In terms of local races this year, there are a few that are noteworthy, such as Bob LaPietra and his (so far) ill-fated quest to win a seat on the Cobleskill Village Board of Trustees. Then there’s four guys vying for two council seats in the Town of Richmondville, and another Town Council election in Wright, but who the hell cares about that?
To all of these candidates who would assume office and serve as your local representatives, I have but one question that I would put out to each of you: what is the name of the mental illness that would make you want to have anything to do with local politics in this county? On second thought, comparing aspirants to political office with the mentally ill is a pretty harsh insult to the mentally ill.
But seriously folks, who are these people and what drives them to run for public office? In the case of Bob LaPietra, it is most likely sheer egotism. The man already behaves as if the laws of the earthly realm do not apply to him. How he must have sinisterly guffawed for two years straight as he continued to rent out his illegal and unsafe apartments to stupid college kids while village officials scrambled in futility to stop him. Meanwhile, Cobleskill’s absentee slumlords come out of the woodwork to cry foul when the Village attempts to require annual apartment inspections, and unsurprisingly your fearless leaders on the Village Board cave in like a termite-ravaged shack.
The problem in the Village of Cobleskill is that the incumbent (Carol McGuire) does little to inspire. However, her challenger is a crazed madman and perhaps a felon, and those are his good qualities! When it comes to LaPietra’s politics, his attacks on village officials (and in particular Carol McGuire) are largely of a piece with those of Mark Galasso, who regards the concept of Downtown revitalization with unmasked derision. Both Galasso and LaPietra call for a rapid dissolution of the Village, despite the fact that other options presented by the CGR study would leave Cobleskill far better off. Instead, Bob LaPietra (along with what would be a majority of Galasso and Sellers) is supporting a mad rush to eliminate the Village. The main result of such an action would be that Cobleskill’s infrastructure would essentially be up for grabs, a move supported by Galasso because he is a blindly greedy developer and wants to have at it, and most likely supported by Sellers because he has proven inept at handling the complex issue successfully, preferring now a solution that would take the matter out of his hands completely. LaPietra would just like to see Carol McGuire out of a job.
Linda Holmes, the third candidate for Village Trustee is just a nice old lady who serves on the Village’s recreation commission. While I confess that I do not find this crop of candidates to be the most compelling, I will lay out my endorsements nonetheless. For Cobleskill Trustee: Linda Holmes and Carol McGuire. I say McGuire because she has been a steady opponent of the attempts by Galasso and Sellers to move toward consolidation, urging more careful consideration instead. I pick Linda Holmes as choice number two, because as I’ve just stated, she is a nice old lady, and who doesn’t want to vote for a nice old lady?
Now on to Richmondville. Here four candidates are vying for two town council seats. Why any sane resident of the Town of Richmondville would want to serve on this Board is beyond my comprehension. From the few Town Board meetings I have attended, the job description of a Richmondville Town Board member seems to mainly consist of sitting slack-jawed behind a fold-out table, as angry resident after angry resident takes out all of their worldly frustrations on you. For some reason, Richmondville seems to have a disproportionate number of malcontents. Whether they are frothing over property tax assessments, the evils of wind turbines or the pitiful state of Romania’s Olympic gymnastics team, they can expect Town Board members to show up dutifully every month to serve as whipping boys.
One incumbent, Dennis Handy, apparently has better things to do and decided not to run, good for him. The other incumbent up for re-election, Dick Lape, probably didn’t want to run and probably was relieved when the Republican Party couldn’t manage to hold a caucus. However, he must have had a change of heart as he is now mounting a write-in campaign to stay on in his current position. Write in Dick Lape? Who in their right mind would bother?
