by David Flint
With the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets abdicating its responsibility to provide dog tags, issue license renewals or maintain dog licensing data, the Stephentown Town Board at their meeting on Monday passed a new Town dog licensure law to take effect as of January 1.
The law requires that all dogs in the Town be licensed with the Town Clerk by the age of four months. Every license application must be accompanied by proof that the dog has been vaccinated for rabies. The license will be for a period of two years. Fees are the same as currently, $3.50 a year or $7.00 for the license term for a spayed dog. A license for an unspayed dog is $11.50 annually plus a $3.00 State surcharge for animal population control. A kennel license fee will be charged for people harboring more than four dogs. The fee is $25 for four to ten dogs and $50 for more than ten dogs. The Town Board can change any of these fees by resolution.
The Town may contract with an animal shelter to license dogs when people adopt dogs from that shelter. The shelter that Stephentown currently contracts with is Pondviews Country Kennels. Such license fees, additional fees or surcharges will be turned over to the Town Clerk.
Stray dogs will be taken by the Dog Control Officer and properly sheltered. Owners can redeem their dog within five business days providing they show proof that the dog is licensed, pay a fee of $10 for the impoundment and reimburse the Town for the actual amount incurred.
Revenue From County And State
Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt reported that the Town had indeed received a check for about $73,000 from the County for mortgage tax distribution. Eckhardt had expressed surprise and skepticism last month about an article in The Eastwick Press indicating that the Town was slated to receive that amount because it was considerably more than he was expecting. He now believes the size of the distribution was probably due to several large mortgage refinances that occurred in the Town in the past year. Eckhardt reported, too, that The Town had received $61,000 for the third quarter sales tax, a little bit lower than expected, and that the CHIPS money had come in at $99,985, just about what Highway Superintendent Aldy Goodermote was expecting. All in all, he said, the revenue budgeted for 2010 was pretty close.
Road Work Materials Bids Awarded
The Board last month put out to bid material for road work. Two bids were received by the deadline on December 15. John Senter for the Richard Senter Testamentary Trust in Stephentown requested $8 a yard for bank run gravel and $13 a yard for #4 road materials. William Hammersmith of Quality Construction in Berlin wanted $4.50 a yard for bank run and $6.75 for #4 material. The Board decided to award bids to both companies, with the purchase of the product and location of use to be at the discretion of the Highway Superintendent.
Transfer Station Rates Raised
The Board passed a resolution raising rates at the Transfer Station. As of January 1, the bags used for disposal of general garbage and trash will now cost $2 instead of $1. Disposal of Construction and Demolition trash will now cost $20 for a small load (a pickup with a 4-foot bed), $30 for a medium load (6-foot bed) and $40 for a large load. Councilman Mark Prescott defended the increase in bags saying that it costs the Town $3 to dispose of the amount of garbage that one of those bags holds.
Cleaning The Town Hall
The Board passed another resolution awarding a bid for cleaning services in 2011 at the Town Hall to Stephanie DiCarlo at $18 per hour. DiCarlo’s was the only bid received.
Community Group Wants $ For Needy
Eckhardt reported that he had received a letter from a group of senior citizens who expressed concern about the amount of money with which the Town has been subsidizing senior trips. The letter was from the Taconic Valley Community Group. They felt that $11,700 was a lot of money to spend on adult recreation especially since some of those who take advantage of it are not Stephentown residents. Noting that Stephentown spends more money on adult recreation than any other town in the area, they suggested that half of the funds be allocated to help those who are cold and hungry in the Town or to better fund the Youth Commission or the Library. Eckhardt said that Councilman Chris Demick will set up a meeting with the group and try to work out solutions to their concerns.
Paying For Legal And Engineering Costs
In order to better manage development in the Town in a fiscally sound way, the Board is considering changes to the Land Use Regulations that will more clearly specify that legal, engineering and other consulting costs incurred by the Zoning Board or the Planning Board will be passed on to the developers. The Board set a public hearing on the changes for Monday, January 17, at 6:30 pm.
Tax Rate History
Councilman Bill Jennings reported that he had put together a ten year history of taxes levied by the Town. He noted that the tax levy for the General Fund in 2001 was $152,122. By 2010 the levy actually dropped to $132,000. The Board, he said, had covered the decreases by taking from the fund balance. That could not continue, so for 2011 the levy is up slightly to $138,762. Although the levy for the General fund decreased in this period, the Highway Department levy increased by 56%, so that overall the Town’s levy increased by 33%. In that same period, however, the County tax increased by 117%.
Jennings’ tables show the changes year by year in NYS Mandates, Chargebacks, Town General and Highway tax, Fire District tax and School tax. For each category is shown the total tax levy, the change from previous year, the tax rate per thousand of assessed value and the total assessed value of the Town. The data will be available for residents to inspect.
He plans to produce more information of this type showing the comparison of Stephentown with neighboring towns. Berlin for example, he said, has 2/3 the population of Stephentown but only ½ the assessed value. Their highway budget is comparable to Stephentown’s but their General fund budget is considerably lower. One remarkable difference he found was that whereas Stephentown’s Transfer Station showed a deficit of $70,000 for 2010, Berlin ran their Transfer Station with a $4,000 profit
Robinson Hollow Way
Residents of Robinson Hollow Way in North Stephentown are in the process of gathering information in an effort to have the Town take over that road, much as they did with Nora Way in 2009. Victor Weber reported that at this point it is unclear whether anyone holds a deed that goes to the center of the road. Residents will have an assessment made of the structural integrity of a bridge that crosses a stream to see if it meets with Town specifications. He noted that the State has brought 70,000 tons of gravel across the bridge up to the top of the road where they are building a parking lot for trail access. State officials have said they would be willing to help next spring with maintenance of the lower part of the road. Brian Baker said that deeds would have to go to the center line of a common way as all the land must be owned by someone.
Eckhardt asked Weber to make sure that all the residents are sure of what they want to do and to keep the Board informed about the progress of their investigation. He acknowledged that there is a lot of paperwork involved in the Town taking possession of a private road and it took about 20 years to get that accomplished with Nora Way.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk reported she had deposited a total of $6,388.01 and turned over the sum of $512.51 to the Supervisor for the month of November. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town was $1,370.99. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $4,906.
The Board set their Organizational meeting for Monday, January 3, at 7 pm and their next regular meeting for Monday, January 17, at 7 pm, preceded by a public hearing on the Land Use Regulations amendment at 6:30 pm.