Kicked out at Christmas
Village stops Fisher’s water, leaves her homeless



ALTAMONT — Last Christmas, the Fisher family awoke to polyester bedspreads and unfamiliar pictures on the wall. After the village shut off their water in December, they moved into a hotel on Washington Avenue where they opened presents around a $29 Christmas tree from K-Mart.

Water flow to their house, at 6319 Gun Club Road, had been cut to one hour per day after Alice Fisher, a widow with six children, fell behind on her water bill.
"She has been grossly in arrears in her water and sewer," said the village’s lawyer, Guy Roemer, on Wednesday. According to documents from the Albany County Clerk’s Office, Fisher owes the village $6,732 for water.

In a resolution passed by the village board on Nov. 21, 2006, the board agreed to accept a second mortgage from Fisher and a portion of her wages, together with a title search and money to cover court record costs, which amounted to about $100, in exchange for continued water service to her house. Roemer said that her lawyer, Nicholas Grasso, never provided the title search and that there were already three mortgages on the house.
"That means that we would not be getting a second mortgage," he said. "We would be getting a mortgage that has basically no value."

Grasso, who was working pro bono for Fisher, did not return calls from The Enterprise over the course of months, but stated in an affidavit dated Dec. 21, 2006 that the additional mortgages had been discharged in bankruptcy.
"It’s very humbling," Fisher said yesterday with a quiver in her voice. "I’ve never been homeless in my life. It’s embarrassing." She checks in on her house regularly, to mow the lawn and get the mail, she said. It needs some repairs, too, she said, like a new roof and doors.
"We couldn’t stay at the hotel," said Fisher. "After a couple of months, I couldn’t afford to pay it anymore." She works at a day-care center and is taking classes at Maria College in Albany with the goal of becoming a junior-high teacher, she said.
Fisher hadn’t expected the stay would be that long, she said, and five of her children were living with her at the time. "I promised my kids I wouldn’t split them up, but I ended up having to."

One of the hardest things, she said, was having to give up a grandchild because the courts determined that she was homeless.
Things have been hard for all the children, she said, ever since their father, Robert Fisher, died in a tractor accident while working at Altamont Orchards in 1998. He "was hardworking and honest, a good-hearted guy," a fellow employee told The Enterprise at the time. "They don’t come much better than that."

Fisher hopes to move back into her house soon. She’s kept up with the mortgage and heating bills, so her pipes wouldn’t freeze over the winter, said Amanda Vennard of Senator Neil Breslin’s office. Fisher approached Breslin for help after the village turned off her water.

Fisher, like other residents of Gun Club Road, lives outside of Altamont, but receives village water for a higher fee.
For the roughly two months that Breslin’s office was involved, Vennard said, "We were doing our best to reach out to the village on her behalf, to let them know of the financial hardships this has put on her." Several people, including Fisher’s Maria College professors, approached the village on her behalf, said Vennard.
"It really comes down to the village making the decision whether or not they want to allow her to go on a payment plan or garnish her wages," Vennard said.
Mayor James Gaughan would not discuss current litigation "because," he said, "it is not following due process."

Roemer said the current legal situation is at a standstill, although he isn’t handling the case himself.

In December, Grasso filed an order to show cause. He was attempting to enforce the village’s November resolution, which accepted Fisher’s wages and a second mortgage in exchange for turning on the water. It was dismissed in February. Roemer said that there is another case filed against the village by Fisher, though neither he nor Gaughan would discuss it.

During an executive session on Tuesday night, the village board discussed current litigation concerning Fisher, Gaughan said after the session.

Asked earlier this spring for copies of all the resolutions made by the village board in the month of November, Village Clerk Jean LaCrosse gave The Enterprise a copy of the minutes of the November village board meeting, omitting the Nov. 21 resolution. A Freedom of Information Law Request filed on Wednesday by The Enterprise for information regarding the resolution went unanswered. When asked for the information later in the evening, Mayor Gaughan said that it was "unreasonable" to expect a response immediately; the law allows five days.
Before Christmas, Fisher bought some used games to put under the tree for her son, "just little things like that," she said. "Socks and underwear, things that you need, but you can unwrap." For dinner, she cooked a small ham. "We ate very quiet, very solemn," she said of Christmas dinner with her children. "I heard a lot of complaints from them, but the quietness is almost worse."