This election will be about who you trust to manage your town funds and keep your roads and infrastructure properly repaired and maintained, and who will ensure that the natural gas developers in this community will be held accountable by appropriate local and state regulatory agencies.

 

I have an eight year record I am proud to share and run on. You must decide if you think I have earned another two years as your Supervisor.

 

 With your help, I am seeking to be re-elected to another term to ensure that we continue to have an open local government that treats everyone fairly and equitably, continues sound fiscal policies, a strong highway program, and that we have responsible, accountable gas development in the township, and that each property owner’s unique rights are protected and respected.

 

I will also continue to advocate for increased oversight at the state, county and local level in this area to ensure protection of water quality, farmland, public safety and to ensure proper leasing, seismic and gas well measuring practices are enacted in Albany. I will continue to be a tireless advocate for well spacing hearings to be held locally rather than in Albany and to end compuslory intergration so that the back door emminent domain practice is halted. I will continue to seek full transparency on chemicals used and processes employed in gas well drilling. I will advocate for prior notification to all impacted landowners of leasing, seismic testing and gas well drilling/development as a requirement of law. I believe these changes are essential to protect our rural quality fo life.

 

We will continue to have public hearings, take public input and scrutinize requests for pipelines and seismic testing in our township by natural gas developers and land agents.

 

I will continue to encourage local economic development use of natural gas with the understanding that such use can never employ or permit the use of any emminent domain practice under any circumstances.

 

I will continue to promote the development of renewable resources and technologies locally throughout rural Madison County, explore solar energy and other conservation options for our town offices, and seek to encourage more farm to market businesses as well as expansion of our Agricultural and Renewable Energy Park at the county landfill with creation of markets for value added biomass and other energy crops that could be grown on farmland not currently in production such as willow, including development of biodigesters, wood pellet businesses and the creation of a statewide taterware industry currently in use in local colleges that Dr. Cross of Morrisville College wants to expand across the region. This would involve the use of local lands for new potato crops to create the taterware that is biodegradable for biodigesters that is now replacing styrofoam.

 

I will also continue to expand the ways we enhance open government in Lebanon and promote our local farms and businesses, but I make no apologies for our record of the last 8 years. We are head and shoulders above every other town in the region in how we keep the public informed. I have been very active in ensuring local news stories on a number of growing Lebanon farm to market businesses and to promote our unique rural quality of life.

 

I am not opposed to the idea of a cost effective, affordable website for the town if the residents desire it, but it will have to be maintained and costs considered. I am also not opposed to creation of a formal local committee on natural gas issues (we have had an adhoc committee informally of nearly 20 residents these past few years consulted on these issues including those with and without wells or leases and those with professional expertise on these issues) with the understanding that it cannot tilt heavily in the direction of those who own gas wells currently and have a vested financial interest.

 

 I also want to be clear that I am running for Supervisor, not webmaster. That is a task to be delegated should constituents want a town web site. I think finding an interested volunteer to manage a cost effective web site is the best use of the Supervisor’s time in this endeavor should the Town Board want to pursue it and establish clear policies for what is to be posted and when.

 

It is also important to note that  a local committee on natural gas will have little influence over already existing private leases, the actions by the DEC and private gas developers unless they collaborate with other towns and counties, and work with the current land coalitions as I have done these past few years to pursue regulatory reform and property rights/water quality protections. We have formed alliances with residents, other local officials and members of land coalitions in many neigbhoring counties to advance a comprehensive agenda with the goal of ensuring responsible gas drilling with maximum benefit and minimum risk for all. We also want to make sure that those who wish to be protected from this activity have that inherent right respected.

 

Utilizing a local committee of landowners to facilitate workshops on education related to leasing, seismic testing, environmental concerns and other issues would be very helpful in conjunction with local attorneys and the Farm Bureau, and other neighboring townships.

 

I am running on my record of the past eight years, which includes the fulfilled commitments from my first campaign in 2001, in which I pledged a more open town government, voter referendums on issues related to the number of Town Justices, an annual road repair plan based on the existing budget (I opposed a proposed $1 per $1,000 tax increase for road repairs in 2001 that was defeated by an advisory voter referendum), discussion that permitted public input, a highway equipment replacement and road repair schedule, encouraging more resident participation, opening up the opportunities to serve on appointed boards, changing the times of town board meetings to be more accessible to the public, making sure town board agendas were available prior to meetings and holding the line on local property taxes at the town and county level.

 

I campaigned at the time against a proposal that would have extended the term of the Town Clerk’s office from 2 to 4 years, which was defeated by local voters. I strongly felt then and still feel that the terms of all town office should remain as they currently are and do not favor the move to 4 year terms for Town Supervisor that several other towns have adopted or are seeking to move to. I firmly believe standing before the voters every two years is reasonable, fair and prudent, and an important part of accountable local government.

I promised an independent voice and strong representation/advocacy in Wampsville, the county seat, for resident concerns and I have delivered by supporting reforms, more openness and transparency in county government, and helped establish a public comment period at county board meetings. I have also led the effort to move one of the county budget hearings to the southern end of Madison County last year.

 

I am pleased to share my accomplishments of the past 8 years and hope I will have your support to continue this record for two more years this Nov. 3.

 

 My record is as follows:

– Open government by ensuring prior publication of town board agenda information, regular notification to residents via local news media and the internet.

