Results from an independent countywide study show county government and its municipalities could save more than $300,000 if officials decide to share highway services.
The Countywide Shared Highway Services Study, done by consulting agency The Laberge Group, recommended three major pilot projects, largely affecting the towns of Bethlehem and Colonie. The proposed pilot projects are meant to maintain and improve highway services for the towns, especially during the winter months.
“This Shared Highway Services Study is already a success,” said Albany County Executive Dan McCoy in a prepared statement. “It reviewed all of the county’s highway facilities to get a sense of the lifespan, safety, capacity and expansion opportunities. Winter weather is here and it is crucial that we are proactive in implementing what we have learned from this study.”
The first project is the Bethlehem Snow Plowing Road Swap. The swap could save the county $6,898 “for a full winter season by trading plow routes between Albany County and the Town of Bethlehem,” according to the study.
Albany County and Bethlehem already have intersecting plow routes in some areas. There are instances when a county truck has to travel on an non-plowed Bethlehem road to plow a county one. The project would trade routes and certain roads to make such instances simpler on both the county and Bethlehem.
“We already do share a lot of services as needed,” said Bethlehem’s Superintendent of Highways Brent Meredith. “Potentially, this would increase the turnaround time on my routes, and I’m assuming the county’s as well. The Jericho Road piece that we would pick up is on the way to routes my trucks plow anyway. That wouldn’t a big burden to pick up that route.”
The second proposed project to potentially save $7,300 a year is the Town of Colonie Plowing Contract, similar to that of Bethlehem’s project. It would also save “by closing the Colonie substation and reassigning personnel along with substantial salary savings through attrition,” the study said.
The Colonie contract proposes that the town takes about 20 miles of road from the county to plow in the winter. If the town takes over plowing for those roads, Albany County could then shut down the Department of Public Works Main-tenance Substation housed in Colonie. This would save the county a significant amount, said Jack Cunningham, commissioner of the Colonie Department of Public Works Engineering Bureau.
However, according to Cunningham the study does not fully take into account all of the costs Colonie would take on by plowing the section of road currently covered by the county.
“From the town’s perspective, the study assumes that the county is going to pay just for that time [to plow]. I would have to hire an employee. Equipment-wise, we would have to look at equipment to see if we have the equipment to start plowing 20 miles. That’s a significant amount of road,” Cunningham said.
The last pilot project in the study “is to share highway facilities in areas where existing facilities are in close proximity to each other. The overall cost savings are approximately $320,000 for constructing a joint facility in the future when the old facilities become old and outdate.”
For both Bethlehem and Colonie, the next step is to sit down with Albany County officials and work out the details of putting the proposed projects into effect.
According to Cunningham, Colonie has to weigh the cost effects between taking on the 20 miles of current county-plowed road compared to maintaining the town’s current wintertime workload. What the town does not want to do, Cunningham said, is to take on a project that would have a negative effect on the town’s budget and thereby, town taxpayers.
“We’re going to look back at the numbers,” he said. “We want to do a comparison study of what it would cost for Colonie to partake. We need to look to see if that compensation identified in the study is sufficient to cover the work in the study.”
Within the next several weeks, Cunningham said he will prepare an analysis looking at costs, then get together with the county to see if an agreement can be made.