T IMES
SOUTHERN
Marlborough
and CSX
Railroad
square off
in court
ULSTER
Vol. 16, No. 5
3
JANUARY 30 - FEBRUARY 5, 2019
3
ONE DOLLAR
Dukes
hang on Geographic
Bee
Page 36 Page 19
SERVING HIGHLAND, MARLBOROUGH AND PLATTEKILL
Red tape delays deli order
Rebuilding of Kirky’s remains on hold
By MARK REYNOLDS
[email protected]
It’s been a fight ten years in the making
between the Town of Marlborough and
CSX Railroad to establish a safe and
secure crossing into the Milton Landing
Park. The conflict finally spilled over into
court last week.
The case was heard by the Alicia
McNally, Administrative Law Judge for
the Department of Transportation [DOT],
with their Associate Attorney Donna
K. Hintz conducting the questioning.
Supervisor Al Lanzetta represented the
people of Marlborough and Regional
Manager Robert Rohauer appeared on
behalf of CSX Transportation.
Lanzetta said after the town
purchased the Milton Landing property
in 2009, a dialogue began with CSX over
the inadequacies of the present crossing
that to date remains unresolved. Initially,
Lanzetta requested that CSX add cross-
arms, warning lights, bells and a gate to
only allow access for CSX and emergency
vehicles. He said a second crossing
was proposed south of the present one,
nearer the restored train station, to let
pedestrians enter the park.
Lanzetta said this has just been
changed; “to have one central location
25 feet or so away from the curve [of
Continued on page 3
Robert Kirk stands where he was when a vehicle crashed into his deli in Milton.
By MARK REYNOLDS
[email protected]
Nearly three weeks after a Jeep
Cherokee, driven by Jamal Donaldson,
careened off of Route 9W and catapulted
into his deli, Robert Kirk is just waiting
for the insurance company to give him
the green light to rebuild.
Kirk would like to completely raze
and reconstruct the building, “but the
insurance company wants to put some
duct tape on it and put some pallets up
front but we’d like to have a new roof
and update it. We want $100,000 and they
want to offer us $10,000, that’s the whole
game there, I guess.”
Kirk said the Manesse family, who
own the building, appear to want to
rebuild.
“The engineer said the building is
not in that bad a shape; the roof’s not as
bad as it looks,” Kirk said.
Kirk said his parked pickup truck was
hit by Donaldson and was completely
destroyed.
“The [insurance] check was supposed
to be cut yesterday but apparently nine
to fivers at noon on Friday they get tired
and go home and don’t really worry,” he
said, adding sarcastically that, “Pushing
buttons takes a lot out of a person.”
Inside the deli, Kirk pointed to a
support lolly column that he had wanted
to remove some time ago. In the crash
it prevented a long steel beam from
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collapsing on him that probably would
have killed him.
Despite the difficult turn of events,
Kirk went ahead with his annual pre-
Super Bowl BBQ in his parking lot last
Saturday.
“We just rocked today, everything
we made is gone. People came out of
the woodwork from all over,” he said.
“I can’t say enough about the people
here. They come up and ask do I need
anything, do you need a food truck?”
Kirk praised the town Police, Fire
and Ambulance Corps for their support.
“I’m gonna put them in a group
and call them ‘All of a Sudden’ because
that’s when they were here; they were
here instantly,” Kirk said.