Library Bond Passes

On Wednesday, June 10, the Rosendale Town Board welcomed back Supervisor Jeanne Walsh. Councilmembers Bob Fade, Marc Cassidy and Carrie Wykoff were also in attendance. Ashley Sweeney was absent.

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance. Supervisor Walsh called a moment of silence for Kyle Robert Gear, a previous resident of Rosendale who passed away.

During public comment, Sheila Dixon from the library board of trustees reported that the library vote passed. “There were a total of 725 votes, 539 yes and 186 no,” Dixon said. “What's happening now is the library attorney is conveying the certified voter referendum documentation to the town bond counsel,” Dixon continued.

“Consistent with the bond, we’re waiting for a contract that says what the library is going to pay for during this, and how we're going to handle the payments,” Walsh stated.

Walsh expressed dissatisfaction that the Rosendale Library did not thank the board in their social media post, which thanked several other community members. “I just would like to say one thing. I mean, congratulations to you all. But I am a little disappointed that you guys posted a thank you to lots of different people and not a thank you to the town board for processing this bond for you,” she said.

The Rosendale Theater Collective’s “This Land is Our Land” event, slated for July 3, was given a conditional approval. “This event is part of a two-event series that the Rosendale Theater Collective received a grant from the Ulster County Clerk's Office to support,” presenter and Rosendale Theater Managing Director Jesse Heffler said.

“I was really supportive of this and wrote a letter of support for this grant, and I think the theater did an excellent job, and it's a great use of county funds to support this,” commented Ulster County Legislator Lindsey Grossman, who was in attendance as a public member.

Councilmember Wykoff informed the room of another Fourth of July event happening at the Rosendale Theater: “On the morning of the Fourth, there will be the public reading of the Declaration of Independence, also at the Rosendale Theater, and this is all part of the Rev 250 programming, so it's county-wide, you know, nationwide.”

“The building department reports 52 fees were collected from various permits and applications, totaling $7,855. The fire marshal reports one fire inspection, four fire re-inspections, two short-term rental inspections, two short-term rental reinspections, three property maintenances, and five burn permits,” Councilmember Bob Fade shared.

Councilmember Cassidy remarked, “Bob and I were talking about the cost of blacktop, fascinating, I'm sure, to all of you, but it went up from $60 to $82 a ton, so if you can imagine how much it costs.

“The much-awaited response from the Ulster County Traffic Safety Board to our pushback on the last year's traffic safety traffic study on the 32 to 213 circle and other town roads is supposedly being discussed at the DOT… that's nice rather than being ignored, but no formal response. That we really did push back. We, as the town, pushed back together with the county supervisor, county executive, and said ‘not good enough,” Cassidy continued.

The Rock Cliff House is delaying its opening for a season. “As you drive around the town, you'll see these signs shrouded in black, ‘The end is near,’ or ‘smile be happy,’ the update is that the culvert repair for the Rock Cliff House is put on hold, so those signs with their shrouds will be there for some time,” Cassidy explained.

While the signs are there for a detour, it is up in the air when the detour will occur.

“They're still working through some design issues, so it's possible it won't be until next season based on materials and lead time,” Cassidy said.

The board members discussed a compost program at the Transfer Station, like neighboring towns have. This idea was tabled until Spring to reconfigure and devote attention to other projects at the transfer station.

The Economic Development Committee is seeking new members. “I think for economic development you could be somebody who runs a business in the town,” Walsh said.

Several people were hired as Temporary Recreation Aides: Christine Kern, Gabriella Walsh, Morgan Hicks, Owin Simmons, Halana Mann, Connor Murry, Gabriella Knapp, Lazlo Buke, Karleigh Davis, Gianna St. Hilaire and Kyleigh Healy. Troy Hajba was hired as a part-time police officer.

The resolution to increase the High Falls Water District rates passed. Green Point was awarded the contract to do the solar project at the High Falls Water District in a separate resolution.

The local ADU law amendment was altered to specify the use of preexisting footprints. This will “allow multifamily dwellings within the footprint of the buildings, to have accessory apartments if you use the footprint that's preexisting. That means if it's an attic basement garage, something that's already up – so that we're not talking about putting something in the backyard separate from what's preexisting,” Walsh clarified.

The public hearing for the local ADU law remains open until July 1.

The meeting ended with two announcements from Grossman.

“I am sponsoring at the county level, a property tax exemption for families who are buying into affordable housing. This is basically to make sure that if you buy a Habitat for Humanity home or another similar home, that it's not fair that you are taxed at the market-assessed rate of your property, because you're never able to attain that. There's restrictions when you go sell it later, and so this would be, if passed, will be a 50% tax exemption for the county property tax for anyone who has a Habitat for Humanity or similar affordable home,” Grossman said.

“Number two, there's a very controversial proposal at the county level to have an income tax surcharge for people in Ulster County who make, as a solo filer above $200,000 taxable income, and then, for, you know, joint tax filers above $400,000 taxable income, and the proposal would be that for any dollar that you pay to New York State above those numbers, then Ulster County would add on an additional 16.75% so think of it as a proposed tax on a tax,” Grossman continued.

The Ulster County legislator is urging constituents to share their point of view with her on the proposed tax.

Supervisor Walsh shared that “this tax that's being proposed is heading down a dangerous, slippery slope,” and questioned whether “there may be some other ways for the county to look at income.”