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Resumé for Moore

ABOVE: This photo from the New York State Police Newsroom identifies Sgt. Ed Moore as second from the right.

This site has obtained a copy of the resumé of Sgt. L. Edward (Ed) Moore, whom three well-placed sources now are predicting will soon be named the new Hudson Police Chief. A copy of the resumé can be read as a PDF by clicking here. An excerpt follows below:

I am a thirty two (32) year veteran of the New York State Police.  I have the unique qualification of having been involved in all facets of police management, criminal investigations, and road patrol. As the highest ranking and longest serving non-commissioned officer in the four county region of the Mid-Hudson River Valley of New York State, I have had numerous commendations for public service, personal integrity, administration, and investigative work in organized crime, drug trafficking, bribery, and corruption.

The New York State police have honored me with the rank of First Sergeant of Troop K. Only nine other State Police Members hold this prestigious position – “the Sergeant’s Sergeant.”  As such, I am in charge of the Headquarters facility in Millbrook, responsible for the supervision of 20 civilian staff, developing special details and plans for Troop K’s activities.   I oversee the maintenance of the Troop’s 300 plus vehicles, and the purchases of all supplies and equipment. I have oversight of scheduling, deployment of manpower, safety, overtime expenditures, and discipline. I am in charge of ceremonial details,  and I am particularly proud of assuring the Troop’s adherence to military regulations, proper display of the flag, and the traditions of the New York State Police.

Moore’s resumé cites, among other things: his voluntary service in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; his management of infrastructure and building projects for the Troop K barracks in Livingston, an investigation into illegal dumping which led to the arrest of a mob hit man (including his cross-examination by F. Lee Bailey), and his apprehension of a suspect in a murder which occurred in the Columbia Memorial Hospital parking lot,

New sheriff in town?

Two well-placed sources separately predict that the new Hudson police chief will be Sgt. Ed Moore of the New York State Police.

Moore is the brother of Livingston Town Justice Robert Q. Moore; both brothers grew up with Columbia County district attorney Paul Czajka.

Today is the last day on the job for retiring chief Ellis Richardson.

County airport numbers: Pie-in-the-sky?

Chart from Columbia County master plan for the airport in Ghent

With news of a proposed six-figure purchase of additional land for the Columbia County airport, the question arises: How much actual use does the airport get?

Flight data from the FAA suggests at least one answer: Not nearly so much as officials would have us believe.

Take a look at the numbers. A decade ago, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors commissioned a long-range plan for the County airport in Ghent, in part to satisfy FAA safety and other concerns.

That 2003 report included the above chart, indicating that the airport handled some 37,000 flights per year. By 2020, the airport was anticipated to be handling 52,000 flights per year, or 1,000 per week.

Meanwhile, the 2009 Town of Ghent Comprehensive Plan stated as a fact that “at present, the volume is about 50,000.” The Town also projected that the airport could handle volume as high as a whopping 230,000 transits.

So how much use does the airport really get? Other evidence suggests it is nothing even close to 50,000 flights.

Data obtained via the aviation site FlightAware shows that in the full year between December 2011 and December 2012, only 1,586 takeoffs and landings were recorded. FlightAware says it gets these numbers directly from the FAA itself.

Not 50,000. Not even 37,000. Less than 1,600.

A more detailed breakdown follows below.

IMAGE: Bing.com

“My impression is that activity at the airport has gone down significantly since the 2008 recession,” said one experienced pilot who has used the County runways for many years.

Now, not every flight into and out of a County airport gets reported to the FAA. The numbers above do not appear to include many flight school trips, which can involve a lot of repeated takeoffs and landings. Under Visual Flight Rules (“VFRs”), during good weather and high visibility some other flights are not necessarily required to file a flight plan, either.

Yet even if you triple the FlightAware numbers—adding 1,600 training flights and 1,600 VFR flights—you still wind up with total yearly activity of less than 5,000 trips in and out. That’s only about 10% of what is stated in the Ghent Comp Plan  and the County’s projected master plan numbers.

In other words, 90% less that the official line.

Indeed, both basic math and interviews with neighbors suggest that there is nothing like 50,000 flights per year out of the County airport. As the comparison chart below shows, 50,000 compute to just under 140 per day... And given that Richmor Aviation made a handshake deal with neighbors about 25 years ago to limit flights to the hours between 7 am–11 pm, that would mean roughly 9 takeoffs or landings per hour, or one every 6-7 minutes.

