There will be a Public Hearing on the Supervisor’s Preliminary Town Budget at 7pm Weds 10/27/10.  This budget, as it stands will see a 15% decrease in the Townwide Tax Levy and a 1/2% decrease in the Fire Protection Levy.

This reduction in Townwide Tax Levy can be sustained for about 3 years as long as something really wacko does not happen like an asteroid hitting the town hall or $5 a gallon gasoline.

I can accomplish this 3 year tax reduction because of 2 things;

1) The Highway Superintendent has cut over $60,000 from his budget. Greg Brown, using fiscal restraint and innovative ways to stretch the dollar has made the Highway Department much more efficient. The Highway Dept takes the lion share of the Budget, so any cut back in costs really affects the taxes. The Highway Dept workers recently joined the Teamsters Union and the negotiated 3 year contract with them sees a 3% increase in wages after 3 years. This is not 3% a year, but 3% after the 3 year life of the contract with year 1 = 0% increase, year 2 = 1.5% increase and year 3 = 1.5% increase. Therefore, as far as highway wages go, we can see 3 years down the road for anticipated expenses.

2)   After careful research and discussions with the NYS Comptroller, Wash County Treasurer, & NYS Association of Towns I have determined that our Unappropriated Fund Balance does not need to be as large as it is. The Unappropriated Fund Balance is left over money that accumulates from year to year that does not have a destination. If the town does not spend all the money allocated in the budget, the excess that is not already pegged to be spent on anything specific goes into this “piggy bank”. This piggy bank is meant as an “OH CRAP!” cushion fund in case you need to spend much more than anticipated due to an emergency, etc. In my opinion this fund is too large and needs to be spent down to a reasonable level. The Town, with its risk factors, etc should have an Unappropriated Fund Balance of about 20% of the 2011 appropriations. This equals to about $211,000 and once the left over money for 2010  is figured in, could approach half a million dollars. It is cruel hearted to continue high taxing our citizens in the worst recession most of us have ever seen while sitting on this larger than needed mountain of cash. By bringing down around $75,000 per year, to offset the amount of taxes we pay, it will take about 3 years to get the Unappropriated Fund Balance where it should be.  You hear that the recession is over and then the next day it is back on. But one thing I do know is that jobs are a lagging indicator and they are the first things to go and the last things to come back. A 3 year Town Tax relief program will be a welcome relief to those of us having a hard time with our personal budgets. We are taxed to death in this state and during the next 3 years, we will not be resting on our laurels, but rather sharpening our pencils to try to stretch this tax relief to 4 or 5 years.

Fire Protection Levy: For the 2011 Tax bill, this will show a 1/2% decrease in levy. The reason for this is that the 2011 year has the same $136,000 payment as the 2010 year, but due to a $661 credit from the county it will actually be slightly decreased to $135,339 for 2011. I recently negotiated a new 3 year contract with the Hartford Volunteer Fire Company subject to Town Board approval and due to the fiscal conservative nature of the Fire Company we were able to come up with an increase of 3.6% after the end of 3 years.  The Fire Company were real team players in my attempt to lower the amount of town taxes we pay. The increase from year 1 ($136,000) to year 3 ($141,000) is $5,000 but due to the fact that the Fire Company will pay the town back $9,000 over the next 3 years for a Heating Oil bill error, it is actually a 2% decrease.

Please come to the Public Hearing on the 27th and advocate for the budget and lower taxes. Also advocate for the approval of the Fire Contract.

Dana

My fellow Supervisor, Seth Pitts of Salem is heavily involved in Salem’s food bank. He informed me that Washington County is recognised as being underserved as far as food banks go.

On Oct. 20th a tractor trailer with 12 pallets of food will position itself at the Washington County Municipal Center for a mass distribution to the county’s regional food banks.

I have often heard that $1 worth of monetary donation can purchase up to $12 worth of food at the regional distribution center if local food pantries go there to get it. But in this case the distribution center will come to us. Plus, this time there will be no cost for the food.

Many of the items that will be offered to local pantries are perishable items but they are long term perishable things like onions, potatos, etc.

Seth asked me to spread the word in Hartford so I contacted Pastor Mike Richards of the Hartford Yoked Parish. The Hartford food pantry is located in the Yoked Parish Baptist Church on Main St.  I also asked Pastor Mike to spread the word amongst his other food pantry contacts.

So, on the 2oth, Peter Klaiber, Harrison Cornell and myself will drive our pickups and trailers to the municipal center in order to fill Hartford’s food pantry larder.

