Final Meeting For Stradinger, Wysocki, and Sutton
Alex Brooks
The first order of business at the December 11 Hoosick Town Board meeting was to offer thanks to Town Clerk Sue Stradinger, who has served in that position for 21 years. She will be retiring at the end of the month. Aelish Nealon provided a cake, and Supervisor Mark Surdam offered words of appreciation for Stradinger’s long service to the Town. Stradinger said the job has been very fulfilling. She said she had met and worked with so many wonderful people in this job. She said, “I’m going to miss all of you.” Sue introduced Town Clerk-elect Holli Cross and said, “I think she’s going to do a great job.”
This was the last regular Town Board meeting for Councilmen Jeff Wysocki and David Sutton also, who each offered their farewells.
The Town Board held a public hearing prior to the regular meeting about a local law to amend the Town’s law on dumps and dumping. The law replaces a previous Town law on this subject from 2005 which was missing language about exemptions which are in State law. This new Town law makes the Town rules congruent with the State rules. The exemptions are mostly for farmers, so that their normal operations, such as spreading manure, are not defined as dumping.
There were no comments offered at the Public Hearing and the Board passed the new law unanimously at its regular meeting later in the evening.
The other law passed at the December meeting was to opt out of the Homestead provision in the property tax law. Town Attorney Jon Schopf explained that the Town of Hoosick opted into this provision at some unknown previous time, which allows someone’s house and one acre to be taxed differently than the rest of the property. The result is that there are two lines on the tax bill instead of one, and since the Town has never implemented a special tax rate for the homestead portion, there is no point in having the two lines. Only one other Town in Rensselaer County has opted into the Homestead provision. Since the Town Board had no intention of creating a different rate for the home- stead portion, they opted out of the homestead provision to simplify the paperwork. This measure passed unanimously.
At public comment time, Lisa Revet suggested a mar-
keting campaign for the Town of Hoosick with the theme, “This is my Hoosick,” to call attention to all of the great assets in the Town, and counter the negative publicity that the Town has seen in recent years. She had plenty of ideas and energy, and is willing to work with others on such a campaign.
ASSESSOR
Assessor Tony Rice said GAR has sent out data mail- ers to property owners ask- ing to correct information about their property. Several Town Board members said it is a simple and easy form to fill out and encouraged property owners to respond to the mailing as soon as possible. Rice said his office is right in the thick of the revaluation, responding to 20 e-mails a day from GAR about revaluation issues.
SUPERVISOR’S REPORT
Supervisor Mark Surdam said Highway Superintendent Bill Shiland slipped, fell and broke his leg. He had just gotten out of the hospital on the day of the meeting and Surdam said, “We are all wishing him a speedy recovery.”
Surdam also said a section of the fence near the Town playground had been ripped down by vandals. Police are investigating to try to de-
termine who did it, but they don’t have a suspect identified yet. Surdam said not all of the surveillance cameras in that area were operational at the time that it happened (they are now). One camera was pointed in that direction, but it was too dark to see much.
Surdam said 200 of the 1800 questionnaires sent out by the Town last month have been returned so far. These are seeking public input on PFOA issues. Surdam encourages residents who have not yet sent in a questionnaire to do so as soon as they can get to it. Town Attorney Jon Schopf offered to have his secretary organize the responses to summarize the results.
Surdam also said the NYS Department of Health has agreed to schedule another blood draw to test for PFOA levels some time in the spring, but has not yet scheduled a date.
Board member Eric Sheffer said he met with a local re- tired artist last month to talk about restoring the Town of Hoosick sign at Routes 7 and 22. He found that it would cost $400 per side to restore the sign and possibly additional money to clear-coat the sign after it is restored. He said since then he has learned that it may be less expensive to have a new sign made than
it would be to restore the existing one, so he is continuing to explore that.
SKATING RINK
The Board passed a motion to approve staff for the skating rink and new pay scale for them. The Rink Manager (Tyler Rondeau) gets $17 per hour, and the Assistant Rink Manager (Janet Davendonis) gets $15 per hour. Rink Guards and Lesson Instructors get $10.40 per hour, with an additional 50 cents per hour if they have CPR and First Aid Certification. Supervisor Mark Surdam said the pay rates were adjusted upward because the mini- mum wage is higher than it was last year.
Signup for Skating Lessons will be held January 6 from9amto1pmattherink on Barton Avenue. The cost per skater will be $40 for res- idents and $50 for non-residents. Lessons will be for 4 weeks on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings beginning Saturday January 13, weather permitting (the ice can only be maintained when the outside temperature is below freezing). Hours and prices are available at www.townofhoosick.org.
The Board scheduled its Organizational Meeting for 6:15 pm on January 8, prior to the regular January meeting at 7 pm that night.