Hartford Internet Tower

Below is a Post Star story about the proposed Internet Tower on Shine Hill Rd. Dana

Hartford could get a tower for Internet service

• BILL TOSCANO – [email protected](0) Comments
HARTFORD — A broadband Internet company will present its plan for a 120-foot tower on Shine Hill Road to the town’s Planning Board at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Town Hall.

Hudson Valley Wireless is already working with Washington County’s emergency tower system to improve local Internet accessibility,

“We’re trying to blend into the landscape the best we can. We are going with a monopole, rather than a tower with guide wires,” said Jason Guzzo, general manager of Hudson Valley Wireless. “In terms of feedback, everybody seems to be positive. We know a lot of people want Internet, and that’s what we’re here to do,”

Guzzo’s company is spending this week at the Washington County Fair as it gets ready to expand into the region.

Earlier this year, the company was awarded $2.4 million through the Connect N.Y. Broadband grant program. The money funds a public/private partnership that includes nearly all of Washington County.

Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff supports the tower project as a crucial first step.

“We need to step into the 21st century,” said Haff, who hopes Hudson Valley will follow the first tower, which is in the southern end of town, with one in the northern end. “Hartford is underserved when it comes to cell signal and Internet access. In this day and age, if you cannot get high-speed Internet, you are the Stone Age.”

Some parts of Hartford do have cable access and others can access the Internet through Hudson Valley’s tower in Argyle or through other means.

But the Hudson Valley service is line-of-sight, which is why its executives want to put up the Shine Hill tower.

“I’d like to see them build another tower on the north end of town and send the signal there,” Haff said. “But the eastern part of town is really hilly, so we may have to come up with another way to do that. The people in the central part of town can get the cable for Internet, TV and phone service.”

Haff also said he hopes Hudson Valley will allow a cell-phone service to share its tower.

“If I want cell service, I have to walk to the bottom of my driveway and hold my arm up,” Haff said. “That’s something else we really need in town. If you do not have high-speed Internet and cell-phone service, you are going to depopulate your town. People will move away.”

Hudson Valley will turn in its site-plan review packet Tuesday, and the Planning Board will schedule a public hearing, most likely for September. It will also be reviewed by the Washington County Planning Board, because it is in an agricultural district. The county Planning Board can make recommendations, but the final decision is up to the town Planning Board.

“We know we need to have the public hearing, and we understand this takes time, but we are really looking forward to serving Hartford,” Guzzo said.


Hartford’s Local Laws are now codified and available to view online.

A two year project to gather all of Hartford’s Local Laws and ordinances together, check them for obsolete language and determine if any of them conflict with each other has been completed.

They have been codified and are now available online in a format that is very user friendly for the public.

If you have a question about a Town local law, or even if the Town has one covering the subject you are interested in, you no longer have to go to the Town Hall and ask the Town Clerk to dig through her records. You can go online and see for yourself. The site even allows you to perform a search for a key word in case you do not know which law might be relevant.

The Planning Board’s Site Plan Review Law and Subdivision Law are also included.

To view the site, go to the Town of Hartford’s website www.hartfordny.com and in the upper toolbar, click on Codified Town Laws.

Dana


2014 Memorial Day Parade speech

Memorial Day Parade 2014

Memorial Day is the day we set aside each year to honor those brave men and women in the military who gave the ultimate sacrifice and died as the result of warfare.

Our parade today is dedicated to those brave men and women that have fought and died in defense of our country in all the wars ranging from the Revolutionary War up to present day Afghanistan.

Hartford is very proud that we have the last remaining Civil War Enlistment Center in all of NYS. Across the street from the Enlistment Center is a Civil War monument in the Old Hartford Cemetery. This monument is in memory of the 17 Hartford men that gave their lives fighting in the Civil War.

For many generations, Hartford has honored these 17 men by marking this monument with 17 American flags.

But this year is different. This year Mike Armstrong, who is Hartford’s Historian, discovered that there are 6 additional men that died in the war, this year the Civil War monument has 23 flags placed around it.

This means that we are some 150 years late in rightfully honoring these 6 men. Because today is the day we set aside each year to remember our war dead, I would like to take this opportunity to finally remember them with a bell ringing tribute.

George Minor – Company H of the 22nd NY Infantry
George was 19 years old when he died on August 30th, 1862

John Miner – Company H of the 22nd NY Infantry
John died on July 18th, 1863

Albert King – Company I of the 123rd NY Infantry
Albert was 33 years old when he died on Sept 13th, 1864

John Burton – Company G, 16th NY Heavy Artillery
John was 31 years old when he died on Dec 8th, 1864

William Brown – Company K, 186th NY Infantry
William was 20 years old when he died on April 22nd, 1865

Albert Higley – Company G, 16th NY Heavy Artillery
Albert was 25 years old when he died on March 31, 1865

May they rest in peace.


