What would be your strategy for funding replacement of the town pool?
We’ve had some proposed bids from $900 thousand up to $1.4 million. If we were to put a referendum on the ballot to replace the town pool, I’m afraid that it would be voted down, because there’s people in this town that are struggling to pay their taxes. The momentum would be lost if we put it on the ballot.
Since we closed the pool down these last two seasons, we’ve got a great bunch of people out there doing small fundraisers on a daily basis; collectively they’ve all added up. We also have opportunities for some grants, through the state and through some private entities. It might take another year to secure the funding and it’d be a year of construction after that, but at some point we will have a new pool here. It’s necessary, because that pool is the crown jewel of this park and this park is the envy of most people in the county.
What do you see as the top three greatest challenges facing the Town of Rosendale right now?
1) When you sit on the board, no matter what the issue is — whether that be the development of the Williams Lake property or debating whether we should have a new pool or whether we should put a stop sign on a road — one of the challenges is to try to create consensus. The only way you can do that effectively is to be honest and communicate with the people and ultimately you have to make that decision. But you also have to listen in between and that’s always a challenge, because there’s always going to be someone who says, “Yeah, but not that way — how about this?” At the end of the day I think we get it right.
2) One of the big challenges we have as a board — and Jeanne specifically, as our chief financial officer — is that we can’t exceed the two percent tax cap unless we vote to override. We did that last year, only because there are certain things that we have no control of, like retirement and medical costs.
3) Another challenge is putting our budget together at the end of the year. We’ve got a great bunch of people that work for this town and just like anybody else, they want to get a decent and fair raise. But we have to balance that decision with the people who are struggling to pay their taxes. So when we have to decide on raises for the employees outside of the collective bargaining departments, it always becomes a struggle to make the right choice — to come to that agreement that we can justify to the general public.
If elected, what would be your top three priorities?
1) To see Williams Lake through and see actual construction up there. It’s not a done deal, but I think the project has moved to the point where it is going to happen. I just hope to see it come to fruition — at least a significant start within my term.
2) To see those infrastructure issues through — specifically here in the village with the water and sewer issues that we have. Some of the major problems that we’ve had with the water/sewer districts in the past required significant infrastructure upgrades, and the district just doesn’t have the money. I’d like to get it to the point where we’re not constantly worrying about a breakdown. Over the years, because of the small size of the district and the cash flow or lack thereof, it’s been so easy to say, “Wait till next year.” But sometimes when you do that, it ends up costing more for the total retrofit or to get it back online.
3) To find a new home for our wonderful Farmers’ Market. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission provided the money for the Rec Center property in 1975 and one of the preconditions was that it can only be used for recreational purposes. The state has determined that, because our Farmers’ Market is here every Sunday from 9 until 2, and vendors are making money, it’s a non-accepted use. Nobody’s happy about it — not the vendors, not the organizers of the market and certainly not this Town Board. However, we have to comply, because that’s tied with the potential of grants for our pool. We need to find a permanent home for them and we need to do it rather quickly. This outdoor market is going to come to an end in October and the vendors want a commitment for next year in order to make their long-term plans. It’s important to find a place as soon as possible, right here in town and preferably on the Route 32 corridor.
Bill Dietz III (R)
Why did you decide to run for office?
As I get older, I wanted to be more active politically in the town. Instead of complaining about all the decisions that I feel are not very good decisions, I wanted to have a voice in those decisions, actually do something about it. We have 50 acres behind here that my brothers and sisters and I own and the amount of hoops that you have to jump through just makes it so difficult for any kind of progress. I’m still a very busy person, but with my son now involved in my tree business, I have a little more time to be active in the community.
What positions/experiences/skills do you believe will make you a competent Town Board member?
My biggest asset is common sense. I’ve been in the family business for almost 40 years now, so I have a lot of experience dealing with people and solving the problems that arise during the day. I’m a good people person. I can look at things objectively and make a responsible, reasonable solution.
This will be my first political position. As far as volunteer work, I unofficially maintain the rail trail that runs behind my house. Whenever there’s tree that falls out of the woods across it, I always go down and get the trail opened up. No one asks me to; I just do it on my own.
Do/did you support the creation of a special category of zoning for the Williams Lake Project? Would you support a PILOT agreement for Hudson River Valley Resorts, if they request it?
I was all for Williams Lake. That was one of the major things that made me want to run: the amount of stuff that they put those poor people through, in a situation where it was already a resort for 80 years. Every situation has to be looked at responsibly, obviously, with any type of development. They just want to make some changes to it and make it better — as long as it’s done responsibly, which I believe they have. They have a good plan. I don’t understand why people are so opposed to it, except for the fact that generally people do not like change.
I would want to know what the guidelines were for a PILOT agreement. To get any kind of growth in this town, people need to be given some kind of incentive to build — within reason. Any start-up business is always tough in the first couple of years. With that said, there are situations that get grossly taken advantage of.
What’s your vision of how Rosendale should be developed in the future?
Other than a handful of new businesses, Rosendale hasn’t changed since the last bag of cement left the town. Some people, I realize, like that aspect. But at the same time, a little bit of growth would help alleviate the tax burden on people.
How do you plan to address long-term infrastructure needs like water system repairs and upgrades?
There should be some type of structured plan over the next five or six years to update the infrastructure. It’s 100 years old. That stuff has to be maintained and updated and repaired and fixed — that’s a no-brainer.
What would be your strategy for funding replacement of the town pool?
That’s a tough one, because it’s a very expensive project. Fundraisers are good, but they don’t really generate a lot of money and they cost a lot of money to do. That’s a million-dollar question right there. The pool is a huge asset to the town. There’s a lot of people who use that and enjoy it. I don’t know what would be a good strategy, as far as repairing that.
What do you see as the top three greatest challenges facing the Town of Rosendale right now?
1) I would put the pool at Number One.
2) Getting the Williams Lake thing done and settled.
3) To bring more business into Rosendale. We used to have a bank, a hardware store; now we don’t have any. We have a grocery store, but for many years it was closed. The whole town is slowly eroding away. With the amount of red tape that’s involved in doing anything, it’s so expensive, people don’t really want to open a business. So I would say responsible development.
If elected, what would be your top three priorities?
1) We don’t have a million dollars to fix the pool, so that’s going to have to be figured out at a later date.
2) I’d like to see a bank come back into the town; I’d like to see a hardware store or a drugstore. It would create jobs for the people of Rosendale. It would increase the tax base, which ultimately could take care of a lot of situations like the infrastructure, like the pool. It would certainly help. To let all these businesses just leave… Where the hardware store used to be, it used to be a commercial, taxable piece of property and now it’s a vacant lot.
3) Without the infrastructure you don’t really have anything, so I would say that infrastructure would be the third thing.
