by David Flint
Another Arrest In Holloway Incident
On Monday the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office announced that Sheriff’s Investigators had arrested one more individual for the criminal behavior involved in the incident that took place at retired NFL player Brian Holloway’s property in Stephentown. [private]Damian Degennaro, 18, of Berlin was arrested Monday for committing felony burglary in the 3rd degree, misdemeanors of petit larceny and criminal trespass in the 2nd degree. He was arraigned Monday at 11 am in front of Honorable Judge Cyril A. Grant.
Transfer Station Break-in
At the Stephentown Town Board meeting Monday evening Councilman Bill Jennings reported that there was a break-in last week at the Transfer Station which is located on Newton Road adjacent to the property of Brian Holloway. The door to the office was found broken and the office ransacked. The only things that appeared to be missing, however were a mason jar full ofpennies and a key ring with keys. The jar of pennies had been sitting on a shelf for years after Transfer Station Supervisor Agnes Hoffman picked it up by a trash bin one day and set it aside expecting someone might come back to claim it. One of the keys taken was used to open the shed for deposit bottles and cans operated by the Girl Scouts and the Historical Society. Nothing was taken from that shed. Jennings said that the damage was not major and everything has been fixed and put back in order.
Jennings also reported that Kenneth “Bob” Olson was appointed Transfer Station Attendant at a special meeting on September 30. He replaces Howard Chittenden who retired.
Resisting Arrest
Speaking of crime, the NY State Police reported that on October 19 Troopers from the Sand Lake Barracks arrested 42 year old Kenneth A. Greene of East Nassau for Menacing a Police Officer, Criminal Possession of a Weapon 3rd, Resisting Arrest and Criminal Possession of Stolen Property 3rd subsequent to a suspicious person complaint on South Road in Stephentown. When the defendant was located by Troopers he menaced them with a knife. The defendant resisted arrest while being taken into custody. Furthermore he was found to be in possession of a stolen vehicle. The defendant was arraigned in the Town of Sand Lake Court and remanded to the Rensselaer County Jail pending a future court appearance.
Changing Banks
Town governments in the Eastwick area have never been big fans of the Bank of America with its high fees, but it has been pretty much the only game in town, at least for Berlin and Stephentown and New Lebanon. Now with the branch in Berlin shut down last year and the branch in New Lebanon about to be taken over by Berkshire Bank, towns are scrambling to find a new place to keep their money. Why not just switch to Berkshire Bank? Well, as discussed at the Stephentown Town Board meeting Monday evening, it seems that the BofA upon taking their exit have also contrived to thwart that simple solution. A condition written into the sale agreement prohibits Berkshire Bank from taking over any municipal accounts. Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt said he would like to take the Town’s 11 accounts and “bail” from BofA. He has already been looking around for another bank. It’s not just the fees – the Town earns about $1,000 a year in interest but BofA has been charging between $350 and $400 per quarter for “services” – but now the nearest BofA branch will be in East Greenbush, a pretty long trek for making deposits.
Eckhardt has already spoken with a representative of MBT Bank that has a branch in Wynantskill, and he has requested that they make an offer for providing services to the Town. He will also consider Key Bank which has branches in West Sand Lake and Hoosick Falls, Pioneer Bank in Wynantskill and Trustco with branches in Hoosick Falls, West Sand Lake and Wynantskill. The Board expects to make a decision on this in the coming month.
Interest In The Berlin Bank Building
In an interesting aside, Eckhardt noted that the MBT Bank representative mentioned that they had some interest in purchasing the bank building in Berlin if they could determine there would be enough in the way of deposits to make that economically viable. The big problem with that is that the Berlin School District now does their banking with Pioneer Bank.
In any case it appears that the various officials making deposits from Stephentown will have to travel farther and the Town will incur more costs in reimbursing for mileage. Eckhardt mentioned the possibility of a bonded courier service, perhaps using the Town Constable to avoid having officials making multiple runs to the bank. Another possible option, he said, would be remote deposit capture whereby a customer can scan checks and transmit the scanned images to a bank for posting and clearing. Depositing cash, however, with this latter option would require an additional step such as a trip to the bank in New Lebanon to convert the cash to a scannable check.
Truck Purchase
The Board passed a resolution to accept a bid from Vision Ford of Rochester to provide a Ford F250 one ton 4-wheel drive pickup truck for $31,175. One other bid was received, from Adirondack Auto, for a Ram 3500 4×4 with crew cab in the amount of $38,947.
Advertising For Clerk To Assessor And Other Appointments
The Board authorized the Town Clerk to advertise for applications for the position of Clerk to the Assessor. This position is currently held by Joan MacVeigh. Her term expires at the end of the year, and she will not accept appointment for another year. The Assessor, Tom MacVeigh, was reappointed last month for another six year term, but he has indicated he will retire after two more years. So it is expected that whoever becomes the new Clerk to the Assessor, known previously as the Deputy Assessor, would likely be groomed to succeed to the Assessor position upon MacVeigh’s retirement.
The Clerk will also advertise for all other appointed positions that expire on December 31 as well as for the services of someone to clean the Town Hall and someone to do snow plowing at the Transfer Station and Town Hall and to shovel and salt sidewalks at the Town Hall for the year 2014. All applications and bids to provide service are due to the Town Clerk by Friday, December 6.
Health Insurance
Eckhardt reported that the Town’s health insurance provider is dropping dental coverage. He will look around to pick up that coverage elsewhere that meets the requirements of the union contract. He noted, however, that Rensselaer County has now invited municipalities to join in the County health insurance plan. He said he would investigate that offer to see what kind of savings it would provide and whether it would meet with union requirements.
Budget
The Board has set workshop meetings on the preliminary budget for Monday, October 28, and Monday, November 11, at 7 pm. At a public hearing and budget workshop held on October 14 it was revealed that the Board expects a 5.3% increase in expenses in the General Fund and 4% in the Highway Fund. Most of this increase will go toward fixing up the Town Hall, some modifications at the Transfer Station to accommodate single stream recycling and projects to repair or replace several bridges.
The big question remaining in the budget process is how much to take from the unexpended fund balance to keep the tax increase down. In order to keep the levy increase down to 1.6% and avoid having to override the “2%” tax cap, the Board would need to take $89,500 from the fund balance which now totals approximately $500,000.
It was pointed out at that meeting that while the Board has budgeted money from the fund balance in recent years – $21,000 last year – they have never actually spent the money taken from the fund. Next year, however, they estimate that probably half of any fund balance appropriation would actually get spent.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $853.67 to the Supervisor for the month of September. The distribution from the office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the town was $925.16. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $9,027 for August and $6,455 for September.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $43, 942.68.[/private]