At its meeting on Jan. 16, the Ancram Town Board reappointed Joe Crocco as chair of the Planning Board and Steve Olyha as chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
At an organizational meeting two weeks earlier, Town Board member David Boice had proposed that Olyha replace Crocco as Planning Board chair and that John Ingram be appointed chair of the ZBA; after a brief discussion, the board tabled a vote on those appointments. After that meeting, at least 10 Ancram residents, including several members of the volunteer Planning Board, wrote to the Town Board expressing their concerns about Boice’s proposal.
The residents pointed out that the town’s zoning regulations stipulate that the chair must be appointed from the committee membership. (Olyha does not serve on the Planning Board; Ingram does not serve on the Zoning Board.) They added that the process was demeaning to Crocco and that he was owed an apology; that the Town Board was taking volunteers for granted; and that complaints about Crocco’s leadership, referenced by Boice on Jan. 2, were anonymous, nonspecific and not shared with the Planning Board for review. All letters were read into the minutes for the meeting.
Town Board member Bonnie Hundt and Colleen Lutz apologized to Crocco on Jan. 16, and Lutz added, in a letter: “The way we handled the reappointment of the Planning and Zoning board chairs at the organizational meeting was wrong. In retrospect, the discussion should have been held in executive session… There is a well-defined process for appointing the chairs of various boards listed in the zoning law, and we did not follow it. Volunteers are the backbone of our community!… My closest estimation is that there are not less than 90 volunteers [serving Ancram]. When I decided to run for Town Board, after serving at least 20 years on different committees, I made a personal vow not to forget the work and sacrifice all our volunteers make for our town. We cannot lose sight of this!”
In his own letter, Boice defended his recommendation to replace Crocco: “I would like to remind the other Town Board members that our responsibility should be… to hold people in important and appointed positions to a certain standard and accountable for their action. The discussion tonight involves a board chair [who] has not met the required training for several years… This discussion also involves the same chair who exhibited a complete lack of fiscal responsibility by overspending the [Planning Board] budget with no warning or report to the Town Board. And [Crocco] further lacked the ability and oversight to manage a number of escrow accounts, which have taken months to straighten out. If we do not hold this chair responsible, especially for the substantial overspend of taxpayer money, we set a standard where we hold no one accountable for fiscal responsibilities. We have received complaints about the operation and function of this board from the public as well. These issues taken individually are each items for concern, but taken together I believe we must act or we will present an environment where the public does not believe the Town Board is acting in the public interest.”
In heated remarks, Crocco defended his qualifications as an architect, stated that he was unaware of a responsibility to track the Planning Board budget until this fall and added that he had not, as a volunteer, received information on escrow charges. (These are handled by the Town Clerk and an accountant.) He also called for Boice to resign from the Town Board.
In the meeting’s financial report, the 2024 combined budget for the Planning and Zoning boards was listed as $7,500; total spending, most of it for legal or consulting advice, was $17,180. Town Supervisor Jim MacArthur called the issue to a vote, and Crocco and Olyha were reappointed as chairs to their respective boards. Hundt, Lutz and Amy Gold voted in favor; Boice and MacArthur abstained.
In other town business, MacArthur and Town Clerk Monica Cleveland reported that Columbia County recycling permits for the Ancram station on Route 82, which were formerly sold there, are now available at Town Hall. The cost is $75 for a regular permit and $50 for seniors. Of the $50 senior fee $5 comes to the town, and MacArthur recommended that next year it be declined so the price for seniors can be lowered to $45. Cleveland has also started collecting 2025 dog license fees and will soon be mailing a postcard to all Ancram residents reminding them of that requirement. She has started a “dog wall” at Town Hall, to which people can affix pictures of their “licensed friends.”
Ancram residents will also soon receive a written reminder that the Rapid Care facility in Copake reopened last June and that it serves patients of any age from 9 a.m to 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Gold said that the facility is tracking local usage to make sure it needs to remain open.
Hundt shared a report that the Ancram Housing Committee continues to work with Hudson River Housing, Galvan Housing Resource and now the new Columbia County Community Land Trust, Trillium, to try to address the housing shortage. The new tax to be levied by the county on short-term rentals may generate some income to be used on housing and may encourage some landlords to avoid the tax and make spaces available for much needed longer-term rentals.
Lutz read a report from Conservation Advisory Council chair Jane Meigs summarizing the group’s work in 2024, which included professional training and presentations to the public on changes to the New York state freshwater wetland regulations, invasive species and other matters. This year he CAC plans to do more robust training around land use issues for the Planning and Zoning boards. It will continue work on an Open Space Plan to guide town development and has applied to the state for a $10,000 grant to cover costs. Lutz and other Town Board members are continuing to research options for paid grant-writing assistance.