Greenport Board Meeting pushed back a week

This week's Greenport town board Meeting has been moved to next week, Wednesday, September 9, at 4 PM. The unusually early time slot of 4 PM was allegedly necessitated by a conflict of town attorney Rob Fitzsimmons, who has to attend a county meeting later that afternoon.

It does raise a few questions given how with this rescheduling, Supervisor Kathy Eldridge conveniently kills two birds with one stone: The 4 PM starting time likely minimizes attendance by residents whereas the town attorney's timely constraints can be used to adjourn the meeting early.

The meeting's agenda, as of now, appears equally minimal, listing little more than paying the bills.

This is quite concerning given that there are numerous things in need of discussion. September's town board meeting was when John Mausolf, James Rutkey and Town Engineer George Schmidt were to present an outline of a plan and a rough estimate of its cost to address Greenport's wastewater issues. Especially residents from Lorenz Park, hit hardest during the late-July rain event, will be disappointed to see that their issue is not on the agenda.

Another unsolved item is the vacancy left behind by Frank Iaccino's resignation from the town board two weeks ago. As the last board meeting showed, resolutions cannot be passed anymore when Clayton Clark and Jim Dolan stood on one side and Kathy Eldridge and Guy Apicella on the other. A fifth tie-breaking board member is needed.

I still expect that next week's council meeting will not go exactly how Kathy envisioned it. It may come to an odd situation where Kathy will ask for a motion to adjourn, Guy Apicella will dutifully make said motion and neither Clayton nor Jim will second it.

Clayton needs the few remaining meetings this year to make a stronger argument for his run for Supervisor. Jim meanwhile has been subjecting Eldridge to a barrage of pointed questions and attacks all year and seems unlikely to stop any time soon.

It would be quite poetic indeed if this Supervisor somehow maneuvered herself into a situation that no longer allowed her to end town board meetings and be locked in there with Jim Dolan for as long as he pleases.