I t was nearly a month ago that Mayor Jeff Kaplan uttered the "D" word — dissolve. Since then, there have been a series of realizations about the village's sticky economic situation and a few exchanges between the village and town about who should be paying for what, how much and why.

Now comes an article by the Times Herald Record's Paul Brooks who wrote that, "The village will look at shutting down its police department among ways to dig out of a $250,000 financial hole," only for those same officials to tell the Ellenville Journal that, while budget items were discussed, the idea of shutting down the police department was not on the table.

Sadly, this bizarre gulf that Mr. Brooks places between "Ellenville" and "accurate reporting" is not a new development, nor is it confined only to him. It seems that the Times Herald Record's official policy is to incorporate Ellenville into its coverage only when important facts that could affect the lives of thousands can be twisted for some peculiar sense of satisfaction.

But the real issue behind this most recent batch of shoddy reporting is the aforementioned "D" word and the budgetary revelations that followed it. Over the past four weeks, Mayor Kaplan has repeated his concern that the village may look into dissolving itself for the good of village taxpayers. To wit, he has put forth a plan to send out a survey asking residents if they would be receptive to the village exploring self-dissolution. And while that is an instance of democracy in action, the wait for response is only going to provide fodder for speculation by the likes of Mr. Brooks as well as concerned residents about just what are village officials doing about these impending financial issues.

When village officials were confronted with the issue of having to rethink the housing of their village offices due to a lawsuit brought under the Americans With Disabilities Act and (they claim) space constraints, they made no attempts to poll the public; to be sure, they held public hearings about the issue and it took years of discussion with the town for them to decide what they would do. But when they had made their decision it was because circumstances dictated that something needed to be done.

Now, it seems pretty clear that something needs to be done about the village's fiscal practices and the question should be addressed as to whether residents truly benefit from another level of taxation. Until real action is taken, there is going to be rampant speculation about the village's future, which represents the livelihoods of several of our friends and neighbors. They don't deserve to be left wondering what revelations the next day will bring about the village's budget and neither do village taxpayers.

Furthermore, village residents and employees don't deserve to be used as fuel for what some have argued is an attempt to play a game of chicken with town board officials to increase their contributions for various programs.

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