Woodstock can’t pay its bills this month. Councilmembers Bennet Ratcliff and Maria-Elena Conte abstained from approving the vouchers at the July 18 meeting of the town board. Bills totaling $434,786.15 will have to wait until the August 8 meeting for approval.
With member Laura Ricci absent, the board didn’t have the three votes it needed for passage. Town supervisor Bill McKenna and councilman Reggie Earls were in favor of paying the bills.
“We owe Callanan [Industries] $180,000 for paving,” a vexed McKenna fumed. “Think about what the interest on that bill could be if it were late. Plus, we want to sign a contract with them to do more paving. So Ratcliff and Conte said the vouchers had not been available until hours before the meeting. McKenna said that had never before been a problem.
“Bennet and Maria-Elena used to come in first thing Tuesday morning, and they’d sign the bills. If they had questions, they’d ask,” McKenna said.
For at least the past 23 years, the town board has reviewed the vouchers and signed them. The town board has then voted on a resolution to pay all the vouchers at its second meeting of the month.
Waiting until the day of the meeting to sign vouchers ensures that there is no backlog until the next month. “As long as I’ve been involved, 20 years, vouchers were signed on the day of the business meeting so that we are up-to-date,” McKenna said.
On occasion, some councilmembers have come in on the day before the meeting and then come back the next day to sign the rest of them.
“It takes an hour or so to go through the vouchers for a typical voucher run. So if they can’t do it on the day of the meeting, they can come in the day before and get at least most of them,” McKenna explained. “So this idea that they don’t have enough time is just ludicrous. They haven’t done their job. They missed for four months now out of this year in not reviewing the bills. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s the most important job the town board has.”
McKenna said that from time to time he and his predecessor, Jeremy Wilber, came to the meeting with late vouchers that were important to get paid.
Delay can potentially affect the town’s credit rating, expose it to interest and penalties and damage its relationship with vendors.
“Not once have they asked for any accommodations,” McKenna said of Ratcliff and Conte.
White pine dieback
The great white pine dieback has come to Woodstock, warns tree committee chair Michael Veitch, who is seeking funding to address the problem.
“It’s just starting. It is fatal to white pines, and it is moving very rapidly. There are approximately four different insects and blights that are impacting the white pine. This is a well-documented situation that apparently does not have an easy fix,” Veitch told the town board. “The tree committee is seeking best practices and what other parts of the greater Northeast are doing to deal with this situation.”
Woodstock has a lot of white pine trees.
Veitch said the tree committee will be requesting $5000 to address the situation.
To date, state authorities are not offering any easy solutions.
“My primary concern, of course, is the safety, and we have a lot of white pine. It dies very quickly,” Veitch warned. “I manage a property in the state, we had to remove 74 dead white pines just last fall, and it’s a one-acre lot. And so I’m just saying, when they die, that’s the end. You can’t bring them back, and then we’re going to be stuck with a lot of dead timber.”
Veitch is concerned about the fire hazard from the dead trees. “We’re experiencing the smoke from the Canadian forest fires. So we’re getting a little taste of it, and I just think it should be a wakeup call. We have a situation potentially, I’m not saying it’s here yet,” he said. “We have a lot of eastern white pine on the Comeau property. And I’m looking at dead ones right now.
“The problem with this particular diabetic is it happens very quickly. The pine needles turn brown, and that’s the there’s a fungus that’s affecting them. There’s an insect, it’s affecting them. There’s a blight that’s affecting them.”
Access TV sound problems
Public access Channel 23 producer Fanny Prizant says the lack of audio is a continual problem for many viewers. It needs to be fixed.
Woodstock Town Supervisor Bill McKenna said it was impossible to get cable TV provider Spectrum to do anything about it without the addresses of those affected. Nobody has yet provided any.
“We need to hear back from the public in Woodstock. They can call my office, and then once I get addresses [Spectrum] can go and look specifically at what the issue might be,” McKenna said.
Those affected can call 845-679-2113, ext. 17 or email supervisor@woodstockny.org
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