Sag Harbor Village’s proposed budget grew by $367,457, to approximately $15.42 million, when requests of various department heads were added to an initial $15.05 million spending plan at a March 15 work session of the Village Board.
Village Treasurer Tim Bullock said even with the spending increase, the village can avoid piercing the state cap on tax levy increases by using additional fund balance money to cushion the blow of the spending increase.
The largest increase was a $224,294 request under the public safety line. Of that, $130,000 would be added to a reserve fund for the purchase of a new ladder truck for the fire department. That is on top of the $70,000 that already had been allocated for that purpose. The rest of the allocation would go toward a reserve fund for air packs for firefighters as well as salary increases for part-time police officers and traffic control officers.
Nearly $59,000 in additional funding has been requested for paving and streetlights, and close to $55,000 more would be added to salaries for part-time dock workers.
“The ladder truck is aging out, and that is going to be a major expense, so we need to start preparing for that now,” said Trustee Tom Gardella, who serves as liaison to the fire department.
Fire Chief Kevin O’Brien said ladder trucks typically have a 25-year lifespan, and the current truck is due to be replaced in two years. The custom-built trucks must also be ordered well in advance of their delivery date.
“I’ve been talking about this. I don’t know if people have been paying attention,” Gardella said. “But I’ve been mentioning that we need to replace the ladder truck. I’ve been in office, this will be five years, and now we are finally putting the money aside for it. Sometimes when I speak about these things and I mention a million dollars, a million and a half, it’s almost, like, ‘Worry about that later.’”
Trustee Ed Haye said the time was past due for the village to establish a capital spending plan, “so we can give ourselves lead time to plan for these capital purchases down the road.”
The village does have several reserve funds for things like fire truck purchases. Bullock said this week that there is currently about $348,000 in the truck reserve account.
After Mayor Jim Larocca asked about staffing levels, which will remain the same at 39 full-time employees, Gardella said the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps is planning to add a full-time paramedic.
To offset the cost, he said the service was considering billing insurance companies for ambulance service, but Gardella made it clear he did not want to see people billed directly.
“I don’t feel you should be paying taxes in the village and then pay for ambulance service,” he said, adding that insurance companies, including the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, factor in ambulance costs in the coverage they provide.
He said the issue would be debated publicly before a decision was made. “It’s something to consider,” he said, “if we are leaving money on the table and we have budgets that are being increased for full-time workers.”
Board members agreed the idea of recouping insurance money was worth exploring, and Gardella said the village would hire a billing company that would be paid a percentage of the insurance payments it collected.
Haye, who serves as liaison to the village justice court, expressed concern about a downturn in parking ticket revenue. “I’m not suggesting that they write more tickets,” he said of the village traffic control officers, “but we are off about $180,000 in annual revenue.”
Police Chief Austin J. McGuire said it was hard to pinpoint any one reason for the drop-off in revenue, but said that last year saw a large turnover in TCO staff. In previous years, the staff was older and “seasoned,” he said. “They had it down to a science.”
Village Trustee Aiden Corish questioned how the village enforces parking limits in its long-term lots and whether it would be wise to enforce parking restrictions until 8 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.
“It sounds like we could use a strategy for more effective parking enforcement,” Haye said.
The board will hold its next budget work session at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29.
Stephen J. Kotz on Mar 22, 2023