Anyone who has driven along that section of 9H, or lived in that area, or visited friends there, knows that planes are a rarity, not something which occurs every 6 minutes. Just sit in a car in the Kozel’s parking lot, and you can verify that doesn’t happen. Or, surf over to FlightAware’s live dashboard, and see for yourself how few arrivals and departures are scheduled on a moment-to-moment basis.

Moreover, small airport use tends to be heavier in warmer months, so the average in summertime would likely be more like every 3-4 minutes, if the County and Ghent numbers were in fact real.

Using the same basic math, the projected maximum capacity of 230,000 flights cited in Ghent’s Comp Plan seems as ridiculous as it would be dangerous: 230,000 transits per year would mean almost 20,000 per month, 4,500 per week, over 600 per day, and 25 per hour around the clock including the wee hours of the night. Limiting activity to the 16-hour community noise abatement deal, there would be a plane zipping in or out every 90 seconds or so.

If such official numbers were at all accurate, living near the County airport could begin to resemble life near LaGuardia.

The question of how much the airport is really used becomes all the more relevant now that the County has voted to a approve a $629,000 offer to the owners of Meadowgreens to expand the airport and bring it more into FAA compliance. (Few were there to witness the vote, in part because the local paper of record, The Register-Star, published the wrong date for the meeting.)

Given how out-of-sync the County’s planning numbers appear to be with reality, this could pose a problem with FAA funders. When the County submits this $629,000 expansion plan to the Feds for approval, it will be interesting to see what numbers it claims.

I am so there

Sign advertising a free clinic to be held at Lowe’s in Greenport on February 23rd. UPDATE: A knowledgeable reader in Albany County reports that Lowe’s sponsors a monster truck called the Grave Digger. So those of us who were hoping to learn how to recreate the Yorick scene from Hamlet are out of luck.

The Cross Dossier, Exhibit D: The mystery of the gray sweatshirt

Another question arising from Quintin Cross’s document file, regarding the unsolved break-in at City Hall: What happened to the gray sweatshirt?

Generic gray hoodie

Surveillance video from the night of the burglary revealed two men trying to remove some luan plywood that was blocking a City Hall doorway.

The first, identified initially by both Officer Nicolas Pierro and Detective John Funk as Cross, was noted in the video as wearing “a light colored hooded sweatshirt.” The second man, whom police identified initially as McClendon, was said to be wearing a “do rag” and “a light colored sweat shirt.” Charges against both men were dropped after a second grand jury refused to indict them.

A report filed by Detective David Miller in the late afternon of the 19th, several hours after Cross had left the station, stated that he and Detective Finn had

checked the alley behind Quinton’s [sic] house. In the Alley and stuffed partially in Quinton’s back yard fence was a grey sweatshirt. Pictures of the sweat shit [sic] were taken and the sweatshirt was secured.

The back yard fence in question is located less than a half-block from the back entrance to City Hall, by which the burglars entered the building.

Asked by this site about the sweatshirt, Cross replied:

That's a great question I wondered about the so-called sweatshirt myself they see a certain sweatshirt on the video and miraculously they find one of a similar nature in my back yard well you are going to have to ask Scali

One other brief mention of a sweatshirt—described as Yankees apparel—is made in an early list of materials missing and collected, with an estimated value of $1. However, it is not indicated if this was the same sweatshirt found in the fence. 

A report filed two days later by Officer Daniel Scali stated that on the Sunday night just before the burglary, at about 11:15 pm, the officer

observed McClendon and Cross walking Northbound on 6th Street towards State Street... McClendon was wearing a red due [sic] rag on his head and a multicolored shirt, Cross was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt. As I drove past, McClendon turned his face away from patrol...

After that, mentions of sweatshirts then disappear from the record. No further references to a gray sweatshirt have been found in the documents to which this site was provided access —which include extensive legal briefs, evidence reports, checklists, and other “discovery” materials obtained by the defense, along with internal defense documents. Nor is there any indication in the dossier that the sweatshirt was the subject of any forensic analysis.

 

Detail from City Hall surveillance video, showing one man in a “do rag,” another in a gray hooded sweatshirt

Questions about clothing were, however, an obvious subject of interest to the police in the immediate aftermath of the burglary. In addition to the search of the alley which turned up the gray sweatshirt, Cross was asked by Funk on the afternoon of March 19th what he had been wearing the night before.

 

Cross replied that he was still wearing the same clothes as the previous night. He’s seen on video that afternoon visiting the police station carrying a black-and-white striped sweatshirt (perhaps an ironic fashion statement on prison garb), as opposed to a gray one.

