by Thaddeus Flint
When life hands you lemons, you go and buy a new backhoe. At least that is what New Lebanon’s Highway Superintendent was trying to accomplish at last week’s Town Board meeting. But government, like life, is not always that simple.
[private]The Town’s current backhoe, according to Superintendent Jeff Winestock, has electrical issues and is no longer currently usable.
“That’s kind of comical,” said Councilman Dan Evans, “for a machine with two thousand hours on it.”
According to Town Supervisor Colleen Teal, for a machine used consistently around salt, as the Town’s backhoe was, the NYSDOT believes the average lifespan “is cut in half.” The average lifespan of a non-salt backhoe is around 5,000 hours.
As mud season approaches, both Teal and Councilman Kevin Smith felt it would prudent for the Town to purchase a new backhoe as soon as possible. New York State has already pre-bid equipment, and this allows the Town to skip going out to bid, which would add over a month to the purchase process. The backhoe would cost $96,859.
“We have to have one,” said Smith, who pointed out that the Town had been offered $38,500 as a trade in on the one which no longer works.
Councilmen Evans and Mark Baumli, however, did not wish to be rushed into such a sizable purchase without first looking into other options.
“I have to look after the taxpayers’ money,” Baumli said. “We might get a bid lower than the New York State bid price.”
The Town might get such a bid, but Winestock said, “they are cheaper because they are cheaper,” And should New Lebanon get hit with a harsh Spring storm, the Highway Department won’t have the equipment on hand to get the roads and ditches back into shape without hiring outside help. “You could open up a whole can of worms putting it out to bid,” said Winestock.
Evans wondered if there were some way to possibly take better care of the equipment, such as building a shelter so it is less exposed to the weather. He also questioned the rationale of buying another Case brand backhoe when the one the Town has now is dead halfway through its expected lifespan. “It’s a lemon,” he said. The purchase needed to be studied further. “This is a hundred thousand dollar cost to the Town that we are going through every four years,” said Evans.
“It’s easy to sit there when you honestly don’t know what you are talking about,” said Winestock. When the weather comes, “you don’t have time.” The roads have to be fixed and there is no time to rent equipment.
“But if you want, we don’t have to get one and I can stay in bed,” said Winestock. “Not that I’m going to do that.”
“He’s not misleading us,” Teal said. Winestock has consistently been reliable in keeping the Town’s roads open for over thirty years, Teal pointed out. And “he’s the lowest cost per linear mile of all the other towns in the County. He’s gotta be doing something right.”
Whatever he does right, its wasn’t right enough to get a new backhoe right away. The vote was Teal and Smith for and Evans and Baumli against. Councilman Chuck Geraldi was absent, so the vote failed in a tie.
“When you guys figure out about getting a backhoe here, let me know,” said Winestock.
“I just got elected,” said Baumli. “I haven’t been kicking this can down the road for four years. So if you could just give one month to put this out to bid.”
“And all I’m saying, Mr. Baumli,” replied Winestock, “is in one month we could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
It will actually be a bit less than one month. With a vote of 3 to 1–Smith was the only one to oppose—it was decided to put the backhoe out to bid. Bids are due by the 31st of March and a special meeting of the Board will convene on April 4 to make a decision.
Tennis Courts
When compared to the town’s tennis courts, the backhoe purchase is moving at a lightning pace. Discussions on whether to repair or replace the courts are going on two years now and those two years are after at least two more years of not talking about them when it was already obvious that they needed talking about.
However, the latest delay–which was the decision last Fall to decide to not make a decision until Spring—might have saved the Town a bit of money.
The courts had gone out for bid in 2015 and come back at around $85,000 for a full rebuild. The bidders were asked to hold the bids until April 30 2016. In the meantime the price of oil has continued to fall and so then should some of the materials in the bid, asphalt in particular.
All present voted in favor of rebidding the project. There will be two separate bids this time, to repair and to rebuild, and they will be decided upon at the next monthly Board meeting which will be April 8.
A resolution for New Lebanon to become a Cleaner, Greener Community was not as successful. The measure which pledged to “commit to an evolving process of greener and cleaner activities,” among other “green” ideas, was defeated in a tie with Teal and Evans for and Baumli and Smith against. Smith, for one, felt that the resolution would “dictate” what people could do with their properties.
Bruce Shenker, the Town’s delegate to the Columbia County Environmental Management Council was incredulous that anyone could read that into the resolution. “I don’t see any dictating,” he said. Shenker has proposed a Climate Forum at the library for April 19 to discuss the matter further.
Nevertheless, the Town is looking forward into a possibly carbon-friendlier future. Teal said that five of the Town’s building and zoning representatives recently trained in solar projects. The problem with some solar arrays is that they are incredibly ugly when not properly located or screened. And “we have some incredibly beautiful vistas to preserve,” said Teal.
Cemetery Preservation
Preservation of the dead is also an issue. Ex-Town Historian Sharon Moon, who has been diligently cleaning up and cataloguing the Town’s abandoned cemeteries, was asked by Teal to hold off on that until it can be determined if the cleaning up isn’t maybe making things worse. There seem to be two experts with differing opinions on grave restoration. Some say the fallen over stones are better left fallen over and some say they are better off back where they were when they were put there to begin with. Neither of these experts was on hand to give further testimony.
“So people looking for their relatives, we are going to tell them we reburied them?” said Moon.
Teal has appointed Kevin Fuerst as the new Town Historian. Moon, however, will still be running the Lebanon Valley Heritage Center when it reopens at the Valley Plaza Mall later this Spring.
Handprints Are History
The handprints on the sidewalk that the New Lebanon High School Senior Class does each end of the school year is now history as well. The school has run out of handprint room on its sidewalks. The Senior class will now clean up the park, plant flowers, and design a picnic table for use there instead. The Board was unanimous in their support for the new project and voted to fund it up to $500 each year.
And finally, those residents who want even greater depth and insight into New Lebanon than what they don’t find here, will be happy to hear that the Town’s newsletter is back in business. The first issue is expected in the next month or so and will be printed and mailed to make sure everyone is reached. Teal said that a meeting with the Town’s Seniors made it clear that not everyone wants to read the news on a screen.
Upcoming Events
The new playground equipment is expected to be installed April 14 and 15. A ribbon-cutting and Community Day is being discussed for a possible date in June.
The Town will be sponsoring a “Uke and Brew” festival at Shatford Park on August 28.[/private]