Did Claverack Make a Big Boo-Boo?

A fascinating post this week on IMBY.com by Claverack resident Brenda Shufelt includes the transcript of the August 28 Town Board workshop meeting. She even name check's Biggie. Gotta say, Biggie had the best flow, but Pac was a poet.

The transcript begins as Supervisor Kippy Weigelt attempts to answer "some emails [I received] while I was up in Alaska fishing". The subject was the decision to tear down the old heighway garage on Route 217, and apparently some number of citizens objected to that. At least one of those was Shufelt, who reprinted her letter to the Board a couple of weeks back on IMBY.

Although the monthly workshop meetings are by the rules not open to questions and comments from the public, Weigelt seemed willing to allow a little back and forth.

Then he quickly got himself into hot water.

Shufelt and another resident, Jeff Kiplinger, started asking questions similar to those raised in this blog and in the recent IMBY posts. There was asbestos in the part of the garage demolished in November 2022, as the Town determined in June 2022 (the report** commissioned from Crawford Engineering). Did they realize that? Did the town protect neighbors and town employees? Why was the roof removed?

Weigelt was only partially successful in explaining his reasoning. Yes, of course we knew about the asbestos. We had to remove the roof because if it fell down the whole site might be contaminated. We took every precaution. We removed it because the Crawford report said it should come down**.

Weigelt said that he is in discussion with the Columbia County Economic Development Corporation about a federal "brownfield grant". He seemed unclear on the process and did not clarify how this was related to his urgency with asbestos removal, but said that all the asbestos contamination is going to be removed.

Then he said that the remainder of the demolition - foundation, stone walls, piers - is on hold pending the brownfield grant. Reading the transcript, it seems that Weigelt thinks that this is what the writers of the emails would be appeased by this.

Then Kiplinger dropped a small bomb. Reprinted from Shufelt's transcript:

Jeff: Is DEC involved in…..

Kippy: Not at this point.

Jeff: …controlling the way asbestos is removed? Do they have to be involved?

Kippy: I think so. Yeah.

Brenda: Yeah, because the creek is there too.

Kippy: The company we called specializes in that so I don’t know if they have DEC come down and watch them as they do it. I think they do.

Jeff: Did they watch in November when they removed the asbestos contained in the north roof?

Kippy: I don’t know. At that time. I wasn’t there. I don’t know that so….I can’t answer that. Ok, I’m done. It’s over.

Enough of that darn public!

Here's the bottom line: The Crawford Engineering report found asbestos in the north roof of the garage. Kippy Weigelt ordered it removed. Town employees did the work - no outside company was called (Nov 2022 TB minutes). NY DEC was not involved, as is required. Weigelt acted according to his own agenda, and if town employees were not equipped and trained in asbestos remediation, he and Highway Superintendant LaMont may have endangered them as well as local residents.

As Shufelt points out, the town itself is chock full of energy and expertise - planners, architects, historians, preservationists - professionals willing to help. Yet decisions like this one are made by a few underpaid part time Board members in meetings where public comment is not allowed. The temporary town hall, remember, has room for perhaps 12 members of the public, and the town stopped broadcasting any meetings over Zoom at the end of last year.

In this instance, they might have blown it, big time.

Next Town Board meeting is September 14, 6 pm. Public comments are tolerated.

** The Crawford Engineering report can be downloaded here. Note, this is very large file. It clearly states 1) there was asbestos found in the north roof and 2) asbestos remediation can only be done by a licenses asbestos contractor. It does not recommend removal of the north roof, or make any recommendation that any asbestos contamination must be removed.