New Lebanon Budget Is Approved
by Thaddeus Flint
The Town of New Lebanon adopted its 2019 budget at the November 13 Board meeting, with a modest tax increase of 1.5%.
The total with Town, Highway, Library, and the ambulance service to be added on to the Colombia County tax bill is $1,231,936, an increase of $21,082 over 2018. The Town’s portion of the budget is actually decreasing $36,250 to $864,128, as is the Highway Department’s, by $8,347 to $711,819. The Library will remain the same at $135,000. The LVPA appropriations will increase by $92,140. However, the Fire Department’s budget had been $220K in the years 2014, 2015, and 2016, before dropping to $108K in 2017 and $67K in 2018. The money needed to pay these amounts will be $673,300 coming from Revenues, $136,650 from Unexpended Balance, and $1,058,497 from Taxes. Residents grumbling about all those taxes should remember that the Tax portion of the 2014 budget was $1,269,060 for a budget that was $190K higher than next year’s will be.
Chatham Rescue Squad (CRS) will cost residents $173,439 in 2019, an increase of $5,439 over 2018’s bill. However, that amount is projected to fall by $21,670 in 2020, and continue dropping, with 2022 down to $108,431. In 2016 and 2017 that number was $191,931. Supervisor Colleen Teal noted in response to resident queries that Town-wide CRS response times average 10 minutes. While that might seem fine to some (and considering Albany’s average ambulance time is 9 minutes), for those in the throes of a heart attack or stroke, it might be a bit more than all their time left in the world. Residents expecting the unexpected might want to pre-plan their unplanned medical emergencies accordingly.
In other news, resident Robert Lindig appeared before the Board to let them know he is currently in the process of cleaning up his collection of aged automobiles on Lovers Lane. The Town has been insistent lately that the property there be brought into compliance after years of nobody insisting anything be done at all. “We aren’t doing that anymore,” said the Supervisor. Businesses with out-of-compliance signs along the Routes 20 and 22 corridor would probably attest to the accuracy of that statement as New Lebanon continues its task of tidying under Teal’s administration. Lindig’s tidying, however, is being slowed by mud and snow. “I’m doing the best I can,” he said, but 50 years of accumulating isn’t going to happen overnight. Not that New Lebanon is asking it to be done by morning. The Board would though like something in writing saying that by March real efforts will be underway. Lindig agreed to such an agreement and the matter will be followed up on by the Town’s CEO and ZEO, Cissy Hernandez.
In other Zoning matters, the Town’s Highway Superintendent, Jeff Winestock, isn’t all that impressed with the traffic routing at the new Stewart’s Shop currently under construction across the road from the old Stewart’s shop. “I think you will be seeing a lot of accidents,” predicted Winestock, who feels the size of the curb cuts is too small to let large trucks enter and exit the property safely. The general unspoken consensus of the room seemed to be that once again the meddlesome NYSDOT meddled with something in such a way as to render it unfit for reality. Never mind tanker trucks trying to get in and out of the parking lot, but has NYSDOT ever watched how the average Stewart’s customers get in and out of the parking lot? They pretty much do it any way they feel like. Planning separate in and out conduits, which might look nice on paper, probably won’t work all that well in real life. The Highway Superintendent branded the outcome of such planning “a shame.”
Winestock also voiced his yearly message to the Town as it enters the winter season. No, it wasn’t some message of peace-on-earth or other such unachievable malarkey. His message was much simpler and infinitely more achievable: “Stop plowing snow into the road.” There is a famous saying pretty much nobody has ever heard of by the writer P.J. O’Rourke which goes: “Everybody wants to save the Earth, but nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.” Some take this as meaning: start with the little things around you and the world will be a better place bit by bit, although Moms might prefer the alternate meaning of : “Get off that couch and help me with these dishes.” The point is that it should be so simple to improve life but simple people keep messing it up. Why does the Highway Superintendent need to ask the same thing year after year? This isn’t a pack of rogue four-year-olds out there shoveling snow onto the highways as part of a daily program of hijinks. These are supposedly rational adults out there using big machines to keep their driveway’s spick and span with little care for anyone else around them. It’s illegal, dangerous, and just not nice. Highway workers have feelings too, you know. How depressing then to finish a treacherous night of keeping the roads clear only to find their work sullied by a few self-centered nitwits with snowplows. Also, get your dumpster off the road, added Winestock. This is a new message but the illogical trend of decorating the ends of driveways with big heavy garbage receptacles that could kill someone is becoming all the vogue lately. “They shouldn’t be there,” he said with seemingly little belief that the rogue four-year-olds who must have put them there would heed his message.
Announcements:
• Town Clerk Tistrya Houghtling is organizing the 3rd annual Holiday Gift Drive. Families in need can contact Houghtling with ideas of what their children might want. Those who would like to donate gifts, or money, are also encouraged to contact the Town Clerk as well. Last year over 80 children in New Lebanon had a happier Christmas as the result of resident’s generosity.
• The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) for the 2018-19 season has been accepting applications since November 13, 2018. Applications and information became available at the New Lebanon Town Clerk’s Office starting on November 14.
• Residents lacking anything better to do–or trying to avoid helping Mom with the dishes–might want to wander over to Shatford Park and check out the latest updates at the Pavilion. According to Councilman Kevin Smith, the “new sidewalks are awesome!”