BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village board has approved fire department memberships, an appointment, adopted a law on video conferencing for public meetings, approved an environmental assessment, agreed to participate in a study for a countywide composting facility and agreed to advertise for bids for several land surveys.

The trustees and the mayor took care of these and other points of municipal business at their regular meeting Monday, Sept. 19.

Nathan A O’Geen and McKenna E. Len were both approved by the board as new members of the Potsdam Volunteer Fire Department.

The board approved a one-year probationary appointment of Gordon Nehm, 14 Debra Drive, Apt 205, to the position of water treatment/waste Water treatment plant operator trainee at the rate of $23.51 an hour.  

A local law approving the use of video conferencing to conduct public village meetings, for village officials and members of the public was approved. The law sets procedures which allow the meetings to be held in compliance with the state’s Open Meetings Law.

Trustees and the mayor agreed to participate in a feasibility study underway by the Development Authority of the North Country for the potential construction of a centralized biosolids composting facility in the county. The village, like the other municipalities including the Town of Potsdam which signed onto the study last week, agreed to provide data on its waste water sludge to the authority. The proposed facility would process the sludge into composting material that local farms could use. Currently municipalities in the county have to ship sludge to Chateauguay or Watertown for processing.

A public hearing on photo-voltaic siting for solar power development was set for Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in the civic center board room, 2 Park St.

The board passed a resolution authorizing and directing Village Mayor Ron Tischler to execute a memorandum of understanding with EcoAdapt and the Town and Village of Canton on a stakeholder-driven climate change vulnerability assessment and planning workshop. After the assessment, the three parties involved will draft a climate vulnerability and adaptation report for Canton and Potsdam communities.

According to the resolution, EcoAdapt has secured a grant from the National Science Foundation to pay for the cost of preparing the assessment and report. The Village’s cost share may include staff time and the cost of hiring outside consultants if the village board elects to engage a consultant’s services; this is not a requirement of the MOU, the resolution said.  

Finally, the board authorized Village Planner Fred Hanss to issue a request for proposals for surveying services for a portion of Liberty Street, which borders the Raymond Street north parking lot, as well as the Raymond-Depot Connector Street and the Downtown Riverwalk Trail. Hanss said the surveys could cost about $3,000 each. However the cost would be covered under the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant, the Northern Border Regional Commission grant and Empire Zone Capital Credits.