“Saint Cynthia” Helps Keep New Lebanon Green
by Thaddeus Flint
Broadband, signs, speeders, solar, life insurance, copy machines and a Saint were some of the topics of conversation at the June New Lebanon Board meeting last Tuesday.[private]
“Saint Cynthia,” as she was dubbed by Ted Salem of the Zoning Re-Write Committee, is resident Cynthia Creech who has been awarded the Good Earthkeeping award by the Columbia County Environmental Management Council.
Creech, who is also Deputy Supervisor, a member of the Conservation Advisory Council, a member of the Zoning Re-Write Committee, a court clerk, and an organizer of the local Farmer’s Market—all done in between running her own farm—was nominated for the award by Town Clerk Tistrya Houghtling.
Houghtling’s nomination, read by Town Supervisor Colleen Teal, commended Creech for modeling “sustainability and environmental preservation” at her Artemis Farm on Cemetery Road.
“With a passion for clean local food she works hard to provide it affordably to her community,” read the nomination which noted that through her efforts New Lebanon now has “numerous sustainable farms.” In fact Creech’s own farm will be sustained for years to come as a sustainable farm as it was recently placed into conservation with the Columbia County Land Conservancy to ensure that “the land is available for future generations of farmers to be able to farm it affordably.”
Creech pointed out that part of being sustainable is being alive to do so, and that the speeders on Cemetery Road are making that all the more difficult. Apparently some drivers find it difficult to comprehend what a posted speed limit of 30 mph actually means. Creech said she routinely sees cars going by at up to 60 mph, threatening the dogs, cats, cows and children on a road that four farms often use with their slow moving farm equipment.
“It’s been an ongoing problem,” said Creech. “I want it to stop.”
There is nothing like the thought of running head-on into a John Deere tractor to make one think of getting some life insurance, and so it seemed coincident that representatives of the NY Life Insurance Company were on hand to offer just a such a plan to Town Employees. According to company representative Michael Dewey, the plan being offered would come at no cost to the Town and would be portable in case the employee moves to another job. The best part of it all, said Dewey, is that you “don’t have to die” to get value out of the plan, life insurance is now part of a complete financial portfolio and often used in funding college and retirement.
Town Clerk Houghtling said she had been recently looking into life insurance and found the plan offered by Dewey to go “above and beyond” anything she had already looked at. “I as an employee would love to be able to purchase a plan like this.”
The Board asked that Dewey provide a complete write-up of the plan so it could further discuss the possibility of offering it to Town employees in the future.
The Town isn’t as happy with its photocopier provider. Ricoh USA has apparently been overcharging New Lebanon since December of 2013. According to Teal, the company decided to apply a 10% increase to the contracted price each year without telling anyone they were doing so. After “several irate phone calls,” Ricoh has agreed to refund the overcharge in a lump sum which the Board agreed will be put toward future funding of the Town Newsletter.
The future, it seems, is getting closer every day. Broadband internet actually isn’t all that revolutionary, but for many parts of Columbia County including New Lebanon, the possibility of ever seeing high-speed internet often seems like some futuristic dream. The Town Supervisor, however, is working to make that dream come true. Teal said that eight residents have expressed interest to serve on the New Lebanon Broadband Committee which will be chaired by Doug Banker. At the same time, Teal is on the steering committee for Connect Columbia, which is working toward the same goal at the county level. Teal is also serving on the newly formed County Board of Supervisors Broadband Advisory Committee.
“There are a lot of different things going on at a lot of different levels,” said Teal who added that she believes the dearth of broadband is probably partially to blame for an 8% decrease in the population of Columbia County in the past year. New Lebanon’s population declined by 6% in the same time period.
Even as the Town declines, new regulations continue to be born. Ted Salem of the Zoning Re-Write Committee notified the Board that eight possible recommendations are currently being worked on. Most of them seem to make current regulations a bit more user-friendly. One of the changes relates to when a zoning violation needs to be remedied. It was 10 days and they are now recommending moving the time limit to 30 days, which is in line with the State’s procedures.
The Committee is also looking to make it clearer that the Planning Board does have discretion when it comes to site plan applications. “We tweaked the language a little bit,” said Salem to make it clearer that the Planning Board can “waive certain requirements.”
Salem said the Zoning Re-Write Committee is also working to address the lack of a provision for temporary signs. At the moment, with the exception of real estate and construction signs, any other temporary sign is actually illegal. This is being addressed. It was pointed out that the upcoming Uke and Brew festival would, for example, be in violation of Town law if the festival chooses to let people know that a Uke and Brew festival is happening through temporary signage.
Finally, Salem said that they are looking over a model zoning ordinance provided to them by New York State on Solar arrays both residential and commercial. The matter is in development and before anything is set in stone it will be brought to a community forum sometime this summer.
Teal said that there has been recent commercial inquiry into acquiring property in New Lebanon for possible solar farms. At the moment it is prohibited.
“I want to see if there is a way to do it, but do it smart so we aren’t sorry later,” said Teal. “One of my biggest concerns is screening. I don’t want to see some of our hillsides end up with these massive solar arrays. At the same time I don’t know that I want to take the same avenue that many of our abutting towns have and say ‘look we are going to prohibit them’.”
The night ended with the announcement that new tennis courts are finally expected to be reopened–after years of neglect and years of discussion of said neglect–by June 21. The courts join the new playground equipment in Shatford Park which opened last weekend.
“It’s fabulous!” said resident Christine Dreyfus of the work of Teal and the many volunteers who came together in such a short period of time to organize the removal and reinstallation of the playground equipment from the vacant Stephentown Elementary School. “This is truly the little Town that could.”[/private]