Many Topics For The Town Board To Digest
by Michelle Van Horn
Four test results for PFOS & PFOA at the former town landfill on Old Post Road have come back, with all four having negative results. DEC offered testing to a total of eighteen properties that landed within a few miles downstream of the landfill. Seven residents never called back, while one property owner was deceased and no one came forward who owned the property to answer the request for water testing. One resident declined the test entirely. A total of ten residents said yes to testing and informing the town of their results. The residents and town of New Lebanon awaits the results of the final six.
Closing the old landfill was the next natural progression of discussion, with questions being raised as to why Columbia County has not financially supported this effort. The county has supported other municipalities to close landfills due to PFOS/A issues in the past, but they were on public land and New Lebanon’s landfill is on private land.
Town Policy Review/-Evaluations/Compensation Policy
Town employee positions are getting an end of Summer/early Fall cleansing, with a review of the New Lebanon Town Policy underway. Job descriptions are being eked out, with squeaky-clean, clearly-defined roles and responsibilities, as well as performance-based evaluations. Defining job descriptions maintain clarity about what is expected from each employee, and salaries and/or hourly rates are then appropriately applied to each position. Council members deliberated over the importance of town employee positions being evaluated, especially since a department head and town board member expressed interest in opting out of said review. Council member Jesse Newton believes that bureaucratic evaluations for town employees may be “overkill for a small town,” especially since most employees know one another and work closely with each other. Newton maintains that a focus on employer-employee relations, given the small-town dynamic, are more important and more effective than office politics. Newton’s sentiment is shared with NL’s Superintendent of Highways Jeffrey Winestock, and moreover, Winestock believes evaluations are unnecessary, uncomfortable, and make more work with unyielding results. Both Newton and Winestock relate to the uncomfortable nature of giving a review to people you work with so closely, on a daily basis, and for some for the past 30 years. Both opposers agree that the small-town feel and persona is lost with town employee evaluations. On the pro-evaluations side, Council member Rasmussen spoke to his understanding of the purpose of employee evaluations, and most board members were on board with his conclusion. In order of importance: #1-Evaluations seek to inform employers/town about and improve upon employees’ performance so that the employee may ultimately improve upon what they bring to the residents/customers that they serve, first and foremost. #2-Evaluations describe what the employee does well (defines what you want the employee to keep doing), and in what areas the employee needs improvement (so the employee can make positive adjustments). And lastly #3-Based upon these evaluations, a performance-related raise to wages may be applied. Council member John Trainor opined that town employees are given more consistency with said evaluation, since certain town positions turn over every few years, and new ideas may change expectations of employee roles. In addition, he pointed out that employees were offered an incentive to improve upon their performance for the potential of a raise, and that employees who needed to improve in certain areas were more likely to do so with the expectation of receiving another review in six months, hence maintaining a high standard of service given to residence/customers. Superintendent Tistrya Houghtling expressed her experience with receiving positive feedback from town employees about receiving evaluations with similar sentiments-that employees had a base-level understanding of where they stood in the eyes of their employer, with options to excel in their position with performance-based evaluations. Councilmember Deb Gordon stated, “I am not a fan of bureaucracy,” however, that doesn’t stop her vote in the direction of pro-evaluations, since they seek to ensure pertinent information about the town’s worker’s performance, for employees and the town alike. It is each department head’s job to evaluate employees within their department, and as of now, the majority of board members agree that this evaluation remains mandatory for all town workers. A motion to maintain New Lebanon’s 2018’s Town policy regarding evaluations has been passed.
Starting rates for town positions are also under review, with rates mostly going up, as a few go down. Current town employees will not be affected by any position’s rate change. The Policy Compensation Resolution was made back in March 2020, and further resolutions are slated to take place in the coming months.
Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs
The temporary sign allowance for local businesses due to struggles during COVID-19 times is being extended to October 20 instead of ending next week. As of last month’s meeting, each business was able to have 2 additional signs of lesser value of material than the standard sign law requires, though still maintaining the sign law’s size and dimension requirements. It is reported that some businesses are on the brink of closing, and it’s the extra, temporary signage that informs and inspires customers’ patronage. While some residents feel engulfed with extra, flamboyant signage (mention of feather flags came up-perhaps against signage law rules) Superintendent Houghtling is on the bandwagon for supporting more signage if it means saving local businesses. Signage matters for small businesses, especially in plazas where there is more than one store competing for your time and business. Having a few extra signs ups the probability of enticing the customer with possible pertinent information they wanted or needed to know, like Houghtling mentioned, the special of the day.
A full business listing has been collected and many rounds of email blasts have ensued, and some business owners need to be reached by other means, like phone, mail, or in-person. An effort is being made to reach out to missing owners.
And, after all the work put into creating and maintaining the sign laws, perhaps the sign law needs to be revisited.
Town Board Safety Plan
The adoption of the Town Board Safety Plan has been mandated by the state for all town employees to take the training for the new safety plan. This training is available online and in-person. Most employees, though not all, have taken the training. It has been advised that the town set a deadline for employees who need to take the training even if the town employee does not come to in-person meetings. One suggestion was to put the training information on NL’s Facebook page, as well as the town’s website. A point was made that many people are not computer-savvy, and to this end, Superintendent Houghtling offered to meet anyone in person who may need the Safety Plan training, even drive to their homes to support the cause. The deadline for the training, which consists of going over the document, is August 31.
Business & Economic Development
A few subcommittees recognized a need to make changes to the previous names to meet the tasks each particular subcommittee is charged to reach. The Communications subcommittee is now Marketing & Outreach, and that committee feels strongly about consistent town branding and plan to move forward with creating branding ideas to present to the town. Council member Gordon requested that this branding be reflective of the community as much as possible, and council member Newton requested that the freshly jazzed up town seal be incorporated in branding ideas.
The former Beautification subcommittee is now known as Community Appearance & Design. This subcommittee desires to create a design competition project with the help of Chatham architect Zachary Pearson who is willing to volunteer his time. The Community Appearance & Design subcommittee will focus on learning about and creating the perimeters of a design challenge.
The Historical Focus subcommittee wants to continue moving forward with the Hometown Heroes project, with banners that commemorate both modern-day and historical veterans alike.
In addition to taking the time to honor our Vets, maybe traffic will slow down a little, too.
The Food subcommittee believes that New Lebanon’s farmers market is on precarious footing. Their request is to form a proposal of town sponsorship. Chair Monte Wasch is concerned that there may not be a farmers market next year if the town does not step in with sponsorship or funding. Superintendent Houghtling reminded Wasch that the town board has been in the works of moving forward toward some form of support to the farmers market and will continue to do so.
In addition, New Lebanon school district community food giveaway will cease its distribution of food when the school year starts back. More than 100 families have been given food during this biweekly event, and those still in need will be out of support. 15-20 volunteers are needed to continue to distribute food, and the town is offering property to keep the program going. The next date for the community food giveaway is Monday, August 24 at 8 am.
Climate Smart Task Force
Talk of composting at the community garden, farmers market and town hall is requested from the Climate Smart Task Force since food waste creates greenhouse gases when wastes do not have adequate ventilation and can’t be properly broken down in landfills, and the act of composting is carbon-neutral. In addition to agreeing to allow compost bins, Council member Newton offered to find low-cost compost bins to sell from his Country Squire hardware store to anyone interested in beginning to compost. Superintendent Houghtling was interested in keeping big box mega-companies off the list of suppliers on a poster created to inform residents about composting. The Task Force was approved to move forward on the poster.