East Greenbush going green - Really?

From the Town website:

East Greenbush is Going Green!
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Town of East Greenbush has been awarded a grant in the amount of $275,000 for the purchase and installation of a 50 kW Photovoltaic System at the Department of Public Works garage. This system will produce approximately 67% of the annual energy required to run the facility and an estimated maximum annual cost savings of $14,783. The project will benefit the environment with annual emission reductions of:

CO2: 55,876 lbs
SO2: 180 lbs
N20: 62.74 lbs
Upon completion, the performance and environmental impact of this project will be posted on the town’s website for the public to monitor.

Really? You state you will be saving money that totals $14,783 annually. Great put that money right to paying off the debt! Don't use it for anything else, it is like a $14,783 raise. PAY DOWN THE DEBT.

On a side note. We, the Town residents, are getting the system for free. Not really, just the rest of the nations overburdened tax payers are helping to pay for it. What is the cost of the system? If we paid for it, how long would it take to pay off the cost of the installation at $14,783 a year? Without inflation or anything else added in, 18 plus years just to break even. Watch how you complain when you see some "pork barrel" Project elsewhere from the stimulus package and complain about wasting taxpayer money. If the payback period is so long that the system would have outlived its working life, should we invest in it, regardless of who pays for it? Don't get me wrong, I am glad some are looking for ways to save money, but did we, the taxpayers, really save anything?

The new DPW look

Has anyone else noticed that the DPW yard on Gilligan Road is being cleaned up? They are cleaning up the stored sewer grates, catch basins and all the other stock that has been sitting along the fence and catching trash that has been thrown from passing cars. It is starting to look like they care about the appearance and not looking like an abandoned piece of property.

Thanks guys WELL DONE!

Amazing what true leadership will inspire.

First day on the job

Well as many of you know, I am retired from over 25 years in the paid fire service. I left the service after 21 years with the Albany FD and 4 years with the Barnstable MA FD as Deputy chief and Chief. Since then I have worked conducting background investigations for national security clearances for OPM, DOD, DOE, Treasury and a few others. I left there to take a part time job at Federal Probation and after 10 short months, was invited into a consulting group to conduct management and operations studies for municipalities. That was wonderful until about 2.5 years ago when the economic world collapsed. I have not been "gainfully" employed since then and just began using the term "retired" as my official status. That all changed this morning at 0500. I reported for my new job and worked 12.5 hours the first day. 10.5 on my feet with a ten minute break. No I am not working for GM, Ford or Toyota! I have a wonderful job that is very dynamic and full of opportunity and it shall remain "classified" for the time being. I enjoyed those I worked with today and the work and don't even have to wait until morning to feel the agony of "de feet"!

What this means is I no longer have the time to cruise all the blogs and newspapers and comment on all the things going on. I will stay active in my commitments and today is not a typical day "at the office", more like boot camp or shock camp. I will stay tuned, but may not post quite as often. Viva la labor force!

Green Tea PArty

The Green Tea Party is a community activism organization that brings in speakers, attends town meetings and brings information to the group and a learning center regarding town government. IT IS A NON-PARTISAN GROUP with two purposes. 1. bring accountability to our elected officials and 2. Become educated voters. All are welcome. We hold our meetings at the East Greenbush Community Library on Monday at 7:00 pm. The next meetings scheduled are:


3/22; 4/5; 4/19; 5/3; 5/17; 6/14;

GREEN-TEA PARTY MEETING OUTCOME

I thought it was a fantastic meeting. We got focused and found common ground for all that attended. There was somewhere between 20-30 people in attendance.

As I stated from the beginning, this is not my tea party. I had envisioned a public demonstration on a Saturday in front of Town hall, fashioned after the tea parties that were held in Albany. We would have lots of ordinary citizens speaking out for what they were passionate about, some entertainment and lots of media coverage. After a pledge of allegiance to the flag I got right down to the agenda describing what was necessary to have a successful event.I had a very attentive audience, but very quiet. It became apparent that most (I dare say all) in attendance were under the impression and wanted to have a meeting of education and focus on Town issues. The group wants to discuss issues regarding the running of our town, how to stabilize the debt load, get out of debt and have responsible govern-ship. So this is where we are headed. We plan to have bi-weekly meetings and at some bring in speakers who are knowledgeable about issues facing our Town. We will split up the public meetings of the Town so not everyone needs to attend every meeting but can still get the information. Those who attend the meetings will bring back information to the group for dissemination and discussion. We will focus our combined efforts to hold those elected to serve us accountable.

Anyone who is interested in being involved in our Town and getting educated on how government is supposed to work is invited to attend our meetings. OUR MEETINGS ARE NOT ALIGNED WITH ANY POLITICAL PARTY, but just a group of concerned citizens from the left, right and in between. We discuss actions of individual elected officials from time to time, but are much more concerned about being educated so we can make appropriate decisions at election time.

I will formally announce the date and time when I confirm with the Library for availability.

Update of EGFD electronic sign

So I spoke to a source who is knowledgeable on the subject. He told me that the fire district paid for half the sign, so I wasn't that far off base when I said it was tax dollars.

I also learned that it is a used sign. It once stood proudly in the formerly vacant building known as Grease Monkey. The install was free and the sign discounted so it only cost about $6,000. Still a lot of tax payer dollars when you look at the traffic count for that road. Putting it in front of the mostly abandoned former fire headquarters at Hays and Columbia Turnpike would have made more sense from a traffic volume standpoint.

FILES FOUND

Can the East Greenbush politics get any worse? The missing files and computer information that went missing when Mr. Partek left as DPW commissioner suddenly reappear after his visit to the DPW office and going into files without the current commissioner there!

People if you don't stand up now, when will you? The democrats think they can get get away with anything BECAUSE THE CURRENTLY ARE!!!!!! Stand up and help put a stop to this crap.

March 8th at 7:00 pm at the Town Library for an organizational meeting of the East Greenbush TEa Party BE THERE OR STOP COMPLAINING!

Dwight leaves TU -EG Blog

If you have tried to read/post or re-read any of Dwight Jenkins posts on the Times Union - East Greenbush blog, he has deleted all of his postings. he is upset with the politicizing and apparent hi-jacking of his by-line on posts. I don't have any other information, but it is truly a shame that Dwight can be frustrated enough to cease writing his blog posts. I have invited him to create a blog of his own on blogspot.com where there isn't any apparent control issues. Dwight, please don't give up the fight!

Here is his (final) post from the Times Union:

Like everything else in East Greenbush I have come to the conclusion that the blog has been politicized. I won’t have my name associated with it any longer. I won’t have my name used by people with their own agendas and political connections. Anything I need to say now will be in person or in the paper. Go make your own agendas. I’ve removed my posts. Your comments, I’m sure, are buried somewhere within the bowels of the T.U.’s mainframe and can be resurrected, but not under my name. Adios, amigos…

Dwight