Woodstock Town Board Special Meeting February 2

This article appeared in the Townsman, February 5 edition

Woodstock, February 2, 2009

A special meeting of the Woodstock town board called to consider supervisor Jeff Moran's motion to solicit architectural services to help determine the costs of renovating the Elna Ferrite building for municipal purposes ended after discussion marked by sarcasm, insults, extreme changes in prior positions, and a 2-2 vote that failed to carry the motion. Councilman Chris Collins was absent.

In 2008 the town board engaged the services of architect Robert Young, who for a total of $4700 had consulted with town officials and department heads to devise a floor plan for the soon to be empty building located on the Bearsville Flats just west of the town center. At a December 2008 meeting departments heads representing most of the Town services, including emergency dispatch, police, justice court, assessor, and town clerk expressed enthusiastic approval of the Young floor plan, and urged the board to take action with respect to determining the cost of effecting the renovation.

The Town cannot offer up a bonding resolution without first knowing an approximate cost. At a December 30, 2008 meeting the town board, in the supervisor's absence, moved unanimously to take steps toward evaluating the Town's facilities. The notice published in two editions of the Town's official newspapers seeking architectural services attracted only two responders. It was the supervisor's hope that his refined proposal would attract more.

It now appears the councilman Jay Wenk has an extremely low opinion of Young's work, claiming that the proposed office space in the Elna building is too large. He also thought the Town should investigate the now-empty Overlook Press facility located near the Elna Ferrite building.

Councilpersons Terrie Rosenblum and Liz Simonson, in their only area of agreement, both thought the Overlook Press facility was "not appropriate."

Simonson became particularly caustic and self-contradictory, at one point suggesting that the board forget Young's product and "get someone who really knows what he's doing," but later asking, "Who in their right mind would go out an study a building he doesn't even own?"

The owner of the Elna Ferrite building, Diane Legier, has offered to sell the building for its assessed value. Because of the vagaries of the equalization rate this could mean anywhere from $840,000 to $1.1 million.

In a report made in 2008 Moran suggested that even at the higher purchase price, the cost of buying the building and renovating it would be cheaper than the proposed Town Hall renovation, which came in at $2 million dollars once the bids were opened, and which would do nothing to improve the extremely tiny and unsafe onsite parking situation. The Elna Ferrite facility has ample parking. For the last eleven months Moran has tried to coax the board toward engaging professional services to help determine a responsible estimate of the total cost of purchase and renovation. He has stressed that such determination would not necessarily constitute a decision, but only serve as an alternative to the Town Hall renovation to consider.

All this seemed to have been forgotten, Wenk expressing that "I feel I am being pushed to Elna, and I don't like that," and Simonson rolling her eyes and directing sarcasm at of all of 2008's work on the matter. Moran and Rosenblum voted for the resolution, Simonson and Wenk against it.

The 4:00 PM meeting had begun with the unanimous vote to advertise for a new animal control officer, and ended abruptly at 4:50 subsequent the failed motion.