LEGISLATURE STUFF - Flowers, Frustrations and Financials

CATSKILL - Late spring flax is blossoming along local roads, along with the sometimes frustrating paving-season flaggers, as Greene County Legislature members provide funding for the latter.

The beautiful flowers spreading like soft purply carpet throughout the rural landscape come at no cost to we mules of taxation.

Fixing rough spots on driving surfaces carries a heavy price tag, however, prompting lawmakers to approve a resolution awarding the purchase of materials for the county highway department, during a recent meeting.

Making the necessary acquisitions is an annual task, advertising for bids in the county’s two official newspapers, The Mountain Eagle and the Albany Times Union, seeking the lowest expense.

Bids were opened on April 29, even as motorists were muttering expletives that must be deleted in print, coming upon yet another and another lane closure or detour as workers maintain roads, replace culverts, etc.

Everyone is all smiles once the job is finished but prior to anything getting done, the materials-and-supplies piper must be paid (buying the various goods from the following vendors):

—Geotextile Fabrics (Chemung Supply Corp. based in Elmira), Lane Galvanized Gabion Baskets (Chemung Supply Corp);

—Pavement Marking (Atlantic Pavement Marking Inc. based in Prospect, Connecticut), Standard Box Beam-type Guide Rails (Chemung Supply Corp.);

—Steel Sign Posts (Chemung Supply Corp and/or Eberl Iron Works, based in Buffalo), Traffic Control Signs - Engineer and High Intensity Grades, Aluminum Blanks, etc. (Vulcan Signs, based in Foley, Alabama);

—Transit Mix concrete - All Zones (Bonded Concrete Inc., Watervliet). Quantities for all goods are to be designated by the county highway department or other municipalities within the county, as required.

In other mattes related to the highway department:

—Lawmakers approved a resolution awarding Quick Quotes for paving contracts under New York State Contract.

The measure was passed with the knowledge the State Office of General Services has awarded a bid for bituminous concrete.

That bid includes a list of approved contractors who can be called upon to work within Greene County using quick quotes.

Those contractors are A. Colarusso, based in Hudson, and Callanan Industries, headquartered in Albany, both well known in the area.

The Mountain Zone (the towns Ashland, Hunter, Jewett, Lexington, Prattsville & Windham), will be covered by A. Colarusso.

Quick quotes in the Valley Zone (the towns of Athens, Cairo, Catskill durham, Greenville & New Baltimore) will be handled by Callanan Industries. 

—Lawmakers approved bids for the purchase of washed and screened crushed stone for use by the county highway department.

Six vendors have been authorized to deliver within the county, having further bid a stockyard per ton pickup price, the resolution states.

The six contractors are; A. Colarusso & Son (Hudson), Callanan Industries (Albany), Carver Sand & Gravel (Altamont) 

Cobleskill Stone Products (Cobleskill), HDJ Materials (Prattsville) and Peckham Materials Corp. (Catskill).

The county is separated into 14 zones for the purposes of distributing the various stones, based upon the lowest responsible bidder.

—Lawmakers, on the recommendation of county highway superintendent Scott Templeton, approved the purchase of two utility trailers.

Two suitable Cam trailers are available, at a cost of $11,011 each, from Trailers LLC, based in the valley town of Cairo.

And while they were at it, lawmakers also okayed the purchase of one compact utility trailer for the county Buildings & Grounds department.

The 2022 Model John Deere 3039R trailer is to be provided by United Ag & Turf, based in Chatham, at a cost of $36,884 and change.