PORT HENRY -- The man who headed Speculator's dissolution-study team briefed Port Henry leaders recently on what to expect.

Although a petition to dissolve Port Henry was invalidated for insufficient signatures, the village is going ahead with a feasibility study to determine what the benefits and pitfalls might be.

Port Henry officials said they're meeting with Plattsburgh State representatives to discuss its Technical Assistance Center doing a dissolution-feasibility and sharing-services study for the village.

VOTE FAILED

Munro Collie Smith chaired the Speculator Village Dissolution Committee. The village spent $35,000 to hire the Center for Government Research of Rochester to prepare a dissolution report.

The Speculator dissolution vote failed in March, 132 to 46.

Smith said the first call for dissolution of Speculator was in 1987, when the then-village clerk-treasurer was found to have failed to pay federal withholding taxes, open mail or pay bills for two years.

That never came up for a vote, Smith said, but then another dissolution effort began in Speculator two years ago.

"People do dissolution petitions when something goes wrong. A man who had a grudge against a village employee circulated a petition. He got enough signatures to put it to a vote."

The Port Henry dissolution effort began after the former clerk-treasurer was arrested for embezzling almost $153,000 from village coffers.

SAVINGS RESEARCHED

Smith said they studied dissolution for a year.

"We thought that the study had to be evenhanded. The Center for Government Research did a very thorough study of what would happen if the village dissolved. It also covered what other measures, short of dissolution, we could use to save money."

He said the savings consisted of eliminating one half-time clerk and one half-time Public Works employee.

"We assumed the amount of work wouldn't decline. The town would have to hire village employees."