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PRINCETOWN
Maura returns to board to fill vacancy until election
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Town Board members will be joined by a familiar face during their business meeting Tuesday evening.
    Former Supervisor Nick Maura Jr. will return to the board after a nine-month hiatus. Last month, the four-member board unanimously appointed him to the seat left vacant after Melanie Whiteley took offi ce as the town’s supervisor in January.
    Maura will take his seat at the board’s normal business meeting, which is being conducted a week earlier than normal this month. Town officials shifted the meeting to 7 p.m. Tuesday to avoid a conflict with primary elections on Sept. 14.
    Maura, who also served as deputy supervisor under Muriel Peterson, will face Ben Smith in a primary for the Democratic nomination later this month. The winner of that race will face Republican Louis Esposito during a special election for the remaining year on the seat.
    But don’t expect any dirty campaigning this fall if the race is between Maura and Esposito: The two candidates shared a ticket during the 2009 election. Maura said he’d like to serve out the term, but would also be content to see Esposito win the seat.
    “I’ll probably run next year anyway,” he said Friday. “The year goes by really quick and [next] November will be here soon enough.” .....................>>>>.................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00804&AppName=1

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PRINCETOWN
Illegal dumping angers officials
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Apparently, the posted sign threatening a $1,000 fine for illegal dumping didn’t pose much of a deterrence.
    A less-than-scrupulous waste hauler clearly wasn’t phased by the sign while dumping more than a ton of refuse on town-owned property off Van Patten Road recently. In fact, the illegal dumper brazenly chose to release the haul of asphalt shingles almost directly beneath the sign, Princetown Highway Superintendent Nick Maura Sr. told members of the Town Board Tuesday.
    The dumper appeared to have be ditching the shingles, in addition to some scrapped plywood and roof vents, down an embankment by the sign. But instead of rolling down hill and out of sight, the pile got caught in an outcropping of trees. .................>>>>................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01002&AppName=1

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PRINCETOWN
Budget avoids taxing residents
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Once again, Princetown residents won’t have to pay property taxes to support their local government, even though the town’s 2011 budget does slightly increase spending.
    The tentative spending plan allocates about $11,000 more in general fund spending than the 2010 budget — a 1.6 percent increase. But the budget also reduces highway fund spending by about $20,000.
    The budget includes $699,528 in spending and is offset by about $184,000 allocated from the fund balance. This is a slight increase from the previous year’s budget, which relied upon roughly $168,000 from existing reserves.
    Historically, the small town of about 2,000 residents has made do without having to tax property owners. Supervisor Melanie Whiteley said she wasn’t about to start taxing them now, even though nondiscretionary costs increased this year.
    “We’re being very conservative and watching our spending,” she said Tuesday. “The goal is to maintain no town taxes.”
    Whitely said all departments made a concerted effort to eliminate waste, which has resulted in the town enjoying no local taxes. She said these efforts included everything from finding cheaper sources to buy supplies to turning down the heat when Town Hall isn’t open.
    “Everyone at Town Hall is making a big effort to cut costs wherever they can, and it’s paying off,” she said.
    Attorney fees for the town doubled in the budget. The town will allocate $40,000 for its privately contracted counsel, according to the budget. .........................>>>>.....................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00901&AppName=1

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PRINCETOWN
Esposito beats Maura for 1-year board term
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Republican Louis Esposito will join the Town Board next year after securing a victory over the former Princetown supervisor Nicholas Maura Jr.
    Esposito beat out Maura, a Democrat, by a 45-vote margin, according to unofficial results provided by the county Board of Elections. He will finish out the remaining year left on the board seat vacated when Melanie Whiteley was elected supervisor last year.
    “I’m thrilled about it,” he said. “It’s my first elected office and I’m certainly going to work very hard for the residents of the town.”
    Esposito topped his former running mate. Despite being in opposite parties, he and Maura ran unsuccessfully on the same ticket during the 2009 election.
    Maura was subsequently appointed to fi ll Whiteley’s vacancy in September after the Town Board remained deadlocked on a number of issues. Esposito joins Robert Myers as the two Republicans on the board, which also includes a two Conservatives and a Democrat.
    Esposito, a 62-year-old self-employed trucker, ran on a platform of getting the comprehensive plan updated in short order. Without the update, he said the town could fall prey to large-scale development, particularly along the bustling Route 7 corridor. ................>>>>...............>>>>....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01203&AppName=1

I wonder where Princetown gets all the money to run the town without needing to tax the residents.  Why couldn't more towns / villages / counties look into the ways that this is done and adopt some of the ways that they do?  One major cost that they don't have that we do is the police force.  Since they are a small community, the depend solely on the county and state police.  This is where over half of our budget goes... including $65,000... for repaving the parking lot this year???