Also in the running is newcomer Bob Johnson. Johnson is a registered republican, but because there was no nominating caucus, he is running as an independent on his own “Common Sense” ballot line. The first rat to be smelled with regards to Johnson is that if he had a lick of common sense he wouldn’t want to be a Town Board member in the first place. The second problem is that he is largely a one-issue candidate, backed by the infamous Bob Nied and Schoharie Valley Watch and the rest of the anti-windmill NIMBYs. Johnson is the husband of Kathleen Johnson, who you will recall, accused a man of stalking her at a recent wind power forum at SUNY Cobleskill because he had the audacity to stand up from his seat the same time she did, AFTER the presentation was over. These are people who persistently harangue Town officials but cry foul and see intimidation tactics the minute somebody talks over them.
Then there are the Democratic candidates, Scott Bennett and Vern Hall. Vern Hall has plenty of experience taking abuse from irate residents as a member of the Board of Assessment Review. On one occasion, I think I saw him snap back at a critic, getting a tad nasty and personal in the process. Needless to say, that secured my endorsement. Of course Hall is also a supporter of alternative energy and has worked as an alternative energy consultant, according to the Times Journal. I would much rather have an energy expert on the board then some NIMBY who will indiscriminately oppose anything that might lower his/her property value. Scott Bennett is the other candidate for Town Council. Bennett is President of the Richmondville Volunteer Emergency Squad and seems to bring a level-headed approach to issues of alternative energy and tax assessments.
Both Bennett and Hall would bring a welcome change to the Town Board. Johnson would continue the rancor and divisiveness while Lape would likely just continue sitting there slack-jawed.
In case you forgot there are other state and national contests to be decided on Tuesday as well. Democrat Don Barber is challenging long-time incumbent Jim Seward for a seat in the State Senate. Seward has been a staunch opponent of meaningful healthcare reform via his seat as Chair of the Senate Healthcare Committee. Seward has taken huge sums of money from insurance companies to block any legislation that would extend coverage to New Yorkers. Don Barber on the other hand is a farmer and long-time Town Supervisor from Caroline, New York. He is a supporter of growing our local economies, green energy and providing better healthcare opportunities for New Yorkers. I support Don Barber for Senate; it’s time for Seward to go.
For Congress, Paul Tonko, a democrat is running against Republican Jim Buhrmaster for the seat being vacated by Democrat Mike McNulty. Because Tonko is a shoe-in, I’ll spare you all the re-hashing of how he has been a tireless advocate for Upstate’s communities and alternative energy and all that. Tonko gets my vote, easily.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Secretive Setback Committee Praised by Schoharie Valley Watch
At this October’s monthly Town Board meeting, Richmondville town councilman voted 3-2 to adopt the recommendations of the town’s wind turbine setback committee which suggested a minimum setback of 1500 feet for any wind turbines sited in the town.
Such a large setback requirement could potentially make Reunion Power’s proposed wind farm development in Richmondville unfeasible, which is why Bob Nied and Don Airey, co-directors of the anti-wind turbine group Schoharie Valley Watch are praising this decision by the Town Board.
Yet Nied and Airey’s own criticism of the town Setback Committee and its secretive methods casts doubt on the validity of the recommended 1500 foot setbacks. The groups’ own website contains posts which accuse the setback committee of meeting in private and conducting research and making decisions without public input, and perhaps most seriously, that they have done this in violation of New York State law. But apparently all that is okay now that SVW is happy with the committee’s final recommendation.
When it comes to using zoning powers to prevent a particular land use, the law is clear. There must be a compelling reason having do with the protection of the public’s health, safety and welfare. Concerns about potentially diminished views and decreasing property values, while perhaps compelling on a political level, are simply not applicable. Neither is a general atmosphere of vocal opposition to the development of wind power facilities, which many town officials would understandably want to placate.
This is why the setback committee’s secretive behavior creates a cloud of suspicion over their 1500 foot recommendation. Without an open and above-board process, the committee’s findings lack the evidentiary support and public input required to use local zoning powers to prevent the construction of wind turbines. Instead, it appears that the committee has chosen to knuckle under to a small but sufficiently irritating group of residents opposed to wind turbines.