Hartford’s Memorial Day Parade has a full slate of candidates

The Hartford Memorial Day Parade will have a full slate of candidates for the Assembly and Congress participating in the parade.

The 113th Assembly District candidates marching are;
Carrie Woerner – Dem
Steve Stallmer – Rep.

The NY21 Congressional District candidates marching will be;
Matt Doheny – Rep and Independence
Elise Stefanik – Rep and Conservative
Aaron Woolf – Dem and Working Families
Matt Funiciello – Green

This is quite a feather in our cap that all the candidates want to come to the “Heart of Washington County” to honor our war dead and celebrate Memorial Day by marching in our small town parade.

We are assured that one of the candidates marching will win the Assembly and Congress so let us all welcome them to Hartford and cheer for all of them regardless of party.

Dana


Townwide Cleanup Day and EWaste Collection Day

Hartford Clean-Up Day! Saturday May 3rd from 9am to 12 noon. Please come and help clean our community and town roads of roadside litter.

Free lunch at noon for the volunteers. All you can eat HotDogs, Chips, Soda, and IceCream.

We will meet at 9am at the Hartford Town Barn. At this time we will issue Town Roads to groups of clean up volunteers (we only do Town Roads, we do not do County or State roads.

Any children should be accompanied by an adult.

We need as many people and trucks as we can get. Please bring a pair of gloves and dress for the weather.

Questions? Call Highway Superintendent Greg Brown 632-5255
Rain Date is Saturday May 10th.

Hartford EWaste Collection Day! Saturday May 3rd from 9am to 12 noon

The Town of Hartford will partner with Earth Waste & Metal to provide an EWaste Collection Day for the citizens and businesses of Hartford free of charge at the Hartford Town Barn.

EWaste (Electronic Waste) is basically anything with electronics powered by A/C or D/C.

New This Year: 1) EWaste items with a freon refrigerant component like window airconditioners or refrigerators are acceptable.
2) Wet Lead Acid batteries similar to what you have in a car or tractor are acceptable.

Volunteers to assist with the collection and help unload cars at the Town Barn are welcome.

Unacceptable for collection are light bulbs, lamps, and Dry Cell Batteries (9v, D, C, AA, etc.).

Questions? Call Supervisor Dana Haff 632-9178
Rain Date is Saturday May 10th.


Stewart’s Shop and the Hartford Food Pantry team up to fight school hunger

The Hartford Food Pantry, located in the Baptist Church on Main St, distributes food to the needy. The Pantry is in need of volunteer workers to help it operate every other Saturday (April 5, April 19, May 3, etc.) from 9 – 10:30am. If you have the time available and can help, please call Pete Klaiber 632-9267.

The below story is in Thursday’s Post Star newspaper. Dana

HARTFORD — Peter Klaiber, director of the Hartford Food Pantry, had seen stories in the national press about people donating money so needy children could pay for their school lunches.

So when Stewart Shop’s contacted him about a $400 donation from its Stewart’s Holiday Match Program, he put two and two together.

The donation, which comes from the company matching customers’ donations during the holidays, is intended for local residents 18 and under, and the shop sits directly across Route 40 from the high school.

In a letter to Stewart’s, Klaiber summed up the pantry’s situation.

“While our pantry served 685 households in 2013 consisting of 2,229 family members (approximately 50 percent being children), we serve families not only from Hartford but throughout Washington County. We are one of the few area pantries with no residency requirement. If you need help, we will do our best to help. We understand people don’t come to a pantry because they want to.

“Having said all that, we challenged ourselves as to how we could do something to directly benefit the children of Hartford,” he wrote.

When Klaiber looked at local issues, and recalled something he has seen on national news, he asked Stewart’s if the money could be used to reduce the lunch charges for those students and families who may have struggled at times paying for lunch.

“This is a way to ensure your donation directly benefits the youth of Hartford. Your donation to us will still be going for food, only difference being we will have the school/cafeteria administer on our behalf.”

Klaiber, who said he saw this as an effective way for the food pantry to fulfill it’s goals and those of the company’s, received permission from the school and Stewart’s, and the program will go into effect.

“The Hartford Central School District is extremely grateful for the generous donation from Stewart’s and the Hartford Food Pantry,” Superintendent Andrew Cook said. “The donated money will be used to help reduce the lunch charges for those students and families who may have struggled, at times, paying for their lunch.”

Town Supervisor Dana Haff is a regular customer at the store.

