On Tuesday, May 21, a minority of eligible voters will vote on school budgets around the county, with all-too-predictable results.

With the usual turnout barely breaking double digits, teachers, parents and various vendors who supply services will easily carry the day.

Some school districts, like Kingston, will mail informational flyers to all registered voters. Unquestionably, there is a lot positive to report on our schools. What we don’t hear as much about is performance — how our students stack up in critical areas like math, reading and science.

According to the State Education Department, the New Paltz school district ranks the highest in the county. Kingston and Ellenville?

Mario Catalano, my partner in broadcast on our Me and Mario program on WGHQ-AM, will go into greater detail on our Friday morning program. Tune in from 7-9 a.m. at 920 on your AM dial. To stream the show live, or listen to it later, click here: https://vimeo.com/user173056939

In Support of Hochul

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s off-the-cuff remark this week — that children in the educational wasteland called The Bronx probably don’t know what a computer is — drew a firestorm of criticism. But that’s not what she meant.

Not that I can read Her Honor’s mind, but verily it is said, the governor surely knows that the minority children to which she referred must surely know about computers. They see them in the hands of better-off financially classmates all the time.

The governor’s point is that poor kids can’t compete with richer kids without the proper tools. And if they can’t compete, their futures are grim indeed.

The governor didn’t go so far as to recommend that all kids should be given the means to succeed. But she should.

Just Chuck Being Chuck

Say what you will about senior U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, he gets around, usually with a big check in hand.

But not this time.

Last week, Schumer took a break from his heavy duties as Senate majority leader to stage yet another press photo-op at railroad crossings in Kingston at Foxhall and Flatbush avenues. Chuck came with a promise to pursue $3 million in federal funding to offset the $9 million estimated project costs for this undertaking.

With just a promise — not the money — the senator gets Page 1 in the news-starved daily, along with fellow Democrats Mayor Steve Noble and County Executive Jen Metzger? Why County Clerk Nina Postupack was invited, I have no idea. She’s a Republican and Republicans almost never get invited to these party parties. And she has zero authority over city railroad crossings.

As for those crossings, they’ve been there since railroads first came to Kingston, around 1870. I’m not saying there are no safety issues, but $9 million for some sidewalks across the tracks, road markings, and better traffic signals?

I haven’t seen anything this hare-brained since former alderman Bill (no relation) Reynolds advocated for “noise barriers” around Midtown railroad tracks.

As for the Postupack inclusion, it’s widely rumored that the long-serving clerk and county Democrats have an unwritten understanding that she will not seek another four years in office when her term expires at the end of next year. That the popular clerk, who loves her job, is recovering from cancer may have also been a factor. Should Postupack retire, Democrats will hold every countywide office.

It is written here for the first time that Deputy County Clerk Taylor Bruck will be the designated heir apparent. Just to be sure, Bruck, who also serves as Kingston city historian, has been lobbying fellow Democrats for the job for at least the last year.

Hats Off to Gaby

Here, I’m not referring to Assembly candidate Gabi Madden, who seems to have gone off the radar even as she faces incumbent Sarahana Shrestha in a June 25 Democratic primary, but to the courageous Gaby O’Shea of New Paltz.

Readers will recall that O’Shea, then barely into her 20s, was struck by a hit-and-run driver (apprehended shortly after) on Route 299 west of New Paltz as she rode her bike from work in the village. She was severely injured and underwent years of treatment and rehab. A factor in the near-fatal accident was the lack of shoulders on a road the state considers a scenic highway.

The response from the Hein administration was swift and decisive. Former county exec Mike Hein, appealing to his better angels, immediately ordered the county highway department to draw up plans for widening and paving the shoulders to create safer bike paths for bikers and pedestrians.

So far, so good. Hein left county service early in 2019 to his political reward in Albany, even as O’Shea suffered the tortures of recovering her physical and mental health. In a recent article in Hudson Valley One, she said that while she has regained much function, she still considers herself an invalid.

So, what about those road shoulders on Route 299?

A county spokesperson tells us that the engineering and design for what would amount to a two-foot strip of highway for about two miles has been completed, but the problem has been in getting adjoining property owners to allow access across their front lawns. Apparently, the county has been reluctant to employ its rights of eminent domain.

County officials also tell us that the project, originally estimated at something less than $4 million, has risen to an estimated $9 million. The salve is that the feds will reimburse 80 percent of project costs.

And they have yet to turn a spade of earth after six or seven years! This from a continuum (counting acting executives) of rabidly pro-biker/pedestrian administrations with in-house lawyers falling over each other?

Words escape me.