It is important to bear in mind that while opponents of wind power development claimed that they only wanted to slow down the process, and do more research, and find out more information, their ultimate aim was to drop Reunion Power’s plans in a shallow grave, regardless of the facts involved. This is why wind power critics have held repeated public temper tantrums and stormed out of meetings. When these tactics did not satisfy, they resorted to issuing laughable legal threats. It is understandable that town officials wanted to a setback requirement that would make this issue go away. However, if anything, it is Reunion Power who now has a potentially actionable grievance in being denied their right to due process by a clandestine setback committee who thought they could make a tough issue go away by issuing an arbitrarily strict setback requirement.
Put simply, that there are a handful of angry and vocal residents living near the proposed wind turbines who don’t want their views diminished or their property values affected, does not justify an arbitrary and baseless misuse of the town’s zoning powers. Though I have disagreed with SVW on numerous points, I have always supported their calls for open and transparent government. I hope they will continue to hold town officials’ feet to the fire, regardless of the fact that they have found the setback committee’s final recommendations favorable to their agenda. If SVW continues to praise the recommendations of the setback committee, whose own methods they have criticized in the past, it puts the lie to every lofty claim that SVW has made regarding the necessity of upholding the law and respecting the democratic process.
Such a large setback requirement could potentially make Reunion Power’s proposed wind farm development in Richmondville unfeasible, which is why Bob Nied and Don Airey, co-directors of the anti-wind turbine group Schoharie Valley Watch are praising this decision by the Town Board.
Yet Nied and Airey’s own criticism of the town Setback Committee and its secretive methods casts doubt on the validity of the recommended 1500 foot setbacks. The groups’ own website contains posts which accuse the setback committee of meeting in private and conducting research and making decisions without public input, and perhaps most seriously, that they have done this in violation of New York State law. But apparently all that is okay now that SVW is happy with the committee’s final recommendation.
When it comes to using zoning powers to prevent a particular land use, the law is clear. There must be a compelling reason having do with the protection of the public’s health, safety and welfare. Concerns about potentially diminished views and decreasing property values, while perhaps compelling on a political level, are simply not applicable. Neither is a general atmosphere of vocal opposition to the development of wind power facilities, which many town officials would understandably want to placate.
This is why the setback committee’s secretive behavior creates a cloud of suspicion over their 1500 foot recommendation. Without an open and above-board process, the committee’s findings lack the evidentiary support and public input required to use local zoning powers to prevent the construction of wind turbines. Instead, it appears that the committee has chosen to knuckle under to a small but sufficiently irritating group of residents opposed to wind turbines.
It is important to bear in mind that while opponents of wind power development claimed that they only wanted to slow down the process, and do more research, and find out more information, their ultimate aim was to drop Reunion Power’s plans in a shallow grave, regardless of the facts involved. This is why wind power critics have held repeated public temper tantrums and stormed out of meetings. When these tactics did not satisfy, they resorted to issuing laughable legal threats. It is understandable that town officials wanted to a setback requirement that would make this issue go away. However, if anything, it is Reunion Power who now has a potentially actionable grievance in being denied their right to due process by a clandestine setback committee who thought they could make a tough issue go away by issuing an arbitrarily strict setback requirement.
Put simply, that there are a handful of angry and vocal residents living near the proposed wind turbines who don’t want their views diminished or their property values affected, does not justify an arbitrary and baseless misuse of the town’s zoning powers. Though I have disagreed with SVW on numerous points, I have always supported their calls for open and transparent government. I hope they will continue to hold town officials’ feet to the fire, regardless of the fact that they have found the setback committee’s final recommendations favorable to their agenda. If SVW continues to praise the recommendations of the setback committee, whose own methods they have criticized in the past, it puts the lie to every lofty claim that SVW has made regarding the necessity of upholding the law and respecting the democratic process.
