Bill Mulcahy
2006-12-15 20:36:04 UTC
I never thought my own electric company would become part of the "War on
Christmas!!!"
I think it's outrageous that New Paltz's Main Street won't have any
"holiday" (I hate that word) decorations this Christmas. According to a news
story this week Central Hudson is responsible for this situation. Apparently
in late November they suddenly decided to require permits for all
municipalities who want to put holiday decorations on their poles.
Obviously they cleverly timed this bombshell until after the elections. If
that was not enough, they are also going to start charging for the use of
the extra electricity that the displays will cost. I wonder how our
electricity dollars are spend by Central Hudson? How much are their board of
directors paid?
Bill Mulcahy
From the 12/14/06 front page news story in the New Paltz Times weekly titled
"Bah, Humbug"
New Paltzians are going to have to have to illumine their own souls this
year if they need some holiday cheer. Or go stare at the multi-colored
lights on the Elting Memorial Library tree, the singing snowman in front of
the barbershop downtown, or the lighted polar bears perched on the planters
of P&G's. Yes, that's right: There will be no holiday decorations hanging
from New Paltz's telephone poles this year.
According to Bleu Terwilliger, the head of the Village of New Paltz
Department of Public Works (DPW), the village received a letter from Central
Hudson in mid-November alerting them to a new holiday decoration pole
policy. "They [Central Hudson] are now requiring permits for all
municipalities who want to put decorations on the poles," said Terwilliger,
whose DPW employees put up and take down the various seasonal decorations
throughout the year. "They also said that they will now be charging for the
use of electricity the decorations cost," something they haven't done in the
past.
Besides requiring permits and charging money, the electric giant is also now
requiring that the poles be up-to-code, based on its new guidelines.
According to Terwilliger, upgrading the poles along Main Street to meet
Central Hudson's new requirements would cost approximately $350 per pole.
"Right now they just have outlets that we plug into," explained Terwilliger.
"They want us to have breakers and photocells so that the decorations shut
off during the daytime hours."
For the past several years, the poles have been decorated with large,
white-lighted snowflakes. The decorations are handled by the New Paltz
Community Improvement Team, (CIT), a volunteer organization that is
partially funded by the town and village, as well as donations and in-kind
services by organization members.
Vici Danskin of the CIT said that the group hasn't had enough time to
respond to Central Hudson's new permitting process, "nor do we have the
funds at our disposal to pay for the electricity or the upgrades of the
poles," she said. "Since no one knew about this until late November, the
town and village did not plan for this in their budgets and we did not know
that we'd have to have our poles evaluated for upgrades and estimates made
as to the cost of upgrading them."
"Bah humbug is right!" said mayor Jason West. "We're talking about holiday
decorations here. We obviously don't have the money it would take to upgrade
these poles at the last minute. In fact, we don't even own them. We pay
Central Hudson $30,000 a year for the cost of using the streetlights. The
cost for them to allow us to light up our holiday decorations is pennies to
them while it places a large burden on a small village. It's not like we're
siphoning off electricity for a power plant. I don't think lighting up a few
snowflakes over the holidays will dim the Hudson Valley."
West said that this was "yet another argument for creating a public power
utility rather than giving our residents' hard-earned money to Central
Hudson."
Danskin said that the CIT will be revisiting the issue with both the village
and town boards so that they can better prepare for next year. Typically
municipalities do this sort of holiday decoration program on their own," she
said. "We are a volunteer organization, and there was just not enough
funding or time to respond to this new permitting program."
The flags will be coming down but will not be replaced until the spring,
followed by the hanging baskets. "The hanging baskets are also a costly item
to purchase and maintain throughout the summer," said Danskin. "But they are
beautiful."
Christmas!!!"
I think it's outrageous that New Paltz's Main Street won't have any
"holiday" (I hate that word) decorations this Christmas. According to a news
story this week Central Hudson is responsible for this situation. Apparently
in late November they suddenly decided to require permits for all
municipalities who want to put holiday decorations on their poles.
Obviously they cleverly timed this bombshell until after the elections. If
that was not enough, they are also going to start charging for the use of
the extra electricity that the displays will cost. I wonder how our
electricity dollars are spend by Central Hudson? How much are their board of
directors paid?
Bill Mulcahy
From the 12/14/06 front page news story in the New Paltz Times weekly titled
"Bah, Humbug"
New Paltzians are going to have to have to illumine their own souls this
year if they need some holiday cheer. Or go stare at the multi-colored
lights on the Elting Memorial Library tree, the singing snowman in front of
the barbershop downtown, or the lighted polar bears perched on the planters
of P&G's. Yes, that's right: There will be no holiday decorations hanging
from New Paltz's telephone poles this year.
According to Bleu Terwilliger, the head of the Village of New Paltz
Department of Public Works (DPW), the village received a letter from Central
Hudson in mid-November alerting them to a new holiday decoration pole
policy. "They [Central Hudson] are now requiring permits for all
municipalities who want to put decorations on the poles," said Terwilliger,
whose DPW employees put up and take down the various seasonal decorations
throughout the year. "They also said that they will now be charging for the
use of electricity the decorations cost," something they haven't done in the
past.
Besides requiring permits and charging money, the electric giant is also now
requiring that the poles be up-to-code, based on its new guidelines.
According to Terwilliger, upgrading the poles along Main Street to meet
Central Hudson's new requirements would cost approximately $350 per pole.
"Right now they just have outlets that we plug into," explained Terwilliger.
"They want us to have breakers and photocells so that the decorations shut
off during the daytime hours."
For the past several years, the poles have been decorated with large,
white-lighted snowflakes. The decorations are handled by the New Paltz
Community Improvement Team, (CIT), a volunteer organization that is
partially funded by the town and village, as well as donations and in-kind
services by organization members.
Vici Danskin of the CIT said that the group hasn't had enough time to
respond to Central Hudson's new permitting process, "nor do we have the
funds at our disposal to pay for the electricity or the upgrades of the
poles," she said. "Since no one knew about this until late November, the
town and village did not plan for this in their budgets and we did not know
that we'd have to have our poles evaluated for upgrades and estimates made
as to the cost of upgrading them."
"Bah humbug is right!" said mayor Jason West. "We're talking about holiday
decorations here. We obviously don't have the money it would take to upgrade
these poles at the last minute. In fact, we don't even own them. We pay
Central Hudson $30,000 a year for the cost of using the streetlights. The
cost for them to allow us to light up our holiday decorations is pennies to
them while it places a large burden on a small village. It's not like we're
siphoning off electricity for a power plant. I don't think lighting up a few
snowflakes over the holidays will dim the Hudson Valley."
West said that this was "yet another argument for creating a public power
utility rather than giving our residents' hard-earned money to Central
Hudson."
Danskin said that the CIT will be revisiting the issue with both the village
and town boards so that they can better prepare for next year. Typically
municipalities do this sort of holiday decoration program on their own," she
said. "We are a volunteer organization, and there was just not enough
funding or time to respond to this new permitting program."
The flags will be coming down but will not be replaced until the spring,
followed by the hanging baskets. "The hanging baskets are also a costly item
to purchase and maintain throughout the summer," said Danskin. "But they are
beautiful."