While those were the immediate needs of the county, Robinson explained, “That doesn’t mean these are the agencies that would be moving to Ockawamick.” He made the point that a subcommittee would have to be formed to determine which agencies will move.

Once the need had been determined, the county moved on to identify and evaluate possible locations for a new office building. Robinson said the initial study identified fourteen possible sites, all but three of which were eliminated for various reasons. The county had each of the three sites appraised and subjected each to a Phase I Environmental Assessment before settling on Ockawamick.

“It is immediately available,” Robinson noted. “It would meet our needs for 2011.” The lease on 25 Railroad Avenue, the current location of the Department of Social Services, expires in 2011.

The cost of renovating Ockawamick was estimated at about $150 per square foot, making the total project cost an estimated $15.2 million. According to Robinson, new construction would cost between $15 and $17 million for 40,000 square feet—as opposed to Ockawamick’s 70,000 square feet. “It’s a bigger bang for your buck,” Robinson said of Ockawamick.

He went on to talk about rising construction costs, citing data from two recognized authorities, RS Means and Engineering News Record, and concluded that “If we hold off on making a decision and do this same project next year, instead of costing $15.2 million, it would cost between $16.2 and $16.7 million. By the third year, the cost of construction would increase by 20 to 30 percent.”

Robinson reported that the county had completed a Phase II Environmental Assessment and determined there was “no recognizable environmental impacts preventing renovating the building as a county office building.”

Robinson also reported that the traffic study done by Morris Associates showed that “the amount of traffic generated would not impact the capacity of the roads.” The study looked at five intersections and major roads: Route 217, Route 23, County Route 9, County Route 18, and Martindale Road.

“The level of service on one road would move from level service A to level service B, figuring in a 2 percent growth per year from 2010,” Robinson explained. He said that level service A and B both have “free-flowing capacities” whereas levels C, D, or F would have require some control, such as traffic lights. “All these roads would remain level service A or B, so there is no impact on traffic,” he concluded.

Addressing the issue of transportation to the site, Robinson said that the county had surveyed county agencies—among them Probation, Mental Health, the Office of the Aging, and DSS—to determine how many clients walked to services. “Based upon these surveys,” Robinson said, “it was estimated between 35 and 40 customers visit the departments each day that walk or use public transportation.” He added that for the purpose of SEQR the county was estimating there were 50 people who walked or used public transportation.

Robinson said the resolution acknowledges the need to create a transportation system between Hudson and Ockawamick. At the request of the county, Coxsackie Transport estimated that a 30-passenger bus making seven trips a day would cost the county between $75,600 and $115,000 a year.

The resolution also includes the twenty questions from the Full Environmental Assessment Form, with suggested answers, but Robinson stressed that those were not firm answers.

County Attorney Daniel Tuczinski commented on two issues. First, he noted that to the SEQR question that asked if the proposed project would result in a significant physical change at the site, the proposed answer was “no,” since the project involved only interior renovations and perhaps the addition of a parking lot.

He also touched on the issue of granting an option to the Town of Claverack for a period not to exceed ten years for a portion of the property not to exceed two acres on which the Town might build a new Town Hall.

Tuczinski said it had been suggested this might be considered "segmentation." According to the State Department of Conservation SEQR Handbook, “segmentation is defined as the division of the environmental review of an action so that various activities or stages are addressed as though they were independent, unrelated activities needing individual determinations of significance. Except in special circumstances, considering only a part, or segment of an overall action, is contrary to the intent of SEQR.”

Tuczinski said the option did not give the Town leave to do anything, since no plans have been discussed or outlined by the Town of Claverack to build a new Town Hall at Ockawamick. If the Town chooses in the future to exercise the option, the project have to be studied and approved then. “The town has no plans or studies, so we can’t consider it,” he said.

Baer asked the supervisors to study the resolution over the next two weeks, after which the issue will be revisited and the resolution voted on.