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We need sewers, new businesses, a cap on excessive school taxes, a cut in wasteful spending, and a cap on excessive salaries and benefits for our public employees[police] in order to afford the things this town really needs.

Okay Shadow, you said a mouthful here and have won my vote!

Bumble, we need to convince the town to change it's present course of stagnation to one of proactivity.

stagnation here in Rotterdam will lead to one STINKY end.......

We need to start locally and nationally.  Tell me one thing that McNulty, Clinton or Schumer have done for any of us.  I don't know how, but we need to get at LEAST one of them out of office.  Hey, McNulty, where's Rotterdam's money?

Quote from Shadow:
"This has been mentioned to the town b4 that they should collect a small fee from everyone who uses sewers and storm sewers to be put into a fund for only sewer maintenance so when a problem arises the money will be there to fix it. Thus far nothing has been done because the town officials are scared to death to raise the taxes one penny more than the absolutely have to. As BK said you get what you pay for and I feel it's time to start being proactive and to start maintaining and improving what we have b4 problems arise."

I am treading thin ice here as it is not my town and not my sewer district.  My knowledge and comments are restricted to the Sewer Districts in D'burg. A "Benefit District" is just that and only those within the district can legally bear the cost of the benefit received at the time the benefit is received.  There are two parts to the sewer rates the first is the debt service (paying back any loans) and the second is operations and maintenance (the cost of operating and maintaining the system for the following year.) The town officials are not allowed to collect money to create a slush fund for future repairs or improvements . For example, Shadow, lets say you lived within the sewer district and the town collected an extra $100 per year for 10 years anticipating improvements in 12 years. Now you move out in 11 years, you paid $1,000 toward improvements you did not get to benefit from.  Take the flip side, same scenerio, except a family moves in next to you in the 11th year, they enjoy the benefit but did not contribute.  The annual budget needs to relect an honest estimate of the costs of the sewer district for the coming year only.  In contrast, they cannot set up a fund for a "special district" within the general operating fund of the town either....by doing this, the residents outside the sewer district will bear the costs and that is illegal.  You really can't plan for the future with benefit districts.  I hope this makes sense.

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You really can't plan for the future with benefit districts.  I hope this makes sense.

that is where the State comes in to talking about consolidation(and you know the socialist leanings we have in this state).....they are beginning to put the pressure on......now the folks who complain about tax$$(me included here)--what is the value of our taxes collected locally???? what do we want??? what is important??? what is logical??? what is feasible??? what makes sense???---WE NEED TO LOOK PAST OUR BACKYARDS AND THE NEXT 5-10YEARS.......WE REAP WHAT WE SOW......I dont want the state to manage it----look at the LOTTO and education,,,,,,,

Most all of us in Rotterdam have storm sewers and many have public sewers and they both need maintenance and upgrades. I was talking about $5 per family to be earmarked for sewer maintenance only. A slush fund would just be used for some other pet project therefor it needs to be used to fix sewer problems only. Drainage ditches need to be cleaned out, storm sewers need to be cleaned and repaired, and streams need cleaning out at times to prevent flooding during periods of heavy rain. The only thing the town does is clean out the catch basins for the storm sewers and that's not enough to prevent problems. Public sewer districts are a whole other animal that do require a sewer district to be formed. The town doesn't have enough time or employees to keep up with a proactive storm-water management program so they don't do anything about it and water problems are still a problem in the town. The money has to come from somewhere so if the town can't levy a tax to fix the problem then what can be done???

WE---as a town decide to do it ,,,,across the board......bite the bullet so to speak......we start from the east and move west....immediately moving from section to section with no stopping---even when someone from the 'next section' to be done gets elected and wants it stopped before it hits their neighborhood......

Guys, not to get back on topic or anything, but the entire section of Bellevue adjacent to the sewage treatment plant stunk of....sh*t last night.

And lately driving by, the smell is nausiating! (my 12 year old daughter's assessment, verbatim)

Can't the town dump a big barrel of Fabreeze in there???

Febreeze...what a novel idea!!! Perhaps it should be brought up at the next town board meeting.

I just wonder how those poor folks do it too. Ya know, the ones that live in the apartments 'right next' to the sewage facility! PU!

If more and more residents and businesses are added to the inadequate sewer treatment plant the smell will only get worse.

I talked to Mr. Tommasone about this last night.  While I disagree with him, he says that part of the smell down in that area is the smell moving down from the compost facility.  I think they just need to concentrate on the treatment plant.

Compost doesn't smell like the smell that's down near the sewage treatment plant. Someone has again given Steve some bad information. The truth is that the residents in Rotterdam need a new larger and more modern sewage treatment plant but we can't afford to put one in. I've seen the new sewage treatment plants in action and there's almost no smell at all associated with them. If it were the compost facility causing the smell the residents living near the facility would be complaining too.

I agree, Shadow, but the fact is that compost CAN smell, if people are putting things in that shouldn't be put it. It is a possibility, if people haven't been following the normal rules.  Plus, if it was the compost, you would think you would smell it when you were on Burdeck, but you don't.

I agree with the fact that YES we do need a larger treatment facility. And I think everyone knows that. I also know for a fact that the compost facility does 'stink' and it can 'stink' like sewage. And it does permiate the area at times.

So we have a double whammie goin' on there. The sewage plant AND the compost facility. They both will have to be addressed if they want to continue with development in that area.