Town Board adopts ethics law, reorganizes CAC

PINE PLAINS — The Town Board addressed a handful of issues at its meeting on Thursday, May 19. One of the actions it took as a board was that it voted on a new ethics law; the motion passed unanimously. Town Supervisor Gregg Pulver said although he supported the passage of the law, he had some reservations.“It is very similar to the Ancram ethics law, and they’ve already seen since they passed theirs about three years ago some challenges that are very political,” he said. “I don’t know how much is common knowledge, but I warned our board [of my concerns].“We certainly need an ethics law, but I don’t think every problem in Pine Plains requires it,” Pulver added. “And I cautioned the board that these things are sometimes used for political witch hunts. Hopefully that won’t happen in the town of Pine Plains.”The town also had a public hearing on May 19, after which the Conservation Advisory Commission (CAC) was reorganized. Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky had announced previously that he was unhappy with the previous law that had set up the CAC.“We had periodically picked things out [of that law],” Pulver said. “So now this law just supersedes the previous law. The CAC was never in jeopardy of going away, this just cleared up the language — dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s — no biggie.”The main news of the May 19 meeting regarded the state’s Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposal to install a walk/don’t walk sign at the intersection of routes 199 and 82. That project has since been re-evaluated and rescinded, according to Pulver. “We’ve got to give a lot of credit to the townspeople [who petitioned the DOT], Assemblyman Marc Molinaro and Senator Greg Ball,” he said. “We got on the phone with the DOT one afternoon and made it work and it’s good to get it done.”To read the complete story on the status of the walk/don’t walk sign project, check out the June 2 issue or go online to www.tricornernews.com.

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