The Village of Williston Park received a clean bill of financial health from its outside auditor, Nawrocki Smith, at Monday night’s board of trustees meeting.
The village will finish the year with $6.9 million in liabilities, based on pension fund obligations, and $6.5 million in assets, according to David Tellier, partner at Nawrocki Smith.
Revenues are up this year by 13 percent to $7.8 million, largely based on increases in commercial tax revenues.
“I think the village is fiscally stable. Right now, they’ve been able to get through some difficult years and still provide municipal services,” Tellier said.
The general fund is at $1.4 million, and the village board is balancing the 2012 budget with an appropriation of $152,000 from the general fund.
“They expected to have a deficit at the end of the year, so they’re balancing that with this appropriation,” Tellier said.
Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said he was pleased about the preliminary report. Ehrbar said a full report is still to be forthcoming from the auditing company.
“We’re healthy. Financially, we’re in good shape right now,” Ehrbar said.
On another financial front, Ehrbar said residents have been seeking to resolve issues with their assessments in meeting with representatives of Standard Evaluation Services and Michael Haberman Associates, the two local firms retained to conduct the village reassessment.
“From my understanding, nobody walked away angry. From my perspective, everybody walked away with a better understanding of the process,” Ehrbar said.
There may be further adjustments before tentative tax rolls are published in February, Ehrbar said. A period for filing grievances will follow that with final taxes set in April.
“They may be adjusting some numbers,” Ehrbar said.
In response to a question from a resident about a discrepancy on his property valuation between the county and the village assessments, Ehrbar said the primary expectation of the revaluation is that it will reduce the incidence – and cost – of tax certiorari settlements.
In a recent special meeting to address questions about the revaluation, Ehrbar said the village had spent $38,000 in legal fees last year to defend challenges to the village’s commercial property assessments and that the village has paid $530,000 in tax certiorari refunds in the past three years,
The village board voted on Monday to pay Standard Evaluation $17,500 for its work in reassessing all Williston Park residential and commercial properties.
In other developments:
• Trustee Kevin Rynne issued a call for more volunteers to participate in the Williston Park Fire Department’s “Operation Santa” effort on Christmas Eve. There are 100 households to cover and three truck crews now slated to make the deliveries, so the volunteers are facing a potentially a long night of delivering presents.
“We definitely need more volunteers,” Rynne said.
• Village Superintendent of Public Works Keith Bunnell said Monday garbage pick-ups would be made on Tuesday and Tuesday pick-ups on Wednesday during the next two holiday weeks. No heavy refuse is to be put out on Wednesday, he said. The schedule for recyclable pick-ups will remain the same.
• Village Building Superintendent Kerry Collins was presented with a citation by Ehrbar on behalf of the village. Jim Sullivan, a 25-year veteran of the sanitation department, was also recognized with a citation by the mayor.
