Attention County farmers,

This is a reminder about a County Farmer workshop to assist in drafting a County Ag and Farmland Protection Plan.

Hartford was selected as a central meeting spot for all of the farmers in central and northern Washington County.

When: Monday Feb 8th Noon to 2pm (light lunch will be served)
Where: Hartford Town Hall
RSVP: 692-7285 or [email protected]

Here is a press release describing the workshop. Dana

HARTFORD – W a s h i n g t o n County is in the process of updating its Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan. The goal of the update is to generate a new list of goals and strategies to strengthen and support the local ag sector. We hope a few great ideas will rise to the top and we can pursue state funding to implement them. The Plan is only as good as the input received, so we truly need your ideas, challenges and possible solutions. The workshop is being held on: Monday, February 8th at Hartford Town Hall from noon until 2pm. A complimentary light lunch will be provided. All county farmers will be asked to participate in a brief survey asking for help to prioritize the identified goals and strategies that come out of these workshops, discussions and interviews. Everyone, including the general public, will have an opportunity to comment on the draft plan which is expected to be available later in 2016. The County received a state grant to update its plan and contracted with Agricultural Stewardship Association (ASA) to implement the grant. Please RSVP to ASA by emailing [email protected] or by phone at 692-7285 at least a day before the workshop. For those farmers that cannot attend the meeting but would like to participate in either a phone or in-person interview or a brief survey, please contact Renee at ASA.

Here is the list of what I have so far for February, please mark your calendars.

Feb 8th Monday Noon – 2pm @ Hartford Town Hall
Area meeting for County farmers to discuss pending Washington County Ag and Farmland Protection Plan.

Feb 9th Tuesday 7pm @ Town Board meeting
Public Hearing regarding the Hartford Volunteer Fire Co purchase of a new fire fighting vehicle.

Feb 21st Sunday 1pm – 3pm @ Hartford Town Hall
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner will hold a ‘Town Hall’ style meeting to hear from constituents.

Feb 28th Sunday 3pm @ Yoked Parish Baptist Church, Hartford Main St
Hartford Food Pantry musical benefit.
Con Brio Performing Arts presents: Sariah Ashton – Soprano, Chame Blackburn – Cello, Douglas Bischoff – Accompanist. Prelude by the Yoked Parish Hand Bell Choir. Admission by donation with 100% of donations going to the Hartford food pantry.

The below article from Thursdays Granville Sentinel may interest you regarding road signs on Town roads. If you live on a low traffic volume, all dirt road, a sign will be placed at the entrance to the road saying “No Traffic Signs”. BTW- All of Hartford’s roads that are 100% dirt are ‘low volume’ and the ATV club will reimburse the Town for the cost of the ATV signs. Dana

By Dan King

Hartford town officials have been talking lately about road signage policies and have come up with a way to save some time and money in doing so.

The town will no longer be putting up signs on roads within the town of Hartford that are considered “low volume dirt roads.” Instead, town highway Superintendent Greg Brown reported to the town board that he will be putting up signs that read “no traffic signs” on these less travelled roads.

“The signs take place of all signs on low volume dirt roads,” said Brown, explaining that this practice was in compliance with New York State Department of Transportation regulations.

“This makes it so we don’t have to put up signs along the road,” said Supervisor Dana Haff.

Brown said that the diamond- shaped yellow traffic signs will be placed at one end of the road if it is a dead end road or one sign at each end if it is a through road. The signage alleviates the town from the burden of putting up and maintaining traffic signs on roads that aren’t traveled frequently.

Eleven dead end roads will be marked with the yellow signs, they include, Wooddell Lane, Durkee Lane, Country Lane and Ext, Strainer Lane, Northup Lane, Hinck Lane, Swamp Lane, Eldridge Lane, Rojcewicz Lane, Gulf Lane and Smith Lane.

Each of those eleven roads will also receive one or two red diamond signs marking the end of the road, because they are all dead end roads.

Lundy Road, Scott Hill Road and Harper Hill Road will each be marked with two no traffic signs, and Halls Pond will receive two no traffic signs and a pavement ends sign.

Lilly Pond, Dick Hill Road and Brayton Road will all also receive pavement ends signs, warning motorists of a transition from pavement to dirt or gravel.

AT V signs

The town will also be signing roads that are part of the Foothills ATV Club Trail System, as a way to warn motorists that all-terrain vehicles may be travelling on the roads.

Rowe Hill Road, Washburn Hill Road, Halls Pond Road, Hastings Road and Blood Street will all be marked end-to-end with ATV signage.

Other roads that will be partially signed will include Burch Road, Dick Hill, Main Street, Warren Road and Gibbs Road.

Officials said the reason for marking these roads is to make it clear what roads are legally recognized as part of the Foothills ATV Club Trail System.

Councilwoman Barbara Beecher said she was concerned with the speeds of all terrain vehicles, but town officials reassured her that the guidelines for ATV speeds were made clear by the club.