Cobleskill’s Main Street at a Crossroads
After reading the recent front-page article in the Times-Journal which rattled off a litany of new businesses opening up in Downtown Cobleskill, my initial reaction was cautious optimism. I share with many a sense of hope for a potential rebirth of Main Street, but I also see that realizing such a vision will take more than a few new businesses opening up only to close down in six months.
Fortunately, many of the necessary ingredients for a renaissance are already in place. Downtown Cobleskill benefits from a large and devoted group of advocates who own and operate small businesses and are active in Cobleskill Partnership, Inc. This group of people has worked to cultivate a number of successful ongoing projects like Arts in the Park concerts, ArtWalk, and the crafts market, all of which have helped to re-make Downtown Cobleskill as desirable destination. It is also important to mention that Main Street dodged a big bullet this year when Lowe’s decided not to build a home improvement center next to Wal-Mart in the East End.
However, when it comes to its elected officials both on the Village Board of Trustees and the Town Council, Cobleskill seems to be at a distinct disadvantage. The Town Board under the leadership of Republicans Roger Cohn and Mike Montario before him, has aggressively supported any big box project or major developer to come down the pike, leaving Downtown pretty much an afterthought.
Meanwhile, the Village Board under Mayor Mike Sellers, despite once seeming to have Downtown’s best interests at heart, has seemingly lost its way. Beginning in 2005, the Village Board articulated, and claimed it would uphold, a policy of requiring annexation for developments outside the village that wanted village water and sewer service. However, the Board twice backed down on this policy under pressure from Lowe’s, Town of Cobleskill officials and county officials eager only for additional sales tax revenue and sadly uninterested in the affairs of Cobleskill’s Main Street.
Downtown Cobleskill just recently dodged another shiv to its back courtesy of Trustees Mark Galasso and Bill Gilmore who voted (but lost 3-2) to abandon a grant proposal for the Newberry Square building and instead support a grant for Stella McKenna’s proposed fitness center in the Town of Richmondville. Stella McKenna has plans to move her physical fitness facility out of its current location in the Village of Cobleskill to a new location on Route 7 in the Town of Richmondville. But McKenna needs a grant to make it happen and has been asking Village Board members to stop requesting Restore NY grant monies to rehabilitate the Newberry Square building because that project might reduce her chances of receiving the grant monies. Apparently, Galasso and Gilmore would rather use state grant money to help a taxpaying business leave the village and create another empty building than to pursue grant monies to rehabilitate an important piece of historic Downtown architecture. Does that make sense to you?
Clearly, with friends like these, Downtown Cobleskill doesn’t need enemies. But it could actually get worse. This year’s village election could see Bob LaPietra elected to the Board of Trustees. LaPietra is a slumlord who was just recently forced by state courts to vacate an illegally rented apartment in the Village after two years of dragging his feet and is also currently facing charges of ballot fraud. Yet despite all of this, he still has a decent shot at winning a seat on the board. Go figure!
If he does win, he and fellow conservative Mark Galasso will join forces with Mayor Sellers to push for a dissolution of the village, a move that will carve up Cobleskill’s infrastructure at the behest of county Republican Party hacks and every water-hungry developer that wants to build a strip mall from Wal-Mart to Howe Caverns.
In spite of the current leadership in both the town and village, Downtown Cobleskill does have a fighting chance. The recent spate of projects shows that there is interest. But nothing can be accomplished if town and village officials simply turn their backs on Main Street. Now is not the time to use scarce grant money to help businesses leave the village, and it is not time to enthrone slumlords who already believe they are above the law. Now is the time to look for ways to capitalize on the current momentum and help businesses stay open on Main Street. It will take leadership dedicated to this goal. With the exception of one or two people, the entire Village and Town Boards need to be replaced, but (for Christ’s sake!) not for the worse (as with LaPietra).
