Letter to the Editor: Town of Coeymans Should Merge Ravena and Coeymans Hamlet!

On occasion, some readers’ comments are just so good and so on-topic that we think they should be published on their own as free-standing articles. With this in mind, we’ll be publishing what we call “Letters to the Editor,” similar to those you’d read in any of the local rags, but much more informative and honest, of course. It’s so much better to have readers themselves do the writing, since that frees us up to do more research and uncover more facts for you.

This letter-to-the-editor is the second letter of a two-part series that we think you’ll really enjoy, especially in this pre-election run-up period in Ravena. When reading these letters, you may want to ask you why these commonsense actions haven’t been taken already by the residents of Ravena and Coeymans and the town of Coeymans. After all, Ravena and the Hamlet of Coeymans were once one single municipality. They’ve had several decades to make the division work but to date the split of Ravena and the Hamlet of Coeymans has caused only problems and bitterness. Why not go back to the merged community and have some peace and save some money? So here goes!

Dear Editor, Dear Neighbors:

As we know, some things and some things remain the same. However, at some point, change is necessary, needed and valuable.

With this in mind, I offer the following:

The Hamlet of Coeymans seems to be in a stagnant situation, both  with a population that is not increasing and with a lack of services that its residents should have. The residents pay higher fees for both Village of Ravena drinking water and Sewer District Tax.

In contrast to what is perceived as a modern move to consolidation, I propose that the Hamlet of Coeymans petition the Village of Ravena for Annexation-that is, the residents of the Hamlet actually become ‘residents’ of the Village of Ravena with all the privileges afforded the current residents of the Village.

I offer there must be a number of caveats to this Annexation (and there are more I am sure):

1.  Coeymans Fire Company maintains its current structure and coverage area along with the current taxing authority to maintain its equipment and continue to be able to protect its area in the exemplary manner it always has.

2. The ‘new’ residents continue to have and use the current Post Office, Zip Code and address-much like Colonie and Menands residents do with regard to and with their relationships to Albany. The idea of mail delivery to those who wish to take advantage should also be investigated

 By the Annexation, users of the Village of Ravena water supply and the Sewer Customers of the District would all be under the auspices of the Village of Ravena, who would be responsible for the entire systems. Of course this would take additional resources but we can get to that later.  Additionally, all the customers of the Water and Sewer Distrcts would pay the same rates, in contrast to the current system-this means the former Hamlet residents would see a sharp drop in both rates which may equate to the now payable Village of Ravena tax!

 The new residents would also be able to take advantage of services formerly available to only the original Village residents, like brush pickup, street cleaning, Holiday Decorations, a second vendor for Cable TV Services, stump removal and the like.
 
With regard to staffing, workload and duties: I offer that the Current Village Building Department be responsible not only for the expanded Village but also for the rest of the Town of Coeymans and staff from Coeymans be moved to accommodate this. It would make sense too as Coeymans Building Department needs would go down and the Village up. I would think the same issues might be in line for the Clerk Offices, Highway Department and Court Offices too. We may even have a chance for some building/office consolidation and economic savings to boot!

 At the same time, the Annexation would allow the Town of Coeymans to explore the possibility of having it’s own municipal water and sewer systems to encourage community growth and maybe enjoy some prosperity because of it. Just imagine municipal water and sewers ‘out back’, on the northern Route9W and northern 144 ends of Town!!

 Seeing as the current Route 144  ‘home’ for the Town Highway Employees (the former Coeymans Firehouse) will not be needed any longer, it can go back to taxable property and maybe a Stewart’s or the like will show up!  The former Town occupants will have less to do as the park would be now on Village property, so the remaining employees can either move to the Town Office Building or the Highway Department as their new workstation. [Editor’s Note: Once the Town of Coeymans makes the right choice and eliminates the Coeymans police department, the space in the basement of the Town Hall can accommodate both a Sheriff’s satellite office and the highway department staff! Actually, it might make a great RC Youth and Teen Activities Center!]