It thus seems all the more unusual, to the lay observer at least, that neither the police, nor the prosecution, nor indeed the defense showed any interest in the gray sweatshirt found stuffed in a fence behind a suspect’s house. It does not appear to have been the subject of further investigation, and did not become a subject of the legal wrangle over the police and D.A.’s office’s failure to turn over evidence, which focused primarily on videotaped interviews as well as finger- and footprint analysis.

Possibly the presence of a gray sweatshirt discarded behind a suspect’s home was deemed too inconclusive to be of any use to either side. Any competent defense attorney would point out that gray sweatshirts are a dime a dozen just about anywhere you go. Yet such evidence could have contributed both to the prosecution’s circumstantial evidence, as well as to the defense’s high dudgeon about being denied access to it. Neither showed any further interest in it, or the photographs said to have been taken of it.

The impression left is that either everyone forgot about it, or else no one wanted to deal with it.

With Hudson mayor Bill Hallenbeck and District Attorney Paul Czajka recently speaking to the issue of evidence-handling in regard to another failed case in addition to this one, the mystery of the gray sweatshirt seems an all the more timely one to solve.

BREAKING: Hudson Aldermen reveal new ‘super powers’

• Council members gain ability to see 50 years into future
• Discovery of Ricktonite expected to revolutionize local politics

HUDSON, N.Y. — In a bombshell revelation, the City of Hudson Common Council announced on Wednesday that its members have attained full-fledged super powers. 

“All but two of our Aldermen recently gained the ability to see far into the future,” said Council President Donald Moore at a press conference held at the offices of A. Colarusso & Sons, Inc., just across the line in Greenport.

“This newly-acquired super-vision allows the Council to see as much as fifty years ahead with absolute, perfect accuracy,” Moore added.

The hastily-convened press conference came on the heels of the Council’s 10-to-1 vote to prevent future elected officials from changing Hudson’s Waterfront zoning in any way, or using eminent domain at that location, for the next fifty years.

“Fifty years ago, many thing were different than today,” 5th Ward Alderman and Taghkanic resident Carmine Pierro reminisced, pushing Moore from the podium and speaking from typewritten notes.

“Cable television, email, and the world wide web did not exist. There was no such thing as Medicare or Medicaid. Roe vs. Wade had not yet protected a woman’s right to choose. There were still segregated restaurants and funeral homes. American car companies dominated the global auto market. And the cement industry, God bless it, dominated our local economy.

“But we now understand that things aren’t going to continue changing,” Pierro added. “Hudson history has come to a standstill. With our new ability to see fifty years ahead, we are 100% certain that the City will be just the same in 2063 as it is today in 2013.

“Therefore, we predict that Hudson’s waterfront needs and vision will not change whatsoever over the next five decades. Even though a few malcontents say that LWRPs are supposed to be living, breathing, adaptable documents, we can say with absolute confidence that the current plan won’t need any changes for well beyond our lifetimes.

“We also are confident that no future Aldermen will ever think differently than we do,” concluded Pierro.

The Council’s new super powers of foresight were acquired, 3rd Ward Alderman John Friedman Esq. explained, thanks to the discovery by Paul Colarusso of a powerful metallic substance in the City’s former backup water supply off Newman Road, at the bottom of a soon-to-be-revived quarry.

“I’m a lawyer, not a scientist. But from what I understand it’s sort of like Kryptonite,” explained the ponytailed Friedman, whose crisp seersucker suit featured an American Flag lapel pin. “Exposure to this special magnetic metal, which may have arrived on a meteorite that splashed into the quarry eons ago, conveys astonishing powers of soothsaying.”

“We're thinking of naming it Ricktonite!,” Moore burst in, breathlessly adding that “City Attorney Cheryl Roberts also has super powers, but she got them from being bitten by a radioactive spider while campaigning for Assembly in Spencertown.”

“If only the Council had these powers back in the days of Urban Renewal,” lamented 1st Ward Alderman Nicholas Haddad. “We might never have built Bliss Towers, the Terrace Apartments, the low-rise, or bulldozed so many historic buildings. Imagine what Bill Loewenstein could have achieved if he’d only had a dose of Ricktonite!” Later attempts by reporters to determine whether Haddad was being facetious were unsuccessful, as he had stepped out for a smoke.

The Council took on its new super powers during a top-secret midnight visit to the former backup reservoir. During the hush-hush gathering, which was not publicly-noticed, members cannonballed off a craggy quarry cliff known to teenaged trespassers for generations as “Frankenstein.” Reaching the bottom of the frigid waters, each Alderman grabbed for a handful of Ricktonite—and was instantly enlightened as to the City’s future for the next half-century.