The following legal notice will be place by the County. This allows the County Emergency Services Department to know where disabled persons live, and to be able to better respond in the even of a natural or civil disaster.

But Hartford’s citizens can hardly see these notices since the Official Papers of the County, where these notices are published are only in the North (Whitehall Times) and South (Eagle).

This notice is posted twice a year and may be of interest to Hartford so I will paste it below.

Dana

LEGAL NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that the Washington County Board of Supervisors on December 19, 2003 duly passed Resolution No. 360 entitled, “To Establish County Registry of Disabled Persons Pursuant to New York State Executive Law §23-a”. New York State Executive Law §23-a provides for establishment of a registry of disabled persons within a county and also provides the mechanism for implementation and enforcement. Establishment of such registry would enhance the ability of the County and its emergency and other service providers to respond in cases of natural or civil disaster within Washington County. Washington County has established such a registry and registry information can be obtained by contacting the Office for the Aging and Disabilities Resource Center, Washington County CARES, Washington County Municipal Center, 383 Broadway, Bldg. B., Fort Edward, NY 12828 or phone (518)746-2420. By Order of the Board of Supervisors Debra R. Prehoda, Clerk DATED: June 12, 2015 Fort Edward, New York

New York State now has a Medical Marijuana law called the Compassionate Care Act.

In my opinion, it is about time that this plant based medicine became legal to alleviate needless suffering. There are many maladies that respond much better to marijuana with far fewer side effects than the more dangerous synthetic chemicals produced by the Pharmaceutical complex.

New York State will soon issue five licenses to “Registered Organizations” to grow and produce medical marijuana. These five producers will then be allowed to operate four dispensaries each for a grand total of twenty dispensaries throughout the State.

Medical Marijuana in New York must be grown within the state and will only be prescribed by specific Doctors who are trained and certified by the Dept. of Health to prescribe it for certain serious conditions. It will only be available in ingestible forms like extracts, tinctures, oils, edibles, etc. and will only be available from a designated Medical Marijuana dispensary.

The State has not yet defined how the five licenses or location of dispensaries will be awarded. While it makes sense to locate the dispensaries with regard to population densities, the criteria for the growing facilities should not be dependent upon population. It can easily be grown and processed in rural areas and then trucked to the urban dispensaries.

Both Washington County and Warren County are vying to be the area’s host County for a growing facility. Washington County has a proposed location at an old mushroom growing farm in the Town of Jackson run by a company called The Compassionate Relief Centers of NY, Inc. and Warren County has an old horse barn owned by the Peckham family in the Town of Chester.

Washington and Warren are adjacent Counties with almost equal populations of around 63,000 each. However, these two Counties have very different economic development models with Washington being much poorer than Warren. Warren Co has the Adirondack Northway Interstate, shopping malls, restaurants, motels, etc. plus the tourist side of Lake George while Washington County has the farms.

In 2014, Washington County ranked 57th out of the 57 Counties (excluding NYC) in the collection of Sales Tax per Capita while Warren ranked 5th . Washington collected a total of $19.7 million while Warren collected a total of $49.4 million. However, when it comes to Taxable Sales per Capita, Warren ranks #1 in the entire State.

The State will impose a 7% Excise Tax on the product. This Excise tax will then be parceled out so that 22.5% of it will go to the County where it is grown, another 22.5% will be divided up among the Counties where it is dispensed, 5% to the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, and 5% to the Dept. of Criminal Justice. The remaining 45% of the excise tax stays with the State as revenue.

Nothing says that either of these businesses will be awarded with a growing license, and it is doubtful that both Counties would be allowed to grow it since there will only be 5 facilities throughout the State.

In my opinion when comparing the economic needs of the two Counties, Washington County is the more compelling candidate to host a growing facility and the 30+ full time jobs it would generate.

Every Year, Mary Ellen Pike gathers information and comes up with a community calendar. I have copied it an mailed it out to all property owners but here it is again. Dana

2015 Hartford Community Calendar
(adapted from Mary Ellen Pike’s community calendar)

3/7/15 Sat Soup Supper by Methodist Church Youth Group
3/15/15 Sun Fire Co. Pancake Breakfast
3/27/15 Fri HCS Talent Show
3/29/15 Sun Mason’s Ham Dinner

4/3/15 Fri Fish & Game Fish Fry
4/11/15 Sat Methodist Church Turkey Dinner
4/19/15 Sun Fire Co. Pancake Breakfast
4/25/15 Sat Yoked Parish Chicken & Biscuit Dinner

5/3/15 Sun Mason’s Roast Pork Dinner
5/10/15 Sun Fire Co. Pancake Breakfast & Basket Raffle
5/16/15 Sat Yoked Parish Tea
5/17/15 Sun Fish & Game Chicken BBQ
5/25/15 Mon Methodist Church Take-Out Chicken BBQ 1pm until sold out
5/25/15 Mon Hartford Memorial Day Parade 6pm
5/30/15 Sat HCS Prom

