With people in Ellenville literally freezing their butts off, neither the town nor the county has been willing to supply the funding to open a warming shelter in the village. Instead, poor or homeless folks are being transported to shelters in Kingston in police cars.

Why the Town of Wawarsing balks at providing a vital service for village residents may have something to do with town/village dynamics. Bottom line: everybody in Wawarsing is a town constituent. Village voters might keep that in mind when local elections are held Nov. 4.

As for the county, it’s holding onto its $100 million dollar surplus for that proverbial rainy day when federal and state grants dry up. Memo to the sixth floor: It’s snowing in Ellenville.

Marbletown Pauses on a Grant

In one of those “man bites dog” stories, the town of Marbletown actually gave back a substantial grant last week. Which is to say there’s always something new under the sun. In the usual course, municipalities are about securing more grants.

Even smallish towns have a “grants person” on staff or on retainer whose sole responsibility is securing more grants for more projects. And they’re not all from the feds or the state as in this case. Kingston mayor Steve Noble said in his recent mayor’s message that his administration had received some $60 million in grants over his 10 years in office. The county rakes in as much in a year.

According to Marbletown Supervisor Rich Parete, the $78,000 Marbletown secured from an environmental non-profit to rehab its rundown community center on Route 209 in the hamlet last March was meant as something of a down payment to assess costs on restoring an “historic building.”

Parete says he isn’t sure about the history therein. “It might have been a church at one point,” he said. “Legend says the Leggetts (a nearby town road is named for them) might have slept there. You know, like George Washington. We don’t know.”

In more recent times the white frame structure housed the town’s American Legion post. When membership dwindled, the vets turned it over to the town, while reserving the right to meet there. It’s been a community center ever since.

The Partners in Environmental Action grant was aimed at installing geothermal heating and air-conditioning for the building along with extensive insulation. Closer inspection revealed far more work needed to be done, said Parete.

“The building was built in three stages,” Parete said. “Two of the cellar floors are dirt. The foundation is buckling and the roof leaks.” Reconstruction costs could approach $500,000, the survey said.

“The grant was a good thing, and we appreciate the effort in securing it, but it was like bending over a penny to secure a dollar,” he said. Or, in for a dime, in for a dollar. Nope.

“I think we need to be practical here,” Parete said. “We don’t need to invest half a million dollars or more in a building when we can move and even expand its programs to the town hall (in the former Marbletown Elementary School) where we have more than enough room.”

A “practical” approach to government? How quaint.

The current plan is to sell the center with its 30 parking spaces. Hopefully, a responsible investor will install geothermal, thus eliminating the building’s carbon footprint as envisioned under the environment organization’s grant.

Common Council Turnover, and More

With four of nine Democrat Common Council members announcing their retirement, it looks like city government, like our NFL football teams, will be in for another rebuilding year. The difference is, Kingston Democrats face no opposition, other than other Democrats competing for the same seats.

I don’t know if anybody else noticed, but Mayor Noble now has both the county Democratic chairwoman and Democratic city chairman working for him. Barbara Graves-Poller is corporation counsel. Former alderman Bill Reynolds (no relation) is serving out a two-year appointment as overseer of federal grant administration.

Such a concentration of power is almost Putinesque.

In Marbletown, an open seat on the town council is producing multiple applicants, including former town supervisor Mike Warren. A former Republican, Warren is currently non-enrolled.

It probably was going to happen sooner or later, but environmentalists in the Town of Ulster are fighting among themselves over eagles, solar farms and oak trees.

Lightstar Development wants to build a 298-unit housing complex at the north end of town in a heavily wooded area, with solar power. About 100 acres of mature forest would be cleared. Worse, critics claim there’s a pair of productive nesting eagles within the boundaries the state sets for major construction near endangered species. Developers said at a public hearing that the Department of Conservation finds no restrictions necessary in this case. Have DEC tree huggers at regional headquarters in New Paltz lost their minds?

Acting County Clerk Taylor Bruck introduced the county’s new historian this week. Edward Moran, 27, of Wallkill will succeed Geoffrey Miller, who has retired.

It seems the county got a bit over its skies on Moran. He was included in a press release last month before ever being announced as historian. Oops.

Given that a young person like Moran could be around for a spell, I wondered whether he considers himself a traditionalist when it comes to local history or a revisionist. I’m awaiting a call back.

Me and Mario

County Comptroller March Gallagher, who announced for a third term recently, will be our guest Friday morning on our Me and Mario call-in show on WGHQ 920 AM. At present unopposed, Gallagher is known as a good interview in the trade. She casts a wide net and is willing to talk about pertinent subjects. To stream the show live, or listen to it later, click here: https://vimeo.com/user17305693