“It was freezing, but it was worth it,” said a still-shivering 4th Ward Alderman Sheila Ramsey. “Luckily, we had emergency heaters and blankets on hand, generously provided at only a nominal charge by the Galvan Initiatives Foundation.”

Two Council members declined, however, to take a dive for the City.

1st Ward Alderman David Marston abstained from the recent Council vote, after obstinately refusing to be exposed to the mystery magnetic metal. Pressed for an explanation, Marston glumly said the substance’s long-term health effects “required more study,” a statement which elicited a chorus of groans from his fellow Aldermen. “I’ve noticed that ever since they got their doses of Ricktonite, my fellow Council members seem even more lethargic and complacent,” Marston retorted.

But to the surprise of many, 5th Ward Alderman Robert “Doc” Donahue also declined to take the polar bear-style plunge, though voting in favor of the fifty-year moratorium on Waterfront changes.

“I’ve always had the power to see into Hudson’s future, thank you very much,” barked Donahue, saying that to learn what will happen next in Hudson politics all he has to do is “just ask Rick himself.”

4th Ward Alderman Sheila Ramsey disagreed very mildly with Donahue’s assessment: “The next time some pesky citizen comes in here, demanding to know whether we think we have a crystal ball to see into the future, we’ll be able to say, Why, yes. Yes, we do.”

In response to questions about whether the City might benefit economically from the discovery of Ricktonite, Moore indicated that Roberts had instructed him that all rights to the super-mineral were held by Colarusso, even though the company is still technically leasing the former quarry from the City.

“If we wanted to try to ‘claw back’ the rights to the discovery, we’d have to repay the company for the lease they’ve held for several years now,” explained Moore. “I’m not sure the power to see into the future is worth a million dollars. We probably couldn’t afford it. But I may ask Cheryl if she’d be willing to advise us further on that during a future executive session. Actually, all that was off the record—I’d prefer you didn’t print it.”

“Now, if only we could also see into the past,” concluded 3rd Ward Alderman and Police Committee member Chris Wagoner, “Then maybe we could solve the City Hall burglary.”

Video of firefighters sets off flame war

In response to CBS6’s story about Hudson firefighters being dragged behind cars during last weekend’s blizzard, the City’s fire chief has responded to the station—still known to those of us who grew up with it as WRGB. The station says:

On Monday morning, CBS6 sent a link of the video to the Mayor of Hudson. He didn't offer a comment, but the Fire Chief did release a statement. He told CBS 6: that's a sight that will never be seen again on warren street and that they are dealing with it internally.

That hasn’t seemed to tamp down the online flame wars between those who think videographer Lance Wheeler should have suppressed the footage, and those who point out that the “sledding” was dangerous, illegal and a bad example.

CBS6’s original post on Facebook (scroll down from this link to the item) now has a whopping 667 comments, and has been shared 197 times. Many comments defending the sledders are punctuated by ALL CAPS SHOUTING and multiple exclamation points, such as:

• give me a break !!!! they are just having some fun!!!
• seriously.... this is news???? LET THEM HAVE FUN!! THEY RISK THEIR LIVES RUNNING INTO BURNING BUILDINGS WHILE EVERYONE ELSE IS RUNNING OUT!
• Why was this even filmed??
  

Meanwhile, on the other hand:

• They are breaking the law hands down.. everyday citizens would be ticketed for doing the same thing...what's the difference?
• They should absolutely be punished. They are wearing their bunker gear, representing their department, and are out dicking around. They're doing things that people get hurt or killed doing, and wearing $5,000 worth of equipment.
• I think that they should get punished for this. The turnout gear he is wearing costs around $1500-2000 and is not designed to dragged down the road. He could easily have ruined this equipment, or even worse got seriously hurt. If this happened in my fire department I hope the guy would get punished. Now if he wasn't wearing his turnout gear I would just say that he is pretty stupid for doing this.
• I guess the question is - what reaction would someone who is not a volunteer get doing this? Just because this person is a volunteer firefighter (as I am) - it does not make these stupid acts "ok". Think about how much that turnout gear costs that they are using while performing these dumb acts. Should the chief or administration 'punish' them ? Maybe - maybe not.... BUT they should definitely be ashamed of it.
  

