Town Budget Passed, New Sidewalks On Their Way

Last Wednesday we adopted our town budget for next year. It is a sound budget based on rational principals - paying as we go and investment in toop notch services.  I made a few comments about how the snapshot nature of budgets mean you have to make forecasts based on the information in hand at the time of passage.  We all know that those numbers can and do change.  We'll keep an eye and things, and revisit them in the next few months to see where we are.  If we need to modify our numbers we will.

In other news, the Town Board kept a promise it made to the voters and approved a project to create new sidewalks in many parts of the town - on Feura Bush Road, leading up to the YMCA and a host of other projects.  In all, a small portion of the costs are borne by the Town so it is a net positive for walkability and pocketbooks.  Even more interesting is that these new paths will create better walkable and bikable access around town.  I was proud to forward the motion to approve the project - and my motion was seconded by my colleague, Councilman Kyle Kotary.  The motion was also unanimously approved.

Vote Tuesday

I've been a bit remiss in posting lately.  Work on the Town's Noise Ordinance Task Force, the Regular Town Board and Town Budget have me just swamped.  Yesterday I helped out with a own wide literature drop for our Democratic Team and spent some time talking to voters abotu our Assemblyman, Tim Gordon.  At the lit drop I caught up with Senator Neil Breslin who predicted great things on Tuesday.

Just wanted to post a message asking everybody to vote no matter who you are voting for.I was at an Obama rally yesterday in Albany that was really amazing - and our friend, Kate Powers gave a great talk about the importance of turning out on Tuesday.  I hope everyone gets to the polls.

Town Board Meeting on 9-25-2008

THE BUDGET.  After months of preparatory work, last night was the first presentation of a complete (draft of the 2009 budget.  We had a walk-through presented by Town Supervisor Cunningham and Town Comptroller Judi Kehoe.  Bethlehem, like the rest of the Capital Region is presented with a list of hard choices.  I invite everyone to check out the town website on Friday when the budget should be posted.

HOLDING THE LINE ON AMBULANCE COSTS.  Steve Kroll from Delmar Ambulance Corp came to talk about changes to billing for ambulance services.  They have been pursuing the ability to do charge-backs to health insurance so that they can avoid increasing taxes collected for ambulance services.  It looks like that will be a successful effort - so kudos to them for that.  Its a real benefit to taxpayers and will result in savings while still saving lives.

CREATING A SAFER WORK ENVIRONMENT FOR EMPLOYEES AND SAVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS.  We approved action to replace flow transmitters at the New Salem Water Treatment Plant - which will lead to safer conditions for workers and visitors at that facility.  We also rejected a separate contract where only one bidder came back with a bid because their bid was too high.  Its another example of how town government is working hard to protect the taxpayer.

RESEARCHING INNOVATIVE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY PRACTICES.  We approved a feasibility study to look at the possibility of creating a a hydroelectric generation facility inside the Town water system.  With the escalating cost of energy this system would help reduced town energy purchases and help moderate costs.  That would be a net benefit to town taxpayers and town operations.  Half of the cost for the feasibility study will be paid by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) .  This is another innovative way that the town is looking at to utilize current town infrastructure to our best advantage.

NOISE ORDINANCE.  We appointed two more people to the Town Noise Ordinance Task Force -- me, Mark Hennessey, and Chris Hanifin.  We are expected to accelerate the development of the an ordinance.  It has taken over a year for the development to get to where it is now.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT NEWS.  We funded a feasibility study for a new Thruway entrance on the south end of Selkirk.  This action would be taken in lieu of the green space absorbing Selkirk Bypass and it shows the town's committment to Economic Development that respects town residents and the environment.  I pointed out and Joann Dawson concurred that this study is only informational.

During the budget briefing, Town Supervisor Jack Cunningham pointed out that VISTA is moving forward and that a ground breaking is expected for later this fall.

Happy Labor Day

It's easy to lose sight of the importance of Labor Day. Many people see it as "the end of summer." Others view it as the last holiday before school restarts. But the truth is that it was a holiday set up to honor the common person for the work they do everyday. My wife pointed out a bumper sticker to me this weekend which said "Labor Unions: The People That Brought you the Weekend." Well, Labor Day is more of the same. The Wikipedia page listed here has a great account of who pushed for it, and its federal adoption as a holiday.

