Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Association of Taghkanic Neighbors wants to participate in directing the town's future
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The southern edge of Columbia, a small agricultural county, is a hundred miles north of midtown Manhattan, straight up the Taconic Parkway. It is a small county, 600 sq. miless and 60,000 inhabitants, and Taghkanic is its smallest town, of some 2,000 souls, counting both residents and weekenders. It is part of the original Livingston Manor, a grant from the Crown to Lord Livingston who married the heiress of the Dutch Van Rensselaer Manor, and whose son Robert was one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. The list of the 125 graduating members of the Taconic Hills 2005 senior class is pure Anglo-Saxon, with a sprinkling of Dutch, German, Italian and Polish names, the old settlers. The weekend peoples' names are more diversified, and their numbers are growing, much to the consternation of the current crowd who enjoy and want to protect their privacy of idyllic rural surroundings.
The organizing meeting of the new Association of Taghkanic Neighbors (ATN) on Saturday June 18 at the Taconic Hills high school brought together some 90 –plus residents, part-timers, locals and officials, well beyond the expectation so the organizers.
The speaker for the group, Scott Stackpole, stated the principle that prompted a dozen or so newcomers and old-timers to band together. It is an interest in maintaining the rural atmosphere of our town in this era of rapid expansion, by participation in the land use planning, zoning and developing process.. He introduced the President of the organization, Ardith Truhan, and some members, Maureen and Peter Leggieri, Lucy and Peter Frank, Walter and Judith Flamenbaum, Marion and Irwin Kaplan, Erin Edwards, and our officials, Town Supervisor Elizabeth Young, Councilmembers Barbara Roemer and Tony LaSalvio, Town Clerk Cheryl Rogers. Some names escaped me, sorry, gang.
The meeting immediately swung into action when participants listed their interests. Lead-off was the persistent question of the ever-growing runaway tax load and what to do about it, followed by statements signifying need for controlled growth and tranquil life style, and the retention of the 2-3-5-7 acre zoning.
In answer to questions, Supervisor Young offered her concerns – overpopulation, loss of open spaces, farms dying, encroachment on woods. Slow but orderly growth need be developed. In that context Taghkanic in May 2005 declared a moratorium on zoning and planning changes, pending the development of a Comprehensive Plan, to carefully thought out by a group of six appointees, of which Tony LaSalvio is a member [the chair is Barbara Hermance]. The Comprehensive Plan will take time; meanwhile the 6-month moratorium can be renewed once, more if there are changes. The main effect will be to put a halt to subdivisions with more than four units until the Plan materializes. Professional help may be engaged, on a voluntary basis if available. Hint, hint…It may be noted that a Comprehensive Plan methodology is used in other local towns.
Regarding communications, an ATN newsletter was suggested. It turned out that nearly all participants had e-mail, with the potential of fast information flow. The Association itself right now has an address ATN, Box 92, Craryville, 12521, and interested parties should send their e-mail addresses there. A $10 voluntary contribution was suggested, to pay for postage and doughnuts in future meetings. A website, similar to www.taghkanicny.com, maintained by Assessor Thomas Herishko, was proposed.
More concerns; cable TV was named a necessity, and above all, a tower for cell phone service, unavailable nearly throughout the county [Verizon works in parts]. This will need a town referendum, a worrisome aspect, since there are holdouts concerned about unsightliness, and perceived dangers of emanations. Mrs. Young mentioned the benefits of communications for police and fire reporting, aspects that swung her over towards support for the tower. Another recommendation, a DSL line to speed communications, would cost $100K, although a member suggested using power lines. Let’s explore!
A story about the origin of the 1969 Beauty Award Road origin emerged. It seems in the 1960s Boise Cascade wanted to rip up the County 11/11a meadows and woods, and resourceful locals used the Lady Bird Johnson’s countryside beautification route to stop them. Ingenious! The Patten Corp bacon-strip subdivision was another attempt to cut up our tourist attraction, eventually resulting in the space turning into a community-service oriented high school site. Another winner for the people.
