Port Henry gets dissolution presentation

By LOHR McKINSTRY
Staff Writer

April 28, 2008 04:00 am

— 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."
TAXES
The study showed village taxpayers would save $600 a year in taxes, Smith said, and town taxes would go up by $300 a year.
"We determined taxpayers in the Village of Speculator were subsidizing taxpayers in the Town of Lake Pleasant outside the village. We were paying for a five-person village highway department and 40 percent of a 12-person Town Highway Department."
STREETLIGHTS
The town was charging village residents for town streetlights, Smith said, but the village already paid for its own streetlights.
Moriah Town Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava said the streetlights might have to be included.
"I will do anything the village invites us to do to help them out. Certain charges are required by statute. You're just shifting from one pocket to the other."
Smith said the town could create a streetlight district that excludes the village.
"With dissolution comes a great deal of districts, water, sewer. The assets of the village go to the town but the indebtedness does not."
The Speculator Dissolution Committee consisted of the Village Board and two village residents and two town residents, Smith said.
Smith said Speculator owns the Speculator Fire Department, just as Port Henry owns the Port Henry Fire Department, and would have had to schedule a referendum to create a fire district so it could continue. If the vote had failed, the department would have dissolved with the village, he said.
Port Henry Mayor Gary Cooke said a dissolution study will be a good thing for Port Henry.
"We need to come forward and have an investigation of all the processes between the town and village affecting the village. This would be an independent, impartial study."
lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com

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