On the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving – November 22nd – the City of Glens Falls approved its $22.6 million dollar budget proposal. The budget was approved despite having two “No” votes; these votes against passing the budget came from Ben Lapham of the Fourth Ward, and Diana Palmer of the Third Ward. The budget was increased by $590,885 from the previous year. The budget passed by a margin of 4 “Yes” votes to the 2 “No” votes, and will go into effect as of January 1, 2023.

Ben Lapham (the Councilman for the 4th Ward) is a software engineer, and has been a Glens Falls homeowner for the past 10 years. In his Green Party profile, he states, “I want to see greater governmental transparency and less waste.” The 4th Ward extends from Broad Street and Hudson Ave to Horicon Avenue and Crandall.  “I still have concerns about the amount of money that we’re going into the fund balance for.” Lapham said. The city is budgeted to draw $1.6 million from the city reserve of $7 million.

Diana Palmer is the councilwoman from the 3rd Ward. Palmer is a Marriage and Family Therapist at True North in Glens Falls. Palmer is serving her second four year term on the Common Council. The 3rd Ward extends from Fort Amherst road to Washington Street and runs from Bay Street to Crandall Street. Among Palmer’s main concerns were legacy costs that now must be included in every future budget. 

Moving forward, Palmer would like to be part of the budget discussions. Palmer’s attempts to address the budget throughout the year did not lead to a discussion. “I want to have the discussion. And, I want to make it clear that we need to open this up next term. I’m not comfortable this year, because I don’t feel we’ve really vetted this.” Palmer said at a budget meeting earlier in the month. This is a concept that Mayor Collins supports: “It doesn’t hurt to have the conversation, let’s have it throughout the year” he said.  Increases to the budget include cost of insurance, fuel costs, and new employees in the police department. The budget also includes a 2% increase in property taxes, which amounts to approximately $218,662 total; real estate property taxes increases are capped at a 2% increase in a yearly budget. The Mayor did not vote on the budget. 

Officer Pratt has been a member of The Glens Falls Police Department since he was 22 years old. He is originally from Greenwich, NY, and graduated from SUNY Canton. He recently completed the rigorous training to become a Certified Drug Recognition Expert. He is now among 450 Certified Drug Recognition Officers in the state.  A DRE is skilled in detecting and identifying persons under the influence of drugs, and identifying the category or categories of drugs causing the impairment.

Drug Recognition Expert school involves demanding, intense training. Two phases of the training must be completed: academic training, and field training. Academic training is broken into two components. The first component is called pre-school: this is a two-day program, with the objective of ensuring that the student is prepared and capable of completing the seven-day DRE school. This component requires passing a standard field training sobriety test proficiency exam, as well as a written exam, in order to progress; failure to pass either test will result in dismissal from the course. The second component is instruction in physiology. This instruction includes learning to take vital signs, as well as extensive material on each of the seven drug categories, abuses, and general indicators.

After completion of the academic portion of the training, there is field certification. This includes a minimum of 12 evaluations on drug impaired individuals. To complete the training, the student must submit a comprehensive resume, correctly identify four of the seven drug categories, and complete a progress log.

Officer Pratt is aware that he would not have been able to complete this training without the support of the community, the department and the Chief of Police: “Everyone in the Department participated”, he said.

Officer Pratt is looking forward to being able to give back to the community with his DRE certification. This certification can assist other officers making arrests: he can tell if a person is chemically impaired or medically impaired. He also understands that his certification has broader uses; it can be used in child abuse cases, to evaluate kids who are impaired at school, and even potentially rule out if someone is actually impaired.

DREs conduct their evaluation in a controlled environment.  This happens at the precinct, intake centers, troop headquarters, or other locations where impaired drivers are transported after arrest; as it is not typically done on the road-side, but rather as a post-arrest procedure.