. on Xighways and drainage projects
after they had been installed for some time.
Mr. Harold Pricer Superintendent of Highways for the Town
of Southold spoke on excessive costs to the developers of install-
ing all of these rigid requirements and it is his thought that
such rigid requirements would tend to hinder the developer rather
than help the development of Suffolk County,
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There was again a general discussionof the maps displayed
on theN.alls of the room where everyone had a chance to see
proposals of the County Planning Commission for each of the
ten towns, Representatives of the ten towns were requested to
take their sectional map home and discuss it and advise the
County Planning Commission if they approved or disapproved
the proposal for highways, Mr* Dennison requested to meetwith
each of the individual Planning Boards at the earliest possible
date to discuss with them and coordinate an overall plan.
The meeting adjourned at 4:15 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Howard M. Terry
Building Inspector