By Nathan Mayberg
MONTICELLO — November 22, 2005 – After winning the position of Supervisor for the Town of Neversink unopposed this past November, Sullivan County Legislator and Republican Greg Goldstein will give up his county seat this January.
The likely candidate to replace him is former Sullivan County Coroner and Democrat Elwin “Woody” Wood, who lost the election to Goldstein two years ago.
As a result, the Democrats will take an even more commanding position in the Legislature, with a 6-3 voting bloc.
The Legislature will vote to make the replacement in January, providing nothing else changes.
According to Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Chris Cunningham, Wood has expressed his interest in the position, which will run through 2007.
“He will be an excellent legislator,” said Cunningham.
He said the Legislature will be discussing the replacement at a future meeting. He added that a majority of the legislators were confident in appointing Wood.
Spending Bills Passed
At the full meeting of the Legislature this past Thursday, a public hearing was authorized for December 1 at 11:45 a.m. on a new local law which will allow businesses and farmers to participate in the county’s installment program for paying taxes. Currently, only residential taxpayers can opt to pay their taxes in installments.
Several spending bills passed unanimously, including $448,000 for the construction of the Liberty Meat Processing Facility. The creation of the slaughterhouse has been spearheaded by Rick Bishop of the Sullivan County Planning Department.
The facility will be operated by a collection of local farmers under the title of the Sullivan County Agriculture Development Corporation. According to Bishop, the corporation has received a $175,000 grant for the facility and is taking out loans to cover the rest of the expense.
Other spending bills approved include:
• $1.265 million in bonding for the Sullivan County Landfill Cell 6 construction
• $10,000 increase on contract with Precision Health, Inc. for portable radiologic and cardiologic services at the Adult Care Center.
• $26,000 for a contract with McFarland-Johnson Incorporated for engineering inspection services on the replacement of County Bridge 230, due to a time overlap.
• $53,500 for a contract with TFC Flooring in Monticello to install carpeting at various county locations, including the Government Center offices hit by this summer’s fire.
• $21,600 for ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corporation of Elmsford to conduct elevator maintenance throughout the county.
• Over $3,000 for lawn mowing services at various county locations. The private vendors are Gene Bz Service of Monticello, David Cucci of Callicoon, Smith Lawn Maintenance of Youngsville, Sazoff & Sons Landscaping of Liberty and Tyler Associates, LLC of Swan Lake.
In other business, the Legislature recognized the child support enforcement team, special investigations and legal units of the Sullivan County Department of Family Services for their service to the county.
According to Cunningham and Health and Family Services Committee Chairman and Legislator Ron Hiatt, the committee collected, recovered and avoided expenses totalling $18,000,000 in 2005.