Southern Ulster Times Oct. 12 2016

TIMES SOUTHERN Crunch time Local towns submit proposed budgets for 2017 ULSTER Vol. 13, No 41 3 OCTOBER 12 - 18, 2016 3 ONE DOLLAR Lady Dukes win Student rep on school board Page 42 Page 22 SERVING HIGHLAND, MARLBOROUGH AND PLATTEKILL Dedicated service Plattekill retires policeman’s badge By MARK REYNOLDS [email protected] Lloyd, Marlborough and Plattekill recently unveiled their proposed town budgets for 2017. Town of Lloyd Bookkeeper Karen McPeck said that the town’s tentative budget reflects the figures that were compiled and submitted by department heads. “This is our working budget and this is where we will start to make adjustments and analyze the numbers,” she said. McPeck highlighted the trend in the last few years with calculations outside the water and sewer district; in 2015 the initial tentative budget showed a 38 cents per thousand increase that was reduced in the final budget to a .05 cent/thousand increase; the budget for 2016 originally had a $.51 cent /thousand increase that was lowered to .04 cents/thousand and in 2017 “we are showing a .35 cents/ thousand increase and we’ll work it to keep below the tax cap again.” Councilman Joe Mazzetti commended McPeck and all of the Town Board members “that worked very diligently so far to make sure that we’re under the tax cap because that’s important to our taxpayers to keep under the cap.” Presently, Appropriations for 2017 stands at $9,164,734, with the top four Continued on page 31 The Plattekill Town Board recently honored Police Officer Willard Sutton at a special retirement ceremony. Pictured L-R Lt. William Smith, Supervisor Joe Croce, Sutton and Councilmembers Cindy Delgado, Dean Depew and Michael Putnam. By MARK REYNOLDS [email protected] In an extraordinary action, the Town of Plattekill retired Badge number 116 that belonged to Police Officer Willard Sutton, who served the town for 32 years. This was the first time that a departmental badge has ever been retired. Last week the Town Board honored Sutton with a special presentation to acknowledge his long and distinguished career in law enforcement. Supervisor Joe Croce said the Town Board “did not want that to go unnoticed.” A shadow box was presented to Sutton containing his Police department patch, an American Flag, the collar TPP button [Town of Plattekill Police] and his Police Badge, which will not be worn again by a Plattekill Police Officer, and a small plaque acknowledging Sutton’s 32 years of dedicated service. Croce presented the shadow box to Sutton, saying “Thank you so very WWW.SOUTHERNULSTERTIMES.COM much.” Historically, military sailors, who were retiring from shipboard service considered it bad luck if their shadows touched shore before they did but having a small shadow box containing their belongings allowed them to ensure that they would touch shore before their ‘shadow’ did. Lt. William Smith congratulated Sutton on his retirement, saying Sutton has always supported him “and I feel it Continued on page 31