Following executive session discussion Friday, supervisors decided they’d had enough:
They unanimously passed a motion authorizing the Wladis Law Firm to file a lawsuit against Empire State Development over the $35 million, decade-old Streambank Project.
A second motion—also unanimous--allows Wladis’ Kevin Murphy to make DEC a “counteroffer” regarding future work and responsibilities in what’s become a who’s-on-first dispute that goes back to Hurricane Irene.
In 2015, work on a handful of streams intended to prevent a repeat of the devastation was put on hold after the USDA/ Natural Resources Conservation Service, which was funding it, issued a stop work order, charging what had been completed was “unacceptable.”
To help, then-State Senator Jim Seward secured a $9.4 million flood recovery grant for the county from ESD.
It’s this money--$4.1 million for past costs and/or new work if the county decides to do it, and $5 million for any new work—that supervisors might have to sue to get.
There’s no lawsuit yet, said Hydro Resource Management Committee chair Don Airey, and they’re hopeful there won’t be.
“This doesn’t mean we’re going to litigate, but the F-14 is on the runway and the engines are on,” he said.
After months and months of work and submissions, the county was able to get $1.6 million of the ESD money released a year ago; last July they followed the same “template” for $2.4 million—and they’re still waiting.
“In the background, all the time, was DEC,” Mr. Airey said. It was after this second request “that we started to get pushback and ESD started referencing DEC and the need for permits.”
But DEC was never a part of the original grant, he said, and while yes, permits will be required if the county was to move ahead with additional stream work, that has nothing to do with the $4.1 million piece of the award.
“We have no citations, no permit issues, no reports from DEC, other than verbal statements that they ‘don’t like it’,” Mr. Airey said. What are we supposed to do with that? And they’re separate issues. One has nothing to do with the other.”
The first motion:
“To authorize the Wladis Law Firm to commence legal action against Empire State Development for breach of contract and failure to reimburse Schoharie County for past costs for the EWP Streambank work in accordance with the terms of the ESD Grant Project Number: 123,835.”
The second:
“To authorize the Wladis Law Firm to present [a] Schoharie County counter-offer to Department of Environmental Conservation regarding any future work and responsibilities regarding Little Schoharie, Platterkill, and Line Creeks, including reallocation of ESD and other grant funding as may be applicable.”
The county’s settled with the original contractors; the money supervisors are waiting on would likely go into the general fund.


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