Pennywise and Pound Foolish...plus the start of campaign season

The Reorganization Meeting, the first meeting of the calendar year, was held by the Town Board on Monday January 13.

What a meeting! What should be a fresh start with new energy, saw the town board tangled in knots over how to follow the bid process, a guffawing over "sticking" the supervisor with the responsiblities of being a delegate to the Association of Towns Annual Meeting. Isn't this in part why they run? to understand best practices, lessons learned from other municipalities and bring those new ideas to our Town? Shouldn't they be looking forward to an opportunity to represent the town? Look at the video and see for yourself

And then, after loosing a very valuable employee to a better job (Jessica Servidio - Town Comptroller) they decided to keep another valued employee in limbo by tabling a resolution to formalize his role a Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds).

Please, when speaking to Town Officials --- emphasize we residents want professional, hardworking town employees that are doing their jobs with energy and passion -- and as employers, we expect that they should be fairly compensated and rewarded for their good work. Attracting and retaining valued employees is Job 1. Employee turnover is costly and results in uneven services and frustrated residents.

Ward 1 Councilmember.... co-opting a phrase used by the Councilmember from Ward 3 used in the December meeting to shut down the anti-Albany rant of Ward 1 Councilmember, gave us a prelude to his 2025 campaign by yammering on about "outragous" Central Hudson Bills -- which he has ascribed solely to the "Democrats in Albany forcing 'poor' Central Hudson to make investments in their infrastructure" (guess having gas lines blow up, and continuing to use an inefficient power grid is a legacy he would like to leave his children) and the room/online participants were treated to belicose, blather about how the Town needs to take a stronger role in reducing Central Hudson bills - while looking menancingly at meeting participants and profoundly declaring "Elections have Consequences". Maybe he'll take on the price of eggs next.

However -- on the bright side... with the new tax bills -- show a YTY decrease of -2.5% in the Town Tax Levy, in no small part due to Jessica Servidio's efforts to get a handle on the Town's finances.

BUT.... the Hughsonville Fire District, not sure about other Fire Districts in the town, the Tax Amounts for Fire Tax have crept up to the point where they are now at 75% of what the Town Tax is!!! Please remember that certain public officials keep crowing about how affordable Wappinger is... and we certainly do acknowledge the efforts of the volunteer fire department members and their hard work.... but while the town tax bill is subjected to much scrutiny and was able to show a decline (as had the County Taxes for the past few years --- let's hope this year is an exception with an increase) -- we would like those same public officials who are ready to tie the Democrats to Central Hudson Bills -- spend more time focused on budgets which they have more knowledge and influence.

During the public portion of the meeting Mrs. Martin gave well deserved recognition to Jessica Serividio's year in the Town of Wappinger, prompting other Town Board members to add their thanks (remember -- actions speak louder than words).

So -- the meeting began with a discussion about the water situation for the Wappingers Falls Mobile Home Park on New Hackensack Road. This has been a long standing issue -- reaching a critical juncture where the homes need a new source of water. The property owner had hired Piaggi Engineering design a solution in 2023 -- with that firm hired as the town engineer in 2024 -- now requiring an alternate Engineer to represent the town for this project -- so this entanglement was the source of much merriment at the beginning of the meeting. However, the net of all the discussions - is that the United Wappinger Water District will need to extend the water line on New Hackensack Road, requiring the line to go under a stream bed (no mean feat). Other residents in the area would also be given the opportunity to connect to the water line. A discussion about buy-in fees, metering etc. ensued. And Ward 1 councilmember's canine proclivites kicked in and he asked if fire hydrants would also be installed (they are). More to come on the details of this project.

Consent Agenda

A whole series of Resolutions (2025-1 through 2025-29) were part of the Consent agenda, including the resignation of the Town Comptroller, Bank designations, designation of Poughkeesie Journal and Southern Dutchess News as official publishers of legal notices (that they also be included in the Town Website was the startling new idea proposed in 2025).

Some ammendments to a few of the resolutions included - reducing the number of town meetings in the summer months, adding more people to attend the Association of Towns Meeting and designating the Supervisor as the delegate and Councilmember of ward 1 the alternate - a move that the other town board members seemed to find hilarious - reducing the number of paid holidays proposed because there are "too many" - especially with the addition of Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday (wow, the optics on this are a bit difficult - not recognizing the day celebrating the end of enslavement) and tabling the lay-up decision of acknowledging the work of the Acting Supervisor of Building and Grounds -- and the trust that has been rebuilt in that department after a rocky 2024 start - and promoting him to Supervisor of Building and Grounds and properly compensating that work.

The Non-Consent Agenda -

Tabled the appointment of the CPA firm supporting the town -- the Town Board wants a presentation from the firm and a wrap up of 2024's work. This is essentially the same Town Board that oversaw the previous administration's financial management that required massive clean-up in 2024, so it is interesting to understand what insights they are now looking for.

Reappointed a member to the Planning Board whose term had expired, as well as the Planning Board Chair.

Reappointed the Chairperson to the Zoning Board..and in role as Chairperson.

Established a pay scale for seasonal recreation department employees.

Bid Discussion

In new business - a discussion about a bid that was opened that day for HVAC work for Reese Cultural Center -- something the board members have supported in the past - which will allow water service to be reinstalled in the buildings and the sports museum to open. There were two bids -- each around $140,000 -- about 1,500 apart in price. Rather than discussing in public... they tabled to executive session (why?).

The Board adjourned to executive session at 8:10 PM - remerging at 9:40 PM (***longer than the public board meeting***) --

So coming out of executive session -- the Supervisor asked for a motion to award the bid to the lowest bidder. Then came the justifications for going with the higher bidder -- because the warrenties were better (apparently having learned their lesson from other vendored work where the warrenties proved worthless in the past).... THEN -- came the remarks from the Town Clerk, that one of the bids should be declared "unqualified" because it didn't provide all the requested information -- so in effect, there is only 1 qualified bid. This was clearly not the outcome the majority of the board wanted - then came the tangled discussions of "can we ask the other one, can we negotiate, do we reject all the bids? with schooling from the town attorney on what is legal/not legal during the bid process. The supervisor had to keep correcting assertions that some how the process was flawed... the process isn't flawed... the bidders were given an equal opportunity to respond with the same information provided to each - and you can't change the rules, the negotiations afterwards. Trying to avoid further delays in the necessary repairs, the supervisor called for a roll call vote to go with the qualified bidder...and the resolution was defeated 3 to 2. So the bid process is going to be reopened... and we begin again. Please REMEMBER this is over an approximately 1% difference in price! So glad they are fighting for us on the right things!!

Happy 2025!