PANAMA — While the village of Panama is not looking to consolidate any part of the village, Mayor William Schneider was in attendance at a recent Chautauqua County leadership meeting to learn more about what the county is looking to do with the recently talked about consolidation efforts for municipalities.

The meeting was held earlier in the day on the same day as Panama’s December meeting, and Schneider said the main focus for County Executive PJ Wendel at that meeting was the new program offering grant money to county municipalities for consolidation. Schneider said while that grant money is there and available, it is not something the village is interested in doing anything with.

“We already consolidate our shared services with the town already, so there’s not much more we can do,” Schneider said. “I don’t think the village is ready for dissolution at this particular point. I think we’re doing fine.”

He added that there are some other municipalities in the county that he has heard are not doing fine and have had to jump tax bills up to somewhere around 40 or 50%. He emphasized that the village of Panama is doing a great job, including that the village treasurer, Larissa Enlow, does a good job keeping the village funds in check and that the village board also does a good job in doing things “appropriately with the taxpayers in mind.”

“So I think we’re good for now and there is not really a need,” Schneider said. “I haven’t heard of any residents that want to consolidate with the town, so I think we’re good to go.”

Schneider said that two things he found interesting that were discussed at the meeting were the real property tax and full assessments. Many municipalities, including the town of Harmony, are in the middle of working on reassessments, Schneider said, and at the county meeting it was said that they have to make sure they are in touch with assessors and make sure they know about “all of the different issues.”

Another issue that was brought up that Schneider said he had not previously taken into consideration was gas wells, adding that he was not sure how many gas wells there were in the village. When assessors are adjusting tax bills for gas well properties, he said the village has to remind them that production is taken into consideration. Many gas well productions have gone down in the county, he added, but are still being taxed as if they are producing a lot. It was noted that there are some abandoned gas wells out there in the county, but Schneider did not think there were any in the village. Abandoned wells after a period of time become state property, and then Schneider said the municipality would have the ability to ask the state for help to cap that well.

“Executive Wendel did say we are in a very good position as far as the amount of gas that sits underneath us and he reminded everybody that Fredonia and Chautauqua County is actually the birthplace of natural gas,” Schneider said. “The first well was drawn up in the late 1800s in Fredonia.”

This itself was something Schneider noted to also be interesting, when looking at Governor Kathy Hochul’s current push to ban natural gas. He noted that the world has come a long way in the usage of natural gas since then.

A meeting will be held soon with a state representative and assessors on how to correctly do assessments on gas well properties, and Schneider said they will have to check with the town to make sure the assessor will be attending. Assessments are expected to begin in the first or second quarter of 2026.

One hard part of it that Schneider also noted is that not all municipalities are on the same budget schedule. The village of Panama’s budget cycle runs from June to June, while others are in their budget season right now, following the yearly budget cycle. This was something Schneider said came up at the meeting as many municipalities already have their budgets for next year set.

“So as we move forward, like we said we’re doing pretty good,” Schneider said. “We have different things we’re working on, like we’re trying to do the Light Up Panama, and then we’re closing out the year. In January we will go over our board appointments and start looking at things that the board would like to do and go from there.”