On Oct. 27, the Putnam County Legislature voted to adopt the 2017 budget. I am concerned about the costs to rehab the proposed senior center in Cold Spring. There is little mention of the center in the budget except for projected salaries and rent. The construction costs are unknown to the public and I suspect even to the legislators themselves. There are no clear floor plans and no elevations or schematics, which you need to estimate a project’s costs. What we will actually be paying for construction, finishes, equipment, appliances and amenities is not at all clear.
This game of misinformation is not how this county should do business. The legislators’ actions do not appear to reflect a commitment to our county. Instead, they give the very clear impression that their true loyalty might lie elsewhere.
I will not delude myself into believing that anything I or my fellow taxpayers say had any effect on their vote [on the budget], but I’ll remind them that they might have to answer some pretty tough questions the next time they run for re-election.
I will close with the second line of the Putnam County mission statement: “These services will be provided at the least cost to the taxpayers consistent with the efficient delivery of quality services and delivered with a ‘good-neighbor’ attitude.”
Lithgow Osborne, Garrison
