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DUANESBURG
County levels business site, studies use of plot at Rts. 7, 20
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Demolition crews made short work of the former Check Marks Realty building, but the future use of the county-owned property is unclear.
    An excavator and a small crew from Jupiter Environmental Services made short work of the dilapidated building, reducing it to little more than a pile of stone and splintered timbers in matter of hours. The demolition stirred curiosity among those passing by, with some stopping to take pictures of the crumbling building that had become emblematic of the economic struggles at Duanesburg Four Corners.
    “They want to know what’s going on,” said Matt Latza, one of the contractors on site Tuesday afternoon.
    Workers will remove the remaining debris today, leaving only the building’s shale foundation. The site will be fenced off until county officials decide what to do with the property.
    Initially, the quarter-acre parcel was being considered for a substation to serve the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Department. But County Attorney Chris Gardner said the substation’s septic and water well would be located “a little too close for comfort” with regards to county Health Department standards.
    “It doesn’t look like its going to be on that site,” he said.
    For years, the Check Marks Realty building was a sign of the decay facing the hamlet of Duanesburg. The property at the bustling intersection of Route 20 and Route 7 had fallen into severe disrepair following the death of Glen Marks in 2006. ................>>>>...............>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01001&AppName=1

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“It doesn’t look like its going to be on that site,” he said.

but.........it will be there somewhere.....

Rene and Brad

any marketing thoughts to I87 Exit 13???
I-88 is the "Free" way down the east coast
philly, DC and others

go cheap - just a page on the town web site updated quarterly

you guys should make the most of it as we in rotterdam can get our heads out of our.....

Hey....Judy dago was the one with the 'pre election brainstorm' to have a substation there. Kinda like the 'pre election brainstorm' shehad for the library in the election before this last one.

See....now she is a prime example of 'recycled retreads'. these retread have got to go voters!!! Come on!!!

TippyCanoe,

Your suggestion is a good one.  However, until the town can find a way to bring public water and sewers to that area,
I suspect that most developers won't have interest.

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DUANESBURG
Fired worker put on leave pending probe
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.

    Members of the Town Board placed a fired Highway Department worker on paid leave this week and hired a private attorney to conduct a probe into a disciplinary matter preceding his termination.
    The board passed a resolution that “stays all disciplinary action” against highway worker Henry Kingsland, “including but not limited to his termination from employment.” The board also hired a law firm, Whiteman Osterman & Hanna of Albany, to conduct a probe “into an employee disciplinary matter,” according to the unanimously approved resolution.
    Highway Superintendent Steve Perog declined to comment on the matter Wednesday, citing the confidentiality of personnel issues. However, he did question the move to put Kingsland on paid leave and whether his salary would come out of the town budget or highway fund.
    “I’d love to hire another man, but I don’t have the money in my budget,” he said.
    Kingsland, who was terminated by the town last week, will be placed on paid leave, according to a resolution passed by the board. The town’s four highway department workers earn a base pay of about $47,000 with full benefi ts, according to Perog.
    Supervisor Rene Merrihew, who has been at odds with Perog since his election in 2008, declined to comment on the issue. She said she’s grown weary of Perog’s “ineptness.” ................>>>>................>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01002&AppName=1

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DUANESBURG
Lake Avenue resident lobbies for public road
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Even with summer just weeks away, Don Russo still has snow on his mind.
    For nearly two years now, the Mariaville Lake resident has waged a campaign to get his roughly 1,000-foot-long stretch of gravel street acknowledged among Duanesburg’s 46 miles of town-owned roads. Absent that acknowledgement, Russo can’t stop thinking about the hassle he and his neighbors will face whenever snow returns.
    During a heavy downfall in February, the dozen homes on Lake Avenue were snowed in so bad they needed to hire a contractor to plow them out with a bucket loader. Russo tried to keep up with his own plow truck, but simply couldn’t due to the heavy, wet snow that was falling.
    “That’s all we’re looking for — snow plowing,” he said recently.
    And he’s fairly certain the town is obligated to provide those services on his street. About fi ve years ago, Duanesburg installed a sewer line along the road without seeking easements, something that would have been needed if the road was a private thoroughfare.
    Moreover, Russo said the county Department of Real Property Services has the street listed as a nontaxable road, which he has taken to mean it’s public.
    Yet he said the highway superintendent and Town Board don’t seem convinced.
    Russo said Highway Superintendent Steve Perog was willing to plow the road, but wouldn’t do so until he received written authorization from the Town Board. ...........>>>>.................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01201&AppName=1

