Hugh Reynolds: Four-year hangover

The columnist Reynolds.

The minimum for countywide office is 1,000 valid signatures from among the county’s 37,367 enrolled Democrats.

No dice

The operators of resorts in Kerhonkson find themselves between a rock and a hard place in their quest to win state approval for video display terminals at their resorts. The rock is state Sen. John Bonacic, their representative, who says he will not support VLTs (high-tech slot machines) anywhere until (if then) casino gambling is up and running. The hard place is Ulster County, where virtually any kind of economic development except bottling plants and mountain megaresorts would be welcomed in most places.

It has been documented that Bonacic, as chairman of the state Senate committee on racing and wagering, took some $80,000 in donations from casino interests during this year’s round of site selection. We all understand, of course, that campaign contributions do not influence the decisions of state legislators, so why do legislators spend half their time in Albany at campaign fundraisers? It’s because they like Swedish meatballs! Basket-case Sullivan County, also in Bonacic’s district, got a casino, which will no doubt draw some traffic from the Kerhonkson resorts.

The Ulster legislature has twice backed VLTs in Kerhonkson.

And finally …

Condolences to the family, many friends and constituents of Esopus Town Supervisor John Coutant, 69, who died suddenly last week at the HealthAlliance Kingston campus.

Coutant was as dedicated to his town as anyone I’ve covered, and not just to stack up votes for the next election. He usually ran without opposition, in any event.

He was a progressive in a town where progress is measured in decades. Building a new town hall to replace the former aptly named “dance hall” on Broadway, a new hall complete with solar power and the latest green amenities, was one of his crowning achievements.

He was very much a man in the moment, attending any gathering of three or more townsfolk, but also one who looked far to the future. A hands-on leader, Coutant even waded into the Hudson to cut invading water chestnuts. One of his last public statements was how the town could be energy-neutral in 20 years by extending solar power to the town garage and other offices.

Over breakfast at the Port Ewen Diner on Sunday morning, friends and neighbors referred to their departed leader as “a good man” and “indispensable.” “There won’t be another like him,” said Port Ewen funeral director Harry VanVliet IV, like so many an old friend.

Coutant was waked to long lines at Leahy Funeral Home in Kingston, which served the family when his wife and daughter died.

There is a nascent movement afoot to name the new town hall after the departed supervisor, reminiscent of when T.R. Gallo died suddenly in office 13 years ago. After sober reflection, Gallo, who restored City Hall, got a pocket park at the foot of Broadway named in his honor. John Coutant deserves at least as much.