Job eliminated in Cold Spring three weeks ago
By Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong
Nelsonville Mayor Bill O’Neill on June 19 announced the selection of Bill Bujarski as the village’s building inspector and code enforcement officer.
He was hired about three weeks after his position as inspector for the Village of Cold Spring disappeared when Philipstown and Cold Spring merged their departments. He had held the position since December 2009.
The appointment seems to end — at least for the immediate future — the possibility of Nelsonville merging its department with Cold Spring and Philipstown.
Bujarski succeeds George Duncan, who retired. An architect, Bujarski also works part-time as a Cold Spring police officer. Because he lives in Putnam Valley, the board approved a resolution stating that a non-resident can hold the job.
Paying $5,570 annually, the post is part time. “We’re not exactly on the cusp of a building boom here,” the mayor observed.
Bujarski also will serve as Nelsonville’s fire inspector. He “will not start kicking down the door” but will take action if a property appears to harbor fire and safety hazards, O’Neill said.
O’Neill and Nelsonville’s board have assiduously defended the autonomy of the approximately 500-person village. In a letter to The Highlands Current in March, Philipstown Supervisor Richard Shea expressed incredulity at Nelsonville’s refusal to offer residents a “fully staffed, fully qualified and full-time building department at no additional cost” through a merger.
O’Neill responded with doubts that a merger comes at no cost. “Our citizens are smarter than that,” he wrote.