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DUANESBURG
A cloud of dust spikes local anger at highway chief
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Nancy Weis was settling in for the Memorial Day Weekend when a haze of dust descended upon her neighborhood on Duane Lake.
    The dust cloud, so thick she could barely see through it, was created by a town-contracted street sweeper as it whisked along the road around the lake.
    “People were diving into their houses, closing windows and shutting doors,” she recalled this week. “It engulfed the entire circle of our neighborhood.”
    Enough people complained about the dust cloud to draw the attention of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Spokesman Rick Georgeson said the street sweeping created “excessive dust that unreasonably interfered with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property” — in violation of state law.
    And this time, the DEC’s warning came with a ticket. Georgeson said the town received a citation for the dust cloud and is now working out a resolution with the state.
    “The case is currently open and we are in settlement negotiations with the town,” Georgeson said in an e-mail Friday. “No fi ne amount has been set yet.”
    Supervisor Rene Merrihew said the town received a notifi cation from DEC Wednesday. She was unsure what action the town could face, but was certain it will entail a fi ne.
    “I went to the neighborhood the day after,” she said Friday. “It was a horrible thing for those people.”
    The incident is almost identical to several that occurred in summer 2009. Following complaints about excessive dust, DEC offi cials threatened action against the town and ordered Highway Superintendent Steve Perog to refrain from sweeping the streets under dry conditions.
    Perog answered last year’s warning with an assurance that a 2,000-gallon water tank had been purchased for the sweeper and would be used to prevent excessive dust during its operation. At the time, town offi cials indicated they were unaware of the water tank purchase.
    Perog did not return calls for comment Friday. Board member Rick Potter said the private sweeping company was hired by the Highway Department but was unsure why water wasn’t used for the job on Duane Lake Road.
    “I’m not sure whose fault it was,” he said.
    Weis and several other residents from Duane Lake have speculated the dust cloud was retribution for complaints they lodged against the Highway Department over the winter. A group of residents had criticized Perog for using road salt in their neighborhood, which is located on a small lake used as drinking water reservoir.
    “I think this is payback,” she said.
    Board members have been at odds with Perog since he took office in 2009. In April, they reinstated a fired highway worker to his position after an independent investigation found that he was unjustly terminated by Perog following an on-the-job scuffl e between the two men.
    Tensions with Perog have grown to a point where board members are actively seeking a way to remove him from office. Under state law, any resident or the county’s district attorney can petition the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court to remove an elected official for “any misconduct, maladministration, malfeasance or malversation” incurred while in office. ......................................>>>>....................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1

It would appear that Mr Perog is at fault for the problem due to the fact that DEC the year before had warned him about the dust and he knew the need for water to be used to hold down the dust yet ignored the warning.

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Hillcrest Mobile Home Park tenants mistreated

    Recently I received a letter from the owners of Hillcrest Mobile Home Park — a notice to pay rent or leave.
    My rent has always been paid, but they want me to pay their school and property tax. I have documents [showing] that they are entitled to only 2 percent of my STAR, and since my home is under $55,000, there is no school tax and there is no law that I have to pay property tax. This is not my property; I pay rent.
    They have also put in their lease that every mobile home that comes in here has to have a concrete slab under it — at the homeowner’s expense. They are bringing in crummy old repo homes [and] putting crushed stone under them.
    Is this just a law for tenants or for everybody?
    Everyone who lives in a mobile home park, beware: If they get away with this, it could happen to you. This is just another way for the rich to get richer and the average person to go further into debt.
    I have lived here for 12 years — my rent has always been paid. I am a disabled old lady who lives on SSI.

    BARBARA HEIMLICH
    Duanesburg

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1

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Market to open for the season

    DUANESBURG — The Canal Street Station Market Co. farmers market will celebrate the opening of its 2010 season late this afternoon.
    The market, featuring fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses and farm-fresh meats, will kick off the season starting at 4 p.m. at the Canal Street Station Village Museum off Route 20 in Duanesburg.
    The market will run until 7 p.m. each Wednesday until September.
    Area vendors include the Carrot Barn, Worldlings Pleasure, R & G Cheese, Stonybrook Farm, Hornbach Flowers & Farm, and Sunshine Farm, among others.
    The farmers market is also accepting applications for new vendors for the summer season.
    Joe Merli's 1920s-era Wallace Armer Museum general store will also be open during market hours.
    During special events throughout the summer, the museum will be offering take-home barbecue, ice cream and more.
    The museum is located two miles east of Exit 24 on Interstate 88 or 4 miles west of Route 158 in Guilderland.
    It is located by the restored New York Central locomotive parked in the front. ................>>>>.....................>>>>............................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01005&AppName=1

