The Parking Lot Power Is Out
By Thaddeus Flint
An electric vehicle charging station planned for New Lebanon probably won’t be happening until next year, it was heard at the October 9 Town Board Meeting.
The current site for the proposed charging station—in the Valley Plaza parking lot–behind the Berkshire Bank and just in front of the County Highway Garage—was found to have liens on the property, which the State of New York isn’t happy with.
The charging station was to be pretty much free for New Lebanon, part of the State’s Climate Smart Communities program which it says it is working toward “building a sustainable, balanced climate action program, one step at a time.”
New Lebanon will now be taking some of those steps backwards. “We’ve run into a roadblock,” said Councilman Mark Baumli. “They could have told us before,” agreed Town Clerk Tistrya Houghtling.
While technically a property with liens could be brought into the program, the costs to do so would probably make the idea less free than the previous free, which some residents have noted isn’t really all that free since it’s still your taxes to begin with.
The project was supposed to be completed by an October 31 deadline. As that’s just a few weeks away and the plan is back to step one, it doesn’t look like that will happen. Already the Town has “a lot of money wrapped up in this in attorney fees,” said Baumli. So the prospect of seeing all that money wasted if the deadline isn’t met was of some concern. The Town Clerk had already looked into that, however. Houghtling said that she spoke with those in charge of the grant which is funding the project, and their outlook was just go and find a property without liens and get back to us. “They will hold open our approval…they are OK with that,” she said.
So the search for a suitable location will begin once again. Baumli noted there are plenty of other businesses in Town that might like to attract people who might not have anything better to do as they wait for their Green cars to come back to life. The new Stewart’s location, currently rising up from the dust of the now razed New Lebanon Mini Mart, was one such suggestion. The problem with that, pointed out Councilman Jesse Newton, is a recent Planning Board meeting heard that Stewart’s is currently at the very minimum of parking spaces already needed. So to reserve a few for the EV people might not be possible without some changes. Although, at other EV locations, it seems that just because a few spots are marked “EV Charging Only,” it hasn’t stopped some from strategically parking an idling diesel pickup over all the EV spots, seemingly just for the apparent glee of doing such a thing. The search, however, will continue until a new lien-free location is found. “I really do think it is beneficial to have one of these charging stations in Town,” said Baumli.
While the number of residents who might find that project beneficial is seemingly small, just because it is beneficial to just a few doesn’t diminish the benefit it might provide. Case in point: Resident Rose Viggiano. Her house is sinking. Actually, her house is probably at around the same height it’s been for the past hundred and twenty years or so, the road is rising. This might not have been such a problem when pretty much the only traffic going by on Wadsworth Road was a horse or two clomping past. Now Viggiano says she wonders if a truck going by won’t “end up in my kitchen.” She understands the Town’s rationale for updating the road—to keep the road from icing up from standing water—but the updates have made accessing her home difficult and possibly dangerous. The solution, both Viggiano and Highway Superintendent Jeff Winestock agree, is to move the road. The problem, of course, is moving a road is expensive, some would say especially so since it is really only beneficial to one resident. Needless to say though, every resident is important and doing something just because it benefits the greatest amount of people often results in something that is the lowest common denominator. Town Supervisor Colleen Teal said the matter would be looked into further. Councilman Newton said he and Councilman Kevin Smith—both liaisons to the Highway Department—would take a drive out there to further assess the situation.
FEMA says it has assessed a different situation—damages to roads from flooding this summer in New Lebanon as well as other parts of the State, and came to the determination that they aren’t paying for them. This is after the Town, Columbia County, and the Empire State all apparently met thresholds for getting reimbursed. One storm did some $60,000 in damage just in New Lebanon, but the Feds don’t seem to care. And even if they did care, the Town wouldn’t have seen any money for years to come. “They just paid for snow storm from two years ago,” pointed out Councilman Newton.
Closer to home, some residents apparently don’t want to pay the amount they are currently paying to fund the Town’s Library. Supervisor Teal said she had received a letter—similar to other letters from other residents—from John Nestler. His concern, which he says is shared by others, is that the Library is actually budgeted more than the fire and ambulance services. Nestler is of the belief that the library does little more than hand out books that could be download “for pennies.” Nestler isn’t alone. A lot of people in the US today feel their libraries are little more than a retro tax burden. And often these people haven’t been to their library in a while. Things have changed and often these organizations—the Stephentown library, for example–have become the cultural center of entire towns. A quick glance at New Lebanon’s library calendar shows that pretty much every day has some other activity planned which couldn’t be “downloaded for pennies.” Mitten making, reading with dogs, story hours, and even a Ukulele Group. At any rate, pointed out the Supervisor, there is nothing the Board can do about the Library’s budget. That budget is voted on in a referendum by Nestler’s fellow residents, and if they approve it the Town has to provide whatever amount of money they approve. Teal noted that residents could then petition the Library trustees to hold another vote, but even if they did so the Library doesn’t have to do anything. And if they did do something, the law oddly only allows the Library to establish the current amount again, or increase it.
“That’s madness!” said Councilman Baumli.
“Welcome to New York State,” replied the Supervisor. “Welcome to every day.”