by Kieron Kramer
At its regular meeting on Tuesday, November 9, the County Legislature passed unanimously a resolution authorizing the County Executive to execute a public safety dispatching agreement with the Village of Hoosick Falls. At a September 20 meeting the Village of Hoosick Falls decided, in a 4-3 vote after much discussion and a series of public hearings, to join the County Dispatch system and to deactivate its own dispatch system. At present the emergency service calls, for fire and ambulance, go through the County 911 Dispatch and are forwarded to the Hoosick Falls center to be dispatched locally while the Police calls are handled solely by the Hoosick Falls Dispatch.
The County’s takeover of all the Village’s dispatch services will become effective May 1, 2011. The agreement will terminate in five years but may be renewed for one additional five year period before being renegotiated. The payment to the County will be at least $12,000 per year for the first year with an increase of 3% annually thereafter. There is a floor on the cost but not a ceiling. In comments after the meeting, District 5 Legislator and Vice Chairman of the Legislature Stan Brownell, who represents the towns of Stephentown, Berlin, Grafton, Petersburgh, Hoosick and the Village of Hoosick Falls, said that the cost could go higher if there are more police calls and that the $12,000 figure was arrived at by averaging the number of calls historically handled annually by the Hoosick Falls Police Department.
The resolution says that the long term report on implementing 911 in Rensselaer County, having been prepared many years ago by Gabriel Information Services, called for the County to negotiate with involved agencies and municipalities to develop the centralization of all dispatch functions under the County Bureau of Public Safety. The centralization of emergency services dispatch will result in the improved delivery of emergency services, and the assumption by the Bureau of Public Safety of the emergency dispatch function presently rendered by the Village is an important step toward that goal. Officials of the Village and the County jointly prepared an agreement setting forth the rights and obligations of the respective parties, including the amount of compensation to be paid to the County by the Village for the provision of the services. A copy of the agreement has been filed in the Office of the County Clerk.
According to the resolution, this sharing of services is in the interests of economy and fiscal responsibility. Since the Village budgeted $160,000 to run its dispatch, this agreement will likely save Hoosick Falls $148,000. From a fiscal point of view this is a no-brainer, but there is serious concern expressed by the residents of Hoosick Falls and of the Town of Hoosick, particularly by the fire chiefs and the Hoosick Rescue Squad, that the response time in emergencies will suffer. In the past there have been dead spots in the emergency radio system with some responders not receiving important signals on their pagers. In the meantime, to solve the “dead spot” problem, the radio system has been upgraded to more reliable frequencies and there is new equipment on the two towers, the Grafton tower and the tower on LeBarron Road, used to relay the County 911 calls to the responders in eastern Rensselaer County. According to Brownell, tests are now underway to determine which tower will retransmit messages most efficiently to particular emergency services in our area. Both Brownell and District 5 Legislator Lester Goodermote said they feel confident that all calls will be answered quickly.
Reimbursement For Terror Training
At this meeting a resolution authorizing reimbursements to seven municipalities, one of them being Hoosick Falls, passed unanimously. Hoosick Falls will receive $4,000. At the top end, Troy will receive $25,000.
Last year the County accepted a $250,500 grant from the New York State Office of Homeland Security for the period from September 1, 2008, through August 31, 2011. Some of the grant funds were rolled into the 2010 Adopted Rensselaer County Budget. One of the purposes of this grant is to provide funding for training necessary to respond to and prevent events involving weapons of mass destruction or terrorism. The reimbursement is for the salaries of employees paid by each such municipality to attend and/or back fill for those employees attending the training.
