first HOW can you hold the parents responsioble and if the kids dont have the money what kind of stunads are you people over here to think they can forced by somebody to PAY? give then the service and that if they catch them but dont charge the parents or the kids they have college and that and the government doesnt do enough to give them resources to make that all possible over there. Why dont you repubs have some heart? jesus would forgive and you should to. the main reson this happens is that he repubs who run the town dont provide the security to stop it and we need a police force out there to do that and that is what taxes are for you fools
Responsible parents will make their kids be accountable. If the kids are too young and don't have the money, responsible parents will ususally pay for damages and encourage legal discipline, which I also agree should be working along side the volunteers repairing 'their' damage. Depending on the kids ages of course.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Get a hold of the town before the world does.....I love Duanesburg.....I say put a town square in the center and roundabout that......ya know, like a 4th of july, hotdogs, hamburgers fireworks square........JMHO
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
DUANESBURG Highway chief’s good deeds reined in Board wary of repairs done on non-town property BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Steve Perog was driving through the Duanesburg Elementary School parking lot recently, when a giant pot hole nearly swallowed the tire of his Toyota Prius. The town’s first-year highway superintendent was worried another vehicle might hit the depression and possibly injure a child or teacher. So without being asked, he took it upon himself to grab a few highway workers and $20 worth of asphalt to patch a few of the bothersome holes during a lunch break. “You can tell me that’s wrong,” he said Tuesday. “But is it wrong when little kids and teachers are trying to get to school?” The deed is among a number Perog has directed since taking over the office that don’t fall under his purview. On occasions, he’s ordered town crews to sand the volunteer fire company parking lots and he used donated supplies to help build a foot bridge connecting a nature trail to the privately owned Duanesburg Area Community Center. But while Perog’s actions might have been altruistically motivated, the Town Board hasn’t viewed them favorably. Last month, Supervisor Rene Merrihew issued a letter to Perog asking him to refrain from providing Highway Department services to private entities and entering into contracts with other public entities. “Basically, we did what we could to protect the town,” she said. “The liability issue is the biggest issue. Nobody is questioning his benevolence or generosity for doing the work.” Others suggested Perog’s activities are greater pattern of him operating the department outside of established rules. Bob Wall, the town’s former supervisor, said the highway superintendent’s actions may be “the tip of the iceberg” and called for him to resign. “OK these are good deeds,” he said. “But it’s not the town’s responsibility to do them,” Perog paints a dramatically different picture. He doesn’t consider his actions any different from previous highway superintendents and suspects the board’s issues are politically motivated. “I’m doing my job,” he said. “If they want to have fun being political, that’s fine. But I’ve got a job to do.” And he has the support of some town residents. Cindy Brasmeister, a member of the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Company and Quaker Street Fire Department, lauded Perog for helping out when both needed their parking lots sanded in the middle of a winter storm. “He’s doing things to help his community,” she said. “But he’s always made sure to take care of the [town’s] roads first.” Perog is the latest highway superintendent to be at odds with the board. Francis Spor came under fire last year after several residents complained about a lack of maintenance on Duanesburg’s 46 miles of roads. Spor, a Republican serving in his first year of a three-year term, argued his department’s threemember staff and highway budget was inadequate to correct a department that had been grossly neglected for years. The board discussed abolishing the department altogether when Spor abruptly quit in August, less than two weeks after a series of powerful thunderstorms caused significant damage to many of the town’s roads. Perog, a former Republican who the party overlooked for Spor in 2007, beat GOP board member Martin White in an election that was decided by 13 votes. He suspects his win still has some people in the party upset. But Merrihew said ...>>>>....http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01100
EDITORIALS How Duanesburg’s Mr. Nice Guy can also be Mr. Wrong
Duanesburg has always been known for hardball politics, and that goes a long way toward explaining why the town’s new highway superintendent, Democrat Steve Perog, seems to be getting so much trouble from Republican officials for basically being a nice guy. Perog is a former Republican who changed parties and squeaked into the job last fall — beating his Republican opponent by just 13 votes. Since taking over, he’s gone above and beyond his job description on several occasions, sanding the parking lots of volunteer fire companies and the community center, filling potholes in the elementary school driveway, etc. While no one seems to be complaining that he hasn’t fulfilled his obligations to the town, some Republicans — including current supervisor Rene Merrihew and former supervisor Bob Wall — think he shouldn’t be lending a helping hand to others in this fashion. They cite the liability issue, and the fact that town taxpayers are, in effect, footing the bill for others. And technically, they’re right: Perog could conceivably be exposing the town to a lawsuit were an accident to occur after one of his people sanded a driveway or filled a pothole; or if a town worker got injured in the process. We live in a litigious society, to be sure. Sand costs money, too, and why should a town resident pay the town to have a fire department parking lot sanded if he doesn’t even live in that fire district? But it also seems the Republicans are being petty — not wanting Perog to score points with townspeople, lest he become so popular they won’t be able to beat him if/when he runs for re-election in a couple of years. That’s small-town politics shining through. ....>>>............. http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00702
