×

Pomfret rates go up as Borrello visits

OBSERVER Photo by J.M. Lesinski County Executive George Borrello (far left) addresses the Pomfret Town Board at its meeting Wednesday.

Continuing on his quest to visit every board meeting in Chautauqua County, County Executive George Borrello made an appearance at the latest Pomfret Town Board meeting Wednesday. At the meeting, Borrello discussed the continued county collaboration efforts, his county-wide strategy plan and the positive effect shared services has been having on the area.

When Borrello took questions from the room, Councilman Brett Christy brought one forward on lowering taxes, the goal Christy himself had coming onto the board. “I came onto this board about six years ago and my goal was to try and lower taxes for the residents of the Town of Pomfret,” Christy stated. “How are you (the county) helping us on that?”

The response Borrello gave focused on accessibility and the importance of good information. “The county…if there’s something you’d like to consider, we’d like to help you,” Borrello said. “Our role at the county, we have a tremendous amount of information and respect at the state level, especially with the department of state, we have a lot of resources that we can seek out.”

The bottom line answer Borrello had to Christy’s question was as follows: “The quickest path to reducing property taxes is consolidation of government.”

Borrello also made the comment, “You look at having over 500 elected officials throughout the county, and most of those positions run unopposed, maybe it’s time to look at and say do we need that many elected officials? I’m not saying that the village and the town here should merge, I don’t know what the appetite is for that, but if you hypothetically wanted to do that, you could come to the county.”

Public schools were also brought up as possible areas for improvement, with thought-provoking numbers on the matter. “Schools…our entire county population-wise is smaller than the town of Amherst, and we have 18 school districts. Amherst has three,” Borrello stated. “That’s something that really has to come from the state, but wherever there’s opportunities to collaborate…having good information and data is key.”

Highway Superintendent Jude Gardner made a comment on the benefit of shared services for the town. “I use the county a lot with the highway department,” Gardner noted. “Just last week, we had a creek jam backed up with ice…I called them up Thursday, they were here by Monday. It’s a good system of shared services.”

Borrello thanked Gardner for his input. “We may not be able to write a check,” Borrello said. “But if we can mobilize some forces, we can do that for each other.”

In his closing comment, Borrello again emphasized that Chautauqua county is headed in a good direction. “We have a lot of irons in the fire now, but here in the north end of the county there’s a lot of great things going on, opportunities, and we really want to capitalize on that.”

Following Borrello’s appearance, board members led a lengthy discussion on the merits of, and options for, adjusting the town’s water rates. Supervisor Donald R. Steger presented the numbers to the board. “We are collecting the same amount we’re getting charged, so we’re not even covering O&M. We’re running a deficit,” said Steger. “We can’t survive by charging exactly what we’re charged, we have nothing to pay for reading the meters, nothing to pay for sending out the bills.”

The discussion concluded with the board voting to change three of the four water rates and all sewer rates for the town. Those changes will be effective next billing cycle and are as follows:

¯ For residential water customers, the minimum charge for the first 5,000 gallons will go up from $50 to $60 per quarter.

¯ Commercial water customers will retain the rate of $69.50 for the minimum charge, but that will only be toward the first 5,000 gallons, instead of 10,000 gallons.

¯ The commercial rate per thousand gallons charged after the minimum rate will change from $14.40 to $15.12, a five percent increase.

¯ All sewer rates will be increasing by five percent.

In other news, the board approved the proposed installation of two electric car chargers in compliance with a green energy grant. The chargers will cost $1,000, but the grant will be for $4,000 once they’re installed sometime later this year. Steger also announced a building permit was issued for Upstate Tower to construct a tower on the rear of the old baseball field on Chautauqua Road.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today