“I am grateful to Stewart’s for caring about the Hartford community,” Every year when Stewart’s has this fund drive, I always donate the change I get back from the cash register into the can. I never really knew where the money went but I trusted Stewart’s to find a worthy cause.”

The food pantry is in the Baptist Church and is open from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays.


Hartford Doggie Amber Alerts

I have started posting photos of lost or stray dogs that are picked up in Hartford in an effort to help reunite these lost pets with their owners. It is very important that your dog has a collar with Hartford Dog license which would make finding the owner a snap. A microchip implanted will help if the dog happens to be found without a collar.

I think it is a very good idea to have a good quality digital photo of your dog saved on a computer or smartphone so you that social media can be used to help look for the dog.

If your pet ever becomes lost, and you email me the photo and description I will help you get the word out. My home email is [email protected] Regards, Dana

Post Star newspaper 4/2/14

Hartford keeping an eye on its dogs.

Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff has entered the lost dog business.

Haff, who posts to his blog and Facebook probably more than any other supervisor, has been issuing what he calls “Doggie Amber Alerts” whenever he is notified of a found dog.

Hartford’s Dog Control Officer, Nancy Quell (692-2840) picks up the lost dogs and then emails him a photo with description. “I take this photo with description and send out an eblast to my “Hartford Group” email list of 110 Hartford citizen email addresses. I also put it on my personal Facebook page and the Town Clerk puts it on the Town of Hartford FaceBook page.”

The two recent dogs were a Puggle (cross between a Pug/Beagle) and just yesterday a Cocker Spaniel, and one of them was quickly returned to its owner.

— Bill Toscano


How much for a desk?

I am frustrated that the County is hell bent to buy six desks at almost $17,000 each for the 911 center.

This price does not include the chairs which we bought a few years ago at $1,400 each, computers or monitors. It is just for the desks and some cabinets. Each desk has its own heater/cooling fan with air purifier, anti-microbial surfaces, UV lamp to kill germs, and electric motors so the desk will stand up higher when the operator stands up so the operator will not have to bend over.

Just to be clear, I support the upgrades to software, computers, monitors and phone system as they will affect the operation, but not all furniture is equal. Some furniture is meant for the royal family, some is meant for utility purposes, and the rest is somewhere is in between. I think we can use something in between.

I found online a Texas company that manufactures 911 Dispatcher Desks for $6,000. These desks have the popular electric motor stand up feature but are not equipped with all the other bells and whistles like climate control, purifier and UV lamp.

Instead of having an air purifier and climate controls built into each desk, why not buy a large room air purifier instead and save the County a lot of money? If you are cold put on a sweater and save the County a lot of money instead of buying a desk with its own heater. If you are concerned about germs on the desktop, a can of Lysol and paper towels are a heck of a lot cheaper than a built in UV lamp.

I recently saw a TV program where they showed commonly used items and how filthy they were with germs. The finger holes in bowling balls were really gross as were common share computer keyboards. Seems kind of silly to me to have a desk with anti-microbial surfaces and then plunk down a communally used keyboard shared by each shift on top of it.

The 911 center dispatcher room is 958 sq ft in size and the desks plus cabinets will cost $100,500.00 dollars which works out to $105 per square foot. At that price I think an average person could equip their home with furniture, appliances, electrical wiring and plumbing.

In this regard there is a serious lacking of common sense. Maybe it is because it is “other people’s money”?

I proposed cutting the furniture money in half but that was defeated on Friday. I think the general consensus of the County Board of Supervisors is why spend $50,000 to get the job done adequately when you can spend $100,000.

When the fall comes and the County starts it’s budget process, we scramble to make cuts because the County managed to spend with little regard to the budget and tax levy all through the year. The time not to spend is now, not eight months from now when we wake up and say “how did that happen?”.

Call your Supervisor if you agree with me, and a letter to the Editor would not hurt.

Dana

Below is a story that was in Saturday’s 3/15/14 PostStar.

Push to cut cost of 911 center upgrade is shot down
BOARD BACKS MORE COSTLY FURNITURE

• JAMIE MUNKS — [email protected](0) Comments

FORT EDWARD — Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff’s proposal to cut in half the amount of money to be spent on furniture as part of an overhaul of the Washington County dispatching center didn’t get the support of most of his peers on Friday.

One long-debated item in the county’s 911 communications center capital project are the six ergonomic work consoles for dispatchers that come with a roughly $100,000 price tag.

Haff has been railing against the furniture proposal since it first came up months ago, but the majority of county supervisors on Friday approved a resolution for a 2014 capital project that includes the dispatch center upgrades, as well as some other capital projects.

