A new face joined the Rosendale Town Board at its first meeting of 2016, on January 6: Stacy Lipari, a professional educator and currently director of the Creative Co-Op, took the seat formerly held by Bob Ryan, who did not run for reelection. Part of the annual organizational meeting agenda was the reallocation of liaison assignments to various municipal boards, commissions, departments and community agencies. Lipari will take on the roles of the Town Board’s official representative to the offices of the town clerk and bookkeeper, the Highway Department, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Economic Development Commission and the Rosendale Food Pantry.
Councilwoman Jen Metzger will wear a new hat as Rosendale’s official liaison on the Pilgrim Pipeline project — an issue with which she has already been deeply involved on an individual basis. Town supervisor Jeanne Walsh also reappointed Ken Hassett, who has now been off the board for over a year, as her deputy supervisor. The position carries with it a small annual salary.
Since Walsh customarily incorporates all the provisions required by law to be reauthorized annually into a single resolution, the organizational portion of the meeting proceeded very quickly, and the entire Town Board meeting was over in less than an hour. Besides voting unanimously to pass a resolution opposing the naming of the New York State Thruway Authority as a co-lead agency with the Department of Environmental Conservation, the newly reconfigured board also approved a change order for the work on the replacement of the Rosendale Town Pool.
During excavation to demolish the old pool, it was discovered that the drainage design in the original plan did not go deep enough to deflect groundwater away from the pool structure. The additional cost to dig more deeply was estimated at an $82,000 increase in the cost of the replacement project, according to Walsh. The town asked Weston & Sampson Engineers, Inc. to come up with an alternative solution that would not involve such a large cost overrun, and the consulting firm recommended a “drainage basin around the front side,” the supervisor said, at a cost of $48,803 above the original pricetag.
Once the drainage problem had arisen, work could not proceed without a change order, and “They need to dig before the ground is completely frozen,” said Walsh. The board voted 5-0 to authorize the change order and the additional expenditure. Town officials hope to have the pool back in operation in time for the 2016 swimming season.
Join the family! 
