Chester seeks new building inspector following Hand’s resignation

The town of Chester had its pocket picked. Building inspector John Hand, only hired permanently a few months ago, is heading to the Village of Woodbury. Town Supervisor Brandon Holdridge said Woodbury made Hand “an offer he couldn’t refuse” and that the town couldn’t match.

Hand had been making $90,000 per year as the town building inspector. Holdridge said that building inspector is a high demand position, and when word gets out that someone is good, it is not uncommon for them to receive offers elsewhere.

Among his other duties, Hand had been tasked with renewing expired permits in the town. Holdridge said, “Out of around 450 expired permits we started out with in January, we are down to around 200-215 that are still expired. However, we have sent letters to around 90% of the owners of the expired permits by this time. It’s a three-month process, usually, to get people in compliance. We send three letters, one per month, to an individual. If, by the end of the third month, there is no reply or effort being made, we will start court proceedings to get them in compliance.“

Interim building inspector John O’Rourke will have to get to work on that task. He was appointed as Hand’s temporary replacement while the town seeks a permanent option. O’Rourke is a part of Lanc and Tully, the town’s engineering firm.

Traffic

In news that will impact the driving habits of Chester and other area residents, the NYSDOT has alerted localities of its intent to move forward with a plan to expand 17M to three lanes and close exit 127 on Route 17, otherwise known as the Sugar Loaf exit. This is expected to greatly increase traffic at the Chester exit.

Town board members were divided on the 17M portion but were unified in their objection to closing the exit. They said they are open to writing a resolution against it and even organizing a petition campaign to send to the DOT. Board member Larry Dysinger said he feared the DOT did not care about the opinion of local residents on the matter. The board estimated the DOT might put their plans into action within the next three to five years.

Union contracts

A deal with the Teamsters union organized at Town Hall passed by 3-2, with councilmen Tom Becker and Dysinger voting against. Holdridge said he was unhappy with the process but felt the deal they bargained was the best they would get. The board cast aspersions against former Supervisor Robert Valentine, who bargained much of the contract during his time as a lame duck supervisor in November and December.

Becker said he did not like some of the concessions made by the town, including an increase of three to five personal days and a life insurance policy he considered redundant with the state policy. Holdridge described Valentine’s bargaining efforts as a “disgusting way to govern” and said, “I’m very unhappy with they way this went down.”

Valentine was watching the meeting on YouTube and told The Chronicle he had the greenlight from the board, including Holdridge, to negotiate. He said, “Why do they keep blaming me for everything, there’s a lot more to that story than their incessant deflection. Both Bob Courtenay and Brandon Holdridge voted to allow me to negotiate the union contract. I also negotiated the highway contract and the police contract and none of them complained about those. The town hall employees deserved to be protected from those animals.”

About 15 employees are covered by the agreement.

Sugar Loaf

Todd Hulet, executive director of the Orange County Arts Council, was on hand at the meeting. He was asking to have fees waived for an event at the SLPAC, except the $500 cleaning fee. The board agreed.

The board announced seven members of the new SLPAC Advisory Committee. They interviewed 15 candidates, all in one day, and said all the candidates brought something to the table. The seven members appointed are Brian Boone, Jeff Zahn, Lee Squires-Sussman, Chris Maurer, Kat Parrella, Elisa Maruottolo, and Ryan Senning.

The board, fresh off a rejection to have the speed limit of “downtown” Sugar Loaf reduced from 30 mph to 25 mph, is now appealing to the DOT to reduce the speed limit from the “Welcome to Sugar Loaf” sign to Bellvale Rd. from 40 mph to 30 mph. They also voted 5-0 to ask for a right turn signal on Brookside Ave. to come onto Kings Highway.

Other Business

The board appointed Martine DiPasquale as the chairwoman of the Chester Conservation Advisory Council. They authorized an expense of $51.50 for the town historian to attend an educational event at SLPAC.

The board also discussed the possibility of divvying up the remaining $70,000 in federal ARPA funding to deploy security camera at various places on town property. Dysinger proposed limiting the extensions for conditional approval at planning board hearings to two, from its current unlimited state, which allows some projects to remain on the docket for years. “My impression of it... is that it has been abused,” Dysinger said.