Remembrances
Mayor Jeff Kaplan started out the meeting with a moment of silence following the pledge of allegiance to honor the memories of longtime police dispatcher Barbara George and recently reelected town justice William O'Brien. At the meeting's close, he also announced that they were adjourning the meeting in their memory as well.

Fiscal Matters
Before the floor was opened to petitioners, Mayor Kaplan wanted to allay fears and dispel rumors related to the recent news of the village's financial troubles and the possibility of dissolving the village. He said that the two issues arose independent of each other.

The recent talk of dissolution of the village stemmed from his frustrations with the town, and what he sees as the village overextending itself beyond its five main services: street, water, sewer, police, and building departments. The mayor said he is only asking residents if they want the possibility of dissolution explored. He also said that the purchase of the new village government building is unrelated to the current budgetary deficit, in that its purchase was paid for by borrowed money that is currently being repaid over the next forty years. Kaplan also addressed the village's $4 million in funds gained from the sale of the mountain property some years ago, which is still accruing interest; 75% of the interest funds the village's operations budget, while the other 25% goes back into the account to add to future interest.

Kaplan also said that part of why the village has run out of money can be blamed on escalating costs of items over which the village has no control, such as bad investments of the retirement fund and unfunded state mandates.

Police Protection
Anthony Solfaro, the president of the New York State Union of Police, which represents the Ellenville PBA, spoke regarding the subject of dissolution, and the unlikely possibility for the town to take up police protection of the village should Ellenville dissolve.

"If everybody thinks the town's going to take over," said Solfaro, "there will be no police officers in this village. The Ulster County sheriff's office doesn't have the resources, the state police is not going to come here and patrol…anybody tells you different, they're lying to you."

Solfaro also asked Mayor Kaplan what his response would be if Police Chief Phil Mattracion wasn't able to cut his budget any lower, leading Kaplan to respond, "That's a good question. I don't have an answer for you. I'm going to have to look to people that are smarter than me to answer that question."

Bridge Repair
The village board authorized the acquisition of SBL 83.069-5-31 and SBL 83.003-4-5, also known under eminent domain procedures for the purposes of the Hickory Street Bridge Project and the Beckley Drive Bridge Project, respectively. The projects will replace old bridges in those areas, and the expense of the projects will be reimbursed up to 95% by the New York State Department of Transportation.

Police Budget
Police Chief Mattracion gave his department report, announcing several ways for the EPD to cut their budget by the proposed 5% asked for by Mayor Kaplan at the last village board meeting. One such proposal was to cut the police provided crossing guard, and to allow the Ellenville School District to foot the bill for a guard. The chief also said that he was going to be cutting back on allowing overtime for officers, to increase police car sharing among officers to reduce fuel costs, and to replace recently vacated full-time positions with part-time officers or not at all to reduce salary costs. Furthermore, it was decided that full-time officers attending the March 29 NAACP-sponsored training seminar on racial profiling sensitivity will attend as volunteers without pay, and pay for part-timers will come out of the salaries of the village board members.

The next village board meeting on March 10 will be the first meeting that will be available as a live web-cast on ellenvilleny.org.

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