by Jay Lawson
The Town of Webb Board met for their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 13, where they discussed Webb’s Master Plan revision project and the Town’s 2016 Budget.
Marcia Barker is chairing the Master Plan committee.
She said the various subcommittees have been meeting to consider various aspects of the Plan and should have final reports by next spring.
The Board said they would like to estimate outside Planning Federation costs to include in the Town’s 2016 Budget.
The cost of producing the original Master Plan was $3,000, Barker said.
She said she would expect an update to cost less, but is uncertain about inflation’s effects.
The Board thanked Barker for her work and the work of the other Master Plan Committee volunteers.
Councilman J.B. Herron said he is pleased with the makeup of the committee in that it includes diverse ages, genders, and personal backgrounds.
Supervisor Riehle said the cost of the Master Plan update could come from a number of budget lines including Professional Services to the Town.
Barker said she expects to have a clearer picture of recommended revisions the next time she addresses the Board.
The Board also voted to adopt the Tentative Budget as the 2016 Preliminary Budget.
The Total Appropriates for General and Highway Funds are $7,707,311.
Estimated Revenues are $2,848,400.
Unexpended Balance applied to reduce taxes is $1,280,000.
That leaves an amount to be raised by taxes of $3,578,911.
Board members said they were pleased with the Preliminary Budget in that the tax levy stayed within tax cap for 2016, which comes in at a stingy .73 percent.
As for the plan to contribute from the Town Budget to the Old Forge Ambulance Corps’ round-the-clock Advanced Life Support (ALS) staffing, funds have been allocated in amount of $200,000, though details of contract with the Corps are still pending, according to Supervisor Ted Riehle.
He said the New York State Comptroller has requirements that municipalities must include. Those are still being worked out by the Town Attorney, he said.
Overall, Riehle said he is extremely happy with the Budget so far.
“We’ve been able to work within the tax cap. We’re still continuing some capital reserve accounts. We’re still planning on finishing some big projects, such as the roof of the Park Avenue Building. The Board has expanded our Senior Recreation program. We agreed to budget money [$20,000] to establish a capital reserve project for a more permanent skating rink, wherever that may be,” he said.
That skating rink could be an addition to the North Street pavilion or another plan to be determined at a later date, Riehle said.
“A future board will decide that, but we have put some money aside,” he said.
Obviously, a bigger ticket allocation such as the $200,000 to be paid annually toward ALS staffing makes it harder to stay within a state mandated tax cap, but Riehle said the Board was able to work it out.
“We took a harder look at some of our revenues to determine whether we were too conservative. There was room in some of our revenue lines to make some reasonable adjustments. The New York State Retirement Fund is doing extremely well, so we saw a large decrease in the projections for state retirement; that made some monies available. Those were some bigger parts that made monies for the (ALS) possible,” he said.
Current fuel costs and efficiencies also allowed some cuts on the expenditure side.
Also significant is that Riehle said he doesn’t anticipate budgeting difficulties in future years.
“I don’t see any problems going forward. You can’t predict the future, including changes to interest rates and what they might start doing to the economy and the town’s expenses. But my thoughts going forward are that I don’t see any [budget] problems in the following year,” he said.
Ultimately the 2016 budget does a lot of work efficiently, according to Riehle.
“There are critical things happening in the coming year. We’re waiting to hear on a planning grant for the the wastewater plant. That’s an important part of infrastructure that needs to be looked at; we’re ready for an upgrade there. The bond is coming due on the treatment plant from the original construction. Along with the water tank project, these are critical needs of the town,” he said.
“So I think our infrastructure is in good shape, and that we’re going in the right direction with projects that need to be done.”
Councilman Mike Ross said he is pleased with the Preliminary Budget for 2016.
“We went into this budget year knowing that our tax cap was going to cause a real struggle,” he said.
Ross said he was glad the funding could be found to assist the Ambulance Corps with ALS staffing without exceeding that cap.
“The Board worked very well together [in separating] our wants and needs. The department heads did a wonderful job with what they had to do. They were aware that this was going to be a tough year. And at the end of the process it worked out for us,” he said.
A public hearing for reviewing the Preliminary Budget will be held on November 2.