This blog is our perspective on living in Herkimer, a small village nestled along the Mohawk River. It began as a gardening and real estate blog, then grew into a war blog when entrenched drug and child trafficking gangs tried to drive us and our cameras out. It took ten years, but the gangs are gone, thanks to Federal law enforcement. It's all on the blog.
Linda J. KaidanStephen Ames Berry
Built in 1890, our comfy Herkimer Village home has stood up well. In the 12 years since we bought it for $32k, it’s kept us safe and warm, the rain off our heads and held unpleasant neighbors at bay. And it’s appreciated nicely.
Neighboring drug dealer Joyce Barton of Herkimer’s Barton Gang, sending a little love our way.
Still, the years are taking their toll, notably in decaying basement water lines. I’ve replaced rows of rotting copper water pipe using PEX tubing and Sharkbite fixtures, saving us a fortune in plumbing repairs. I’ve also learned to know when to call a plumber, rather than flail away myself, weaving an expensive path of destruction.
The Pipe of Great Price. Leak just before the left elbow. Sharkbite elbow and PEX to the right.
Last month, a three-inch length of copper pipe sprang a pinhole leak. I could easily have replaced it with PEX had it not been a bridge piece to an ancient galvanized steel pipe. Sharkbite doesn’t do steel. And so neither do I. I asked a plumbing repair AI how to repair it; the answer scared the bejesus out of me: sawing, blowtorch, compression fittings. Old enough to know when to fold, I called Drain and Main (D&M), a very reputable local plumbing company. They immediately sent Dan, a newer employee.
Before giving us a repair quote, the affable Dan told us my Sharkbite repairs were “crazy,” briefly deriding Sharkbite. Going to his van, he returned with two quotes: the first was for $1400; the second, which he called “the cheap option,” was for $600. He didn’t go into detail, saying only that the repair involved compression fittings. I asked why he couldn’t just replace the elbow on the left and the small bit of leaking copper pipe going into it. “No,” was all he said.
Chatting when he first arrived, Dan told us he’d last worked for Central Plumbing, whose owner was recently arrested and charged with multiple felonies in numerous jurisdictions. That and the price of his quotes didn’t give me a warm cozy feeling. I said any repair would have to wait until payday.
I filed a claim with our plumbing warranty company, American Water Resources, along with a photo of the problem. They couldn’t find anyone who wanted the job, instead sending me a check for $250, saying if it was more, I could apply for reimbursement.
Turning the water on during the day and off at night as the basement became a humid swamp, I reviewed the AI’s repair description a few times. Maybe it was a complicated repair and worth $600, I thought. Came payday, I called Drain and Main and said we were ready for Dan to make the repair.
[Loren] was done in ten minutes–$350.
Elegant and reasonably priced repair by Loren of Herkimer’s Dain and Main. Took him ten minutes.
They took a moment to check Dan’s quotes, then told me they’d be sending someone else. Loren, a longtime D&M employee with sterling reviews, came out the next morning. Said he used PEX in his work. He was done in ten minutes and charged $350. Tried to save me $19 by paying with a check. I was so relieved I didn’t care.
Mean and irrational neighbors at 333 Pleasant Ave harassed me as I enthusiastically sorted my trash and continued my driveway cleanout. There were plenty of them yelling and berating, but time being of the essence, I continued my outdoor trash organization.
Seriously, it seemed to me as if some of these guys were high, drunk, or looking for a fight.
I think I’m about 1/3 of the way through my cleanout and hope to be continuing at the same rate until I’m finished!
No one physically harmed me until someone named Heidi, who was taller, heavier and much younger, shockingly shoved me to the pavement, bruising my arm, skull, and neck. Believe it or not, this is the first time that I was injured by someone on my own property, bashing my head on the paved driveway. Make sure to view the video of this. It’s been submitted to the Herkimer police! You’ll be able to see dear Heidi in action.
Souvenir of Heidi
Impint of Heidi’s large trollish fingers on my arm where she hurled me to the sidewalk.
333 Pleasant Avenue — Long a Troubled Property
333 Pleasant Ave. We’re always watching. Used to be home to drug dealer Joyce Barton. She moved on, tired of our cameras. No drug trafficking now, but much consuming. The current tenants like to loudly harass us as they smoke their lives away
In May, the Herkimer Village trustees voted to continue providing a Village police officer to serve as SRO at the high school. This after long opposition by Herkimer Mayor Dana Sherry, who wanted to scrub the position due to cost–a problem the county school board obviated by funding it. Sherry then argued that if the village officer were injured in the line of duty, the village could be on the hook for a liability claim. She stated numerous times that the village is cash-strapped.
