Several streetlights fail at Thompson-Mazzarella Park
RHINEBECK, N.Y. » The Town Board has approved spending up to $3,000 to determine why six of eight streetlights at Thompson Mazz ar ella Park malfunctioned after only a few days of use.
“We [recently] authorized the funding of an electrician to hook up the electrical panel in the new pavilion to the lights that we built a couple years ago in the park,” Councilman Allan Scherr said at a board meeting Monday. “That work was done, the lights went on, and a day or two later, we had a big rainstorm, and apparently ... something damaged the underground wiring. So the lights don’t work anymore. Now we need to repair it.”
The lights are along Traver Lane, which serves as an entrance road to both the park and Starr Library
Scherr was uncertain of exactly how long the lights worked.
“They were turned on, and then the next time they tried to turn them on they didn’t go on,” he said. “The interval between the two was a matter of days.”
Scherr said repair costs could be as low as $500 if the problem is found early in the review.
“There is a suspicion that it might have something to do with a tree planting that happened in the park,” he said. “But we won’t know that until they actually dig in to find it. They’ll probably look at the spot where the trees were first to see whether that’s the cause.”
The problem is the latest in a series of setbacks for the park. The streetlights’ electricity comes from a pavilion that took three years to get from the design phase to construction because three rounds of bids were required to meet budget limits.
Other problems have included a dispute between town and village officials about installing a meter pit to keep track of water used by both the pool and the Rhinebeck Community Garden; disputes over the types of fields that should be created on the site; and getting people to clean up after their dogs.
In 2002, the town and village each agreed to pay $224,625 for a 72-acre section of the former Rhineson property, financing the purchase through bonds, a $50,000 pledge from the Dyson Foundation and a $300,000 grant from Dutchess County. But the deal was not completed for more than four years because county funding was delayed by procedural errors, including the town’s failure to provide an opportunity for a permissive referendum.