Leifeld answers
Speaking for his administration, including the new candidate running to keep Olive’s longstanding Democratic majority, Leifeld began his answers to the current election issues with a stare and a statement.
“It just doesn’t end anymore,” he says, jumbling in the world of e-mails and blogging with the constant letters and comments he gets at meetings these days.
Getting more specific, he noted how the town has hired a disaster management consulting firm to help them wade through FEMA requirements for local reimbursals, including the cost of the consultancy and the cleaning up of local streams of remaining trees and other encumbrances.
He said that Watson Hollow Road is now passable to the county line in Peekamoose, then added that things are moving “as quickly as government moves,” while his critics are “comparing our town to our sister town up Route 28 who had a little jumpstart on us regarding these floods.”
Explaining what he meant, Leifeld said that Shandaken, by having started work on getting approvals to clean out Stony Clove Creek two years ago was better prepared for what happened in late August. Add in the damage they sustained, and accompanying press conferences, and “they had an advantage.”
As for the Comp Plan, Leifeld said he has simply “put that on the back burner for the foreseeable future. We’ve got to deal with all this other stuff now. There are a lot more items we need to pay for before getting back to that.”
The regs themselves, he added, “ended up being about as vague as you can get. We were well on the way with that process until all hell broke loose…”
Finally, we asked Leifeld about the campaign he and his fellow Democratic candidates plan to run this year.
(Calls and e-mails to Johansen, Friedel, Winne and VanBuren went unanswered, or responded to with aforementioned issue dialogues, as of press time.)
“I’m just going to do what I’ve always done here,” he said. “It seems to have been successful in the past.”
We asked how, after so many years, so many opponents, so many elections, he was gauging this year’s, coming to a head on Tuesday, November 8.
He started answering by noting how this was an “off year” regarding local elections, without races for the town clerk or highway superintendent slots.
Then he said how “hopefully we will survive, for the town’s sake.”
Finally, he summed things up, at least from his hardened perspective.
“They keep talking about change but from what I see, it’s the same candidates opposing, the exact same faces,” he said, noting how Johansen ran against him in 2007 and Van Buren ran for office two years ago. “You don’t really want to hear my characterization of it beyond that…”++
All Olive candidates will come forth for a Meet the Candidates event being moderated by the League of Women Voters, and sponsored by Watershed Post, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 22, at the town meeting hall on Bostock Road in Shokan.
You likely attended the standing-room-only Town Board meeting in Olive this past Thursday (the 13th). The attendees were 50-70% registered Democrats. I was only able to attend for about 20 minutes. The mood in Olive is one of frustration and anger, in part because of Berndt Leifeld’s continued arrogance. The Town Board members have changed their story about the use of special reserve funds AFTER I e-mailed them with some research that showed that such funds can be terminated or reduced. They now say they’ve said that the SRFs can be terminated all along, which as I told them, simply is untrue. I was unable to attend the full meeting, but I don’t think Olive will see business as usual in the next few years even if this year’s election still goes to Leifeld, et al. The prospects for Johansen and van Buren are much better than two years ago. A lot of newcomers to the area with whom I’ve spoken (not Republicans) are very upset with the Leifeld administration.
My family has lived here for many years, and this is the first that we are starting to think about leaving the Town of Olive. My Dad is age 78 and his school taxes increased by $1000.00 this year alone!
The town’s residents are hurting, and especially the seniors.
We don’t want big government here in the Town of Olive. To me, some of the town’s leadership seems to be walking lockstep with the tax & spend Washington gang. We want our freedoms preserved, and not squandered away.
Thank God for reasonable and intelligent voices like Michael Langbert. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Michael earlier this year, and our town is blessed to have him here with us.
And by the way, we don’t want or need a comprehensive plan! Many of us were taken aback by the perceived secrecy in which this plan was created. Bottom line – do not adopt this thing! Get rid of it.
Some on the Town Board have indicated that such a plan is needed so that we can secure grant monies. Well, allow me to point out two things – remember that where the money flows, there flows control. Grants can have strings attached. As far as I am concerned let big government keep their grants. And second, if the town leadership really wanted some extra money, why did Supervisor Leifeld NOT declare a state of emergency in this town when Tropical Storm Irene devastated our area? Something does not add up – at least to me.
Respectfully yours,