DUANESBURG Voters to decide on $14.8 million school budget
Duanesburg voters will decide Tuesday whether to adopt the district’s 2009-10 budget, which carries a modest increase in the tax levy. The proposed $14.8 million spending plan is an 0.29 percent increase over the previous year’s budget, according to figures released by the district. If approved, the budget will carry a 1.67 percent boost in school taxes, the lowest increase over the past decade. Polls will be open from 1 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Duanesburg Elementary School. Business Administrator Brenda Kane said federal stimulus funding was used to help reduce staff cuts and the earlier proposed tax rate increase of nearly 4 percent. Initially, the district anticipated trimming up to seven full-time jobs. “We are using the federal funding as it was intended — to save jobs that were proposed to be cut during the budget development process,” she said in a statement. The spending plan also falls below the threshold for a contingency budget. If voters reject the plan, the district will only be required to trim an additional $34,000 of spending. Voters will also decide among a pool of six candidates to fill three three-year seats on the district’s Board of Education. Board president Raymond Hawes and vice president James Breitenstein — both veteran members of the board — have decided against running for re-election. Candidates include Capital Region BOCES teacher Christina Loukides; home improvement contractor William Wenzel; information manager Henry “Gus” Geidel; Schoharie River Center executive director John McKeeby; and Subway district manager Charles Mueller. Incumbent Bridget Holmes, an adjunct instructor at the College of Saint Rose, is running for her fourth term. .....>>>>>.....>>>>.....http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01103
DUANESBURG Ambulance corps back in action Volunteer unit working to overcome difficulties BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
When most people were settling in for the evening Thursday, Bill Grimm was racing down to the ambulance station on Cole Street. The emergency tone went shortly after 6 p.m., when a woman in her 80s began having difficulty breathing. Grimm, a 63-year-old retired Niskayuna police officer, was at home rounding out the last of his six-hour shift with the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps when he got the call — two hours and a trip to Ellis Hospital later, he returned home. Like all of the company’s nearly three-dozen volunteers, Grimm regards his time as an ambulance driver for the non-profit company as being well worth any personal inconvenience. Also, volunteering a few hours with the company is far better than the alternative, which is no local ambulance service at all. “A lot of people don’t realize there aren’t vast numbers of volunteers,” said Grimm, who also serves as DVAC’s president. Internal strife and a lack of volunteers brought DVAC to the brink of insolvency just one year ago. But a strong core of dedicated volunteers has battled to bring Schenectady County’s only volunteer ambulance company back from near-dissolution. Today, the company still struggles with filling its roster and occasionally has to rely on mutual aid companies when volunteers aren’t available. But things are better. “There has been a complete turnaround,” Grimm said. DVAC first began seeing problems around 2003, when about a dozen active members refused to answer calls. They cited the heavy-handed leadership of Capt. Bruce Smith as their main reason. One former assistant crew chief claimed Smith had kicked him out of an ambulance they had ridden together to a call. Others refused to publicly discuss issues, fearing retribution. The disgruntled members tried to oust Smith from his captaincy during corps elections, but were unsuccessful. The sudden appearance of more than two dozen absentee ballots helped re-elect him. As a conciliation to the striking volunteers, the board of directors established a grievance committee they could use to challenge some of Smith’s disciplinary authority. But the committee never materialized and DVAC’s problems continued to fester — the results showed in the company’s performance. CRISIS POINT “They saw the need for change, but they couldn’t get it for a long period of time,” said board Chairman Charles Leoni. By January 2008, DVAC’s active roster had only five emergency medical technicians. At one point, overall membership dipped to about a dozen volunteers; the sparse crew was able to fill only three of the 28 shifts needed to cover the town. The company began missing scores of calls. Fearing the organization was on the verge of collapse, town officials decided to withhold their annual contribution, slightly less than a third of the company’s annual budget. Town Board members also directed the state police dispatchers in Princetown to divert all emergency calls away from DVAC if the company couldn’t muster a crew in under three minutes. That made it virtually impossible for the company to respond to emergencies, thereby clipping its other primary revenue stream. The allotted time was later extended to eight minutes, giving the volunteers a