Environmental interests came next, concerns over noise pollution from motorcycles roaring on the Parkway (controlled at Lake George. How?) , and people running dirt tracks on their properties, on dirt roads and on top of the sand piles at the Taghkanic Highway Department location on County 27. Residents also complained about Columbia County turning its new space north of the Highway Department site into storage for culvert pipes, road materials and demolition thrash, and the garage encroaching into the Pumpkin Hollow traffic triangle and denuding the space behind it along Pumpkin Hollow Road, filling them with road sand and salt. Town leaders quoted a storage shed construction resolution forthcoming, three years away. It was not received favorably, despite the statement that a local architect (name coming) had offered free services to make the necessary structure neighborhood –compatible.
Garbage along roadsides and woods was mentioned, which was explained as coming from neighbors who cannot afford commercial pickup services. A tragic fact, requiring resolution, as much as the other poverty issues - junk on properties along the road, dilapidated cars, eyesores (someone offered a definition of two cars constituting a junkyard, therefore subject to regulations). Youth services came up, undefined, a Pandora’s box..
Hikers want access to trails, with maps. Guidebooks and “Come to NY” material were suggested, as were Independent articles (online?). Send your information to the ATN.
Concerns about grade level crossings were voiced, Closing County 10, for instance, something that the Taconic Parkway authorities might declare, as they did in Duchess, would be a disaster. How to fight? It was explained that a prominent woman killed in an accident, primping the legislation. We must be alert and develop defenses.
A recommendation of weekend town meetings came up, with a suggestion that Mondays are acceptable for the increasing Taghkanic weekend population, but Tuesdays are exclusionary. There was no locals vs. newcomers atmosphere, the officials, a mixed group themselves, were friendly and even leading-edge to some of the objectives, but a melding of ideas is needed. But these problems can be solved, unlike the world’s, we are Americans who understand democracy. The ATN meerings will continue, and more active participants are solicited.
The organization has a new e-mail address: taghkanicneighbors@yahoo.com.
The southern edge of Columbia, a small agricultural county, is a hundred miles north of midtown Manhattan, straight up the Taconic Parkway. It is a small county, 600 sq. miless and 60,000 inhabitants, and Taghkanic is its smallest town, of some 2,000 souls, counting both residents and weekenders. It is part of the original Livingston Manor, a grant from the Crown to Lord Livingston who married the heiress of the Dutch Van Rensselaer Manor, and whose son Robert was one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. The list of the 125 graduating members of the Taconic Hills 2005 senior class is pure Anglo-Saxon, with a sprinkling of Dutch, German, Italian and Polish names, the old settlers. The weekend peoples' names are more diversified, and their numbers are growing, much to the consternation of the current crowd who enjoy and want to protect their privacy of idyllic rural surroundings.
The organizing meeting of the new Association of Taghkanic Neighbors (ATN) on Saturday June 18 at the Taconic Hills high school brought together some 90 –plus residents, part-timers, locals and officials, well beyond the expectation so the organizers.
The speaker for the group, Scott Stackpole, stated the principle that prompted a dozen or so newcomers and old-timers to band together. It is an interest in maintaining the rural atmosphere of our town in this era of rapid expansion, by participation in the land use planning, zoning and developing process.. He introduced the President of the organization, Ardith Truhan, and some members, Maureen and Peter Leggieri, Lucy and Peter Frank, Walter and Judith Flamenbaum, Marion and Irwin Kaplan, Erin Edwards, and our officials, Town Supervisor Elizabeth Young, Councilmembers Barbara Roemer and Tony LaSalvio, Town Clerk Cheryl Rogers. Some names escaped me, sorry, gang.
The meeting immediately swung into action when participants listed their interests. Lead-off was the persistent question of the ever-growing runaway tax load and what to do about it, followed by statements signifying need for controlled growth and tranquil life style, and the retention of the 2-3-5-7 acre zoning.