There was a groundswell of support for the position: folks packed an overfflow trustees’ meeting, signed petitions, and even started a GoFundMe site. A main reason was the current SRO, Officer Jessica Alberts, widely admired by students, faculty and parents. Alberts goes the extra mile for everyone. She’s of an age that students confide in her as a friend and mentor. Kids always know who really cares about them.
As a former teacher, I know how rare it is to have an involved SRO. Those I worked with were mostly older officers nearing retirement. Solid, conscientious guys. However, had we had a younger, involved SRO kids would have confided in, I suspect we’d have avoided several drug overdose deaths among our more vulnerable teens, as Officer Alberts has done in Herkimer. There’s some very moving testimony to this by grateful students in the video of the May meeting. Jessica Alberts has saved and changed some young lives.
Unmoved by this, Mayor Sherry continues her opposition, citing the risk of financial liability and vowing to fight on. It’s a specious argument.
Liability is not an issue: Police officers injured in the line of duty are typically covered by a combination of employer-provided and government-sponsored benefits, including Workers’ Compensation for medical expenses and lost wages, the federal Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program for disability and death benefits, and specific departmental Line of Duty Injury (LODI) benefits that may cover medical treatment and other financial support. These programs seek to provide financial relief to officers and their families during recovery or in the event of a permanent disability or death.
If anything God forbid were to happen to Officer Alberts, she’s covered, as are all our officers. Surely the mayor knows this. She refers to NY Municipal Law 407c. Had she read the law, she’d see that Section Two states that the wages of an injured officer will be replaced by insurance.
In another indication of her fiscal fanaticism, Sherry has moved to sell the Herkimer Public Library building, after its trustees rejected her demand for a rent increase from $400 a month to $3,500. The library serves as a community center and a quiet oasis for reading, research and gatherings in the heart of the village. Sued by the library trustees, Sherry reacted with an abrasive social media post, bristling with strident accusations of “Propaganda”, “Fake News!”, “Bullying!” and shaming.
As with the SRO dispute, Sherry seems to believe money management more important than student safety or quality of community life.
Her constant cry that the village is impoverished? No longer: the booming home sales, new cars everywhere and construction projects sprouting up attest that Herkimer is doing very well. Climate change has made us a national go-to spot.
Sherry’s misperception that the business of government is business, if allowed to triumph, would have endangered the lives of students and teachers and may yet scuttle our library. Abrasively defying the will of the community won’t help her gain reelection, should she run.
It’s been a few years, but fire antics have returned to the area behind 335 Pleasant and 341 Eureka Avenues. They went on into the next morning. The fire was still smouldering at 7:30 am.
Here’s a video clip, taken shortly after midnight:
That fire is a few feet from a wooden border fence and clearly illegal. Here’s the law:
Herkimer Village Local Law No. 3 of 2003, Section 2, defines prohibited burning in the village:
1-12 Definitions
(a)Open Fire: Shall mean any fire or smoke-producing process wherein the combustion products are directly emitted into the atmosphere.
(b)Stack: Shall mean any lawful conduit, chimney, duct, vent, or flue arranged to conduct gases or gas-borne products to the other air.
Prohibited Burning
1-13 No person shall burn any garbage, rubbish, or solid waste in any open fire except as permitted by provisions set forth herein.
Permissible Burning
1-14 When not prohibited by law, regulation, ordinance, or State officials having jurisdiction, such as the State Commission of Conservation or the State Commissioner of Health, the following types of open burning are permissible:
(A)Outdoor grills and fireplaces for the purpose of preparing food.
(B) Camp fires and fires used solely for recreation purposes when such fires are located at least one hundred (100) feet from any dwelling, structure, or vehicle and are properly controlled and supervised by the Herkimer Fire Department.
I called 911 at 9:51. The operator asked me why I thought the fire was illegal. I cited the law. He said he’d send the police. If he did, they had no effect.
This is a highly flammable village, with many trees and close-packed old, dry houses. We’ve lost people to fires in the last few years, three of them children.
The partygoers all appear to be the guests of Carrie Ann Bass of 341 Eureka, as indicated by the presence of her son Harvey, visiting for the event. Bass is a notorious scofflaw noted for, among other things, her weaponized parties.
The long-awaited announcement of the winners of the $10 million Herkimer Revitalization grants is out. You can view them on the News Channel 2 website. The majority of them are sensible uses of this windfall and will greatly improve our worn-out, ever-collapsing village center.
I was concerned about the selection process, fearing it would turn into a feeding trough for buddy-money awards. I shared my concerns with the state project manager, Stefan Lutter of DOS, and smoked out several self-serving proposals during the survey process.
Mr. Lutter assured me that Albany would review proposals for worthiness, and indeed, the most obviously self-serving proposals were weeded out– except for the dentist’s: Albany was asleep at the switch when Dr. Larry Menlo’s proposal came in.
