Express Editor
PISECO - The Arietta Town Board has instituted a health insurance buy-out program for town employees.
The program will allow employees with health insurance coverage through other sources to choose cash payments instead of health insurance coverage paid by the town.
This would both put cash in the employee’s pocket and cut the cost of the town’s health insurance premium payments. “Right now, we’re looking at three people coming off [the health insurance], which should save us about $30,000,” Supervisor Rick Wilt said June 21.
Under the Waiver of Medical Insurance / Participation In Buy-Out Provision eligible employees would be those who can prove they are enrolled in another medical insurance plan. They would receive a cash payment of 20 percent of the premium the town would otherwise pay for them, which would be subject to income and payroll taxes.
Participating employees would have to renew their waivers each December. The program will go into effect July 1.
SPILLWAY DAM
The Town Board has voted to abolish the Spillway Dam Committee created in December 2008.
Instead, the board activated a commission of five members to oversee the level of Piseco Lake, as provided for in Local Law 1 of 2011, “A Local Law to Protect the Quality and Regulate the Level of Piseco Lake in the Town of Arietta.”
The commission consists of the town supervisor, the president of Piseco Lake Association and three members appointed by the board: Sarah Rudes, Edward Svetlik and Edward Cox, whose terms will expire Dec. 31 of 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The appointments became effective immediately.
AIRPORT
The work to remove trees from the clear zone at Piseco Airport should be done by the end of the month, Wilt says. Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District will then hydro-seed the area.
The town’s engineer has notified the Federal Aviation Administration via letter that the town will not match any grant received for the airport in the future by any more than 2.5 percent, Wilt said. The FAA changed the amount to match a grant from 2.5 to 5 percent earlier this year.
OTHER BUSINESS
• Due to complaints about smell and bears scattering garbage, the town is looking into selling its dumpsters to those who want them on their property. “We’re tired of maintaining them for select people, businesses mostly,” Wilt says. “We’re working on a plan to sell them to the people and everyone is responsible for their own dumpster.”
The town would still collect the garbage from the dumpsters.
• According to the sheriff’s call log, a cell phone test balloon was floating above Rt. 8 and Wayne Smith Road June 20, “Not a UFO.”
• Kathryn Wilt has resigned as the town’s youth program director.
The Arietta Town Board will next meet Monday, July 2, starting at 7 p.m. in Piseco Community Hall.