The Town of Rosendale’s 2014 organizational meeting, originally scheduled for Jan. 2, was postponed until the following week’s Town Board meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 8 due to dangerous weather conditions. Following a status report from consultant Glenn Gidaly of Barton & Loguidice, DPC regarding progress toward submitting a grant application for New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation funding to upgrade Rosendale’s water supply system, supervisor Jeanne Walsh rolled all of the town’s many annual housekeeping items into a single resolution, expeditiously ensuring that town employees would continue to get paid.
The one surprise among the list of salaried positions reauthorized for 2014 was Walsh’s appointment of Ken Hassett to the position of deputy supervisor, formerly held by Bob Gallagher, who was elected highway superintendent in November. The post carries with it a $1,200 increase over the regular Town Board member salary of $6,123.
At the last Town Board meeting in 2013, Walsh engineered Hassett’s appointment to Gallagher’s vacated seat, despite the fact that he had placed third in a field of four in the November elections, rather than allow the reconstituted board to offer alternative nominations come January. But if any rancor about Walsh’s political sleight-of-hand was felt by newly elected board members Jen Metzger and Chris Pryslopski, they managed to suppress it during the first meeting of 2014, with civil discourse the order of the day.
Appointments of board liaisons to Rosendale’s many departments, boards and commissions was the next item of business. Incumbent Bob Ryan was designated liaison to the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Highway Department, the Water and Sewer Commission and the Youth Commission. Hassett was appointed to liaise with the Town Clerk, the Building Inspector, the Economic Development Commission, the Recreation Commission, the High Falls Water Commission and the Rosendale Food Pantry. Pryslopski was assigned as liaison to the Tax Collector, the Assessor and Assessment Board of Review, the Justice Department, the Environmental Commission and the Chamber of Commerce. Metzger was appointed liaison to the Planning Board, the Transfer Station, the Police Commission and the Dog Control Office.
New appointments to the various volunteer boards and commissions will be announced next month, said Walsh. She noted that two seats currently remain unfilled on the Economic Development Commission, and that Pryslopski and Metzger will have to be replaced in their previous roles as chairs of the Zoning Board of Appeals and Environmental Commission respectively.
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