In answer to questions, Supervisor Young offered her concerns – overpopulation, loss of open spaces, farms dying, encroachment on woods. Slow but orderly growth need be developed. In that context Taghkanic in May 2005 declared a moratorium on zoning and planning changes, pending the development of a Comprehensive Plan, to carefully thought out by a group of six appointees, of which Tony LaSalvio is a member [the chair is Barbara Hermance]. The Comprehensive Plan will take time; meanwhile the 6-month moratorium can be renewed once, more if there are changes. The main effect will be to put a halt to subdivisions with more than four units until the Plan materializes. Professional help may be engaged, on a voluntary basis if available. Hint, hint…It may be noted that a Comprehensive Plan methodology is used in other local towns.
Regarding communications, an ATN newsletter was suggested. It turned out that nearly all participants had e-mail, with the potential of fast information flow. The Association itself right now has an address ATN, Box 92, Craryville, 12521, and interested parties should send their e-mail addresses there. A $10 voluntary contribution was suggested, to pay for postage and doughnuts in future meetings. A website, similar to www.taghkanicny.com, maintained by Assessor Thomas Herishko, was proposed.
More concerns; cable TV was named a necessity, and above all, a tower for cell phone service, unavailable nearly throughout the county [Verizon works in parts]. This will need a town referendum, a worrisome aspect, since there are holdouts concerned about unsightliness, and perceived dangers of emanations. Mrs. Young mentioned the benefits of communications for police and fire reporting, aspects that swung her over towards support for the tower. Another recommendation, a DSL line to speed communications, would cost $100K, although a member suggested using power lines. Let’s explore!
A story about the origin of the 1969 Beauty Award Road origin emerged. It seems in the 1960s Boise Cascade wanted to rip up the County 11/11a meadows and woods, and resourceful locals used the Lady Bird Johnson’s countryside beautification route to stop them. Ingenious! The Patten Corp bacon-strip subdivision was another attempt to cut up our tourist attraction, eventually resulting in the space turning into a community-service oriented high school site. Another winner for the people.
Environmental interests came next, concerns over noise pollution from motorcycles roaring on the Parkway (controlled at Lake George. How?) , and people running dirt tracks on their properties, on dirt roads and on top of the sand piles at the Taghkanic Highway Department location on County 27. Residents also complained about Columbia County turning its new space north of the Highway Department site into storage for culvert pipes, road materials and demolition thrash, and the garage encroaching into the Pumpkin Hollow traffic triangle and denuding the space behind it along Pumpkin Hollow Road, filling them with road sand and salt. Town leaders quoted a storage shed construction resolution forthcoming, three years away. It was not received favorably, despite the statement that a local architect (name coming) had offered free services to make the necessary structure neighborhood –compatible.
Garbage along roadsides and woods was mentioned, which was explained as coming from neighbors who cannot afford commercial pickup services. A tragic fact, requiring resolution, as much as the other poverty issues - junk on properties along the road, dilapidated cars, eyesores (someone offered a definition of two cars constituting a junkyard, therefore subject to regulations). Youth services came up, undefined, a Pandora’s box..
Hikers want access to trails, with maps. Guidebooks and “Come to NY” material were suggested, as were Independent articles (online?). Send your information to the ATN.
Concerns about grade level crossings were voiced, Closing County 10, for instance, something that the Taconic Parkway authorities might declare, as they did in Duchess, would be a disaster. How to fight? It was explained that a prominent woman killed in an accident, primping the legislation. We must be alert and develop defenses.
A recommendation of weekend town meetings came up, with a suggestion that Mondays are acceptable for the increasing Taghkanic weekend population, but Tuesdays are exclusionary. There was no locals vs. newcomers atmosphere, the officials, a mixed group themselves, were friendly and even leading-edge to some of the objectives, but a melding of ideas is needed. But these problems can be solved, unlike the world’s, we are Americans who understand democracy. The ATN meerings will continue, and more active participants are solicited.
The organization has a new e-mail address: taghkanicneighbors@yahoo.com.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:18 AM 