Jerry, a commenter on a different Facebook thread, who comes from a true “old Hudson” family, simply posted the code demonstrating that clinging to vehicles is indeed illegal. This touched off a vicious argument, leading to what he felt were thinly-veiled suggestions that maybe certain homes shouldn’t be protected from fire. He writes of the exchange:

When “opinion” turns to the threat of retaliation on my family in Hudson, it becomes a personal attack. My statements are fact based and not biased because of a personal relationship with the Firemen or Fire Company. I listed the VAT law violated to educate those that may not have realized a law was broken.

The commenter provided the following screenshots from Facebook for publication, from which last names have been redacted. This exchange includes a Hudson fire chief, a former mayor (who agrees with Jerry), and what appears to be one young firefighter who says to Jerry that the next time there is a fire in his house, he should put it out himself:

 

It’s all fun and games until somebody’s head gets crushed

Videographer Lance Wheeler is getting heat from some quarters for releasing a video of Hudson firefighters “sledding”—being dragged by a rope—behind vehicles on Warren Street during the recent blizzard.

Some comments on Facebook and on CBS6’s website blast Wheeler for posting the video, as if it were intended to make the firefighters look bad. “Butt out and mind yer own,” writes one Canojoharie commenter. “What the hell was Lance thinking by submitting this?” writes another. Others say that the firefighters’ well-appreciated sacrifices on our behalf entitles them to a little fun.

Such attack on Wheeler makes little sense for at least four reasons:

• Wheeler’s track record of covering emergencies locally has earned him a solid reputation among first responders, making it obvious he meant them no disrespect;
• If there is nothing wrong with sledding behind a vehicle, then there should not be anything wrong about publishing it;
• The first portion of the video makes it obvious that Wheeler did not run out to play “gotcha” with the firefighters, but rather stumbled upon the scene while shooting routine footage (what people in the biz call B-roll) of the storm, and found it funny; 
• And, since the footage was at minimum entertaining and potentially newsworthy, it’s not a reporter’s job to suppress news just because some might not like it.

The real reason for the hostile and defensive reactions is, in all likelihood, a simple one: because it is plainly illegal. Section §1233 of the New York State Vehicle And Traffic (VAT) laws reads as follows:

Clinging to vehicles

1. No person riding upon any bicycle,coaster, in-line skates, roller skates, skate board, sled, or toy vehicle shall attach the same or himself or herself to any vehicle being operated upon a roadway.
2. No person shall ride on or attach himself to the outside of any vehicle being operated upon a roadway.
   
   The provisions of this section shall not apply to: (i) vehicles in an emergency operation as defined in section one hundred fourteen-b of this chapter; and (ii) farm type tractors used exclusively for agricultural purposes or other farm equipment; and (iii) riding on the open, uncovered cargo area of a truck with the permission of the operator of such truck; and (iv) vehicles employed by a municipality for local garbage collection; and (v) vehicles participating in a parade pursuant to a municipal permit.
3. No vehicle operator shall knowingly permit any person to attach any device or himself to such operator's vehicle in violation of subdivision one or subdivision two of this section.

So why is clinging to vehicles illegal? Because even when it’s all in good fun, it can be really dangerous. As another commenter at CBS6 writes,

We had a kid years ago that thought it was fun to be pulled behind a truck on a tire on a state highway. He died that same night because the tire swung out around the truck into the path a an oncoming car. That oncoming vehicle belonged to a dear friend that had no chance of avoiding the teenager. An image that is never forgotten in a life time. This too was a snow storm. It may seem like fun, but fun can easily turn into tragedy. 

R.I.P. Richard Artschwager

Richard Artschwager, the internationally-reknowned artist who lived for many years in Columbia County, has died at 89.

Richard used to rent a place next to the church on Union Street, and also in my barn behind Curtiss House, mainly for spraypainting some of his deeply, appealingly weird wire figures.

As the link above notes, Artschwager works could not be fit into any neat category; his art was truly sui generis. I remember being both baffled and charmed when I first saw his drawings and sculpture in person (as opposed to reproductions) in Soho at Mary Boone in the early ’90s. The bafflement was part of the charm. He truly made art only for its own sake, following his own peculiar path.

I saw his wife Ann just a few days ago in T.J. Maxx of all places. She mentioned that Richard’s retrospective at the Whitney was just closing, and moving on to L.A. It’s at least wonderful that the retro happened in his lifetime. 

His immense talent aside, he was a witty but gentle guy, and will be much missed. The Times’ obituary is here.

The Cross Dossier, Exhibit C

The search for (and failed case against) Quintin Cross and Jamont McClendon engaged the local political class to a remarkable degree. Due to the City’s tangled web of rivalries and allegiances, Cross’s career in electoral politics, as well as the inherently political nature of a City Hall burglary, records show that both the defense and the prosecution received help from various political players.

