A Year-End Miscellany Of Business For The Board

by Thaddeus Flint
With the exception of a new spirit of cooperation between the New Lebanon Town Board and its fire department, and the resignation of the Town’s representative to the Columbia County Office for the Aging, it was a quick and relatively uneventful Town Board meeting on Tuesday, November 8.[private]“It’s refreshing for us to see a Board that actually has real interest in how we function,” said Lebanon Valley Protective Association Chief Ben Wheeler, who added that his organization has spent more time talking with this relatively new Board than all other Boards over the years. “I can see us working together down the road.”
Relations between the Town and the LVPA had been strained when the previous Board under then-Supervisor Mike Benson questioned the bookkeeping and finances of the Fire Department after the LVPA announced they wanted to go forward with a new fire station. Benson was concerned the proposed $3 million station would overly burden local taxpayers already burdened enough.
All that strain appears to be gone. “We have a very cooperative relationship with the LVPA,” said Town Supervisor Colleen Teal.
Councilman Kevin Smith pronounced the new cooperation as “awesome.”
“There is no missing money. There is no misappropriation of funds,” said Smith. “All the money is there. Everything is going to work out fine. I think everyone will be very happy with both the Town Board and the Fire Company.”
Nobody was happy, though, when Teal announced the resignation of Phyllis Hubert from the role of New Lebanon’s representative to the Columbia County Office for the Aging due to personal reasons.
“It is with extreme regret” that the Board agrees to Hubert’s resignation, said Teal. “She was phenomenal.”
“It’s a loss for all of us,” added Councilman Smith as Hubert was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation.
“OK, knock it off,” was Hubert’s tough-as-nails response before warning those applying for the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) to make sure they get their applications in right away.
There was no word on who would be taking on Hubert’s duties.
Supervisor Teal did however make two other re-appointments. Bruce Shenker will continue for another two years as the Town’s representative to the Columbia County Environmental Management council. And Sharon Moon was appointed for a 5 year term on the Board of Assessment Review. Residents who would like to be similarly appointed to do important things for little recognition and no pay will be happy to know that all sorts of these positons are now open in New Lebanon. Currently the Town is looking to fill two Conservation Advisory Council positions, a Planning Board position, an Ethics Board position, a Zoning Board position, and a Recreation Commission position. Interested applicants should contact Town Clerk Tistrya Houghtling for application details. The deadline is December 2.
Appointments of clerks to the Planning/Zoning Department and the Town Court raised problems with how a lack of competitive benefits and salary packages is making it difficult to keep some departments properly staffed. Judge Jessica Bryne pointed out that a previous Board’s decision to make the one court clerk’s position into two part time positions with no benefits was making it difficult to find someone proficient in the proper skills needed to do the job.
“They can’t afford to stay,” said Justice Byrne. “How can you support your family on less than $300 a week take home?”
They can’t. And when they leave it takes months of intensive and expensive training to get another clerk up to the point where they can work independently.
The Supervisor agreed it’s a problem. “We have to figure out how to fix that,” said Teal. The 2017 budget is a start, by giving parks maintenance staff a raise. The difficulty lies in that if you increase the starting salary to a competitive rate, that rate might be close to what employees who have been in the positions for years are currently making. It wouldn’t really be fair unless they were raised too and that’s a budgeting issue in itself, especially for a town that is hoping to keep this year’s budget increase to $324.
“I’m trying to put together a long term plan,” said Teal.
Long term plans to keep the Town Hall from falling back into the state of disrepair that other administrations let it fall into before it was rebuilt are already in place. The Board voted with all in favor of spending up to $2,000 to repaint Town offices, remove carpeting, and possibly refinish wood floors if they are refinishable. The money will be budgeted from the Buildings budget which has a surplus due to the low cost of heating fuel last winter. The work is expected to be completed during the Christmas to New Year’s holidays, from December 22 to January 4.
As the Town is also upgrading to a new truck for the Highway Department, they need to get rid of the old 1999 International that has been made surplus. A recent request for bids in October saw only two people interested, with the highest bid being $3,620. This was rejected at that time. The Board now voted, with all in favor, of putting the surplus truck on a site called AuctionsInternational.com to see if they can’t do better with a larger pool of bidders. The new truck’s cost of $102,195 will be partly financed with serial bonds. The Board voted, with all in favor, to adopt a bond resolution which will fund $82,195 of that truck purchase.
The night finished with a discussion of the state of the Town’s two larger waterways, the Kinderhook Creek and the Wyomanock Creek. The Wyomanock was recently designated a New York State Inland Waterway and as such is eligible for grants for waterfront revitalization projects. The Town of Kinderhook asked New Lebanon for support for their application to have the Kinderhook also designated an Inland Waterway. This was approved with all in favor. Now some want to know if those two rivers can’t be cleaned up and repaired so that when the next big Sandy or Irene comes along, flooding and erosion can be mitigated. Teal said they can.
“You can do whatever we need to do to protect our Town’s infrastructure,” she said.
The Highway Superintendent, Jeff Winestock, however remained unconvinced that New York State would ever let anyone try to change the paths those rivers have chosen themselves.
“The river uses its brain, its college degree, that’s what I’ve been told,” said Winestock. “Well, maybe not its college degree.”
The next monthly Town Board meeting will be Tuesday December 13 at 7 pm.
There will be a Winter Market held at the old/new Fisher Store at the corner of West Street and State Routes 20/22 on Sunday, December 11 from 11 am to 3 pm.[/private]