The Williston Park Village Board enacted a local law to override the tax levy limit if necessary last month, allowing the village to adopt a budget for its fiscal year commencing June 1. The board voted 4-1 in favor of the law, with trustee Teresa Thomann voting in opposition.
Mayor Paul Ehrbar said that with the law in place, the village would be able to override the tax cap which is 1.68 percent.
“It does not mean that we’re going to go over the cap, or under the cap and find that in reality we’re really over, however it protects us down the road from penalties from NY State,” Ehrbar said, who also indicated that if the village goes under the cap, the local law has to be repealed.
Thomann, who mentioned that this is her fifth budget on the board, expressed her position that the law did not need to be passed at this time.
“We can do that if necessary and after we’ve seen the numbers,” Thomann said. “There is no point in doing it now, in addition, we knew this was in discussions last year, so we’ve made decisions specifically preparing to be fiscally prudent this year.”
Further, Mayor Ehrbar and the Williston Park Department of Public Works Superintendent Keith Bunnell expressed a strong urgency to all residents to remove their cars from the streets if there is any warning of snow, from a dusting to a blizzard, and to not use snow blowers to shoot snow into the streets.
“We’re not looking to hit people with tickets, it’s a hard thing to do for our residents, but we need the roads plowed so they can be safe,” Ehrbar said.
Bunnell said it takes five times the amount of salt to get rid of two inches of snow as opposed to plowing, and with a $10,000 budget amounting to an estimated three trucks of salt, the cost for one truck load is $4,000, which does the village once.
“There’s a salt shortage, it’s very hard to get a delivery, and we need to plow even small amounts of snow so we can maximize our salt,” Bunnell said, who also mentioned that if the village were to purchase salt from a company and not from New York State, the cost would double.
Bunnell also said the DPW’s equipment is getting tired from ice and slush, blades have to be replaced, and anticipated more expensive bills to be coming in by the time the winter is over.
Kerry Collins, village building inspector, said has issued 244 tickets, a $150 fine each, for snow removal, totaling to $36,600.
“The most recent evening of snow was deplorable, the streets were packed and we couldn’t even down them with our small vehicles,” Collins said.
