Lumberland approves highway contract

DAVID HULSE
Posted 8/21/12

GLEN SPEY, NY — It was a long time coming, but with the town board’s 3-2 vote for approval on December 9, workers on the Lumberland Highway Department now have a new contract.

They have …

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Lumberland approves highway contract

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GLEN SPEY, NY — It was a long time coming, but with the town board’s 3-2 vote for approval on December 9, workers on the Lumberland Highway Department now have a new contract.

They have been working without a contract since mid-2013.

Councilmen James Akt and Ron Thiele opposed the contract. Neither commented on the vote and Supervisor Nadia Rajsz’ sigh of relief following the vote served as the only comment.

Details of the new accord were not provided at last week’s board meeting and as of this writing, The River Reporter has not received a response to a subsequent request about those details.

Believed to be the last highway department in Sullivan to do so, the highway workers voted in the spring of 2014 to join the Teamsters Union and won town certification for the union in May of 2014.

The proposal then was not warmly received, as board members said they had negotiated in good faith prior to the union vote. Board members argued that highway salaries and benefits were comparable with other towns, and rising taxes were already threatening the town’s growth.

This spring, after a labor negotiations consultant failed to come up with a resolution, Rajsz spoke of mediation, and failing that she said the contract dispute would go before a labor relations court.

In other business, the board held a public hearing for and passed a local law providing for town money to help reduce Lumberland’s feral cat population by annually funding the neutering of up to 25 cats owned by town residents. The program would be done in conjunction with The Animal Rights Alliance (TARA). Lumberland resident Joan Rosenfeld lobbied the board for help with the problem for several years, and was on hand to thank them following its passage by a 3-2 vote, with councilmen Joe Carr and Ron Thiele opposed.

Additionally, Jean Mulcahey was appointed to a vacant bookkeeper/confidential assistant position at $13 per hour for a 30-hour week; the board agreed to contract with Sullivan County Planning for facilitation services in reviewing the town’s comprehensive plan, the work to be funded by a $7,000 Upper Delaware Council TAG grant; the board appointed Michael Summa, who is also a Fallsburg police sergeant, as a part-time town constable at $19.34 per hour; approved a letter to state officials lobbying for additional Comprehensive Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) funding; received communications from planning board alternate Michael Marcasciano seeking to fill a planning board vacancy, and from Joan Rosenfeld and Tami Petri seeking positions on the town’s ethics committee.

The meeting was the last regular meeting not only for Supervisor Rajsz, who is resigning to serve as the new District 2 Sullivan County Legislator, and Councilman Ron Thiele, who did not seek re-election last fall. Councilman-elect Leigh Sherman will join the board in January, when they will need to address a replacement for the supervisor’s position, and likely a replacement councilman, should the supervisor come from the incumbent board.

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