Provisions of this section are administered as provided for in § 277 of the Town Law of the New York State statutes.
The purpose of this article shall be to assure compliance with proper installation of facilities and utilities being offered for dedication and to protect future property owners. The Town of Manchester requires a letter of credit or other acceptable surety to be filed with the Town prior to commencement of construction of the facilities.
After final approval of the subdivision plats, the developer will offer a proposed surety which indicates the estimated costs of facilities which will be offered for dedication or other such improvements required by the Planning Board. The Engineer for the Town will review this proposed surety and, after seeking the advice of the Attorney for the Town or other appropriate officials, if necessary, shall submit a recommendation to the Town Board. The Town Board may, by resolution, accept or reject the proposed value.
When the Town Board is satisfied with the form and value of the proposed surety and is in receipt of the surety documents, the Town Board, by resolution, will accept the surety and submit it to the Town Clerk, who is charged with authorizing releases on behalf of the Town Board. The Town Clerk will authorize releases from the surety only after receiving instructions from the Town Board regarding the amount of the release, the date and the parties who will be named in the release.
All improvements covered under a performance surety must be inspected during construction. Costs of the required inspections may be estimated by the Engineer for the Town and shall be borne by the developer and will be included in the initial value of the surety.
A. 
The inspection procedure is designed to determine compliance with the approved plats.
B. 
For inspection purposes, the contractor will notify the Town when construction will be undertaken on proposed improvements. Reasonable notice is required. Normally, 24 hours' notice is considered to be reasonable.
C. 
Inspections are the responsibility of the Engineer for the Town or a designee of the Planning Board. Subcontracting of inspections on behalf of the Engineer for the Town may be done only with the prior approval of the Town Board. Should the inspector find improvements are not being installed in compliance with approved plats, the Town shall immediately be notified. The Town will take all necessary and proper steps to rectify the situation.
The process for release of surety will be initiated when a request is made by the contractor for partial or total release and is submitted to the Town for approval. The request will be submitted by the Town to the Engineer for the Town who shall compare the request with the inspection record. The Engineer's determination will be forwarded to the Town Board with a recommendation for action. At that time, the Town Board will decide, by resolution, whether to honor the request and will determine the dollar value of the release. The Town Clerk will be instructed to issue the release in the amount determined by the Town Board.
Upon completion of improvements, the Planning Board may honor a request for final release of funds.
A. 
This process begins when the developer submits a request for release to the Town. Inspection by Town officials of the improvements is required to assure improvements have been properly accomplished. A report of this inspection is submitted to the Planning Board, which will make recommendations concerning release to the Town Board.
B. 
The Town Board will decide whether to accept dedication. If a road is offered for dedication, the Superintendent of Highways will decide whether to accept dedication. Upon acceptance of dedication, the Town Board will require a maintenance bond as recommended by the Town Engineer and/or as set forth in Chapter 175, Fees. The Town Board will then release the developer from the former surety.
C. 
In cases of unusually large developments or in cases where several contractors are involved in the construction of the project or other extraordinary circumstances, phased releases may be requested by the developer. The Town Board has the right to specify the manner of issuing the releases and to whom the releases are issued.
All releases under surety are subject to retainage. Each time release occurs under a surety, 10% of the amount of the release is retained in the letter of credit until the facilities are dedicated. Upon dedication, the entire amount of the letter of credit will be released upon the filing of a suitable form of performance surety in the amount of 10% of the actual construction costs incurred. The surety shall be held for a period of one year following dedication to assure correction of any work that may be found to be defective.
Surety can be waived in instances where the subdivider installs all improvements prior to the final plat being signed by a duly authorized officer of the Town.