Are the New Baltimore Democrats Electable? No. Absolutely Not!

It’s just about a month until election day, and there’s some very serious thinking to be done.

This November 7^th voters in New Baltimore will be confronting a critical dilemma; in other words, they will be between a rock and a hard place. If Town Hall is to change — and it must — new blood must be infused into the tired old body. But the only new blood is in female bodies, so if there is to be any change, it will be a change with very questionable consequences.[1]

𝚃𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝙱𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚆𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝙳𝙲 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚎 𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚁𝚎𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚜, 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚜. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜. 𝚂𝚘, 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚘𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚊 𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚝, 𝚠𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚌𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐. 𝙸𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢, 𝚙𝚞𝚛𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚜. 𝙾𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍, 𝚒𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚋𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚢’𝚜 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚏𝚊𝚔𝚎. 𝙳𝚘 𝚠𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝙱𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚒-𝚆𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜, 𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚘𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢? 𝙻𝚎𝚝’𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝙱𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟽𝚝𝚑, 𝚘𝚗 𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚍𝚊𝚢.

Even the most averse and cantankerous of our readers have to admit that we manage pretty well to stay away from party politics, keeping our comments focused on what is being done by whom, how, and why. We also are pretty fair and balanced when it comes to gender and identity politics, and we keep our social justice discussions away from highly emotional topics that usually breed conspiracy theories. As a rule, we call a spade a spade and shoot from the hip — with deadly accuracy.

Stop the phony flag-waving and deceitful tongue-wagging for a moment,
and let the facts do the talking for once.

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We recently asked the two Democratic candidates, Janet Kash and Debra Sottolano, and the one renegade “Republican” write-in, Denise Taber, to provide their statements on why they should be elected. They responded that we should be more “specific” with our questions — we thought the question was pretty clear —, so, to accommodate them, we put together four ‘specific’ questions that we thought were important and, we feel, were not being answered by the candidates in their canned bios and campaign rhetoric. We sent the questions to the Democratic candidates and to the Republican incumbents: Boehlke, Irving, and Ruso through the Town Clerk, since both incumbents Boehlke and Irving do not have published email contacts for the public. Why would that be, you’d wonder?

We wrote[2]:

So, let us be “specific:” Give us not more than three sentences for each of the following questions, telling our readers:

1. What motivates you to run for office, that is, what you see you are called to do in this community and why?
2. What are the unique problems YOU have identified that need fixing in this community. Not generalized statements like “good roads,” or more “accountability,” or “better response times.” Be very specific.
3. How you feel you are qualified to make that happen better than the people you are running against.
4. What you have done in the past that shows you can produce these results on the Town Board.

The Democrats’ and the “registered Republican” write-in’s response was disappointing: The Democratic candidates, the RINO[3] write-in, and the incumbent Republicans, Boehlke and Irving, refused to answer our questions. The Dems sent their canned public campaign bios, instead. Boehlke and Irving did what they do best and said nothing. (We published our analysis of Democratic candidates Janet Kash’s and Debra Sottolano’s campaign biographies in our articles, “Elections 2023: Focus on Janet Kennedy-Kash” and “Elections 2023: Focus on Debra Sottolano”. They weren’t too happy with what we wrote.) Their public bios are useless word salad,[4] and tell us nothing about their qualifications for local government. If that’s their idea of responding to the public and of transparency and accountability, what can we expect from them as elected officials?

Boehlke’s, Irving’s, and Ruso’s refusal to respond is characteristic of their attitude towards public inquiry: make believe the public is invisible and maybe they’ll go away. Sorry, guys. Not gonna happen. [Editor’s Note: On the day after the submittal deadline and the day before publication, we followed up with the Town for Boehlke’s, Irving’s, and Ruso’s statements, but the Town did not respond.]

Campaigns Should Run on Real Issues, Not Dead Ones

Furthermore, the rift between Alan VanWormer, incumbent Town Highway superintendent is well known. VanWormer is running for re-election to be Highway Superintendent, and he is running again unopposed for that office. The Democrats are conspicuously cuddling up to VanWormer and the Highway Department, apparently hoping to cash in on VanWormer’s popularity, and using a Democratic Facebook nest, Whats Up in New Baltimore NY, to take their shots at Town Hall.[5] The Whats Up site is home to the Democratic candidates, where they publish their campaign statements. The problem is that Whats Up in New Baltimore, a private Facebook page, whose owner and moderator, Melissa Ashby (Old State Rd, Ravena), uses censorship and blocking to silence inconvenient opinion. (See the SMB article: Beware of Censored “Community Information” on Facebook.”) That means the Dems are playing to a very limited audience. Is that how they want to “get the word out?” Is that how they do their “listening?”

The Democratic candidates are beating a dead horse by continuing to use fair wages and benefits and support of VanWormer’s crusade as their campaign drumbeat — their hopes are that by supporting VanWormer, they’ll capture all of VanWormer’s friends, supporters, and followers, and bring them over to their side. It’s a cheap play but they don’t appear to be averse to it. The issue of the Highway Department’s battle for a collective bargaining agreement is history, however. The Highway Department has their union contract guaranteeing the employees of the Highway Department a fair wage and benefits. They have that contract now and they’re happy. It’s no longer an issue, but the Democratic candidates are still trying to use it as a wedge. They don’t seem to get it: the Highway Department unionization is a done deal; Read my lips: It’s no longer an issue, so let’s move on, people! If that’s the way you’re going to campaign, I’m very concerned how you will run the Town, if elected!

Our advice: Bury the dead issues and pick up on some really current issues that are weighing heavily on the hearts and minds of New Baltimore residents. The Democratic candidates don’t seem to be able to manage that, it seems. Nor do they seem to want to talk about it if they are interested in the issues.

If the Democratic Candidates are Elected, will the Town Board be a Toxic Mix?

All said and done, we like good up-front organization, fairness, accountability, and transparency in local government, and integrity and honesty in our elected officials. To achieve these goals there has to be a good mix in terms of background, experience, ideologies, and of course, gender. To be honest, we don’t see that happening now, and we don’t foresee it happening in the near future, certainly not after the 2023 elections.

Metaphorically and figuratively, men are indeed from Mars and women from Venus;[6] we often have to point out that some of our elected officials are actually from Uranus, or someone’s, but that’s another discussion.

We are not into system blame, victimhood, coalitional ideology, or PC (political control) or thought police: if it’s got feathers, walks on two legs, and quacks, it’s either from Coeymans or is a duck. It’s that simple.

If They Don’t Have Qualifications, They Can’t Discuss Them

And the Democratic candidates fail on both the qualification point and the discussion point. In contrast, we’ve been able to observe the incumbent Republicans’ performance on the Board for several years now.

The fact remains, though, that like many of our friends and neighbors in local communities, we are sick and tired of being ignored, lied to, made to feel invisible, disrespected, and used. So, the fact that the Democratic candidates refused to answer four simple questions can mean several things: (1) they have no convincing answers, (2) they’re hiding the fact that they are not qualified, (3) they don’t believe their own campaign slogans, (4) they’re not familiar enough with residents and their core concerns to be able to address them. And, finally, (5) they talk about transparency and accountability but it appears to be just talk.

Slogans like “listening” and “people over politics” — whatever that is supposed to mean — are all campaign blather that say nothing and offer nothing, if the candidates are not informed by a sincere and deep understanding of the hearts of New Baltimore residents, they are not electable to serve the New Baltimore community.

Sorry, ladies, the average New Baltimore resident is not a member of the elite organizations like the Conservancy, nor do the frequent the hotsy-totsy wine and cheese events in the park, and they are very unlikely to drop $40 to attend a hoity-toity meet-the-candidate soirée. You obviously are out of touch with the average New Baltimore resident and voter.

Editor’s Note: A further nagging concern is the fact that the Democratic candidates focus on themselves and their associations with fringe causes, and their membership in what can only be called the separatist New Baltimorean elite. such as the NB Conservancy, and practically nothing in New Baltimore as a united community!

Janet Kash focuses on her 40 years as a state employee writing for Democratic senators, her activities as an animal welfare advocate, animal health and safety, an amphibian rescuer, the New Baltimore Conservancy (an elitist group), Whiskers (an animal benevolent organization), and her degree in English. That’s all good news for New Baltimorean dogs, cats, and farm animals but what about US?

Debra Sottolano focuses on her interest as an environmental advocate, her 30 years as a state employee (Health Department), healthcare information systems, emergency preparedness, breast cancer advocacy, degrees in biology/chemistry, marketing, and “interdisciplinary program of business management.” Sottolano would be great if we had a healthcare informatics, emergency preparedness, or infectious disease problem in New Baltimore, but we don’t.

Neither Kash nor Sottolano mention any issues of general community concern in New Baltimore other than the now moot Highway Department unionization.

Denise Taber, the RINO write-in, cites her brief stint on the New Baltimore Zoning Board of Appeals; membership in the Cornell Hook and Ladder Auxiliary; membership in the Ladies Auxiliary of the Green Count VFA; her experience as a Stewart’s manager, bus driver, and her certificate in secretarial studies. Running on those “credentials” she’s asking you to put her in the Supervisor’s office. That’s either gross arrogance or a symptom of a mental delusional disorder!

We think these three women should stick with their volunteering and leave the politics to those more qualified to do the job.

If the Democratic candidates are campaigning on transparency and accountability, Why can’t they answer four simple questions, you might ask? If they are listening and are putting “people over politics,” why can’t they respond to four very clear and relevant questions. Well, because they are actually carpetbaggers, opportunists with no real qualifications and looking for something to do with their retirement time,[7] like making Town Hall their new sandbox. Enough is enough!

As I mentioned above, voters in New Baltimore will face a critical dilemma: Either keep the current Town Board unchanged and live with that decision for another two years until voters can get rid of Kelly Downes and Shelly VanEtten, and Jeffrey Ruso, if he’s still around, OR elect two women to replace the two men on the Town Board, changing the entire dynamics of the Board, because then the Board will be populated totally with women. If the one unqualified woman write-in candidate for Town Supervisor is successful in ousting Ruso — which is a near impossibility, given the fact that she has no experience or qualifications —, then the entire New Baltimore Town Board will be made up of women, 4 Board members and [im]possibly the Supervisor, who acts not only as the Town’s Chief Financial Officer but also as a Board member at Board meetings, making the 5-member board a feminist enclave. The ‘Mars-Venus’ balance will be lost and that could mean trouble for everyone in New Baltimore.

Putting tits on a bull doesn’t make it more useful; it’s still a bull! Furthermore, if you are intimidated by your elected officials, you’re putting tits on a bull won’t help matters because given a bull’s temperament, who would get close enough to milk it?

The Success of the Town and the Effectiveness of the Town Board Depends on Public Participation in Town Government.

The future of the Town of New Baltimore and the effectiveness of the Town Board do not depend necessarily on who is on the Board — providing they have the minimum qualifications — but more on how involved residents are in their Town government. If as many Town residents were to attend Town Board meetings as attend Sunday baseball games in the Cecil C Hallock Memorial Park, and if a fraction of those residents were to take advantage of the Public Comment period to inform the Board, New Baltimore would be in a far better place, even a model community.

Therefore, a better solution, we feel, and for good reason, is to keep the Town Board the way it is but become more involved, directing the actions of the Town Board and Supervisor in the way that democratic process is supposed to work. Simply changing the faces on the Board without being involved in our Town’s government isn’t going to change a damn thing. Residents have to participate, speak up, and get things done. Just putting people in Town Hall and letting them do as they please is killing us as a community.

We are categorically opposed to packing the Town Board with one gender, and we’re convinced of the problems created by such a situation for a number of reasons. First of all, we hate cat fights. They’re noisy and the fur gets all over the place. It’s difficult to clean up the mess when they’re done. That’s what we expect to see if the two Democratic women replace the two Republican men on the Board, and have to deal with two very nasty incumbent Republican women, Downes and VanEtten, who will remain on the Board until the next round of elections, when they’ll hopefully be voted out.

There can only be two worst case scenarios on the New Baltimore Town Board if the men go: the two Democratic women will cozy up to the two Republican women and create a gender-biased feminist love-fest coalition, silencing anything without a vagina — natural or trans. Or (2) the second worst case scenario is that the two Democratic women lock horns with the two Republican harridans — Let the catfights begin! — and this is the most likely situation.

The Board needs political and gender balance and, it’s awful to have to admit, the two Democratic candidates are smart and may have their hearts in the right place — But the real question is where is that? Nobody knows for sure. But one thing is certain: the Town would have to sacrifice the male element on the board together with the vast practical and technical knowledge and experience that they have, and which they contribute to the Board’s activities and deliberations. To be fair, Boehlke and Irving have a special knowledge about and a feeling for the real community, something we don’t really see in the Democratic candidates.[8]

There has to be balance. Any extreme system is doomed to be just that, extreme, and a totally female Board is unbalanced and susceptible to polarization and extremism, especially given the special interests of candidates Kash and Sottolano. We don’t need that in New Baltimore.

We can all agree that Jeff Ruso needs to go, and with him Nick “the Weasel” Dellisanti.

As our loyal veteran readers know well, we are strongly opposed to unopposed candidates, and Jeff Ruso has been in office only because he was unopposed in at least two elections; as an unopposed candidate, he is in office by default, and that’s not democratic process at work. Moreover, Ruso is not a leader and cannot handle the Board, as is obvious when we observe the free-for-all that is called a public Town Board meeting. [See our article on Kelly Downes’ histrionics, “Disrespect & Disorder: New Baltimore Board Member Downes all Fireworks”] But that doesn’t mean the voters should replace him with someone with absolutely no qualifications for the job.[9] Furthermore, anyone who observes the Town Board will know that Nick “the Weasel” Dellisanti is running things from backstage.

This situation is again problematic because the only person running against Ruso this November is a RINO write-in candidate and a woman.[10] But let’s just say that she overcomes the difficulty of running against an incumbent — even if we allow the handicap that Ruso is very unpopular, even among his own Republican party — she is still an underdog, a write-in. In other words, she didn’t decide to run until it was too late to obtain the number of signatures to properly get on the ballot, or get a party endorsement, and so she didn’t get on the official ballot, which is why she’s running as a write-in.[11] She’s a registered Republican but is a renegade, a maverick, and she’s supported by the Democratic Caucus and the two Democratic candidates for Town Board seats. Doesn’t that raise red flags from the start?[12]

We are totally not convinced she, Taber, has the right stuff to handle the job of Town Supervisor, but then, the last couple of supervisors we’ve had weren’t the right stuff, either, and they were men. So the fact that we’ve had several male duds as Supervisor — notwithstanding that the last woman Supervisor we had was a real space cadet — isn’t really a disadvantage for a woman candidate. But the fact that a candidate has no credentials or qualifications is a fatal disadvantage.

We really think Taber should drop out before she embarrasses herself or gets herself into water really way over her head.

But once again, we have to consider the balance factor and the fact that if, Denise Taber does not drop out and by some bizarre stroke of Fate,  Taber were to be elected to be Town Supervisor, we’d have an entirely female Board! You might not find that all that unpalatable but be aware that you may very well have two Democratic women, two Republican women, and a “registered Republican” RINO woman who turned on the party to accept Democratic support for her write-in campaign for Supervisor! How do you think that will go over with Kelly Downes and Shelly VanEtten, the two Republican incumbents on the Board. Let us make a little prediction: Catfight!

