Town Board talks highway garage, budget, housing

MILLERTON —  The North East Town Board discussed affordable housing, the town’s new highway garage, and the preliminary 2024 budget at its meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12.

Mark Long of CPL Architecture, Engineering and Planning gave the board an update on the building progress of the new highway garage. The dimensions of the building are “about 80 by 30” and 32 feet high inside. The building has room to store the Highway Department’s equipment as well as offices for staff. A wash bay will clean off equipment, and there will be a kitchen, restrooms, a shower, and a lift for equipment.

A mason will be installing the wash bay “very soon,” according to Long, along with finishing framing the walls, plumbing and HVAC. Once the building is complete, paving will happen and the entrance driveway will be reconfigured. Long said completion of the building is expected by late November.

Councilwoman Meg Winkler reported that the board’s Housing Committee is working with the North East Community Center (NECC) and the town Zoning Review Committee to determine definitions of affordable housing and appropriate income levels, as well as a study of area median income tools. 

Winkler mentioned a discussion that took place during a Salisbury Forum presentation on Sept. 22 about using land holdings of area land trusts that are “not acceptable for conservation” to build affordable housing and that the committee will be “following up” on the idea. The Village of Millerton is one of the places in Dutchess County identified by Hudson Valley Affordable Housing Conservation and Strategy as being able to benefit from that possibility.

The preliminary budget for 2024 has been presented to Town Clerk Elizabeth “Tilly” Strauss. “This is the single most significant act of town government,” said Town Supervisor Chris Kennan.

Kennan noted that the preliminary budget includes increases in earnings revenues; an 11% estimated increase in insurance costs; a slight increase in accountant fees; a 2% increase in the ambulance contract; and increased cost for town attorney, mostly due to work on the wastewater district. 

Expense lines were added for the renovations and contractual expenses for the new Town Hall. A 7% increase in health insurance costs is expected, as is a 4% increase in salaries and wages, and an increase in interest on the town’s bond anticipation notes.

A public hearing on the preliminary budget has been set to take place during the board’s next meeting on Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7:20 p.m. at Town Hall. The budget is available for viewing by the public in the town clerk’s office.

The town’s five-year contract with Northern Dutchess Paramedics—which it entered into along with the towns of Dover and Amenia—will expire at the end of 2024. Yearly increases have been around 2% and the town is considering putting the contract out to bid. “It’s such a significant cost item for the town that we need to be thinking about every way that we can to control that cost,” said Kennan.