Mortgage Tax Distributions
The Legislature passed a resolution distributing $1,653,620.08, which represents the local share of mortgage tax collected for the period April 1, 2010, to September 30, 2010, to the cities, towns and villages of Rensselaer County in accordance with Section 261 of the Tax Law of the State of New York. This is $315,869.76 less than what was distributed during the same period last year. The Eastwick municipalities receiving this distribution are:
Berlin – $12,250.31 (a $3,512.28 decrease)
Brunswick – $130,378.44 (a $52,609.63 decrease)
Grafton – $17,583.10 (a $10,050.85 decrease)
Hoosick – $34,011.25 (a $17,022.22 decrease)
Hoosick Falls – $10,571.39 (a $3,545.90 decrease)
East Nassau – $1,972.78 (a $2,277.02 decrease)
Petersburgh – $14,001.35 (a $2,535.01 increase)
Pittstown – $52,660.29 (a $6,131.81 increase)
Poestenkill – $58,172.02 (a $6,264.85 decrease)
Sand Lake – $108,542.69 (a $45,340.73 decrease)
Schaghticoke – $77,321.05 (a $42,155.82 decrease)
Stephentown – $73,254.16 (a $39,579.53 increase)
County Budget
County Executive Kathy Jimino has proposed a 4.9% tax levy increase in the 2011 County budget. A public hearing on the budget was on the schedule for Wednesday evening, a day after the Legislative session. Brownell said that he expected that many speakers at the hearing will criticise some of the cuts in the budget, like for local libraries. Both Brownell and Goodermote said they approved of the fact that Jimino’s proposed budget maintains the funding levels for the services that the County traditionally provides its citizens, like programs for the aging and the Sheriff’s road patrols. Both think that the Legislature will be able to pare down the budget without affecting these services. One prospect that may save as much as $2,000,000 is the election by the County, voted at Tuesday’s meeting, to participate in the New York State Health Insurance Program. Jimino will negotiate the current contracts with the various County employee unions that could result in their electing this insurance program. According to Brownell, every $580,000 saved reduces the tax levy by one percent.
Veterans Medal Ceremony
Kathy Jimino, Lester Goodermote and other County, State and federal officials met at the American Legion Post in Wynantskill on Sunday, November 7, to honor nineteen veterans who served their country as members of the United States Military either during World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War. At Tuesday’s session the Legislature passed a resolution recognizing the Veterans receiving medals at that ceremony.
According to a release from Jimino’s office, a number of military personnel returning from active duty in, especially but not limited to, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, never formally received the honor and recognition they earned through their service in the nation’s armed forces. Local medal ceremonies have been organized, primarily through the efforts of County Executive Jimino and the County’s Veterans Service Agency, to provide local veterans, their families, friends and colleagues the opportunity to participate in the formal presentation ceremony in which veterans, some of whom are deceased, are honored.
Among the distinguished United States Military veterans honored for their service are two local men, Douglas Calderwood of Berlin and Thomas Nowak of Potter Hill in Hoosick.
Calderwood, who served in the Army in Vietnam, was the recipient of the Purple Heart, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal w/two Bronze Service Stars, Army Service Ribbon, Army Reserve Components Overseas Training Ribbon, Combat Infantry Badge 1st Award, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon w/1960 Device, Expert Badge & Auto Rifle Bar & Rifle Bar and the Parachutist Badge-Basic.
Nowak served in Vietnam in the Army. He was the recipient of the Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal w/two Bronze Service Stars, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon w/1960 device, Expert Badge & Grenade Bar and the Sharpshooter Badge & Auto Rifle Bar.
Good Bye Mister Chick
A resolution commending Ron Cicchinelli upon his retirement from Troy High School was passed last month, and the presentation was made Tuesday before the regular meeting.
Ron Cicchinelli is retiring from Troy High School as an American History teacher. He was originally from Waterford and attended Siena College as well as Russell Sage College. Cicchinelli, known to most of his students as Mr. Chick, began his teaching and coaching career nearly four decades ago and retired with many fond memories throughout his career from Keveny, Catholic Central High School, Rensselaer, Hoosick Falls Central School, Bishop Gibbons and most recently Troy High School.
Stan Brownell made the presentation to Mr. Chick. He started by asking, “Why is a guy from Hoosick making this presentation?” The reason is that Mr. Chick started in Hoosick Falls as a substitute teacher where he taught the social studies class, replacing Donald Roy when he took a leave of absence to fight cancer, and Brownell was in that class 30 years ago. “You got me going in the right direction,” Brownell said to Mr. Chick, “you’ve touched a lot of lives.” Mr. Chick almost became a permanent fixture at Hoosick Falls Central School, but Roy came back to teach the following year and another social studies teacher, Warren Eastwick, had not yet retired, so Mr. Chick moved on to a permanent position at Bishop Gibbons.