The evening of 2026-03-09 was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
I’ll start off by saying I can see a notable improvement in this groups meeting process skill. I can’t say they are all at the ‘seasoned veterans’ level yet, but much better then January’s meeting. Which I think is mostly the new Board members getting up to speed. This just shows meetings aren’t rocket science. Like just about anything, meeting process is learnable.
Having applauded, I’ll now criticize. Not that the two have to balance.
The Agenda was amended, again. I can recognize this is sometimes necessary, and practical concerns come into play. But Gary made the good comment about this being a pattern. I’m all for grace, I certainly need plenty of that myself. But there is also a point where the repetition becomes indication of a larger issue. I don’t think we are there yet. But eventually it does become de-facto obfuscating. Which is the opposite of transparent.
Options for Stoney Lonesome continue to be explored. Sounds like making it one way is being looked at as an alternative to closing the end of it. End result of stopping the cross traffic could well be the same. There was also talk about the State having allocated a chunk of money for … 2030? In a general sense, my thought is it goes to damage. If, just to make up a number, one person was getting killed at that intersection a year. Not ideal, but part of the risk of using automobiles. But if, again to make up a number, one hundred people were getting killed at that intersection a year. There shouldn’t be a discussion, close it now. That we are discussing tells me it’s somewhere in the middle.
Joe (Supervisor) made an interesting comment about the housing situation. While he was speaking of actions elsewhere, he indirectly acknowledged that regulation is why the current housing problems exist. Which is an argument for them being removed. And perhaps more importantly, at least in the big picture, to minimize regulation in general. We’re all adults, we should be able to make our own decisions. At least for the most part, as much as is feasible. And if you’re not an adult? Congratulations for having the curiosity that led to reading this.
In the interests of full disclosure, a portion of the vouchers includes payment to me. But when Abstract A is for ~$680k? I’m no fire department, I’m a rounding error.
Payroll vendor is being switched. Sounds like the new vendor will be cheaper, as they aren’t bundling their services with a collection of unused extras. And while price was mentioned, it seemed the real focus was on usability of the service, in contrast to the existing vendor.
The study session on Hiring and Procurement Policy was interesting. Not the actual discussion on those two policies, as that was a bit light. I would summarize that as ‘they are decent, but could be beefed up’. But the discussion around putting together a plan to review and update all the policies, that stood out to me. Which makes sense. Even if all you do is go ‘yeah, still looks good’, at least that should be done periodically.
In any case, it sounds like the Town is exploring the logistics. My impression is they will be having a collection of Workshop meetings focused on reviewing policies. No dates set yet, and they may still decide on another approach. But I wouldn’t be surprised if more meetings are publicized soon.
One of my pet peeves is Boards that aren’t responsive to the public’s comments. Yes, they are there to get the job done, conduct the business of the night and move on. But I think there is much benefit to some response to most comments. Not all, I acknowledge the potential downside of getting dragged down a rabbit hole. Which is a round about way of saying I was glad to see the board discussing some of Gary’s comments with him. Right there at the meeting.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 09, 2026 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.