Last week, county government announced that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority had committed $2 million to the construction of a proposed Ulster communications center in New Paltz hard by Exit 18 of the Thruway.

The question is, does NYSERDA really know what it’s getting into? At this point, details are scarce, but it sure looks good on paper.

Located on 57.3 acres of a former apple orchard, the state-designated brownfield lies about a mile east of the village off Route 299. The state-of-the-art communications center will be sited on about 6.5 acres. Its 15,000 square-foot building will feature solar power on its roof, and heating and cooling machinery deep underground. Heavily insulted, it will leave no carbon footprint, according to officials.

The county scooped up the long-vacant property after numerous proposals by would-be developers failed. Originally on the market at over $3 million — though critics claimed its assessed value as vacant farmland was far less — the county bought it for $2.8 million with County Executive Jen Metzger taking credit for negotiating a $200,000 reduction.

As county development goes, this one moved along almost smoothly. The parcel went back on the market about three years ago. Initial estimates called for a $25 million project to be completed last year. Requests for bids went out a month ago with a targeted construction start planned for early summer. Officials expect construction to take between 18 and 24 months, which in the latter case would result in an almost three-year delay from its original completion date.

Whether original cost projections hold up against these kinds of delays is questionable. This year’s budget set aside $18 million from surplus for the communications center, which now appears to be only a generous down payment on the final bill.

A word about that. Metzger, in a press release, claimed the $18 million wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything since it came from surplus. And who, dear executive, do you think funded that surplus?

Proponents contend that a new communications center to replace out-of-date facilities on Golden Hill in Kingston is absolutely necessary, and they’re probably right.

Complicating these rosy projections is one very large elephant in the parlor, which is to say those brownfields. It isn’t exactly atomic waste, but pesticides saturating the soil from generations of apple production could be extremely expensive to remediate. Unions representing county workers assigned to the new building will demand proof that their people are absolutely safe. They wouldn’t want anybody going home after work with a glow-on, you see.

Putting the horse before the cart, nobody seems to be talking about what the county plans to do with the 49 acres of leftover land once the communications center goes into operation. There was some talk about building affordable housing … in a brownfield?

There is also this not-so-small detail: In late 1987, about 10 years before the jail debacle, the legislature passed a resolution to require a special oversight committee in cases of county construction of over $1 million. To date, no such committee has been appointed.

Will legislature Chairman Peter Criswell, D-Kingston, an advocate of government “transparency,” appoint such a committee this year? He should.

Positive News on the Housing Front

The county executive has cut loose one of her primary players to work on the housing crisis. Laura Nordstrom, who came in with the present administration and is Metzger’s director of Research and Operational Programs, has been appointed to the newly-designated position of director of Housing and Homelessness in the Department of Social Services.

Salary-wise, it’s something of a lateral transfer; Nordstrom will be paid the same $86,500 she earned on the sixth floor. Should she succeed in dealing with what has been an intractable problem, Nordstrom will no doubt be welcomed back by Mother Metzger to one of those six-figure deputy executive jobs.

Or she might rise through that labyrinth known as Social Services, an agency that consumes at least a third of the county’s annual budget. For sure, she has the smarts.

In the meantime, let us put a positive spin on this. Despite what she inherited almost three years ago from the former Ryan administration, Metzger has been more talk than walk on housing. She has made a serious commitment toward addressing this ever-increasing problem.

We wish Nordstrom well.

Elvis Turns 90

Can anybody imagine Elvis Presley, born on Jan. 8, 1935, and dead at 42, at 90? I bet he’d still have jet-black hair — which he dyed his whole career — but might weigh 500 pounds on those fried bananas and peanut butter sandwiches.

I was in junior high school when Presley burst onto the scene. My parents hated him but gave me a buck to buy his first No.1 record. I must have played the guitar intro to Hound Dog a thousand times.

Years ago, the Postal Service asked people to vote on two versions of Elvis: fat, old Elvis and young, beautiful Elvis. It wasn’t even close.

And that’s how we’ll remember him, The King, gone too soon from drug abuse.