North Syracuse Family Festival canceled, budget vote is April 23
By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
The novel coronavirus pandemic has brought everyday life to a halt across the globe, but municipalities like the village of North Syracuse are trying to keep calm and carry on.
“So far — knock on wood — things are as normal as they can be,” Mayor Gary Butterfield told the Star-Review in a phone conversation April 10.
Brush pickup and work on the budget continue, albeit with a smaller, more socially distant staff. Unfortunately, the pandemic led to the cancellation of the North Syracuse Family Festival, which was to take place May 23. The North Syracuse Family Festival is not an official village function, but many of the festival committee members are village employees, and the festival traditionally takes place at Lonergan Park.
“We were hoping against hope,” Butterfield said, but village officials and the festival committee decided it was best to cancel the event and “start fresh next year.”
In addition to the health risks posed by COVID-19, Butterfield said the village decided to cancel the festival because of the pandemic’s economic impact on small businesses.
“Pat [Fergerson, festival treasurer] gets a lot of donations from local businesses. It’s not fair to ask them to step up to the plate right now,” he said.
In other parks and rec news, village has removed access to certain parks equipment to discourage people from congregating.
“We took down the basketball baskets. We closed the disc golf in Heritage Park. We’ve cordoned off all the playground equipment,” Butterfield said.
While parks activities have been halted, the show must go on for the Department of Public Works, the North Syracuse Police Department and the clerk/treasurer’s office.
“We’re rotating our DPW personnel. Half the force is working one week and the other half is working the next week,” Butterfield said. “When they’re home, they’re on call. For instance, today if we’d had a little bit more snow, we would have had to call them. We’re hoping this ends rather quickly so this gets back to normal.”
Last week, the DPW collected heavy trash — such as mattresses and furniture — and brush pickup is set to take place this week.
Under Onondaga County and New York state’s social distancing guidelines, staff at Village Hall is reduced.
“It’s been hectic for everybody. Dianne [Kufel, clerk/treasurer] has been swamped because we’re understaffed,” Butterfield said. “But we’re hanging in there.”
Kufel and the North Syracuse Village Board of Trustees have been working on the 2020-21 village budget. Butterfield said the initial draft of the budget showed a 3.6% increase over the current fiscal year with a tax increase at the state-mandated cap of 1.7%. He said the village may draw from its fund balance to prevent a tax increase. The board will vote on the budget at its next meeting, which takes place April 23.
North Syracuse live-streamed its April 9 meeting on Facebook. Due to social distancing, only the trustees, Kufel and Village Attorney Robert Germain attended the meeting in person. The village’s Facebook page can be found at facebook.com/nsyrvillage1925.
At the April 9 meeting, the board accepted the resignation of Deputy Mayor Diane Browning, who served on the Village Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2011 and was mayor from 2010 to 2011. Browning was elected to the board once again as a trustee in June 2015.
Butterfield said former trustee Pat Gustafson has been invited to fill Browning’s seat. Gustafson will have to run to keep the seat in June 2021.
Butterfield acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic is a strange, historic time.
“I’m old enough that I remember some dates: the day that President Kennedy was assassinated, the day the [Challenger] shuttle blew up, 9/11,” he said. “Someday we’ll look back and say, ‘Remember coronavirus?’”