With the economy in the doldrums and unemployment over 9%, food pantries are an increasingly important staple for those that find themselves struggling to provide food for themselves and their families. Every little bit helps….

Dana

Hartford does not have an American Legion Post, but that is OK because Hartford’s veteran’s are well served by posts in Ft. Ann, Argyle, and Granville.

Paul Milligan, a member of the Ft. Ann post contacted me about tolling of church bells on Veteran’s Day to honor our veterans. The West Ft. Ann church is going to do it and he asked if Hartford might want to do it as well.

Small world because I just so happen to be the bell ringer at the Hartford Methodist Church. I told him I would be happy to do it. I contacted Seth Pitts, the Supervisor of Salem and he said he could get the “White Church” in the village of Salem to do the same. Pastor Mike Richards of the Hartford Yoked Parish will see if the bell atop the South Hartford Congregational Church is capable of ringing as well.

Veteran’s Day, which is observed on Nov 11th was originally called Armistice Day. Armistice Day celebrated the Treaty of Versailles which ended WWI on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The old fashion way of observingArmistice Day and Veteran’s Day was to have churches thru out the USA ring their church bells for 1 minute at 11am on Nov 11th.

But in our modern times we have lost that tradition and Paul would like to bring it back. I admit that I have never heard of it but I think it is the least we can do to honor our Veteran’s. So if you happen to hear church bells ring for 1 minute at 11am on Nov. 11th, it doesn’t mean that the church is on fire, it means that we are honoring our Veterans.

Wouldn’t it be nice if this caught on thru out Washington County?

Dana

There will be a Tentative Budget Workshop at the town hall at 6:30pm Monday 10/4/10. This Tentative budget, after much analysis and research should see about a 12% reduction in the amount of tax levied over last year.  With the terrible economy, we could all use some tax relief. Please come to the workshop to see your government in action. Dana

The recent Primary vote held in the Town Hall was a little more cramped than usual. That is because the new voting machines do not have their own privacy screens. The new machine is  just a card scanner so the privacy part where you fill out the ballot is provided by a separate  privacy kiosk which ended up using more hall floor space than the old style. When filling out my ballot I was able to turn around and put my hand on the table where the inspectors sat.

This somewhat crowded condition brought to mind the old idea that gets brought up every once in a while to move the Polling Station to the Fire House.  After this Primary vote, Councilwoman Barb Beecher felt the same way and asked me to look into the Firehouse idea to see what I could do.

I  have often heard that the grant used to build the Fire House prohibited the hall’s use for political events. But I feel that voting in a Primary or General Election is not a political event like a Republican fund raising dinner. Voting to select who represents you is the basis for our form of Republic and nothing is more American than that so why would that be prohibited?

I contacted Kevin McCarthy, the President of the Hartford Volunteer Fire Company to discuss this and Kevin found an old letter on the matter. In 2008 Representative Gillibrand contacted the U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to ask if the Hartford Fire House could be used as the town’s polling station under the terms and conditions of the grant. The letter that Kevin found is HUD’s reply to Rep. Gillibrand and HUD says that it can be used as a Polling Station.

The reasons I think the location should be changed from the Town Hall to the Fire Hall are; 1) The Town Hall will be too small with the new voting machine and privacy kiosk if we have a large voter turn out. If it rains during a large voter turnout, the public would have to line up in the truck bays of the Highway Dept bldg. 2) The Fire hall is newer and nicer with a larger seating capacity. 3) The Fire hall has separate ladies and men’s rooms whereas the Town Hall has a single uni-sex toilet. 4) The Fire Hall has a soda machine and a kitchen for coffee urn, etc. 5) Hartford has one of the nicest Fire Halls in the county so why not use it and show it off?

I called the Washington County Board of Elections and they tell me that they have the final approval authority on re-locating the Polling Station. So, if we can get the Fire Company Board of Directors to say OK and the Hartford Town Board’s approval it should just be a matter of course to get it changed.

The voting held at school for school budgets are not subject to this idea. The school owns their own voting machines and the school gov’t is independent of the Town Gov’t.

This re-location (if approved) will not happen in time for this November’s General Election because the postcards the Board of Elections use to inform you where to go were already printed in August. But if we want to vote at the Fire House in 2011, now is the time to start the process. The deadline to do this is May 2011 but I don’t want to wait that long to get it done.

What do you think of this idea?

Dana

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