For example, on the day the burglary was discovered, the email pictured above was sent by former Hudson Democratic chair and four-time Mayoral candidate Linda Mussmann to lawyer Susan Tipograph. The New York City-based attorney, a longtime associate of Time & Space Limited, was already representing Cross regarding legal attempts to compel him to pay restitution for his illegal charges on a City credit card. The email alerts Tipograph that, in Mussmann’s words, “Quintin has screwed up big time.” The next day, Mussmann forwarded a Register-Star article to Tipograph regarding the warrants out for Cross and McClendon’s arrest. A printout of this email exchange was provided by Cross in the box of documents made available for this site’ inspection.

Another local player assisting Cross’s team was former School Board candidate and education blogger Lynn Sloneker, who now serves as news director of radio station WGXC. The documents provided by Cross show that Sloneker responded to his request for media research, providing excerpts of articles covering the current and previous case.

The trove of documents also reveals a hand-drafted (but unsigned) agreement between Cross and Taghkanic residents Dan and Mary Udell, in which they agree to post his bond in exchange for weekly meetings with Cross and regular updates from him about the case. The Udells were honored several years ago by the Columbia County Democrats for their videotaping of Hudson City Council and other local meetings.

On the other side of the case, Cross’s records also show that former Mayor Dick Tracy contacted the Hudson Police Department during his six-week disappearance. Tracy passed along a report that a resident of the Crosswinds housing complex was receiving packages on the former alderman’s behalf. When the HPD investigated, the person in question denied both doing so and knowing anything about Cross’s whereabouts. Tracy also passed along a tip that someone familiar with Cross believed he “was somewhere in Texas.”

A Register-Star employee contacted the HPD on March 21st to say that she thought she saw Cross and McClendon at the Cheesecake Factory in Colonie Center. Investigation by the Colonie police did not turn up any evidence they had been there.

Meanwhile, Cross has responded to widespread talk that recently-resigned HPD chief Ellis Richardson somehow influenced the handling of the case. (During his interview with Detective Funk, the policeman leaves for about 20 minutes after saying, “Let’s see what my boss wants.”) Cross wrote in an email last week that:

I am close with the Chief and I know for a fact he wasn't around that day actually he was in Albany and I know that I was indicted by the time he got back.

In a transcript posted yesterday of his own interview, McClendon asks to speak with the Chief, but Detective Funk says that he is there on the Chief’s behalf and that he should talk to him as such.

Saturday Art: Wadsworth Athenaeum

Some 22 years ago, my first paid writing gig was for a British magazine, reviewing a Ralph Earl show at The Wadsworth Athenaeum, which was then celebrating its 100th Anniversary. A short business trip to the Hartford area brought me back to the Wadsworth for the first time since then. And I found its eclectic collections just as impressive as two decades ago.

Now, many regional museums have eclectic collections. It’s a function of availability and necessity—they take whatever they can get, by any reasonably-recognizable artis. But the Wadsworth is both eclectic and selective, with deep, well-chosen areas of expertise from early American furniture and painting to Minimalism (Sol Lewitt in particular).

There isn’t much else to see in Hartford, but if you’re ever in the area it’s absolutely worth a visit... Below is a gallery of some additional cameraphone shots of rooms and pieces there.

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Greenport opposes Premier PILOT

It hasn’t been reported in the local press yet, but on Wednesday the Greenport Town Board unanimously passed a resolution expressing its opposition to the payment-in-lieu-of-tax plan for Premier Brands.

The PILOT proposal under consideration by the Columbia County Industrial Development Agency would allow Premier to avoid paying its full share of taxes over the next 10 years. The Westchester-based company intends to site a warehousing operation in the now empty Wal-Mart space on Fairview Avenue, in the Price Chopper plaza.

Notably, the attorney representing Premier is Bill Better, the former Columbia County attorney who stepped down after three female County employees filed sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits against him in 1997. One of those suits alleged that that “Better forced her to contribute to the local GOP, and was sexually harassed and stalked by him,” and was settled for $120,000. Another similar suit was reportedly settled for $210,000. Better denied the charges, with his attorney characterizing the suits in the Times-Union as “a stick-up.”

Better is also currently representing PCB processors TCI of NY before the Ghent Planning Board, and was retained last year by the Stuyvesant Town Board at a $250-per-hour rate to address lawsuits related to Will Pflaum’s dog boarding business.