Mark Grimm
Guilderland Town Board
"Motto: What's Best for Guilderland!"

Latest News

2008

July 8th meeting:

The Board approved a tax exemption for the village of Altamont on land outside the village that is used to provide public water.

A three-year contract for CSEA Unit A (911 call operators) was approved. It calls for 3 percent annual increases through 2010.

An attempt to discuss the town assessment process was hindered because no one from the town assessor's office appeared.

June 17th Board Meeting

Several items of interest were discussed:

1- Cox Appointment
Lt. Curtis Cox was promoted to Captain of the police department with a 5-0 board vote.
Family and friends were on hand to wish him well. Concerns were raised about the late notice provided by the supervisor for the ceremonies for both Captain Cox and Chief Lawlor.

The hiring process in Guilderland received further scrutiny --- some jobs are filled with only applicant for the position.

2- West End Water Bid Approved
A construction bid to extend water to west end residents was approved unanimously. The bid accepted was two million dollars less than expected. The overall project cost is $5.36 million, not $7.37 million. Though the cost is much less than expected, the amount to be charged to west end residents tapping into the system did not change. The tap-in fee remains at $1,750 and the yearly payment is $575 for debt service and water usage.

3- Grant Applications
Grant applications were unanimously approved for sidewalk construction on Carman Road and for renovations at Tawasentha Park.
The price tag of the sidewalk construction is $860,000 and the application to the state Department of Transportation is for $688,000 (the grant is 80/20 percent state-town split). If approved by the state, the town would pay the balance.
The other grant seeks $107,500 from the state Office of Parks and Recreation for a $215,000 project to rehab and upgrade the Guilderland Performing Arts Center at Tawasentha Park. This application is a 50/50 state-town split.

There is no way to determine now if the grants will be approved.

4- Town Assessments
The Town Assessor, Carol Wysomski, spoke at the public forum, insisting there was nothing wrong with the Town's assessment process. Councilmen Grimm and Redlich challenged that viewpoint.

June 3rd Board Meeting

Acting Chief Carol Lawlor was named the permanent police chief by the Town Board following a healthy debate.
Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm congratulated Chief Lawlor and pledged to work with her to make Guilderland a safer community for all its residents and businesses.

May 20th Town Board meeting

A discussion on how to deal with the flooding problem in Guilderland was a prominent part of the meeting. Barton and Loguidice engineer Don Fletcher and Town Water Department Superintendent Bill West spoke regarding the annual report on storm water management in the town. That prompted a broader discussion on how to deal with flooded basements in McKownville and Stuyvesant Plaza/Western Avenue flooding. The Board decided to ask the town highway department to conduct a survey of residents to create hard data on the extent of the problem before proceeding further with a plan to improve the situation. Supervisor Runion also gave an update on planned changes to the McKownville Reservior to make it more effective in controlling flooding.

The Board also voted unanimously to go out to bid for construction involving the $7.4 million project to extend water to West End residents.

Four volunteers were named to the Guilderland Center Hamlet Committee.

May 6th Town Board meeting

The three finalists for the police chief opening were interviewed prior to, and after, the Town Board meeting. A decision should come soon.

Several residents spoke about concerns involving a proposed development on 41 acres at 17 School Road near Guilderland High School. They said flooding was already a big problem in their basements and wanted to ensure the development doesn't add to the problem. The initial approval for the development was delayed by the Board, pending more study by the developer.

A former summer employee at the Western Tunrpike golf course spoke at the public forum complaining he was not re-hired this summer. John Adamovich said he was told there was "a new policy" that only Guilderland residents can work there now. Supervisor Runion said there is a "preference" given town employees but there is no residency requirement. Runion said he made the cut in order to save money. Mark Grimm and Warren Redlich said they should have been informed about the supervisor's actions.

April 15th Town Board meeting:

The public portion of the meeting lasted just nine minutes. Along with some routine motions, the Board approved the "Findings of Fact" on the final generic environmental impact statement of the Northeast Industrial Park. The Board went into executive session to discuss negotiations involving two union contracts and also a personnel matter.

April 1st Town Board Meeting

Three key items:

1 - The Board took about two hours to review the Findings of Fact statement presented by developers of the Glass Works Village project. A so-called "urbanist village" development on a 57-acre parcel behind the Town library is proposed. The most significant discussion concerned the traffic impact on Route 20. The Board eventually approved an amended version of the findings.

2 - A public hearing on a request to rezone the Stutz property on West Old State Road resulted in strong resistance from neighbors complaining about the flooding problems already associated with the property. The developer, Amedore Homes, was asked to return to the Board at a later date with plans to mitigate the problem. No vote was taken on the rezoning.

3 - A Northeastern Industrial Park representative presented their Findings of Fact statement regarding its request for zoning changes at NEIP. Since additional memos regarding the findings were not incorporated into the findings statement itself, the representative was asked to return on the April 15th Board meeting with comments incorporated into the document.

March 18th Town Board Meeting

The meeting highlight was the discussion concerning the best approach for choosing our next police chief. Mark Grimm felt an open discussion on what direction the Guilderland police department should take and what qualities we most seek in a new chief was warranted. Mr. Grimm said the following qualities would be among his top priorities for the next chief:

- Leadership --- the ability to bring officers together to maximize productivity and morale

- Tech Savvy --- embracing technology to take advantages of the latest breakthroughs to reduce crime

- Quantification --- having someone who places emphasis on tracking results to so we can evaluate how well we are doing and shift our strategically shift resources into the highest priority areas.

There was also a discussion on the feasibility of closed captioning for board meetings. The decision to solicit input from residents to see how much need there is in the Town for such an endeavor was unanimously agreed to.

March 4th Town Board Meeting

Supervisor Runion abruptly ended the Town Board meeting before the agenda items were addressed. This unprecedented move to end the meeting unfortunately did nothing to resolve the disagreements among Board members.

We should stay as long as it takes to work through our differences in order to advance the issues that we think matter to Guilderland residents and businesses.

February 12th Town Board Meeting

Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm attempted to place the controversial "assessment process" on the agenda. The request was denied. The only way to fix the town's assessment process is to discuss it in an open forum and come up with ways to reform it so the tax burden is distributed more fairly in Guilderland.

The Board was presented with only one candidate for a new police officer position, requiring an up or down vote. The candidate was presented to the Board just two business days prior to the vote. The process needs to be improved so more than one candidate can be considered.

The appointment involving a police sergeant promotion was made more complicated because phone numbers for the applicants were not provided. Board members need the numbers to conduct a thorough investigation of the applicants.

Mr. Grimm also raised a concern that a part-time court attendant was hired even though he was the only applicant for the position. Having just one candidate for a position is a poor hiring practice.

January 15th Town Board Meeting

A Warren Redlich proposal to require Town department heads to come to a Town Board meeting and explain what their departments do was defeated by the Democrats in a 3-2 vote. Councilmen Grimm and Redlich voted in favor of the proposal to shed more light on how the Town government operates.

January 4th Town Board Meeting and Swearing-In Ceremony

The swearing-in ceremony for Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm was an enormous success. Thanks to all of you that came or watched on Channel 17.

The first Town Board meeting:

It's gratifying to know that voices of reasoned dissent are now being raised in Guilderland government. The push for better government will continue. Unfortunately, not a single nominee of the minority was selected for Town appointments.

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