Town of Salem New York

Question for everyone in Salem ???????

With less than 40% of the folks in Washington County using the transfer stations should the other 60% foot the bill to keep them in operation, or should they be sold or leased to another firm that can make money at it. At the present time it cost taxpayers $ 700,000 to supplement the program.

LET’S MEET AT NIGHT
There is not a single Town in Washington County that would think of holding its regular monthly Town Board meeting at 10am. But that is exactly what we do for the regular monthy Washington County Board of Supervisor’s meeting.
I propose that the Washington County Board of Supervisors change the time of the Monthly regular full Board meeting to 7pm.
In my opinion, having the County meeting at 10am disenfranchises the working class. If you are not retired or are self employed, the deck is stacked against you being able to observe or participate in these County meetings unless you use up a sick day. You may consider using a sick day if an issue coming before the Board was super important to you but do we really only want people to attend if an issue is SUPER IMPORTANT?
At a recent Feb 17th Board of Supervisor’s meeting I turned around in my chair and did a head count of the audience. There was only about 15 persons present and many of them were County Department Heads who were on the clock.
I have been told that night time meetings were tried once before and the attendance level did not change so they moved the time back to 10am. My question is if the attendance remained the same, why bother to move it back to 10am? The logical answer is that a daytime meeting is more convenient to the Supervisors and Department Heads. I have also been told that if the meetings are not held while Department Heads are on the clock that attendance might actually go down since they would be less inclined to attend. Well…… this begs the question do the Supervisors and Dept Heads work for the public or is it the other way around? Department Heads are salary positions so no extra OT would be incurred to attend an after hours meeting.
Even if attendance does not improve, I for one would feel better knowing that a much wider population segment at least has the opportunity to observe their local government in action. This is what open government is supposed to be all about.
If you are with me, please contact your local Supervisor. If I am your Supervisor, comment here. In order to make this happen, a 2/3 weighted County Supervisor vote is required to change the standing rules of the Washington County Board of Supervisors. Seth
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LET’S MEET AT NIGHT
There is not a single Town in Washington County that would think of holding its regular monthly Town Board meeting at 10am. But that is exactly what we do for the regular monthy Washington County Board of Supervisor’s meeting.
I propose that the Washington County Board of Supervisors change the time of the Monthly regular full Board meeting to 7pm.
In my opinion, having the County meeting at 10am disenfranchises the working class. If you are not retired or are self employed, the deck is stacked against you being able to observe or participate in these County meetings unless you use up a sick day. You may consider using a sick day if an issue coming before the Board was super important to you but do we really only want people to attend if an issue is SUPER IMPORTANT?
At a recent Feb 17th Board of Supervisor’s meeting I turned around in my chair and did a head count of the audience. There was only about 15 persons present and many of them were County Department Heads who were on the clock.
I have been told that night time meetings were tried once before and the attendance level did not change so they moved the time back to 10am. My question is if the attendance remained the same, why bother to move it back to 10am? The logical answer is that a daytime meeting is more convenient to the Supervisors and Department Heads. I have also been told that if the meetings are not held while Department Heads are on the clock that attendance might actually go down since they would be less inclined to attend. Well…… this begs the question do the Supervisors and Dept Heads work for the public or is it the other way around? Department Heads are salary positions so no extra OT would be incurred to attend an after hours meeting.
Even if attendance does not improve, I for one would feel better knowing that a much wider population segment at least has the opportunity to observe their local government in action. This is what open government is supposed to be all about.
If you are with me, please contact your local Supervisor. If I am your Supervisor, comment here. In order to make this happen, a 2/3 weighted County Supervisor vote is required to change the standing rules of the Washington County Board of Supervisors. Seth
Leave a response »

As County Supervisors we have the difficult task of deciding whether to stay in the Nursing Home and Public Health business. Feelings run deep as to how county residents feel about this matter, there are those that feel the county home is a safety net for folks on Medicaid and can’t afford healthcare any other way. There are those that feel the county should not be in the business using tax dollars to support a program that is being subsided over 3 million dollars for Pleasant Valley alone, Public Health will be around $ 800,000 in the hole .
Washington County will be sponsoring public meeting throughout the county to hear from residents as to how they feel about this matter. Let your opinion be heard either on this page or on the Town of Salem’s Facebook page.
February 14, 2012 Whitehall High School
February 15, 2012 Greenwich High School
February 16, 2012 Hudson Falls High School
All meetings start at 7:00

Given the state of the ecomony we are seeing many dogs left homeless. This expense becomes the tax payers of Salem problem If anyone out there has a old plastic dog house or and old pen or would like to donate food please contact me at the Town office 854-3277.

Some folks say its the Town of Salem, that should be using taxpayers dollars to fix the stream banks north of the Town, to prevent future flooding. Some folks say we can not change mother nature and it would be a waste of tax dollars. What do folks think. Share your thoughts.

If anyone knows of a family who is still struggling with re-building after hurricane Irene and did not receive FEMA help, please give me a call at the Town Office. The Salem Fund has some monies and may be able to assist on a limited basic.

The preliminary budget has passed and the taxes for Salem will be down 1.5% for this coming year. I have turned over every stone possible and with this new 2% property tax cap it very important to keep things in check. Going into 2012 the Town has a comfortable fund balance and we have established a savings plan for capital equipment for the future needs. Putting all this effort into it makes me wonder and ask why the school and county can’t do the same. Its hard to for us as a Town Board to bust our butts to keep taxes down and have the other hand take it away.

Starting on the 2012 budget and my goal is to keep taxes at zero. I will look at every expense and search for any possible revenue to help our budget. With the 2% tax cap at our door it is a must to keep expenses in check. Elderly folks who have had no increase in there S/S in three years as well as everyone else are struggling. I will keep you all in the loop as we progress.

Now that things are starting to calm down, I would like to say how proud I am to live in Salem. After the flood folks came out to help each other and a real hometown spirt was in the air. Thank you to everyone who helped get the food pantry back up and running in a new spot.