After Criticism from Opponents, Desso Wants Water For Poestenkill

Legislators Criticize Water Contract 709
North Greenbush Councilman Lou Desso wants to hurry a contract along to sell water to Poestenkill, especially now that his political opponents for the county legislature which unfortunately for Lou, include Poestenkill in the district with North Greenbush, have slammed him and the Town Board for letting the contract sit as if it needed to be aged like wine instead of pumped like water.

Desso finds himself trying to represent two political bodies whose municipal boards must negotiate a contract to sell and purchase water and get the best deal they can for themselves to the "expense or benefit" of the other. Trouble is Desso now should realize his only interest is to get the best deal for North Greenbush, making his comments at the last town board meeting a red flag warning to fellow board members, since he inferred he'd like to see the water contract done quickly and that it would be fine with him if North Greenbush simply "broke even" on the deal because it's a "neighborly" kind of thing to do.

Lou must have forgotten that North Greenbush was "sold" on the need to purchase enhancements to our water system so that we could make money selling water to Poestenkill. But now that Desso wants to suck up to Poestenkill voters, he appears disparate to get a deal done. It's time Mr. Desso understood that our taxpayers, especially Water 14 residents, shelled out large sums of money for infrastructure improvements for the purpose of being able to sell water to Poestenkill and make money. His comments at the Board meeting on July 9th show a willingness to score political points with Poestenkill residents, who he wants to represent in the County Legislature, rather than protect the interests of North Greenbush residents whom he now represents on the Town Board. Said Desso, "We're not in the business of selling water. What we are trying to do here is be a good neighbor and at this point, if we were to break even and help Poestenkill move forward, I think this Board would be happy to do that."

Listen to his comments here on our Pipeline Radio Channel.


We hate to break the news to Mr. Desso, but town taxpayers expended some $830,495 to improve the infrastructure in order to make money, not break even, on water distribution to Poestenkill. We also spent 2 million to build a water tower to make redistribution of water to surrounding towns possible and each of these communities should pay a share of that investment. Breaking even on this expense so Lou Desso can look like a hero to Poestenkill just in time for his run for the County Legislature is a sellout of his constituents in North Greenbush.

Face it Lou, you need to recuse yourself from these contract negotiations completely and you need to avoid arranging meetings with the Poestenkill Town Board, especially if a quorum is to be present here in our town with their board and proper notices are not given under that pesky Open Meetings Law.

Its becoming clear that running for the Legislature while serving on a town board presents a conflict of interest and Lou Desso is about to learn the hard way that professionals, not politicians should be doing the negotiating in this important contract on water.