VPD Station Renovation

I was told by the VB that anyone of us could have gone into the VPD Station and asked to look around to see what renovations were planned.  That sounds nice but........what would be the chances of catching the Chief there, afterall he could be off that day or out on tour of the streets.  Nice gesture by the VB but I do not buy it.  That is why I asked at the last meeting [I was ignored] then I asked again at last nights meeting......Can we just take a few minutes and go and look and listen to what the plans are for renovation.  I wanted to have a better understanding of how this money was going to be spent and was it actually needed.  I was surprised when my request was honored and off we went, about 8 of us to the VPD station.  The entrance to the station opens into a small lobby with a counter at the opposite side.  The counter looks like something you might see at a deli.  Not what I would expect to find in a Police station even a small station like this one.  The evidence room is a small closet,  janitors have bigger closets than this.  It is loaded with articles confiscated, that need to be inventoried until they are mandated as no longer needed by the county.  Some of these items have been in evidence for years and probably will remain there until who knows when.  It became clear to me that this station was in need of some serious work.  I did find out that the station was originally designed by B/C Architects.........what were they thinking.  The place is as open as Mayberry's Station, the only thing missing was Andy and Barney.  I could go on and on about the deficiencies of the design but I won't bore you........just listen to the first 20 minutes of the audio.
*************************************************************
We returned to the meeting and I heard the mayor say something about that was fun, we need to do more field trips.  Attorney Gebo muttered something about lets take a field trip to a pizza place next. As a result of all this, I can see that the work is needed................no more comments by me about this project..............well almost.........lets just hope that the project gets completed on time with a reasonable amount of billed labor...........
Anyone want to comment?

VB Meeting Nov. 11, 2008*****Audio

As one Anon. Commentor stated [ deleted BTW]  I rushed home and uploaded the audio.  Not for my own benefit but for our Village Community, so that anyone that wants access to it can stay informed.

This audio is the Public Hearing tonight regarding parking on Church St. in the area of the Reformed Church. Oddly enough nobody from the church showed up at this special public hearing.

The next audio is from the regular VB meeting.  I will add the time stamps of the highlights later.  We did go on a field trip to the VPD to see what renovations need to be done..........more later

Added later:

00:00 to about 20:00 Public concerns, this is where I voice my concern for the renovation project {Backed by Carol Shepherd, Kay Doheny, and a few others} and convince the VB to take a short field trip down the hallway to see just what they want done.  I did pause the audio till we all settled in at the VPD.

20:57 to 26:01 Department reports

47:52 Re-Levy unpaid taxes to Jeff. Co. Treasurer  $200,000 up from $60,000 last year.

51:32 Trash Truck trashed maybe need to replace, some discussion about shared services

57:39  Residential Complaint

Some items are discussed inbetween the above highlights.

Added this morning:  WDT article on lasts night public hearing

Abay Police Station Renovation

Its going to cost a couple thousand dollars in materials and probably the same in labor.  I am guessing the whole renovation price tag is going to be around 5 Grand, maybe a little less.  But do not worry folks the cost of this renovation is not going to cost the tax payers a dime.  According to Mayor Robb the money comes out of a special village savings account called the Municipal Building Fund which is for projects like the PD renovation.  Everybody NOD in AGREEMENT.......NOD NOD NOD..............Well I say WRONG and I am shaking my head NO NO NO.  I do not give a rats a$$ where that money comes from.  Our economy is going down the tubes and most people are following this philosophy:  Reduce spending and evaluate what you really need.  $ave our money for a rainy day.  Screw the bids and screw the project. That police station is fine for the time being.  Lets wait and see what the very near future brings before the VB votes on any more frivilous projects.  Stop spending our money like it will not ever run out.................

BTW.........two VB meetings ago, the Mayor mentioned something  about a "spending freeze".  He used that phrase with caution saying that he did not want to call it a freeze but implied that the Village should spend with caution.  Reminding the VB members that they need to approve any spending over $100.00.  Freeze the PD Renovation project

ABay VB meeting October 28

Click this link For the audio of last nights VB meeting.

