BLOOMINGBURG – With newly re-elected trustee Aaron Rabiner absent yet again, village mayor Russ Wood and trustee Rivkah Mosessen were left to shepherd the village budget through its public hearing on the evening of May 1.

The listed general fund expenditures demonstrated both how small a municipality Bloomingburg is and how fragile the village's solvency may be in the coming years due to the underlying demands of the Chestnut Ridge development, which both expands expensive needs and is expected to generate the taxes needed to cope with such rising costs. With the developers currently facing federal criminal charges, a huge question mark lies across Bloomingburg's future.

Under the "attorney" budget line for the past year, a 2016-17 designation of $18,000 was raised to $70,000 for the coming year. That's in an overall general fund that went from $243,480 to $316,942, an increase of $73,462. Cuts were made to the mayor's salary, dropping from $10,000 to $8,000, and village maintenance worker, falling from $15,000 to $8,000, while the cost of building inspector went up from $20,000 to $45,000, with an increased workload anticipated.

During the evening's public hearing on the budget, questions came up again about the cost of the waste water treatment plant whose developer, Chestnut Ridge owner Shalom Lamm, had agreed to pay the difference between the replaced plant's maintenance costs of approximately $107,000 per year and whatever such cost the new one would come in at for five years. That cost, it turned out, ran to $319,000 for the current year, leaving Lamm with a bill for $212,534. As one questioner noted, if the development does not expand because of "illegal activities" and the tiny population of the village is left to cope with costs on this scale, "it will not be sustainable."

Wood responded by noting that the agreement with the developer still covered the village for the coming four years. After further discussion of sewer flow rates and possible metering, the board moved to close the public hearing and approved the budget.

Afterwards the mayor announced that the village had hired a new attorney, Alex Smith of Middletown, who will be paid $150 an hour for his services across all the village's board. It was noted that he will be much less expensive than the Long Island-based firm that stepped back from the job last month.

Wood also announced that Blake Call is the new village clerk.

Asked by an audience member about Rabiner's non-attendance at board meetings for the last several months, the mayor said he hadn't heard from the trustee in a while, nor has Rabiner picked up his monthly check from the village in some time. Asked what the protocol might be to replace him if he has left the scene, Wood said that as far he knew, only a judge could remove a sitting elected official.