 I know there is more to this than I have outlined but the idea may just have merit and is worth discussing. Why not talk about it?

Outsider

Now isn’t this what our elected town board and village board should be thinking about and proposing, instead of acting like grinning idiots every time someone wants to create a dump or a transfer station in residents’ back yards? Isn’t this what our elected officials should be envisioning instead of bickering like a coven of old hags and creating discord and anxiety, while resident’s basements are filling with water and sewerage, 100-year-old water mains are failing, village and town are hemorrhaging residents, tax base, and businesses? Come on, people, listen to the Voice of Reason and make some changes!

Get rid of Bruno and his gang-bangers, and kick the Town of Coeymans’ board in the ass and get some action!

Outsider is a frequent commenter and reader. We think he’s been in local government in the past because he knows an awful lot about the people and events. He also thinks like a good administrator should think. But we’d like to hear what YOU think about Outsider’s letter. Please leave a comment.

Stay Tuned: In the Days Leading Up to the Ravena Elections,
We’ll Be Running the Series,

10 Reasons Why You Should Vote NO!
for Bruno-Case-Persico!

(Get the latest Election Poll Results at: RESULTS!)

“Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi loqui debuit ac potuit.” “Silence is admission when when the accused ought to have spoken and was able to.” 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 coöperation and assistance. Graphics and Images Disclosure: Unless otherwise noted and credited, all graphics used in this article are the result of a Google image search, and at the time the images were collected and used in this article, no conspicuous or visible copyright notice or other proprietary mark was shown. Please communicate any claim or corrections to rcs.confidential@gmail.com All images are used in good faith for non-profit, public information and public service purposes.

 

Coeymans: They’ve Been Rejected, Rebuked, Rebuffed but Take Revenge on the Community

Voters ousted the majority of the scoundrels on the Coeymans town council (Tom Dolan’s still around but very alone; he’s out next time) and on the New Baltimore town council, while rejecting their cronies. Almost cleaned house. But those left in power for the next two months are taking their revenge before they have to hand over their house keys!

YOU VOTED THEM OUT!!
But they’re Mad and Mean, and they’re going to punish you before they leave!

You’d think they’d have some dignity, and accept the voters’ decision. Voters simply didn’t want their kind any more. So do you think they’d accept the message and leave with dignity, or show some good will in their last two months in office. Hell NO! They’re going to do all the damage they can before they handover the keys to town hall. They’re going to punish voters for giving them the boot!

Revenge of the Rejects

The Coeymans dems under the misguidance of loser Tom Dolan ran Coeymans police chief Gregory Darlington’s babe, Michelle Maddage, for town clerk. They played Maddage for a circus clown, and she played right along with Dolan, Boehm, and Darlington and danced like their cute little monkey, and ran for a town office for which she had absolutely no qualifications. She lost pitifully! But Maddage was just a tool. You see, Coeymans police chief Gregory Darlington had cut a deal that would place his wife, now a secretary in that racist, pandering, incompetent Albany County DA David Soares’ office, in the Coeymans town clerk’s office as a part-time employee. Imaging if the plan had succeeded: If Maddage had by some stroke of misfortune, won and became Coeymans town clerk, she would hire Darlington’s wife in the town clerk’s office. That would put dodo-cop Gregory Darlington in charge of the clerk’s office and in control of any information leaving town hall, because Maddage would be taking orders from Darlington, his wife, and from Tom Boehm and Tom Dolan! Talk about a police state! Talk about turning town government into a family business!!! Voters by the grace of a merciful God put a quick stop to those diabolical plans.

But just because Maddage and the Darlingtons lost the bid to control the Coeymans town clerk’s office. And just because Tom Boehm and Dawn Rogers got booted from their playpens on the Coeymans town council doesn’t mean that they’re finished screwing the citizens of the town of Coeymans. They still have 2 months to do a hell of a lot of damage and they’re mad and mean. They’re going to pull all the stops now that they have nothing to lose. They’re going to punish voters for making the right choices.

