Altmar, NY -- Altmar village residents will vote from noon to 9 p.m. Nov. 10 on whether to abolish their village government. The village board selected that date during a special meeting Monday night. The vote was needed after resident Bryan Myers presented a petition to the board July 7 asking for the board to abolish the village. The board...
Altmar, NY -- Altmar village residents will vote from noon to 9 p.m. Nov. 10 on whether to abolish their village government.
The village board selected that date during a special meeting Monday night. The vote was needed after resident Bryan Myers presented a petition to the board July 7 asking for the board to abolish the village. The board accepted the petition 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."
Mayor Corey Holcomb said if the measure would save him money, he'd be for it. But he said he's not sure of the savings.
"There's no study done on it so we don't know if it will save any money," Holcomb said. "My fear here is for the people."
Right now, the only services provided by the village is fire protection and some sidewalk and grass maintenance. Holcomb said the village owns the fire department and there are two 20-hour per week public works employees who take care of grass in the summer, shovel sidewalks in the winter and maintain the village cemetery.
If the village is abolished, the village would have to have an appraisal done to find out the value of the fire department. Then whoever owns the department once the village dissolves would have to buy all the equipment, Holcomb said.
"We're not going to give it away," he said.
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. The village was incorporated in 1876.
Contact Debra J. Groom at dgroom@syracuse.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586