Body, Mind & Spirit: The mysterious relationships of sisters

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

GREENVILLE — The town board is expected to raise water rates and could approve a 26% increase at Monday night’s meeting.

If rates go up, it would be the first time the town has done so in many years, Town Supervisor Paul Macko said at the March meeting of the board.

“We haven’t had a water rate increase in Greenville in more than 15 years,” Macko said. “I really and truly think that if we had to do it all over again, we would have increased by 1.5% or 2% each year so the people aren’t smacked upside the head with a 26% increase.”

The precise rate has not yet been set. Project Manager Travis Smigel, from Delaware Engineering, presented the town board with a couple of options and a decision is expected to be made at the April 17 meeting.

The increase is aimed at reducing a budgetary shortfall in the Water Department, Smigel said.

“The current budgeted revenue for 2023 is $156,595,” Smigel said. “Based on what the calculated revenue for last year was, the town was going to receive $96,255, so they are well off the budgeted amount.”

If the expected 26% rate increase is implemented, it would bring the town close to the budgeted amount, he added.

For the average water user, the increase could go from the current water rate of $56.20 for 10,000 gallons of water a quarter to around $70 a quarter, the most likely scenario, but other options are on the table, according to town officials.

At the projected new rate, for the average water user it would cost about 77 cents per day for water, Town Supervisor Paul Macko said.

“If you had a well, you couldn’t run the electricity for your pump for that amount,” Macko said.

In addition to rates that haven’t been raised in 15 years, the Water Department faces other challenges as well. Unlike most neighboring towns, Greenville does not charge homeowners for a final meter reading when they sell their home. Other communities in Greene County charge anywhere from $50 to $100 or more for the final reading.

A decision on implementing a final meter reading could be included in the water rate increase that is expected to be adopted Monday.

The Water Department is also contending with an unreliable meter reading system that has led to mistakes for some property owners.

“We are still having growing pains with the software program for reading the meters and the electronic scanner. Sometimes it just goes berserk,” Macko said. “I had one unit up at Country Estates, it was a [woman] who had been in a nursing home for 90 days, there was no water usage and they paid the basic rate — $166 for water and sewer. This last reading, still nobody there, and the usage was 104,000 gallons of water in a quarter. I think the scanner they use doesn’t translate well to the software.”

The error was not an isolated incident, and sometimes goes in the other direction, he said.

The Tops supermarket on Route 32 generally pays about $1,500 a quarter for water and sewer combined, but their most recent bill was not in line with their typical usage, Macko said.

“The bill it spit out this month was $166.10,” the town supervisor said. “They would be doing backflips if they had a bill for $166.10. So we are having some real consistency problems with the software package.”

Town Councilman Richard Bear said the town needs to do something to resolve the inconsistency issue with the meter reading system.

“We’ve worked on it, we’ve upgraded it,” Macko said. “Over the last couple of years we have done quite a lot.”

One option for addressing the issue could be installing an upgraded system using federal COVID relief funds, which can be used for water and sewer infrastructure, so that could be a solution. The town will continue to address the issue.

A decision on the water rate increase could be made at the April 17 meeting of the Greenville Town Council. If that happens, the new rate would go into effect with the next water bill residents will receive.

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

CAIRO — When you think of the holidays, motorcycles may not be at the top of the list of images that pop into your mind.

But a group of more than a dozen motorcycle groups joined forces this year to brighten the holidays for local families in need.

The Christmas Toy Drive was hosted last Sunday by a group of local motorcycle groups spanning Greene, Columbia and Dutchess counties. The clubs met up at the Red Rooster Bar and Grill on Main Street in Cairo and collected toys for local elementary school students.

“Today is our toy drive,” said Tom Plank, who spearheaded the project. “It will benefit the kids in the Cairo-Durham school district. It’s a group of motorcycle organizations, clubs and riding clubs, a bunch of us got together to collect toys. There are tables full of toys. People have been dropping off toys and there are going to be a lot of happy kids.”

And, of course, Santa Claus was on hand to oversee the toy drive and meet with kids to talk about their Christmas wishes.

This is the first event of its kind by the motorcycle clubs.

“We will see how it works out,” Plank said. “Maybe it will be an annual thing, but I think we will move it around to benefit kids in other school districts.”

The toy drive organizers are working with Meghan Stalter, the social worker at Cairo-Durham Elementary School, who is collecting toys and other items for local kids for the holiday season.

“We have a bunch of families that I know are struggling,” Stalter said. “I sent out a list to the parents and they sent it back to me with things that their kids need or are interested in, and then I find donors to purchase stuff for them. We will distribute them to the kids who need it.”

Stalter will supplement her original list of donors with the toys collected by the motorcycle clubs at the Red Rooster Bar and Grill event.

“There are plenty of kids in our district whose families may not even be able to afford Christmas at all,” Stalter said. “This eases the financial burden for the families, and it also provides the opportunity for the kids to have Christmas and to get things that they enjoy.”

There are 100 students at Cairo-Durham Elementary School who will benefit, Stalter said.

L.J. James, a member of one of the motorcycle clubs, said the project was a group initiative.

“This is not about any one club,” James said. “This is about motorcycle groups that come together. We do a lot of great things every year and children are our number one thing.”

Area motorcycle clubs host a range of community fundraisers and programs that help people in need, Plank said.

“Our groups are mostly community minded and different clubs do different things,” Plank said. “One club will do events to benefit a handicapped child, and another club does the Kick Cancer’s Butt Run, in which we choose one person in the community that has cancer, and we raise money through the motorcycle run and give it to that person. All of the clubs — every one of them — does events like this.”

The toy drive gives the club a chance to get together and have fun, but also help the local community at the same time, James added.

“This is our first year and we hope that it will get bigger and that more motorcycle groups will get involved,” James said. “None of us want to imagine any children in our backyard going without a gift for the holidays, and that is the driving force behind this.”