Denis Jordan’s incompetence is legendary. His appetite for spending the public’s money and wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars because he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing is ruining the Town of New Baltimore and causing untold damage to public confidence and even to private property. Jordan is like a bull in a china shop, doing more damage every time he makes a move. Jordan is New Baltimore’s elected Town Superintendent of Highways at a salary of more than $55,000.00 with benefits and no formal training whatsoever. How does something like this happen? Ask New Baltimore voters!

Town Equipment and Crews, Materials Used to Improve Private Property

We have followed up on leads relating to yet another Jordan abuse of his elected office and the misuse of Town of New Baltimore employees and equipment. This time it’s conspicuously right out in the open, he’s so stupid he has gone beyond plowing friends’ driveways in the early morning hours to abusing his office in broad daylight.

The Case of the Disappearing Creek by Denis Jordan, New Baltimore Highway Department

We’ve reported on the several instances of Notices of Claim and lawsuits resulting from Jordan’s incompetence. We’re reported on the jerry-rigged drainage in the Hamlet and the damage caused to private property because of Jordan’s negligence of his duties to repair and maintain drainage installations in the Hamlet. And we’re presently investigating the botched up paving operations done by Callanan Industries, Inc., a contractor hired by Jordan and who was supposed to be supervised by Jordan or by Jordan’s deputy, Scott vanWormer, and who dropped what we estimate to be 2-4 times more black top than was necessary for the repaving of several Hamlet streets. You paid for the blacktop to the tune of more than $180,000. Our question is why were so many extra truckloads, tens of tons of unnecessary blacktop deposited on Hamlet Streets? Who got the gifts and kickbacks?

The figure above shows the satellite images for the concerned property, and shows the creek’s path before it was re-routed by the Town of New Baltimore Highway Department and covered over. Note that it runs under Lydon Lane and across the private property owned by Mr Donald R. Bullock (Parcel No. 16.00.2.73 at No. 29 Lydon Lane) , and from that property runs along, feeding two ponds. Why did they bury the creek?

Well, we are now reporting on a recent incident where the Town of New Baltimore Highway Department under the authority and supervision of New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan, dug up a stream on private property, reportedly a “friend” of Jordan’s property, installed culverts, covered the culverts, finished the surface, all using Town of New Baltimore employees and equipment.

We have investigated the leads and here’s what we found.

We recently received reports from local residents that the Town of New Baltimore Highway Department and Highway Department crews were observed to be digging on a parcel of property on Lydon Lane off of Route 51. Apparently, residents were curious and concerned what the New Baltimore Highway Department would be doing on the property and why they were digging in that particular area. We later received information that the owner of the property located at 29 Lydon Lane, parcel No. 16.00.2-73, one Donald R. Bullock is allegedly a “friend” of Denis Jordan, New Baltimore Superintendent of Highways.

Given Mr Jordan’s reputation and past abuses, we decided to take a closer look into this little project.

We located the property and the area dug up by Jordan using New Baltimore Highway Department equipment and employees. The area is on private property and in a small creek bed running across Lydon lane but the area dug up doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the road or with the creek. The reports we received from residents were that Jordan was installing culverts to cover over the natural waterway, a natural creek, so that the owner of the property could mow without the inconvenience of the creek. Our inspections proved this the be highly likely.

Since the excavation, installation of the culverts and the finishing of the terrain do not appear to be in relation to a road, drainage or even to the residence, which sits atop a knoll, we could only confirm the reports that the work was done to cover over the creek and to level out the grassy area, facilitating mowing.

We demanded production of documents relating to the New Baltimore Highway Department and its activities and found confirmation in the documents produced by the Town of New Baltimore that Mr Jordan lists in his so-called monthly report for May to July 2017, “Installed 40 feet of 30 inch culvert on Lydon Lane” and “Installed 40 feet of 18 inch culvert on Lydon Lane.” The problem we have with this report is that the culvert was not installed on Lydon Lane but on private property on Lydon Lane, that is, on property belonging to Donald R. Bullock.

The photo above shows the road surface at the edge of Bullock’s property. The road surface is undisturbed which indicates that no portion of the road was excavated for installation of any culverts under or around the road. The only disturbed surface is well on the private property where the creek ran into the wooded area at the top of the photo. In other words, all of the excavation and resurfacing of the excavation, apparently after the town’s culverts were buried, is not private property owned by Bullock. There is no evidence that there would have been a drainage problem here threatening the road or any private property, because any drainage would have entered the former creek bed and would have run off with the creek’s water.