Psycho-Cop Ryan Johnson, as inept as he was and continues to be, has botched up so many investigations and probably holds the record for complaints against the Coeymans police department has been promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Coeymans p.d.!

What? You Promoted Psycho-Cop Ryan Johnson?!?

In the town of Coeymans they’ve already started. We all know what friends Boehm and Darlington are, and Dawn Rogers had a special fondness for the Coeymans police department. Craig Apple, Albany County Sheriff saw the writing on the wall and pulled his sockpuppet Kerry Thompson out of the Coeymans p.d. with the cleverly disguised “promotion” of Thompson to “deputy chief deputy.” Thompson then resigned his position with the Coeymans p.d. (Nice move, Craig, get out of harm’s way while you can.) So what do the dregs on the Coeymans town council do? Rather than accept their fate, they promote psycho cop Ryan Johnson, a reject from the Cairo p.d., and such a psycho that they had to get him out-of-the-way in the Coeymans p.d. so they got on a drug task force. Well Johnson, as inept as he was and continues to be, has botched up so many investigations and probably holds the record for complaints against the Coeymans police department has been promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Coeymans p.d.! They promoted Coeymans’ own Psycho-Cop! Thanks Tom Boehm, Tom Dolan, Dawn Rogers!!!

Previous to the so-called “promotion” Psycho-cop Ryan F. Johnson was collecting more than $58,000 in town of Coeymans taxpayer dollars! For what?

That is poor government, escalating spending in this way in times when the majority on the Coeymans town council should be looking for ways to save money and to avoid excess spending. No doubt this is a part of the Boehm, Rogers, Dolan Revenge Plan. Ryan F. Johnson was already cashing in to the tune of more than $58,000 a year from the Coeymans taxpayer pockets!

Even Tom Boehm’s lies couldn’t keep him or Dawn Rogers in office. The two town officials Boehm and Darlington, and Rogers were constantly tripping up and abusing got re-elected, and Boehm and Rogers, two of Darlington’s supporters, are no more. Now where does that leave Darlington? Where does that leave that money-pit of the Coeymans police department? Here’s where: in very dangerous waters. The Coeymans police department is useless, corrupt, and simply a playpen for a bunch of thugs who can’t go anywhere else. They thought they had it made until their friends on the Coeymans town council got the boot. Now the way is clear to break up the party going on in the basement of Coeymans town hall and turn law enforcement over to the profession law enforcement professionals you’re paying for already: The Albany County Sheriff and the New York State Police.  There are better ways to spend the $1,000,000 (one million) that the Coeymans p.d. is costing taxpayers every year!

Have our readers heard about the suspension of two Coeymans police officers for misconduct or criminal activities? We’ve heard it’s been discussed in town council Executive Session but not a peep has been heard in the media. It’s been a very well-kept secret. Do we owe the secrecy to Tom Boehm, Dawn Rogers and Tom Dolan? How about it, Coeymans police-chief-whose-job-is-in-jeopardy Gregory Darlington: Come clean if you can. Who are the officers and what’s the story?

We say: As soon as the new Coeymans town council takes over in January, we say RESCIND Johnson’s promotion. Set the wheels in motion to save Coeymans taxpayers $1,000,000 and eliminate the Coeymans Police Department. Stop the lies they tell to misinform residents that they need the Coeymans p.d.!

In the meantime, keep a close eye on what is going on on the Coeymans town council, and watch Tom Boehm, Dawn Rogers, and Tom Dolan very closely. They’re going to try to push quite a few things through before they leave that you’re going to be saddled with afterwards. Get to the town council meetings and make your wishes known. Coeymans residents must demand a moratorium on any major decisions until the new Coeymans town council takes over. And keep a very close eye on what’s going on with the town of Coeymans 2014 budget! It hasn’t been approved yet. Don’t let them spend any more of your dollars on a police department that’s almost out the door! Coeymans voters have the momentum, now use it to good advantage: Anything Boehm, Dolan, Rogers or Darlington want, SAY NO!

