Jackbooted thugs
Longtime public access television producer and frequent meeting attendee Randi Steele decried the way drug task force members handled the August 8 arrest of locally famous resident Grandpa Woodstock, whose real name is Allyn Richardson. Steele urged the Town Board to follow the lead of Kingston and Saugerties, who saw fit to pull out of the organization known as Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement and Narotics Team, or URGENT. She said Kingston and Saugerties learned they were better off handling such arrests in-house.
Richardson is facing several felony drug charges after URGENT, acting on complaints, made several undercover buys then executed a search warrant Friday afternoon. Detectives found quantities of narcotics, marijuana, scales and other paraphernalia.
“Jackbooted thugs entered and ransacked a property here in town,” Steele said, and the town allowed it because of its membership in URGENT. Now, Richardson’s wife, Estar, a woman in her 90s, is “without her spouse and having to depend on other people,” Steele said.
Unfunded mandate
The Town Board approved an agreement with Munistat to provide annual financial statements required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. While required, Wilber deems it an unnecessary expense.
Municipalities must file a document so “people who are bidding on your bond know who you are, what your rating is, all the pertinent facts about you,” Wilber explained.
What has changed is that document now must be filed every year.
“It’s so the people who are holding your note, I guess are kept up to date on the status of who you are and how safe your money is, etc,” Wilber said,
“I just want to make clear that this had nothing to do with the town’s rating, which is still a superior rating, and has been for the last three years at least if not longer,” he added.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s just to me, a waste of money, because if somebody’s already holding the note, I don’t know what this new information can really do for them.”
The fee for this documentation service is normally $2,500, but Wilber talked them down to $1,500.
Watch out for that tree
A large tree located at 45 Tinker Street near Vidakafka is dead and poses great risk of falling down, so the Town Board has authorized the property owner to hire a professional and remove it.
Planning fee waived for church
The board voted to waive the $99 final development fee for a project at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church on Route 212.
The church has already obtained a special use permit [to build a columbarium, which is a building to store the urns of cremated remains. The church] has paid a $100 application fee and has agreed to pay the building permit fee.
The board waived the development fee because the church garden is open to the public and the church hosts classes, cultural events, 12-step programs, a soup kitchen and food pantry, all open to the public.
The board also accepted the resignation of Laurel Herdman from the Zoning Board of Appeals and has authorized Earley to advertise the vacancy.
Patrick Acker was named permanent recreation director effective July 17. Acker needed to first pass a civil service exam before becoming permanent director.
The board also named Jay Cohen and Ed Sanders to the Tree Committee.
