Newbold town board tackles a variety of topics in marathon session

The Newbold town board gathered at the Newbold Community Center for its regular meeting on Thursday, March 26 — a meeting that turned out to be not-so-regular in length, topping two and a half hours.

One of the discussions contributing to its length was a concern brought to the board by chairman Dan Hess in search of guidance.

“As the board knows, we’ve been getting more (requests for) preliminary reviews,” he said. “It’s not in any of our documents that we should be even entertaining this.

“Like a zoning request: Someone wants their property rezoned, and they’re coming to us ahead of time to see preliminarily how would the town look at this. Well, that’s not in our fee schedule. It’s not in our ordinance,” he continued. 

“I got another request this week, and I said that you need to go through the county. What happens is the county gets the information, sends it to the town to see if the town will approve it. Well, it seems like (the citizen) doesn’t want to spend the money at the county, and they want to see if it’s going to get approved before, but you can’t approve it … I wanted to bring it to the board because I keep getting more of them, and I just want a clear direction on how the board wants this to be handled.”

“The first step is to go to the county to start the process. It’s as easy as that,” said supervisor Mike McKenzie.

Supervisor Scott Ridderbusch, a land use specialist with the Oneida County Planning and Zoning Department, disagreed. 

“As a citizen you’re paying the county right from the start $600 for a potential change in zoning, whether or not you know if they’re going to even consider it or if the town’s going to deny it, because as the process commences, it goes to the county planning involvement committee, and the planning involvement committee is going to side with the town because of their comprehensive plans,” he said. “… If the town’s not on board, the county’s not going to be on board. So not having that discussion, the person’s basically wasting their money.

“That’s why I have been recommending people on both sides of it to talk to the town first to see if they would consider it … Anybody who calls the zoning department, whether it be me or Karl (Jennrich), the zoning administrator, I mean, we’re always given the direction to have a conversation with the town to see what the likelihood is to change that zoning. I’m not sure how other towns operate.”

“They don’t allow it,” Hess told Ridderbusch. “Three Lakes doesn’t allow it. Several of them do not allow it. … But I don’t think there’s an issue with calling the town chair and saying, ‘does this work into your plan before I apply to the county?’ I think the chair can handle that question based on going through the comprehensive plan with the person that calls in, rather than bringing it to a full meeting. I don’t have an issue with that. I just have an issue with sending something to the plan commission, and then you’re working on this through the plan commission when those fees should be paid to operate our plan commission.”

Town clerk Kim Gauthier suggested, “If what you’re saying about the chairman or the chairman of the planning commission, which happens to be the same, who knows the comprehensive plan really well and can walk it through and say, ‘well, this is what our plan is,’ I think that’s a great compromise.”

“You have to put the disclaimer on it, too,” cautioned McKenzie. “If they call and ask that question, say, ‘I’m not telling you anything is approved. I’m telling you based on what you’re telling me, based on what our comprehensive plan is, that my professional opinion would be it seems reasonable. But you have to apply through the county before it’s coming to us.’” 

“Likewise, it’s going to be subject to the town boards and people, not just an individual,” pointed out supervisor Petra Pietrzak.

“I get what Scott said, because we’re not trying to soak anybody,” McKenzie said. “We have to have a consistent plan that we follow through with everybody, or we are going to get sued. It’s that simple.”

“I don’t have a problem spending time with these people, discussing with them, and going through the comprehensive plan. I think that’s the way it should be done,” Hess said. “... It should stick with just the chair or one of the supervisors, if they would like to go through it with that person to see if it matches their plan.”

That was felt to be the best direction.

Also on the agenda, the board approved seeking bids for possible 2026 road projects and bid specs as presented by Newbold director of public works Mark Fetzer, for construction projects including Cedar Lane and Polke Lane reconstruction, and chip seal and flex pack projects including sections of Cedar Lane, Lakeland Drive, Musky Bay Drive, Oak Drive, River Road, Soo Lake Road, and South Shore Drive. 

For all but Musky Bay Drive, noted Fetzer, “all of that adds up to five and three-quarter miles of flex patch and single chip seal. If you went by last year’s price per mile for chip seal, the chip seal would be around $140,000. And then the flex patching I would think would be a lot less than it was last year … I put down for all of these a deadline of April 30 for the bids to come back and to be opened up.”

He added, “I have no idea what will happen with prices this year. One contractor, they don’t know what’s going on with Iran and such with the price of oil as far as asphalt costs. However, if that’s resolved suddenly, it might suddenly drop, too. So who knows.” 

Among other highlights of the meeting, the board:

• Approved the purchase of a new plow truck not to exceed $310,000, with marketing three additional bid prices based on the specs as presented.

• Agreed to repair or replace the blown engine on the town’s 2011 International, not to exceed $35,000. 

“Just to make sure that everything we would have is covered, and hopefully it’s less,”  McKenzie said.

• Decided to increase the Newbold Community Center rental fees to $200 for residents (was $125) and $450 for non-residents (was $250), with no change to the non-profit group rates.

• Approved sending resolution 2026-03 on updated chapter ordinance Chapter 19 to public hearing on April 30.

“After the public hearing, then we can vote on the ordinance. This is just moving it forward to finalize,” Hess notes.

• Heard from Hess in his Oneida County Board of Supervisors report that the county’s stumpage to date was $175,173, and that the Oneida County Board of Health is currently going through re-accreditation, a national process that evaluates health departments to ensure they meet high quality and performance standards.

• Approved the bartender license applications of Joshua Granderson and Linda Zacharias. 

• Heard from Fetzer, in his role as fire chief, that the people in the department’s elected and appointed positions remain the same as last year.

The next regular meeting of the Newbold town board was Thursday, April 9, and the town’s annual meeting will be Tuesday, April 21, at 6 p.m., both at the Newbold Community Center.

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].