Stress and safety in Lumberland

DAVID HULSE
Posted 8/21/12

GLEN 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 …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Stress and safety in Lumberland

Posted

GLEN 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 something I felt about the atmosphere at the office,” she said.

It was a rough inaugural meeting for the new supervisor, as Mellan’s voice was affected by strep throat, which forced her to delegate some of the reading of announcements.

Then, a public hearing for a local law on a new senior property tax exemption had to be stopped and then postponed after it was learned that the town’s attorney had not received all the data for drafting it correctly.

The public comment period also included debate about a $2 fee that had been attached to the paperwork for neutering of cats under a new town program through The Animal Rights Alliance.

The board also debated some new appointments. Councilman Akt, saying those appointments had not been discussed earlier, voted against Sherman’s appointment as Upper Delaware Council delegate (approved 3-1), against Councilwoman Zoriana Gingold’s appointment as UDC alternate (approved 3-1) and against Sherman’s appointment as alternate voting delegate to the New York State Association of Towns convention (approved 3-1).

In other business:

• One new member and one new alternate were appointed to fill vacancies on both the planning board and zoning board of appeals.

• Code Enforcement Officer David Sparling reported that in 2015 his office received some $40,000 in fees, making it the best year since 2010. Since 2005, the office has taken in $515,000 or 87.9% of the budget-estimated revenues, which have amounted to some $46 million in assessed property value.

• Steimle reported that the fire department responded to a record 352 calls in 2015

• Following a public hearing, the board passed Local Law #1, which provides property tax exemptions for the homes of parents of children who died in military service.

The board’s next regular monthly meeting will be on February 10.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here