“If you’re worried about germs, do what I do at home,” Haff said, plunking a can of Lysol, paper towels and hand sanitizer on the table in the supervisors’ chambers Friday morning. “For $20, you can go online and buy a Mr. Rogers sweater.”

Haff held up printed photos of a red cardigan and an air purifier, as he argued there are other ways temperature and air quality could be regulated in the dispatch center. The consoles county officials have proposed for the center have anti-microbial surfaces, individual temperature controls and air purifiers, and the desks can raise and lower as the worker stands and sits, Haff said.

“I think a desk with all these accoutrements is luxurious,” Haff said. “We’ve been told it’s the standard. I think it’s the gold standard.”

Haff proposed an amendment to the capital fund resolution, halving the amount to be spent on furniture to about $50,000. Haff’s amendment was defeated 12-5, with Dresden Supervisor George Gang, Easton Supervisor Dan Shaw, Jackson Supervisor Alan Brown and Salem Supervisor Seth Pitts joining Haff in voting for his amendment.

Granville Supervisor Matt Hicks emphasized to Haff that the action the board was taking Friday was to establish a bond anticipation note for the project, noting the purchases would still need to be put out to bid in the future.

“Just because it’s in there, it doesn’t mean we will spend it on that,” Hicks said.

The full capital project resolution was to move forward with financing four major county projects totaling $2,260,500, including the 911 center upgrades, information technology improvements, replacement of the building management system and replacement of roofs on two county buildings.

The bond anticipation note is estimated to carry a $25,000 annual cost and county officials plan to apply for 911 center grant funding for $400,000 to offset part of that project.

In addition to the 911 center consoles, a 911 Verizon Cassidian system and Motorola radio consoles are part of the planned purchases for the 911 center. Haff and Shaw both cast votes against the capital project resolution.

Some county officials have said the existing 911 center set-up is outdated and in serious need of upgrading, while Haff has continued to emphasize the burden on taxpayers — some of whom must choose between heating bills and food during the winter months, he said.

“Heat or eat? That’s a tough decision,” Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell said. “But so is life or death.”


911 reverse calling for cellphones

The power outage that was widespread throughout Hartford Weds. night resulted in the Washington County 911 center performing a 911 reverse calling notification to those in the affected area that the Hartford Firehouse would open as a warming shelter if the power was not restored by 11:30pm. The Firehouse has emergency power.

Because the temperature was in the negative digits, this outage had the potential to threaten public safety if it persisted for a long time.

The County 911 center was able to pull up the National Grid map of the affected area and call those land lines within it. But, unless you still maintain at least one old fashion plug into the wall phone you can not get a call in a power failure.

The County also has the ability to perform a 911 reverse call to citizens with cell phones. These cell calls can include voice and or text messaging to alert you.

But, in order for the 911 center to know that you want an alert on your cell phone, you have to register your cell phone number with them.

There is no need to register your home land line phone because they already have this in the system and those calls will come automatically, but cell phones are a different story.

I sent this info out in a mass mailing a couple of years ago and maybe it is time to remind people again.

Pasted below is information from the County website regarding this sign up. It is very easy to sign up with the Hyper-Reach link provided below.

Please forward this email on to Washington County residents in your address book that you think might be interested.

Dana

Washington County COMMUNITY SIGN UP

The Hyper-Reach system uses landline telephone numbers provided by the telephone companies that serve Washington County. If you are a resident of Washington County, you are already enrolled in a program that could save the lives of you and your family. Hyper-Reach is designed to allow emergency management professionals from the Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services, as well as, the Washington County Department of Public Safety, to contact you by telephone in the event of a civil emergency. An automated phone message would be directed to each phone in a specified area notifying residents of impending or active emergency conditions, disasters, or health warnings.

Hyper-Reach already calls your home phone
number(s) in the event of local emergencies or community alerts. You do not need to register your home phone number. Submitting the additional information below will allow your cellular phone, email, and/or TDD to be notified as well.

Please take a moment to fill out the form at
www.hyper-reach.com/washingtonsignup.html

The information provided will not be used for any purpose other than community announcements.


Changes to Enhanced STAR

Anyone turning 65 this year needs to contact Hartford’s Sole Assessor Sandy Foley to see if they qualify for the Enhanced Star program which eases the burden of paying the school tax.

Even if they don’t turn 65 until after March 1st, as long as Sandy has all the paperwork in, they will get it for the 2014 School year.

The level for Enhanced Star has increased to $64,200 for this year, so it will make a large difference to the Seniors that may qualify.

You can contact Sandy at Ph: 585-7831 or email her at a [email protected].

Dana