Upcoming Business

This article appeared in the Townsman, November 6 edition

November will be a busy month for the Woodstock town board, with a meeting scheduled to discuss the budget on the 10th, a public hearing on the 2009 budget on the 12th, and a public hearing on a proposed local law to regulate outdoor boilers, and on the codification of the laws of the Town of Woodstock on the 18th.

The special meeting on budget, which will be held at 4:00 pm at the Town Offices, was called as a result of concerns from members of the board that the proposed 8% hike in the general fund levy and proposed increases in water and sewer rates may need more scrutiny. With regard to the general fund, councilman Chris Collin's suggestion that the town board members not take the proposed 5% pay increase for their services did not appear to get traction. Councilwoman Liz Simonson thought that perhaps savings could be realized by holding off on equipment purchases, although she did not identify specific items. Of the proposed $4,409,101 budgets, $2,071,352 is for wages, $1,003,152 is for employee benefits, and $308,692 is for bond payments, totaling $3,383,196, which leaves the board $1,025,905 to nibble at. This sum includes hard costs of insurance ($160,000) and necessities such as heat and electric to operate the buildings and gasoline for the fleet, not to mentions attorney fees (estimated at $67,500), trash disposal ($42,610) and numerous other incidentals including paper. With a decrease in services (i.e. employees) already taken off the table, and no suggestions heard thus far for increasing revenues the November 10 meeting will be of interest.

The product of this meeting will be made apparent at the public hearing on the budget a scant two days afterward on Wednesday, November 12 at 7:30 PM at the Community Center. Also on the table for adoption this same evening are the water and sewer district budgets, which have not been adopted. Motions to adopt said budgets were tabled despite the fact that there had been no objections from the public on their substance, although Joan Schwartzberg did urge the board to amend its billing periods so that the present and future rates can be easily computed by the property owner.

On November 18 beginning at 7:30 pm at the Community Center there will be two public hearings, with the proposal to regulate outdoor boilers up first. Outdoor boilers have become popular in some communities (none are reported to exist in Woodstock at the present) where they are seen as an economical means of heating homes. Many communities, however, report complaints from neighbors of nuisance caused by smoke and odor emanating from such devices. The intent of the proposed local law is to impose "reasonable limits and performance standards" on the boilers to lessen the chances of such nuisance. The law is modeled on a similar law adopted in the recent past by the Town of Hurley.

The next public hearing will be on the new code of the Town of Woodstock, a compilation and organization of the Town's local laws. Up to now the local laws have been arranged in a file by date of adoption, and some of the ordinances date back as far as 1936. The codification, which began almost two years ago on the initiative of Woodstock town Clerk Jackie Earley, will put all the laws into one book in a format that can be easily amended, as laws are from time to time. The previous town board had worked to update and amend several local laws in anticipation of their codification, including the 1956 Tree Ordinance, water and sewer district regulations, solid waste, organization of the civic design and environmental commissions, animal control, and traffic and parking. Joan Schwartzberg, then the Town's document coordinator was instrumental in this endeavor and the final product reflects much of her contribution. Initial reading of the approximately 200 - page document indicated no substantive changes from laws presently on the books.