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DUANESBURG
Town moves to make job appointed
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    After more than 16 months of wrangling with elected Highway Superintendent Steve Perog, Duanesburg officials took the fi rst steps necessary to make his job an appointed position.
    Members of the Town Board scheduled a public hearing next month to discuss switching the highway superintendent’s position from a four-year elected offi ce to one they appoint. Ultimately, they plan to set a November referendum for residents to decide the fate of the position, which has been a source of aggravation for the board.
    “Right now, the highway superintendent doesn’t have to answer to anyone but the people who elected him, and that’s only once every four years,” remarked board member Rick Potter, who also served as the town’s liaison to Perog’s department before resigning the post Thursday.
    The town had discussed possibly contracting with the county Department of Public Works to care for Duanesburg’s 46 miles of roads. But board members decided the town would be better off maintaining a road crew to care for town thoroughfares.
    The majority of the board’s two-hour business meeting was devoted to addressing issues within the highway department. Most notably, board members approved a $500 settlement with the state Department of Environmental Conservation after a highway department-contracted street sweeper created a massive dust cloud on Duane Lake in violation of the law.
    Dry conditions caused plumes of dust to rise nearly 30 feet in the air as the sweeper ambled around Duane Lake Road on Memorial Day weekend. The dust condition was similar to four instances that occurred under Perog’s direction in 2009.
    Supervisor Rene Merrihew said DEC officials exhibited a remarkable amount of leniency toward the town, which could have faced a fi ne in excess of several thousand dollars. In discussions with the agency, she said she explained the board’s mounting tensions with the highway superintendent and said that they wouldn’t defend his actions.
    “I let him know that this was something that we quite frankly couldn’t defend,” she said during the meeting. “The pictures [of the dust cloud] are horrendous.”
    Board members also amended the town’s procurement policy to only allow business with vendors now on record with the town. Any new vendors will require prior approval from the board before the town will make payments, according to the amendment.
    Perog, who sat quietly for most of the meeting, defended his job. He said board members slashed his budget, cut his salary and created a condition where his department can’t function adequately.
    “What do you do when you have such a limited financial ability?” he asked. “Just give me more money and I can fix it all.”
    Perog also defended his role in creating the dust cloud. He said his crews did spray water on Duane Lake Road and it was the contractor’s responsibility to realize that conditions were bad. .....................>>>>....................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00904&AppName=1

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DUANESBURG
Collector rescues old store’s cupola
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Long before the days of scanners and radio-based pagers, volunteer firefighters relied on the siren in Gideon Wilber’s store to alert them of a blaze.
    Fires were called into the centrally located shop at Duanesburg’s four corners and he’d flip a switch that activated a siren tucked inside the cupola. The siren would then echo throughout the town, summoning volunteers down to the fi re station.
    “That became the centralized alarm system until the fire station was built,” explained Joe Merli, a longtime Duanesburg resident and history buff.
    Wilber has long since died and the siren was removed once the Duanesburg Fire Department constructed its new facility farther down Route 7. And with the former Countryside Mart slated for demolition, Merli feared the cupola’s historical signifi - cance would be lost to the wrecking ball along with the building it adorns.
    “I hated to see the building destroyed,” he said. “I just wanted to keep a piece of Duanesburg history.”
    Merli, who has amassed an impressive array of industrial-era artifacts from around Schenectady County at his Western Turnpike property, decided to approach building owner Dave Vincent about acquiring the cupola. On Monday he and Mike Becker, the operator of the Duanesburgbased Pro-Motion Recovery and Towing, hoisted the six-foot-wide, eight-foot-tall structure off the building and onto a fl atbed truck.
    Merli now plans to have the cupola incorporated into the Canal Street Station Village Museum. He said the cupola appears to be part of the original 19th-century post-and-beam barn that was converted into a garage by Wilber in 1923.
    “It’s a great save for the town,” he said.
    Merli still isn’t sure where the cupola will fit into his museum, which already includes a General Motors-built E-8 passenger locomotive, parts of Schenectady’s Wallace Armer hardware store, and the Silk City Diner from Rensselaer County, among other items of historical signifi cance.
    He said he may build a mock gas station similar to Wilber’s old place to serve as the final resting place for the cupola. ......................>>>>......................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00703&AppName=1