New Lebanon Town Board Offers An Accommodation In Mittnight Case

by Thaddeus Flint
New information arose from the New Lebanon Town Board meeting last Monday concerning the endless case of Robert Mittnight Jr., as well as the seemingly never ending story of the New Lebanon Town Hall.
Mittnight Jr., was once again at the Board Meeting to see if there was any new word regarding his case regarding zoning problems. Mittnight Jr. wishes to obtain a permit to build a pole barn to store various building and other materials on his property. A State Supreme Court judge had recently ordered this completed by April 30. The deadline is now June 15. Mittnight states that every attempt he makes to get a permit is turned down because of the court case now pending regarding previous problems.
The Board went into executive session to discuss the Mittnight Jr. case. When they came back a motion was made that the Board accept a proposal regarding the Mittnight Jr. case. All were in favor and the motion was passed. The specifics of the proposal were not provided at the meeting. However a document seen the following day showed that the Mittnight case could be resolved if he framed a pole barn by August 15 and that it be completed by November 15. A fence must also be constructed to hide Mittnight Jr.’s property from Route 20 and this must be in place by January 1, 2012. A judgment of $7,602.50 would be waived, but a previous judgment of $4,012 would stand. In agreeing with this proposal Mittnight Jr. would also have to waive “any and all right to appeal the decision and order and judgment entered here.”
Mittnight was not happy with the proposal in total. According to J.J. Johnson, a citizen’s advocate who has been working with Mittnight Jr. on this case, “Since this all began due to the illegal denial of a building permit for a pole barn…Bob feels that all fines and liens should be waived, not just the latest ones.” At this time Mittnight Jr. has not yet decided whether to accept the terms laid out before him by the Board or continue to fight on, as he has done the previous nine years.
Possible Town Hall Use For Union Free School Building May Delay Its Destruction
At that same meeting, Deborah Gordon of the New Lebanon Historical Society proposed that the Board consider once again the use of the Union Free School as the future building for the Town Hall. This building has previously been considered, but its decrepit state was felt to be too costly in terms of repair. Gordon explained that members of the Historical Society were not only experienced in writing grant proposals but willing to do so at no cost to the Town. Gordon said that the signs one sees upon entering the Town of New Lebanon say “Welcome to Historical New Lebanon.” However, with the exception of the Shaker Village buildings, the Union Free School is the only other building in the Town that is on the National Register of Historical Buildings. Furthermore, the building is in imminent danger. The New Lebanon School Board is expected to vote to demolish the building on May 18. If nothing is done now, “the building is basically a goner,” said Gordon.
Gordon asked that the Town Board let the School Board know that they wish to have further time to study the Union Free School as a building option.  Currently the School District owns the building and the land. If the School Board could put off the demolition of the building for six more months, the Historical Society could put together a grant proposal showing that a future specific use for the building would be the Town Hall. If no money could be found in that time, then the building could easily be demolished then. The demolition itself is not free. There would be costs incurred to the Town’s residents as well. The building has already been standing there unused for over thirty years, what harm could a few more months do?
Council Member Doug Clark agreed. “My recommendation would be,” he said, “to see if we can’t get the school to wait a bit.” A motion was made that the Town Board contact the School Board before May 18 to ask them to delay the destruction of the Union Free building so that further considerations could be made on possibly using the building as a future Town Hall. The motion pass unanimously.
Commendations
Finally Town Supervisor Margaret Robertson took some time to present two New Lebanon High School students, Meredith Lukas and Lauren Sears, with letters of commendation, thanking them for representing New Lebanon at the recent Columbia County Youth Bureau Awards.