Town of New Baltimore

Like the town of Coeymans, the voters in the Town of New Baltimore finally got smart and kicked supervisor Susan O’Rorke out and put in some community-minded people like Nick Dellisanti, Jeff Ruso, Sally van Etten on the board and sent a clear message to the local elitist clubs represented by Janet Angelis (of sign-stealing fame) and Hilary Schrauf (of no fame at all).  That doesn’t mean that Dellisanti, Ruso, and van Etten have a ticket for free lunch; in fact, we’re going to be watching them very, very closely and any indication of deviating from the straight and narrow and we’ll be on them tighter than the skin on a frog’s back.

Read more about the NYS Comptroller’s audit findings of financial mismanagement and give-your-friend-a-raise practices in the Town of New Baltimore at
After the Elections in New Baltimore: O’Rorke, Benway, Norris Laying Landmines for New Administration

Tit for Tat! What would they do to you?
What have they done to you
The Editor

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We’re Not Going to Forget

We’d like your support to get action!

The Hudson-Catskill Newspapers (Ravena News Herald, Greene County News, Daily Mail) refused to publish the personal profiles of the New Baltimore’s Republican, Conservative and Independence party-endorsed candidates. Don’t you think that might have had a very big effect on the election results in New Baltimore, or anywhere else where such media misconduct could happen? We’d like you to  John B. Johnson, chairman, and Mark Vinciguerra, publisher, what you think of their discriminatory, unfair, unbalanced coverage of the candidates and their unfairly influencing the elections. The publishers of those newspapers abused their privileges. Here are their emails:

John B. Johnson
Chairman, Johnson Newspaper Corp.
jbj@wdt.net

Mark Vinciguerra
Publisher, Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
mvinciguerra@registerstar.com

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“Qui tacet consentire videtur ubi loqui debuit ac potuit.” “Silence is admission when the accused ought to have spoken and was able to.” 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 coöperation and assistance!

 

Supervisor Flach: On Eliminating the Coeymans P.D.

Finally, Someone in the Double-wide a.k.a. the Coeymans Town Hall Is Waking Up and Listening to Reason and Proposing Sound Economics!

Supervisor Flach: “I want to ensure personal safety while saving taxpayer dollars.”
BRAVO, MR FLACH!

In Early July 2012 We Published Two Articles on The Cost of the Coeymans P.D. and the Good Sense in Eliminating it Outright. After All, Our Tax Dollars Are Paying for Two Other Law Enforcement Organizations That Regularly Serve Coeymans: The Albany County Sheriff’s Department and the New York State Police. Why Pay and Additional Estimated More Than $2 Million a Year to Have A Local Band of Thugs Who So Far Have Served Mainly As a Long Arm of the Local Coeymanazis, Have Raised Numerous Questions of Corruption, and Have Been the Cause of Innumerable Complaints and Lawsuits, Costing The Taxpayers Dearly!

Coeymans Town Supervisor announced in the Supervisor’s Report printed in the September 7, 2012, Ravena News Herald newspaper, that he has been studying the possibility of eliminating the Coeymans Police Department and asking the Albany County Sheriff’s Department and the New York State Police to take over law enforcement in the Town of Coeymans. (Read the entire Supervisor’s Report: Supervisor Report-Eliminating the Coeymans Police Department)

We advocated that move back in July in our article Eliminating the Coeymans Police Department, where we argue that more than $2 million could be saved by getting rid of the Coeymans P.D. We also expressed our outrage when the Coeymans town board approved the appointment of officer Kerry Thompson to be police chief Gregory Darlington’s admin assistant at more than $30.00 per hour! We published that gem in our article, One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward: Kerry Thompson gets $30+/hour!

