A New Assessor In Stephentown For The First Time In 40 Years
by David Flint
Berlin High School’s InvenTeam livened proceedings at the Stephentown Town Board meeting Monday evening with a demonstration of their invention for assisting wheelchair bound people in physical activities and strengthening mind-eye coordination. [private]
Two of the nine all-girl members of the team, Samantha Hebert, a junior from Stephentown, and Emma Wooley, a senior from Cherry Plain, appeared with their technology teacher, Dawn Wetmore, to show off their prototype. The invention can be activated by someone in a wheelchair to toss and retrieve an item such as a bean bag. There are three parts to it, a rolling robotic chassis, a mechanical arm mounted on the chassis, and a joystick control console attached to the wheelchair. The joystick controls the chassis and the mechanical arm and enables the person in the wheelchair to pick up items, toss them forward and then retrieve and toss again. The idea grew out of the perceived need of a disabled student to more actively participate on his own in gym class.
Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt noted that the BCS InvenTeam was one of only 14 in the country accepted for grant funding by the Lemelson-MIT Program, a foundation whose purpose is to inspire and support young inventors and invention-based businesses. The team will be going to MIT in June to participate in a showcase of the awarded inventions at EurekaFest. Wetmore said that the grant they received pays for the prototype but the students would need some financial support. There are three Stephentown girls on the team, Samantha Hebert, Laura Ryder and Amanda Despart.
The Board was highly impressed with the accomplishment of the young inventors and had no problem passing a resolution to provide $500 to assist in their travel to EurekaFest.
MacVeighs Honored
For Service –
VanDeusen Appointed Acting Assessor
The Board presented plaques to both Tom MacVeigh and Joan MacVeigh honoring their many years of service to the Town. Tom has submitted his letter of retirement and his last day as Sole Assessor will be June 1, 2016, thus completing 40 years in the post. Joan submitted her resignation from the Board of Assessment Review last month and for many years prior to that she had served as the Clerk to the Assessor.
The Board passed a resolution appointing Jennifer VanDeusen, the current Clerk to the Assessor, as Acting Sole Assessor beginning June, 2, 2016.
In another resolution, the Board appointed Yvonne Meekins to the Board of Assessment Review to fill out the remainder of the vacant position which will expire on September 30, 2018.
Insurance Carrier Change
The Board has been happy for a number of years with the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal as their insurance carrier. However, the opportunity to save about $3,000 a year for the same coverage was too good to pass up. They found they could do this by switching to Houston Casualty. Jennifer Van Deusen said that this company has a good record for claims and processing and would offer identical coverage as with NYMIR. With the savings she suggested they could upgrade their umbrella coverage from one million dollars per occurrence to five million dollars, and still have about $1,800 to put in the bank. The Board passed resolutions to change the insurance carrier and to upgrade the umbrella coverage to five million dollars.
Lawn Mowing
Two bids were received to provide lawn mowing at the Town Hall and the little Town Park at the intersection of Routes 43 and 22. Robert’s Professional Services wanted $40 for the Town Hall and $40 for the Park. Burdick Building & Landscaping would charge $45 for the Town Hall and $60 for the Park. The Board decided to accept the lower bid from Robert’s Professional Services, a company that Councilman Bill Jennings said has been doing a good job for a long time.
New Town Sign
Regarding the Town Park, Eckhardt pointed out that a new “Welcome To Stephentown” sign has now been erected in that little park. The sign was crafted and donated by Kevin and Jodie Doherty of the Montauk Sign Carving Company on South Stephentown Road. Doherty is also working on two more signs at the Town’s order, to be installed at the north and south entrances to the Town on Route 22.
The Board will be looking into providing landscaping services for the park and also around the Town Hall. Eckhardt said he had already spoken with several local people including Alex Haley, Andrew Schrump of Andrew’s Property Maintenance, Zema’s Nursery and Andrew Zema’s Landscaping.
Recognition For
Stopping The Pipeline
Eckhardt said he wanted to recognize Stephentown resident Sandy Nathan for the prodigious amount of personal time and effort she spent in taking a lead role in opposing Kinder Morgan’s NED fracked gas pipeline. Kinder Morgan, he said, had suspended activities on the pipeline saying they didn’t get the number of customers they wanted and because due to low oil and gas prices their supply had dried up. Eckhardt said he thinks it also had something to do with the fact that they never anticipated the amount of opposition their pipeline generated. The company has not yet withdrawn their application with the Federal Energy Regulating Commission but Eckhardt believes they must report their intentions to FERC within ten days from now.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $536.04 to the Supervisor for the month of April. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town was $7,179.00 for the month of January, $7,731.50 for the month of February and $9,425.75 for the month of March. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $6,644 for the month of April.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $17,533.24 from the General Account and $17,692.67 from the Highway Account. These claims included an amount of $1,084.50 for boarding and medical fees for stray dogs; $850 to enable two Stephentown TRACS members to attend the Youth to Youth summer Eastern States Conference in Rhode Island; and $7,706.70 for a six-foot culvert and trackhoe work to install it on Andrews Lane.
The Board set its next workshop meeting for Monday, June 13 and its next regular meeting for Monday, June 20 at 7 pm.[/private]