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I wonder where Princetown gets all the money to run the town without needing to tax the residents.  Why couldn't more towns / villages / counties look into the ways that this is done and adopt some of the ways that they do?  One major cost that they don't have that we do is the police force.  Since they are a small community, the depend solely on the county and state police.  This is where over half of our budget goes... including $65,000... for repaving the parking lot this year???

Princetown doesn't offer any services to its residents .....  they underpay for the few services they have ---
like no police department so the rest of the state taxpayers get to foot the bill for the troopers there.

In order for Rotterdam to do what Princetown does ... we would have to turn back the clock to 1850 ... and get
rid of about 26,000 residents.   That is NOT something that I want to do.

Like Clifton Park, Ballston and Gakway? OK, you know what you are talking about. They don't need a 13,000,000 dollar police force like yours.

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PRINCETOWN
Town officials differ on approach to comprehensive plan
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Princetown could end up scrapping the long-awaited comprehensive plan for a much simpler update of the existing document from 1988.
    Members of Princetown’s Zoning Review Committee recently fl agged a number of issues with the draft document that was fi rst submitted to the Town Board in July 2009. Board members took up the document on Tuesday, when Supervisor Melanie Whiteley said she learned the Comprehensive Plan Committee had started the document anew, rather than amending the one they were charged with revising.
    “That’s a huge concern for me,” she said Wednesday. “We did not ask for a new plan, we asked for a revised plan.”
    But members of the Comprehensive Plan Committee and the private consultant that advised them have a much different take. They said the document from more than two decades ago was so hopelessly out of date that there was no alternative other than to forge a new one.
    “You really needed to start from scratch,” said Nan Stolzenburg, a consultant from Community Planning & Environmental Associates in Berne. ....................>>>>.......................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01304&AppName=1

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Stop playing games with comprehensive plan in Princetown

    In an editorial last week, we criticized the Stillwater Town Board for its willingness to ignore a recently adopted comprehensive plan that stresses preservation of the town’s rural character and rezone to allow a huge industrial park near the GlobalFoundries plant. But at least Stillwater has an up-to-date comprehensive plan.
    After two years of effort and an expenditure of $29,000, all Princetown has is a very good draft of one; and a handful of town offi cials including Supervisor Melanie Whitely and her relatives — owners of large tracts of land — who seem intent on killing it. That would be a shame, because the town is ripe for development, and with the existing plan, adopted in 1988, there’s nothing to prevent the kind of big-box stores and cookie-cutter subdivisions that residents have made clear they don’t want.
    What they want, they said in a 2008 survey, is mostly residential development, with commercial development around a mixed-use, hamlet-like town center along Route 7. Elsewhere, they want to see critical environmental areas such as the aquifer protected, as well as farmland, open space and scenic vistas — of which there are many in this hilly town.
    Whitely, a supposed supporter of the plan when she was a Town Board member, indicated otherwise at an August 2009 meeting where it was discussed. Then, after taking over as supervisor, she tried to ignore it, scheduling no meetings and having no contact with the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, which strongly favors it. Members of that committee say Whitely and her relatives have plans to develop their land, and want to make sure they are able to. ................>>>>.....................................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00702&AppName=1

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Man accused of scamming unemployment benefits

PRINCETOWN -- A Schenectady man is charged with accepting $11,000 in unemployment benefits while being employed, State Police in Princetown said.
Police on Tuesday arrested Jeffrey L. Gilbert, 55, of Maryvale Drive, following a monthlong investigation with the state Department of Labor.
Gilbert was arraigned in City Court and taken to Schenectady County Jail without bail, police said.
He is charged with offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records and third-degree grand larceny.
Gilbert is scheduled to reappear in City Court on Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/COPS-COURTS-AND-CALLS-914191.php#ixzz18wX6BrfK

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... handful of town officials including Supervisor Melanie Whitely and her relatives, owners of large tracts of land who seem intent on killing it. That would be a shame, because the town is ripe for development, and with the existing plan, adopted in 1988, there's nothing to prevent the kind of big-box stores and cookie-cutter subdivisions that residents have made clear they don't want.

It sounds like what they have in Princetown is a battle between the Hatfields and the McCoys, with one group wanting things to remain as they were when the settlers arrived and the other group, who have personal interests (significant land holdings), supporting a plan that will allow overdevelopment that does not fit with the character of the town.  

Bring back Nick Maura as Supervisor.  He's a smart, honest, and hard working man of principle.