According to Supervisor Flach’s report in the News Herald his “job as…elected official is to manage the town budget, while improving and maintaining services.” It’s nice to hear someone in office talking like that and actually someone having the cojones to actually say it out loud.

Supevisor Flach goes on to say that many local communities are downsizing or eliminating their law enforcement departments to save money and that he wants to “ensure personal safety for our community members while saving taxpayer dollars.” Flach has guts and integrity by even entertaining such a sensible plan and we should stand behind him because he’s really trying to make improvements and do the best for the community.

Surpervisor Flach closes his article with an appeal to the community to let him know what it wants. He asks residents to e-mail him or board members to voice their opinions. Supervisor Flach gives his e-mail as sflach@coeymans.org and asks to hear from you.

We would also suggest as many residents as possible attend the Coeymans town board meeting on Monday, September 10, at 7:00 p.m. at the Coeymans town hall. You can probably expect to see a lot of Coeymans P.D. people there protesting the proposed elimination of the department. That’s why it’s important to have the rest of the community show up in support of Flach’s plan.

Good Things Happen Only If You Support Them!

Please note that even if there are some thugs on the Coeymans force, there are also some very good people on the Coeymans P.D. and every effort should be made to make the transition smoothly and to ensure that there are outplacement efforts made to place qualified people in positions where they can continue supporting themselves…preferably not at Coeymans taxpayer expense.

You should support Supervisor Flach’s plan because there is no real or reasonable need to pay for three law enforcement organizations to serve Coeymans. You already are paying for the Sheriff’s department and State Police services so save yourself at least $2 million a year, and support Flach’s plan.

WE SUPPORT
SUPERVISOR FLACH’S PROPOSAL
AND YOU SHOULD TOO!
THE EDITOR

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!

 

Eliminating the Coeymans Police Department

Warning:If you are a student or a minor, please leave this blog NOW!

A Reader Contributes A Well-Founded Proposal For
Eliminating  the Money-Pit Coeymans Police Department
to Save the Residents of the Town of Coeymans
At Least $2 Million A Year 

Your Tax Dollars & the Coeymans Police Department
There’s a Better Way!

 The Author Advocates that the $2 Million Dollars Saved Could be Used to Develop Small Businesses, Parks and Recreation, and Historical Sites in the Area to Attract Residents, Businesses and Tourism. Not a Shabby Plan At All.

A Contribution by Laszlo Polyak, Ravena, New York

The blogger recently put out a poll about the Coeymans Police Department and asked whether you are for or against the dissolution of the police department based on the various complaints of police brutality, ineptness, unprofessionalism, lack of training, and violation of civil rights and abuse of citizens and residents.  And the blogger now sarcastically refers to them as the Coeymanazis, and giving some individuals personnel nicknames such as “Dirty Hands.”
 
I grew up in a township with county police only; no village or town police, only county and state police. Perhaps that is why 2 million people moved out of NY. A lot of southern states provide services such as fire, police, paramedics on a county level so people see the benefits and they feel the benefits in their wallets. How? You ask–they pay less taxes! 
 
I find it personally very difficult to write about this, since I have family and friends who carry badges and who range from small town police officers to federal investigators.  For example, I have a cousin who is now retired from the PDNY and also from the FDNY.  Yes, one person, two hats, so there are people out there who experience an event like 9/11 with a whole different meaning, and we can’t fathom what they are thinking when they have lost hundreds of comrades and friends. It’s a different level of experiencing the world, yet they manage to act responsibly and compassionately, respectfully.