– Treating all constituent concerns and complaints with fairness and strong advocacy.

– Obtaining over $400,000 in emergency FEMA and SEMO funds over the last 8 years in cooperation with our town highway superintendent to address snowfall, ice storm and flooding road repair expenses involving 24 separate road or bridge projects that would otherwise have been borne by local property taxpayers. This also included assisting Madison County and other neighboring townships with obtaining the same aid for related snow, ice and flooding incidents, impacting county as well as town spending on road repairs. It should be noted that we had to appeal several of these initially denied claims through our congressional representatives and succeeded to obtain funds in several cases that had initially been denied to our town and Madison County by the Bush administration which was granting eligibility to all our neighboring counties. In other cases, our town had to absorb the costs of two severe snowstorms and one flooding incident in 2002, 2004 and 2006 that cost our town an additional $35,000 to $40,000 that came out of local taxpayer pockets related to significant overtime, fuel, labor costs, materials and repairs. So, obtaining FEMA funds and SEMO money is not a sure thing and at times our county was denied and our appeals netted half of the eligible funds. I worked to establish more snowfall measuring stations and worked with other towns throughout the county to advocate for eligible funds when disasters occurred, and to improve our countywide FEMA response system.

We also worked very hard with our highway superintendent and bookeeper in documenting impacts, damages, obtaining estimates, documenting costs and had multiple meeting with FEMA and SEMO officials before projects were approved for reimbursement. Some reimbursement formulas were higher than others, depending on the particular event. We also had to appeal several road projects which we did not get a final answer for in some cases for a year or two but we were persistent.

– Obtained $100,000 in new state road funds for rebuilding portions of Niles, Bartlett and Soule roads.Utilized state CHIPS funds to repair Musician, Billings Hill, Thompson Hill, Craine Lake Road, Vosburgh Road and Lebanon Hill Road.

– Repaired local roads within existing road plan and slurry sealed all completed roads to ensure a 7-year repair warranty on those roads.

– Negotiated a written agreement that required that Nornew, Inc., the major natural gas developer in the township, repair all damaged roads resulting from gas well exploration which has totaled over $550,000 in road impacts over the last 3 years that would have otherwise put our road repair program back 10 to 15 years.  These roads were inspected by our town highway superintendent before gas development activity and then the gas company used its own road vendors to repair roads under our highway superintendent’s watchful eye until it met town specs. Otherwise, town taxpayers would have borne the burden of those repairs.

– Ensured referendums to allow voters to decide the question of one or two Town Justices and whether or not the town should establish restricted reserve funds for highway equipment and building repair projects.

– Provide an annual Supervisor Survey for town residents to fill out to help inform policy decisions.

– Held the line on town taxes and spending over the last 8 years to an average of a 4 percent increases in the local tax levy annually, despite an unstable economy, with no local tax increases in 2008, 2009, and a small tax cut proposed for 2010.

– Have led the effort in the region to hold gas development companies accountable, to protect the rights of individual property owners around issues of water quality and farmland preservation, have testified on behalf of the Association of Towns of New York State about the need for increased oversight of the natural gas development industry in Albany to legislative committees, have assisted local landowners with leasing and seismic testing issues, and have pursued legislation that would permit a local fuel production tax that has the promise to lower local property taxes 15 to 30 percent.

– Facilitated workshops on homeowner and small business wind and solar renewable energy systems in cooperation with Morrisville College and other Madison County officials.

– Organized a regional workshop at Morrisville College involving 10 neighboring counties and various townships to address municipal and resident concerns as it relates to natural gas development, and to develop a legislative agenda to advocate in Albany for local townships in the region.

– Continue to be an independent voice at the county seat in Wampsville and an advocate for reform. I have served on the Public Health, Criminal Justice and Public Safety, Social and Mental Health Services, ad hoc Energy (vice chairman) and Public Utilities committees this current term.

– Opposed salary increases or meal/mileage reimbursement for supervisors and have brought about reforms that require supervisor salaries to be voted on separately in the budget process.

– Voted against bonuses for county department heads and managers during this economic downturn due to record unemployment in Madison County.

– Have continuously voted against county budgets that increase local property taxes.

– Supported research and grant funding into the inventory of and development of value added crops including biomass for Madison County farmers, and advocated the creation of a low interest economic development loan fund by the county to assist in local renewable energy company startups.

–Continue to work with county and local officials to explore ways to make local economic development use of natural gas extracted from Madison County wells.

– Ensured the Town Board contributed funds to legally fight the proposed NYRI powerline that was defeated.

– Established a policy of promoting local businesses at the town office.

– Supported establishment of a Town Historical Society that is now putting on local programs.

– Supported the successful efforts of our town Bicentennial Committee in 2007 that put on wonderful programs each month and finished the year in the black.

– Created an adhoc committee to work on communication and cooperation with our Amish residents on codes issues that has proven to be very successful at dispute resolution.

– Have worked cooperatively with our Town Board and Highway Superintendent to create a productive environment that was not divisive.

– Worked with the Town Board to decline salary increases 9 years in a row.

– Worked with the Town Board to lower the town tax rate from $7.13 in 2002 to the present proposed $4.64 while holding the local tax levy steady.

 

I would appreciate your vote and support on Nov. 3 to continue these efforts. Please make sure you vote next Tuesday. It matters.

 

Yours truly,

Jim Goldstein, South Lebanon Road, Lebanon Supervisor