Village passes preliminary budget after single nay vote

The Woodbury Village Board approved its preliminary budget during its April 11 meeting, despite some concern from the public and one of the trustees.

During public comment, Tyler Etzel of the village of Woodbury shared his concern about the budget continuing to increase and questioned why the village doesn’t use bonding to fund certain items, like emergency vehicles.

Echoing this sentiment, Trustee James Freiband, voiced his displeasure at the board for not addressing capital budgeting and the use of bonds. He said that the current model of paying the upfront cost for things like fire trucks means that the current tax payer is paying for the benefit of services that could extend out many years.

“The basic fiscal approach for government, when you have an asset that has an extended life, like fire trucks, the typical way to do this is to bond that so that the cost of that particular capital item is spread across the period of years it is in use. [The] Village instead upfronts these costs,” said Freiband, who requested that the board take this approach when adopting the budget. He was also the lone nay vote on approving the preliminary budget.

Speaking with The Photo News, Mayor Andrew Giacomazza explained that the village needs to replace an aging fire truck and that the interest associated with bonding the investment would make doing so costlier for the village.

“It doesn’t make sense to bond, especially with interest rates being this high,” he added.

During the meeting, the mayor thanked Village Treasurer Desiree Potvin. Giacomazza also shared that the village is going to need to bond for some larger infrastructure projects that will be addressed in future meetings.

Other business

The village of Woodbury is looking to amend the water billing schedule from quarterly to tri-annually. According to Giacomazza, this will save the taxpayers approximately $6,000. When asked to clarify further, he told The Photo News that this move will reduce costs on meter reading, billing, and other factors related to collecting water fees. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled to be held on April 25.

The village board approved the Building Department’s purchase of an updated software program that would enable them to import all state and local codes. In addition, the board approved the department’s request for three printers for their vehicles so that violations can be issued on site.

A public hearing will be held on April 25 to discuss the moratorium waiver request for Rushmore Estate. The village of Woodbury currently has a moratorium waiver on development in order to limit the stress on its water supply. Giacomazza explained that the property was originally approved for a waiver as a bed and breakfast, but needed to obtain a new waiver as it is looking to operate as an event space. The planning board has issued the property a consent agreement enabling them to operate eight additional events while moving through the planning board process to obtain their required permits.

During public comment, a meeting attendee expressed his frustration with what he believed was unchecked development of the area. Referring to the Clovewood development in Blooming Grove, he told the board that they are the gatekeepers and wondered if it was too late to address the impact on the village of Woodbury.

“Can I count on a board that is for conservation and preservation of this area?” the attendee asked.

Sharing his concern that continued development would ruin the area, the attendee asked if the local boards get together to address the issue.

Responding to these concerns, Trustee Matthew Fabbro said that this type of long-term planning is part of a comprehensive plan that was last updated in 2019, and that the idea is that local governments refer to that document when making decisions. He encouraged the public to check out the plan on the village website.