When this issue was brought up the last time I voted against it - obviously the PBA took great exception to us voting against it - I did not vote against it because I have any less concern about public safety - I think that is one of the primary responsibilities of this office and this board - I voted against because I said there were outstanding issues that hadn't been resolved and those issues are with the K-9 Department.

In April of 2002 the Town Board approved the use of Town Property located at the Frank Well Site for K-9 training - according to that agreement and I quote “the use of this property would require, no alteration to the current layout of the property, no structure or change to the land will be done or required”.

Sometime in 2005 without Board approval a 38 X 28 building worth approximately $40 to 50,000 was erected on the site - On March 27, 2006, Members of the Board met with Chief Wilkinson, Officers Burger and Chorba who are the K-9 Officers to discuss this building. The building in question was built without any documented plans, permits or inspections. At the meeting in March the Town asked for documentation of the source of materials used in the building. We were told that documentation exists and that when the building was proposed individuals and organizations came forward to donate. We offered to waive all permit fees as we wanted work to with the K-9 Unit to get this building approved so they could move forward with this project. Officer Burger at that point agreed - he was the instructor there for the K-9s - agreed to be point man on this project and thought this would all be resolved by May of 2006. He came in later that week. I met with him and with Tim Sickles our building inspector to itemize the documentation that would be needed - list the various inspections and certifications to be needed for the building to get a certificate of occupancy. He assured me he would get this information as quickly as possible so it could move forward. At that point in time Chief Wilkinson issued an order that no further work was to be done at this site.

Officer Burger - who has since retired - never returned with any of the requested information. In January 10 of 2007, I requested a meeting with the PBA officers to discuss the status of the building. The meeting was held on February 7 th - once again we met with officers of the PBA, K-9 and Police Administration. The PBA denied any involvement with the site and stated that K-9 funds are totally separate from PBA's and one has nothing to do with the other. The claim is that no one kept any records of material or labor that was donated and that since the K-9 instructor for the Town had retired - it was now an issue that the Sheriff's Department had to handle. On February 8 th , we met with the PBA, K-9s, Police Administration, and Lieutenant Hicks from the Sheriff's Department - who is their K-9 Officer. No information was forthcoming about the building, the septic system, the electric or any of the contributors. The solution that was offered was that they would just move the building to County property. The biggest concern seems to be the possibility that the Town would use this property for recreation. When asked if they would be willing to share this property with others - some recreational use - the answer was no - they simply want to move the building to County property - but when asked where they were going to move it - Lieutenant Hicks said he wasn't privy to that information. He said that he would take the lead - talk to the person who did the building plans and get back to me. That was February 8th . I haven't heard from him.

If this were a resident of the Town and you put up a building or you built a deck and you didn't have the permits, the Town would issue you fines. They would say - show me the footings - show me that this building is safe - they are not doing it to hassle you - they are doing it because that's the law and the law should apply to everyone. If the Town wanted to get the Police we could have issued fines starting in March of 2006 which would now total well over a million dollars in fines. We didn't want to do that. We wanted to work together but the Town Code needs to be applied evenly across the board.

Every resident needs to know anyone building anything in this Town has to follow all of the same rules. It is quite clear what permits are needed - they have received lists of them - they know what inspections need to be done - this situation could have easily been resolved.

Before I can support the addition any K-9 officers to the Town Force, I think the residents are entitled to know that all people are treated equally. The Town needs plans for this building, the permits to be drawn, inspections done and answers to the questions that have been asked repeatedly.

Who designed the plans?

Who donated the walls, the slab the building sits on, the roof, the windows, the doors, the electric, the heating, the septic system?

These aren't $20 or $100 donations - these are major donations!

At the very least, we would like to offer our thanks to those people who donated - but more importantly, why is no one willing to come forward and accept credit or recognition for these donations?

I am going to vote NO against this again and the PBA can put all the ads in the paper they want to!