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#«*•' tf • Northern New York's Greatest Weekly A Prize Winning Towii & Country Newspaper #?.f • • Vol. 103 No. 22 - Gouveraeur, N.Y. ©1989 MRS Printing Inc. Wednesday* January 17,1990 16 Pages-SSCmts By Lisa L. Reape After the village of Gouverneur lost one vil- lage justice because of a policy that did not allow for raises during the jus- tice's term of office, the village board Monday night took steps to alter the way justices are com- pensated. Lawrence N. Melillio resigned as village justice last month after meeting a brick wall in his attempts to seek a pay increase during his term of office. On Monday, the village board named Gus Robson, a former justice for the Town of Gouverneur, as Mr, Melillo's successor. Immediately following Mr. -Robson's appoint- ment, the board directed the village attorney to prepare a local law to al- low the board to raise the compensation for the vil- lage justice and acting village justice duringtheir term of office rather than having to wait until the beginning of a new term. Not only is the village board considering adopt- ing a new law that would enable a pay increase during the justice 1 *term, the board also is consider- ing an actual salary in- crease, beginning with the new justice, according to Mayor Laura M. Slate. \There has been concern that the overload of cases is causing more work (for Jthe villagejustice), and we (the board) felt the com- pensation is very small compared with other judges in the area,\ Mrs. Slate said. es in tion benefit and adding a few more dollars to the salary it might be more appealing,\ the mayor said. \I know for some of the justices in the past, they felt the hospitaliza- tion benefit compensated them according to their needs, but perhaps now the justices feel the higher salary would compensate them better.\ \There has been concern \We know the (justice's) salary is fairly low, considering the work- load, and the workload will proba- bly increase..*We have a very ac- tive police department,\ said Mayor Laura M. Slate. Currently the village justice position pays $5,125, while the acting village justice position pays $1,500. The village also offers hospitalization to its village justice. The mayor said the vil- lage board is considering a plan to take away the hospitalization, which costs approximately $2,500, and offer those funds in the form of addi- tional salary. \The board felt by tak- ing away the hospitaliza- by the past two justices that the position should be made fulltime, but with the budget already in place, we felt we couldn't make that change,\ Mrs. Slate said. \I know that in Canton and other commu- nities, it's not a fulltime position. \We know the salary is fairly low, considering the workload,\ the mayor said, \and the workload will probably increase with more activity in Gou- verneur. The books show we have a very active po- lice department.\ Mrs. Slate added that the village is bound by state law to create a local law to assume the author- ity to change a justice's salary in the middle of a term* JThe salary issue has been a problem, ac- cording to the mayor, be- cause the position is a four- year term. \It's been a thorn in every patch because we have to comply with the law,\ Mrs. Slate said \We've had four justices in the past four years.\ The mayor could not say whether adopting the lor cal law would have kept Mr. Melillo as village jus- tice. \It's hard to tell,\ she said. \He(Mr.MeliHo)had suggested it be made a fulltime job and at a greater salary than we could compensate.\ The mayor added that she believes \the people who were interested in the position did not realize the workload involved, and especially if they had a fulltime job, it would take up a lot of their time.\ The board set a public See YHiug^pgi 6 * Report Shows Local Police Arrests on the Rise By Lisa L, Reape Arrests for local crimes involving property sky- rocketed during 1989, according to the annual report issued by Gou- verneur Village Police ChiefDavidC.