by Thaddeus Flint
Two women were whispering in the audience at Tuesday’s New Lebanon Board meeting.
“I’m so tired of hearing about Covent Circle,” said one.
“I know!” said the other. “When will it end?”
And that is probably how most of New Lebanon feels about the little road that wants to be a Town road. Will it ever end?
[private]The answer to that is yes, it will end. A decision is going to be made one way or the other as to whether or not the Town should take over the road residents there have been under the impression the Town should have taken over years ago. When that will happen, however, is still anyone’s guess.
The night began with two public hearings. The first was on some changes to the Town’s zoning code in regard to fences, cell phone towers, square footage of accessory structures and minimum road frontage in two zoning districts. The changes are relatively minor and only resident and Planning Board Member Trina Porte had any comment.
“This system works fine the way it is,” she said of the current use table. Making residents get permits for things already allowed “would place an unfair burden of costs on all of us.”
Nobody else seemed to have any interest in the zoning changes and that hearing ended about five minutes after it began.
Public Hearing On A Special Improvement District
There was plenty of interest, however, when it came to the hearing on whether the Town should classify properties bordering Covenant Circle Road as a Special Improvement District, to be taxed at a higher rate if the Town would take over the road.
Attorney Bill Better, representing Covenant Circle homeowners, said that over 85% of the residents in the development had signed a petition asking to be classified a Special Improvement District and asking that New Lebanon take over, repair and maintain their road. Residents are willing to spend up to $100,000 in new taxes to have the road brought up to Town specifications.
The Town Hall was packed full of Covenant Circlers and many of them spoke of their concerns. They are residents and taxpayers, and they worry that if the road is allowed to deteriorate further then it could become a safety issue if emergency responders were unable to reach a location there.
Also, they say they were told that the Town would one day take over the road.
“Promises were made,” said Craig Trombley.
Matt Murnane, who was on the Planning Board at the time Covenant Circle was being built, said he was also told the road would be taken over. What Murnane sees standing in the way of the road’s takeover is the Town’s Highway Superintendent, Jeff Weinstock.
“Jeff has said to me on several occasions ‘I’m never going to take that road over’,” said Murnane. “He actually told me once he wouldn’t give a [expletive] if the road was gold plated.”
It turns out Murnane isn’t the only one who sees Weinstock as the major obstacle in the road’s path to Town road. Better wrote a strongly worded letter to the Town Board accusing Weinstock of acting unprofessionally, and asking that he be barred from the process.
“In an effort to sidetrack this effort the Highway Superintendent has solicited bids to interfere with the orderly governmental process in which this matter is currently moving forward,” read Town Clerk Colleen Teal when Councilman Bruce Baldwin asked that the letter be entered into the meeting minutes. Better wrote that Weinstock was continually trying to derail the project. “The Highway Superintendent’s personal agenda appears to be prohibiting him from acting in an unbiased fashion. The Highway Superintendent has a long history of animosity towards this area where he used to hunt…given his personal agenda, he should not be allowed to participate in this matter,” wrote Better.
Weinstock did not take that sitting down. Literally. He usually attends meetings calmly from a chair in the audience, but allegations such as those Better made had him up and out of his chair and in front of the Board.
“It should be thrown out,” said Weinstock of the letter. The reasons he is against taking on the road is that it’s in terrible shape, $100,000 is not enough to get the road up to specifications and the Town already has enough roads to fix with taxpayer’s money.
“I’m trying like hell to improve the roads I already have,” said Weinstock. “This road does not meet Town specs. It’s as simple as that.”
Weinstock had met with a group from Covenant Circle and with Councilmen Dan Evans and Chuck Geraldi at the request of Town Supervisor Mike Benson. From that meeting he felt that he should get an estimate of what it would cost to repair the road. He had the Peckham Road Corporation come take a look at it, and they estimated $864,405 would about cover repairs.
He concedes that, yes, there is fabric put down under the road. The problem is what was put on top of that fabric. “You can put four feet of junk on there, and you’re gonna have a bad road. And that road is a bad road. It’s got nothing to do with agenda, whether I hunted up there or anything like that,” said Weinstock. “I have experience, I know that road, and it’s not going to be $100,000.”
The discussion of Covenant Circle continued into the regular Board meeting.
Councilman Geraldi seemed to agree with Weinstock that the repair of the road would be far more than the $100,000 the people of Covenant Circle want to tax themselves.
“There’s close to 80 or 90 thousand dollars just in materials,” he said. “Not digging, not moving, not transporting, just the materials.”
Councilman Baldwin was against going forward if Weinstock was not on board, referring to him as “the most experienced person in the room.”
Councilman Evans felt that it was the “duty” of the Town to find out the cost of repairs. “There’s a large group of taxpayers up there,” he said. “There’s two sides to this. If we don’t move forward, we are setting an example of not promoting development…but on the other hand if we do move forward with this there could be a domino effect of other roads.”
Benson said he wanted to explore the situation further and make a decision, “regardless of what it is.”
In the end a resolution was put forth that the Town would go forth and investigate making improvements. The Town’s engineer must consult with Weinstock and in doing so come up with an estimate of costs to bring the road up to Town specifications. Should the estimated costs exceed $100,000 the residents of Covenant Circle have the right to decide if they will or will not accept being taxed for the higher costs. It would also go to another public hearing.
The resolution passed with Supervisor Benson and Councilmen Geraldi and Evans voting for it and Councilmen Matt Larabee and Baldwin voting against.
The proposed noise ordinance then came up. Instead of arguing about that for the rest of the night, Benson proposed that a subcommittee be formed, made up of him and Geraldi, to discuss the matter with the proposers of the ordinance and the one business it really concerns, Lebanon Valley Speedway.
“I have some specific concerns about what has been proposed,” said Benson. “I’m concerned about enforcement; I’m concerned about being able to operate my weed-eater; I’m concerned about a particular business in the Town. It’s the largest business in Town, and I’m told one of the largest businesses in Columbia County.”
Speedway owner Howard Commander was amendable to Benson’s proposal of sitting down and discussing his noise. “Let’s try it,” he said.
The next regular monthly Board meeting will be Tuesday, June 10, at 7 pm.[/private]