Voting has to be done sensibly, paying attention not only to who is available but what the reasonable expectations will be once they’re in office. These are human beings, people with their own strengths and weaknesses, their stereotypes and interests, their prejudices and preconceptions — and gender biases. They also have to mix well with the others on the Board and in Town Hall; the mixture has to be more like Gatorade than leach field runoff. Keep in mind also that whatever happens on the Town Board or in Town Hall will trickle down — rather flood down — to the rest of us.

If we take Ravena-Coeymans as an example, we can see how the saying, “A fish rots from the head down,” aptly applies to local government as well as it does to state and federal government.

Victimhood, collective trauma can lead to deep community divides and within-group conflicts — one of those groups would be the Town Board —, and a breakdown of community and Town Board cohesion.

Group suffering is an important antecedent of both conspiracy thinking and hostility towards outgroups (conspiracy believers vs non-believers). But what if the conspiracy is real?

The mistrust, alienation, deprivation, results in the conspiracy believer’s distancing themselves from the non-believer views — this distancing is called “traumatic rift.” What if the conspiracy believers are right and the non-believers are part of the conspiracy or just too scared to admit the truth? What then?

Before November 7^th, you really have to ask yourself: “Which side of the fence am I on?”

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NOTES

[1] Female bodies — biological female bodies — are usually equipped with OEM female brains, and science has clearly shown that female brains, like female bodies, are different from male brains. This is scientific fact. Anatomically they’re different, functionally they’re different, and psychologically they’re different. Add to those natural differences the cultural and sociable differences and you won’t be offended by the points I make in this article. If you are one of those who believe your ideology and identity politics are right and science is wrong, and you are still offended, please leave the site and have a good life wallowing in your delusions. You don’t belong here.

[2] The questions are extracted from a larger body of email text and have been edited for readability outside of the email text. No substantial or significant changes have been made, however.

[3] RINO is an acronym meaning “Republican In Name Only;” the Democratic equivalent is a DINO, “Democrat In Name Only.”

[4] A ‘word salad,’ or schizophasia, is a confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases, usually offered as a response but in fact is a non-response. In psychiatry, it’s a symptom of schizophrenia and used to describe the confused and unintelligible babblings of a neurological or mental disorder.

[5] We would like to note that the fact of the Democratic candidates and the RINO write-in candidate cuddling up to VanWormer and the Highway Department, and their emphasizing support for the Town Highway Department, while ignoring other important issues in the town, is a bit bizarre. We all know that VanWormer wanted a union contract and higher wages and the Town Board attempted to stymie the unionization. That’s a fact. But the Town did negotiate a contract and the Highway Department does now have their union contract. End of story. Because the story became a Republican scandal, a thorn in the current Town Board’s side, the Democrats picked up on it and weaponized the situation against the incumbent Republicans. VanWormer and the Highway Department basked in the attention and exploited  the Democrats’ support; Town Hall tried a backstage approach and lost. Not a very ethical way to fight a battle, but it was what it was. But it’s history now; no one’s interested in it any more, except maybe Kash, Sottolano, and Taber.

[6] Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (1992) is a book written by author and relationship counselor John Gray. Gray illustrates common conflicts between men and women and offers advice on how to counteract differences in communication styles, emotional needs, and behavior. The book states that most common relationship problems between men and women are a result of fundamental psychological differences between the sexes, and that each sex is acclimated to its own sociology and psychology, different from those of the other gender. One example is men’s complaint that if they offer solutions to problems that women bring up in conversation, the women are not necessarily interested in solving those problems, but mainly want to talk about them. Gray asserts each gender can be understood in terms of distinct ways they respond to stress and stressful situations. (Gray, John. Men Are from Mars Women Are from Venus : The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex. First Harper paperback ed. Harper 2012.)

[7] We know all too well when a retiree gets bored and goes into politics. An example would be our very own Nick “the Weasel” Dellisanti.

[8] The Democratic candidates are both originally from areas with little in common with the traditions and culture of the real New Baltimore. Their backgrounds, particularly their careers and interests reflect more of the elitist minority of New Baltimore than of the majority of New Baltimore residents. Yes, the Democratic candidates are interested in New Baltimore but are they interested in the traditions and culture of New Baltimore, as New Baltimorean natives are? That’s a very big question.

[9] As for Denise Taber, having served a stint on the New Baltimore Zoning Board of Appeals and left, membership and volunteering in fire department auxiliary, having been a school bus driver, managing a Stewarts, and having a certificate in secretarial studies are not qualifications for Town Supervisor! Somebody’s head is a bit too big, we think.

[10] Actually, being a woman is certainly not the concern, and is neither should it be a qualification nor a disqualification. The concern is that Taber has absolutely no qualifications or experience for the job.

[11] We believe she was persuaded to run not for her own good but merely to challenge incumbent Town Supervisor with a candidate, and the only candidate the Democrats could pick up was Taber. We’re certain there’s a good story behind that one!

[12] That also illustrates one of our points: the gender issue. Even as a registered Republican, the two Democratic candidates for Town Board, Janet Kash and Debra Sottolano, are embracing Taber because she’s a woman — or because she’s gullible. Do you think that would happen if she were a man? Now, be honest.

 

Beware of Censored “Community Information” on Facebook

Social media is very democratic. Anyone and everyone who can’t find a place to grandstand can create a group or page, make it pubic or private, and colled a gaggle of members who share their frequently befuddled interests or ideas. Facebook has become the go-to platform for just about every sort of ideological or political pervert imaginable, pitifully diluting the few respectable and reliable pages and groups.

Given the many current and growing number of controversies and scandals in the small hilltown of New Baltimore (Greene County, NY), and the rapidly approaching November elections and their precursor political campaigns, tensions and emotions are rising, and so is the opportunity for misinformation and dirty politics. In a small town with a polarized political composition of “save the world” Democrats and “leave it be conservative” Republicans, a majority poorly educated  Boomers and victim iGens, social media platforms offer a unique and effective outlet for healthy venting but also a convenient venue for an eager public hungry for the opinions of like-minded lunatics. The effects are incredibly harmful unless the public is made aware of what’s going on.

That said, we love it when locals make our points for us; it saves us so much work and no one can accuse us of personal attacks when we use their own unedited words to prove a point. Here’s another example taken from the Whats Up in New Baltimore Facebook page run by a local woman, Melissa Ashby, a bit of a haridan and potty-mouth, but we’re certain that apart from the high genetic content of Neanderthal, she’d make a nice pet. I hear ferrets make nice pets.

There is clearly a big problem with self-appointed censors and Thought Police and Opinion Vigilantes independently inventing definitions to suit their agendas. Facebook has become notorious for such misconduct and heavyhandedness, and so have amateur editor/admins creating Facebook groups and pages so they can act out their narcissism, anger, antisocial behavior, often masquerading as “community information” venues or groups with a social justice agenda. One such group, Whats [sic] Up In New Baltimore, a page [mis]administered by a local woman, Melissa Ashby, baits locals into providing content, and then plays out her control fantasies.

Editor’s Note: The only Melissa Ashby we could find gives her address as Ravena, New York, but admins the Whats Up in New Baltimore New York Facebook group. According to the New Baltimore Tax Rolls, a Melissa Ashby owns property with Mark Ashby on Old State Road, Ravena, NY 12143, a Ravena address but New Baltimore taxes. This is not all that uncommon in the area.

Editor’s Note: The only Melissa Ashby we could find gives her address as Ravena, New York, but admins the Whats Up in New Baltimore New York Facebook group. According to the New Baltimore Tax Rolls, a Melissa Ashby owns property with Mark Ashby on Old State Road, Ravena, NY 12143, a Ravena address but New Baltimore taxes.

In general, we have no objection to what Facebook addicts do in their spare time, as long as it’s not harmful to others, either emotionally, politically, or spiritually. We draw the line when we determine that the group or the administrator is acting out his or her fantasies.

Here’s an example taken directly from the Whats Up page on Facebook, controlled by Ms Ashby:

Hey everyone!

Let me first say there are a lot of different opinions, and different people on this page. I believe everyone deserves the right to an opinion, even if I disagree with it.

This is not true. If Ashby disagrees with it it doesn’t get on the page; she monitors all content submissions! This inevitably leads to editorial abuses and politicizing the content. Bad.

But the one thing that will not be tolerated on this page, is bullying people for fun. I will NOT approve posts that are just there to “go at” someone. If you want to make a point with facts, make your point. Period.

 

Bullying defined[1]

Bullying is a repeated aggressive behavior where one person or group of people in a position of power deliberately intimidates, abuses, or coerces an individual with the intention to cause the recipient physical or emotional harm. Bullying can be physical or verbal. Many people can be unkind to each other because of unrefined social skills or in an attempt to achieve situational dominance. While any such interactions are unpleasant, there is a clear line between mere conflict or disagreement, and bullying. An incidents bullying must include all three of these characteristics in order to qualify as bullying:

1. The conduct must be intentional. The bullying behavior must be aggressive and a deliberate attempt to harm another person.
2. The conduct must be repeated. The aggressive conduct occurs repeatedly over time targeting the same person or group of persons.
3. There must be a power imbalance. The person bullying has greater physical or social power than the person being bullied.

Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which the perpetrator takes advantage of a power imbalance to intentionally and repeatedly cause another person harm or distress. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, language, or more subtle actions.

According to the currently accepted definitions of bullying simple disagreement, a difference of opinion, or personal annoyance at a comment or action does not constitute bullying. In order to avoid diluting the connotation of the term and to foster a clear understanding of the reprehensible and harmful nature of bullying, the term should not be randomly, carelessly, or haphazardly used to describe situations, which are in reality not bullying.

We responded to Ms Ashby’s post by clarifying what she meant by bullying, in her unique language, “bullying people for fun, and “go at”. Her language and style identifies her.

If you want to make a point with facts, make your point. Period.

Who can disagree with that? “Make a point with facts” is something we do on Smalbany as a rule, but for Ashby, they have to be her facts or her version of facts — known as “factoids”; facts she can agree with.

We’re all adults, I’m not a babysitter.

Sure fooled the hell out of us, Melissa! This is a fact, we are indeed all adults, but to varying degrees and qualities of adulthood. We thank God she’s not a babysitter, and shudder to think what effect she’d have an real children in her control.

Everyone can have an opinion, but your [sic] not just going to slander someone. I will block you from the page. We can all have conversations without being assholes, and if you can’t, this page isn’t for you.

Again, Ms Ashby demonstrates who and what she is by her language and style. We did take the time and interest to correct her inappropriate use of the term “slander,” by clarifying what she wanted to write was “libel,” defamation in print.

Have a good one!

“One” what? Who knows?

Melissa Ashby. (Source: Facebook)

We responded to Ms Ashby with the following:

HWV: Bullying is reprehensible but, unfortunately, is subject to a broad spectrum of interpretations, much too frequently with no moral or social basis in fact. Perhaps, if looking to proscribe or prevent bullying, you were to define what actually constitutes bullying on your community page, it would help persons with a particular opinion, which you as administrator might subjectively interpret to be bullying, to reframe their positions or remarks to avoid censure by you or anyone else. Definitions are important to avoid being accused of randomness or inconsistency. Don’t you agree?

I would also be cautious when alleging defamation in the form of slander or libel. Slander is oral defamation; libel is media published defamation. The rule that differentiates defamation, whether libel or slander, is whether the publisher is expressing pure opinion or not, which is protected. Defamation requires that the publisher know or have reason to believe that what s/he is publishing is untrue, that is, false. That can be a hard nut to crack.

If you do not clearly state the rules of expression on this page you may be painting yourself as a dictator or as a self-appointed censor, which does not bode well for a page that is ostensibly for community information, which is broad-based, rather than partisan communications that are censored or otherwise edited.

Either it’s public and espouses democratic principles such as freedom of expression or it’s changed to a private monitored/censored content. Which would be your purpose?

If you ever have a question about anything I personally submit to this site, please do me the courtesy of contacting me at hvadney@gmail.com with your concerns.

We must admit, Ms Ashby has a stunning vocabulary of 4-letter words and an amusing style. Ashby responded to Harold Vadney with the following:

Ashby: “I said what I said”

 

Yup, yu shur did, Miss Melissy!  We thought it was you who said what you said but thanks for clarifying it for us.

Harold Vadney responding to Melissa Ashby:

I realize that you said what you said but it doesn’t make it any clearer; in fact, it’s merely a vague and ambiguous statement of control, not any sort of guidance as to what you are expecting. Leaving the decision up to the author(s) is clearly unfair to everyone. What you are saying on the one hand is that you, as administrator/moderator, will personally decide what is “slander” [sic] or “bullying,” which is fair but that makes this page YOUR page and not a community page. Period.

If, on a truly community page, someone has something to say, s/he should be allowed to say it; if the majority find it offensive, then it should probably be removed. But just because you feel it’s offensive does not make it necessarily offensive.

Anyway, if this is to become YOUR page for YOUR community, that is, people you feel say things the way you like to hear them, that’s your choice and I would suggest you change the group to a private group. If you choose to leave it a public, community group, then you have to practice some tolerance.

I have been publishing a very highly read magazine & blog for more than 12 years (more like 15) and have found that all opinions are valid, some not so civil as others, and some even attacking me personally, but they get published because I will not be accused of censoring the opinions of someone who takes the time and interest to express themselves. The only caveats I have is that the comment must be civil, meaning no profanity (this includes material of graphic or sexual nature); it must be on topic; and it must not be personally directed at another commenter. Otherwise, comments are open and welcome, although some need to be edited for readability or length but that’s the extent of it.

There, now I’ve said what I said (whatever that’s supposed to mean).

I hope you don’t find this bullying.

A member of Ashby’s group, Harley Alderson responded to Harold Vadney with the following somewhat deranged comment:

Alderson: IDK I think accusing someone of incest, or screwing high school students kind of classifies as slander as you have done on your blog through the years. You talk a lot of crap some things true but some things very untrue which again is classified as slander and bullying. You’re all about peace but you show anything but.

Of course, Alderson’s comment was “♥Loved♥” by Melissa Ashby. Like minds — using the term rather loosely —, it would appear.

 

Harley Alderson (Source: Facebook)

The response to Harley Alderson was a bit more eloquent and striking to the heart of the matter:

HWV: Methinks you don’t have a clue about anything you are babbling about. Please point out EXACTLY where someone has been accused of INCEST in any of my publications. Please point out EXACTLY where I have accused someone of “screwing high school students”! You won’t be able to do that because it’s you who are talking all the sh*t. Everything I publish is supported by facts, most of the time by official documents. Where I write and describe something in figurative or metaphoric terms obviously is over the heads of the simpletons in the crowd. I won’t mention any names, of course. You know nothing about bullying and don’t know how properly to use the term, so STOP! You don’t know what slander is, so STOP! If all you can do is exhibit your profound ignorance, you should make every effort to refrain from commenting. And those who “love” your ignorance clearly share it. Again, no names need be mentioned [you know who you are]. I regret the fact that there are too many people like you and your ilk, who cause most of the problems here and elsewhere. You’d do yourself a great service if you kept your mouth shut and your hands off the keyboard. If you or Ms Ashby have a moment, I’d like to educate you both:

First of all, the law defines defamation as publishing a statement known to be false to persons other than the person defamed, and causing harm to one’s reputation. Defamation can take one of two forms: slander, which is spoken defamation, and libel, which is defamation in writing. Think, if you can, of slander “s” and spoken; libel “l” and letters. That should keep you both out of trouble for a while.

