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How is Washington County Run?

With the recent votes by the Washington County Board of Supervisors on both the budget and the beach, I though it would make an interesting post to explain how Washinton County is governed.

There is no County Executive in Washington County. The County is run by it’s Board of Supervisors with each Supervisor having a weighted vote in proportion to their town’s population. Out of the 17 Towns in the County, Kingsbury is the largest with a population of 11,171 and Putnam is the smallest with a population of 645. Dresden is the second smallest town with a population of 677. Every 10 years, after the federal census, these numbers change. A simple majority of 2067 votes is needed for most issues. Special circumstances require a 2/3 majority vote. I contacted the County and got the weighted voting table for each town and supervisor. As you can see, Dresden is at a disadvantage because of our low population.

Town Weighted
Vote
Argyle
268
Cambridge
158
Dresden
50
Easton
167
Fort Ann
269
Fort Edward
423
Granville
457
Greenwich
352
Hampton
65
Hartford
167
Hebron
131
Jackson
126
Kingsbury
711
Putnam
48
Salem
197
White Creek
248
Whitehall
295
Total
4132

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Boys: Keep Your Eyes Open on the Beach

This video proves that it’s good to be nice to people you meet on the beach. We have a good source, who wants to remain anonymous, who tells us that when Ashley Tisdale was little she visited Huletts and swam on our beach. She’s now singing in High School Musical and at Rockefeller Center.

Wish you hadn’t gone golfing that day?

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The Lost Radio Ad – Now Coming Christmas Eve

Radio Ad Coming Soon We’ve gotten so many comments about the lost radio ad for the Hotel that we will be publishing it on Christmas Eve, a day earlier than we had originally told you. So, we’re getting close, but you’ll be able to make it. So plan on pulling up a chair with the whole family on Christmas Eve for some Huletts history and some Huletts fun. Only here on the Huletts Current.

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Are They Similar – You Decide?

The original opening credits for the popular children’s cartoon, Scooby Doo, were changed sometime in the 1970’s.

The original 1969 credits can be seen here, the later version can be seen here.

Over the years we have heard a rumor that one of the cartoonists responsible for the more recent version toured Lake George and was inspired by this local house.

While we have no way of knowing if this rumor is true or not, we present a screen shot of the cartoon house here.

We leave it up to you to decide. Is the answer to the question; “Scooby Doo where are you?” – Huletts!

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No Removal of the Foster Brook Sediment Delta This Year

Sad News We are sad to report that the removal of the Foster Brook Sediment Delta will not take place this year. The Lake George Association worked very hard to make this happen but unfortunately they have informed us that because of funding issues and objections raised by the Lake George Waterkeeper, this project will not take place this year. We emailed the Waterkeeper last week to see what their objections were, but so far they have not responded.

These objections were posted on their website from July.

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Tax Report Card

With the 2009 year almost upon us, one of the topics the Huletts Current will be addressing in the weeks ahead will be the taxing policies of the jurisdictions that we find ourselves part of. Today we release our “historical report card” for the tax and spend policies for the Town of Dresden, Washington County and the Whitehall School District.

The Town of Dresden over the last 30 years has established itself as a “low tax” Town that works very hard at keeping expenditures low. For the past two years running, the Town Board has cut the amount of money raised from taxes and Town taxes have actually decreased. A few years ago during a state audit, the Town Board members actually came to the Town Hall and counted certain assets like chairs, etc., themselves! For this the Town of Dresden gets an “A” for their wise stewardship of our tax dollars over the past 30 years.

Washington County has been more of a “mixed bag” with its historic taxing policy. We give it a “C+”. Over the last 30 years spending has continually grown, but much of this is because federal and state mandates have been imposed on the counties with no corresponding state or federal aid. However, Washington County needs to do a lot more in terms of attracting business and “growing the tax base.” Recently computer chip manufacturer, AMD, has announced a major new facility in neighboring Saratoga County. The southern towns of Washington County are poised to grow with this facility located nearby. Hopefully, this will attract businesses and residents to Washington County.

The Whitehall School District’s tax and spend policies over the last 30 years have been an unmitigated disaster for the taxpayers of the District and earn it a solid “F”. They have driven almost all business from Whitehall with their excessive spending. This is part of a “Letter to the Editor” that I wrote to the Whitehall Times a few months ago. “I went back to the 1970’s and looked at the budget for the Whitehall school district and compared it to spending for this current school year. For the 1974-1975 school year, the entire budget was $2,443,937 and the amount raised from property taxes was $704,000. Enrollment was right around 1100 students. For the 2007-2008 year, the entire budget is $12,960,569 and the amount raised from property taxes is $4,805,069. Enrollment is 900 students. That means that over the last 33 years, the total budget increased 430% and the amount raised from property taxes increased 582% while enrollment was falling by 200 students! These increases far outpace both inflation and the Consumer Price index for this period. The amount of the budget raised from property taxes went from 28.08% of the budget to 37.07%. “

The members of the school board are elected for staggered terms in May. We will be informing you this year as we get closer to the election about which candidates are committed to cutting taxes and who is not, because we can no longer sit on the sidelines while our money is spent like this. “F’s” make the Current move.

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Looks Like a White Christmas

We had our first significant snowfall in Huletts yesterday. All total, we got about 6 – 7 inches. If you’re planning on heading up for the weekend, we would advise you to be very careful.

Alot of people are without power in southern Washinton County but everything is good here. We will try to take some pictures for those who are in more southern parts of the country right now. It should be a white Christmas though!

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Dresden Town Meeting – Monday Night

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Dresden Town Board was relatively quiet on Monday night (12/8/08). Supervisor Banks did reiterate that even if funding for the Washington County Beach was cut from the Washington County Budget, the Town would find a way to keep the beach open.

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Beach Vote – More Facts

We thought you would find the following information useful. On the recent vote to approve some funding for the Washington County Beach (which was defeated), out of the 17 Supervisors, 11 voted for the Beaches, 5 voted against the Beaches, with 1 member absent. Fort Edward, Kingsbury and Granville (Towns with the most weighted votes) all voted “NO”.

We will continue to update you on this issue in the days ahead.

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Email to the Editor

My Fellow Dresden Landowners:

I am sharing this below information so that you will be aware of the happenings at the Washington County Government level.

Some of you will ignore this email; some of you will read it and return to your every day pastimes; however, I am seriously counting on the fact that some of you will let the County Hierarchy know exactly how you feel about the use of your tax dollars and make great use of the phone numbers and e-mail addresses listed below, as well as passing this email on to others who you believe are as equally concerned about this cut to the Washington County Budget.

Of course, the present Supervisors are probably unaware that part of the reason the public park was put in Huletts Landing, years ago, was to curtail the public from going across private property to access the lake, so they have not added the extra expense to the line item of the Sheriff’s Department Budget yet.

Thank you for your time and efforts,
Very truly yours,
Sue Foster Ives

Phone#’ & Email Addresses:

Washington County Board of Supervisors: 518/746-2210
Chairperson Joanne Trinkle: 518/677-3324
Vice Chairperson Donald Wilbur: 518/692-7137
Budget Officer Gayle Hall: 518/761-4040; bricare@capital.net