From The Desk of the Mayor

May 2014

Greetings my friends. Spring has not yet quite sprung, but compared to the polar vortex, well take it. I have not written in several months and so I do want to try to catch up on several topics.

The Park!! Its finally here: good news about the Village park. We recently received the amended work scope from FEMA which incorporates many of the points that were lacking in the original document, and the lack of which caused us to go through the appeal process. In short, the Village will be reimbursed by FEMA for the complete reconstruction of all four tennis courts, the complete reconstruction of the concession stand/bathrooms build to code and flood-proofed, and partially reimbursed for a new playground. The project will be divided into these three parts and bid out and constructed by three different contractors. The first to be bid is the tennis court piece which has already been advertised. The concession stand and playground are undergoing final design as per the FEMA work scope and will be put out to bid when ready. The one lingering disappointment is the lack of some of the necessary funding for the playground. However, if you recall, the Village was awarded some grant money from the State with the help of the MARK project. In addition, donations have been raised for a new playground going back several years and the money is still waiting to be used and all funds can be combined. It will probably be the case though that the funding for the playground will be tight, but that is all being worked out. Thank you again to all who have helped in this long and grueling process to restore our park.

New Budget is Passed The Village Board has adopted the budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year which commences on June 1st. This new budget was by far the most difficult that I have been a part of crafting for several reasons. The biggest one is that the loss of many buildings in the Village to the 2011 flood and thus the loss of tax revenue from them is finally hitting home. The State Comptrollers office audited the Village about a year ago and pointed out the obvious which was that our revenue had fallen off both in taxes and water sales. I knew last summer that this budget year we would have to make some serious course corrections in order to continue providing the services in the Village that we do. Incidentally, people often say to me What do we get for our taxes? Well here is a quick list of some of the things in fact that the Village provides for its tax payers: A highly capable fire department, a library, code enforcement, grant writing,

roads and road maintenance, a park, street lights, water and sewer services, the administration of all of the preceding, and more.

In previous years, we have been able to trim items from the budget that were not quite necessary, or substitute things like different health insurance carriers to realize some savings for the Village. Always however we seem to be faced with rising costs that we can not control. These can be the result of the actions of higher levels of government as with skyrocketing health insurance costs, compliance with complicated regulation, and soaring retirement fund contribution mandates, or they can come from simple inflation or market instability as with energy prices. Regardless of the cause, the cost of doing business never seems to go down, only up. Since all of the fat had been trimmed in previous years, real structural changes were necessary this time around to balance the budget going forward.

Several scenarios were discussed and debated at length by the board, particularly with regards to the pool. I took a close look at the finances specific to running the pool and after adding everything up determined that the pool operated last year at about a $14,000 loss, not including insurance costs or the cost of filling and refilling the pool with water. See, one of the big issues with the pool is that it is very old and leaks a substantial amount of water. As the pool is refilled with cold water constantly the water needs to be heated using a propane fired boiler to keep it at a reasonable temperature. These little details are important to know in order to understand where all the numbers come from. Looking ahead to this coming summer, the brand new state of the art Catskills Recreation Center is opening in Arkville. I know it is not an outdoor pool but it is going to be a phenomenal facility for the community and one has to figure that at least some of swimmers and thus the revenue we might see would end up going there. In addition, the cost of propane and electric have been spiking and the pool uses a lot of both. My estimate was that to operate the pool for the 2014 summer it would cost the Village close to $20,000 over and above the ticket sales we would receive, so I proposed to the board that we not open the pool. After some spirited and healthy debate, funds for the pool were not included in the current budget. Some other structural changes were made to actually decrease the overall amount of money the Village will be spending for the year with respect to the current year, and when it was all tallied up, in order to balance out the budget the tax rate had to increase by about 8% to make up for the loss in tax base. This seems like a steep increase, but when the fact that we have kept the tax rate from increasing at all for the past five years is taken into consideration, this one time adjustment in the rate hardly keeps up with inflation over the same five years. Little consolation I know, but thats the math nonetheless.

Pedestrian Bridges The process of designing the new bridges and applying to FEMA for the funding is well underway by the County and their consultant. The design for the Lake Switzerland footbridge is running into some expected complications because of the new regulations that govern bridge construction and because of the tight space at that location. Although things are being delayed, the County is confident they will eventually find a solution to the issues that are holding up approval from FEMA. The Bridge Street pedestrian bridge design is also moving forward. There are still a few unresolved issues related to the new configuration of the bridge abutments and how adjoining properties

will be affected and these are sensitive issues but the science behind the analysis of the site is really helping to guide the process so that flood levels and potential damage from future events as well as impact on private property from construction are minimized. The final design will not be determined until the Village wide flood analysis is complete and the full impact of the bridge and any other future stream work is considered.

Local Flood Analysis (LFA) - The long awaited LFA for the Village is finally underway. Why another study? you say. Well it is true that specific locations along the streams have been studied in depth, particularly around where the projects were installed last year. However, Delaware County Soil & Water Conservation District has promised an analysis of future flood impacts for the entirety of the stream including upstream and downstream of the Village boundaries and all of the tributaries. At the end of the process there will be created a list of action steps that reduce the impacts of future flooding that the Village and the community may take as well as assistance in funding them. It is time to start thinking long range about flooding, 10, 15, 25 years out. This LFA will hopefully provide the Village with a blueprint to continually improve its flood resiliency well into the future. On the subject, FEMA is coming out with an updated Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and the draft map will be available to view and will be explained at an open house meeting at Middletown Hall on May 27th from 4-8 p.m. If you live within the 100 year flood zone you should be receiving a letter about this, but all are welcome to attend. As a result of upwardly trending rainfall amounts and flood frequency the maps are changing somewhat to reflect this and will likely include properties in the flood zone not previously included before. The reason this all matters is that who is required to carry flood insurance and how much is directly determined by these maps, so please stay informed.

I am looking forward to the Memorial Day weekend street fair and seeing you all there!

Be well, and may God bless you all.

Todd Pascarella, Mayor

Village Office 1017 Main Street (PO Box 339) Fleischmanns, NY 12430 phone 845-254-5514

email: village39@catskill.net website: www.fleischmannsny.com