Hansut discloses cancer battle

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 12/11/19

At the close of last week’s Lloyd Town Board meeting, Supervisor Paul Hansut announced that this would be his last meeting.

With his voice filled with emotion, Hansut said, “I was …

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Hansut discloses cancer battle

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At the close of last week’s Lloyd Town Board meeting, Supervisor Paul Hansut announced that this would be his last meeting.

With his voice filled with emotion, Hansut said, “I was diagnosed with cancer two weeks ago and I have to begin treatment at Sloan Kettering tomorrow. It’s been very traumatic and very emotional. I want to thank everybody on the board, town employees and everybody who has reached out to me with your prayers and thoughts. Everybody who knows me knows that I am a fighter and I’m not going to let this get me, but I don’t know if I can be at the regular meeting [Dec. 18] so I wanted to be here tonight to just say thank you to everyone who supported me and God bless you all.” A standing ovation followed.

Earlier at the meeting Elaine Rivera introduced Sadie Becker to the Town Board as the town’s new full-time bookkeeper, saying she, “is the answer to your prayers.”

Rivera said Becker started December 3, “and she’s doing pretty good so far. There is a lot of training to be done on the software program and we are in the process of scheduling some training. She’s picking it up quick and I’m thankful because I’m looking forward to going back into retirement by the end of the month. Next week the office will be fully staffed as the board had planned it and we’re moving along.”

Councilman Joe Mazzetti asked Rivera about a statement made on Facebook during the election season that lights could be shut off at the police station, at Town Hall and on town streets because past Central Hudson bills have not been paid.

“Central Hudson will never shut off a municipality,” Rivera responded, adding that electric bills from September through November were located after sifting through paperwork on a desk in the office. “Checks have been sent out.”

Building Department Director Dave Barton said his receptionist Laura Oddo-Kelly has resigned and is leaving her position as of December 13. Barton is checking the Civil Service list for a replacement and will soon be conducting interviews.

Barton said he recently participated in a meeting to discuss the John Burroughs Trail. He said field work has been completed and a proposal is being developed to see if the trail is eligible to receive a Greenway grant.

Barton said the contract for a sidewalk grant for the hamlet is now in the hands of town attorney Sean Murphy for his review. It will later be forwarded to the Supervisor for his signature. The project cost is estimated at $840,687 and the town’s share is $131,000, which he expects will come from the General Fund. Barton favors low bidder Barton & Loguidice [no relation] as the consultants who will manage the grant for the project.

Barton has completed the annual Department of Finance foreclosure list for 2017 that has been sent to the Supervisor.

Barton received a call from Jeff Anzevino, of Scenic Hudson, seeking to test a Geographic Information System [GIS] software program that helps municipalities determine where the best location is for solar farms. Barton expects this will interface with the town’s own GIS program. He noted that solar farms are only allowed in the town’s agricultural zone, “and if you are a 50 acre farm you can only get 5 acres of glass and that’s not usually enough. Usually, it’s triple that to get a megawatt and a half; on 20 acres you get 2 megawatts.”

Highway Superintendent Richard Klotz said his department is doing some cleanup after the recent back to back snowstorms. Councilman Lenny Auchmoody thanked him and his department for their long hours in keeping the roadways clear.

“You guys were out there for a long time; please give them my best. They did such a good job and it was such a long storm,” he said.

Police Chief Daniel Waage gave his monthly report for November, calling it, “a fairly busy month for us.” There were 1,049 calls for service and 312 other calls for public service; there were 51 accidents and a total of 42 tickets issued, 1 for parking and 41 for uniform traffic tickets. In addition, there were 25 arrests and his officers and Sergeant logged 193 hours in the hamlet and 10 hours in the schools and Chief Waage and Lieutenant James Janso logged 2 hours in the hamlet and 3 hours at the schools.

Waage also highlighted several department events throughout the month, with an officer attending a Middle School Career Day, holding a food drive for Thanksgiving, joining children in kickball and relay races, donating a new flag drop box, bringing hot chocolate and donuts to a boy scouts camp out, attending the department’s morning Cops and Coffee at Vigneto’s Cafe, hosting a tour of police headquarters for local Girl Scouts, collecting Christmas toys that will be distributed later this month to needy families in Highland and to women and children who have sought refuge at the Grace Smith House shelter in Poughkeepsie.

Recreation Director Frank Alfonso said the Saturday winter youth basketball program started this past weekend and the adult basketball league that began in November is continuing. He added that youth wrestling started on Monday, December 9th.

Alfonso said fall clean-up has been completed at all of the town parks. It was done by his staff and by Baker Brothers Landscaping. The bathroom at Tony Williams Park were painted before the end of the season.

Alfonso urged the board to decide on who will be doing the grass cutting and lawn care in 2020 and will it be a mix of his staff and hiring an outside firm. Councilman Mazzetti said he would like to compare what the cost is for an outside firm versus having the town staff do the work.

Town Clerk Wendy Rosinski said her office has begun accepting credit cards and they have just received their swiper.

“We’re getting ready for tax season; it gears up for us in two or three weeks,” she said.

Adam Litman, Administrator for Lloyd Water and Sewer, said currently water production is 90% from the Hudson River and 10% from the town wells. He said the recent large amount of rain is filling up the reservoirs and he expects the water production will be a blend of the two sources. He said they are holding up on this because in mid-December his department will see the arrival of a Micro Filtration Pilot Plant.

“That’s a pilot study that’s coming in a pre-packaged unit that is part of our engineering,” he said. “That pilot plant is going to be set to run for three months and it will utilize three sources of water; one being the river, another a blend and a third will be reservoir water. So we’re holding off on utilizing as much reservoir water currently as we can to assure we can get through that cycle.

Litman informed the board that the amount of rainwater upstate has increased the turbidity of the Hudson River water, “to an amount we’ve never seen before, so from November 6th to the 14th the facility ran twenty-four hours a day. It is currently back on a more normal shift of 10 to 12 hours, sometimes more.”

Litman pointed out that the high turbidity level has nothing to do with the current dredging that is taking place on the Poughkeepsie side of the river.