| We’re back! Although several AFROGISWHY.com members attended meetings throughout the summer months, our writing staff apologizes for the lack of updates on the site. With summer‘s end, children headed back to school, yard work diminishing until the leaves fall, we intend to regularly report on issues of possible interest to our readers. For now, we will start with the most current Town Board meeting, which was held on Thursday, September 3, and revisit a few issues from other board meetings at some point in the near future. • The last three meetings were held in the Community Center due to reconstruction of the Town Hall Board room. The boardroom has two functions: meeting room and town court. The judges’ office received a grant to renovate the room, which will be completed soon. During reports, Councilwoman Virginia Whitman voiced her displeasure with the final construction of the room and stated that some of the board members (including her) were not consulted in the decision-making process for the design work. She stated, “I like to look at the people at a meeting.” The next Town Board meeting will be back at town hall (subject to change) so we will see what it is like at that time. • Every seat was filled at this meeting. The majority of attendees were residents from Route 67, where a bridge is to be built over the Tenedehowa Creek to the new rail yard. These folks tried communicating with Supervisor Connelly for quite some time, including submission of a petition in May, which some of the town board members knew nothing about (as addressed by Councilwoman Whitman). These Stillwater residents are trying to get Pan Am Rail to move the bridge 700 feet so it will not be directly in front of their homes, and negatively affect their property values and quality of life. A resident from this area started a website, where you can see the Pan Am proposed location and an alternative location the residents propose. There is also a link to a Schenectady Gazette article about the issue and government officials who may be able to influence the project with public support (email or write to these people). Their website is: WWW.MOVETHEBRIDGE.COM See the Frog Blog for editorial opinion and Flies & Warts. • Councilman Art Baker reported that he is still investigating the purchase of picnic tables. During the past couple of meetings, he addressed this subject. Originally, he knew someone (as we recall it was a relative) who was going to make the tables for $100 a piece. There was discussion by board members and questions raised by the public as to the quality of a $100 picnic table that might be appropriate for minimal residential use. Although the board approved the purchase of 10 tables at $100 a piece at the last meeting, Baker said he was still getting pricing and nothing has been done to date. Summer is over. • Councilwoman Lisa Bruno reported that she would like a resolution for the next Town Board meeting to set up a public hearing to establish set term limits for Town Board officials. See Flies & Warts for additional commentary. • Councilman Ken Petronis announced that the humidity control problem has been addressed at the Blockhouse. Johnson Controls did the work ($6,000) and Councilwoman Whitman would like bid processes to take place for any expenditure such as this. Councilman Petronis suggested they could just add the Blockhouse to the Town Hall annual contract. • A resident asked Councilman Petronis to explain his comments from the last meeting where he stated he objected to Village residents asking questions at Town Board meetings. He explained that he has no problem with anyone asking questions, with the exception of questions relating to the Town Highway Department. He stated that Village residents do not pay taxes toward highway equipment. When the resident asked what benefit town residents get from their highway tax dollars if they live on a county or state road, such as the people at the meeting who live on Route 67, he said they drive through Stillwater on town roads. See Flies & Warts for additional commentary. Wundah Why ? Here are some latest actions that make us Wundah Why. June 4, 2009 Town Board meeting: Mark Minick is getting $300,000 from a 2002 Member item. Why-ah-wundah would there be an outstanding member item for 7 years? Why-ah-wundah wouldn’t one have to justify a need 7 years ago and only now apply for it? There was lengthy discussion about the water situation in the Town and Village. Councilman Petronis presented quite a bit of information about the Village waterline project. (AFROGISWHY has asked the Village Mayor and Deputy Mayor about Councilman Petronis's comments and they have stated the figures and comments are not correct. We at AFROGISWHY.COM will be asking for the figures given to the Town Board so stay tuned.) The Town Board agreed to have an informational meeting at the school but as of today there is no date scheduled. At the last town board meeting, residents inquired about the Code Enforcement officer’s credits toward his 2009 certification. Supervisor Connelly and Councilman Petronis stated at that time that the Code Enforcement officer was current in his credits. The Code Enforcement officer stated he had the 24 State required credits. However, a resident presented documentation from the State identifying that the Code Enforcement officer had only 22 training hours in 2008. (Credits earned in 2008 certify an individual for 2009; credits earned in 2009 certify an individual for 2010, etc.) Supervisor Connelly presented some follow up information regarding a performance contract the Stillwater Area Community Center (SACC) wants to implement. The town will need to sign a contract with the company because the Town owns the SACC building. Councilwoman Bruno asked for the supporting documentation again as she had when the company originally presented the information to the Town Board. (The company had no documentation for the board at that time either.) Supervisor Connelly stated he was not asked to get the documentation. SACC needs to obtain a loan to do this project and Councilwoman Bruno requested documentation to assure the town would not be responsible for the loan. Supervisor Connelly repeated several times that the Town would not be responsible because the SACC by-laws state that the Board members would be personally responsible if the center defaulted on a loan. A resident questioned if the town credit card still exists. Supervisor Connelly stated the town has a debit, not a credit card. When asked about the limits of the card, he