By Joshua Walther
COBLESKILL - On Tuesday evening, the Cobleskill Village Board met to discuss their highway agreement with the Town, which seems to be locked in stasis.
Historically, the Town has taken it upon their own department to take care of all duties within their bounds and the Village’s, including trimming trees, fixing culverts, and plowing snow from the roadways.
However, in 2022, their longstanding agreement expired and needed to be renewed, but no progress could be made on the Town’s end. Supervisor Werner Hampel assured the Village several times that a drafted document was on its way, and yet as the years rolled by, there was no indication of what was promised.
Finally, last month, Village Mayor Rebecca Stanton-Terk recognized that they may be in need of their own highway department and publicly addressed the issue, saying that little correspondence was exchanged between the two parties on the matter.
The next day, Supervisor Hampel organized a meeting with Mayor Stanton-Terk and the highway department. But as she came away with more questions than answers, the mayor asked for the Town’s thoughts in writing, which baffled her further.
From what could be gathered, the Town asked the Village to perform most of the functions of a highway department, with the only exception being snow removal. Instead, the Town would like to contract and have the Village pay for services rendered.
After a follow-up letter was sent, the Village heard nothing further from the Town, and Trustee Lance Rotolo personally confirmed that the Town did not publicly address the matter at their last regular meeting.
With the end of summer in sight, the mayor recognized that the snow will begin flying sooner rather than later, saying that “This could be an upcoming problem.”
Trustee Larry VanHeertum offered that the Village should have “something in place to protect themselves,” to which the rest of the Board agreed. Other than that, however, the issue will be a game of patience for Cobleskill.
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