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Preliminary Putnam Valley Budget Meetings Draw Out District Needs
by Edward Paul Greiff
Preliminary Putnam Valley District Budget meetings began on August 11, 2007 at Town Hall. Town officials present to hear district needs and requests were: Supervisor Sam Davis, Councilman Dan Ricci, Councilman Bob Tendy, Director of Finance Marianne DiSantis, and District Clerk Eileen Royael.
It was a beautiful clear, cool, sunny day and to make the mood even more pleasant Councilman Bob Tendy showed up for the 9am meeting with two large jugs of hot coffee and a wide variety of donuts from "Dunkin Donuts." It was just what the residents were looking for as they showed up for the meetings - it's hard to be cantankerous when you are sipping coffee and chewing on a "Munchkin."
The purpose of the meeting was to hear about each districts' needs and requests so they could be incorporated into the final Town budget when employee salaries and benefits would be known as well as the budget request being made by the Highway Department, Fire Department, Ambulance Corps, Library, and Town Hall.
Financial Director Marianne DeSantis has already increased each district's "Clerical Compensation" line item tentatively by four percent in anticipation of upcoming CSEA contract negotiations. She also increased each district's "Unallocated Insurance" line item by five percent in anticipation of higher liability insurance costs. DeSantis also expects employee benefits to increase, especially since the Workman's Compensation laws have been revised. "We don't know what Governor Spitzer is going to do," said DeSantis.
For the most part each district is in fairly good financial condition with an adequate fund balance should an emergency arise or if there is a need to draw upon these funds to reduce the tax bites when the final budget is prepared in a few months.
The three big lake districts, Lake Peekskill, Roaring Brook Lake, and Lake Oscawana, had the greatest needs as well as the largest turnout of residents to substantiate the requests being made. Roaring Brook Lake had approximately 25 to 30 residents at the meeting and they prepared a 15- page document with photos showing deteriorating conditions and equipment that needs to be replaced.
Generally speaking each comparable district had similar requests: restocking the lake with carp or pike because they were at the end of their tenyear life cycle, more sand to cover up rocks that have now surfaced, more sand to replace the sand that has washed into the lake because of erosion, heavy duty picnic tables, swing sets, and either building new docks or repairing existing ones.
Lake Peekskill had a request to purchase beach surveillance cameras that can be placed at strategic locations and rotated as the need warrants it in order to curb the vandalism going on at the beaches in off hours. Evidence of this wanton behavior became even more apparent when a request was made to remove a bicycle that had been thrown into the lake.
Roaring Brook Lake had a few unique requests of their own such as creating a "Beach Volleyball" court and a new and improved "Porta-Potty." Their ideal Porta-Potty would be spacious, air conditioned and have toilets that flush.
The Roaring Brook Lake District meeting to further discuss community issues and needs is scheduled for Saturday, August 18, at 11am at Town Hall.
Probably the quickest budget hearing was the Lake Oscawana Weed Control District. They knew what they wanted and their preliminary budget reflected their needs. Kathleen McLaughlin, who gave the report said, "We iron out our issues before we come to the meeting." They have scheduled their annual LOCA meeting for Sunday, August 19 at 10:30am at the Putnam Valley Library. Topics for the meeting include: Limnologist report, Lake Management Plan, Phosphorous Controls, and the election of board members.
Residents of the Mill Ponds Water District continue to look at a $50,000 plus Yorktown Hook-Up Fee and Water Cost. Some of the residents are questioning if they can be allowed to drill their own wells and drop out of the Yorktown Hook Up. Councilman Dan Ricci refreshed everyone's memory of five years ago when the wells in Mill Ponds went dry. The fastest and most economic solution then was to hook into Yorktown's water supply. There is nothing to prevent someone from pursuing this approach [well-drilling] but the ramifications of such a decision should be very carefully looked into lest they end up in a situation that is much worse than depending upon Yorktown for their water supply.
For the first time there were two representatives from the Barger Pond District at the budget meeting and they were greeted by applause from the Town Officials. They have a unique situation where they only use a lifeguard for four days, Friday through Monday and as a result they cut that expense by half.
What was encouraging to see were the number of new faces attending this meeting and the number of people who were new residents of Putnam Valley getting involved in their community. Supervisor Sam Davis welcomed them to the neighborhood by saying, "Putnam Valley is a great town."
The next budget meeting is scheduled for September 8 at Town Hall at 9am.
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