KEESEVILLE — A new version of the draft dissolution plan for the Village of Keeseville — with revised numbers — will be discussed at the next public gathering on the study.
Scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the Keeseville Fire Station, the meeting will include a presentation by Tim Weidemann of Rondout Consulting on the new version of the plan.
“All residents of the Village of Keeseville, the Town of AuSable and the Town of Chesterfield are invited to come to this presentation of the Dissolution Study Committee’s preliminary draft,” he said.
The committee and his firm will recap previous work completed as part of the study, explain the purpose of the draft dissolution plan and present the current preliminary version for public input.
JOB CHANGES
If village residents voted to dissolve their municipality, it would be phased out over a two-year period and its functions and property assumed by the surrounding towns: Chesterfield in Essex County and Ausable in Clinton County.
The new draft plan, called Version 1.2, eliminates eight appointed jobs. Of those, two would be picked up by AuSable for the Sewer Department and two by Chesterfield for the Water Department. AuSable would also add two part-time positions in sewer.
Residents would save about $360,000 in annual budget costs by eliminating village services, but the town budgets would increase by $183,000 to provide additional road maintenance and other services.
The plan would create water and sewer districts, with their own tax rates, for the former village area, plus special sidewalk and village debt districts, also with tax rates.
TAX ESTIMATES
Right now, residents of the AuSable part of Keeseville pay $2,375 in property taxes and fees on a home assessed at $100,000 home; after dissolution, they’d pay $1,829 with state aid and $1,930 without it, the plan says.
In the Chesterfield section, it’s $2,173 in taxes and fees before, and $1,714 after with aid and $1,791 without aid.
That means a $459 annual savings for Chesterfield taxpayers and $546 savings for Ausable, assuming state dissolution aid continued.
The only changes from Version 1.1 of the plan were corrections to some of the numbers, Weidemann said.
The public comments gathered at meetings will be used to write the final plan, which will be released sometime later this year.
After a public hearing, the Keeseville Village Board must then decide whether to put dissolution up for a vote by village residents.
Email Lohr McKinstry: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com
