All Kinds Of News
by Thaddeus Flint
There was good news, bad news, just regular old news, and even fake news at last Monday’s Stephentown Town Board meeting.
First the good news, because Stephentown could use some good news for a change. The Celebrate Stephentown event was billed as a great success by festival organizer and Library Board President Scott Menhinick at the August 20 meeting. Attendee turnout was “very good,” said Menhinick, even with the weather not always cooperating. The biggest crowd was thought to be the party at Dave’s Market. “It was absolutely packed,” said Councilman Bill Jennings. Menhinick said the new owners were amazed at the support Stephentown was showing them before they have even opened. Dave and Lorette Desormeaux were also on hand to see their creation slowly returning to life. Hopefully any attendees returning late VHS tapes remembered to rewind them because this was a serious offense back during the Cold War. Town Supervisor, Larry Eckhardt, said the event’s success was due to the work of many, but especially that of Menhinick and Jennifer Peabody. “Thank you, both of you, “ Eckhardt said as a round of applause was provided by the audience. “I really mean it, it’s a lot of work.”
Residents who remember–fondly or not–learning to square dance, making a mushroom cloud out of a parachute, book sales, Halloween parties, and even dancing to Madonna in the auditorium at the Stephentown Elementary School, might someday get to repeat maybe some or none of that. Menhinick also reported that Four Fat Fowl, the cheese company now occupying that building, are hoping to someday have the auditorium returned to a condition that might allow Town events to once again happen there.
The other good news is that the internet really seems to be coming to Town. Councilman Jennings said that Stephentown is one of the lucky towns that will have every census block connected—to the home—with fiber optic cable. Internet speeds, described as “1980’s technology” by Menhinick, will soon be approaching 1 Gig per second by the end of the year as Consolidated Communications finishes up the cabling of the area. An informal poll by this reporter found it difficult to dig up anyone in the area who believes one word of this. However, “it’s going to happen,” assured Jennings. And residents who always wanted cable service should be happy to find out that they will never have to deal with a cable company. Whatever will be replacing Charter-Spectrum, the cable company kicked out of New York for pretty much acting like a cable company, is still unknown, and still just as unlikely to add Stephentown to its network. According to Jennings, it won’t matter. Consolidated will offer package plans that include internet, cable, and even telephone. The downside is that residents get to deal with Consolidated, which is no Taconic Telephone when it comes to customer service. Even a simple check of their website this past week to look for updates in the area found the site unable to function properly on the Firefox, Chrome, and Explorer browsers.
The bad news for Stephentown is lawyers and garbage. For those keeping score at home, the Town spent another $6,372 on lawyers last month, and all but $932 of that was for “ZBA Legal Services (Hanson v. Stephentown / Baker v. Stephentown.” The Town now reports a legal fund line deficit of just over $55,000 and there are still four more months to go.
Garbage is also getting expensive. For whatever reasons—China suddenly deciding to “go green”, or the Trump Administration playing 5-D Chess with trade tariffs, or maybe even both—China doesn’t want American junk anymore. Since the biggest buyer of recycled junk is no longer paying the largest amount for recycled junk, the costs to recycle that junk are rising. “The market has fallen apart,” said Councilman Jennings. Some areas are already reporting costs of $125 a ton to get rid of recyclables, when the cost to dump garbage is only $65 a ton. “It hasn’t hit us yet, but it’s going to,” cautioned the Councilman, noting that some municipalities, after years of trying to get their residents to recycle, are now telling them to stop recycling. It’s possible that Stephentown too will be telling it’s residents to throw it all away if something doesn’t change soon. The Eastern Rensselaer County Solid Waste Management Authority is currently studying “all options”, said Jennings, but it would appear only a matter of time before garbage fees go up. “Not good stuff is going to happen,” warned Jennings.
Well, except maybe for the people working at Stephentown’s Transfer Station. Jennings also informed the Board that the hut there is pretty much at “the end of its life.” The Town must now begin planning to fix the structure they have, build a new one, buy a new one, or possibly lease or buy a small trailer so employees have a “decent place” to work. Indoor plumbing was even discussed. Thirties technology! The problem, as anyone can guess, is that “it’s not going to be cheap,” said Jennings. Anyone who would like to donate such a structure could have their name affixed on an official plaque and forever linked to the Transfer Station, says the Councilman, only seemingly half-joking. Whatever happens, the Supervisor says something needs to happen sooner rather than later. “Winter is coming,” said Eckhardt, “and I don’t want to see Agnes and Bob standing around a barrel fire trying to keep warm.”
The just-regular-news also involves money out the door, but the Town, at least, is getting something tangible in return, so it’s not really all that bad in the end. The Board approved with all in favor (Councilman PJ Roder was absent) of accepting a bid of $19,950 to have the Highway Garage repaired. Highway Superintendent Aldi Goodermote didn’t seem all that impressed with only getting one bid for the job, but “we are running out of time beating a dead horse,” he said. A second dead horse is finding someone with a CDL to drive the Highway Department’s big trucks. CDL drivers are in big demand at the moment and so little towns can’t compete when it comes to paying them. The solution Stephentown is taking is to buy a smaller truck. The Board again voted, with all in attendance in favor, of advertising for bids for a 2019 one ton dual wheel/4-wheel drive truck, that will not require a CDL licensed driver.
The “fake news” comes courtesy of Francis Manning who claims The Eastwick Press is one of those American news outlets spreading “fake news” because of some “liberal” agenda that is unclear. Manning is the gentleman from the June Stephentown Board meeting who stood up and publicly asked the Board “can’t you put this guy to sleep?” in reference to a fellow resident he perceives as having a “vendetta” towards the Town. Manning, after the August meeting was concluded, said he wished to comment about The Eastwick Press article which included that comment. He says he meant otherwise, and didn’t mean to have a neighbor “euthanized.” For the record, as it was noted in the June article, Manning did not ask for his neighbor to be “euthanized,” he asked if someone “can’t put this guy to sleep,” which this reporter inferred meant the same as having some dog euthanized because he won’t shut up, even after he’s been tied to a tree for three years. All a misunderstanding, said Manning, adding that the “cops,” who seemingly also misunderstood an audio recording of that meeting, came to visit him as a result. However, more than a misunderstanding, the reporting of this event was “fake news,” said Manning, part of some politically motivated plot by The Eastwick Press, which Manning referred to repeatedly as “that liberal rag.” Manning was asked which stories in The Eastwick Press he feels are overly liberal in nature. Is it the stories about area Seniors and their suspicious trips? Maybe the Easter Bunny showing up each Spring out of the blue? Or is it that fellow Holcomb from the back page who every few years starts repeating his stories all over again and nobody mentions it? Manning didn’t know. “I haven’t read that paper in twenty years,” he replied.