by Tyler Sawyer
The September 8 regular meeting of the Rensselaer County Legislature began with a lengthy delay. A required public hearing originally scheduled for 5:30 pm that pertained to a Rensselaer County Small Cities Community Development Block Grant application, did not start until nearly 6:15 pm.
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At the public hearing, Linda von der Heide, a planner for the Rensselaer County Economic Development & Planning, explained that Rensselaer County is eligible to apply for a $850k single purpose grant that would help medium to low income first time homebuyers with the purchase of their home. Eligible applicants could receive up to $20k in grant assistance. She said that Rensselaer County would seek $300k on behalf of the Rensselaer County Housing Resources Small Cities Homeownership Program, of which, $255k would be targeted to help 15 households with 0% forgivable loans to help defray purchasing costs, $37.5k would be used for program delivery cost that would include the costs of running the program, house inspections (with lead paint testing), counseling and training costs. The remaining $7.5k would be used for administration costs such as environmental reviews, payment requests, bookkeeping and oversight. Qualified first time homebuyers from all Rensselaer County Towns, Villages and the City of Rensselaer are eligible to apply for the program. The City of Troy has its own program for its residents.
After her presentation, Ms. von der Heide asked for comments on the application. When no one came forward, she asked twice more, but with no responses, she closed the public hearing.
Vice Chairman Stan Brownell filling in as acting Legislative Chairman, then began the process of officially naming a Legislative Chairman to replace Martin Reid. Reid resigned as Chairman of the Rensselaer County Legislature on August 12, several hours after his arraignment on a 41-count felony indictment charging him with concealing his $30,000-a-year legislative salary when he received $15,000 in unemployment benefits. The charges were filed by the office of state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and not by the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s office.
Acting Chairman Brownell called for nominations from the floor for the vacancy and Legislator Philip Danaher (District 2) nominated Stan Brownell for Chairman and the nomination was seconded by Legislator Lester Goodermote. A floor vote was called for and the vote passed unanimously. Upon completion of the vote, Stan Brownell was sworn in as the new Legislature Chairman by Legislator Goodermote.
Chairman Brownell’s first action was to call for the filling of the vacancy of Vice Chairman that he vacated by accepting the new chairman position. Former Chairman Martin Reid put forth the name of fellow District 4 Legislator Alex Shannon. The nomination was seconded by Chairman Brownell and again a floor vote was called for. The vote passed unanimously. Vice Chairman Shannon was also sworn in by Legislator Goodermote.
Next, Chairman Brownell presented his brother Carl Brownell, with a certificate that was presented to Carl’s wife last month at the Town of Hoosick’s Voice of a Vet Ceremony welcoming home Vietnam Veterans, because Carl was not available to attend the Hoosick ceremony. The certificate was signed by Legislator Goodermote and Legislator Brownell.
After a short statement thanking Martin Reid for his service as legislative chairman, Brownell thanked his family that were in attendance for the meeting, and he pledged to work with both sides of the aisle on important county issues.
The meeting then proceeded to vote on thirty-five resolutions on the agenda, including the resolution for the County to apply for the homeownership grant that was the subject of the public hearing held earlier. All passed unanimously with the exception of one resolution. That resolution extended the time period to November 30, 2017 that Rensselaer County will be allowed to collect an additional tax on sales, use of tangible personal property sales, certain services, occupancy of hotel rooms and amusement charges pursuant to Article 29 of the tax law of New York. Minority Leader Peter Grimm was the only dissenting vote.
A local law titled “Drinking Water Protection Law” that was on the agenda for the month, was again stalled in the committee process and did not make it to the floor for a vote. The law is designed to protect drinking water supplies for Rensselaer County’s rural residents from damage or loss due to blasting activities. The local law exempts mines subject to local municipal regulation or state regulations under Title 27 of Article of the Environmental Conservation Law or to well drillers subject to state regulations under Title 15 of Article 15 of the Environmental Conservation Law. What would be covered under the proposed local law are blasting activities that would occur if the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline comes to fruition. That 36-inch pressurized line could cut through parts of Schodack, Nassau and Stephentown. It would not prohibit blasting, rather it would require the blaster to give advance notice of blasting activities that would protect persons and property during the blasting operations, and take pre-blast and post-blast sampling and analyses at the blaster’s expense. The law is closely patterned after a local law unanimously adopted last month by the Albany County Legislature.
Minority Leader Peter Grimm expressed concerns with the tabling, again, of the local law. Grimm said that well over one hundred people have submitted letters to all nineteen legislators urging the passage of the local law. He stated that he was told during the rules committee meeting the previous week that there were some businesses wanting to come and meet with the legislators to discuss the local law. He said he was not told who the businesses were. Grimm said the law has been sitting on the table for more than two months and he feels that the public has had its opportunity to come in and voice its views on the matter.
Chairman Brownell confirmed that the legislature has been receiving large amounts of mail/email on the matter. He said “we are getting overwhelmed with it. They’re frustrated right now with our lack of doing something.” He said discussions about the law are continuing and he expects something will be done once everyone is comfortable with the language of the local law. [/private]