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Vol. 42 No. 3
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JANUARY 21 - 27, 2016
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www.riverreporter.com
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Stress and safety in Lumberland G By DAVID HULSE
TRR photo by David Hulse
There were new faces and new roles as the Lumberland Town Board held its monthly meeting on January 13. Pictured are Leigh Sherman, left, Jenny Mellan and Zoriana Gingold. Sherman, who served on the board from 2006 to 2010, was re-elected last fall replacing Ron Thiele, who did not seek re-election. Former councilwoman Mellan was named supervisor at the board’s year-end meeting, replacing Nadia Rajsz, who was elected to the Sullivan County Legislature. Gingold, a community activist, assumed her first local government role when she was named to Mellan’s vacant council seat at the board’s re-organization meeting. Incumbent councilman Joe Carr, not pictured, also was re-elected last fall and resumed his seat.
LEN SPEY, NY — Appointees in political jobs are often replaced when administrations change, but a recent change has left bad feelings at the Lumberland Town Hall. Christina Shablovsky was employed as assistant to former Supervisor Nadia Rajsz. Shablovsky was replaced by Heidi Spanos when Jenny Mellan became supervisor earlier this month. Shablovsky said she was not surprised at the change, only that she had not been told of it before coming to work on January 4, and then being watched by a constable as she cleared her desk. Mellan denied that the constable was there to keep an eye on Shablovsky. Mellan said she felt it was Rajsz’s place to give her assistant notice of the change. Mellan had provided a letter, which had been left on Shablovsky’s desk. The incident prompted a sharp exchange during public comment at the town board’s January 13 meeting, between Mellan and resident Caroline Akt. Akt charged nepotism in Mellan’s appointment of Spanos, who is Councilman Leigh Sherman’s daughter. “It affects the integrity of the town,” Akt said. Mellan responded that “I appointed
the person I wanted,” and reminded Akt that her husband, Councilman James Akt, had repeatedly voted for his wife’s re-appointments to the zoning board of appeals (ZBA). Akt argued that the ZBA is not a paid position and Mellan retorted that employees, paid or not, are all subject to town ethics rules. As the exchange continued, Ann Steimle, president of the Lumberland Fire Department, broke in and called for an end to the talk of nepotism. “Without it, we wouldn’t have half the people we have involved in the community. We need our best people involved in these jobs. Let it rest,” she said. That exchange was followed by another resident’s query as to why two uniformed constables attended the board’s workshop meeting. “If you want to know,” Mellan began, “I didn’t feel safe. It’s a personnel matter and I’m not going to go into it.” Patrick Cahill, the town’s chief administrative constable, sometimes wears a uniform to the board meetings. He later said that the second constable was also there on another personnel matter. Mellan later said that there had been no physical or spoken threat made. “It was Continued on page 3
Town to amend zoning as compressor station looms By DAVID HULSE
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LDRED, NY — Former Supervisor Andrew Boyar’s December rumored warning became the first challenge for his successor’s administration on January 12. The news came in a press release from the Millennium Pipeline Company announcing its plans to build a compressor station in northern Highland serving the natu-
FERC under fire
ral gas transmission line about a mile south of the Bethel border. The news came as the board scheduled a 6:45 p.m., February 9 hearing prior to its next meeting, which would allow public comment on a zoning amendment that would “expressly prohibit” a compressor station and all development activities related to natural gas, other than lines to provide local service. Supervisor Jeff Haas distributed copies of the release
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SPANNING 2 STATES, 4 COUNTIES, AND A RIVER THAT UNITES US
Jack Yelle A celebration of his life
and Town Clerk Doreen Hanson read it aloud. Haas followed with a brief statement saying that the board had just been informed of Millennium’s action in a meeting with company officials that day, that he would have no immediate comment, and that the issue would not be an agenda item for the meeting. “We’re going to try to be transparent. I have no stance. We’ll do the best we can
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