June 15, 2008 In an article this week in The Journal News that dealt with tax-exempt properties in Ramapo and the pressure that this put on taxpayers who had to pick up the slack, Supervisor St. Lawrence had this to say about the problem:

In a recent phone call to the Verdin Clock Company in Madison, Conn., an associate of Preserve Ramapo spoke to a company representative. The rep had no trouble remembering the recent purchase made by the Town of Ramapo. Most towns, the rep explained, buy one or maybe two clocks. You virtually never get an order for as many as six clocks at a time. One reason for this is that each clock sells for $30,725.71 plus $2,000 for installation.

These clocks cost the Ramapo taxpayers almost a quarter million dollars! St. Lawrence has purchased seven of them.

And then there was another comment.

The Verdin Company has been in business a very long time, founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1842. In the long history of the company, Christopher St. Lawrence is the only politician to request that his voice be recorded and his personal greeting be added to the carillon (chime patterns). There are 35,000 installations of these Verdin clocks worldwide, and no other mayor, governor, burgher, or generalissimo has insisted on adding his voice to timed chiming of the bells.

Can the besieged taxpayers of Ramapo, those still on the shrinking tax rolls, afford seven $30,000 clocks?

Are you a little uncomfortable with the idea that 35,000 times out, it didn’t once enter the mind of some other politician, somewhere in the world, that, "Hey, you know what would be a great idea. What about having the clocks, twice an hour say "This is (fill in the functionary’s name) wishing you a lovely day"--24 hours a day?

We in Ramapo have a unique place in the history of the Verdin Company. And in a profession that has produced a veritable sea of bloated egos, one now floats above all the others, calling out his name every hour on the half hour.

Michael Castelluccio