April 13, 2009
Happy Anniversary! This is our one year anniversary for this site and keeping a tighter watch on our elected officials.
In attendance of this months meeting was Supervisor Dick Howard, Board Members- Trisha Grover, Mike Scott, Shawn Dunmire, and Dick Kozlowski. Also in attendance was Curt & Sue Rung, Alice Dunbar, Paul Sadler, Theresa Baldwin, Larry Bedow, Jon Reitz and myself.
All reports were accepted with no opposition or questions from any of the board members.
Curt, Highway Superintendent had this to offer on his crews work:
- The Town has $86,800 for 2009 CHIPS ($29,886.60 has already been spent)
- They are working on the Dimmick and Zimmer Road
- They will finish the gravel between County Road 8 and the Dimmick Road
- They patched pot holes on Pleasant Valley and will grade the shoulders
Mike Scott questioned if Pleasant Valley would be chipped this year and Curt said he would have to see how much money is left over with the projects he already has planned for the year.
Curt requested the board consider purchasing a new loader. The town’s loader is a ‘96 and in bad shape. Curt priced a new one of from State Bid at $110,576 (3 1/2 yard bucket and a Cummins Engine). Mike Scott asked Curt to look into getting the loader’s transmission rebuilt that he could not in good conscious vote for a new one at this time.
Alice Dunbar stated the tentative assessment roll is completed. Just a note for all of you that like to check on the County’s website for updates, their website will not be updated you will have to check with the assessors office for any information.
Paul Sadler issued one building permit and attended a court hearing for a local resident for her dog.
The Village has abolished their judge’s position as of June 1. What does this mean for the town? All future fines collected (except for ones that were from previous court hearings) will go to the town. This will help increase revenue for the town. The town needs to increase the Judge’s pay though. Her work load has not gone down, she is losing her Village portion of pay and the town’s revenues are about to increase it only makes sense. ( I know your going to say oh that’s your sister-in-law but it’s only right.)
There were no bidders on the garage doors. The Board accepted an offer of $300 from Curt Rung for the doors.
On a final note the positions of Town Supervisor, Town Clerk, Justice and Highway Superintendent are up for reelection this year.
I don’t know for sure, but I always assumed that the Village Justice was a required postion. You would think though the work load would go down because Reed street and the trailer park which have always been high crime areas are in Bolivar township.
I am not opposed to Judge Manners receiving Fair compensation for her postion. I am opposed to the Village pushing more expense on to the town tax payers with out the town having a choice in the matter.
Maybe we could get someone to explain the tax system. I have heard for villiage residents they are double taxed because they pay town taxes and they pay villiage taxes. Yet I beleive I heard at one time Village Residents pay a lower rate for town taxes based on the fact they also pay village taxes. If the town takes over a servcie to reduce the villiage’s cost then if they do have a lower town tax rate there rate should be incresed. Would you not agree?
Here is a link that states the correct way the town can terminate this position:
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/costsavings/justicecourtbrochure.htm
You will notice toward the end there is a flow chart that very nicely points out the correct actions that need to be taken and the town should have been involved with this as well.
Also this position cannot legally be abolished until the end of the election term which the Elections Department has as April 1, 2010. So now the village has a position that cannot legally be abolished and no money in the budget. I feel sorry for these residents of the village. This is one big mess.
I’m writing to clear a few things up………………….Dan, you are correct that the trailer park and Reed Street are high crimes areas for us. That is in the Village of Richburg, therefore, the Village gets the fines for that. Once the village justice is abolished, all those fines will then go to the Town of Wirt. As Lea posted, the justice position for the Village cannot be abolished UNTIL my 4 year term is up so maybe I won’t have to worry about not getting a higher salary until the budget in 2010. The Town will make out once all the fines from the Village go to the Town. The village has lots more tickets because of the State Police always patroling in the Village. I will keep everyone up to date once I find out where my job stands.
Thank you for the information in this age of computers It seams hard for some people to get the correct information the site you provied makes things quite clear and ends many of the rummers and questions which have been going around town.
I wish that by living in the Village my taxes were lower but I don’t see that they are. Instead of only having to pay taxes twice a year, I get those nice spring taxes on top of the spring water bill. Wish I could take my house and lot out of the Village limits just enough so I don’t have to pay the extra tax in the spring. With the price of Village and Town taxes you would think one of them could repair the road so that every two months the potholes empty back out leaving a mine field in the road.
If the town taxes were comparable to what the Village and Town taxes combined are there would be reason for the suggestion, but in all honesty, I think the whole area should be combined into just the Town of Wirt. Either that or only charge the Village of Richburg citizens the Village Tax and not the Town of Wirt taxes on top of them. I only live in one house but pay taxes on two different locations. It seems the Village of Richburg is receiving tax money for not supplying anything but water, fire department and lots of headaches.
Maybe instead of eliminating an essential job like the Village Justice, who actually earns money for the Village, the Village Board should do their civic duty and either take a pay cut or work for nothing until they can balance the budget. The same people who want to eliminate the job are going to be the first to complain when the “crime rate” goes up.