Altmar, NY -- A vote to dissolve the village of Altmar could be coming sometime this fall. On July 7, resident Bryan Myers presented a petition to the village board to abolish the village. The board accepted it July 17. State law requires the petition to be signed by 10 percent of registered voters. Myers said 85 residents signed the...
Altmar, NY -- A vote to dissolve the village of Altmar could be coming sometime this fall.
On July 7, resident Bryan Myers presented a petition to the village board to abolish the village. The board accepted it July 17.
State law requires the petition to be signed by 10 percent of registered voters. Myers said 85 residents signed the petition and 74 signatures — or those of 31 percent of the villages 239 registered voters — were accepted.
Myers, who has lived in the village for 12 years and owns four properties, said village residents receive very little for the taxes they pay.
“I pay about $400 to $500 a year (for his house) and we have no water, no sewer and the village doesn’t maintain the streets,” he said. “Everyone’s sick of it.”
Neal Braley, owner of Little Lukey’s Store, agrees.
“We have no services here,” he said. He said village residents tried to abolish the village 25 years ago, but the village board let the petition lapse.
The village, located in the northeastern portion of Oswego County, owns the fire department, so there is concern about what would happen to the department if the village no longer exists.
“From what I understand, if the village does dissolve, the fire department would be a separate entity or it could choose to be owned by the town of Albion,” Albion Supervisor Carl Anson Jr. said.
Mayor Corey Holcomb said a study has to be done to see how abolishing the village would affect residents.
“You gotta think about the people,” he said.
Peter Baynes, executive director of the state Conference of Mayors, said law requires the village board to set the election date by Aug. 17. The election must be held 60 to 90 days after the date is set.
The village board meets Aug. 4. That means the vote could be held on Nov. 2, the date of the general election.
The village of about 350 residents, is well known for salmon, trout and steelhead fishing along the Salmon River. The Salmon River Fish Hatchery supplies fish for more than 100 public waters including Lake Ontario and attracts up to 500,000 visitors annually.
Village historian Florence Gardner said the village, once called Sand Bank, was incorporated in February 1876. The area’s’ first settler was Peter Henderson who came in the winter of 1812-13.
“It used to be quite an industrial area,” Gardner said. “First it was a logging area and then there were quite a few tanneries.”
Fishing and farming also were big in the area. She said a large fire Oct. 13, 1885 burned everything except two churches and the village “really didn’t come back to life after that.”
The most recent area village to dissolve was Seneca Falls. Residents there voted in March to do so to eliminate village taxes for its residents. After the village disbanded, the town of Seneca Falls became responsible for providing services to the former village’s 6,629 residents.
Since 1920, 37 villages in the state have dissolved.
Contact Debra J. Groom at dgroom@syracuse.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586
Local villages dissolved since 1920
Seneca Falls, (Seneca County), 2010; Savannah (Wayne County), 1979; and Forestport (Oneida County), 1940.
Source: New York State Conference of Mayors