The photo above shows the Bullock residence high above the area of the former creek bed, but now, instead of a creek bed, there is a flat, graded area connecting the one side of the property with the other. This is consistent with residents’ reports that the work was done to level out the private property owner’s lawn to make it easier to mow! This photo is taken from the road opposite the property at 29 Lydon Lane, showing the relationships of the creek in the left side, the excavated area of the installed culverts in the center, and the house atop the knoll, obviously with plenty good drainage downhill. It also confirms the reports we received that the creek was covered and filled so that the owner could more easily mow his lawn!

The photo above provides another perspective of the relationships among the house on the knoll, the excavated and filled-in creek bed and the Lydon Lane roadway. There is obviously no drainage problem in this area, much less on the Bullock property, which rules out any necessary repair, maintenance, or preventive road work or drainage repair. No area of the paved area of Lydon Lane is disturbed, indicating that no culverts were installed under the road, the only disturbed ground is on the Bullock property. Also on the opposite side of Lydon Lane, no surface is disturbed. The only excavation and installation work that was done was done on private property, on the Bullock property. The work done is reported in Highway superintendent Jordan’s report for May-July 2017. (Just to be complete, we explored the length of Lydon Lane up to its termination in a dead end, and found no evidence of new culvert installation or disturbed surface, ruling out any work done on Lydon Lane that was not done on the Bullock property.)

Considering the fact that Mr Jordan has totally ignored the nuisances and hazards he and his contractors have created on New Street, the continuing and ongoing damage to private residential structures on New Street in the Hamlet because of Jordan’s incompetence and negligence in failing to maintain the drainage installations in the Hamlet, the outrageous waste in his unsupervised paving operations to the tune of more than $180,000, and Jordan’s refusal to correct the new hazards and drainage problems he created this past year on New Street, we are at a total loss that he could possibly have found time to do this work on private property and that he had the time, the personnel and the money to make an entire segment of creek disappear!!!

The fact that so many questions arise in this situation has led us to demand answers from the Town of New Baltimore and we have filed a demand for production of documents under the New York Freedom of Information Law. We want to know:

• Why was this work done? What was the justification for doing this work on private property?
• What sort of engineering studies or inspections of the site were done to justify the Town’s work on the Bullock property?
• What were the costs to the town, to town taxpayers for the labor by town employees, the equipment, fuel, materials, etc.
• Who actually did the work? We want names of the workers, the supervisors, etc. What were the costs for personnel?
• What requests for funds were submitted to the Town Board by Jordan or his deputy, vanWormer for this work?
• What are the itemized costs done by Mr Jordan for this work?
• What investigations, inquiries, analyses, examinations were done by the Town Board before approving this work?
• If this work was not covered by the provisions of Town or Highway Law, what special duty assignments were imposed on the New Baltimore Highway Department by the New Baltimore Town Board for this work?
• Did the Town Superintendent of Highways, Mr Denis Jordan, even inform the Town Board that he was doing this work on the Bullock property?
• Where did the money come from to do this work? Which budget line did the money come from?
• Was the owner of the property, Mr Donald R. Bullock, billed for this work? If so, how much of the bill did he pay?
• Did the property owner, Donald R. Bullock, apply for any necessary permits to do the work? Did the New Baltimore Highway Department apply for any permits to the work on the private property?
• Given the fact that a natural water body, a creek, was re-routed through town culverts and then covered over, was the Department of Environmental Conservation informed? Were any permits required or any studies required as regards conservation or environmental impact of the work done?

Once we get the answers to these questions, we’ll do a follow-up report on what the Town says about all of this.

Cough up some answers, Mr Jordan!
The Editor

Editor’s Note: We are in the process of preparing an Application for Removal of Denis Jordan from Public Office, and intend to file the Application with the New York State Supreme Court, Appeals Division, and with the Greene County District Attorney. We want to hear from you if you have any knowledge of any suspicious conduct by Mr Jordan, misuse of Town of New Baltimore equipment, employees, or materials, or any knowledge of other misconduct by Jordan or his operations in the Town of New Baltimore Highway Department. Please let us know confidentially by writing to us at rcs.confidential @ gmail.com.

It’s up to us citizen residents because New York State law prevents the Town Board from filing an application to remove an elected Highway Superintendent. Either a citizen resident or residents or the county DA are the only ones who can file the application for removal.

Stay with us! Thank you!