The Fenner town board last week voted to adopt the 2015 preliminary budget as the final budget, which will have the same tax rate as last year.
According to Town Supervisor David Jones, this budget is consistent with the previous year, with the amount to be raised by taxes in 2015 only increasing by about $300.
The total budget, which includes the general, highway and special districts budgets, totaled to $951,250 with $286,967 to be raised by taxes.
Compared to last year’s tax rate, the tax rate will remain the same at $3.13 per $1,000.
The town board held a public hearing for the preliminary budget at its Nov. 13 regular meeting, and no comments were made from the public. At the end of this meeting, the preliminary budget was voted to be adopted as the final budget unanimously by the town board.
The adopted budget is available to be viewed by any interested person at Fenner Town Hall at 3151 Fenner East Road, Cazenovia in the clerk’s office.
Also at the meeting:
—The board adopted two resolutions related to purchasing a used International Paystar dump truck for the highway department from the town of Brookfield.
The first resolution relating to this transaction was to approve a bond resolution totaling $50,000 to go toward purchasing the dump truck, which is estimated to cost about $100,000. The $50,000 from the bond has to be paid back by the town of Fenner within the next five years.
The next resolution that was adopted was to allow the board to purchase the truck from Brookfield once they are ready to sell it.
Jones said he has been in contact with the town of Brookfield and they estimate to be ready to sell the dump truck in the next couple of weeks.
—The board received a letter from the Department of Transportation (DOT) that denied the board’s request to reduce the speed limit on Nelson Road in between Cody’s Corner and Perryville Road. The DOT said they ran a study in conjunction with the State Police and found the need for the speed limit reduction was not met. In November 2014, the town sent in a request to the DOT asking to reduce the speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph.
—The board received a letter from town justice Norman Watts to inform the board of changes in the town court time from 4:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. the first and third Monday of every month starting in January 2015. Watts cited safety concerns with the early sunset during this time of year and lack of lighting outside of Fenner’s town hall as the reason for the change.
—The board approved a resolution to change the town board meeting time from 8 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. between the months of December 2014 and March 2015. Despite the time change, the meetings will continue to be conducted the second Thursday of each month in the town office.
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Cazenovia Republican. She can be reached at [email protected].
