Jefferson Greets New Historian, Debates Historic District

JEFFERSON –  With Supervisor Peggy Hait absent, Deputy Supervisor Ken Cole conducted last Thursday's Jefferson Town Board meeting. Jefferson Town Board members met the new town historian, Bonnie Bailey, who thanked them for having faith in her by naming her the town historian. 

"I wish to express my gratitude to all of you for the faith you have placed in me, in choosing me to be your new town historian. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to continue the work so ably undertaken by prior town historians, especially Mildred Bailey, as well as, Walter Ruland, Ron Bergstrom and Ingrid Zeman. I worked with all of them except Mildred Bailey. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity."

She grew up in Jefferson and attended JCS through the eighth grade. They moved to Detroit after that and she graduated there, but is included as JCS alumnus each year. After graduating from the University of Michigan and Loyola, she practiced law, working at theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before retiring in 2012. Now she has returned to Jefferson. 

She has submitted an article for this year's Maple Festival Booklet, researched for the McKellogg family, researched the availability for historical markers and is sorting through the items in the town historian's office. She was asking permission, although she does not need board approval, to post portraits of unknown people on social media in an effort to get them identified.

She said she was nominating the West Jefferson Methodist Church as one of the places to place an historic marker.

Highway crews plowed 26 times, have been cutting some brush and are hauling sand. The salt storage is running low. There is also a leak in the roof over one of the bays at the highway garage. Highway Superintendent Ray Hendrickson said the town policy is to allow homeowners to get buckets of sand from the highway department, but it is not intended for private contractors to load their trucks. It is a convenience for homeowners. Those who are plowing and sanding as a business must find and purchase their own supplies.

Amendments have been made to the town's 2010 Wind Law, with a public hearing on the law continuing. Town board members are expected to review those amendments for possible action next month. The Schoharie County Planning Commission has approved the amendment, although some are opposed to it. Mark Los, planning board member, said they have taken the old law and made it better. A lot of research and work was provided by Susan Peter and Los said the town should recognize her for all her effort.

The town has an adopted law and the new draft "puts some bones on it and strengthens" the existing law, according to Los.That includes changes to the setbacks and it encourages using shorter towers. "The planning board has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it."

Gary Jarvis asked what they were going to do with the power, if it was going to the grid or going into storage. Los said storage facilities are a completely different category. 

Currently, he said, there is no application before the planning board for a wind farm. Los said the company with the wind measuring tower must remove it.

Hendrickson brought up the issue of an historic district in the town of Jefferson. The Jefferson Historical Society recently hosted an information meeting on Feb. 11 with a representative from the State Historic Parks Office SHPO to establish a historic district in the town of Jefferson, including what is considered the main portion of a hamlet. He said he was not able to attend the meeting, but from the information he has read online,  he is not in favor of it. He said that it would confine homeowners to follow guidelines for historic preservation if they wanted to repair their homes. He received push back from those who had attended the meeting, saying the restriction only applies to those people who may seek an exemption or grants.

Jon Leas said he had attended  the meeting and that was exactly his concern.

The town has three properties in the district: the Maple Museum, the post office building and the town green. The town's only involvement is that they received a letter notifying them of the information meeting that was held at Judd Hall earlier in the month. Los said the historical society has been seeking a historic district designation for a number of years.

As their final order of business, board members approved the purchase of three carbon monoxide detectors to be tied into the existing system at the Jefferson Town Clerk's office. The detectors are the result of the code enforcement officer's fire inspection of the building and the discovery the detectors were not present in the system.