RENSSELAERVILLE — Changes are being made for the town’s newsletter.

Last week, Marie Dermody and Steven Wood, both running for town office, and Jim Glorioso, members of a committee created to develop guidelines for advertising in the town’s newsletter, gave the town board its recommendations.

The newsletter has caused contention in the community. Residents have questioned its content, its timeliness, its use as a political forum, and its cost to taxpayers. During budgeting last fall, the newsletter was budgeted $17,500 this year, $5,500 over last year.

This month, the newsletter went out to residents on Wednesday, Sept. 5. It included a note saying David Soares, the Albany County District Attorney, would visit Town Hall that evening at 6:30 p.m.

The newsletter committee recommends advertising rates drop to their previous rate — half the current rate. A full page advertisement, which costs $150, would be reduced to $75. Not-for-profit organizations will be given a reduced rate, of $60 for a full page.

All submissions must be received at Town Hall by the second Friday of the month. Submissions should be edited for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics, but no content will be edited, the committee says.

Because advertisements are placed throughout the newsletter, it is difficult for readers to know which are paid and which are free, says the committee. Free notices are allowed for such groups as seniors and Extra Helpings, a food-buying cooperative. The committee recommends placing paid ads in one section.

Free full-page ads will be allowed for emergency services, churches, and the library.

To encourage more youth to participate, the committee recommends a full page dedicated to their puzzles, stories, poems, and artwork, with submissions chosen randomly.

The new rates and the committee’s recommendations will be mailed to businesses and published in the town’s upcoming newsletter.

Politics"

Committee member Marie Dermody, a Democrat, is running for town council, and Steven Wood, a Conservative, is running for an assessor position in this fall’s election.

Last week, Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg read the newsletter committee’s recommendations.

Throughout the meeting, representatives from the beautification, the senior-junior bus, and land-use committees reported on their progress.
Near the meeting’s end, Dermody asked Nickelsberg, a Republican, why the newsletter committee wasn’t "extended that same courtesy."

Dermody, a member of the board of assessment review, has been critical of the board’s Republican majority voting as a block and eliminating the board of assessment review’s payment for its members.

Dermody said she would have been the member that would have read the committee’s recommendations.
"Is it an attempt to keep me out of the public eye"" Dermody asked.
"No reason," said Nickelsberg.
"It was my paranoid observation," Dermody replied.

Other business

In other business, the town board:

— Decided to count surveys on Sept. 28. Over 2,600 surveys were sent out this month to residents, who will choose either 5- or 20-acre zoning in the agricultural district.

Republican Councilman Robert Lansing and either Councilman Chase or Councilwoman Sherri Pine, both Democrats, will count them. Victor LaPlante, one of the town’s judges, will oversee the count. The deadline for the surveys to be returned is Sept. 25, and mailed responses must be postmarked by Sept. 25.
"This isn’t a Democrat-Republican issue," said Thomas Mikulka, the chairman of the land-use committee. "I don’t want to make this something political."

In early 2006, the town began working on a master plan for land use. Mikulka said new zoning laws and subdivision regulations will be available to the public by Oct. 1.
"Eighteen months is enough. We’ve had enough," said David Lewis, a dairy farmer. Lewis encouraged the board to adopt "whatever comes in" from the survey.

The town board is slated to vote on new zoning laws in November;

— Voted unanimously to send out a request for proposals for 50 yards of topsoil. Mikulka, who has been reporting for the beautification committee, suggested last month that a fence be erected at Town Hall to shield the town’s Dumpster.
Last week, Mikulka, who lives nearby, recommended trees be used instead. Mikulka said Susan Lewis will donate 20 spruce trees. "I’m going to take every one she’s got," Mikulka said. He estimated 50 yards of topsoil will cost $900. Wood recommended using soil near Town Hall for the project;
— Heard from Bob Bolte that Alexander "Sandy" Gordon, the incumbent candidate for the 39th District, has signs in town that violate the town’s laws. In 1998, Bolte said, he was given a citation for a political sign over eight square feet and was given five hours to take it down.
He questioned the enforcement of Gordon’s signs in town and, before talking to Mark Overbaugh, Rensselaerville’s building inspector and zoning enforcement officer, called it "selected persecution."

Overbaugh said, of the three signs in question, one is in Westerlo, another is either in Westerlo or Rensselaerville, and one is in the town. Overbaugh said he had contacted Gordon to take down the sign.
"How do you know he put up the sign"" asked Jeff Pine.
"It has his name on it, dips--t," Bolte replied.
"Mark was new and inexperienced," Pine said of Overbaugh when Bolte was cited for the sign in 1998.

— Heard from Nickelsberg that he has considered creating two trails — one for horses and one for bicycles — to connect the Partridge Run Wildlife Management Area, a state park in Berne, with trails in the Huyck nature preserve and the Cass Residential facility — both in Rensselaerville. Trails would also connect the town’s five hamlets, he said. Dorothea Cotter has agreed to look at possibilities, Nickelsberg said.
— Heard from Bolte that "over $30,000" has been raised for the junior/senior bus. The recently-purchased bus has taken trips to Washington Park in Albany, professional baseball games in New York City, Delmar, Cobleskill, and the Rensselaerville Institute. The bus, which cost about $57,000, is being funded through private donations. "We’ve got a little ways to go but we’re not worried about it," said Bolte.

Bolte recommended listing the names of those who have donated in the town’s next newsletter;

— Heard from Richard Feiner, a Preston Hollow resident, who, in recent years, has repeatedly asked the town to pave Edwards Hill Road.
"When’s the road going to be paved"" Feiner asked. "You have a petition signed by 42 people to pave that road," he said.
Councilwoman Sherri Pine said she had recently driven on the road. "For nobody living on it, it’s a large expense," she said.
"Is there a statute of limitations on a petition"" asked resident Marie Mahoney.

William Ryan, the attorney to the town, said that, while a petition should be updated, there is no statute of limitations.

Nickelsberg said the board will talk about it during its budgeting workshops;

— Voted unanimously to participate in Albany County’s health consortium feasibility study. The county recently pooled its employees together and is looking to include municipalities, and is applying for a grant through the Department of State.

The Town Board did not appoint a member to the county’s municipal services board as officials did not know when meetings will take place;

— Unanimously passed a resolution acknowledging September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month;

— Heard from Kathy Hallenbeck, the town’s clerk, that Sept. 20 is the deadline for all town departments to submit their budget requests for 2008. Hallenbeck will submit the tentative budget to the Town Board by Oct. 5. Officials scheduled a special meeting for Oct. 4;

— Voted unanimously to support a resolution in the county legislature to update the National Incident Management System;

— Heard a request from Dermody, a member of the board of assessment review, to re-instate the board’s budget. Last year, the review board’s $1,600 budget was eliminated;

— Heard from Nickelsberg that the town has received $404,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency relief to repair damages from April flooding, and he thinks the town will receive an additional $50,000; and

— Will discuss at its special meeting on Oct. 4 awarding bids for work to be completed on Tanglewood Road. Farmer Robert Seeger complained two years ago about his fields and pastures eroding. This summer, Lamont Engineers, hired by the town, concluded culverts were causing excessive runoff. The engineers estimated it would cost $27,863 to remove two culverts and replace a third.