How Do We Dump the Illegal Dumping
By Thaddeus Flint
Illegal dumpsters deposits, the offense and defense of a culvert, a new evil fly, and just how much power does the Town need when there isn’t any power were the topics of the night at an extraordinarily short Town Board meeting in New Lebanon last week.
The September 11 meeting was presided over by Deputy Town Supervisor Doug Banker as Town Supervisor Colleen Teal was away that evening. For some reason a meeting that normally chugs along towards the two hour mark ended after only 57 minutes and nobody knew what to make of it. What to do with the rest of the evening? Townspeople are so acclimated to prolonged meetings that they are often seen wandering in at the one hour mark confident they can still catch the last four innings or so and still feel they got a good enough dose of government for the night. Banker, however, as the Deputy Supervisor — an appointed position — has no ability to make motions or vote on things, so maybe that sped things up. And everything that was voted on was voted with all in favor, so lack of argument probably contributed as well.
Not all contributions are always welcome. Are you the one who has been contributing your household garbage to the Town’s dumpster? Someone (or someones) has been and now the Board is forced to put locks on the vessel to keep the vermin, who like that sort of garbage, away. There are signs on the dumpster saying “you are on video,” pointed out Town Clerk Tistrya Houghtling, but perhaps the dumpster dumpers can’t read since it hasn’t really deterred anyone. It would appear that the offense wasn’t all that offensive since nobody has taken the hours to stare at a video of a dumpster in pursuit of these malefactors. As trash becomes more expensive to trash, depositing such material in conveniently located dumpsters has become all the rage. And lately, as it has seemingly become acceptable now to park a massive steel dumpster out by the roadway for all to see all the time, more people have decided to just use those instead of getting one of their own. While the Town’s dumpster is much less visible, it seems to be on some kind of free dumpster radar. Keys will now be issued to authorized waste depositors of the Town, and everyone who is one of those authorized people is now going to be twice as miserable taking out the trash come rain, sleet, and snow because they get to fumble with a lock first.
Will those dumpster cameras keep recording should the Town lose power? At the moment, that vexing question remains unanswered as the Board continues to consider options for an electrical generator for Town facilities. The original idea was to get a small generator in case of power outages so the hearing room could be used as either a warming or cooling station depending on the weather. As ideas are wont to do, the original plan ballooned and now why not power up the whole building and the Town Garage too? Councilman Kevin Smith, who was tasked with getting specs and cost for the smaller generator, has now been re-tasked with tracking down the same information for a larger machine as well. Smith said he would check with NYSEG, which knows a thing or two about electricity, as it was believed that the electric company might come out and spec the whole job for free.
The Highway Superintendent, who knows a thing or two about highways, has defended his work in regard to a complaint voiced by a resident during the privilege of the floor session. Don Duran, who lives out in that moist part of Town near Canaan, addressed the Board in regard to some water problems he is experiencing at his property on Stone House Road. Duran said the Highway Department constructed a ditch that happens to drain water onto his property. “That’s not legal,” said Duran, adding that he had brought the matter up with a previous administration about four years ago and yet still has a ditch draining water onto his property. Banker said his complaint had been added to the minutes and Supervisor Teal would look into the matter. The Highway Superintendent, later in the meeting, defended that ditch. “We do have the right,” said Jeff Winestock. Water has to go somewhere to keep the roads roadworthy. In this case it appears that somewhere is Duran’s property. However, Winestock maintained that this problem of Duran’s isn’t a new problem as the culvert and ditch had been there for years before Duran even moved there. “Nothing has been changed,” said Winestock. “That road is exactly the way it was when he bought [the property].”
Climate change might be a responsible party here. As storms are seemingly becoming stronger when they do appear, the amount of damage they do is becoming increasingly expensive. Banker informed the Board that New Lebanon alone suffered around $60,000 after a rain storm in August. Columbia County reports that County-wide there was at least $228,000 of damage, which is a threshold to apply for aid. Depending on if the State also reached its monetary threshold, and the Trump Administration gives the OK, FEMA would then be authorized to reimburse New Lebanon for up to 85% of the expenses incurred from that storm.
One measure New York State is taking to offset damage to the environment in hopes of mitigating climate change, is to try to get people into electric cars. It’s a slow process, but one way to entice residents to make the switch is by funding electric charging stations around the State so people can actually drive these cars from one place to another without fear of running out of power along the way. New Lebanon is one such municipality that has agreed to have a charging station placed in Town, funded by the State. The current expected location is out behind the Berkshire Bank near the County Highway facility. According to the Town’s Attorney, Dan Tuczinski, the property owner is tentatively onboard for a 10 year easement at no cost to New Lebanon. Tuczinski said negotiations for a contract, approved by the Board, should be underway soon but he does not expect that anything would be finalized by an October 31 deadline. After hearing concerns from Town Clerk Houghtling, who was worried that the State funding would be withdrawn, Tuczinski said he believed there was plenty of leeway in the deadline and would contact those in charge of the funding to let them know things are happening, but just not happening as fast as they should have been happening.
What’s also happening is another insect has hitched its way from Asia to the United States with plans to eat a lot of stuff and generally make a mess of things. According to Conservation Advisory Council member David Farren, an adult spotted lantern fly (SLF) was found recently in Albany County. NYSDEC says SLF “pose a significant threat to New York’s agricultural and forest health,” as the flies feed “on a wide variety of plants such as grapevine, hops, maple, walnut, fruit trees and others.” More information can be found at DEC’s website. Anyone who suspects they have spotted SLF should take pictures and email them to DEC at spottedlanternfly@dec.ny.gov.