It appears you both and probably others have a problem with what bullying is, so let me help you with how to use the term properly. According to the American Psychological Association, bullying is a repeated aggressive behavior where one person or group of people in a position of power deliberately intimidates, abuses, or coerces an individual with the intention to cause the recipient physical or emotional harm. Bullying can be physical or verbal. An incident of bullying MUST include all three of the following characteristics in order to qualify as bullying: it must be intentional, it must be repeated (against the same person), and there must be a power imbalance.

Either put up or shut up. I’m waiting for you to indicate where (1) I have accused someone of incest, and (2) where I have suggested that someone is “screwing high school students.” I think both instances are actually present only in your disordered mind.

Harley Alderson responded: “On your blog J.A.”[2]

HWV: No kidding, J.A. Where on the blog did you read it? That’s what I’m asking you, J.A. Is that too difficult to understand? There are more than 700 articles on the blog. You made the claim now put up or shut up! Either you can say where the two statements occur or you can’t. Which is it going to be? If I say something, I can stand by it. OK, big mouth, you made the statements so now tell me where you saw them.

Whats Up in New Baltimore was going to hell in a handbasket. Whats Up in New Baltimore was getting just too wierd and bizarre. No on in their right mind would want to be a part of this garbage. Needless to say, that was the last straw, and we decided to stop providing Whats Up in New Baltimore New York and Ms Ashby with content; we have stopped providing links to Smalbany Magazine & Blog articles, which means that Ashby’s subscribers will not see our material there.

Furthermore, we feel that Whats Up in New Baltimore is unreliable as a source of political or community information; if it’s gossip, selective content, and a love fest you’re looking for, Whats Up is the place to be. If you’re interested in reliable, trustworthy, vetted community infomation Smalbany Magazine & Blog or Captain Weaselwhacker in New Baltimore (Facebook) is your go-to source.

We did suggest that those of Ashby’s group wishing to keep up with Smalbany will find links on the Captain Weaselwhacker in New Baltimore page on Facebook, or the public can follow Smalbany and receive email updates when new articles appear.

We are publishing this information solely for the purpose of commentary advising caution when visiting and reading content on sites like Whats Up in New Baltimore, since they can be highly and dangerously misinformational and present a very slanted version of what they claim to be community information. This is in no way a personal attack on Ms Ashby or anyone else mentioned in this article; they are what they are. That’s the way the Creator intended them to be, for better or for worse. Naturally, we expect backlash and retaliation from Ms Ashby and her group but we are resolved not to respond, since experience has shown that they are a waste of good time.

Special Notice: We make every effort to be truthful, complete, fair, and balanced on this blog; therefore, if you see anything that you know to be false or incorrect, or if you have additional information to clarify any issue, please let us know by e-mailing your information or by leaving a comment. It’s very important to us that we don’t fall into the same category as those whom this blog is intended to expose. Thank you very much in advance for your cooperation and assistance!

 

Notes:

[1] American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/topics/bullying, last accessed on August 5, 2023.

[2] We have no clue what Mr. Alderson means by “J.A.” Although we try to avoid vague and ambiguous abbreviations, and if we do use an abbreviation or acronym, we follow good journalistic practice and define the long when we use the short form the first time in the article. We use the common short form “J.A.” to indicate curiosity as in “just asking.”

 

For You History Buffs Out There: So you think something’s changed?

 

Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” This means that although events themselves are unique and individually separate, there are many clear patterns throughout history, almost as if it’s repeating. So what seems like ‘history repeating itself’ is not an exact repetition, but definitely similar enough for it to not be a coincidence. We see that locally, as I show below.

We weren’t joking when we say we have the documents and records dating back to at least 2015 on New Baltimore’s history of incompetence and corruption in the Highway Department and in Town Hall. The interesting fact is that after Jeff “Pinocchio” Ruso and Nick “the Weasel” Dellisanti ousted Denis Jordan as Highway Superintendent and installed Scott VanWormer as “acting” Highway Superintendent to allow Alan VanWormer to run “unopposed” for the position of Highway Superintendent, NOTHING CHANGED! The Highway Department is still being accused of misconduct and Town Hall is still fostering hatred and arrogance.

---

Yes, we’re still saddled with Jeff “Pinocchio” Ruso and Nick “the Weasel” Dellisanti but we have Alan VanWormer now for two terms and looking very unopposed for a third 4-year term. We still have Ruso, Dellisanti, and VanEtten on the Town Council. We have VanWormer in the Highway Department and we have the same problems with VanWormer that we had with Denis Jordan.

For those who don’t believe these facts, here’s a little history lesson. We’ve been covering and publishing stories on our investigations in New Baltimore for as long as we’ve been publishing Smalbany, and that’s going on almost 15 years, now. Here’s just a small selection of New Baltimore’s history of incompetence. You might want to ask yourselves Why? you are allowing this to go on.

Here is just a small selection of our history of articles published here on Smalbany Magazine and Blog covering New Baltimore. After reading these, please comment! We’d love to know if you agree that history doesn’t repeat itself, people do!

They ran promising transparency and accountability. New Baltimore and Ravena: Check is in the mail. (April 25, 2015. Note: Scroll down to bottom for New Baltimore.) (Read our recent article, FAILED: Accountability & Transparency (June 26, 2023))

We asked for a traffic cone … to prevent this … (August 11, 2016)

New Baltimore Town Supervisor Dellisanti to Resident: “When does this turn into Harassment?” (November 4, 2016)

Denis Jordan Avoids Duties to Serve Special Friends: The Case of the Disappearing Creek (September 30, 3017)

New Baltimore Town Highway Superintendent Harasses Local Woman; Demands Removal of Fence (September 30, 2017)

A Toothless Town Board? New Baltimore Board Works for Hwy Super! (September 12, 2017)

Smalbany Knew, the Daily News Knew, Greene County DA Stanzione Knew, but New Baltimore Supervisor Ruso Didn’t Know. (June 8, 2018)

Warning: New Street In The Hamlet Still A Hazardous Area For Trick-Or-Treaters! (Octoer 30, 31018) 

New Baltimore’s Halloween “Kripple-a-Kid” Program (October 31, 2018)

The Problem with Alan VanWormer (March 11, 2018)

Three Articles on New Baltimore Scandals: Pick One or Read All. (April 8, 2018)

Jeff Ruso and his Board: Hide and Deny (August 4, 2018)

Public Meetings of the New Baltimore Town Council

The next Regular Meeting of the New Baltimore Town Council is on Monday, August 14, 2023.

The next Work Meeting of the New Baltimore Town Council is on Monday, August 28, 2023.

Your attendance is Required!

Make Certain Your Party Committee Members are Present at Meetings!

For a list of Democratic and Republican Party Committee Members Please see our Article at:

Why aren’t they at Town Board meetings?

Coming Next: Open Letter to New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Alan VanWormer.

 

 

Town of Coeymans: George McHugh’s Little Uganda

Unless George McHugh and his Coeymans Town Board sold the Town to a billionaire Russian pot-grower (See our articles, “The Russians are Coming!!!” (June 28, 2019) “Please don’t Mug Me! Just Pot Me!” (July 5, 2019)), the last time we checked, the Town of Coeymans was still in the sovereign territory of the United States of America and the State of New York but if we rely on the “facts” — or should we say the ‘factoids’ — we read in the Ravena News Herald and the crapola coming out of Coeymans Town Hall, we probably should be looking for Coeymans somewhere in the Russian Republic, the People’s Republic of China, or Uganda! What’s happening in Coeymans has no resemblance to anything American or Constitutional! But the corruption may soon be coming to an end (See our article, “Net Closing in on Coeymans & McHugh” .)

The Founding Fathers and the Constitution of the United States, and the New York State Constitution provide for free elections and assurance of democratic rule in the federal system and in local governments, and for freedom of expression and a free press. There is no provision in the Law of the Land made for replacement of elected officials with appointees, nor for Town Hall nepotism, nor for misinformation and a lying press and a corrupt media institution.

Article II, Section 1 of the New York State Constitution reads:

Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people and upon all questions submitted to the vote of the people provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty days next preceding an election. (NY Const art II § 1)

That’s the Law and free citizens should not have to put up with loopholes, lies, and conniving when selecting their public officials at the polls. When you hand them your vote and confidence, that becomes a contract and they are obliged to do their part!

Freedom of expression is one of the most treasured rights protected by the Constitution of the United States as well as by the New York State Constitution; Americans, despite the extreme politization of the mainstream media, sincere Americans recognize that in order to participate in a democratic form of government, citizens must be well-informed, and the press and media have the obligation and responsibility, to obtain, check, and report true facts that the public can rely on when making decisions or forming their opinions. Again, citing the Bill of Rights of the New York State Constitution,

Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. (NY Const art I § 8)

A very important part of that section needs to be highlighted: “being responsible for the abuse of that right.”

In addition to the Law, there are volumes written on Codes of Conduct and Ethics for the press and for journalists, who, if professionally employed to report the news, must adhere to those ethics. Local media — a good example of an abuser is the Ravena News Herald — appears to have missed the bus when it comes to press and media ethics. (See our article, “News Herald Still Tries to Polish a Turd” .)

We can all agree that because of their influence, positions, and the power they wield, public officials, whether appointed or elected, and the and members of the media and press must be held to high standards of accountability, far higher than the average citizen. Now isn’t it about time that we held politicians and media in Albany County and particularly in the Town of Coeymans to an acceptable standard of conduct?

If law and professional ethics aren’t enough, public opinion should close the gap. According to a major public opinion survey organization, the Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans expect the press to report true facts. In a recent survey, Pew reports:

A majority of U.S. adults (59%) reject the idea of adding interpretation, saying that the news media should present the facts alone, a recent Pew Research Center survey found… One thing the public does approve of to encourage clarity in presenting the news: fact-checking. The vast majority of registered voters say that fact-checking is a responsibility of the news media. And even those who oppose interpretation of facts generally favor the fact-checking role of the news media.

Fully 81% of U.S. adults want facts without interpretation believe fact-checking is a major responsibility of the news media; 86% of U.S. adults who think some interpretation of news is OK believe that fact-checking is important. So we can agree that most Americans want true facts that are fact-checked in their news media.

Both the US Constitution and the NYS Constitution provide for fair elections and freedom of expression and press, the majority of Americans expect that elections and voting be fair and honest, and a great majority of Americans expect that the news media report fact-checked, accurate, and truthful news and information. It’s that simple.

When we pick up a local newspaper like the Ravena News Herald we can’t help but believe that something has gone terribly wrong! The reporting is partisan, partial, and propaganda.

We think that most, if not all, of our readers would agree with the above. We think that most of our neighbors and fellow Americans, yourself included, would fundamentally reject any conduct that does not comply fully with these very reasonable and fundamental principles of American democracy. And we’d expect not only our local officials but also those government agencies, whose responsibility is to oversee local government, to abide by the US Constitution, the NYS Constitution, our laws, and the expectations of the American public. Right?

We also have the County District Attorney (P. David Soares) and the New York State Attorney General (Letitia “Tish” James), and the county and state Boards of Election, all of whom have the duty to investigate and to prosecute abuses. Those offices and boards are responsible for ensuring the integrity of public servants and elected officers, and elections, and to enforce the laws, and investigate and prosecute abusers. Sure, we have them, but why aren’t they doing their jobs? (See our articles, “McHugh Poll Misconduct to be Investigated”, “Coeymans: Gross Misconduct! George McHugh, Supervisor, and Douglas Keyer, Chief of Police, Must Resign!”, and “County & State Boards of Election, NYS Attorney General on Notice”.)

Well, that’s clearly not happening in a vast number of communities, most notably right here in the Town of Coeymans, which has apparently turned into a community of sheeple, self-serving special interests, and an elite class with it’s cowing, butt-kissing trolls-in-tow. The two-class system doesn’t include the majority of residents! In the Coeymans community there are the arrogant elite and their trolls-in-tow, and then there’s the rest of us. (See our five-part series, Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.”)[1]

According to New York Consolidated Laws, Town Law – TWN § 52.
The supervisor shall be the chief executive officer of a suburban town and head of the administrative branch of town government.  He shall be responsible for the proper administration of town affairs, law enforcement and the maintenance of peace and order in the town.

George McHugh has failed miserably in that role and has conspicuously abused the office of Supervisor.

With election in 2019 of George D. McHugh and his mob to fill Coeymans Town Hall with so-called “elected” officials representing not the residents and community of the Town of Coeymans but clearly representing their own innterests and those of a few local business organizations, many of whom are associates of McHugh or his board members. Even before George McHugh was officially in the Supervisor’s office in 2019, immediately after election he moved to combine the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals into one board, and then to pack it with either relatives of town board members or local business owners with less-than-honorable plans. We’re talking specifically about the appointment of Albert Collins, owner of Collins Fuel and Excavation and father of former town board member Zachary Collins,[2] who is filling an Albany County Legislature seat,[3] and Robert Nolan, owner of Nolan Propane, a major business and developer in the Town of Coeymans. (See our article, “Nolan, Biscone, Miller vs. Albright & Sons: News Herald a Day Late and a Dollar Short”.) We should also mention that McHugh appointed one of his “Friends of Coeymans” thugs, Nathaniel Boomer to the Board, apparently to reward him for his intimidation services during the 2019 campaign. (See our articles, “’Friends of Coeymans’ a.k.a. ‘Fiends of Coeymans’: McHugh’s Thugs”  and “The Coeymans Clowns, the FoC, Are True to Their Reputation: Thugs”.)

In addition to McHugh’s thugs intimidating citizens at public meetings and harassing others representing ‘undesirable interests,” like environmental conservation and integrity in government, the McHugh thugs calling themselves “Friends of Coeymans” but known locally as “Fiends of Coeymans,” were at the top of the suspects list when town officials and residents began receiving Poopsenders packages through the United States Postal Service. Yes, residents were receiving feces though the mail, and McHugh’s friends were the prime suspects. (See our articles, “Coeymans Only Gets Sicker; Criminal Perps Being Investigated” and “Information on the Poop Senders Investigation” https://wp.me/p2jPFe-3MI.)

The CoViD-19 pandemic did much to add to general fear and anxieties, and had a catastrophic effect on participation in local government and, clearly, on voter turnout for the elections in November 2019. If American voters are disillusioned and apathetic about elections in good times, they were morbid about anything having to do with news media and government in 2021. As a result of the anxiety and apathy, voters made some poor choices. One of those poor choices was to re-elect George McHugh and his mob.

If the conduct of McHugh supporters in 2019 was not enough, and McHugh’s actions as Town Supervisor, with the support of his puppets on the Town’s boards didn’t send alarm signals to anyone with eyes to see and a brain to think with, the events leading up to the 2021 elections should have closed McHugh out of the Town Supervisor’s office for good. (See our article, “George McHugh: Conspiracy, Misrepresentation, Possible Fraud?“.)

But thanks to local news media, particularly the Ravena News Herald and its staff of McHugh cronies, much of the information was kept from public scrutiny.

