September 18th board meeting (continued)
Kabat said that new programming had a significant boost with the bequeath of the Trolley Station to the NCL from former resident George Vollmuth. That building now serves as an annex to the main library and is permanent home to the North Chatham Historical Society. Programs at the Trolley Station include, for example, Baby and Toddler Storytime, “Quiet Car” for reading and working, Memoir Group, Modern Classics Book Club, Movie Nights, Live & Learn series for older adults, exercise classes for seniors, North Chatham Historical Society events, and community group meeting space.
The presentation highlighted the significant resources that the North Chatham Library offers to local residents. If you’ve never visited, take a drive to the facility, located in the hamlet of North Chatham at 4287 Route 203 or go to their website.
In other business:
Supervisor Collins announced that he has been investigating the possibility of a 24-hour community refrigerator for residents to supplement the local food pantries that address local food insecurity. The refrigerator would be paid for by a grant and located in the foyer of the Town Hall.
Collins said that several local providers would provide regular deliveries of food. These include the Columbia County Recovery Kitchen, Starron’s Farm, Dogwood Farm and the Chatham Berry Farm, with other providers to be identified in the future. The board approved a motion that will allow Supervisor Collins to further investigate how to make this proposal a reality.
Supervisor Collins also announced that the tentative Town Budget for 2025 has been prepared for consideration by the Board in coming weeks, beginning at a meeting on October 2, 2025. He said that department requests had been considered, but not all requests were included in the proposed budget in order to stay within the tax cap allowed by New York State, after consideration of available / anticipated funds.
Town Board member Werwaiss asked and Collins agreed that any department requests that had not been included in the tentative budget be identified to the board during upcoming presentations, along with an explanation of the reason that they had not been included.
The four board members in attendance voted to approve the following resolutions.
To authorize the purchase of a 2025 Ford F350 4x4 Crew Cab with a 9’ Boss V-Plow
To authorize the purchase of a plow package for a 2017 Ford F550 (owned by town)
To remove a 2015 International Terra Star 4x4 from highway department inventory
To approve the agreement by and between the Town and the Hudson Valley Hornets Youth Softball program to use Crellin Park baseball facilities.
To adopt the Columbia County Natural Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
To authorize the purchase of a highway easement from the Zaretsky Family Irrevocable Trust. This purchase will allow the highway department to partially relocate Spangler Road in order to address extensive erosion of the existing road, which is maintained by the Town of Chatham. The purchase price of $10,500 Is considered at or below the fair market value of the property by the Town Attorney and the Town Assessor.
In standard business:
to approve Town Board minutes from July 17, 2025
to accept the Town Accountant’s financial Supervisor’s Report
to accept the financial abstract as presented to pay town bills.
A recording of the September 18 meeting is here; the next Town Board meeting, which is in person at town hall and will include an initial discussion of the 2026 Town Budget, is scheduled for Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 6:30PM. The full agenda and online access is available on the Town Calendar on the day of that meeting.