The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Stephentown Town Board Action – A Midummer Night’s Meeting

By

by David Flint

Midsummer is not a time for long Board meetings. The regular meeting of the Stephentown Town Board for July was quite short. The Board paid bills amounting to $18,755.26 from the General Account and $72,526.18 from the Highway Account. Aside from that there were no resolutions passed.

According to Town Clerk Stephanie Wagar, the following issues were discussed briefly.

[private]The 6th Annual Bella Terra Music Festival will be held at Gardner’s Field from August 21 to 24. At the Workshop meeting on July 1 the Board discussed with Festival organizers ways to abate excessive noise. The Main Stage will be reduced to one stage this year. The Redbull MXT, which was the reason for many complaints last year, will no longer play during late night. The late night stage will be moved into the woods after 11 pm and will end by 3 am. The Main Stage will end on Thursday by 10:30 pm, and all music will end on Sunday by 8 pm, 2½ hours earlier than last year.

Feedback from the Youth Commission and the Library regarding the ongoing Youth Summer Camp has been positive with everything reported to be working out well. Breakfast and lunch are being provided to all the children who show up.

The footings for the Bert Hager Road bridge have been poured, and the project is apparently progressing on schedule.

Although sales tax revenue for the final quarter of 2013 was higher than expected, some concern was expressed that that source of revenue is leveling off.

The Board may consider going to a ticket system, such as is used at the Berlin Transfer Station, instead of the current system at Stephentown’s Transfer Station which uses special pink garbage bags, a special order item that must be purchased by customers.

The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $576.30 to the Supervisor for the month of June. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund  was $799 for the month of May and $1,719 for June. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $6,445.

The Board set its next workshop meeting for Monday, August 11, and its next regular meeting for Monday, August 18, both meetings to start at 7 pm.

Footings have been poured for the new bridge on Bert Hager Road that will span a small tributary of the Kinderhook Creek. The Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that a culvert would not suffice. FEMA is expected to pick up the $250,000 tab for the bridge. (David Flint photo)
Footings have been poured for the new bridge on Bert Hager Road that will span a small tributary of the Kinderhook Creek. The Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that a culvert would not suffice. FEMA is expected to pick up the $250,000 tab for the bridge. (David Flint photo)

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