by Thaddeus Flint
It was a sultry night at the New Lebanon Town Board meeting Tuesday, July 8, a meeting made even more sultry because the air conditioner wasn’t on and some ladies were looking to put the Town back on the map with a museum of sorts that nobody on the Board had ever heard of.
“This is a brand new $500,000 Town Hall,” said resident Johanna Johnson Smith, “and you have to choose between hearing what you guys are saying and being comfortable. For a half a million dollars, shouldn’t there be a solution to that?”
[private]Councilman Dan Evans said he would look into what could be done about that. Maybe sound insulation or microphones might work.
The Town Supervisor, Mike Benson, was away, so the hot night was shouldered by Evans who is the Deputy Supervisor. Sometimes the meeting felt like one of those school days when the class got a substitute teacher. Evans, anyway, probably got a good idea of what being the substitute felt like. There was some talking out of turn and a few remarks that perhaps wouldn’t have been made had Benson been running the show.
The Museum
Erminia Rasmussen and Gregg Carroll were two attendees to the meeting who probably would have had a much better evening had Benson been there and everyone wasn’t sticking to the furniture.
Rasmussen and Carroll were there to ask the Board for an endorsement of a project called Behold! New Lebanon. That endorsement would then be conveyed to the Columbia County Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) who would then agree to be a fiscal agent for Behold! New Lebanon, allowing them to accept donations.
Behold! New Lebanon, Rasmussen and Carroll explained, is going to be a museum of contemporary rural American life. The difference, though, between this museum and other museums is that Behold! New Lebanon will be alive. According to a press release, “Behold! New Lebanon presents the people who today make a rural community the special place it is in the places they live and work. These farmers, florists, beekeepers, auto mechanics, car racers, gardeners, homesteaders, cattle breeders, foragers, toy makers, herbalists, naturalists, singers, volunteer fire fighters, hunters, writers, quilters, bakers and more will invite visitors to experience their way of life over four weekends, beginning August 29, 2014.”
That all sounds pretty interesting, and the Town probably would have quickly endorsed the project, but for some reason nobody had ever mentioned anything about it to the Board before this night. How that happened is a mystery. The project has been written up in almost every newsletter put out by Grow The Valley (what was once the Lebanon Valley Business Association) since December of 2013.
“We have a lot support from the Town,” noted Rasmussen.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of this,” said Councilman Bruce Baldwin.
A lot of people outside New Lebanon also seemed to have been briefed.
“We have the endorsement of I Love NY, Columbia County Tourism, Representative Gibson, and Senator Marchione,” listed Rasmussen.
“You haven’t submitted anything to the Town Board,” pointed out Baldwin.
Well, maybe, or maybe not. According resident Cynthia Kreech, who, along with her rare Randall cows, will likely be one of the live exhibits at Behold! New Lebanon, the matter has been “brought to the attention of Mr. Benson.” If that’s true, then it seems the Town Supervisor did not share that with his fellow Council members. Or maybe he wanted to make it a big surprise?
Baldwin didn’t like the big surprise. “It would be irresponsible for the Town Board to dive into something we know nothing about,” said Baldwin who wanted to table decision on the matter for a month. “To put the Board in a position like this is grossly unfair,” he said.
Carroll pointed out that August would be too late. “We were told by Mike Benson that you had that information.”
“The Supervisor does not communicate with the Town Board,” said Baldwin.
“He lied,” interjected resident and Planning Board Member Trina Porte, even though nobody had asked her for her interjection.
The meeting was momentarily fractious as people took sides. New Lebanon has been somewhat divided lately by a proposed noise ordinance some of the life-long New Lebanon residents view as being forced upon them by recent additions to the community who don’t like the sound of the race track they chose to move right next to. So when Rasmussen revealed that she was only a part-time resident at the moment, there was even more grumbling about outsiders turning the Town into a tourist attraction.
“Not everyone here wants more tourists,” said Johnson-Smith.
The Town’s attorney, Andy Howard, however, managed to calm things down. He explained that the Town had no responsibility in the financial part of the project. Endorsing the project to the CEDC merely said that “you would be comfortable with” the activity happening in the Town.
After some consideration of the information provided by Rasmussen and Carroll, it was decided that in the end Behold! New Lebanon might be a pretty good thing. The Board voted with all in favor to endorse the project.
The Board also voted, with all in favor, of expressing its support for a grant application submitted by the Columbia Land Conservancy to the New York State Department of Agriculture for purchase of development rights on Fair Weather Farm, which is owned by recent Councilman K.B. Chittenden.
“Our Town Board is pleased to offer support for a grant that would enable K.B. to continue farming the property that has been in his family for three generations,” wrote Evans in a letter to the Farmland Protection Program. “Protection of the farm would clearly further our Town’s goals and objectives for farmland protection as outlined in our current comprehensive plan.”
Protection of your garage, however, is another matter. If your garage burns down, as happened recently to one resident, you will have to pay to get a permit to rebuild it. An application for a waiver from permit fees for the garage was voted against unanimously. After some discussion, it was found that there was no precedent for building fees to be waived for garages and nobody wanted to set a new precedent which could short the Town of needed revenues, in this case $114.
Upcoming Events
• Sunday, July 20, 9 am, at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 85th Anniversary of the Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine.
• Wednesday, July 23, 7:30 pm, The Theater Barn – Benefit Performance of the Musical Comedy “Guttenberg! the Musical!” to benefit the Cemetery of the Evergreens. Contact the Theater Barn for tickets.
• Saturday, July 26, Shatford Park, 11 am to 3 pm, the Third Annual Community Picnic. Free food and fire trucks. Residents are asked to bring a covered dish to share with fellow townspeople.
• Tuesday August 12, 6:30 pm, Town Hall, Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline presentation to inform residents and the Board of the hazards of a new high pressure gas pipeline planned for the area. The normal monthly Board meeting will follow immediately after.[/private]