Mickle Hollow Closure Confirmed

COBLESKILL - On Monday evening, the Cobleskill Town Board held their regular meeting, where they discussed a possible closure of Mickle Hollow Road next year.

The discussion follows their continued attempts at completing a critical infrastructure project on the road by replacing a culvert, a process that has been years in the making and was only able to secure bids for work last month.

Now that the project is set to go through, the Board noted that they need to protect it, or else they could face further delays or obstacles before its completion.

Supervisor Werner Hampel explained that there has been interest in logging in the area, but he’s become concerned with the thought of their heavy vehicles damaging the culvert while it’s being installed.

“I don’t think it’s feasible for the damage it could cause,” he said, and suggested that the Board consider closing Mickle Hollow Road to everyone other than residents and emergency services once work begins.

When members turned to Highway Superintendent Tim Gallagher for his opinion, he backed Supervisor Hampel’s sentiment, believing that the weight of trucks carrying logs might interfere with what they had planned.

“Buses and everything smaller should be no problem, but I would take caution around those kinds of vehicles,” he concluded.

“We should go with our highway superintendent’s expertise,” said Board member RJ Mallery. “If he thinks that it should be restricted, then we should do that.”

The rest of the Board was quick to agree, but before a motion could be passed, Supervisor Hampel stressed that this would be a temporary arrangement, only stretching from April of 2027 to either September or October.

“We don’t want to stop it,” he said. “We don’t want to tell anyone what they can or can’t do with their land. But we just want to delay it so nothing further is incurred on our end.”

With everyone in agreement, the Board passed a motion to close Mickle Hollow to heavy vehicles beginning April of next year to the project’s conclusion in the fall.