by David Flint
The New Lebanon Town Board received the long awaited Housing Study at their meeting on Monday. Pete Rawson, representing the New Lebanon Housing Committee, presented the study that was funded by the
Kyle Fraser Foundation and carried out by the Laberge Group with the assistance of the Housing Committee, the Lebanon Valley Business Association and other Town officials, organizations and individuals. “The ball is in your court now,” he said. According to the Executive Summary, “The Study is a key element identified in the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and is an important tool for the Town to utilize when seeking housing improvement funding from a variety of federal, state and private sources.”
The study foresees a “pronounced increase” in New Lebanon’s senior citizen population in the next 10 to 20 years. It also foresees diminished capability of home ownership in the area for low to moderate income residents, compounded by a shortage of rental units and the unaffordability of what rental units there are for the 23% of residents earning below $25,000 a year. The conclusion is that more affordable housing units are needed in the Town.
A survey of existing housing units found 48% of residential buildings to be standard, 16% moderately substandard, 31% severely substandard and 5% dilapidated. Similar results were found for commercial structures.
Board members signed a Certificate of Appreciation to be delivered to Nancy Kyle Fraser and the Kyle Fraser Foundation “in recognition of valuable contributions to the Town of New Lebanon.”
Ethics
Rawson, who is also on the Ethics Board, reported that the Board had finally met to consider the proposed new Ethics Law, Local Law #2. He said they had determined that there were a “number of errors” in the proposed law which he did not specify. These were included in their report to the Board but not discussed at the meeting. The report also included a number of sample ethics laws from the NYS Association of Towns that the Ethics Board felt should be considered by the Town Board.
Councilman Bruce Baldwin moved to table any action on the new law to the next meeting to afford Board members time to consider the report of the Ethics Board and the sample laws. Allen Livermore seconded the motion saying it would be appropriate to see what the Association of Towns recommended. The motion passed by a unanimous 5-0 vote, and a work session was set for Monday, June 29, at 7 pm to consider the law.
Regarding the ethics complaint that precipitated the new law, Phil Brown spoke up to say that the findings that were released by the Ethics Board to him were different from statements given by Town Supervisor Meg Robertson to a local newspaper. He wanted to know which was factual. Robertson said she believed that the findings of the Ethics Board were factual. She added that what she told the Columbia Paper was her interpretation of the issue that involved her. She did not remember the specifics of her statement but recalled that she had been disappointed that some of what she said was not included in the newspaper report.
Councilman Livermore brought the matter up again later in the meeting charging that the Ethics Board findings were not correct in saying that they had brought the matter to the Town Board and that the Town Board had given it to the Town Attorney for investigation. The Board, he said, never authorized an investigation. Robertson responded that she had received notification of a possible violation from the Ethics Board and had simply sent an email to Town Board members and the Town Attorney requesting feedback. Only the Town Attorney responded, and he decided to take action by passing it on to the County Sheriff for investigation if needed. Robertson said the Town Attorney is authorized to take such action if deemed necessary. The Sheriff’s Investigator, she said, told her they were conducting an inquiry, not an investigation, but never followed up to inform her of their results or conclusions.
Wasch objected that these communications should be confidential. He went on to say that the only issue here appeared to be a minor misstatement of fact on the part of the Ethics Board. Livermore, however, retorted that the issue is people coming before the Board with legitimate complaints and being ignored. In the future, he said, he wanted any investigation to be authorized only by the Town Board as a whole. “You need to look at the evidence,” he said, “You don’t authorize an investigation that is totally without merit.” Robertson and Wasch disagreed saying that if anyone observes criminal action they should act immediately and report the wrongdoing. Councilman K.B. Chittenden said that if the Sheriff’s Department looked at the matter and thought there was nothing to it they would not have investigated. Attorney Sonya Smelyansky, sitting in for Town Attorney Jason Shaw, brought this somewhat lengthy and heated discussion to a close saying that the Ethics Board report was done. “It should be over,” she said, “There’s nothing else to do with this issue.” But Phyllis Hulbert had the last word toward the end of the meeting. “The whole thing was handled wrong,” she said. “You [the Board] should have come out and stated that there was no wrong doing. That would have stopped the nasty rumors and cleared up everything.”
At another point in the meeting, Robertson announced that the Board had received a letter from Baldwin submitting his resignation from the Ethics Board. The fact of a Town Board member being on the Ethics Board had been described as “strange” at the last meeting by Attorney Shaw. A notice for a replacement will be posted on the Town’s website.
Court Consolidation
Livermore said he had gathered some facts and figures on the cost of running the local courts in preparation for continuing a discussion with the Town of Canaan about the possibility for consolidating court services. Canaan’s initial reaction had been somewhat negative on this issue, but Livermore felt that with the information he had gathered they were now in a position to discuss it more in depth. Livermore found that some towns were paying the operation of their courts out of fines but Canaan is paying out approximately $12,400 a year after revenues and New Lebanon is paying about $18,000. He said the process would be lengthy and the public would ultimately decide, but he believed that some consolidation or sharing of services could result in substantial savings. Robertson and Wasch expressed some skepticism that cutting the number of judges could be done without adversely affecting the quality of justice provided to the towns’ residents. Wasch said that the towns could easily support their courts and then some if the State did not take away 50% of the fines and the county another 10%.