Highlights from the meeting:

Move the slider to about 54:27 and you will hear the VB Secretary Laura Coles do a Roll Call Vote......First name she calls is Trustee Robb, the former mayor made the statement to Laura "that hurt".........

Water Rate Decision for the Redwood Water District:35:45

Renovations to the Village PD office. That topic starts at about 41:11


Advertise to hire a Full Time Police Officer: 1:1:30

R. Leslie and R. Lester>>>>>The Drakes

The WDT reports on the 2 Drakes running for VB Trustee.  If you were not confused before reading this article, then you might be dazed and confused after reading it.  I am going to have to get pictures of Richard the elder and Richard the younger, then post them when referring to either or both........

Republican Richard Drake

"The Younger"

Running for 1 year term Village Trustee

Democrat Incumbent Richard Drake

"The Elder"

Running for a 2 year term

Officer Pitts

I received the comment below and thought to myself, this is not your typical anonymous said statement.  So before I published it, I called Mayor Robb to ask him if anything happened today between Chief Mullaney and Officer Pitts.  The Mayor told me that the Village Board relieved Officer Pitts of his duties today.  The Mayor also stressed that Chief Mullaney did not make this decision.  Let me repeat this for some of this blogs slower and dim posters.......The Village Board Made This Decision.... NOT Chief Mullaney
There are no details about the removal of Mr. Pitts from his position today,  Mayor Robb stated that this is a personel issue and no specifics can be discussed with the public.


Anonymous said...



Officer Pitts was FIRED today by the Chief. What is wrong with this Village Board?


September 24, 2008 5:55 PM

Water Meters to be installed at Town Arena

The Old Village Ice Arena now owned by the Town of Alexandria will have water meters installed at the 5 sources that supply water to the facility.  The meters will be installed by the Village to monitor the water usage at the rink.  The purpose of the meters is not to generate a water bill for the town.  Mayor Robb wants to be able to report back to the Village Residents how much water is being donated to the Town.  The mayor stressed that no water bill will ever be sent to the Town.


WDT article link.

Tonights VB Meeting 9/23/08

The Audio for the meeting is here!

Two Village employees tender resignations:

Officer Jonathan Pitts effective September 28th, to take a position on the Watertown PD.

DPW Superintendent Roger Jobson effective October 8th, to take a position with the NYS DOT.

Both will be greatly missed.  Good luck to both of you!

pg

VB Meeting

The Village of Alexandria Bay will hold a regular board meeting


on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 5:30pm


at the Village Municipal Complex

VB audio August 26 & September 9

Took awhile to get together with Dotster, but I will be adding audio from the VB meetings.  The following link is from the VB Meeting on August 26th  and the VB meeting on September 9th .

Again a BIG thanks to Dotster over at ABAY.COM for helping me with setting this all up and hosting the audio

Help, I fell and..................

A letter was written by a tourist who fell on a sidewalk in the village.  The person described the location as being in front of a pizza place at the corner of Church St.  It was an oddly written letter describing his/her fall on a trecherous sidewalk.  They asked that the sidewalk be fixed before someone else got hurt.  While listening to the Mayor read this letter, an image of a location came to my mind.  I was not the only one who had this little revelation.  I automatically assumed that it was the sidewalk in front of Slice of the Bay.  But as it turned out it was the sidewalk in front of the Korner.  Later in the meeting Trustee Sweet asked that Roger Jobson [Village DPW Supt.] have his men repair the sidewalk in front of Slice of the Bay.  Evidently they damaged it when looking for a non-existent water shut off earlier this spring.

Republican Nominee's

The Republicans running for VB Trustee are:

Cindy Chaltain for 2 year term
Kay Doheny for 2 year term
Richard Drake for 1 year term...............This would be Richard from BCYB

L.W.R.P.

Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan will be presented in a public hearing during the early part of October.  Check out the Village web site for the hearing date and time. 

Old Chamber Building

The VB set a cap for advertising the sale of this property at $500.00.  The VB wants to try and sell this property without a realtor.  The parcel will be advertised in area papers from here to Rochester.  In addition the ads will be placed on the Village website and on Craiglist.  Good luck............just hire a realtor.  Save the 500 hundred bucks and put it towards road salt or hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza and beer at the next few VB meetings.  Maybe some more of the D or R candidates might show up to the meetings.  BTW some of the usual spectators were absent tonight,  where were you?

Executive Session

I asked the question:  What is the criteria for executive session discussions?  Attorney Gebo gave me what he called the short version explanation.  I will give you the watered down version.  Executive Session is for topics of personnel, labor negotiations, or litigations.  Evidently there was a billing dispute between the owners of the Harbor Villa's and the Village of Abay.  This was going to end up in litigation but an agreement was reached.  Disputes heading towards litigation like this one are discussed in executive session.  This was not your typical water bill dispute.

The VB assumed that the public would understand that this was a potential for litigation.  I asked that they place a remark in the meeting minutes stating briefly why something like this was in executive session.  For example: Harbor Villa water dispute [possible litigation]

Salt is Bad For You

......and for Village and Town Budgets.  Actually it could gobble up a local budget eating into surplus money.  It all depends on the winter.  The VB wants the salt reduced in the sand mixture.  Last year the cost of salt for roads was $41.00 per ton, this year it will cost local towns and villages $129.00 per ton.

Tuesday, September 9th

At 5:30 pm there will be a Village Board Meeting. 
Remember, the first part of the meeting is for public concerns/opionions............and no you can not voice them anonymously.

Tonights Democrat Caucus

The audio can be found here.  

Richard Drake nominated for a 2 year term
Helethea Roy nominated for a 1 year term
Steve Jarvis nominated for a 2 year term


I was asked to run, but I declined.

The article in Today's WDT can be found here.

Parking Meters

I could not believe what I saw today!  I have always known that the meters were free on Sunday's.  But I never knew that the meters were active on american holidays.  The 2 most prominent holidays that I am concerned about are 4th of July and Labor day.  The 4th is a give away since the Village shuts down all of the meters on Church St and makes them No parking- tow away zones for the evening fire works.  At the last VB meeting the board voted unanimously to extend the monitoring of the meters till Sept 15th which is a 2 week extension.  Since we have this extension, the Village could certainly over look the Monday Labor day holiday and give the meters and the staff that patrol them the whole day off.

 If you click on the picture of the meter it will zoom to a larger image, you will notice that the days for meter exception are Sundays and Holidays.  Holidays has been scratched off with a sharpie marker.  How about this........ Parking enforced with the exception of Sundays and all Holidays.............both American and Canadian Holidays..... Instead of calling it Holidays it could be called Tourist Appreciation Days.

pg

Thoughts?  Comments??

A comment from Curmudgeon

**note** Curmudgeon is referring to the regular session ending at 6:20 pm, followed by executive session. This session lasted till 8:16 pm. It was in this time frame that the Harbour Villas was discussed, which should have been done in front of the public during regular session. Click this link to access the minutes from the VB website.  Scroll down to the bottom of the minutes.  There ya have it!!

Curmudgeon responded to the x mayor with this

agreed, x mayor...the meeting two weeks ago, they went into "executive session" to discuss personnel issues and came out of it with a compromise on Merola's overdue water bill. Since they never said they were going back into regular meeting, they voted on it with no input from the public. It's in the minutes.

Sounds illegal to me. Besides.... Now, I want a compromise on MY water bill!
cur

With these insights from others I now see that the VB meetings may not be going as smooth as I once thought. Also a very good example of why I need input from all of you that comment on this blog.

pg