said $1,000 then $1,500 then looked to Councilwoman Whitman for the answer. He said he and Councilman Art Baker are the only ones who have cards. Additional information on these topics will be coming your way in the near future. Stay tuned. The Good Old Boys End Prohibition at the Stillwater Area Community Center The Community Center Board appeared before the Town Board to comment on a resolution that was up for a vote tonight. Resolution #76: Authorizing the SACC to serve alcohol on the Town premises at the Stillwater Area Community Center under certain conditions and restrictions. When the floor opened for public input, the Community Center President presented their reasoning that they needed to have options to create more revenue for programs at the Community Center. (Note: The Community Center is funded in part by your tax dollars. $90,000 for programs and $20,000 a year for the summer program.) Several residents commended the board for the work they do, including a resident who was a founding member at the Community Center, but they were not in favor of this practice being reinstated. Suggestions and comments from residents included that they take more time to consider options and possibly obtain greater community input, and to consider the town’s liability despite assurances of insurance. A resident asked Supervisor Connelly if he would recuse himself from the vote, since his wife is a Community Center board member. He said he would not. Councilwoman Bruno presented and read the 2002 minutes pertaining to the enactment of Local Law 109A. The Town Board at that time was Supervisor Lilac (now the Community Center Director and present at tonight’s town board meeting), Councilman Baker and Petronis, and former Councilwomen Ronda and Winchell. In a Gazette article this week, Lilac stated that he believed it was a unanimous decision in 2002 to pass the Local Law. However, when Bruno read the 2002 minutes, Petronis, Ronda and Winchell were opposed to alcohol on the premises. It was identified at this time that the Town’s insurance policy did not cover alcohol related events. Bruno expressed concern that the resolution’s wording is not specific. She stated that once again they were given information at the last minute, rather than have time to review and consider documentation without having it jammed down their throats for a vote. (Note: This is a practice witnessed with the last two administrations.) Tonight, Petronis flip-flopped from his 2002 stance and agreed that the Community Center should be allowed to serve alcohol. Why? The vote to permit the Community Center to serve alcohol: 3-2 Why would these men rescind a 7-year law that moved this community forward in an attempt to keep people safe and to limit the town’s liability? We're Alive! Welcome to our newly released site for Stillwater, New York! AFROGISWHY.com is a work in progress, just as our efforts to effect positive change in our local government have been for many years. Croakin’ Chronicles is our primary reporting section about new or ongoing government issues, meeting highlights or perhaps historical government information that is pertinent to today. We created this site for Stillwater residents so they might better understand issues, policies, practices and behaviors of those involved in our government. Whether you live in Riverside (also known as Frog Island, the locale of Stillwater Town Hall), Bemis Heights, Saratoga Lake, the Village of Stillwater, Ketchums Corners, Wayville, Snake Hill, Willow Glen, Viall Avenue, Golden Hill, or any other area of Stillwater, it’s easy to be concerned with what goes on in only your section of town. However, we all share a piece of the pie (good, bad or indifferent) and therefore, we believe it is important to look at the entire pie to evaluate its overall quality, not just a slice of it. In 1997, we brought you the first WHY paper with the WHY guy to address a multitude of issues that negatively impacted the Stillwater taxpayer. We hand- delivered these papers house to house. Over the years, other WHY papers were developed and distributed as issues occurred. Some were mailed to selected residents, or again, people were out on foot handing them out. Here we are a dozen years later electronically addressing many of the same issues. Residents have been embroiled in election after election with candidates claiming they commit to change. Some changes have been good; some have not. We have been a part of the effort to make these changes and will continue to do so until one day, we are convinced that our elected officials are truly public servants and not career politicians or self-serving individuals with hidden agendas. Through community education and being open-minded, it is our hope that public confidence is established once all our elected officials abandon the shroud of secrecy, costly complacency, and the practice of spending tax dollars like a lottery winner. At many town board meetings, we hear the Councilwomen and members of the public question the Supervisor about highway and discretionary expenditures. They expressed concern about taxpayers losing their jobs, encountering salary freezes, or seniors with fixed incomes going back to work to offset increasing expenses. One Councilman stated, “It isn’t the town taxes you have to worry about; it’s the school taxes we should worry about.” WHY should you worry only about school taxes going up? Will this be the only increase in your household expense? Hmmm… town tax goes up. And if you live in the village, that tax goes up. Water and sewer go up. The County tax goes up. The State tax goes up. Federal tax goes up. Social Security goes up. Your company reduces your merit or cost of living increase, or cuts it all together (and that’s if you haven’t lost your job.) Groceries go up. Gas goes up. Car repairs go up. House fuel and electric go up. The doctor, the dentist, prescriptions, eye glasses, and…school taxes go up! How much is enough? When does it end? Where does it begin? It begins and ends with YOU. Ready to jump to our pond? Why? AFROGISWHY. Town Board meetings are the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. Village Board meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
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| Croakin' Chronicles |
| Croakin' Chronicles |
| Croakin' Chronicles |
| Croakin' Chronicles |
May 21, 2009 Issue# 2 Volume# 1
May 1, 2009 Issue# 1 Volume# 1
June 4, 2009 Issue# 3 Volume#1
September 7, 2009 Issue# 4 Volume# 1
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