Vol. 168, No. 32
• CLINTON, NEW YORK • February 25, 2015
The Last Eagle Scouts of Clinton Stone Church’s Troop 9 Disbands, Leaving the Village Without a Post
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County Support Continues to Shrink in Village, Town Revenues By John Howard
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from a Clinton-based Boy Scout post. Troop 9, the post that the last Clinton Eagle Scouts were members of, met in the basement of Stone
he Town of Kirkland and the Village of Clinton have received less from Oneida County than they budgeted for in the 2014 spending plans. Non-property tax distribution by the county in both cases is off by large margins. The Village was anticipating $453,000 in its latest budget round, which runs on a June through May calendar, but only received $438,008.47. Since 2012, this figure has been dropping by more than $10,000 each budgeting season. In the same boat, the Town was expecting $1,625,000 from the county in its 2014 budget, but only received $1,611,605. Working against the downward trend, the Town budgeted for $1,643,850 in the sales tax category in its 2015 budget. Sales tax distribution is done based on the varying state equalization rates of municipalities (total assessed value of municipality divided by the total market value of municipality), but Clinton and Kirkland’s sales tax revenue numbers could be the result of a larger problem. Oneida County is one of only five counties in the state to experience a decrease in their sales tax collections from 2013 to 2014, according to a report by New York State Office of the Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released earlier this month. Collected tax fell by a rate of 0.1 percent. In the report, DiNapoli suggests
SCOUTS, page 9
REVENUES, page 9
Graham Callaghan and Adam Blanks, who were the final two Boy Scouts to earn an Eagle rank from Troop 9, sit in an empty meeting room in the basement of Stone Church. Written and Photographed by John Howard
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hen Adam Blanks, 17, and Graham Callaghan, 18, joined Scouts, it was for the normal reasons a five or six-year-old would get involved: to explore the outdoors. The two Clinton High School seniors became
Scouts as early as they could. Last month, Blanks and Callaghan were honored for their achievement of earning the rank of Eagle Scout during an area recognition dinner. They will be the last Scouts to do so
Founder’s Monument to be Replaced
Two BOE Seats Open For Election By Staff
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wo seats on the Clinton Central School District Board of Education will be up for vote this May. Board of Education member terms held by Amy Franz and Courtney Zoller will expire this summer. Zoller is the current vice president of the Board. Nominating petitions for those interested in running for the Board seats will be available starting March 2. The deadline for submitting completed petitions is April 20, at 5 p.m. Individuals who are interested in running for the Board may call the Superintendent's Office at 557-2253 to register. Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES will also hold an informational “How to Become a School Board of Education Candidate" session on March 2, from 6–8 p.m. A selection for the two open CCSD Board seats will take place on May 19 as part of the 2015–16 budget vote. A Meet the Candidates event will take place the week prior to the vote. For more information, visit http://ccs.edu.
The Founder’s Monument has sat in the Village Green in Clinton for 147 years. The limestone slab is now cracked and the lettering has become difficult to read.
A rendering of the new monument to replace the 1868 stone.
Written and Photographed by Mark Warren
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he Village Historic Preservation Commission has approved the replacement of the Founder’s Monument in the Village Green in Clinton. The limestone monument was first established at the south end of the park in 1868, or 147 years ago. The stone reads “Nine Miles to Utica” and lists Village founders Moses Foote, James Bronson, Luther Foote, Bronson Foote, Ira Foote, Ludim Blodget, Barnabas Pond and Levi Sherman. These eight individuals were the area’s first settlers in 1787. John Burdick proposed the replacement of the stone to the Village
Board on Feb. 2, after first pitching the idea to Village Park Commissioner Richard Heintz, the Clinton Historical Society Board, and Enea Memorials of Herkimer. In 1968, CHS chairman Howard W. Chaney called for the repair of the monument as part of a restoration project he had begun with the Old Burying Ground on Kirkland Avenue. Chaney noted that the monument had “fallen victim to the elements and has been cracked by frost.” No repairs to the historic marker ever materialized. Burdick said the monument is long past due to be replaced. “There are two things wrong with
it: it’s cracking, it’s going to break very soon and it’s getting pretty difficult to read,” he said. “What they were doing in 1868 is what they call v-sunk lettering. They’re just chiseled in and they’re very shallow. And as the limestone wears down the readability deteriorates.” Enea Memorials told Burdick they would be interested in donating a replacement monument to the Village. There will be some slight changes with the replacement monument. First, it will be cut from a slab of Vermont barre gray granite. Burdick said this MONUMENT, page 4