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Town needed revised plan, not a new one

    Re Dec. 16 article, “Town officials differ on approach to comprehensive plan”: Princetown residents deserve the facts regarding the comprehensive plan.
    The committee was formed in 2006 and given the task of revising the current plan. After a year, the committee asked to hire a private consultant to aid them. Nan Stolzenburg [a consultant from Community Planning & Environmental Associates] was hired by the town and signed a contract to revise the plan. The final amount paid to the consultant for this revision project was $18,380.
    About one-fourth of Princetown’s residents responded to a online survey from this committee; the draft was presented to the Town Board in July 2009. In 2009 the board held a public hearing and asked for review of the document by various committees and boards. The board waited to work on the process until all comments were received, this November.
    A workshop was held at the Dec. 14 board meeting, where it became clear that all the time and money spent on this document was to scrap the town’s current plan and to create a brand new one — not the intent of the board.
    By state Municipal Law (Sect. 272-a, Comprehensive Plan Statutes), a town’s zoning must comport with a comprehensive plan. If the board adopts the draft presented, the zoning laws will need a complete revision. This is not something that can be applied at our leisure or by piecemeal. This will result in an enormous fi nancial burden for the town.
    Many residents have spoken out against the plan. The chairman of this committee was invited to discuss the draft with the board twice in the past month; he refused. A committee member, Norm Miller, asked at the Dec. 14 meeting how he could obtain a copy of the current comprehensive plan since he did not have one. How is it possible that a committee member did not have a copy of the plan that should have been the focus of the group? It seems that members of the committee had their own agenda and went against the Town Board’s request.
    During my campaign, I did support the revision of this document, and I continue to. I also committed myself to keeping Princetown free of a town tax. How can I support a document that is not what the board requested; which, if passed, will ultimately cost taxpayers and may result in us having to have a town tax?
    I do not have any relatives on the board. My husband and I own less than two acres, hardly large tracts of land. My relatives have no intentions of developing their land. My focus has to be, and is, on what is best for all residents. Having the town step in and dictate to residents what they are allowed to do with their land that is beyond health, safety and general welfare, is too restrictive for this bedroom community.
    The decision that will come from this is one that the Town Board will have to make as a whole. Remember, the supervisor is one vote out of fi ve. We are a democracy — not a dictatorship.

    MELANIE WHITELEY
    Princetown
The writer is the town supervisor.

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r03002&AppName=1

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PRINCETOWN
Panel to sort town plan proposals
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    The task of updating Princetown’s comprehensive plan will pass to a new ad-hoc committee created by Town Board members Tuesday.
    Board members appointed the new five-member committee of town officials to merge Princetown’s old comprehensive plan from 1988 with a new one drafted last year. They also gave the committee until March to complete the combined document.
    Supervisor Melanie Whiteley said it was impossible for board members to weed through the changes made in the new draft without being maligned by its proponents. She said the new committee would help merge the best of both documents to complete a task that has become emotionally charged and highly politicized.
    “We tried to do it,” she said of board’s efforts. “We didn’t get anywhere with it.”
    Appointed to the committee were Town Planner Gino Santabarbara, Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Eric Plura, Water Commissioner George Mead, Planning Board member Doug Thorpe and Building Inspector Daniel Marciniak. Town Board member Todd Edwards was named the liaison to the committee.
    Comprehensive Plan Committee Chairman Joe Jurczynski was disappointed by the board members’ action and questioned their motive. He said input from a sizeable percentage of residents helped produce the draft, and wondered how much of their opinions would be retained by the committee. .................>>>>......................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01101&AppName=1

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One way to preserve land in Princetown

    What a great way to start the holiday season. On the day before Christmas, in my mail, I received a letter with no return address and signed “Concerned Princetown Residents.” If they are so concerned, why can’t they sign their names? People who stay anonymous in these situations have no credibility with me.
    They think the Princetown Town Board is trying to have a secret meeting and wants to change things in midstream in regard to the revised comprehensive plan [Dec. 29 Gazette]. Come to the regular meetings and you will be informed.
    I think I have a great answer to the town to satisfy everyone with the new comprehensive plan. Raise taxes on all property owners in the town and set aside that money in a special account. Then when the town residents with large parcels of land want to sell their property, the town will purchase it and turn it into a park. Princetown residents can use the parks free of charge, but all others would pay a fee.
    My idea is no more off the wall than the one proposed by the Comprehensive Plan committee. Plus, I would be willing to be the first park commissioner if the compensation plan was to my satisfaction.

    M. WAYNE BLESSING
    Princetown

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00704&AppName=1

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Fire guts Princetown home
Comments 0
January 03, 2011 11:19 PM
Michelle Kim

PRINCETOWN -- An investigation is underway in a fire that gutted a home Monday night.

The fire at 2490 Duanesburg Road started at about 6:30 p.m., according to Rotterdam police dispatchers. Fire crews were able to get it under control by about 9 p.m.

The Pine Grove Fire Department was the primary responding fire department.

There was no word of injuries or whether the house was occupied at the time.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/fire-1281671-department-princetown.html