6/7/15 Sun Fish & Game Chicken BBQ
6/13/15 Sat HCS Alumni Banquet
6/21/15 Sun HCS Baccalaureate
6/26/15 Fri HCS Graduation

7/12/15 Sun Fish & Game Chicken BBQ

8/8/15 Sat Town wide Garage Sales
8/9/15 Sun Town wide Garage Sales
8/9/15 Sun Fish & Game Chicken BBQ

9/10/15 Thurs Yoked Parish Rummage Sale
9/11/15 Fri Yoked Parish Rummage Sale
9/12/15 Sat Yoked Parish Rummage Sale
9/20/15 Sun Fish & Game BBQ & Pie Sale
9/26/15 Sat Methodist Church Roast Pork Dinner

10/4/15 Sun Fire Co. Pancake Breakfast
10/10/15 Sat Mason’s Lobster Bake
10/24/15 Sat Yoked Parish Baked Chicken Dinner

11/1/15 Sun Mason’s Ham Dinner
11/3/15 Tues Yoked Parish Election Day Bake Sale @ Firehouse
11/7/15 Sat Methodist Church Turkey Dinner
11/25/15 Weds Community Thanksgiving Eve Service

12/6/15 Sun Yoked Parish Advent Service

I am not sure if you have noticed this yet, but residents of Hartford and other rural towns are getting their United States Postal Service (USPS) First Class mail slower now.

First Class mail is generally considered to be single piece mail with postage stamps like letters, etc.

This is not the fault of the local Post Offices, but rather due to a national policy change at the USPS.

In January 2015, the USPS changed their First Class Mail Service standards.

The USPS will start closing 80 processing plants that serve small cities and rural areas through out the nation.

The USPS estimates that this will affect 16% of the total First Class mail volume. They have already targeted small cities and rural areas as the locations to take the brunt of this. This means the law of averages will make our rural reduction in service much larger than 16%.

The USPS estimates that the entire national average for First Class mail delivery is 1.8 days and it will now increase to 2.1 days. If large cities are not targeted in this new delayed service, but yet their numbers are added into the average, this will translate to a rural First Class delivery service much more like 3 to 4 days, and even worse when you add in Sundays and Holidays.

If incoming First Class mail is slowed down to Hartford, it is only logical that outgoing will also be slowed. It might be wise to mail out your First Class letters a couple of days earlier than normal.

At a time when the USPS proudly promotes Sunday delivery and same day delivery of packages in major cities, I feel that it is accomplishing it by decreasing our rural service.

I would not mind this overall decrease in service so much if it were applied equally, considering that the First Class mail volume has decreased over 50% in the last 10 years due to email, but I am not convinced the USPS has applied more appropriate inefficiencies first.

If our rural farmers can feed the cities in a timely manner, it is only fair that we can also get our mail delivered just as well as they do.

If you agree with me, please contact your Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.

The USPS website with “their” info is usps.com/ourfuturenetwork

Our newly elected Congresswoman for the 21st Congressional District, Elise Stafanik, has a weekly digital newsletter that you can sign up for.

To get her weekly news, go to http://www.stefanik.house.gov/ and sign up.

Dana

It is vitally important to Hartford’s local tax levy that the Hartford Volunteer Fire Company survives as a volunteer organization for as long as possible.

It is not easy to be a volunteer firefighter today as NY State imposes a large training burden upon them that is very time consuming. This is on top of the time spent responding to emergencies.

These volunteers drop everything to rush to the scene of an emergency to safeguard our property and lives, even at 3 am when it is below zero outside and they are asked to leave a comfortable warm bed.

The Hartford Volunteer Fire Co is a very dedicated group. If you have ever had to call 911 for an emergency, you were probably amazed at how quickly your yard filled up with pickup trucks and volunteers piling out minutes before the ambulance or fire engine arrived.

Zero of our tax dollar go towards any wages for this. Some day in the future, we will run out of volunteers and the town will have to pay wages for professionals on top of the contractual obligations for equipment, etc. This will be a day that taxes will skyrocket.

We need to work together In order to forestall and delay this inevitable day, we need to support the fire company any way we can, whether it be in becoming a volunteer, donation, or eating pancakes. Dana

Hartford Volunteer Fire Co
2014 Hartford Fire Company Activity

194 Total Incidents
4069.8 Total Man Hours

65 Fire Related Incidents
1321 Fire Related Man hours
129 EMS/First Response Incidents
196.8 EMS/First Response Man Hours

1487 Work Detail Man Hours
1035 Training Man Hours

1 Vehicle Fire
1 Chimney Fire
1 EMS Assist
3 Fire Alarm Activation
4 Structure Fire
7 Good Intent Call
7 Hazardous Condition
15 Motor Vehicle Accident
26 Mutual Aid Provided