One significant event was a two-car accident that occurred on September 8, 2021, on US Route 9W, in which George McHugh, then campaigning for re-election, was involved. The accident was “investigated” by the Coeymans Police Department, under the “expert” supervision of Coeymans Police Chief Douglas Keyer, or should we say under the supervision of George McHugh, Keyer’s boss. There were conspicuous conflicts of interest involved, and both civil and criminal violations on the parts of McHugh and Keyer, including obstruction/impairment of justice, defamation, etc. There is good reason to believe that the Police Accident Report was fabricated to favor McHugh. (See our article, “McHugh Tries to Put a Spin on Accident”.)

It is indisputable fact that McHugh, with the willing cooperation of members of his Coeymans Police Department, most scandalously that of Coeymans Police Chief Douglas Keyer, did everything possible to underhandedly disadvantage and defame the other party, to make himself, McHugh, look better. After all, he’d do anything for another two years in the Supervisor’s office. More on that later.

George McHugh Misused Public Resources for Personal Benefit

On Thursday, September 9, 2021, the day after the accident, in a video recording made prior to an official public Coeymans Town Board meeting, a video made of George McHugh, the Coeymans Town Board, seated in Coeymans Town Hall in the public meeting space, and video-recorded as part of the Town Board meeting, McHugh and members of the Coeymans Town Board openly discussed the September 8 accident, and McHugh, together with his 4th wife, Rosemary McHugh, published misinformation and false facts. That video was then published on the Town of Coeymans official Facebook page and was accessible by and viewed literally by hundreds of members of the public. McHugh openly defamed the other party in the accident, and misused Town of Coeymans government and public resources to perpetrate his unlawful conduct. (See our articles, “McHugh Tries to Put a Spin on Accident”.)

Early in December 2021, Mr. Laszlo Polyak, the other party in the accident, filed an extensive Notice of Claim against the Town of Coeymans, including George McHugh, the members of the Coeymans Town Board, Coeymans Police Chief Douglas Keyer, Coeymans PD Detective Edmund Seney, and Coeymans PD patrolperson Kelly Arnold, citing numerous charges of misconduct, both criminal and civil, against the defendants. The charges are currently under investigation.

George McHugh’s Election Misconduct

McHugh is the Candyman! At the November 3, 2021, elections McHugh was observed to be delivering boxes of candy to polling places, particularly in the Town of Coeymans, during a period of heavy voting activity. McHugh’s conduct was in clear violation of election law, and could be interpreted as unlawfully influencing voters or vote-buying. The incident is or should be under investigation by oversight agencies, particularly the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the Albany County District Attorney, the Albany County and New York State Boards of Election, and others. (See our article, “McHugh Poll Misconduct to be Investigated”.)

McHugh’s Arrogance and Conspicuous Political Nepotism

One of the candidates in the November 2021 elections was Laura Jane Barry (R), who ran for the office of Town Clerk; Barry was opposed by Sherle L. Slingerland (D). Barry received a total of 1,234 votes, while Slingerland received 881 votes; according to the Board of Election tallies, Barry was the clear choice of voters on November 3. Two months later, on January 1, 2022, Barry took the oath of office and officially assumed the elected office of Coeymans Town Clerk. Two days later, on January 3, only two days after taking the oath, Barry unexpectedly submitted her letter of resignation, citing “medical reasons” for her resignation but gave no further details about her alleged medical condition, and according to an article appearing in the January 13, 2022, issue of the Ravena News Herald, “Barry refused to comment further on her reasons for resigning.” According to the News Herald, Barry did not mention any “medical reasons,” even though she could have confirmed McHugh’s statements, but she didn’t. Most if not all readers should find this turn of events not only bizarre, but very suspect. We think Barry’s only medical condition was a severe case of cold feet!

Why bizarre? We think there’s a more sinister reason for Barry’s resignation after months of campaigning, a successful election, two months lead-up to taking the oath, taking the oath, and then, out of the blue, resigning. Something happened in those two days and it wasn’t a medical diagnosis! We all know that the most common cover-ups used by politicians for suspicious resignations are “I want to spend more time with my family” and “health issues.” Does McHugh and his mob really really think we’re that gullible? Well, some of you are because you swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.

Why suspect? Because no sooner had Barry resigned (on January 3) than McHugh had hand-picked his “confidential secretary” and sister-in-law, Candace McHugh, to be Coeymans Town Clerk! McHugh appointed his sister-in-law, who has no experience in the duties of Town Clerk, on January 7, barely 3 days after receiving Barry’s letter of resignation. Sounds like a set-up, doesn’t it? That’s because it is a set-up.

Read More:

The Ravena News Herald – A Dirty Rag
Laura J. Barry: Case of the clerk with cold feet?

Of course, residents in the Town of Coeymans are certainly aware that the Coeymans Town Board annually designates the Ravena News Herald to be the Town’s official newspaper, the place where you’ll find all the news McHugh and his mob want you to know about in your lovely Town of Coeymans.[6] If it seems that incest is best in Ravena-Coeymans, it’s because it is part of the culture; everyone has his or her hands in the other’s pockets or panties.

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Notes:

[1] Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part I
Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part II
Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part III
Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part IV
Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part V

[2] McHugh and his Town Board take good care of themselves. On January 29, 2021, the Coeymans Town Board gave notice of a Resolution Authorizing the Transfer of Certain Lands Owned by the Town of Coeymans to Albert F. Collins Jr. and Lori Collins, in which two parcels of land were to be transferred to the Collins for $66,300.00, which “represents the amount owed by the Town to Collins & Son, Inc. under a contract for prior cleanup work performed on the property.” That must have been on hell of a cleanup job! How many Coeymans residents knew about this and was it published conspicuously or even reported in the Ravena News Herald? (See our article, “Coeymans: Send McHugh and His Nuggets Down The Tube.”)

[3] The County Legislator’s seat was left vacant in 2021, when George Langdon, representing the Town of Coeymans and previously a sitting member of the Town of Coeymans Town Board, a member of George McHugh’s so-called Comeback Team, was forced to resign in disgrace from the Albany County Legislature. McHugh moved quickly to tap another of his Comeback Team, rookie Town Board member Zachary Collins, son of McHugh appointee to the Planning Board/Zoning Board of Appeals, to run for Langdon’s vacant seat, even though Collins had not completed even half of his 4-year term on the Town Board to which he was elected in 2019! That’s exactly what the Albany County Legislature needs: corrupt inexperienced puppets elected by sheeple.

[4] Chief of Police Douglas Keyer himself is in the hot-seat as we write, since he is named in the pending Claims as having abused his office as Chief of Police, as having knowingly engaged in clear conflict of interest, as having obstructed or impaired a police investigation, and as having conspired with George McHugh to influence the process and outcome of a police accident investigation, among other charges.

[5] “Gabler Realty revitalizes long-vacant Main St. building,” RNH, January 13, 2022, p. 1.

[6] Re: New York Town Law. The promulgation of notice provisions in the Town Law frequently deters effective publicity. Although the Town Law does not suffer from the politically oriented designation procedure of the County Law, its provisions often cause confusion and injustice, however. Unlike counties, towns need not designate an official newspaper but have the option to do so. Being an “official newspaper” does not mean that everything pertaining the events in a municipality must appear in the newspaper but legal notices, notices of hearings, various administrative and legislative actions are examples of what should be published in a municipality’s designated “official newspaper.”

 

Coeymans: Gross Misconduct! George McHugh, Supervisor, and Douglas Keyer, Chief of Police, Must Resign!

A recent motor vehicle accident involving Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh and investigated by the Coeymans Police Department, including Coeymans Chief of Police Douglas R. Keyer,[1] raises a number of questions about judgment, accountability, conspiracy, and trustworthiness.

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Not surprising, the Coeymans Police Department’s taking control of the investigation inappropriately, given the fact that McHugh and his Town Board supervise the Police Department, control the PD’s budget, and have the power to hire and fire members of the PD, including the Chief, sends up red flags pointing to grossly poor judgment on the part of the Chief of Police, Douglas Keyer, and abuse of public office and power by George McHugh.

Smalbany will join with L. Polyak in filing a formal complaint and a demand for inquiry and investigation with the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the Office of the New York State Comptroller, and the Albany County District Attorney.

Chief Douglas Keyer, as soon as he became aware that his boss, George McHugh, was involved in the accident, should have recused the Coeymans PD from the investigation for reasons of conflict of interest and possible impartiality, and handed it over to a neutral, impartial law enforcement agency such as the Albany County Sheriff’s Department (ACSD), who were at the scene. Even if Keyer did not recuse his department from the investigation, it would have been appropriate for McHugh to have at least given the appearance of propriety and good judgment by even informally asking Keyer to hand the investigation over to a neutral, impartial law enforcement body.

Neither Keyer nor McHugh did the right thing; they instead demonstrated grossly poor judgment and opened the flood gates to suspicion of conspiracy to influence the process and outcome of the accident investigation, and unlawfully obstruct justice. The Public must demand that both Keyer and McHugh resign from their positions immediately, since both have shown extremely poor judgment and should not be in positions of public trust, authority, and accountability.

The Accident Investigation Was Tainted; It Was Procedurally Flawed and Favored One Party: George McHugh

Important Definitions

On September 8, 2021, a two-car accident involving Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh and a Ravena resident, Laszlo Polyak. The first law enforcement agency to arrive at the scene was the Coeymans Police — Yes! It went to hell in a handbasket from that point on! — the Albany County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene, as did Albany County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Medical Services (ACSD-EMS). The accident occurred on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, 2524 US Rt 9W (in front of Pickers Nation antiques) at or about 11:41. When reading our report keep in mind it was a weekday, at about noon, in front of several busy businesses, and in clear weather.

Shortly after the accident — in fact, on the very next day, on September 9, 2021 — at the Coeymans Town Board Meeting of September 9, 2021 (before the unamended Accident Report was even completed and reviewed on September 13, 2021, and “amended on September 16, 2021), George McHugh and his 3^rd wife, Rosemary McHugh, and the Coeymans Town Board, revisited the accident and misrepresented numerous facts on the Town of Coeymans Facebook account.

The very fact that George McHugh abused his public office by taking advantage of the Town of Coeymans FaceBook account and the Town’s public resources including the video and the videographer’s time to misuse the video, the purpose of which was to make it possible for the public to participate in local government, NOT to be exposed to McHugh’s self-serving public misrepresentation of HIS version of the accident.[2]

After having reviewed the Facebook video posted on the Town of Coeymans Facebook page, Smalbany demanded, received and reviewed the Police Accident Report(s) (original and amended) created by the Coeymans PD, the Photo Log Sheet in support of the Evidence Report, the photos taken at the scene, the Incident Detail Report, the Police Request for Driver Review, the Supporting Deposition by the Coeymans PD investigating officer (Kelly A. Arnold), and the Albany County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Response (EMS) Incident Report, and after having physically visited the accident site with an eye-witness, and having taken photos of the site and the Polyak vehicle, Smalbany contacted the investigating officer (Arnold) and the detective photographing the scene (E.J. Seney) by email, requesting contact to clarify certain questions listed in the respective emails.

Shortly after having sent the emails, the Smalbany correspondent was contacted by telephone by Chief Douglas R. Keyer, who identified himself as the media contact for the Coeymans Police Department: “I handle media inquires with the police department.”[3]

Smalbany returned Keyer’s call and interviewed Keyer per the questions sent to Arnold and Senney. The statements and conclusions in this article are based on that interview and Keyer’s disclosures in the context of a so-called “media inquiry.”[4] Keyer explicitly and clearly stated that he “was at the [accident] scene” and that he has “direct knowledge of everything that transpired on that day.” Based on those statements, but despite the fact that Keyer’s statement was not entirely true, the Smalbany media correspondent considered him to be qualified to answer questions.

Chief Keyer, in typical law enforcement fashion, attempted to play the tough guy throughout the interview but it didn’t work. At one point Keyer states, “I feel no obligation to respond to you” and at another point stated “you have no right to make an enquiry to either detective Seney or to Officer Arnold,” but the Smalbany media correspondent quickly and summarily corrected Keyer’s mistaken assumptions, and the interview continued.

Chief Keyer does concede that the “Town Board” is his boss, which is a correct statement, and the Town Board is commandeered by George McHugh.

With that background information, we’d like to move on to the specific questions Smalbany had regarding the accident investigation itself, how it was conducted, and why it was tainted. The fact that the accident investigation was conducted by the Coeymans Police Department under the direct supervision of Chief Keyer, and that one of the parties involved in the accident was Town of Coeymans Supervisor George McHugh should be kept in mind, because these facts provide probable cause for the charge of serious conflict of interest and obstruction of justice.

The First-on-the-Scene

According to the Albany County dispatch record or Incident Detail Report, the first call reporting the accident was received at 11:41:35 on September 8, 2021. At ll:43:32 the case was assigned to “1st enroute” and the first unit arrived at the scene at 11:44:45 (CPD Arnold from 2 Park Drive (Mosher Park, Ravena)). The first to arrive was Coeymans PD K.A. Arnold (AL5920) and was noted as primary; Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Pushee (AL3148) also arrived at the scene. At 11:43:32 CPD Arnold requested and received jurisdiction. At 11:53 Arnold reports “tow on scene” without specifying who the “tow” was. It is interesting to note that throughout the Report, the location of the accident is given as Capital Care Family Practice (2524 US Rt 9W), the final location of the Polyak vehicle, whereas the accident actually occurred in front of Pickers Nation, 2530 US Rt 9W).

Problems at the Scene

We have already reported on a number of problems connected with the scene investigation, including McHugh’s several attempts to shift blame to Polyak, and changing his story at least three (3) times. Please read our initial coverage of the accident at “McHugh Tries to Put a Spin on Accident” for details.

Obviously, all vehicles involved in an accident must not leave the scene before the investigation is completed. Since the McHugh vehicle was removed from the scene before required photographs could be made of the vehicle, whether the vehicle left the scene at the direction of the operator, McHugh, the investigator PTL Arnold, Police Chief Keyer, or Det. Seney, the removal of the vehicle impaired the investigation and obstructed justice. We have to ask the question of Why the McHugh vehicle was removed or allowed to be removed before the scene investigation was completed.

We should further note that in addition to the numerous deficiencies in the investigation, deficiencies that clearly benefit George McHugh, no examination of the interior of the McHugh vehicle was made! Nor was McHugh given the standard field sobriety tests by Coeymans Police.

Who Investigated the Accident?

As noted, the Police Accident Report was created and then amended. No real problem with that. It’s the fact content of the Report that raises problems, because it is inconsistent, incomplete, and does not reliably report what actually happened.

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First of all, CPD Arnold was the investigating officer; she signed the Report, which was later reviewed by a Daniel Braden. No mention is made in the report that Chief Keyer was there, and the only indication that detective E.J. Seney was there is the fact that he is shown to be the “photographer” signing the Photo Log Sheet. No mention is made that Sheriff’s Deputy Pushee of the ACSD was present nor of the ACSD EMS. No mention is made in the report whether or that the parties were requested to submit to field sobriety testing, which we found unusual, since it is well-known that George McHugh has a special fondness for Truly, a spiked seltzer beverage containing 5% alcohol by volume.

McHugh’s Preferred Beverage

In fact, the Coeymans Police Report appears to be a fairly exact rendition of George McHugh’s fabricated version of the accident, and George McHugh’s version alone, right up to and including the statement that the driver of Vehicle 1 was “sleeping” while driving northbound on US Rt 9W! More on that below.

