To the Editor:

At the Forestport Town Board Meeting at the New Otter Lake Fire Station, Supervisor Parker Snead stated he wanted give Ted Daktor, an employee of the town, the older of the 2 Town owned zero-turn riding lawn mowers. Mr. Snead stated that it was in poor repair as the reason to give it away. This was the same meeting that revealed Ritter Lawn Care was hired to cut the grass for the town in place of our own employees. Town Board Member Nancy Kardash asked who and what Ritter Lawn Care was charging the Town for. Continue reading →

In August 2014, I asked Parker Snead about some old surplus items that were at the Highway Department. I asked if they could go to the woodsmen’s auction or if they could go out for bid. He told me that he would put them on eBay, which he had the Town Assessor do. In the meantime, Parker decided he wanted to put the old Water Department office trailer on eBay also. This trailer has been stored at the Highway Department since the late 1990s.

Parker told me to have the Highway guys clean it out, as it had a lot of surplus water fittings that were never used. Once the trailer was cleaned out, I had the highway workers take the surplus to the Town Hall garage, which is where the water supplies are now stored. The driver of the truck did not say he was going to dump the load as Ted Daktor had stated. These items were all new fittings that were never used, not rusted like Parker has said.

The driver of the truck came back to the highway garage with the load. I asked why he brought the stuff back and he said Ted Daktor did not want the stuff over there. After a few minutes, Parker and Ted pulled in. I told Parker there was no room in the building to store it. Parker said to take it to his property just off Route 28. The highway worker followed Ted to Parker’s privately owned property and Ted showed him where to dump the water fittings.

There were only three (3) people that knew where these thing were: Parker Snead, Ted Daktor and the truck driver. I would bet my life that the truck driver would never touch it. Parker’s hired hand lives at the entrance of this dead-end property where these items were dumped. It sounds like Ted Daktor is trying to cover for Parker Snead or vice versa.

It was stated in one of the newspapers that the surplus items were only worth scrap price of $700–$800. These items were new, never used in the 1996 water project and cost the town between $2,000 to $3,000.

At one of our Town Board meetings, one of the Town Board members said to sweep it under the rug and forget about it. Does this board member know something that nobody else does? I think Parker Snead is trying to make me and the highway guys look bad again.

It was on Town Topix that all highway employees should take a lie detector test, which is no problem to them because they know they have nothing to hide. If the Town Highway Department employees have to take a lie detector test, then so should the other town employees that were involved.

With the weight of the items, it would have taken more than one person to pick it up, unless they had equipment to do so.

Bill Gardner

Highway Superintendent

Town of Forestport

1. The pipe fittings arrived at Town Hall in late August on a dump truck without any notice as described in statement by myself and both Water System employees.

2. The driver said they needed to get them off the truck ASAP.

3. AFTER My short discussion with the water personnel, it was agreed we couldn’t off-load approximatly three tons of pipe fittings at Town Hall. Continue reading →

To the Editor:

At the October 15, 2014 board Meeting I asked some tough questions that pertain to whether or not Supervisor Parker Snead and Joann Kwasniewski/Ritter violated Town law. As you may recall from a previous letter, the only two Board Members that knew anything about a prepayment to Ritter Lawn Care were Parker and Joann.  Continue reading →