Dr. Menlo was awarded $150k to expand his dental practice. Dr. Menlo stated in his application that the funding would be to … Better Serve Veterans and Patients [by building] an addition at 314 North Prospect Street to create new operatories and facilities that will improve access to dental care for residents and veterans in the region.
Dr. Menlo’s Payment Options (5/25)
It’s unclear how this expansion would serve the veteran community and Herkimer residents unable to afford Dr. Menlo’s cash-on-the-counter practice. As with his other Herkimer dental colleagues, Dr. Menlo doesn’t accept Medicaid or Medicare, nor does he accept any insurance for payment. For that, you have to go to Utica. (The much maligned Aspen Dental accepts and direct bills Medicare PPO.)
It’s disingenuous to state that this award improves Herkimer. The only seeming advantage of this publicly funded expansion of a private dental practice is to give its practitioner a competitive advantage over other area dentists.
I wrote Governor Hochul, requesting a review of the worthiness of Dr. Menlo’s grant, arguing that “It serves only Dr. Menlo, not the Herkimer community. Allowing it to slip by undermines faith in the integrity of the awards process.”
$150k would go a long way toward providing decent sidewalk benches in the village center. There aren’t any. Now that would be a genuine community resource we could all use.
At the request of Herkimer Village Mayor Dana Sherry, the New York State Comptroller conducted an audit of the village finances. The report is now out and the link shared by Mayor Sherry via the Village Facebook. I’ve published it below. It could have been worse. It was a chaotic nightmare rife for fraud.
At a Village Board meeting in March 2023, Mayor Sherry presented several whiteboards detailing some of what she’d unearthed about the village finances she’d inherited from the previous mayoral administration. A few folks at the meeting were irate and refused to believe what they were being shown. Mayor Sherry then wisely requested the assistance of the state Comptroller to untangle the mare’s nest she’d inherited.
The good news? No money was missing. The bad news? The records were a jumbled mess. Working with the state auditors, Mayor Shelly and retired clerk-treasurer Amanda Visconi were able to reconcile several years of botched books, from June 1 2022 to October 1 2024. The work continues. (We’re fortunate Ms. Viscomi was available and willing to help.)
Report Overview
The current and former Clerk-Treasurers did not maintain complete, accurate or up-to-date financial records and reports As a result, the Village Board (Board) lacked the financial information necessary to properly monitor and manage Village finances.
Here’s the full report. Following it is a link to an interview of Mayor Sherry and Ms. Viscomi on WUTQ’s Talk of the Town. (We’re fortunate Ms. Viscomi was available and willing to help.)
Herkimer giving sanctuary to disgraced former New York Supreme Court Judge Erin P. Gall is no surprise. To quote from our Herkimer crime posts, “‘It’s just Herkimer,’ folks say with a shrug.” It was done with a practiced sleight of hand, a bit of Herkimer Machiavellism, which has long succeeded as no one was watching. They’re watching now.
Who is Erin P. Gall?
Gall was a Republican New York State Supreme Court Judge in neighboring Oneida County. In 2022, she unleashed a vicious, 90-minute racist diatribe at a group of Black teens attending a party at her friend’s house. These were local, “clean-cut kids”, as one of the judges who recommended Gall’s removal remarked. The police video of Gall belittling the kids and threatening to shoot them eventually became public and went viral:
“It is utterly unacceptable for a judge to threaten gun violence, exhibit racial prejudice, promise favorable treatment for the police, or disparage a law intended to keep guns away from dangerous people. Any one of these things would undermine public confidence in the administration of justice. That one judge committed all this and more disqualifies her from further service on the bench.”
Jumping before she could be pushed, Gall resigned her judgeship on 12/15/24. End of story? No.
New York State found her conduct “utterly unacceptable.” But it was OK with Herkimer County. On 1/4/25, Gall began her new job as assistant county attorney in Herkimer at $108,105 a year, reported the New York Times. The job is responsible for juvenile justice matters, per the job description: [It}examines and coordinates materials and efforts related topresenting juvenile delinquency cases, represents Herkimer County in bankruptcy proceedings, and does general legal research for the Herkimer County Attorney’s Office.
Gall needed a job and Herkimer threw her a lifeline. Officially, she was appointed by Herkimer County Attorney Lorraine H Lewandrowski. Ms. Lewandrowski serves at the pleasure of the Herkimer County Legislature and is the perfect scapegoat for problems with the appointment of Gall. Folks familiar with the Herkimer government say Lewandrowski wouldn’t have made any appointment unless the county legislature supported it—specifically, Republican Chair Bob Hollum.
Herkimer County Legislature Chair Robert Hollum, is currently on probation for drug and gun charges.