\Vhitton. Over the past 12 months, the department received over 6,700 calls, complaints, or requests for service, an increase of 717 or 11.9 percent over last year's total of 5,986. Those calls resulted in 2,437 total arrests last year, up a whopping 68.6 percent over the total number of arrests in 1988. Arrests for offenses in- volving intrusions and damage to property nearly 'tripled last year, up from 34 in 1988 to 96 in 1989. Of those, arrests for third degree burglary, second degree criminal trespass and fourth degree crimi- nal mischief saw the great- est increases. Not every category of arrests rose,however. The number of arrests involv- ing fraud dropped from 103 in 1988, to 44 last year. Total penal law arrests numbered 397 last year, up from 326 in 1988. The department also reported recovering $45,438 worth of property in the past year, Chief Whitton noted. The number of crimes reported or otherwise made known to local po- lice decreased from 196 in 1988 to 165 in 1989. Of those, violent crimes in- creased from two to seven, while non-violent crimes dropped from 191 to 158. (Criminal homicide, forc- ible rape, and robbery constitute \violent crimes,\ while burglary, larceny and motor thefts are classified as \non-vio- lent crimes,\ or crimes in- volving property.) Local police made more arrests involving public order last year, up from 72 incidentsinl988tolll in 1989. Meanwhile, the number of persons charged with vehicle and traffic offenses rose from 1,036 in 1988 to 1,950 in 1989. \Hazardous\ traffic of- fenses, such as speeding and driving while intoxi- cated, rose from 510 to 627 in 1989, a 22.9 percent increase. Thanks to the village's new parking code enforce- ment officer, parking vio- lations saw a more than 300 percent increase in 1989, up from 300 tickets issued in 1988 to 1,092 last year. The department inves- tigated 257 motor vehicle accidents i n 1989, up from 223 the previous year. Local parking fines col- lected equalled $5,234. Total arrests for village law violations were at 41 for 1989, up from 16 the year before. Of those, open container violations and dog control violations saw the biggest increases over the last 12 months. sr\ j^W 5 SCOTT BUSH, son of Laurto ami Daw Bush, Gouvtmtur, prepares for t«k#-off on th* snow pile In front of his house on Routs 11. Bsfow, Ryan Mains, 9, son of Shtt- don and Marilyn Mains of Rock Island Road, skis down the hill while Scott Bush looks on. Trlbuns Photos/ Town To Consider Temporary Construction Housing Needs JEFF TEBO works to keep the sidewalk clsar m front of P & C Foo<U. Gouverneur. Tribune P*cto Jan By Lisa L- Reape A lack of available hous- ingfor construction work- ers is one concern being expressed to local officials by contractors associated with the Gouverneur Cor- rectional Facility Meanwhile, the Gou- verneur Town Planning Board has scheduled a ispecial meeting for Mon- day, Jan. 22 to discuss the situation and a plan one developer has to provide temporary housing adja- cent to the prison sit£ .Raymond A Baer. a consulting engineer rep- resenting Watertown de- veloper Philip Srrv.th'me, appeared before the Gou- •verneur Town Board at their montn!y meeting last week Mr,Smithiine. *hohas purchased a number of parcels in the vicinity of the prison site, including a gravel pit adjacent to the village line, seeks to erect 12 mobile homes to house 42 gravel pit work- ers, Mr Baer said. Thernobilehomes would constitute temporary housing for the workers fcr an 11-month period, until Mr. Srnithline's con- tract to provide 80,000 yards of gravel for the cor- rectional facility is ful- filled Furthermore, Mr Baer said. Mr Smithhne is prepared to pest a bond guaranteeing that the mobile homes would be removed from the site once the gravel operation is corr. pleted \There are plan* *z make \>r> good use of t!v,s '.ar.d a A ^rwards—a completely different concept.* Mr Baer said He declined to elaborate on the nature of the future use being planned. Mr. Baer said he was approaching the town board on Mr. Smithline's behalf because the town's zoning code makes no provision for temporary housing such as what Mr. Smithhne is proposing There's nothing in the zonmg about temporal construction housing, 1 \ Mr Baer said The 12 mobile homes, which would be within walk:ngdistancefrom the grave! operation, are pre- viously owned but are acceptable for the use Mr Smithhne intends, accord- ing to Mr Baer The units do not have cooking facilities but do have showers and baths Two of the unit* would sleep 12 people, while the remaining six would sleep three each. This would be strictly for bachelor construction workers,* Mr. Baer said. These mobile homes are not acceptable for mobile home parks but they are acceptable for this pur- pose. \ Mr Baer said he had already approached the village about the water supply f and he assured the town board that ^there's no problem\ Town Supervisor Donald A. Peck informed Mr Baer that the plan would need the approval of the town planning board and the county planning board, as well, since the property lies within 500 feet of another municipal- ity Tm looking for an indi- cation of interest and an indication of whether you See Town pg. 6
