The "Price" is Right!

“Come on Down Mr. Price!” Now there’s a guy who must clean clocks for a living! First we caught the letter in the Sand Lake Advertiser by the North Greenbush Conservatives and their ethically challenged leaders Louis Desso and Michael Casale. Now we are treated to a precision missile strike by Robert Price, an ally of Dan Ashley and C.B. Smith.
“NG Conservatives Represent Water Contractor and Developers” was his headline which was followed by a colorful collection of puzzle pieces which when assembled, paints a picture of North Greenbush politics that really does resemble our Friday edition of Mayberry RFD.
The Conservative Party in the town is run by the contractor Casale Excavating which is enjoying a blank check contract that was supposed to be worth 6.4 million to complete Water District 14. It is now $740,000 over the contract price without required change orders and the State Comptroller is in fact investigating the mess. His “Price is Right!”
The Contractor has apparently aligned himself with a group of Democrats who took control of the Democratic Committee which had aligned themselves with and were funded by developers. The prior Democratic Committee campaigned on a platform to reign in the developers who were calling a lot of shots with Republicans who ran the town for several years prior. The new bunch of Dems call Jeffery Spain their leader but lobbyist Louis Cotrona appears to call the shots with old pal F. James Germano. The group raised about 10 grand according to their report on line at the State Board of Elections and most of it did come from contractors and developers as Mr. Price stated. Two thousand dollars of their cash has caused quite a stir coming from a contractor whose company is bankrupt and declared dissolved by the State years prior to the big donation.
Mr. Price hit them with their complaints about ethics noting the group never mentions the $83,000 check the Conservative Supervisor gave to the Conservative contractor without Town Board approval and just one day after a Town Board meeting which approved regular bills. Heck, that must not be Conservative enough for them!
So Mr. Price hits them with a Conservative Committeeman approving most of the payments to Casale Excavating without telling the Town Board they were going over the old bid price. $740,000 overspent must not be Conservative enough either. The pair never mentioned the money!
To try again, Mr. Price asks why they never mention the State audit and investigation of the payments to Casale Excavating, making a mockery of their claims to have ethics and a desire to lower taxes, a better future, etc, when in fact they act like a bunch of “hungry wolves” devouring the public wallet.
The North Greenbush Pipeline now understands why Mr. Price is suing the Supervisor in an effort to have him removed from office for giving away all that money illegally, behind the backs of the Town Board and despite the Board and its attorney clearly saying no more checks could be legally issued.
Wouldn’t you love to see a Conservative response trying to defend all those actions by town Conservatives who care about our future? We can hardly wait for them to “come on down!”