The “Bomb Cyclone” shut down thousands of flights in the Northeast and dozens of school districts across Long Island on Thursday, but it couldn’t stop Village of Russell Gardens trustees from meeting that night to pass their annual budget.
Trustees adopted the budget on a day when Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for Long Island, New York City and Westchester and the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Nassau County. A travel advisory warning had also been in effect from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, with officials cautioning against traveling.
When asked about the timing of the budget passage at the 8 p.m. meeting, Mayor Steven Kirschner said it has “always been interpreted that we have to do it on our first January meeting” and that cancelling the meeting would have led to the village sending out several notices again and have been “not worth it.”
Additionally he said, most questions or complaints about the budget have typically been raised at their annual December meeting where it is introduced and “less than a handful” of people usually come to the January one.
There were no members of the public at this meeting, Kirschner said.
Kirschner said there were “minor changes” made to the budget, such as increasing a labor employee’s salary an extra $1,250, allocating $150,000 toward “light conversion, the hiring of another code enforcer in December and decreasing the budget for the tennis courts from $150,000 to about $100,000.
Overall, Kirschner said, the budget remains the same as proposed originally and continues to provide a variety of services ranging from thrice a week garbage pick-up to extensive road and sidewalk clearing.
“I think the budget is a pretty fair budget,” Kirschner said. “I think it will take care of any expenditures we have.”
The village expects to receive about $1.2 million in property tax revenue for 2018-19, which is equivalent to the previous budget. Other income comes from items like grants, permits, fines and state aid.
The budget is about $100,000 higher than the previous year’s, officials said, but that taxes are staying the same.
“It’s a bit of an increase, but the taxes are staying flat,” said Christine Blumberg, the village clerk treasurer.
The village also has $1.3 million in surplus funds, Kirschner noted, due to having an 8 to 9 percent surplus for many years.
In unrelated business, trustees approved disbursements for November, authorized an election for Tuesday, March 20, and resolved that Wayne Wink, the town clerk, be considered the “registrar of vital statistics” for the village effective Jan. 1.
