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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Park pavilion dedicated
BUY A HOME NOW
BEFORE INTEREST RATES RISE
WITH LOW MORTGAGE RATES FROM HOMETOWN BANK
Gary Ayd
Town of Montgomery officals gathered Nov. 1 for the dedication of the Burnett Pavilion at
Benedict Park. Pictured (l. - r) Town Clerk Tara Stickles, Councilman Dan Dempsey, Supervisor
Mike Hayes, former Receiver of taxes Jean Shafer, who’s family once owned the farm property
and contributed money for the pavilion, and Engineer Tom Olley.
Little change for
Montgomery town budget
By RACHEL COLEMAN
Despite a unanimous vote by the
Montgomery Town Board to override the
tax cap, tax rates will decrease slightly
next year—by a few cents—putting a little more change in the pockets of town
taxpayers.
Hayes explained on Thursday that they
did not make any significant changes to
the budget since the public hearing the
week before, which means town officials
will continue to receive health insurance
and there will be no increases for the
libraries in the town.
Ginny Neidermier, director of the
Josephine Louise Public Library in
Walden, expressed disappointment, stating that the libraries face the same budgetary challenges as the town, but were
more limited in their options to obtain
funding. She reminded the board that
the requested increase was to keep and
expand library programs and address an
imbalance between what town and village
residents pay for library services (town
residents pay about half).
“The parity is way off,” said Neidermier.
The issue of dropping health insurance
for town board members was not raised
on Thursday.
Hayes reminded residents that the
addition of the debt for Neelytown West
Water District is what sent them over
the tax cap, but said residents outside
that special district will actually see a
decrease of a few cents in their town tax
bill. Property owners in the Neelytown
West Water District will notice an
increase in their bills as they begin to pay
into the water district for the first time.
As always, property owners who have
improved their properties and received a
higher assessment can also expect to see
an increase in their tax bill.
The budget approved by the board
entails an increase of 1.29 percent on the
levy.
In other business, the board approved
a reimbursement of $934 to town resident
Cory Zahakos regarding an emergency
repa