by David Flint
The Town of Stephentown ended the year 2012 in pretty good shape financially. Some of that was due to the weather. As Highway Superintendent Aldie Goodermote pointed out at the Town Board meeting Monday, “We had no winter.” That meant there was almost no overtime for the road crew. Town Supervisor Larry Eckhardt noted that there was $87,000 in the budget for payroll for snow removal but only about $53,000 was spent. Also payments from FEMA turned out to be a good bit higher than expected. And in the General Fund, Eckhardt said, receipts from the sales tax and the mortgage tax were considerably more than what was budgeted. For sales tax $250,000 was budgeted but $304,000 was received. For the mortgage tax $57,000 was budgeted and close to $92,000 was taken in.[private]There were some negative balances in both the General and Highway Funds. One large negative balance on the General Fund side resulted from the purchase of the property next to the Highway Garage for $45,000. But both Funds ended up with an overall surplus. In finalizing the year end balances Eckhardt is seeking advice from the State Comptroller’s Office as to whether he can take the excess on the income side to offset the negatives on the expense side.
Town Pays Property Tax?
In the purchase at auction of the property adjacent to the Garage, the Stephentown Library put up some of the funds to enable the purchase. It is expected that the house on the property will eventually be demolished. In the meantime, however, Councilman Bill Jennings said that he and Councilman John Meekins will lead the Library Board on Monday on a walk through the building.
Eckhardt said he was a bit bewildered that the Town Board recently received a property tax bill in the amount of $1,857 for that property. He said the property they purchased for $45,000 was assessed at $200,669 full value. Eckhardt will check with Assessor Tom MacVeigh on this but believes it must be some sort of mistake by the County.
Emergency Services
Eckhardt said that Councilman Jennings and Assistant Fire Department Chief Rik McClave would represent the Town at a County meeting Wednesday evening on emergency services. After Hurricane Irene last year and Hurricane Sandy this past year and the wind storm last month, County officials want to see how they can coordinate improved response. Eckhardt said one of his concerns is that storm information coming through National Grid is not much use to responders and customers in the NYSEG area. He would like to be able to notify people when and where services are available such as dry ice, bottled water or shelter if needed but said it’s just a guess as to who exactly is without power. The County, he felt, might be able to coordinate the dissemination of better information in this regard.
Land Use Regulations
Just getting a few changes made to the Town’s Land Use Regulations is proving, in Eckhardt’s words, to be “a long and arduous process.” Since the Land Use Regulation Review Committee came up with the changes the Town Board has held two public hearings. No one from the public attended the first one which was held in the midst of Hurricane Sandy so a second one was held last month. The Board earlier accepted the recommendations from the Committee and now passed a resolution declaring the proposed changes a Type 1 action under SEQRA and taking on Lead Agency status. Eckhardt said that Linda von der Heide from the County Planning Department was at the Board’s Workshop meeting last week and advised that the Town must complete the long version of the Environmental Assessment Form (EAF). She believed that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) would not be necessary but another public hearing will be needed to approve dispensing with it. Following completion of the EAF, with which von der Heide is assisting, the proposed amendments must go to the Planning Board for a 30 day review. The Town Board can then go on to finalize the changes and send it on to the NYS Department of State.
Town Historian Appointed
The Board passed a resolution appointing Patricia Flint as Town Historian with a term to expire at the end of the year. Flint replaces Tom Laier, who declined to resubmit an application. Flint had been endorsed earlier by the President of the Stephentown Historical Society, and Eckhardt thanked her for submitting a fine resume.
Housekeeping Resolutions
The Board passed resolutions changing mileage reimbursement from 55 cents to 56.5 cents per mile and changing the hours for Town Hall cleaning services from four hours a week to 4.5 hours. The extra half hour is to allow for taking trash to the Transfer Station. Another resolution was passed to designate Nathan Cowen as Second Deputy Clerk to serve when the First Deputy Clerk is not available.
Deposits & Spending
The Town Clerk turned over the sum of $455.76 to the Supervisor for the month of December. The distribution from the Office of the State Comptroller, Justice Court Fund to the Town for December had not been deposited yet. The Transfer Station deposited a total of $4,822.
The Board audited and approved claims in the amount of $14,012.86 from the General Account and $6,620.41 from the Highway Account.
Meetings
The Board set its next Workshop meeting for Monday, February 11, and its next regular meeting for Monday, February 18, both meetings to start at 7 pm.[/private]