Cobleskill Refuses Sign Law

By Joshua Walther

COBLESKILL - On Tuesday evening, the Cobleskill Village Board held a public hearing for the extensive revisions to their local sign law.

The revisions first began when concerns were raised by the public over the new Taco Bell sign on Main Street, with complaints rolling in about its size and illumination.

Since then, new definitions have been added and the entire document was restructured to avoid unnecessary confusion, but some members still weren’t happy with the result.

Member Ruth Van Deusen offered her thoughts, saying that she couldn’t figure out what had actually changed between each iteration of the law.

“There’s no semblance to the original document, so I still have concerns about the format,” she said. “There should be a strikeout of what’s been deleted and a highlight of what’s been added.”

Mayor RJ Freitag shared some of her sentiment, admitting that what he heard from the consensus is that it was “a little convoluted,” but not everyone thought it was hard to understand.

Acting on the public comment period, a resident and business owner took to the podium, stating that she saw the law as “pretty standard for a code.”

“It’s not hard to follow from the perspective of someone who needs a sign,” she said, and further stated that it’s important to reach out to Village code officers so they can help business owners interpret the law and find out what they need to do.

This was reinforced by Zoning Officer Mike Piccolo, who said “We don’t expect someone coming off the street to understand all of the definitions. This is to make our job easier, the signmaker’s job easier, and to smooth out that process.”

Member Lance Rotolo backed his claims, noting “If a business comes in, has a question or doesn’t understand something, we have the code officers that are there to guide them and help them.”

“Sometimes with the way the laws are written, it’s difficult, and it’s nice to go to your code officer and get that explanation,” he finished.

However, the arguments did not sway one half of the Board. When Mr. Rotolo moved to accept the revisions, Howard Burt seconded, but the motion ultimately failed when the others weren’t convinced.

In other news, the Board also held a public hearing for the local law to disavow parking at any time on certain streets, a topic that was hotly contested in September.

At that time, several residents of the Village came forward to voice their grievances, with some alluding to having guests over for the holidays while others didn’t believe the law could be enforced correctly.

Now, after resident John Jarvis publicly asked the Board where they stood on the matter, every member believed that it needed more work.

“It’s more restrictive than I think some of it needs to be,” said Mr. Burt, alluding to the changes for no parking on St. Christopher Place. “That’s a tiny, dead-end road. I don’t think it’s justified on that street.”

With Mayor Freitag and Mrs. Van Deusen in agreement, the Board moved to table the topic, which was passed unanimously.

Finally, the Board accepted a motion to contract with The Bonadio Group as an independent auditor for $30,000 to look at the Village’s finances.

“That’s negotiated down, so that’s a very fair price,” said Mayor Freitag. “It’s mainly because this is a new administration and we owe it to the people to have one done. It’s not something I want to do, but it’s absolutely necessary.”