Given the fact that Chief Keyer admits that he was personally at the scene together with Kelly and Seney, and given the fact that Keyer was aware that George McHugh was one of the parties, Keyer should have turned the investigation over to ACSD Deputy Pushee as soon as practicable. Keyer did not and allowed his department, the Coeymans PD, under his direct supervision and authority, to continue the investigation!

In fact, Keyer, in the interview states, and we quote directly:

Keyer: “We went … above and beyond in this particular accident because…uh…well, obviously because there’s a political official involved, and I want to make sure that any scrutiny upon  the police department for not conducting a fair and impartial investigation would be squashed from the onset.”

and this is later confirmed by the Smalbany interviewer, commenting to Keyer:

Smalbany: “[Y]ou have volunteered at several points in this discussion the names and the fact that it involves a political individual, namely Mr. McHugh, who is supervisor and your boss.”

It is obvious from the Police Accident Report and the many defects in the report that the Coeymans PD lead the investigation. One glaring point is that the Report signed by Arnold explicitly and clearly states that

Keyer: “Both parties were evaluated at the scene by EMS with no injuries reported.”

That would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that Arnold writes “both” when there were actually three persons involved — George McHugh, his fourth wife, Rosemary McHugh, and L. Polyak — and in the header under “No. Injured” we read an entry of “1”, but Who? was it? Which was it? One injury or no injuries? Or, in Coeymans-speak, both ways?

Arnold also writes “Parties at the scene stated that the driver of V1 appeared to be sleeping.” Question: Which parties? The McHughs? Had to be, since no witnesses were canvassed at the scene! More on that below.

Can anyone please tell us how it is possible that anyone could have observed that the driver of V1 was “sleeping.” Try that driving down 9W. Just try to watch another vehicle driving in the opposite direction, and say with certainty that the driver is awake or sleeping. But that’s what McHugh insists and what Arnold put in her report. And that’s what Chief Keyer admits.

The Incomplete Photo Log

In the documents Smalbany demanded and received, there is a Photo Log Sheet (PLS) Supplement to Evidence Report dated 09/08/2021 at 12:22 and documenting an Incident: Crash-Property Damage, Case 21-179879, and the Subject: Scene. The PLS gives the “Location Photos Taken” to be 2580 Route 9W, Ravena, and identifies the “Photographer” as Detective EJ Seney, whose signature appears on the form. The report lists 22 digital photos with brief descriptions. Copies of the photos are provided.

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The first problem we find with Seney’s PLS Supplement to Evidence Report is that he is at the wrong location. All of the documents place the accident at 2524 US Rt 9W but Seney says his photos were taken at a scene located at 2580 US Rt 9W, which is over 1/5 mi South of the accident scene! Looks like the Coeymans PD detective/photographer doesn’t know where he is or which scene to photograph.

Seney Places the Accident Site fully 1/5 Farther South from the Actual Accident Site!

Put it this way: Say you’re charged with vandalism at 2524 Rt 9W but the police evidence photos per the Photo Log Sheet Supplement to the Evidence Report were, according to the photographer, taken at 2580 Rt 9W, you’d be off the hook! Case dismissed! This is just very sloppy, incompetent police investigation, and you should want no part in it!

But it gets worse, still! The Smalbany correspondent didn’t miss this point and pursued it in the interview with Chief Keyer.

Smalbany:       Is this the entire photo log?

Keyer: Yes.

Smalbany: Would it be procedurally correct…that if two vehicles were involved in and accident that photos would be made of both vehicles?

Keyer: Perhaps.

Smalbany:       If both vehicles were significantly damaged, would that still be a “Perhaps?”

Keyer: We went … above and beyond in this particular accident because…uh…well, obviously because theres a political official involved, and I want to make sure that any scrutiny upon  the police department for not conducting a fair and impartial investigation would be squashed from the onset. So we took photos that we felt necessary to document the accident…Now I understand that the damage to Mr. McHugh’s truck I don’t think we captured on photo.

Smalbany:       My question is, well, my statement is that I have only copies of photographs and photo log documenting damage to one vehicle and one vehicle only … the fact remains that photographs were made only of one of the vehicles and not of the other vehicle. I presume that the other vehicle was not available for photography…given your previous statements that such care and scrupulous attention was made to document this because of the sensitivity of the issues … So if the Vehicle 2, McHugh’s were removed from the scene prior to Mr. Seney’s arrival, then, of course, it would be impossible to make any evidentiary photographs in this situation. Would that be a correct assumption?

Keyer: Yes. That would be a correct assumption.

Well, Keyer previously admitted that he was personally at the scene and had direct knowledge of what transpired. So why did he let McHugh’s vehicle be removed so that no photos were taken, while photos were taken in evidence of the other vehicle?

All this was done on Chief Keyer’s watch and right under his nose! Keyer noted several times in the interview that he is “trained,” has more than 30 years in law enforcement, etc. so we would have to accept that there is no excuse for the sloppy police work. Keyer has to accept responsibility if we are to believe what he says at the end of the interview. According to Chief Keyer:

“The legacy of the [Coeymans] police department has been questionable…training is a big component…treating everyone fairly, investigating things that need to be investigated, and having the evidence that leads to a conclusion the evidence takes us to, where we need to go.

“Well, you know, I’m responsible for the department, and in that particular instance, and forgive my vulgarity, but ‘shit rolls uphill.’ So, if…my people are not doing things the right way, that falls on my shoulders. It’s my job to make sure they do it the right way.

“Yes. I think…I do not mind being held accountable by the public that we serve. I think that keeps us on our toes, it keeps us honest…uh…it’s the way it should be, I wish it worked be the same for politicians but it doesn’t quite.

(Coeymans PD Chief Douglas Keyer, Smalbany Interview, October 19, 2021)

Well, any clear and reasonably thinking person reading those words would have to think that there is some contradiction and inconsistency between what Keyer does and what he says. This is borne out in the statement made by the Smalbany interviewer in the segment above:

Smalbany:       It’s important to have somebody with extensive experience, extensive integrity sitting in that Chief’s office, and we have not had it at some points. It makes a big difference. And somebody with the balls…the balls to stand up to the politicians upstairs, which is… walking the tightrope between integrity and budget.

It seems Chief Keyer made the decision in favor of the “politicians upstairs” and the “budget,” while leaving integrity and accountability in the dust.

NO WITNESSES WERE CANVASSED

The situation we have here is a two-car accident involving two parties, Vehicle 1 and Vehicle 2. Each party has his version of the facts, and they differ significantly. I such a situation, the investigator is presented with at least four options to choose from: (1) accept one party’s version of the facts while rejecting the other party’s version, (2) rely only on what is objective evidence, ignoring the inputs of the parties, or (3) ask witnesses what they saw or heard, or (4) consider the parties’ versions, the objective evidence collected at the scene, and witness statements, and then form an impartial factual opinion.  . They did not interview any witnesses. In fact, one man who was on the scene stated, “The police weren’t interested in talking to me.” Why? Because they had already made their decisions as to the outcome.

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All of the accident investigation guidelines we reviewed emphasized the importance of identifying witnesses, but Chief Keyer didn’t think witnesses were necessary — even though he did not observe the accident and arrived much later on the scene —, because he was “clear” how the accident happened. The Smalbany interviewer pursued this point by asking Chief Keyer directly about the lack of witness support.

Smalbany:       It appears to me odd that nowhere in the comprehensive report that I have here…is there any mention of any interview requesting persons, who may have had…who might have served as eye-witnesses or who may have made a statement as to the circumstances of the accident.

Keyer: No. No, there were not.

Smalbany:       My concern is that there were several witnesses to the accident, and none of these people claims to have been interviewed. We would assume that it would [be] reasonable to get different statements to determine the circumstances…that you would have seen to it that persons with knowledge…

Keyer: No. Perhaps it would have been, however, the way the accident was explained to us…

Smalbany:       By whom?

Keyer: [B]oth subjects were interviewed. The accident scene obviously was documented and based on evidence at the scene, it was clear to me… In this particular instance the interview of witnesses would not, was not, necessary. It was clear, based on the evidence at the scene which vehicle was at fault in the accident…and how the accident occurred.

So Keyer states that both subjects were interviewed and witnesses were not necessary. Keyer wasn’t there when the accident occurred but he was clear how the accident occurred. Witnesses may have seen the actual accident in real time but, according to Keyer, their statements were not necessary, because Keyer was sure how the accident happened. We are not as convinced as Keyer appears to be.

It’s very comforting to know that we have a police chief in Coeymans who has paranormal, supernatural powers and is able to arrive late on an accident scene yet know exactly what had happened with such extraordinary clarity and assurance. Now doesn’t that give you a warm cuddly feeling of security?

If Keyer states that his people went “above and beyond in this particular accident because…uh…well, obviously because there’s a political official involved, and I want to make sure that any scrutiny upon  the police department for not conducting a fair and impartial investigation would be squashed from the onset.” All we have to say is that his “above and beyond” was in the wrong direction because the fairness and impartiality of the Coeymans Police Department and Chief Keyer are under scrutiny and the investigation was not fair and impartial from the outset; in fact, it was quite the opposite.

Finding a Scapegoat, Framing and Defaming Him

In our opinion, even considering the conspiracy and political undercurrents adversely affecting this rather minor traffic accident, the accident itself being minor but the implications of the conduct of the Coeymans Police Department and the involvement of Town Supervisor George McHugh make the issues major, one of the most devastating and damaging outcomes of the inept investigation is the fact that given all else, the Coeymans Police Department took an additional step to damage the other party, L. Polyak.

Obstruction or Impairment of Justice

We are using a broad definition of this crime: Obstruction or impairment of justice means that a person who “corruptly … influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice”” is guilty of the crime of obstruction of justice. Two types of cases arise under the concept of obstruction of justice or the concealment, alteration, or destruction of documents; and the encouraging or rendering of false testimony. Actual obstruction is not needed as an element of proof to sustain a conviction. The defendant’s endeavor to obstruct justice is sufficient. “Endeavor” has been defined by the courts as an effort to accomplish the purpose the statute was enacted to prevent. The courts have consistently held that “endeavor” constitutes a lesser threshold of purposeful activity than a criminal “attempt.” Obstruction of justice, in the most general terms is the act of willfully interfering with the process of justice and law. This includes any act that involves influencing, threatening, harming, or impeding a potential witness, juror, legal officer, law enforcement or anybody otherwise involved in the administration of justice. As you may expect with such a broad definition, there are many types of misconduct and criminal activity that constitute an obstruction of justice, anybody can face these charges for alleged illegal acts when involved with law enforcement or criminal court proceedings.

How many forms of obstruction of justice can you identify in this accident investigation?

This was done by fraudulently creating a Police Request for Driver Review that was sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and in which two unsubstantiated and totally fabricated statements were included that were said to have been made by Mr. Polyak.

Smalbany:       You know, it’s troubling that in one of these sets of documents I have a Police Agency Request for Driver Review signed by Arnold … Does this signatory have any medical qualifications?

Keyer: No. Those statements are based on discussion and statements made by Laszlo  about his physical, his mental…er… his medical condition, where he was coming from.

Smalbany:       I doubt very much that Mr. Laszlo would have stated that he was “medically incapable of maintaining control of the vehicle” nor that ”he was disoriented because of medications prescribed;” I’m reading directly from the agency request. There is no other signature appearing here. There is no urine, saliva, or blood tests indicated, so I’m just wondering how Arnold made these…and you say that these statements are taken from Mr. Laszlo…but I can’t see a party to an accident making statements like that, unless he was high on something, but you have no evidence of that, either.

Keyer: Correct.

Smalbany:       What I am saying is this: This is very serious stuff because this was reported by a law enforcement officer requesting the Department of Motor Vehicles to examine this individual based on these statements. And that’s scary stuff because this can severely and adversely affect this individual’s driving privileges.

Keyer: The last thing I’m going to say on this topic is that that review was done, specifically made because of observations at the scene and statements made by Laszlo, and I’ll leave it at that.

Smalbany:       OK. Which raises the question of… Why? is it stated in the Police Request for Driver Review that the licensee appears to be medically incapable of operating a vehicle and the licensee…

Keyer: There was no breathalyzer given to either party. There were standard field sobriety tests done with Mr. Laszlo, which is part of the investigation that goes in to determine whether a driver may be impaired. Based on that testing which was done by detective Senney, we determined that Laszlo did not show signs of impairment that would preclude him from driving.

Smalbany:       And you said there was no chemical test, no chemical, no respiratory gases, no blood, no saliva …

Keyer: Correct. Because the standard field sobriety tests did determine that Mr. Laszlo was not impaired to the point where that would be necessary.

Again, it seems that the Coeymans Police are treating the parties differently, giving favorable treatment to the ‘Boss’ and prejudicial treatment to Mr Polyak. First of all, given McHugh’s alleged drinking habit and his constant companion, a can of Truly hard selzer, we feel it would have been good investigation procedure to routinely administer sobriety tests to BOTH parties; instead, and probably to appease McHugh, only Polyak was tested by Seney, even though he appeared and acted, for all intents and purposes, unimpaired! What’s even more suspicious is that no mention is made of the field sobriety testing nor of the fact that Polyak was found to be unimpaired!

So, we have to ask Why? was the Police Request for Driver Review submitted to the DMV, and Why? were such damaging and untrue statements made in that Request regarding Mr. Polyak’s condition, when Chief Keyer clearly admits that the tests administered by his detective Seney showed that Polyak was not impaired? No chemical tests at all were done. The Albany County Sheriff’s Department EMS personnel gave Polyak a clean bill of health after examining him at the scene.

The glaring fact remains that, although Det. Seney administered the field sobriety tests, and the Albany County Sheriff’s Department EMS personnel at the scene found Polyak to be unimpaired and completely OK, ‘no serious medications on board‘,’ absolutely no mention of this is made in the Police Accident Report. Now, don’t you find that to be a bit bizarre?

How can the Coeymans Police officer, Kelly A. Arnold, make such a stupidly ridiculous statement that Mr. Polyak said that he was “medically imcapable of maintaining control of the vehicle, due to pre existing medical condition,” and was “disoriented from medications prescribed?” Anyone would have to be totally insane to make such statements about himself after being involved in a traffic accident. But that’s what Arnold and Chief Keyer seem to want us to believe, even after both the Coeymans Police and the Sheriff’s EMS determined that Polyak was not impaired and that no further tests were required!

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Editor’s Note: We must note that the allegation that Polyak was “drunk” or affected by medications or asleep are taken almost verbatim, word for word, from George McHugh’s statements made in the video of the Coeymans Town Board meeting of September 9, 2021, in which McHugh states, “He was asleep, and I guess he’s on some pretty serious medications, and was just coming back from UrgentCare” (Town of Coeymans Board Meeting of September 9, 2021, position 00:27–00:37).  None of this was or is factually true according to our investigation, and was totally fabricated by McHugh, and accepted by the Coeymans Police Department in their Police Accident Report. Polyak denies making any of the statements included in the Police Request for Driver Review or in the so-called Supporting Deposition made by CPD Arnold.

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By this point in the interview it was abundantly clear that Keyer was backpedalling at warp speed and that there was no useful purpose in continuing to confirm what was already conspicuous and obvious: The Coeymans Police Department did what it does best: They screwed up yet another investigation. As the Smalbany interviewer put it: “the guy who holds the purse strings calls the dance steps…the fish stinks from the head down.” McHugh and the Coeymans Town Board, packed with McHugh’s puppets hold the purse strings and called the dance steps in this investigation, and Chief Keyer and his Department danced to McHugh’s tune.