fighting chance to make calls. But the company continued to flounder. The failures came to a head in May 2008, when in a surprise move, Leoni announced 13 members of the company would be deemed inactive and expelled. Among them were Smith, his wife, and a board member. All the expelled members were offered a chance to reapply but none did. The expulsion prompted about two dozen volunteers to return. Town Board members also agreed to restore funding on a month-bymonth basis throughout 2008. Since that time, the board has revised the company’s bylaws and reduced the number of elected positions. They did away with several officer titles, limiting the authority structure to a captain and assistant captain. Leoni said the changes helped streamline DVAC’s leadership, allowing the organization to run much smoother. The new bylaws also gave increased weight to the board in the decision-making. “Overall, it runs much smoother that way,” Leoni said. Costs were also brought under control. Two of DVAC’s four ambulances were taken off the road, saving the company thousands of dollars in insurance premiums. The company addressed its lack of EMTs by entering into personnel-sharing agreements with several local fire companies. DVAC ambulance drivers can now answer calls without an EMT on board, provided there is one from a local fire company at the scene. “Everybody is willing to help everybody else in a time of need,” said Lorraine Cacciolfi, who was elected captain of the company in January. STILL A CHALLENGE Like many volunteer organizations, the company has had diffi - culties in finding new members. Many of the volunteers are unable to fill the company’s daytime shifts, meaning they’re sometimes scrambling to find a full crew. They’ve also struggled with keeping volunteer hours manageable. Grimm said it’s not unusual for a volunteer to put in upward of 30 hours with DVAC, which is a lot for someone with a full-time job. But the alternative isn’t something any of the volunteers want to consider. Without DVAC, Duanesburg would be solely reliant on agencies from nearby towns. During the height of DVAC’s internal turmoil, ambulances were being dispatched from the Rotterdam Emergency Medical Services nearly 20 minutes away. The Greater Amsterdam Volunteer Ambulance Corps in Montgomery County and the Schenectady-based Mohawk Ambulance also helped on a mutual aid basis, along with ambulances based at volunteer fi re companies in Burtonsville and Esperance. Grimm said the outlying ambulances were a temporary solution during DVAC’s shake-up. But because of their distance from the town, response times for emergencies were greatly inflated. He also doubted that a private company would have much interest in picking up DVAC’s territory, had the company folded. The company only answered 137 calls during their reorganization last year and is up to about 85 so far this year. “I don’t think they could make a profit,” he said. DVAC’s brush with insolvency jarred some community members into volunteering. Debbie Suitor had never worked for an ambulance company before, but felt compelled to join DVAC when she learned of its problems last year. “They needed members, so I joined,” she said with shrug. “If I’m helping the community, that’s what it’s all about.” Pam Naze decided to join the company in October after learning of its membership woes through her fiance, who also volunteers. With urging from DVAC’s leadership, the former nurse’s aide is receiving her EMT certification and is soon hoping to work with the company. .......>>>>...........>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01101
A little more than a year ago we were writing about the possible dissolution of the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps. That was an unpleasant prospect, but at the time seemed the only way to liberate DVAC from the small clique who had effectively hijacked it. Fortunately, dissolution turned out not to be necessary, thanks to some good moves on the part of the town. As a result, today we are writing a much happier editorial, about how the corps has stabilized and is coming back. There’s still a way to go, but at least it is no longer on life support. The clique was led by Capt. Bruce Smith and his wife (former chairwoman of the board of directors), who treated the company like their personal fiefdom. Eventually their actions and attitudes drove away many dedicated volunteers and discouraged others from joining, and DVAC’s active roster shrank to the point where it couldn’t be relied on to answer calls in timely fashion, or at all. For too long the Town Board watched, reluctant to get involved in the affairs of a private organization. But this is one private organization with a very public mission, and the town was providing about $43,000 a year, roughly one-third of DVAC’s budget. When the town finally did act, last spring, it did so decisively. It cut off funds for the corps and told state police dispatchers to call emergency crews from Rotterdam or Schenectady instead. This was designed to get the DVAC board to dump the Smiths; but when that didn’t happen, the Smiths being so firmly in control, the town found another way to get rid of them. It required all interested members to sign an active roster — and when the Smiths and some others, in a show of defiance, refused to sign, it used the corps’ own bylaws to force them out. After that it didn’t take long for people to start coming back, new leadership to emerge, and things to improve. There still aren’t enough volunteers, especially during the day, and sometimes outside agencies have to be called. It is very hard to get volunteer emergency workers these days, which is why we have endorsed Sen. Charles Schumer’s bill to provide a $1,000 federal tax credit for such service. But the crisis last year reminded Duanesburg residents of what they have, and brought DVAC some new, committed members. It could use more.
