A town-owned home on the bank of the Hudson River in Bethlehem’s Henry Hudson Town Park has seen better days.
Now it will see the town’s landfill.
The Bethlehem Town Board voted unanimously to have the single-family ranch style home razed and carted off to the transfer station at its Wednesday, Aug. 12, meeting at Town Hall. Supervisor Jack Cunningham cited a cost of $150,000 to repair the 157 Lyons Road home at the park, which has been vacant since early June and is assessed by the town at $116,400, as the main reason for tearing it down.
That property is desperately in need of repair, Cunningham told The Spotlight before the meeting. `It would cost $150,000 to repair. The property floods frequently because of the river and there’s no payback on the investment.`
Cunningham added that with the town’s construction debris landfill slated to be capped, all of the deconstruction work, removal and disposal of the home could be done `in house.` The cost will not exceed $15,000, he said of its removal.
`We can move that building, in pieces of course, to our landfill before we cap it,` said Cunningham at the meeting.
During the meeting’s public comment period, Glenmont resident Robert Jasinski, a Town Hall regular, asked why the town was tearing down the house and questioned the high cost of its repair.
Cunningham said the town building department recommended it be destroyed and that without a need for its use, the home would be more of a problem than it’s worth.
`It would create a safety issue if there was a vacant home down there,` he told Jasinski. `It’s in really bad shape. We really don’t have any use for it.`
Jasinski also asked why the town could not put it up for auction, sell it or deed it over for someone else to salvage.
Councilman Mark Hennessey noted it was his belief that there would be a potentially lengthy and costly process to undedicate the parkland that the home sits on before it could be handed over as a private residence or land use.
It was a notion that town attorney James Potter agreed with.
Charles Wickham, the director of field operations for the Department of Public Works, used to live at the home in return for `caretaker duties.` In the past, the home was used by the town’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Bethlehem does not pay taxes on the Selkirk home at the park because it is tax-exempt from the school district, town and county. The home is described on the Bethlehem assessment Web site as an 840-square-foot, single-family ranch that was built in 1940.
The riverfront property it sits on is assessed at $75,700.
Cunningham described Wickham’s caretaker duties back in January as a sort of `park ranger` to oversee the riverfront park. Wickham used to look over the park, which has restrooms, a pavilion and a boat launch, after hours and on weekends.
The Henry Hudson Town Park home is one of two private dwellings currently owned by Bethlehem. The other home is occupied by Richard Sayward, the chief water treatment plant operator, who lives at 27 Patton Road in Voorheesville on the Vly Creek Reservoir.
Sayward’s caretaker duties include a type of night watchman function because he lives at the reservoir and helps to keep the 497.9-acre plot secured around the clock, according to Cunningham.
Sayward told The Spotlight during a tour of his home and the property earlier this year that most of the trespassers he finds are people trying to fish the reservoir `at all hours of the night and day.`
It is illegal to access the town’s drinking supply in the Town of New Scotland.
Sayward moved into the New Salem home after taking over his position from a longtime former employee who had previously lived at the residence and has made many improvements on the property, according to town records acquired by The Spotlight under the Freedom of Information Act.
During the meeting Councilman Sam Messina asked, `Whose job was it to take care of this place?`
Cunningham said it was the town’s responsibility but that the property had fallen by the wayside. He said the home was an example of why the town needed to implement a capital project plan to maintain its current infrastructure and properties.
`The entire project will be an in-house expenditure,` said Cunningham.
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