MIDDLEBURGH - Last Thursday evening, the Middleburgh Town Board met to field several comments from the public, including a Valentine’s Day themed event and a short word from the local snowmobile club.

To begin, members heard a brief presentation from James Schilling, a recently moved-in resident who thought to perk up the community with an independent event.

Dubbed “Middleburgh is for Sweethearts,” the idea is that several participating businesses would hold voting stations where locals and tourists alike could come in and vote on who they think the best couple in the area is.

Anyone would be eligible to be written in, whether it be a family member or friend, long-time pillar of the community, or even themselves. The only rule would be that in order to vote, something would have to be purchased from that business.

With no restrictions on how many times someone could vote, Mr. Schilling thought that it would foster not only support for the local businesses but also a feeling of cohesive unity.

“The idea is to bring a little bit of cheer into this awful winter,” he said.

Once voting is complete and they’ve verified the ballots, Mr. Schilling further said that he would hold a reception that would be free for anyone to come to, and that the winning couple would earn a free dinner.

Turning to the Board, he asked if it would be possible if the reception could be held at the community center, and further asked if someone could help them count the ballots at the end of the day.

Members unanimously supported the idea, with councilperson Carrie Shaul saying “This is a great idea, and I think it could be a lot of fun.”

Mr. Schilling plans to further coordinate with Town Clerk Renee Schmidt to schedule a reception at the community center in the last week of February.

In other news, members heard briefly from Dave Toborg, a representative from the Middleburgh Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club.

Touching on who their group was, Mr. Toborg stated that the club is one of several in the region that receives grant money from the state in order to maintain a network of trails for snowmobilers to utilize.

Working ever toward that goal, he also said that the club needs to acquire a trail license from National Grid, which would permit them to cross or follow any property that is owned by the company.

However, in order to pursue that license, the club needs a signed letter from the Town Board that acknowledges the club’s presence and has no objection to their existence. 

“Some of you may be getting some deja vu from this,” Mr. Toborg said. “We’ve tried to do this in the past, but it fell through before, so we’re trying again.”

Seeing no reason not to support the club again when they’ve done so in the past, the Board agreed without delay and signed the letter for the application to National Grid.