New Lebanon Town Board Action – Town Hall Project Progressing Swiftly

by Thaddeus Flint
Onward and downward goes New Lebanon’s new Town Hall. “If everything goes to plan we will be digging the trenches next week,” said Councilmember Bruce Baldwin at Tuesday’s monthly Town Board meeting. “It’s moving quite swiftly.”
[private]Already Highway Superintendent Jeffrey Winestock and his crew have been toiling at removing old concrete footings, some running as much as six feet deep, around the old Town Hall where the addition will be added.
“Boy they really knew how to put in footings back then!” exclaimed Baldwin, while thanking Winestock “a million times” for the hard work so far. The Town has chosen to do as much of the site work as possible itself in order to keep the cost of the project down. “This is what ‘in-house’ means,” added Baldwin, “big savings!”
The final price tag for the addition is expected to be around $440,000, according to Town Supervisor Mike Benson. With $168,000 already in a fund earmarked for the job and another $50,000 or so which can be allocated from other parts of the Town’s budget, this means about $218,000 is still needed. A resolution was put forward by Benson to float a five year bond for $200,000. This was successful with all in favor except Councilmember K.B. Chittenden who abstained since he had not had time to study the resolution ahead of the vote.
A motion was then made to authorize a contract with Hoosick Valley Contractors of Melrose for $378,000 to perform much of the construction of the new addition. The company is well known in the area for its work on the Hoosick Falls fire station and dorms at RPI. Recently, though, they have come under scrutiny from Columbia County Department of Public Works Commissioner David Robinson in regard to the County’s 911 communications and emergency operations command center addition; Hoosick Valley Contractors was the general contractor. The roof leaks from where that addition was added on to the Public Safety Building. It has been leaking since 2010. The company doesn’t seem to want to fix it and so the County might be taking them to court. It was stated at the April 25 Public Works Committee meeting that “the County Attorney’s office is commencing a lawsuit” against Hoosick Valley Contractors and two other companies involved in the construction. Since Benson is the Public Works Committee Chairman and was at that meeting, he is probably well aware of the problem. None of this was brought up though at the meeting Tuesday, and the motion to offer the Town Hall addition contract to Hoosick Valley Contractors was passed with all in favor.
Ethical Disunity
The Ethics Board then put on its semi-monthly display of disunity. Is it ethical to have an Ethics Board meeting, establish guidelines and elect officers if two of the Ethics Board members don’t know the meeting is happening? Two members of that Board were not so sure, voicing their disagreement when Chairperson Kathy Murnane tried to read her report .
“This was not a full meeting!” interrupted Ethics Board Member Kevin Smith. “This report should be postponed!”
“Well, we are going to hear her anyway,” responded Benson.
Murnane reported that three of the five Board members had been present, and thus, with a quorum achieved, Christopher Steadman had been chosen as Deputy Chair and guidelines had been adopted for how complaints are handled and how they were to be stored and filed.
“I want to confirm that this report has been provided to the Town Board and your committee,” Benson asked Murnane.
Murnane affirmed it had been so provided.
“Wrong!” interjected Kenny Smith, who said he had not received a copy of it. “I object to the report of the Ethics Board!”
Murnane said it was part of an email. Unfortunately the first email lacked the attachment, but a second email solved that oversight.
“I don’t use email,” pointed out Ethics Board Member Robert Smith.
“It’s 2012,” pointed out Benson.
“I don’t use email,” repeated Robert Smith, who admitted he does though have an email address, but he doesn’t really like to check it.
Smith and Smith were both adamant that the use of email is not a proper way to schedule a meeting. “If you are going to confirm something, use a telephone,” stated Kenny Smith.
Town Clerk Colleen Teal offered to remove the Smith and Smith from the email contact list, thus ensuring that they might be telephoned in case of future meetings. Smith and Smith both accepted the offer to be removed from the current technology.
The Town’s attorney, Andy Howard, then noted that the problems of the Ethics Board were the problems of the Ethics Board. “It’s its own entity,” said Howard. “Certainly the Ethics Board needs to set some guidelines,” he agreed, “but what they do is potentially at their own peril,” and not the responsibility or the liability of the Town Board.
Gravestones
In other news, resident Rocky Brown, who maintains the West Lebanon Cemetery, warned the Board that grave stones have been keeling over lately. At least four have dropped in the past few weeks, pointed out Brown who added he was not sure “if they were blown over or maybe it was kids.” All told about 25 to 30 stones are now “down and buried.”  Baldwin said he would bring up the matter with the Town’s historical society which is concerned with such grave matters.[/private]