All us sacrifice our time and talent to the career we choose whether that be in an office or in a home. Some people have volunteer careers that, while unpaid, are a cornerstone of our community. Firefigthers and Ambulance Squad come to mind. Retirees should also be honored. They have chalked up enough service to be included in our thanks.

It is fitting that we all take a day to celebrate the hard working folks who make our country (and town) a great place to live. For that reason, it is one of the most important days of the year. So thank you one and all and Happy Labor Day!

Freeing the Airwaves

As some of you may know, I have spent a lot of time in my other career working on technology policy.  That's why I really enjoyed "Google Public Policy Blog: Time to "Free the Airwaves." America has fallen behind other countries in deploying broadband and we need to do everythign we can to catch up and pass our competitors.  creating better utilization for Whitespaces might play a part in that process.   Whitespaces, or the distances between transmitted frequencies, represent one of the lats unoccupied spaces in the radio spectrum - increasingly crowded and expensive real estate doled out by the FCC.  In recent years, the FCC has made some smart decisions and left open pieces of frequency so that innovative open services can be provided.  Cordless telephones and Wi-fi connections were the result of that smart policy.

Now, we have a chance to do it again.  Recently, I read another study about software programmable radios, that is radios that can listen for open frequencies and then transmit on those frequencies on the fly.  Whitespaces, or the distances between transmitted frequencies could be best utilized as a test bed for this technology.  One company, headed up by Vanu Bose, has donesome great work commercializing this technology.  I hope you will take a minute to sign the petition to the FCC asking them to open up whotespaces for these and other innovative purposes.

CART’s on the right track

I thought this blog post was great - grassroots working to move forward an important project. It seems everybody has rails (and trails) on their mind in the past couple of weeks. I posted this blog note about conversion of the old rail bed to a walking trail, something for which I have heard scores of support from constituents all across town. A properly implemented trail system makes a lot of sense. l I like the idea of creating transportation alternatives - as I believe that diversified mass transportation has inherent environmental and other benefits. And as town officials, we are doing what we can to make it happen. I’ve reached out to the company and to others to get a sense of where things stand and heard similar things to what David had. I have heard from many of my colleagues on the Town Board that they want this to happen as well. I will make this promise - the same one I made during the campaign - that this will get done.

Support for the walking/biking trail is not unanimous. I recently received an email from a constituent in Glenmont (who actually commented on the last posting) who said that he was more interested in setting up a light rail system from Bethlehem to Albany on the former rail bed. The constituent doubted that many commuters would make use of the walking and bike trail.

Having a light rail system in that area was an idea I have kicked around for a while a few years back, but one for which I had not heard a lot of support. Despite this, it was an idea I talked to CDTA about when I met with them a few months back. CDTA was more interested in Bus Rapid Transit - which given their current infrastructure (mostly buses) and need for flexibility that reflects growth patterns (which can change) makes good sense as a transitional technology. So, there are different ideas. The Times Union posted a story on light rail today (with a bit nebulous 1 billion dollar price tag) — see that here.

Understand, I think the walking and biking trail is the best use for the former rail bed and its what I am pursuing. Nevertheless, I’d love to hear from other constituents about their thoughts on the matter - please post below or email me at mark@markhennessey.com. And thanks to everyone who worked on gathering signatures and signing petitions. You are doing great and important work keeping this topic on the front burner.

Trails and Rails

I've recently received a lot of information about an Bethlehem and Albany Rail trail. As anyone I have talked to about this knows - I am a big supporter of the concept. A converted rail trail is a great idea for exercise and even bike commuting. Coupled with improvements to the mass transportation system it could really help to take a lot of cars off the road. That's good for the environment and for consumer's pocketbooks - both of which have to be something we think about all the time.

Unfortunately, as with other things in this world making it happen is not as easy as saying, "lets do it." In truth, there is a lot of work that will need to be done to:

• plan for the best method of environmentally sensitive paving,
• explore options for helping to maintain safety and security of foot and bike traffic and
• come to an understanding of how to effectively secure a trail that might cross several government jurisdictions.

And there will also be the issue of figuring out who will own the trail - the County or the town.

It will take some time to work out these details, but we will get them done. I committed to making it happen and it will. I have spoken to some of my colleagues on the Town Board and they agree with me on this.