Discussion Continues on Conesville's Couchman House

CONESVILLE — Talks continue in the Town of Conesville on making the historic, town-owned Couchman House the new Town Hall.

The matter was discussed again at the Tuesday, Aug. 11 Town Board meeting during the Couchman House Committee report. At the July meeting, Committee member Mary Rouleau distributed a proposal that would make the Couchman House the new Town Hall, the new home for Town Court and also provide archival space for the Conesville Historical Society.

In addition, according to the proposal, the current Town Hall (a short way down Route 990V from the Couchman House) will be made available to the Conesville Historical Society to be their building in exchange for the financial investment the CHS had made in improvements to the Couchman House.

At the Aug. 11 board meeting, Town Supervisor Bill Federice said an executive session would be held soon to negotiate a formal agreement, or contract, between the town and historical society aimed at making the goals in the proposal happen. Town Board members seem to be in general agreement that the proposal is a good idea.

Conesville Historical Society President and Town Historian Kim Young expressed quite a bit of frustration that the Couchman House proposal distributed by Rouleau had not gotten more discussion and feedback from Town Board members. Federice made comments indicating he believed the board was taking a sound approach to the matter.

In other actions from the Aug. 11 meeting, Conesville board members voted to approve a resolution authorizing Town Court to apply for a New York State Justice Court Assistance Program (JCAP) grant of up to $30,000 for the 2026-27 grant cycle. Federice said the grant money, if received, would be used toward more work on the part of the Couchman House that would serve as Town Court.

"I'm thrilled she [Town Justice Jamie Durkin] is applying," Federice said.

The Town Board also passed a resolution approving highway closures for the Historical Society's 5K Run on Nov. 28. The Historical Society does the event in partnership with the Conesville Fire Department. It's scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and end at noon.

According to the resolution, the run will commence at the intersection of State Route 990V and Robinson Road, continue to 990V and Bear Kill Road, and continuing on Bear Kill Road to the intersection with Wood Road and a return on same route to the Conesville Firehouse at 1292 Route 990V.

"For the safety of participants and volunteers, it will be necessary to close the stated roads and through traffic on Woods Road, Brand Road and Karlau Road from 10 a.m. to noon," the resolution states.

Federice laid out a timeline for the 2027 town budget, with department head's budget requests due by Sept. 10 and a hoped-for adoption of next year's budget on Nov. 4. He lamented the state's imposing of tax caps on towns, villages, counties and school districts while not placing a cap on itself.

"It's insane," Federice said. "It's not sustainable. How can you impose a tax cap on others and never as a state have a tax cap? We can't go on staying under the tax cap every year. It's impossible."

During his report, Highway Superintendent Ward Apgar said he and his crew spent July regrading roads and digging ditches. He added that he had to call in the crew for nine hours of overtime on a recent Saturday to deal with weather damage on South Mountain.