But back to the nitty-gritty: I want to take a down-to-earth non-personal dollar-and-cents approach to the idea of dissolving the Coeymans police department.  In the past Mayor John Bruno perhaps said it best when he questioned: “What do I see for my tax dollars?”  And then, a few years later, the village of Ravena dissolved their police department.  Now as a community we financially have to look at what we’re getting for our tax dollars, and ask that and similar questions.  Do we really see our state tax dollars at work when we have an elite force like the New York State Police using their sophisticated and advanced training doing nothing other than handing out  thruway traffic violations?  Do we see our county tax dollars at work via the Albany County Sheriff department, or even through the County District Attorney’s office? You’re probably thinking to yourself, “NO!” But you’re paying for all of it…at least 4 times for the same services. Smart, eh? Why don’t you do that for a quart of milk, a shirt, a car? Because it’s stupid!
 
In extremely hard financial times where people are losing their homes to back taxes or simply because they don’t have a job or have one that pays crappola! Imagine losing your home for a few hundred dollars and then our taxes going up and up and up. This might be a good time to ask that burning question: “Did you see all the For Sale signs go up  after the shool budget vote?”  Do we want to keep or disolve our Coeymans Police Department based on financial cost versus the benefits versus the same services by the New York State Police or the Albany County Sheriff’s department, who would provide the same services but from local satellite offices (just like the New York State Police and the Greene County Sheriff has done in neighboring New Baltimore).
 
For more than 20 years I have looked at the annual budget of the town of coeymans. And I have seen the spending go up and up.  Some frustrating by unfunded mandates.  So let me break down what I estimate the entire cost of running the police department is today.  Out of a reported $5 million town budget, approximately $750,000 for police salaries alone. (Compare that with more than $41 million for the RCS central school district budget! The school budget is more than 8 times that of the entire Town of Coeymans!) At the time of this writing, I am still waiting for the Town of Coeymans to respond to a F.O.I.L. (Freedom of Information Law) request for the W-2s of Coeymans Police department personnel.  I was told it would take another two weeks.  So I can only guestimate at the dispatch salaries which could be as much as $450,000 including secretarial salaries, etc. [Editor’s Note: According to SeeThrough NY, the 19 employees at the Coeymans Police Department total a crushing $650,000 in salaries) Then you have the cost of the vehicles, the cost of maintaining the vehicles that run 24/7 (tires, tune ups, oil change, etc.), not to mention the gas and the mileage covering the township in the rural and farm areas.  Then there is the maintenance for radio equipment, ongoing training, retirement fund, health benefits, and routine court and law suits.  That adds up to $2.2 to $2.4 million dollars.  I stand corrected by a $100,000 or so since I am still waiting for actual receipts.  The point is this: About half of the town budget, at least, is going to support the Coeymans Police Department. Are we that crime-ridden, are we that much of a gang of hoodlums that we need to spend that much on law enforcement? Can we afford to maintain a police department for a mere 8,000 people?  Perhaps we should look into turning over the operations to the Albany County Sheriff’s Department or the New York State Police or both and invite them to use our present law enforcement installations and offices. 
 
And that’s what the Blogger is asking in the police poll, that’s the poll question: Would you support a referendum to eliminate the Coeymans Police Department? Would you support the ballot to turn over law enforcement to the professionals of the Albany County Sheriff’s Department and the New York State Police? Do you want to disolve it and turn it over or not??? For me I have a handful of honest issues. 

Always Professional & Constantly Training

One of the top of my list is that we train officers and then they go off to other police departments/agencies; Coeymans is simply not a major career goal. If the officer is good and has a future, after he or she gets some experience, they go elsewhere.  And we are constantly doing the training.  And this is where minor to major civil rights violations have occurred; because the Coeymans Police are either rejects from other departments or are in their training training phase, we are sued for their lack of training.  And police training is continuous. I has to be! This situation not only expensive, it’s frustrating because we can’t retain the good, civic-minded, competent, intelligent police officers.   And now the facts indicate that that even our elected officials have neglected the requirement for a policy and procedures on who reports to whom, and how citizens’ complaints, yours and mine, are handled.  The patrol man answers to the sargeant, who answers to the police chief, the chief answers to the elected officials in this case the Town Supervisor and the town board. But according to information received from the Town of Coeymans, no one seems to know anything concrete about who reports to whom and what the chain-of-command might be. The result: chaos! And lawsuits! And civil rights violations! And miscarriages of justice! You name it Coeymans has it!
 
