Six New Manufactured Houses All Set For Some Schoharie County Families

By Chris English

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — Six New Manufactured Houses are ready for some low to moderate income families in Schoharie County, thanks to the efforts of the county, the Stamford-based Western Catskills Community Revitalization Council and others.

Antonia Besculides of Western Catskills (WCCRC) reported on the project at the Friday, Oct. 17 meeting of the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors. She said an $800,000 Community Development Block Grant was used to replace six dilapidated manufactured homes for families in Conesville, Jefferson and Gilboa.

The families were displaced for no more than three months and were able to stay with relatives or in a WCCRC rental unit during the replacement process.

Besculides added that activities undertaken with the grant were asbestos testing, radon testing, development of engineering plans, asbestos removal and monitoring, demolition and disposal of dilapidated units, pouring of insulated slab foundations, construction and delivery of single wide units, connection to utilities and electric replacement.

Besculides said Western Catskills was sub-recipient of the grant and she wrote the grant application.

"Everything was done top notch, I think we had the right partner," BOS Chairman Bill Federice said.

"It's the closest we've ever worked with their organization and they made the process easy," county Economic Development and Community Affairs Services Director Shane Nickle added.

In other news from the Oct. 17 meeting, Tanja Konwinski of the Waterfall Center for Bioregional Learning gave a presentation on Wildfire Awareness and Preparation in Schoharie County.

She said that wildfires are not a severe problem in the county but that fires elsewhere can have effects, like that smoke that comes down from Canadian wildfires. Schoharie County currently does not have a strong wildfire preparation plan, Konwinski added.

She noted that three tree species that make up 30 percent of Schoharie County forests _ Hemlock, Ash and Beech _ are in decline and there's no treatment.

"Dead trees do not immediately equate to fuel for fires," Konwinski said.

On another subject, at one point in the meeting county Supervisors again railed against state mandates and directives for going electric _ including with school buses _ that they consider burdensome and unrealistic.

Supervisor John Leavitt said an official with one county school district recently told him their electric bus spends more time on the back of a flatbed truck that on the job.

Fellow Supervisor Philip Skowfoe said electric buses are not powerful enough to handle the many steep roads in the county and would be prone to breakdowns, especially during the winter.

"They have lost perspective of how we live and what we're about out here," Skowfoe said of state officials.

"We have a governor who is so far out of touch with reality. She has no idea what she is doing," added BOS member Earl VanWormer III.

Supervisor Donald Airey stated "they are blinded by some political agenda. Both parties are guilty. It doesn't make it right."