ALTAMONT — A year after suits, countersuits, and controversy were settled in Altamont’s quest for water, more facts are seeping to the surface.

Last month, Wayde Bush asked the village board if it had been offered $100,000 to settle with the Trumplers for water. Mayor James Gaughan answered that the village was not offered $100,000 by anybody.

This month, Trustee Harvey Vlahos, developer Jeff Thomas, and his attorney Paul Wein, said that, yes, Thomas had offered $100,000 to Michael and Nancy Trumpler to settle with the village and get the well water on Brandle Road connected to the village’s system so that Thomas’s senior housing project could go forward.

In March of 2004, the village agreed to a purchase option with the Trumplers for about five acres of their land on Brandle Road where engineers had discovered water months before. A year later, in April of 2005, the Trumplers filed papers in Albany County Supreme Court, seeking to get out of their contract with the village. The Trumplers meant for the water to serve the residents of the water-strapped village, they said, and they objected to Altamont’s plans to give water to developer Jeff Thomas, who had plans to build a 72-unit senior housing complex just outside the village.

Although the Trumplers hadn’t sued for any money, the village filed a counterclaim against them for tens of thousands of dollars. In June, Thomas sued the Trumplers for $17 million, claiming interference.
"Everything was bogged down in litigation," said Wein, this week, the village wasn’t getting its water and Thomas’s project wasn’t able to move forward. "Jeff said, ‘Look, if it takes money to just move this thing and put it to an end, I’ll put some money up" and that’ll be the end of it,’" said Wein. That’s when Thomas made his offer to give the Trumplers $100,000 to drop their suit and move forward with the village, he said.

That money came with strings attached, though, Gaughan told The Enterprise on Wednesday. Thomas requested that the village grant him immediate access to municipal water, rather than waiting until the new wells were on line, and he wanted a waiver of the benefit assessment fee, which would total roughly $62,000 to connect all 72 of his units to the water system, Gaughan said.
The village didn’t accept Thomas’s offer, Gaughan said Wednesday, because of the conditions. "We were the ones who started the settlement negotiations," said Wein of the offer to get the Trumplers and the village to settle. As it ended up, "They spent the $100,000," he said of the village.

According to the April 4, 2006 settlement agreement, the village agreed to pay the Trumplers $125,000 for the original 4.88 acres and then an additional $100,000, for which it got adjacent acreage.

Trustee Vlahos, who has decided not to seek re-election, raised the matter at his last village board meeting on Tuesday as he criticized the board, with which he has often been at odds.

The village bought the initial five acres, Vlahos told The Enterprise, "then settled the suit with the Trumplers by paying them another $100,000." How can the village just pay them additional money" Vlahos asked. One way of justifying that settlement was getting more land; the village got another 30 acres, he said, which is not to be used until after Michael Trumpler’s death.
"We could have had Jeff Thomas pay them $100,000, which, instead, we paid," Vlahos said.
At February’s village board meeting, Bush, a former village trustee, asked about the offer. "I was just curious," he said, "were you guys offered $100,000 to settle the Trumpler suit""
"We were not offered $100,000," answered Gaughan.
"I was just wondering why we didn’t accept that offer if it was on the table," Bush said.
"We were not offered $100,000 by anybody," said Gaughan. None of the trustees answered Bush, who said he had been hearing rumors.
"Did I lie" No," Gaughan said when asked about his answer to Bush. "Did I, in the context of that question, tell an untruth" No."

Gaughan maintains that his answer was truthful because, he said, the village wasn’t offered $100,000; rather, Thomas proposed that he would pay the Trumplers to settle with the village.
In December of 2005, the village said that it was Thomas who was holding up the settlement process, Wein said on Wednesday. At the time, he and Thomas were involved in negotiations with the Trumplers and didn’t want to jeopardize the process by discussing the terms publicly, he said. Gaughan has been holding up the senior housing project, Wein said, adding, "It just seems that the mayor is hell bent on blocking the senior project from going forward."

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Recently held an extra meeting to hire an employee for the public works department to replace Larry Adams while he recovers from an equipment injury;
— Heard from Gaughan that there has been a hold up in getting the new wells on Brandle Road connected and ready for use; the electrical contractor has requested an extra 90 days. "We’re doing all we can to exert penalties on them," he said;

— Heard from Gaughan that he hopes to expand the farmers’ market in the village this coming summer, with the help of Linda Cure;

— Heard from Gaughan that the senior citizen luncheons have included more entertainment recently, thanks to help from Linda Cure;

— Heard a reminder from Tim McIntyre, the village’s superintendent of public works, that the sidewalks in front of residents’ houses are their responsibility to keep clear of snow;
— Heard from resident Norman Bauman that he is still having problems with the post office. Last summer, the village invited postal staff to a board meeting to address concerns from residents who had been having problems with the Altamont post office. "Sometimes I get mail, sometimes I don’t," Bauman said;

— Heard from Vlahos that $2,800 of village money was spent without board consent on banners to put on telephone posts around Altamont. The village board is supposed to vote on expenditures of village funds, Vlahos told The Enterprise later, and Gaughan and Trustee Kerry Dineen bought the banners without any vote;

— Held a public hearing on the second local law of the year, extending the moratorium on subdivision for three months, until July 3, 2007. No residents spoke and the board passed the law unanimously;

— Voted unanimously to adopt Phase 1 of a new village water policy. The policy was created by McIntyre, Dineen, and Richard Straut, an engineer from Barton and Loguidice, the village’s engineering firm. Phase 1 of the policy states that single family houses adjacent to the current water infrastructure and all residents within the village will be allowed a connection to the municipal water system. Discussion of the second phase of the policy was tabled until the next meeting;

— Voted unanimously to hold a budget workshop in the village’s courtroom at 6 p.m. on March 20;

— Voted unanimously to hold a budget public hearing at 8 p.m. on April 17; and

— Heard a proposed campaign finance resolution from Vlahos, which he wanted to table until the next board meeting for the board to vote on. The resolution states that, historically, campaigns for political office in the village have been run on no more than $500 and that expensive campaigns have a negative effect on the village’s character.