DUANESBURG Blue plate special: One diner, $1 Owner hoping to refurbish structure BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
One dollar won’t buy much at today’s diners. At most local malt shops, a buck is hardly enough to buy a soda, much less the ice cream and whipped topping for a float. But for Joe Merli, a dollar was all it took to buy a whole diner. Late last month, the Duanesburg man found himself the proud owner of a defunct Silk City Diner that had been dormant for the past four years. Now it sits on blocks alongside Merli’s Western Turnpike workshop, awaiting its place among the period structures he’s built and refurbished as components of the Canal Street Historical Society. “This is a village being developed,” he said the other day. “The diner is just another feature.” Originally, the concrete and steel structure housed the 9 & 20 Diner in the Rensselaer County town of Schodack. The restaurant’s owner moved the diner to build a free-standing structure and was trying to sell it to a private buyer when the deal fell through. DINER DEAL That’s when Merli, who had inquired about the diner last winter, got a call from the owner. He said the man offered him the diner for a dollar, provided he could move it within a week. “I got a call in March and he said if you move it, it’s yours,” he said. So Merli contacted Ric Lucia, the operator of Pro-Motion Recovery and Towing, who had previously helped him move a 60-ton locomotive. One week later, the diner was loaded onto a trailer and hauled nearly 30 miles to Duanesburg. The diner is the second kitschy, mid-20th century eatery to abruptly appear along the rural stretch of Route 20 between Princetown and Duanesburg. In 2007, Tom and Sally Ketchum purchased the former Chuckwagon Diner and moved it more than 890 miles from the Midwest. Last fall, the Ketchums hoisted the 38-foot-long, 17-foot-wide structure onto its concrete foundation. Ketchum said he’s made significant progress and could open for business as a full-service authentic diner sometime during the late summer or early fall — though he’s not setting a date quite yet. “We’re coming along pretty good,” he said. “It’ll get open when it gets open.” Merli’s plans for his diner aren’t nearly as ambitious. However, his overall vision for the area he dubbed Canal Street is every bit as grandiose. .......>>>>.........>>>>.........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....2&Continuation=1
Diner moves to Duanesburg museum Diner is addition to Duanesburg museum
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published in print: Sunday, May 31, 2009
DUANESBURG -- With its peeling paint, the rusty old stainless steel and porcelain diner on Joseph Merli's five-acre property on Route 20 might be mistaken for an eyesore.
But to Merli, the 40-by-14 foot eatery he acquired from the village for $1 fits perfectly into his 1940s-themed Canal Street Station Village Museum.
Renamed the Miss New York Central Diner, the structure will go nicely, he said, in front of the General Store at what will be the intersection of Market and Canal Streets, next to a charcoal gray restored locomotive. Before that happens, he and friends will spend at least a year refurbishing the former Country Side Diner, once a popular gathering place along Routes 9 and 20, Schodack.
Some of the bigger projects will include adding a complete kitchen with an old monitor-top General Electric refrigerator, steel cabinets and washbasin sinks. The renovations will be in sync with the time period.
"I feel like I'm putting something back in America, representing the craftsman, and a time gone by that a lot of people remember," said Merli, 58, a carriage builder by trade.
HISTORY PRESENTATION DELANSON — The Duanesburg Historical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, June 15, in Bishop Scully Hall. Guest speakers Paul Stewart and Mary Liz Stewart will present “The Underground Railroad,” stories of slaves passing through Albany on their way to Canada. This event is open to all.
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