By Thaddeus Flint
There were two Town Board meetings in New Lebanon last week. The regular monthly meeting and an emergency meeting held as a result of a break-in at the Town Hall. According to Town Supervisor Colleen Teal, the break-in occurred either late Tuesday night, September 12, after the regular Town Board meeting, or early Wednesday morning, September 13.
“They stole money and damaged some of the windows, doors, file cabinets, etc. in order to gain access,” wrote Teal in an e-mail message September 15. The Supervisor stressed that only “generic” information is being given out at this time because the matter is under investigation by the New York State Police.
The emergency meeting was convened for Friday, September 15, because Teal was going to be away from New Lebanon for a few days and the Supervisor wanted to be certain that Town Clerk Tistrya Houghtling had the authority needed to work with investigators in Teal’s absence. “Basically just the necessary things to keep the investigation moving forward and to get the necessary items replaced to get the town offices secure again (i.e. replace the fireproof file cabinets),” wrote Teal.
The regular Town Board meeting was much more about subjects that seem to keep appearing without ever going away. Pretty much every town has the same problems. New Lebanon has three.
There would have been two such subjects in New Lebanon, but the previous Town Supervisor, Mike Benson, managed to successfully solve one of them–that being who was going to pay for the dump that was closed– and then added a new one: Sidewalks. The other two are getting a grocery store back into Town, and Covenant Road, the road the Town doesn’t really want but the people who live there really want the Town to take.
New Lebanon has been talking about sidewalks since 2013 and it still doesn’t have sidewalks. Not everyone is upset about that, many were against the project from the beginning. What has managed to upset some residents though, is that the Town has spent over $30,000 of its own money for not having sidewalks. Another $85,000 of Federal and State money was also spent on not having sidewalks and those two entities would like to have that money back.
The bill for the invisible sidewalks fell into Supervisor Teal’s lap when she took office, and she has been trying to find a way out of paying it ever since. The basic plan was to prove to NYSDOT that there was “significant” public outcry against the project, which wasn’t really all that hard since so many people made a point of outcrying against it. That plan will continue, as the Board voted, with all in favor Tuesday night, on a resolution to continue with their “no-build” determination.
The grocery store is pretty much the opposite problem; most everyone would be happy to have one, but none really want to come to New Lebanon and build. “It’s still a really important thing I’m working on,” said Teal. Waiting for the next store to come to Town on its own really hasn’t worked out so far. So, the next possible plan might be to lure a supermarket to Town by having a grocery study done showing that such a project would be profitable, the local government is for it, and there are sites already picked out. Teal said that such a study would cost around $17,000 to $20,000. “Twenty grand is a lot of money,” said Councilman Mark Baumli, adding that traditional brick and mortar stores are going away. “If anything it’s going to get worse.”
Teal pointed out that some local businesses were indicating they might chip in for the study, with one mentioning a possible contribution of around $10,000. The Supervisor also noted that Behan Planning still owed New Lebanon a grant writing project. Behan was the firm hired back in 2013 when then-Councilman Doug Clark kept warning everyone that the Town was caught in a downward spiral. Behan was paid $20,000 or so to figure a way out of that spiral, but nothing really came of their ideas. They did, though, come to a Town Board meeting with a spiffy PowerPoint presentation of what New Lebanon might look like if it looked less like New Lebanon and more like the fake part of Manchester, Vermont. That might have been when the whole sidewalk idea started.
The grocery study “is key to anything happening,” said Teal. The cost was still off-putting to some. The idea was discussed of talking to Hannaford to see if they might let them use their old study to keep costs down. Baumli, however, felt that using their one “free” grant on a study that was unlikely to produce any productive results is maybe not the best use of a “free” grant. He noted that the upcoming basketball court revamp is looking to cost close to $70,000 and maybe the grant would be better applied there.
As for Covenant Circle, they have not been heard from in over a year, it seems. Maybe somebody should run up there in a four-wheel drive vehicle and see if they are stuck or something.
The next regular meeting of the Town Board will be Tuesday, October 10.