Another issue is that we have reports that the Coeymans Police Department selectively takes complaints, that is, police department employees tend to decide whether or not you’re going to get law enforcement services when you ask for them.  And that to me is totally unprofessional and biased–it’s also unlawful. If this happens to you then you must request assistance from the New York State Police or the Albany County Sheriff’s Office (although one Sheriff’s department employee who is also a part-time Coeymans Police Officer–and married to chief Darlington’s sister, recently refused to take a harassment complaint from a local woman). And then, please file a complaint with the FBI!

If somebody came by and asked me to sign a petition to dissolve the Coeymans Police Department, I sadly admit, there would be no compelling reason not to sign it, and I would sign it.  I would rather deal with the New York State Police or the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.  It would be unlikely that we would experience the personal bias or “get even” mentality based on gossip that 90% of the time results in retaliation, intimidation, and coercion by the local police. 

Let’s Talk
Dollars & Cents

But more realistically to me I would be opting for a more efficient and productive use of my county and state tax dollars and looking at a potential savings of at least $2 million of our town tax dollars that could be better spent promoting small businesses, to development of our beautiful parks and our waterfront, to restoration of some of the beautiful historical sites in our midst. The $2 million dollars saved could be used to nurture pride in our town, and when you’re proud of your town, you’ll have a measurable increase in your own self-esteem, self-respect, and love for your neighbor. So when you look at it in dollars and cents, it makes sense very good sense to dissolve the Coeymans Police Department.  Not because one guy has “Dirty Hands,” or another guy harasses little old ladies, or because we personally have experienced civil rights violations or even profiling of one sort or another, or even if the Smalbany Blogger rightly or wrongly calls the Coeymans Police the Coeymansnazis. We also have to take a good hard look at the abuses and violations, real ones and potential ones, that come with the confusion and indifference we see in the Coeymans administration and the Coeymans Police Department. One example it the rubber-stamp approval of the Coeymans Police Department’s request for an increase in petty cash from $300 to $1000! There’s no way that $1000 can be considered “petty cash,” at least not according to all the accounting books I’ve read!

But, seriously, I think we should all provide our input on the poll because I’m curious about what the results of the poll would be, aren’t you?
 
These unfunded mandates are going to continue to go up and up and I doubt very much gasoline prices are going to go down.  So as a community we have to discuss this and if we do dissolve our inefficient, expensive Coeymans Police Department, then we must also make efforts to assist those persons who are left jobless with job placement elsewhere, perhaps somewhere in the community where they can really earn their keep. But to continue running the Coeymans Police Department we have to find justification in funding it, too.
 
We’re all in this mess together, so you have to really give some thought to “What’s your solution to a growing finaical burden?”

LASZLO POLYAK

Editor’s Epilog

Thank you, Mr Polyak, for a well-reasoned and well-written commentary on the present state of affairs of law enforcement in the Town of Coeymans. Your presentation is motivating and stimulates thought about the status quo and ignorance of the facts. Continuing the present situation is  like the reasoning of stopping your watch to save time, or complaining about fuel oil consumption and your fuel bill while still using the 75-year old converted coal boiler and not biting the bullet to install a fuel-efficient heating system. We’re all guilty at one time or another! But we need to make some  sensible decisions real soon or at least discuss alternatives in a constructive and sensible manner. Mr Polyak has provided us with a good start.

For those of our readers who have not yet visted the Coeymans Police Poll, you can click this link Coeymans Police Department to go to the article and participate in the poll. The poll is at the end of the article.

Finally, we invite any of our readers to submit a contribution for publication on this blog. You can choose a topic that is near and dear to your heart or you can pick up one that we’ve talked about on this blog. All contributions are subject to editing for content and appropriateness. Join this blog community and participate!

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!