This sort of misconduct by a public elected official and by a chief law enforcement officer is absolutely unacceptable, and indicates a standard of conduct that falls far below what the public is justified in expecting of their elected public officials and law enforcement personnel. The conspicuously poor judgment shown by both Town Supervisor George McHugh and his Chief of Police, Douglas Keyer cannot be tolerated, particularly since both officials are entrusted with power and authority that requires honesty, integrity, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, and crucially good judgment.

Given these horrible and damning facts as stated by no less than the Chief of Police, Douglas Keyer, and documented in the official documents relating to the subject accident, the Public must demand that both Town Supervisor George McHugh and Chief of Police Douglas Keyer resign immediately from their respective positions. The People of Coeymans cannot rely on the Coeymans Town Board to do what is ethical and lawful, because every member of that Board is deep in McHugh’s pockets. This may require concerted and sustained public effort to clean up the garbage in Coeymans Town Hall.

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Editor’s Note: Why wasn’t the accident reported in the Ravena News Herald? An accident involving Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh in an election year certainly must be newsworthy. But it becomes clear if you know the history of the relationship between the Ravena News Herald and George McHugh. We have done a thorough search of the Ravena News Herald over a period of six weeks dating from September 2 to the present, and have not found a single word about the accident in that newspaper. It must be noted that George McHugh owned the Ravena News Herald prior to selling it to Mark Vinciguerra, who is a close friend of McHugh’s. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the Ravena News Herald was silent about McHugh’s involvement, particularly since McHugh is seeking another term as Supervisor in the November elections.

Interestingly but not surprisingly, a the Organizational Meeting of the Coeymans Town Board on January 1, 2021, the Ravena News Herald was designated the “official town newspaper.” We find it particularly questionable that a newspaper with such close ties to McHugh and with a paltry subscriber rate of about 1,500 subscribers or far less than 25% of the population of the Town of Coeymans should be designated the “official newspaper” for the Town. According to New York State Law, since the purpose of designating an official newspaper is to ensure that notices reach as many people within the town or village as possible (see Myers-Brooks Publishers v Board of Supervisors, 68 Misc 2d 1033, 328 NYS2d 741), the office of the NYS Comptroller has expressed the opinion that a town or village’s official newspaper must have a general circulation within the town or village (Opn No. 84-58, supra; Opn No. 82-173, supra; see also NY Const, article I, §11). Since the Ravena News Herald reaches less than 1 in 4 residents in the Town of Coeymans, it clearly does not reach a substantial number of persons in the Town, and cannot be considered to have a general circulation in the Town of Coeymans.

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Postscript: Almost one month to the day, on October 7, 2021, George McHugh’s third and current wife, Rosemary McHugh, was involved in yet another two-car accident. McHugh was pulling out of a parking slot at the Ravena Stewarts Shop on US Rt 9W and, while backing out, she T-boned a vehicle operated by Kayleen Cique of Ravena, causing considerable damage to Cique’s vehicle. Cinque opted not to call the Coeymans Police and instead contacted the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, and one Deputy Houghtaling responded. No ticket was issued to McHugh. Kayleen Cique was not available for comment.

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Notes:

[1] Douglas R. Keyer was hired in January 2021 to be Chief, Coeymans Police Department. Keyer retired from the New York State Police with the rank of major, a promotion received shortly before he retired, a common trick in state service to ensure maximum pension benefits. Keyer’s state pension is $108,924.00, exempt from New York State income tax, plus benefits. In addition to his pension benefits, Keyer, as Chief of Police, receives an annual salary of $65,000.00 plus benefits from the Town of Coeymans. Keyer’s wife, Bonnie Keyer, is employed by the Town of Coeymans as a Deputy Town Clerk with a salary of $37,380.00 plus benefits. It should be clear that the Keyers stand to risk a great deal, to the tune of more than $100,000/year if they don’t play their cards right and rub the Supervisor and Town Board the wrong way.

[2] Based on witness statements we have claimed that the “official” Coeymans Police Accident Report is phony, and that McHugh was exiting the Pickers Nation parking lot, is supported by the fact that in the video the audio of Rosemary McHugh discussing the “antiques parking lot” is suspiciously deleted! The video goes silent as soon as she starts talking and after she mentions the “antiques parking lot.” Now isn’t that convenient? The actual video can be accessed at https://ne-np.facebook.com/CoeymansNY/videos/150240583956353/, and the segment in which McHugh is discussing the accident goes from the beginning to about position 04:41. The video goes silent from position 02:13 to 04:20, with Rosemary McHugh mentioning the “antiques parking lot” at position 02:13, where the audio suspiciously goes out again.

[3] Text enclosed in quotation marks (“…”) are direct quotations taken from the interview.

[4] This is the term used by Chief Keyer in the course of the interview.

 

Mr. Nolan, Where’s My Refund?!?

Faulty installation of tanks. Out-of-certification tanks. Possible involvement in a fatal explosion-fire (law-enforcement investigation not yet finalized). You’d think Nolan Propane had enough problems, wouldn’t you? Well, we’re not done yet.

All of you former Nolan Propane customers who gave Nolan Propane the boot, and told them to pick up their tanks, may be facing yet another Nolan trick: He owes you money for the unused portion of propane in the tanks. One Smalbany fan writes:

“I told Nolan to come pick up his tanks, when I recently switched to another supplier. The tank had a considerable quantity left in it that I had already paid for. The crew sent to remove the tanks told me that I would be refunded the money for the remaining propane. If that was not the case, I would have run the tanks to empty before returning them. I have some paperwork but that was back in November 2020, and I haven’t heard a peep from Nolan nor have I received the almost $$$ they said they’d refund within 30 days. That was on November 13, 2020. Can you help?”

Hey! Nolan. Where’s my refund?

OK. We’re helpting. Mr. Nolan, where is the money you owe New Baltimore and Greene County customers for tanks returned containing unused propane? Cough up the dough, Mister, or we’ll see what a court has to say!

We’d also like to add that we checked the statewide average price of propane gas for November 2020 and found that the average retail price of propane was $2.55. Nolan was charging $4.29 for residential propane according to the bill we saw. There was also an additional so-called “fuel comp” charge of $14.99. Here’s one for you: Do you know if you’re being charged a so-called “tank charge?” Apparently Nolan Propane charges a $150 tank charge.

Watch out for another sneaky propane supplier trick:

Another reader writes:

“Some time ago I switched from Nolan Propane to Long Energy. It took Nolan ages to collect their tank and had to come by twice because they didn’t call before they came the first time, as requested.But that’s Nolan for you. Long seemed like a great price and so I went with Long. Last week I get a bill for more than $300 from Long. I thought, “This has to be a mistake!” So I call Long Energy and they tell me I didn’t use enough propane so I had to pay a fee! Nobody told me I had to use X amount of propane or be charged more! That’s crazy even if they did mention that somewhere! My advice is don’t rely on cheap energy. These guys don’t make money and stay in business by giving it away! ASK QUESTIONS like: Is there a minimum usage amount I have to use for that price? If I don’t use a certain amount, will I be billed a higher price?”

By the way, we hear Nolan Propane is offering crazy low prices to keep certain customers. That can’t last long and it won’t. Get your heads out of the clouds and face reality. Nolan Propane is sinking fast in Greene County and will do anything to save themselves. Billboards going up like “Your Hometown” supplier and “Make the Switch” just don’t work when your reputation has taken a hit and your business practices suck.

Another rip-off! ‘You didn’t use enough propane. Pay us now!’

At the risk of seeming unkind or unsympathetic, our message to readers is: You lie down with dogs and you’ll wake up with fleas. How many times do we have to warn you about the rip-off artists?

It’s getting to feel like Ravena-Coeymans! We keep warning them about their hometown crooks, and we tell them not to point the gun at their feet, it’s loaded. Next thing you know, they got a hole in their foot! Save yourselves! Clean out your ears and use your brain! We’re getting sick of hearing about your stupidity and how you’re getting taken for a ride by your suppliers and your elected officials.

 

New Baltimore Town Hall Betrayal

New Baltimore Town Supervisor, Jeffrey Russo, his deputy Supervisor, Nick Dellisanti, and the sitting members of the New Baltimore Town Board, Bill Boehlke, Chuck Irving, Kelly Downs , Shelly VanEtten all seem to talk out of both sides of their mouths. On the one hand they talk a lot about promotion of economic development and support for New Baltimore businesses, on the other hand they do just the opposite.

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But conflicts of interest and turncoats appear to be the rule,
not the exception,
in the Town of Coeymans and the Town of New Baltimore.

Acting on a tip recemt;u received from a town resident (we won’t mention that the tip came from within the Town) we investigated to confirm that despite the fact that, after Robert Nolan and Nolan Propane together with Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone (Ravena, NY), and a turncoat New Baltimore resident, Zachery M. Miller (Hannacroix, NY) sued the Town of New Baltimore, and the New Baltimore Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals in a frivolous nuisance lawsuit — because Nolan was pissed that New Baltimore heritage business, C.A. Albright & Sons, a business serving New Baltimore and surrounding communities for more that 100 years, was expanding to include propane gas supply and delivery in the area. That tip led us to New Baltimore Town Hall and a short walk to the rear of Town Hall, where we found a 500-gallon propane tank, on which was emblazoned – Guess what? – NOLAN PROPANE!!!

Nolan Propane Tank Cleverly Concealed.
Located Behind New Baltimore Town Hall, Label Facing Away
so It cannot be identified from building or from road.

The Town of New Baltimore Town Board and Supervisor Jeff Ruso have betrayed New Baltimore; Town Hall’s worthless statements and deceitful, empty promises of support for local businesses and development of commerce in the Town are proven by the fact that Town Hall remains a customer of Nolan Propane! Bad news for unelected Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso and for the current members of the Town Board. Think elections! (But then, recall that Jeff Ruso was NOT elected!)

The Town of New Baltimore, instead of ordering Nolan Propane to immediately remove his tank from Town of New Baltimore property, and instead of supporting a local business that has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in expanding their New Baltimore business, a business that has been paying New Baltimore taxes for over 100 years and now is further enriching the Town with even more taxes, New Baltimore Town Hall has slapped local business in the face and betrayed the business, residents, and taxpayers. (Yet sitting NB town board member Chuck Irving shows up on Albright’s doorstep begging for special consideration for the Town, like discounted pricing. New Baltimore Town Hall has turned into a house of prostitution, just like their friends in the Town of Coeymans, and the board members and supervisors of both towns are whores!)

It seems the Little Judas of New Baltimore, Zachery M. Miller, has some scaly cousins in the New Baltimore Supervisor’s Office and on the New Baltimore Town Board.

Not only that, we find that New Baltimore Town Hall is completely ignorant and indifferent to our report that Nolan Propane’s tanks are out-of-inspection and very possibly unsafe, and many are not installed according to safety regulations. We also noted that should there be a fire or other accident, homeowners would likely not be covered because of the lapsed certifications/inspections and the improper, unsafe installations!

Nolan Propane label on New Baltimore Town Hall Tank.

We called upon the Town of New Baltimore, the New Baltimore Code and Building Inspectors, and the Town of New Baltimore and Town of Coeymans Fire Districts and their Chiefs to do their jobs and ensure the fire safety of residents and their properties. Have they done their duty? NO!!! Yet another betrayal by your public officials!

The fact that Robert Nolan and Nolan Propane of Ravena, New York, had a money interest in defending his unethical and unfair practices in the Town of New Baltimore, might have been almost reasonable had he not chosen to pursue a sneaky and deceptive plan of action together with his dimwit puppet, Zachery M. Miller, and his incompetent and lying shyster lawyer, Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone.

Zachery M. Miller (Hannacroix, NY)
Little Judas of New Baltimore.

Since Little Judas Zachery Miller lost Nolan’s and Biscone’s lawsuit, they are now marked as greedy, unscrupulous LOSERS.

The fact that Robert Nolan and Nolan Propane chose to be cowards and hid hide behind their dimwit puppet, the Little Judas of New Baltimore, Zachery M. Miller, and the fact that the lying shyster representing Nolan and Miller, Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone, while costing the Town of New Baltimore and an honorable and established business in the Town of New Baltimore tens of thousands of dollars to defend against a frivolous nuisance lawsuit, whose only purpose was to annoy and to harass, has cost Nolan, Biscone, and Miller to be shamed and tainted. Things will never be the same for any of them. Since Miller lost Nolan’s and Biscone’s lawsuit, they are now marked as greedy, unscrupulous LOSERS.

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On a more positive note, we have received information that a local public utility in the Town of Coeymans (Albany County) has chosen C.A. Albright & Sons to provide their LPG delivery and service! Another public entity in the Town of Coeymans has expressed interest in having C.A. Albright & Sons provide their LPG supply and delivery. What does that tell you about Nolan & Son’s Propane (Ravena, Town of Coeymans)? Coeymans’ own Town Supervisor, George McHugh goes to court against them to defend the Town of New Baltimore, and Ravena-Coeymans’ own town/village public services are coming to C.A. Albright & Sons (Town of New Baltimore, Greene County) for their propane needs!!!

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But conflicts of interest and turncoats appear to be the rule,
not the exception,
in the Town of Coeymans and the Town of New Baltimore.

His Bully Tactics Lost him Business and Tainted his Reputation.
Lost His Lawsuit and is Now Shamed.

We have already commented on the conflict of interests and disloyalty of George McHugh, who was elected in 2019 in a thuglike campaign to be Town of Coeymans Supervisor. As Supervisor, he is the chief financial officer of the town and chair of the Coeymans Town Board — a town board populated by McHugh’s spineless puppets Daniel D. Baker, Linda S. Bruno, Zachary S. Collins, Brandon L. LeFevre  –, all elected officials chosen by the residents, taxpayers, and business of the Town of Coeymans to defend their interests and to act in the best interests of the Town of Coeymans its residents and taxpayers. We noted not with any surprise that Robert Nolan of Nolan Propane is a sitting member of McHugh’s own hand-picked Planning Board/Zoning Board of Appeals! We commented that it was a very suspicious and unwise decision to hire McHugh to defend the Town of New Baltimore in a frivolous lawsuit brought against New Baltimore by Robert Nolan, Nolan Propane, and Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone in their silly attempt to stymie C.A. Albright & Son’s legitimate expansion and entry into the propane gas supply business in New Baltimore. We were astonished but not surprised that the sitting supervisor of the Town of Coeymans, George McHugh, an unprincipled and greedy lawyer, would turn on his own town and a major business in his town, AND a member of his own corrupt town government  to defend New Baltimore.

Support Local New Baltimore Business!

A Family Business with
More Than 100 Years of Service to New Baltimore

 

Zachery Miller: Sick Mind or Perjurer?

Did ANYONE see this man, Zachery M. Miller, at ANY of the Town Board or Planning Board or Zoning Board of Appeals public meetings during the period of March-October 2020, or did ANYONE witness this man, Zachery M. Miller, making any submission or statement at the Town of New Baltimore Town Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, or the Planning Board at any time in the period of March-October 2020?

Unless someone can come forward and state that he or she witnessed Zachery M. Miller to have been present at any Town of New Baltimore public meeting in the period of March-October 2020, particularly at any public meeting at which the C.A. Albright & Sons propane gas installation was discussed, Mr. Zachery M. Miller may be guilty of perjury.

