Hugh Reynolds: What happened at The Chateau?

The columnist Reynolds.

For a cop to drive home somebody under the influence is probably good policy, though having some sober friend pick up the miscreant is more the rule. Cops used to do that all the time.

Fabiano’s arrest didn’t hit the media until some 17 months after the event. Again, Mr. or Ms. Sixpack would have had their names plastered all over police beat, one of the best-read sections of any publication, within days. Here, one might suspect political machinations.

As an aside, when I worked the police beat in days of yore, there were two stories people begged — begged! — to keep out of the paper: DWIs and shoplifting.

Meanwhile, Fabiano, who flip-flopped about running again, citing family health issues, is now girding his loins for a sixth election. Pawing the ground across the bull ring is Ulster town attorney Jason Kovacs. The two will face off in a Republican primary in September. Democrats declined to nominate a candidate in the heavily Republican district.

There’s been bad blood between Fabiano and Ulster’s town board. Fabiano says it’s not his fault. Town Supervisor Jim Quigley says Fabiano neglects the town which comprises about 60 percent of his legislative district. “He’s never been to a town board meeting in all the time [five and a half years] I’ve been here,” asserts the Republican supervisor. “He never returns a phone call.”

“He’s never called me, nobody on the town board has ever called me,” responded Fabiano,

Fabiano, who was unopposed for re-election two years ago, said he doesn’t attend town board meetings, but is available “anytime they have a problem that deals with the legislature.” He isn’t going to go to a town board meeting just to be introduced and then sit in a corner, he said.

Last year’s brush with the law was a sobering experience for Fabiano, a Town of Saugerties Highway Department heavy equipment operator. Fabiano said it was his only such incident and that he now drinks sparingly, due in part to blood pressure medication.

He says he no longer drinks and drives after a pop or two. “I take a cab home for five or six bucks,” he said. Cheeseburgers are apparently still on the menu.

With a heated primary in the offing, Fabiano has probably not heard the last of this incident.