In the end, a successful revitalization of Main Street need not come from politicians, but no grassroots movement or group of enthusiastic business owners can succeed with the likes of Gilmore, Galasso and Mike Sellers pulling the rug out from under them. There’s enough of that coming from other levels of government.
Fortunately, many of the necessary ingredients for a renaissance are already in place. Downtown Cobleskill benefits from a large and devoted group of advocates who own and operate small businesses and are active in Cobleskill Partnership, Inc. This group of people has worked to cultivate a number of successful ongoing projects like Arts in the Park concerts, ArtWalk, and the crafts market, all of which have helped to re-make Downtown Cobleskill as desirable destination. It is also important to mention that Main Street dodged a big bullet this year when Lowe’s decided not to build a home improvement center next to Wal-Mart in the East End.
However, when it comes to its elected officials both on the Village Board of Trustees and the Town Council, Cobleskill seems to be at a distinct disadvantage. The Town Board under the leadership of Republicans Roger Cohn and Mike Montario before him, has aggressively supported any big box project or major developer to come down the pike, leaving Downtown pretty much an afterthought.
Meanwhile, the Village Board under Mayor Mike Sellers, despite once seeming to have Downtown’s best interests at heart, has seemingly lost its way. Beginning in 2005, the Village Board articulated, and claimed it would uphold, a policy of requiring annexation for developments outside the village that wanted village water and sewer service. However, the Board twice backed down on this policy under pressure from Lowe’s, Town of Cobleskill officials and county officials eager only for additional sales tax revenue and sadly uninterested in the affairs of Cobleskill’s Main Street.
Downtown Cobleskill just recently dodged another shiv to its back courtesy of Trustees Mark Galasso and Bill Gilmore who voted (but lost 3-2) to abandon a grant proposal for the Newberry Square building and instead support a grant for Stella McKenna’s proposed fitness center in the Town of Richmondville. Stella McKenna has plans to move her physical fitness facility out of its current location in the Village of Cobleskill to a new location on Route 7 in the Town of Richmondville. But McKenna needs a grant to make it happen and has been asking Village Board members to stop requesting Restore NY grant monies to rehabilitate the Newberry Square building because that project might reduce her chances of receiving the grant monies. Apparently, Galasso and Gilmore would rather use state grant money to help a taxpaying business leave the village and create another empty building than to pursue grant monies to rehabilitate an important piece of historic Downtown architecture. Does that make sense to you?
Clearly, with friends like these, Downtown Cobleskill doesn’t need enemies. But it could actually get worse. This year’s village election could see Bob LaPietra elected to the Board of Trustees. LaPietra is a slumlord who was just recently forced by state courts to vacate an illegally rented apartment in the Village after two years of dragging his feet and is also currently facing charges of ballot fraud. Yet despite all of this, he still has a decent shot at winning a seat on the board. Go figure!
If he does win, he and fellow conservative Mark Galasso will join forces with Mayor Sellers to push for a dissolution of the village, a move that will carve up Cobleskill’s infrastructure at the behest of county Republican Party hacks and every water-hungry developer that wants to build a strip mall from Wal-Mart to Howe Caverns.
In spite of the current leadership in both the town and village, Downtown Cobleskill does have a fighting chance. The recent spate of projects shows that there is interest. But nothing can be accomplished if town and village officials simply turn their backs on Main Street. Now is not the time to use scarce grant money to help businesses leave the village, and it is not time to enthrone slumlords who already believe they are above the law. Now is the time to look for ways to capitalize on the current momentum and help businesses stay open on Main Street. It will take leadership dedicated to this goal. With the exception of one or two people, the entire Village and Town Boards need to be replaced, but (for Christ’s sake!) not for the worse (as with LaPietra).
In the end, a successful revitalization of Main Street need not come from politicians, but no grassroots movement or group of enthusiastic business owners can succeed with the likes of Gilmore, Galasso and Mike Sellers pulling the rug out from under them. There’s enough of that coming from other levels of government.
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