According to New York State Penal Law, perjury is defined as:

Penal Law § 210.15. A person is guilty of perjury in the first degree when he swears falsely and when his false statement (a) consists of testimony, and (b) is material to the action, proceeding or matter in which it is made. Perjury in the first degree is a class D felony.

Zachery M. Miller submitted a sworn statement, an Affidavit to the New York State Supreme Court (Catskill) for consideration by Supreme Court Justice Adam W. Silverman, in which Miller states in paragraph 1 of the Affidavit:

“I was present at that meeting (the September 10, 2020), and the prior meetings, heard the majority of the testimony, and other discussion, such as it was, and personally witnessed the Planning Board’s vote to issue Site Plan Approval and a Special Use Permit for the Albright bulk propane storage and distribution facility at issue in this proceeding, which is located at the intersection of Route 9W and Route 144 in Hannacroix, N.Y (“Site”).”

We were present at the September 10, 2020, Planning Board meeting to report on the Board’s deliberations and to support the Albright project. While at the meeting we regularly surveyed those present to identify notables and to gauge the public’s reactions to the presentations and to the public comments. We at no time whatsoever observed anyone meeting the description of Mr. Zachery M. Miller at that or any other meeting.

Of course, if Miller was not there he could not possibly have made any statement, made any sort of presentation, and it would not have been possible for him to make a public comment or to object to the project.

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Editor’s Note: We obtained the Sign-in Sheet for the September 10, 2020, Planning Board meeting and we see Zach Miller printed in, but there is no signature. Given the evidence, it appears someone may have “signed him in.” We find further evidence for the fact that Miller was not at the September 10, 2020, meeting. In the minutes of that meeting, the Planning Board, before proceeding to vote, ensured that no one was outside the room, and that everyone had a chance to comment. We have to conclude that Miller was not there. The minutes read:

Bob Court (Planning Board Member): “Is there anyone outside of this room, standing out there who needs to come in? I don’t know what is on the other side of the wall.

Michelle Stefanik (Planning Board Member):    I got a “no.”

Rob Van Etten (Planning Board Chairman): Okay, then I guess everyone had a chance to comment.

[After reviewing the documents item by item to ensure everything was covered, the Board proceeded to vote and unanimously approved the Albright Special Use Permit application.]

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Furthermore, Miller never submitted even a single written statement opposing the project. He only managed to crawl out of his hole when invited to join Nolan Propane and Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone in harassing both the Town of New Baltimore and C.A. Albright & Sons, once the Albright project was approved by the Town. Sour grapes at work.

Now, all of a sudden, Miller comes out of the woodwork like some cockroach, and submits an asinine Affidavit that is full of irrelevant nonsense that only serves to indicate that Miller is quite possibly a pathological liar, and that Miller has some serious anxiety and possible psychological problems that should be dealt with. Now that is our pure opinion, and we are not posing as clinicians or making a clinical diagnosis, but some of Miller’s statements in his Affidavit certainly point to the possible fact that he has psychological problems. Here are some examples taken directly from Miller’s “Affidavit,” which was, by the way, taken and certified by Guess who? You guessed it! Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone, Robert M. Nolan’s attorney, and co-attorney in the lawsuit!

In paragraph 2, Miller states: “As I understand it, Respondent Albright is the only party to oppose the motion for a preliminary injunction…” If Miller were ever present at a Board meeting, he would know that the New Baltimore community, despite Michael Biscone’s fraudulent presentations, overwhelmingly supported the Albright plan. The lawsuit would have remained secret had it not been for our reporting on it.

Furthermore, we expect that the Town of New Baltimore would have opposed the motion because not to oppose the motion would be tantamount to admitting that the Town made the very errors that Miller is charging as Nolan and Biscone’s puppet. What exactly the Town of New Baltimore is doing in this lawsuit is still being kept under wraps by Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, who seems to like keeping things secret, and thinks that the residents and taxpayers of the Town of New Baltimore don’t have a right to know what’s going on. Wrong, Jeff!

Back to Miller. In paragraph 4, Miller gives his address as “2939 County Route 51, Hannacroix, N.Y. and states:

“My family and I have resided in this area for decades. On September 25, 2006, my [Miller’s] father Matthew J. Miller was killed in an automobile accident at a location approximately ½ mile [n]orth of the Site…A cross memorializing this loss remains on Route 9W near the accident site, where it has been for the past 14 years.”

While we do commiserate with Mr. Miller’s “loss” –– he was nine years old at the time 14 years ago –– we are straining to understand what this has to do with the Albright project. If anyone can help us make a connection, please do us the favor of leaving a comment, explaining what we may be missing.

In paragraph 5, Miller goes off explaining his anxieties:

“I have travelled Route 9W in this area nearly every day of my life…My day-to-day work as a logger requires me to pass the unsignalized Route 9W/Route 144 intersection, often several times per day and at times with a full load on my truck. Every time I drive past the Site, I am reminded of the loss of my father and the obvious dangers of this intersection, which large trucks roll past at high speeds all day, every day…I am gravely concerned for my safety and that of my family”

Miller’s father was nowhere near the intersection when he was killed. Miller’s father was actually involved in a fatal accident about 1 mile North of the Albright’s site. Why the Albright’s site would cause Miller to remember the loss of his father, particularly since Miller was so young at the time of his father’s accident, and particularly because the Albright’s site is nowhere near the place where Miller’s father was killed, casts some doubt on Miller’s honesty, and on his psychological state. The Miller accident location and the Albright’s site have absolutely nothing to do with each other! Is Miller reminded of his father’s accident, an accident that happened 14 years ago, every time he goes to the Hannacroix Post Office? Or every time he goes to the beverage center? If so, he should be getting treatment!

In paragraph 10 of Miller’s Affidavit, he claims that C.A. Albright “has some nerve.” He claims that they knew his father and the loss he, Miller, suffered. Miller acts as if he’s the only one on earth who lost a loved one. Breaking News! Bud, it happens every day and people manage to get a grip after 14 some odd years. Grow up, you jerk! Besides, you and your mother got a pretty hefty settlement in compensation for your “loss.” You and your family didn’t have much trouble spending that money, did you?

Miller claims that attempts to scare or intimidate him have not succeeded. Again, we are dealing with a sicko, who thinks that the truth and good faith advice to be good citizen and neighbor, rather than the local Judas and puppet of a bunch of low-lives is a scare tactic or an attempt at intimidation. Miller is obviously too stupid to even know what’s best for him. Fact: At a wedding two weeks ago he claimed he wasn’t suing Albright, that he had just signed a petition. Now in his Affidavit he’s tearing Albright apart! Miller just can’t get his story right. First he was going after the Town and and not Albright’s; now he’s going after Albright!

Anyone dealing with this Zachery Miller character has to have his own head examined! We wouldn’t trust the psycho as far as we could throw him.

Miller lives more than 3 miles from the Albright’s site. Miller lives in his mother’s home. There is no way in hell that a grown man living that far from a site that had nothing to do with his father’s accident should be as concerned or scared as Miller says he is. If he’s that scared or concerned, he’s got one hell of a problem and it’s not Albright’s site.

Apparently, Miller, despite his statements, doesn’t get into Coeymans very much, or doesn’t drive along Route 144 very much. If he did, he would notice huge trucks and many other vehicles crossing Route 144 from the Port of Coeymans to the Coeymans Industrial Park. This occurs dozens of times a day and there is no traffic light installed and signing is minimal. Furthermore, the Coeymans crossing is in a built-up area, whereas the Albright’s site is not. But Miller is very concerned in his Affidavit that trucks will cross 144 from Albrights property directly to the South, the proposed facility across Route 144 to the North, in an area that is clearly visible from all directions, which is not the case in the Coeymans example. Perhaps Millers lack of concern for the 144 crossing is based on the fact that some of his handlers’ major clients and cronies operate the Port of Coeymans and the Coeymans Industrial Park. Nah! That wouldn’t have anything to do with anything, would it?

Zachery Miller says he is very concerned about his own safety and that of his family. Here’s what he has to say in his Affidavit:

“I was immediately concerned…given our past experience [14 years ago?!?!] and my frequent use of the Site [the “Site” is defined at the beginning of the Affidavit as Albright’s. What is Miller doing at the Site, if he’s frequently using it? It doesn’t make any sense!]…and given the long history of accidents at this intersection [Really?]… As previously stated, I travel this area nearly every day, sometimes many times a day, and do so out of geographic necessity…If did not use this intersection and area, I would be much less able to shop, work, use the Post Office, or travel to the more developed areas to the [s]outh of the Intersection. This is basically the only route to the more developed areas, and to most of my job sites.”

First of all, we think Miller’s far-fetched and exaggerated statements are intended to take advantage of the readers’ unfamiliarity with the area. Anyone who has lived in this area for any length of time would have a good laugh when reading Miller’s statements. They’re ridiculous.

Furthermore, many of us travel that exact same route several times a day without a care in the world. Furthermore, anyone living in the area would know of multiple alternate routes from where Miller lives that would not require Miller to go near Albrights!

Second, Albrights have been entering and exiting their property for 100 years without any problems, even before there was ever a Route 9W! And what about the hundreds, if not thousands of members of the public driving past that intersection every day, sometimes multiple times a day? How many of them have Miller’s anxiety and paranoia? Was a stink made when the Hannacroix Post Office was located at that intersection? Or the antiques shop? Or Anatriello’s sign company right across from the Site? Don’t dozens of vehicles enter and exit those sites on a daily basis, totaling perhaps hundreds when all traffic entering and exiting the properties is totaled?

“I am a local. They are not. The public-at-large does not live less than 2.5 miles away [he’s actually more than 3 miles away] from the Site along a rural road with no services. [So what?]…Most notably, the public-at-large has not suffered the loss my family has suffered caused by what we believe to be unsafe road conditions in this area.”

Again, Miller is attempting to misuse an event that occurred more than 14 years ago to justify his concerns! Ridiculous! Sick! Another point is what does Albright have to do with road conditions? Isn’t that a New York State Department of Transportation issue? But the NYSDOT signed off on the Albright project! If Miller attended any meetings, as he states he has done, or if he had heard the Planning Board’s deliberations, he would have known this.

Miller thinks that “the loss” has something to do with Albrights! Crazy. Miller’s “loss,” we repeat, appears to be Miller’s problem, a mental problem, and has nothing to do with Albright’s, the Town of New Baltimore, or the Planning Board. It has to do with Miller’s real or fake anxiety and psychological problems. But he chose to put it in writing, in black and white, and make it a public-access document. Miller can’t be serious, and if he is, he’s seriously sick.

Miller claims that because he is local, his concerns are more valid than any concern or lack of concern on the part of the general public. How can that be? Well, if you’ve been following this, you’ll already know at least two possible answers: Miller’s mind might be one possiblity. The other possibility is that Nolan and Biscone have to make their monkey appear genuinely concerned, no matter how stupid or sick it makes him look. Too bad Miller doesn’t pick up on this.

Miller must truly be an idiot. We are convinced of this fact when we read through his Affidavit. It is ridiculous, irrelevant, and the product of a disordered mind and thinking process.

In Miller’s mind, he feels he is being endangered, but that’s in Miller’s mind. It’s not real. Literally thousands of travelers, business, commercial, and private travel that stretch of Route 9W and the intersection of Route 144 and Route 9W. Many of those travelers are locals and have lived here not only for decades but for generations. So far none of those residents or travelers have expressed Zachery Miller’s concerns because only Zachery Miller has those concerns. They are not real to the rest of us but they are real for Zachery Miller. When fears are in a man’s head and only in that one man’s head, we call that mental illness. Zachery Millers fears, if we are to assume that his statements made in his Affidavit are believable to anyone but Zachery Miller, are not rational, they are apparently affecting his day-to-day life in a negative way, his father’s death appears to be some pretty serious baggage he claims he is still carrying, even though it happened 14 years ago, when Miller was 9 years old. Something’s wrong with this picture, people.

When documents like Miller’s Affidavits are prepared by men licensed to practice the law, signed under oath by a man like Zachery Miller, and submitted to a high court in this State with the intention of influencing a Supreme Court Justice reviewing the case, there’s something desperately wrong going on.

Once again, we repeat our request: Did ANYONE see this man, Zachery M. Miller, at ANY of the Town Board or Planning Board or Zoning Board of Appeals public meetings during the period of March-October 2020, or did ANYONE witness this man, Zachery M. Miller, making any submission or statement ot the Town of New Baltimore Town Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, or the Planning Board at any time in the period of March-October 2020?

Please help us to help Zachery M. Miller avoid having to answer a charge of perjury. If you have seen Miller at a Planning Board or Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, or if you witnessed him making a statement or comment with regard to the C.A. Albright & Son’s application for a Special Use Permit for the construction of a propane gas distribution site, please let us know.

As for Robert M. Nolan and Nolan Propane, they have a big image problem, and they’ve themselves to blame. Thanks to Zachery M. Miller and his moronic behavior, and to Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone, who is using and abusing everyone involved, Nolan is committing business suicide.

Robert Nolan and Nolan Propane are Committing Business Suicide.

We will address our concerns to the Court by letter on or around November 15, 2020, demanding that a charge of perjury and intent to deceive the Court be brought against Zachery M. Miller, unless members of the public come forward to state that he was seen to be present as stated in his Affidavit.

 

Jeff Ruso: Arch-Newbaltimoron

Jeff Ruso not only refused to discuss the Miller lawsuit with key players in New Baltimore town government, not even with the co-defendants, he refused to properly inform himself of the fact that two Coeymans thugs, Nolan and Biscone, came to New Baltimore to disrupt New Baltimore business, and THEN, Ruso hires one of the key players in Coeymans’ problems, George McHugh, to represent the Town of New Baltimore in the fraudulent lawsuit. Hey, Jeff, why don’t you just turn over the keys to New Baltimore Town Hall to Nolan, Biscone, and McHugh?

Jeff Ruso, Town of New Baltimore Supervisor, handing over the keys to New Baltimore Town Hall to George McHugh, a Coeymans Thug, and friend of Robert Nolan (Nolan Propane) and Michael Biscone.

George McHugh is Town Supervisor of the Town of Coeymans, an attorney and friend of Michael Biscone. George McHugh has Robert Nolan (Nolan Propane) on the Coeymans Planning Board/Zoning Board of Appeals. McHugh has publicly announced his “business-friendliness” platform for Coeymans. Do you really think McHugh is going to play against a major business in his own town, Nolan Propane, or a member of his own Board, Robert Nolan (Nolan Propane), or against a friend and a fellow attorney, Michael Biscone, practicing in the same town? Even if he does put up a fake act, do you think he’s  going to bring out the big guns for New Baltimore and C.A. Albrights & Sons. Well, maybe. But why take such a chance? New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso’s an IDIOT!

But maybe that’s Ruso’s perverse vision for New Baltimore. Maybe Ruso admires what is happening in Coeymans, after all, Ruso is an unelected Supervisor who has appointed his friend Nick Dellisanti to be his deputy supervisor, and Ruso feels he doesn’t have to communicate with anyone, not even his administrative Boards! Sounds a hell of a lot like what’s happening in Coeymans: a mini dictatorship serving special interests and “friends.” He then hires his hero, McHugh. Go figure!

