Hugh Reynolds: New sheriff in town

For Kingstonians, this latest revelation from City Hall only adds to unusual turnover. In a little less than a year, a high-ranking police officer has been indicted for thievery, the police chief has retired, the mayor has chosen not to seek another term and the school superintendent has retired. And now this?

The operative question has to be, who’s next?

What now?

The accolades for U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who doesn’t leave until year’s end, are beginning to roll in. Some suggest a Hudson River crossing be named in his honor, specifically, the deteriorating Tappan Zee Bridge near Tarrytown, named years ago in honor of the late governor Malcolm Wilson. As a Westchester County assemblyman, Wilson advocated for the bridge and was lieutenant governor when it opened in 1955. At the time, Hinchey was a student at Saugerties High School. Bridges at Poughkeepsie and Kingston were, about 10 years ago or so, named for governors Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Clinton respectively. Roosevelt as governor and leading light in the Hudson Valley had much to do with the construction of the bridge at Poughkeepsie in 1930-32. The Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge opened in 1957, some 145 years after Clinton’s death.

If that be precedent, perhaps the Walkway Over the Hudson could be named for Hinchey. It was Hinchey, as he reminded us at his farewell address last month, who secured some $3 million in federal seed money for a project talked about for decades. No question that Hinchey’s iniative, with substantial financial support from the Dyson family of Millbrook, was pivotal. But the leading public player in what would become a $40-million project was Gov. David Paterson. In the doldrums of chronic multi-billion-dollar state deficits, Paterson had the political courage to advocate a major investment in an upstate tourism attraction that nobody knew would work. I thought Walkway administration claims of crowds of 700,000 a year were grossly inflated until I saw King Kong-sized posters for it at Grand Central Station last weekend. This is more than a regional attraction. Huzzahs for everyone involved.

Taking tolls

For my money, one way of honoring our retiring congressman would be with statues at Saugerties Exit 20 of the state Thruway, where fairly it can be said Hinchey’s public career began.

It was at Exit 20 at Milepost 101 (soon to become the 101st Assembly District he would represent for 18 years) where Navy veteran Maurice Hinchey got his start. A toll collector with large hands, Hinchey never dropped a dime, it was said. He worked the midnight shifts where he could study for courses he was taking at SUNY New Paltz. It might be that the vehicles coming and going to and from faraway places gave the future congressman the wanderlust that would mark him as one of the most traveled House members in history.

Statues (in and out) of Hinchey at Exit 20 would be most appropriate.

Spoiling for a fight

It seems like only last year we were caught up in this (county) reapportionment business and here we are again. This time, it’s for higher stakes: state and congressional redistricting.

There is a connection here, though it probably won’t be made. Ulster County, breaking with hoary and discredited tradition, established an independent citizens’ commission to reapportion its county legislature under its 2006 charter. State/federal reapportionment, will not — repeat, not — be adopted by a cynical state legislature bent solely on preserving incumbents, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a leading advocate for reform.

But at least there’s a “bipartisan” plan out there for public perusal. Public perception, from what I’ve gathered, ranges somewhere between “what?” and “ugh.” But then, the public, unlike with the Ulster County plan, will have precious little to say about this one.