Time Clocks
Livermore made a motion to institute a system of time clocks for appointed Town employees. He had brought this up at the last meeting, but Monte Wasch was absent from that meeting so Wasch immediately moved to table the resolution as having been sprung on the Board. Robertson thought that if punching a time clock was to be required, then all Town employees and officials should be required to do it but because of erratic hours it would not be cost effective or fiscally responsible. Livermore responded that elected officials are answerable to the public but appointed officials are not. Wasch said few companies are using time clocks anymore and in any case they don’t tell if a person is doing his or her job. His motion to table passed 3-2 with Livermore and Chittenden voting no.
Smoking Legislation
The Board received from the Town Attorney some sample laws on controlling smoking in towns. Smelyansky asked the Board to examine the wording and determine what they would want in such a law. The Board will exchange ideas by email and discuss it at upcoming meetings.
Closing The Landfill
Baldwin recounted again the dilemma of closing the old Sherman landfill that was abandoned in 1988 or 1989. The County overlooked it at the time and never properly closed it. Now the Town is under a decree from the State to close it by December 1. The County, which took responsibility for closing all other landfills in the county, says the Town should close this one because they could apply for a 90% municipal grant, whereas the County can get only 50% funding. The Town started the process by having test holes driven but is paying everything under protest. Baldwin said what is needed is an agreement with the County that they will assume the liability.
Charter Cable Gives Assurances
Tom Cohan of Charter Communications, Inc. appeared before the Board to give some assurances about the company in preparation for the Board’s upcoming consideration to renew the Town’s cable contract. Cohan said the company, which has 5 million customers and 16,500 employees, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of heavy debt load resulting from the buying up of a lot of companies nationally. Bond holders have agreed to reduce a $21 billion debt by $8 billion in exchange for a bigger piece of the company. During the process, which he said is going quickly and smoothly, the court has allowed the company to operate as normal. There will be no major layoffs.
Cohan was asked about the black border around diminished pictures that customers are finding in their reception of local channels. He responded that this is an option of the local broadcast channels. They decide how to transmit the signal, either in wide screen or in “letterbox”, and the cable company has to match up with it. It has nothing to do with high definition or HDTV and, in fact, Charter Cable does not offer HDTV in this area. It would cost them $15 million to serve only 5,000 customers.
For the same reason, lack of bandwidth, Charter also does not yet provide cable internet service here, but, according to Cohan, they are looking at the possibility of getting federal stimulus funds to provide more broadband. Councilman Wasch said there is a lot of interest in that locally, and he would like to work actively with Charter to provide cable internet service. “We are stuck now with a phone company based in North Carolina that provides only marginal and overpriced DSL with no competition,” he said.
Covenant Circle
Kathy Murnane, President of the Covenant Circle Homeowners Association, provided the Board with a letter showing the results of polling of residents of the development regarding the Town taking over their road. According to the letter, almost all of the residents responded and all requested the takeover. Murnane noted that the 36 lots account for $6,357,000 of assessed value in the Town.
Settlements
Following an executive session of about 20 minutes to consult with counsel, the Board returned to pass three resolutions settling outstanding cases. The first was to authorize settlement of a tax case by the Mckechnie family against the Assessor.
The second authorized removal of a stop work order against Howard Commander for work on a go-kart track by the Speedway. This is conditional on a signed agreement to be drafted by the Town Attorney, the fence around the track being temporary and all construction to be removed if the project does not meet ZBA approval.
The third resolution authorized the Supervisor to enter into a banking settlement agreement in the case of New Lebanon vs. Andersen.
Town Hall Committee
Bruce Baldwin reported that the Town Hall Committee is continuing to meet and consider ideas for a permanent Town meeting place. Possibilities under consideration are use of the Chittenden building on the property of The Theater Barn, construction of a new building on land owned by the Fire Department by the American Legion building or constructing an addition onto the existing Town Hall. Baldwin said the NYS Department of State has engineers that could assist with construction of an addition. The Committee is also considering an old fashioned “barn raising” approach with the help of many volunteers.
Baldwin said the Committee has also been invited by Deputy Building Inspector Dean Herrick to go on a walk through tour of the Stephentown Town Hall to get some ideas about layout.
Other Business
In other business, the Board
• Had no objection to the renewal of the liquor license of the Chief Taghkanic Diner, Inc. (Jimmy D’s Restaurant).
• Appointed Matthew Larabee as representative to the Columbia County Traffic Safety Advisory Board, with a request that he bring attention to the Speedway area on race nights.
• Appointed John Dax as representative to the Columbia County Environmental Management Council, with Robertson noting that the Council was under new leadership after they had earlier stated that global warming was not a problem.
• Reported that the Restore New York grant application had been submitted for the Midtown Mall Project.
• Heard a report from Monte Wasch on plans to have the Benson Family Farm deeded as an agricultural land conservancy. The required 25% cash match of $175,000 must be raised by March of next year.
• Approved the soliciting of bids for the Highway Department for contracted equipment including an 8-10 ton bulldozer, a 14-16 ton excavator and a tri-axel dump truck, all to come with or without operator.
• Received quotes from Councilman K.B. Chittenden for repair work on the basketball and tennis courts in Shatford Park, $3,300 for the basketball court and up to $14,800 for the tennis courts. Money has been set aside for this from the Focus Features donation, but the Board will seek additional quotes.
• Declined to accept the offer of a power washer to clean the outside of the Town Hall as it is believed the pressure would inject and trap moisture inside the siding.
• Authorized a subscription to The Eastwick Press.