During the so-called New Baltimore Water Wars, a transplant resident living in the Hamlet christened the locals “Newbaltimorons.” At the time, we took very serious offence at the term, since we felt that a transplant does not have the right to judge the locals or their cherished traditions. Only those of us whose roots go back generations, some of us to the founders of local communities, have the right to judge the local culture.

Moron [mawr-on]:  A person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment. Psychology. A person of borderline intelligence in a classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69. WORDS RELATED TO MORON: idiot, boob, nerd, fool, dummy, dunce, blockhead, dope, imbecile, loser, loony, dingbat, ignoramus, simpleton, dumbbell, dimwit, dolt, dork, halfwit, lamebrain. Moronic is the adjective meaning behaving in the manner of a moron; idiotic; stupid.

Well, at this point we have to agree with the nickname applied to some of our residents and neighbors. The Zachery M. Miller lawsuit against the Town of New Baltimore by an ignorant local man hired by Robert M. Nolan of Nolan Propane (Ravena/Cairo) and local dog shyster Michael J. Biscone is one example of how degenerate some members of this community can be. Zachery M. Miller has earned the title New Baltimore Judas, and rightly so.

But it is beyond comprehension that an arch-Newbaltimoron is occupying the Town of New Baltimore Supervisor’s office. Yes, I’m talking about New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, who is in the Supervisor’s office not because of any talent he has for governing, but because he ran unopposed and got a second term by default. We screamed bloody murder that New Baltimore couldn’t come up with an opponent, and that New Baltimore residents, voters, taxpayers lost their voice in a “fixed,” election. The Town was stuck with Ruso.

Read more about the denial of your vote:

• About New Baltimore and Unopposed Candidates
• DENIED YOUR VOTE: Unopposed Candidates and Uncontested Elections.
• Unopposed Candidates: The Denial of Your Vote!

But the Zachery Miller lawsuit has brought out the worst in this town, not only because some backwoods dimwit has allowed himself to be bought and paid for by two thugs from the Town of Coeymans, and has turned on his own in the Town of New Baltimore, Jeff Ruso, the New Baltimore Town Supervisor has made an outrageous, despicable, and totally inexcusable move in his haste to hire a lawyer to represent the Town in the Miller nuisance suit!

Jeff Ruso, whether acting alone or with the consent of the New Baltimore Town Board, but without the input from the other defendants in the lawsuit, that is, he bypassed the chairmen of the Planning Board and the Zoning Board, Robert vanEtten and Patrick Linger, respectively, and instead of holding the current New Baltimore Town Attorney’s, Aline D. Galgay’s (Westerlo), feet to the fire, Ruso has done the unthinkable!

Jeff Ruso — and it’s so despicable and so utterly stupid that it’s almost impossible to find any excuse or justification – has hired Ravena attorney George McHugh, yes the same George Mc Hugh who was elected to be Coeymans Town Supervisor in a scandalous and venomous campaign in November 2019, and a Ravena attorney with very close ties to Michael Biscone, who with McHugh has questionable relationships with local big business. Ruso has hired McHugh to represent the Town of New Baltimore, to DEFEND the Town of New Baltimore in the Zachery Miller lawsuit, a lawsuit that is being brought by Robert Nolan and Michael Biscone. Miller lies through his woodchuck teeth when asked about the lawsuit; he seems to be enjoying the notoriety, and doesn’t give a squeal who’s paying the attorney’s fees so that Miller can have his name on the court papers. But Micheal J. Biscone is listed as one of the attorneys representing Miller, and Biscone is Robert Nolan’s attorney.

Attorney George McHugh,
Elected to be (Captain Corruption) Coeymans Town Supervisor in 2019
Friend of Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone
(See the links at the end of this article for our take on McHugh.)

It is common knowledge that Michael J. Biscone and George McHugh are in bed together. They alternate sharing big clients like Carver Companies and the Port of Coeymans, both Carver Laraway businesses. There are others, too, like Nolan Propane, for example, and that’s the point of this article.

The point is this: If Jeffrey Ruso hired George McHugh to defend the Town of New Baltimore in a lawsuit that is being brought by Robert Nolan of Nolan Propane and Michael J. Biscone, and Michael J. Biscone is listed on the court papers as representing Zachery M. Miller, Nolan’s puppet, is Ruso’s head so far up his butt that he is totally unaware of the relationships in the Town of Coeymans, New Baltimore’s closest neighbor to the North? How can Ruso be so stupid, so ignorant of local common knowledge and the relationship between Michael J. Biscone and George McHugh?!?

Why didn’t Ruso just go ahead and hire Michael J. Biscone and have done with it? By hiring George McHugh, he has pretty much hired Michael J. Biscone. Where are you New Baltimore? What is that jerky-boy Ruso doing in the Supervisor’s office? Jeff Ruso has thrown New Baltimore to the sharks like a bucket of stinking chum!

If Zachery M. Miller is the Judas of New Baltimore then Jeff Ruso has to be the Benedict Arnold of New Baltimore, and anyone on the New Baltimore Town Board who was consulted by Ruso, without inputs from the public, have to be shipped out in the same crate!

We can understand that a troubled, disordered, ignorant backwoods woodchuck would not have the brains to know when he’s being used but a grown man, a man elected by the people of New Baltimore to safeguard their interests and the interest of the Town of New Baltimore, to have made such a major blunder as this is inexcusable and the people of New Baltimore should demand Ruso’s resignation, as well as the resignation of his personal friend and personal appointee, Nick Dellisanti, his so-called deputy supervisor.

We want to know who on the Town Board went along with this outrageous blunder and betrayal by our own Town Supervisor. Heads must roll on this count!

New Baltimore Residents! If you don’t join hands and heads together to do something about this outrageous demonstration of the inability to make mature and good decisions on behalf of the Town of New Baltimore, you deserve everything you get.

It was scandalous enough to have those two thugs from Coeymans, Robert Nolan and Michael Biscone, set foot in our Town Hall and attempt to bully our Planning Board into denying a historic New Baltimore business, C.A. Albright’s, a Special Use Permit to develop business and local economy. It was scandalous and outrageous to have Nolan and Biscone hire a local New Baltimore resident, Zachery M. Miller, to harass and continue the nuisance of a lawsuit against the New Baltimore Zoning Board, Planning Board, their chairmen, and the Town of New Baltimore. It was scandalous and outrageous of Jeffrey Ruso to have put a gag on Town officers not to answer questions about the lawsuit. And it is totally incompetent and irresponsible for Jeffrey Ruso, Nick Dellisanti, and the members of the New Baltimore Town Board to have hired a Ravena lawyer with known close ties not only to the ghost plaintiff in the Zachery Miller lawsuit, Robert Nolan of Nolan Propane, and the attorney representing Miller and Nolan, Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone.

Obviously, Jeff Ruso has chosen to ignore the fact of the close ties between McHugh and Biscone, but is he also ignorant of the fact that Robert M. Nolan of Nolan Propane is an appointee to the Coeymans Planning Board/Zoning Board as well. How stupid can New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso and his deputy supervisor Nick Dellisanti be? How stupid can the members of the New Baltimore Town Board be not to know what’s going on in the Town of Coeymans?

New Baltimore Residents, Voters, and Taxpayers Must Demand An Investigation into This Scandalous Irresponsibility and Failure of the New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, Deputy Supervisor Nick Dellisanti, and the Members of the New Baltimore Town Board, and Residents Must Demand an Explanation and An Accounting for Ruso’s Irresonsible Conduct!

New Baltimore Residents, Voters, and Taxpayers Must Demand that Ruso Compel Current Town Attorney Aline D. Galgay, whose contract ends on December 31, 2020, to Represent the Town of New Baltimore in any Way Possible, or Until Such Time that the Town of New Baltimore can Hire a Non-partisan, Untainted, Independent Attorney to Represent this Town’s Interests without Obvious Conflicts of Interest.

George McHugh’s close ties with Michael Biscone and Robert Nolan/Nolan Propane are clearly conflicts of interest and in conflict with the best interests of the Town of New Baltimore and town residents! George McHugh knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s such a snake he, like his buddy Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone, does it shamelessly. That’s how it’s done in Ravena-Coeymans. Is that how it’s done in New Baltimore, too?

SHAME ON YOU JEFF RUSO! SHAME ON YOU NICK DELLISANTI! SHAME ON YOU NEW BALTIMORE TOWN BOARD. YOU HAVE BETRAYED YOUR OBLIGATIONS AND DUTY TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW BALTIMORE.

Our Previous Articles About George McHugh

The Homework New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso Should Have Done.

• George McHugh: Conspiracy, Misrepresentation, Possible Fraud?
• George McHugh: Dishonorable Scoundrel! How Dare You!!!
• George McHugh: The Interview That Wasn’t – Part II
• George McHugh: Wallowing Sows and Vomiting Dogs – Part I
• “Friends of Coeymans” a.k.a. “Fiends of Coeymans”: McHugh’s Thugs
• McHugh, Comeback Team In Summary

 

Hit Them in Their Wallets!

Driving through New Baltimore and other Greene County Communities, we notice large numbers of Nolan Propane tanks being transported—towards Ravena! This means that New Baltimore residents and residents in a number of Greene communities are evicting Nolan from the area! Another indication is the number of calls being made to C.A. Albrights, requesting tanks and propane delivery. New Baltimore and neighboring Greene County, and, we expect, many Nolan customers in Albany County, Ravena-Coeymans, Selkirk, Bethlehem are following New Baltimore’s example. Justice prevails!

Is the Nolan Propane evil empire going up in smoke?
Rob Nolan Jr. (L) and Matt Nolan (R).

It’s really all about greed and money. The best way to send a message to greedy unscrupulous businesses is to hit them where it really hurts: in their wallets! That’s the only thing these degenerates understand. They don’t care about what’s right or about whether a community wants them or not. All they care about is their pockets. That’s why Robert Nolan and Nolan Propane have enlisted the shyster dog Michael J. Biscone, a lawyer with no morals and who enriches himself by lying and deceiving honest, hard-working people. Nolan and Biscone have such disrespect for anything but their own interests that they have taken advantage of a naïve and gullible local man, Zachery Miller, and made him into the Judas of New Baltimore. Miller’s too stupid to realize what they’re doing.

Robert Nolan and Nolan Propane have already taken a bit hit in terms of their image and the loss of the public’s confidence and trust, not that Nolan ever had that much public trust; his reputation is not all that enviable. As for Michael “Old-man Balls” Biscone, he’s a immoral tramp from the word GO! so he hasn’t lost much; he never had very much to begin with, if you know what we mean. As for their little Judas Puppet, Zachery Miller, well, there’s not much there, either; bit of a pinko dud.

We’re prepared to Name & Shame businesses that support bad business practices!

There are a number of local businesses that use Nolan Propane and sell Nolan Propane products. We recommend that you show solidarity with your community and boycott the listed businesses and make sure they know why you are boycotting them.

As for the businesses in our list, we recommend that they switch to a local supplier, and support their local businesses in their community, rather than sending their dollars and support to outsiders.

Fill Stations in and Around Greene County

• Cairo           Lucky Petroleum, 4625 NY-23 Vernal Butler Rd, Cairo, NY 12413
• Cairo           Slater’s Smart Shop, 7555 NY-32, Cairo, NY 12413
• Catskill       Brookside Campground, 4952 NY-32, Catskill, NY 12414
• Catskill       Indian Ridge Camp Sites, 6286, 1446 Leeds Athens Rd, Catskill, NY 12414
• Catskill       Juniper Woods, 1226 Schoharie Turnpike, Catskill, NY 12414
• Catskill       Nick’s Gas, 165 Maple Ave, Catskill, NY 12414
• Catskill       Pipes Plus, 4620 NY-32, Catskill, NY 12414
• Catskill       Sunoco Gas, 199 Spring St, Catskill, NY 12414
• Coeymans  Coeymans Marina, 20 Marina Dr, Coeymans, NY 12045
• Coxsackie   Boat N RV Warehouse, 12634 W Rd, West Coxsackie, NY 12192
• Coxsackie   Coxsackie Beverage, 11684 State, Rt 9W, West Coxsackie, NY 12192
• Coxsackie   Diedrich’s RV Mart, 12319 State, Rt 9W, West Coxsackie, NY 12192
• Earlton        Earlton Hill Campground, 594 Medway-Earlton Rd, Earlton, NY 12058
• East Berne   Helderberg True Value, 856 Helderberg Trail Rt 443, East Berne, NY 12059
• East Durham       Milk Run, 3498 NY-145, East Durham, NY 12423
• Glenmont             Van Allen Farms, 806 Rt 9W, Glenmont, NY 12077
• Greenville            GNH Lumber, 11513 NY-32, Greenville, NY 12083
• New Baltimore   Boathouse Grille, 80 Shady Harbor Drive, New Baltimore, NY 12124
• Prattsville            Stamford Farms Coop, 25 Washington St, Prattsville, NY 12468
• Prattsville            Young’s 25 Washington St, Prattsville, NY 12468
• Saugerties            Ashely Homes, 3736 Route 32, Saugerties, 12477
• Saugerties            Blue Mountain Campground, 3783 NY-32, Saugerties, NY 12477
• Selkirk                   Corner Market, 1250 Rt 9W, Selkirk, NY 12158
• South Cairo          South Cairo Country Store, Route 23b &, Ross Ruland Rd, South Cairo, NY 12482
• West Coxsackie  Citgo Gas Station, 12800 Rt 9W, West Coxsackie, NY 12192
• Westerlo               Westerlo Citgo, 3664 NY-85, Westerlo, NY 12193
• Windham             GNH Lumber, 5477 NY-23, Windham, NY 12496
• Windham             Hickory Hill Market, Route 23., Windham, NY 12496

Exchange Locations Near You

• Albany                   Beer Universe, 1400 Central Ave., Albany, NY 12205
• Coxsackie             Beer Universe, 11836 US-9W, Coxsackie, NY 12051
• Ravena                  Shop N Save, Faith Plaza, Ravena, NY
• Saugerties            Beer Universe, 239 Ulster Ave., Saugerties, NY 12477
• Selkirk                  Steven Zocks, Route 9W, Selkirk, NY
• Troy                       Beer Universe, 402 5th Ave., Troy, NY 12182
• Troy                       Beer Universe, 7 Northern Dr., Troy, NY 12182

Other Locations that are using Nolan Propane:

• East Nassau         Country Farm Mini Mart, 6438 NY-66, East Nassau, NY 12062
• Gilboa                    North Creek LLC, 1275 State Route 990 V, Gilboa, NY 12076
• Kingston                Beer Universe, 403 Washington Ave., Kingston, NY 12401
• Saugerties             Ashely Homes, 3736 Route 32, Saugerties, 12477
• Saugerties             Blue Mountain Campground, 3783 NY-32, Saugerties
• Schenectady         Mobil, 3605 Carman Rd, Schenectady, NY 12303
• Schenectady         Beer Universe, 1701 Union St., Schenectady, NY 12309
• Scotia                     1313 Mart, 184 Sacandaga Road, Scotia, NY 12302

And let’s not forget New Baltimore resident, Zachery M. Miller and Miller & Miller Logging and Landscaping! Zack Miller has been given a number of reasons to drop his fraudulent lawsuit, and to stop being Nolan’s stooge. Will Zack be sensible and act like a man rather than a puppet?

Careful, Zack, what you accept
from Nolan and Biscone!

Support your Community and Local Business!