Published: August 21, 2008 09:15 am         

Find the money first

The village board is looking at undertaking another streets project and another bond. The project is a comprehensive $3 million job that would include work on water lines, sanitary and storm drains and street resurfacing in the South End of the village.

It would address problems with I&I — inflow and infiltration. I&I refers to ground and storm water that finds its way into the sanitary sewer system. The DEC has mandated that the village reduce I&I, and the sewer department has been working on it for a number of years. The South End project represents some of the worst areas remaining for I&I.

“It’s clearly a worthy project,’’ said Deputy Mayor and Finance Committee Chairman Jeff Katz. ``It comes down to funding.’’

We aren’t worried about the worthiness, but we do have concerns about the funding.

The $3 million dollar South End project would require a $1.7 million bond. The money for the sewer and water portions of the project are in reserves in the respective funds. The streets portion comes out of the general fund and would require a bond.

Already this year the village obtained a $900,000 bond for a streets project on longneglected Irish Hill and North Grove Street. The money for the project was intended to come out of revenue generated by paid parking at Doubleday Field.

Revenue from paid parking has not lived up to expectations, however. So far the village has collected $54,000. Approximately $20,000 was spent on the two pay and display machines. It will leave enough to cover the first interest payment of approximately $31,000 due this budget year.

But in the next budget, the payment will increase to $138,000.

Granted, there were some problems this year that have been ironed out and will perhaps help boost revenue from the parking lot in coming summers, but whether it will be enough to offset the bond payments is uncertain.

If the village obtains a second bond — for the South End project — the payments due in the next budget will be close to $300,000.

Trustees are looking at paid parking again to make the payments. The only way that could be achieved is by implementing on-street paid parking in the business district, which was approved last year. A debate over going ahead with more paid parking is likely to begin when the trustees meet again in September.

Implementation of additional paid parking will require a substantial investment in pay and display machines, and judging by this year’s experience, the revenue may not live up to expectations.

To pay for the projects through property taxes would require a rate increase of approximately 15 percent. And that doesn’t take into account the impact of rising prices for many budget items — a fact of life that was illustrated Monday night when the trustees approved modifications to this year’s four-month-old budget because fuel cost estimates were $60,000 low.

Another example came last week in the Planning Committee meeting that immediately followed the trustee’s discussion about the South End project. Chairman Eric Hage presented some information about New York State’s budget crisis and how it is likely some expenses will be shifted from Albany to local governments.

We understand that for a decade or more the village spent very little on upgrading aging infrastructure and there are many things which need attention, but there is also a fair amount of financial uncertainty these days, and we would suggest the mayor and trustees not hurry into another project until the funding is in place.