Highlands board has decisions to make
After Monday’s annual reorganization meeting the Highlands Town Board had a regular business meeting. Among the actions taken was bringing up some things they want to talk about in 2021.
New councilman Jim Modlin was welcomed to the board, and said several times he is very much looking forward to his work with them in the years ahead.
Some of those topics to discuss:
Virtual Board Meetings: Modlin said he’s been approached by a community resident about holding the board meetings virtually. While they did not make any decisions — there was discussion about Zoom type meetings from home versus Zoom type meetings from the Town Hall meeting room versus the live streaming of meetings with a ‘chat’ feature — the consensus was to get input from the community as to whether they would participate in such events. Supervisor Bob Livsey noted that those who want to can attend meetings now as long as social distancing is observed. Modlin said he hopes to encourage more community participation in not only meetings but community events. Persons with feedback should reach out to any of the five board members in the next two weeks.
It was noted several times during the meeting that several town boards — Planning and Zoning specifically — have successfully held meetings virtually throughout the pandemic. A moment was taken to praise town Comptroller Kelly Pecoraro for her assistance to the various boards for helping with their virtual meetings.
Police Consolidation: Both Councilman Tyrone King and Modlin spoke briefly on the possibility of consolidating the two local police departments into one, and Livsey said he’s spoke informally with THPD Chief Frank Pierri about it. Pierri, who was at the meeting, said he’d be happy to sit down with the board to talk about it. “I think we could save a bunch of money,” King said.
Budget: Modlin made his first remarks early in the meeting when it came time to adopt the 2021 salary schedule, saying that while he has “no doubt” the town has “very good” employees, he was not necessarily in favor of giving pay increases — two percent increases were given to non-union employees for 2021 –when “we have people in the community who have lost jobs and are hurting”. He said “this is not a great time to raise taxes; we’ve got to take care of our taxpayers,” noting the board’s decision to override the NYS tax cap for 2021. “I don’t want this to become our default position”.
Modlin abstained from voting on the salary schedule, and as the meeting went on the other board members defended the work they did during the budget process. Councilman Richard Parry commented that the raises that were given “are not going to break the bank” as the town “tries to hold on to our good employees”. None did argue, however, that keeping expenses down in 2021 will be essential.
Mechanic: The board did act on this matter on Monday, hiring a second part-time mechanic to assist at the Town Highway Garage on an as-needed basis. The town’s full-time mechanic is currently out of work, the supervisor said, so Don Smith was hired, at $40 per hour. He’ll join Joe Smallwood, already working in that same capacity. Livsey said it was significantly less costly to hire part-time mechanics than to send town vehicles — especially the larger ones like garbage trucks — out for repair.