No. 451 – A communication was received from the County Attorney submitting notice of appointment of Assistant County Attorney. Filed.
Herkimer’s assistant county attorney job had all the hallmarks of a political patronage plum. it was open for months, per reliable information. It’s a good, well-paying job and would have had numerous applicants. $100k+ goes a long way in rural New York. But only when Gall needed a job was it filled.
Resigning her judgeship on 12/15/24, Gall stated she’d accepted a position beginning 1/2/25, after searching for a job in September and October–the job with Herkimer County. In her accompanying affidavit, she noted the national and local coverage given the police videos of her diatribe.
Foolishly assuming that such a controversial appointment would have been brought before the Herkimer County Legislature, I searched its minutes. I found only a brief action item, noting the appointment of an unnamed assistant county attorney by the county attorney. It was buried in the minutes of the meeting of 10/23/24, page 2:
No. 451 – A communication was received from the County Attorney submitting notice of appointment of Assistant County Attorney. Filed.
Had the notorious Erin Gall’s been named as the appointee, objections might have been raised. County Attorney Lewandrowski would never have made that appointment on her own. It would have needed a sponsor, like County Legislature Chair Bob Hollum . Lewandowski went along to get along. Which makes her the fall guy should a wave of opprobrium slam the legislature.
Not to worry. Herkimer isn’t given to moral outrage. it’s been a month since the New York Times revealed Gall’s appointment—no wave of opprobrium. Folks in Herkimer tend to be either complicit, craven or cowed–conditioned by years of unchallenged gang activity the Feds finally squelched. Indeed, local Republicans, the ruling party here, support Gall’s appointment. Reflecting Herkimer’s ingrained backwoods racism, Herkimer County Clerk and Republican Chair Sylvia Rowan was quoted by the Times as saying
Ms. Gall’s behavior at the party was something people “will probably frown at.” But… “to question her ability in her job and what she did in that situation is different.” “I’m a firm believer in second chances,” she added.
I feel sorry for any Black kid falling under Gall’s authority.
It’s not too late for the Herkimer County Legislature to redeem itself by firing Gall. Given the underhandedness of her appointment, most of its members have plausible deniability.
New York Times journalist Shayla Colon covers New York City, with a focus on boroughs outside Manhattan. While with Hearst, she covered Upstate New York. Her email address is shayla.colon@nytimes.com. Anonymous tips can be sent her via the Times tip address: https://www.nytimes.com/tips
Why was the court of jurisdiction also not transferred to Oneida County? That would have truly removed any hint of impropriety. Leaving it in the hands of a Herkimer County village court presided over by a part-time judge fuels suspicion that this is being swept under the rug to protect a prominent local politician.
PROOF THE FIX IS IN
I wouldn’t have written about this had WKTV not hidden its first Facebook posting of Hollum’s sentencing. It had over 100 mostly scathing comments when it vanished. Its replacement post is attracting scathing remarks, too. (Follow the link to the original before it disappears.) This all so smacks of Herkimer’s good ole boys protecting each other.
Hollum’s case has inspired me to look at the Herkimer County Legislature’s other recent shady doings. (Did you hear about the unfrocked judge?)
Kimberly Bormann Vargas. Sadly, not a caricature.) Son Jordan Bormann in backgrfound
Junkin Producer Evan Garland suggested the Curtis episode after coming across our blog post about Herkimer Police Officer Jason Crippen refusing, as duty officer, to register a complaint about Cool’s obvious menacing and criminal harassment. You’ll be seeing extracts from the same clips Crippen saw. See if you agree with him.
Evan and his team are brilliant at separating the wheat from the chaff in the original clips and sharing the resulting gripping footage with A&E’s worldwide audience.
Here’s the blog post that sparked Evan’s interest:
11/7/24 Update: Vincent Iocovozzi won, 2,970 to 2,557. Congratulations to Mr. Iocovozzi on his win. Perhaps he’ll uncover some murder victims on his watch.
The Herkimer County District 3 Coroner’s race is no longer a shoo-in for an Enea. Herkimer’s Enea family members, mostly all funeral directors, usually run unopposed or very gently against each other.
This year, though, Herkimer funeral director Vicent Iocovozzi is running against Dan Enea. Both are contending for the seat vacated by Dan Enea’s uncle, Vincent Ena. Iocovozzi appears well-qualified, having the professional qualifications Daniel Enea lacks. But says he’ll get.
Herkimer Coroners Vincent Enea (left) and nephew Daniel Enea
sawing, blowtorch, compression fittings. Old enough to know when to fold, I called Drain and Main (D&M), a very reputable local plumbing company. They immediately sent Dan, a newer employee.
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Herkimer’s Enea family members, mostly all funeral directors, usually run unopposed or very gently against each other.
