by Alex Brooks
Friends Of Dyken Pond Seek Grant Application Support
A resolution of support for a grant application sought by the Friends of Dyken Pond was again on the Grafton Town Board’s agenda this month. Last month the matter was referred to the Planning Board for an advisory opinion after some residents spoke against it. The Planning Board recommended that the Town Board support the grant application. Nick Conrad, Secretary of the Friends, said supporting the grant application was an opportunity [private]
to do something good for the Dyken Pond Center and for Grafton. He noted that the Board had received many letters and e-mails that demonstrate robust public support for the Dyken Pond Center and for this project. He also noted that the funds being sought do not need to be raised by taxes – they are already in the Environmental Protection Fund waiting to be spent, the only issue is whether they come here or go elsewhere. A number of other speakers at the meeting backed him up by speaking in favor of the project. The Director of Dyken Pond, Lisa Hoyt, said the County has no plans to expand Dyken Pond after this parcel is acquired. She also said she does not expect the acquisition of this parcel to increase the number of visitors to the Center. No one in the audience spoke against the project, but one neighboring homeowner said he was worried about increased traffic on Cussler Way because the road is hard to maintain. Conrad assured him the Center does not intend to access the parcel from Cussler Way, and traffic to or from the parcel will be no more than it was under the previous owner.
When the matter was brought to a vote, Higgins, Messenger, and Gundrum voted in favor of supporting the Friends’ grant application, and Mike Crandall voted against it. When David Buckley asked Crandall at public comment time why he voted against it, he declined to explain his thinking.
Blast At RJ Valente
Doug LaRocque told the Board that there was an exceptionally strong blast set off at the R.J. Valente quarry just before 4 pm that afternoon, and simultaneously, power went out in that neighborhood. This power outage extended all the way to the Town Hall, because power was out there at the start of the Town Board meeting at 7 pm, and the building was being powered by a generator. The power came back on during the meeting. LaRocque said the blast rattled and shook his house in an alarming way, and he was amazed that no glass was broken.
LaRocque said there was an electrical fire by the side of Route 2 near the quarry where live electrical wires came down. He said the pole there was leaning slightly toward the creek, and away from the road, so the fire was just outside the guardrail, but if the pole had been leaning the other way, or the wire had fallen in a different way for whatever reason, it could have landed on a passing vehicle. LaRocque said this is just one of many practices at the Valente mine that show a lack of concern for their neighbors. He said they are “a bunch of cowboys with no regard for the safety of their neighbors.” He urged the Town Board to write a letter to DEC expressing concern about the safety of neighbors and passing motorists.
Codes Enforcement Officer Tom Withcuskey said he would be talking to Valente first thing the next morning to try to address the situation.
Letter Re Middle
Finger Sign
A rather nasty dispute among neighbors came before the Town Board this month when Supervisor Frank Higgins read a letter from Anita Martin expressing dismay about a large sign that was posted facing the entrance to the Grafton Trail Riders depicting a hand with the middle finger raised. The trail riders were hosting a gymkhana that day and a number of young people attended the event. Martin was upset that these young people had to see this vulgar sign.
Supervisor Higgins was also disturbed by it, and he called a meeting of the Town Board to discuss the matter, but several Board members called at the last minute to say they couldn’t come to the meeting. Linda Laveway and the Eastwick Press reporter showed up for the non-meeting, as did Higgins and Barbara Messenger.
Linda Laveway wrote an e-mail to the EastwickPress saying that the sign on her property was a response to people from the Grafton Trail Riders making the same vulgar gesture to her and her mother when driving in and out of the Trail Riders property.
Unauthorized Invoice
Supervisor Higgins said he and Town Attorney Ferlazzo had prevailed upon the company which thought they had sold the Town a suite of services concerning compliance with minority hiring regularions after their communications with Deputy Town Clerk Cathy Goyer, not to make any further attempts to collect their fee. Apparently because they understood that Goyer was not authorized to purchase such services for the Town even if she did agree to it. Whether Goyer signed a contract or not is in dispute. She says she did not, but Supervisor Higgins showed the Eastwick Press reporter a document with her initials written on it, that the company seemed to think was a contract. Higgins reviewed that matter at this month’s meeting, mainly to let the Board and the public know that the Town will not have to pay this invoice. Goyer was not present at this month’s meeting. Minutes were taken by the Supervisor’s secretary, Joe Allain.
Time Warner Installation
Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck said Time Warner cable now has four crews working in Grafton, mostly in the western part of Town, installing the cable network. They expect to have eight crews working here next week.
There have been some complaints about them working late at night, and they have come to an agreement to stop work at 8 pm. They will be working on weekends, though, said Hasbrouck, He said digging crews will be coming next week to make connections to houses.
It is a big project. Supervisor Higgins said Time Warner has 71 miles of cable to install in Grafton for this project.
Hasbrouck and Higgins said the installation crews will be asking homeowners if they want a cable connection to their house, and if the homeowner says yes, they will install the connection at the company’s expense. But if the homeowner says they do not want service, the connection will not be installed, and if that home wants to connect later, it will be at the homeowner’s expense. Higgins said the charge to install the connection later may be thousands of dollars. He advised people to say yes when asked if they want to connect their home to the cable system.[/private]