Grafton Town Board Action – Order Returns

by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board met April 9 for the first time with a full Board and Supervisor since the passing of Ray Darling. The new Supervisor, Frank Higgins, said Joe Allain had agreed to stay on as his secretary, and Higgins appointed Allain to the position for the remainder of this year.
[private]In response to a question at public comment time, Higgins said the Town Board has not yet made a decision about filling the Town Justice seat vacated by his resignation but offered his own opinion that it would be better to wait until a new Justice is elected next fall. He said if the Board were to appoint someone now, that person would have to do the training before he or she could take his or her seat on the bench. The training is expensive and time consuming. If that person were not re-elected six months later, his or her time and the Town’s money would be wasted.
Higgins said he had not heard back from the Third District Court about whether they plan to assign a justice from another town to fill in for the empty justice position for the remainder of the year.
Truck Purchase Tabled
The Board received just one response to the truck bid they put out recently. This was from Delurey’s in North Hoosick for a 2002 International 5600 Paystar tandem-axle dump truck with plow wing. It was offered for $58,415. Ungaro said it sounded like a good price. Supervisor Frank Higgins said he thought the Board needed to discuss whether a new truck is needed, so they tabled it until they could discuss it further. Also, Town Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck was not present at this meeting, and the Board wanted to consult with him before taking action on a truck purchase.
The Board approved training for the Highway Superintendent that will be about $300 plus mileage and training for the Building Inspector that will be $30 plus mileage.
Councilman Rick Ungaro said an electrician is coming to fix the main electrical service into the Town Hall. He said water got into the meter box and corroded some of the equipment.
Highway Report
Rick Ungaro read Hasbrouck’s monthly report. It said the crew is taking off the sanders, doing grading and filling holes. They have rented a power broom to sweep sand off the roads. They have returned the sander they had borrowed from the County. Hasbrouck also submitted to the Town Board a list of equipment to junk, and another list of equipment to auction off. Hasbrouck noted that Grafton will be getting an additional $23,000 in CHIPS money because of an increase in the budget announced last week and he plans to use that money to pave the rest of Steve O’Dell Road.
Grafton Ambulance Captain Donna Baldwin said the crew responded to 18 calls in March: sick person, stroke, difficulty breathing, seizure, headache, two overdose, allergic reaction, cardiac arrest, three falls, chest pain, two pregnancy related and two fire standby. They logged 89.5 volunteer hours in the ambulance and traveled 486 miles during the month. Baldwin congratulated the Squad’s two new EMTs, Bill Keenan and Marisa Levsha, who recently passed the NYS EMT exam.
Dog Officer Rick Bly submitted a report which said he had two calls in March, one for a dog chasing a jogger and one for nuisance barking.
Public Comment
Higgins announced at the beginning of the public comment time that he would not tolerate personal attacks of any kind.  When Cathy Goyer again asked Barbara Messenger if she had apologized to Ray Darling’s family, Higgins cut her off, saying he is not going to tolerate that kind of comment.[/private]