Vacant Building Causes More Concern
The Munch property, a dilapidated building located next to the Walter B. Howard Elementary School, was once again back on the New Lebanon Town Board agenda, with Town officials wondering if they will ever be repaid for work done there.
Back in June the Board voted to fence off the property in the interest of safety while the Town continued its efforts to convince the property owner, Fred Munch Jr., to do something with the building there. According to the Town’s Code and Zoning Enforcement Officer, Cissy Hernandez, the building’s porch roof was nearing collapse. The rest of the building isn’t much better off, either. The cost of the fencing, around $3,000, was to be added to Munch’s 2018 property bill..That, it turns out, is not going to happen. “Where did it go wrong?” Councilman Kevin Smith asked the Town’s Attorney Dan Tuczinski at the December 12 meeting.
“The County is just not doing that,” replied Tuczinski. Some counties do do that, Rensselaer County, for example, would do that. “But for whatever reason Columbia County has made the determination that you can’t add it to the tax bill.”
What New Lebanon can do, explained Tuczinski, is file a lien against the property. Then if Munch does not pay, the Town could foreclose on that lien, sell the property and get its money back that way.
That might work if the property were worth anything. However, the property is small and contains a building that would need to be demolished and carted away, so most likely nobody would be offering New Lebanon much money to take over that particular headache. Tuczinski also pointed out that there may be other liens already on the property which would have priority. “We could end up with property we don’t want and can’t sell,” said Town Supervisor Colleen Teal.
At the moment New Lebanon has about $5,000 into the Munch property. Tuczinski advised not going forward with liens and judgments unless significantly more money was eventually needed to further stabilize the property. At that time a cost analysis could be done to see if it would be financially prudent to go forward in the courts.
The Board agreed with this course of action, although Councilman Mark Baumli stated that he was the only one against doing anything from the very beginning, knowing that the Town would never see it’s money again. “Now look at the mess we are in,” said Baumli, who added that properties in much better shape have historically sold for very little when Columbia County sells them. “Consider it a loss and hopefully a lesson learned for some people.”
“Some people” are of the position that money needs to be spent in order to make the Town a bit tidier and hopefully more inviting for future businesses and residents. Much of this money is in legal fees, which New Lebanon has been spending more on in the past few years (in 2014, $18,335 was paid under the budget item for Attorney. In the 2018 budget that number is now $55,000). Supervisor Teal, in order to shed a light on exactly where that money is going, provided the Board with a Legal Fee Analysis for the years 2016 and 2107. Around $15,000 was spent on just Zoning in 2016. That number increased to $18,500 in 2017. Changing local laws and coding cost $8,235 in 2016 and then $16,121 in 2017. Total legal fees for 2017, according to the analysis, are expected to be $57,249.
One item that does stand out in Legal Fee Analysis are the sidewalks. The sidewalks don’t exist, but the taxpayers are still paying for them. In 2017 New Lebanon paid $2,793 for invisible sidewalks, though this was 32% less than the $3,703 it spent on the non-existent walkways in 2016.
Such complications abound when it comes to government, and they get even further complicated the further up the chain of government one goes. Take, for instance, the Highway Department’s fuel tank. This was installed in 1991-1992 and was in full compliance. But that was then and this is now, and PESH ( the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau) wants a safer fuel tank. The problem, according to Teal is “that we have no site where we can put it that complies with ICC code, DEC, and PESH.” After contacting various agencies to try and resolve this conundrum, the Supervisor has found herself in a Mobius strip of red tape. “That’s been a wonderful runaround,” she said. Foreseeing even more runarounds, Teal has applied for a June 30 extension. “The situation cries out for a solution,” said Tuczinski. “The issue becomes reasonable people sitting down and coming up with reasonable solutions.” Something that could take at least 6 months to achieve in government.
“Nobody knows what is truly going on,” said Highway Superintendent Jeff Winestock. He pointed out that since 1963 people have been “backing trucks in there with a plow on, and now some screwball with a measuring stick comes along and says it has to have 28 inches. It’s wrong.”
“Free” money is also wrong to take from the government because there is no such thing as free money, at least according to Planning Board member Robert Smith. This was in response to the possibility of the Town putting in an electric vehicle charging station which would dispense free electricity for two years and be paid for largely through State grants. This is part of the Capital Region Clean Energy Communities Program through which New Lebanon is working toward achieving four “high impact actions” that once completed will open access to the Town for grants up to $100,000.
“Why do I, as a taxpayer, have to pay to charge someone else’s car?” asked Smith, adding that the money in those grants is just tax money redistributed.
Supervisor Teal replied that If New Lebanon doesn’t accept the grant, some other town happily will. “You already paid,” she said.
Announcements:
Doug Banker has been appointed Deputy Supervisor after Cynthia Creech resigned from that position. Creech also resigned from the Recreation Commission, and from the Zoning Re-Write Committee, and as liaison to the NL200 committee.
Banker announced that the Cemetery of the Evergreens and the Lebanon Valley Historical Society are raising funds to restore stone work at the Tilden Monument in time for the NL200 celebration. Anyone interested in donating can contact Banker at 518-794-9764.
Columbia County Office for the Aging Representative Judy Zimmer is seeking nurses and lawyers in the area interested in donating time to help local Seniors.
The Town Board Year-End Meeting will be December 28 at 7 pm. Two Public Hearings, one on the Proposed 2018 LVPA contract, and another on Provide a Partial Real Property Tax Exemption for Cold War Veterans, will be held immediately before, starting at 6:50 pm.
The swearing-in of new Town officials will be January 1 at 9 am, the public is welcome to attend.
The Town Board Organizational Meeting will be January 2 at 6 pm.