DSS needs caseworkers and people to train them

By JEANETTE WOLFBERG

HUDSON – Issues surrounding a building Columbia County expects to purchase, cameras on school buses, and police officers in Questar III/BOCES’s Greenport building received attention at the County Board of Supervisors meeting September 13.

The county plans to purchase 11 Warren Street in Hudson for county offices and equipment (see “County plans to buy 11 Warren Street” in the August 17-24 issue of The Columbia Paper). The closing should occur “within the next few weeks,” according to Board Chairman Matt Murell (Stockport), Board Clerk Kelly Baccaro reported.

One current tenant of 11 Warren Street is a Hudson Youth Clubhouse. Before the full board meeting, about 20 people came to a Democratic Party caucus to urge the county to let the clubhouse stay there after the county buys the building, Supervisor Claire Cousin (Hudson, First Ward) reported. Ms. Cousin added that the county has no definite plans regarding that matter, and that the full board – not just the Democrats – will make the decision, but that the county is “committed” to holding a public input session about the building.

At the full board meeting, the supervisors unanimously authorized an agreement with S3 Design, Inc., for $387,500 for services related to redesigning 11 Warren Street “into office space to relocate several county departments.” According to the authorization resolution, the county “distributed a Request for Proposal to several architectural and engineering firms on August 7,” two firms responded, and the county liked S3’s proposal best.

Also at the full board meeting, Mr. Murell appointed a School Bus Camera Work Group, consisting of County Controller Jim Breig, Supervisor David Helsey (Germantown), Supervisor Tistrya Houghtling (New Lebanon), Supervisor Ray Staats (Clermont), and the County Attorney’s office. The board has been discussing the possibility of contracting with a private company for cameras on buses, for over a year. Exterior bus cameras record the license plates of vehicles that do not stop when coming across a stopped school bus. The violating cars’ owners get fined, and the police learn where such violations most often occur. Dutchess and Rensselaer counties already use the cameras, and Dutchess County officials have talked about them with Columbia County Supervisors. At the supervisors’ Public Safety Committee meeting this spring, Ms. Houghtling reported at least one Columbia County school district wanted to start using the cameras this September. But at a later Public Safety Committee meeting, supervisors reported that arranging for the cameras and putting them into operation will require more time.

The supervisors also authorized contracting with the Sheriff’s Office to provide a School Resource Deputy Sheriff to the Questar III/BOCES Greenport site from September this year through June of next year. The Sheriff’s Office has a similar arrangement with individual pre-k-through-12 school districts in the county, but this is the first year Questar is getting one in Greenport, though it already has officers at a site in another county, reported Questar’s Director of Communications Dan Sherman. For the School Resource Deputy, Questar is to reimburse the county $40,000, the same amount that each of the other county school districts is to pay for their School Resource Deputy.

A resolution stating opposition to a state bill that would require some town and village judges to be lawyers came up, but the supervisors sent it back to their Public Safety Committee to straighten out technical issues.

On September 13, the supervisors also renewed mortgage and property transfer taxes, and re-authorized “12 and 13-year-old licensed hunters to hunt deer with a firearm or crossbow during hunting season with the supervision of a licensed adult.” These local law renewals passed after public hearings at which nobody spoke.

The board also established, pending state approval, the Columbia County Land Bank Corporation to “facilitate the return of vacant, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties to productive use.” Examples of such use could include “increasing the tax rolls,” “increasing affordable rental and home ownership opportunities,” and “preserving green space.” Initially the board will have seven members: Supervisor Brenda Adams (Canaan), Real Property Director Suzette Booy, Supervisor Ronald Knott (Stuyvesant), County Treasurer and Emergency Medical Coordinator PJ Keeler, Mr. Murell, Planning Director Patrice Perry and Attorney Christopher Watz.

Other appointments at the meeting included:

*Robert Adriance, of the Churchtown Fire Department, to the Fire Advisory Board, until December 31, 2023, at the request of the Fire Coordinator. He replaces Laura Foster

*Melissa Miller, of Kinderhook, to the Environmental Management Council, for up to two years

*Reverend Robert P. Visser, as Volunteer Chaplain, with the Columbia County Emergency Management Office. He joins Volunteer Chaplain Warren Dorsch. Though the Reverends Dorsch and Visser are Emergency Management’s only two official chaplains, the office also “relies on” other “spiritual leaders,” as the circumstance warrants, the office said on September 21

*The board also authorized the Solid Waste Department to declare an International Dump Truck to be surplus and have it sold at an auction.

In all, the board passed 35 resolutions and 5 Local Laws that do not need resolutions.