Disgruntled Former Employee Disrupts Schoharie County Board Meeting

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — Schoharie County Board of Supervisors meetings can sometimes get a little tense and feisty, but an event at the latest one rose to a higher level.

Disgruntled former county employee Benjamin Gatchell finally allowed himself to be escorted out of the meeting room at the Friday, Sept. 19 county BOS meeting after several minutes of refusing to leave despite pleas from BOS Chairman Bill Federice, County Attorney Mike West, Sheriff Ronald Stevens, and others.

The trouble started early in the meeting when Federice was just about to move on from the Privilege of the Floor segment. Gatchell raised his hand, approached the microphone and asked to speak and voice his grievances again. He said he was a former cleaner with the county.

"No," said Federice on the request to speak. "We've heard your story twice now. You're out of order."

When Gatchell persisted, Federice called a five-minute recess, at which point Stevens, West and others approached Gatchell and repeatedly urged him to leave peacefully. West added that he needed permission ahead of time to speak during Privilege of the Floor.

"No, I have a right to speak," Gatchell said. "That's crazy. That's wild. I have a 20-month lawsuit against the county."

Stevens gently laid a hand on Gatchell twice in a further effort to get him to leave, but each time the former employee brushed it off and said "Don't put your hands on me, Sheriff."

The scene went on for a little while longer before Gatchell was finally escorted out of the room by a Sheriff's Deputy without the need for an escalation in the physicality.

After the meeting resumed, Federice explained that the state Committee on Open Government does not mandate a Privilege of the Floor segment at all.

"I don't agree that it shouldn't be held, but it has to be an orderly process," he said.

In other actions from the Sept. 19 meeting, county Economic Development Coordinator John Crescimanno reported that construction on a $33.6 million project designed to give every county resident the ability to connect to the Internet is scheduled to start Oct. 6, with a pre-construction conference to be held just prior on Oct. 2. Crescimanno added that the county wants to hold some kind of kickoff event toward the end of October.

County Planning and Economic Development Services Director Shane Nickle updated the BOS on a Community Development Block Grant Micro Enterprise Grant the county is trying for. He said the state notified the county that a previously published notice of the grant application lacked some information and so had to be re-published.

Nickle said the county is applying for $240,000 to assist up to eight recipients. He said each must have five employees or less, less than $200,000 in liquid assets, be current on property taxes and meet other criteria.

"Quite a few businesses are interested in applying," Nickle said. He added that a previous Microenterprise grant received by the county in 2016 helped out 31 small businesses.