The Washington County Fair is now behind us. I went to the fair 3 days this year and must admit, at first I thought it was going to be a washout. But once again the weather man’s 5 day forecast couldn’t get past day 1 correctly- thank goodness. The opening ceremony had cats and dogs raining down but after that the sun came out and it was perfect fair weather for the rest of the week.

I have been to a few other county fairs and I think ours is the jewel of all county fairs. Our Ag connection remains strong and I think this connection makes it the fair that it is.

All of us locals know which end of a horse is what but many “city folk” attend the fair and are amazed at the size of the animals and that you can pet them and talk to a real live farmer. It makes it a personal experience for them and they learn that milk comes from a cow living in the country, not the store.

I was entered into the milking contest on Friday night with the Washington County Dairy Princess (Hartford’s Mary Foote) as my partner. We had 2 minutes to hand milk a cow and afterwards the contents of our pail was weighed to see which of the 6 teams won. Mary and I had milk shooting out of the teats like laser beams and we felt sure that we would win. But we came in 3rd. At least we did better than Congressman Scott Murphy, who came in last place and barely managed to cover the bottom of his pail.  

I am already looking forward to next year’s fair, are you too?

Dana

I am not old enough to remember the TV sitcom “Car 54 where are you?” but I admit that I am old enough to know that there was such a show staring Fred Gwynne. Fred later went on to became Herman Munster.

For $1, the Hartford Volunteer Fire Company will soon have a new car. It is a 2006 Crown Victoria which was recently Washington County Sheriff Deputy car #312.  A resolution, voted upon by the Washington County Board of Supervisors was approved today to do this.

Hartford’s designation, as assigned by the county is “34”. All the Hartford fire vehicle ID numbers start with “34” (#343, #346, etc.)  This new vehicle will be called the “Department Car” and carry the designator #34.

This car was in the process of being stripped to send to the auto auction but I was able to pounce upon it and put a dibs on it for Hartford. It has over 100,000 miles but is still in decent shape and will lend itself to be an asset to the HVFC.

I don’t envision that the Fire Chief will roar up to a fire in an shiny car with lights and siren wailing. Instead, the members, when traveling to training or offsite meetings will not have to drive personal vehicles using personal gasoline.

The members of the Fire Company are all volunteers. They do not receive salaries or monetary compensation for jumping out of bed at 3am and risking their lives protecting our lives and property so it is the least we can do to provide them with halfway decent equipment. Hopefully this ex-cop car will make their lives easier and mitigate some out of pocket expenses.

I’d like to thank the Wash. County Sheriff’s office, Wash. County DPW, Wash. County Public Safety Committee, Wash. County Finance Committee, and the Board of Supervisor’s Clerk for assisting me in this endeavor.

Dana

Hartford’s long serving Assessor, Nancy Strong will retire from the position effective 9/30/10.

The Town Board solicited applications and conducted 7 interviews for the position. We had some very qualified candidates apply and in the end chose Ms. Sandra (Hanna) Foley of Ticonderoga.

Bill McCarty, Director of Wash. County Real Property Tax Services, and Nancy Strong both attended the interview session and assisted the town board during the interview process. This was very generous of them and much appreciated by the Town Board.

Sandy has an extensive public relations background from when she worked with Niagara Mohawk and has current real property appraisal experience. Sandy also serves on the Ticonderoga Board of Assessment Review so she knows what it is like to be confronted by disgruntled property owners unhappy with their assessments. Plus, since she grew up in Hartford as Gordon’s and Edna’s daughter she already has broad based knowledge of the local road system and where each section of town is located.

Sandy will still need to be approved by the State before we can officially hire her as our Sole Assessor effective 10/1/10. Once Officially hired Sandy will take courses offered by the County and State in order to become a Certified Assessor.  

Both the State and County recommend that the Sole Assessor have an office space in the Town Hall and regular scheduled office hours in the Town Hall in order to be readily assessable to the public. We have a “snug” space in the town hall that we can set up with a desk and file cabinets for Sandy’s use. We will ask that Sandy pick 1 day a week to come into the town hall and attend her office.  

Dana

Since my original posting 6/22/10 “Where angels fear to tread” much has happened and information learned in regards to my plan to relocate the Veterans’ monument currently located at the school.

My idea of relocating the monument to the area near the Old Hartford Cemetery fence, across the street from the Civil War Enlistment Center was recently supported by the Hartford Baptist Church Board of Trustees. There is a 15′ wide strip running along the length of the cemetery fence between the County Route 23 right of way and the fence. This land, along with the burial ground belongs to the Baptist Church so I sought their approval. They voted yes unanimously.

I figured before I proposed this plan to the Town Board that I should get all other permissions first. The School Board of Education gave permission and now the Baptist Church gave permission.

But a wrinkle appeared as I did more research.  A not for profit corporation called “The Hartford Area Veterans Memorial Delegation” was created in July 2005 regarding this monument.

For a fee of $5.00 I was able to get a copy of the papers from the NYS Dept of State, Division of Corporations that were drawn up for this corp.

The paper work shows that the Corporation was created with the purpose to raise funding for the design, creation, engraving, erection and maintaining of the monument. 

All of these things have been completed by the corporation but the part where is says “maintaining” leads me to think that that insinuates action into the future which also lends to the argument that the Corporation still controls the monument even though the school is in possession of it.

This Corporation is listed by the State as being current. The Board of Directors for this Corporation are listed as Doris Aubrey, Willard Aubrey, and Roger Smith. Of these three, only Doris survives. 

The town received a letter last month from Wallace Swezey stating that he is opposed to relocating the monument. He signed his letter “Director”. His brother Mike claims not to know anything of Wally’s role in the monument, but this indicates that besides Doris, Wally is another director and he is opposed to it. That makes 2 out of 3 possible directors opposed to the plan.

I feel that in order to go any farther and try to force the issue would mean legal and court expenses that I am not willing to subject the tax payers to.

My original plan, with ample volunteers, meant that this could be moved with minimal expense. As it looks now, the expense of legal action would not be palatable to the town. I also feel that in court, it would be easier for the Corporation to show that they have control of the monument as opposed to the town taking control. I do not want to spend tax dollars on a case I feel is weak, especially when the economy is down. This also was the general sentiment expressed by the Town Board and public at last night’s Town Board meeting

In my opinion, it is a shame that the potential benefit to the community, veteran’s, and monument was lost to the Corporation digging in its heels basically saying “hell no!”. Repeated calls by me to Doris go unanswered to see if she has changed her mind. Her original comment to me way back when I started this was that the idea of moving it made her sick to her stomach. She may have caller ID because the phone just rings and rings.

So, long story short, I think it is time to stop beating this dead horse and dismount. I’d like to thank all those that supported this idea and pledged to help.

Dana