VOORHEESVILLE — The village board on Tuesday unanimously adopted a $2.3 million budget for 2017-18 that will keep taxes flat. Villagers will continue to pay $1.26 per $1,000 of assessed value.

“It’s a really good job...keeping everything in line,” said Trustee Richard Straut of the budget.

The general fund is up from $1.46 million last year to $1.55 million this year. But taxable value of village properties has increased over $808,000 to $232.29 million, helping to keep the levy in check.

Sales tax from the county continues to bring in the lion’s share of revenue, according to Deputy Clerk Treasurer Karen Finnesey.  “Those revenues went up,” she said.

“We’ve been conservative,” she said, noting that, in the past, sales-tax revenues had dropped, making the village cautious and eager to keep a large fund balance. The current general fund balance is close to $1 million.

The village also has a number of other reserves, for water and sewer, and for vehicle purchase and repair, for retirement, and for building repair.

The 2017-18 budget draws $58,527 from the general fund balance compared to $12,823 the previous year.

The budget includes no salary increases for most village employees, Finnessey pointed out, except for a slight bump in pay for the superintendent of Public Works, since he has become certified for water management.

Finnessey also noted there is a decrease in health insurance costs because two workers have moved to Medicare and one is going off a family plan.

The budget includes $42,000 for engineering work that is needed so that sidewalks on School Road can be installed later; most of the costs of the sidewalks will be covered with grant money but the village is paying the engineering costs, Finnessey said, noting, “That’s a big one.” Exploration for a new well will also continue.

The budget for the water district is up from $429,580 to $518,230. Finnessey noted there has been an increase in water rates.

Appropriation for Sewer District 1 has gone up over $2,000 to $235,005, which Finnessey said was because of more users with new homes. The appropriation for Sewer District 2 has remained steady at just over $7,400.

NYSERDA

The board was enthused about a presentation made by Robyn Reynolds with the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, which is coordinating the Clean Energy Community Program.

“We are helping local governments approach prize money,” said Reynolds. “Up to $100,000 in funding is available.”

Reynolds explained that Voorheesville would have to complete “four out of 10 high-impact actions….A couple are fairly easy to knock off in one to three months,” she said.

Grants from the New York State Energy Resource and Development Authority are being administered through the state’s 10 economic development zones. There are two tiers — for municipalities with a population under 40,000 like Voorheesville, and for municipalities of 40,000 and above. The grants are awarded on a first come, first served basis; in other words, whichever municipality completes the four required action items first will win the grant.

For the Capital District Region, in which Voorheesville would compete, the first four municipalities under 40,000 to complete four action items will receive $100,000 for projects that reduce greenhouse gases or generate energy from a renewable source. The subsequent 10 municipalities will receive $50,000.

The program started last September and will conclude on Sept. 30, 2019, or when the funds have all been used.

Reynolds said the town of Bethlehem has already qualified for one of the $100,000 grants.

Christopher Reohr, senior project manager with NYSERDA, told the Voorheesville board, “An additional $30,000 per community was authorized today for a total of $130,000.” He said, “There’s no smoke and mirrors,” and he stressed, “Time is of the essence.”

The Voorheesville trustees sounded particularly interested in an electric-vehicle charging station. Reynolds said she had helped 10 communities get grants from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation for the charging stations. That funding closed in March, she said, but may open again in several months.

“There’s a lot of interest and money on the table,” she said. An EV-charging station, Reynolds said, would attract people to the village and help its economy. Reynolds said she recently drove a Chevrolet Bolt to Washington, D.C. and spent quite a bit of money at each of the hour-long stops to recharge the car.

Mayor Robert Conway asked if the already-existing charging station at the Hannaford Plaza in Voorheesville would hurt the village’s chances of getting another station at Village Hall. Reynolds said of electric-car drivers, “If one [station] is occupied, you look for another.”

She also said Schenectady County had recently installed two EV-charging stations for its employees.

Trustee Jack Stevens cited a survey that he said showed 32 percent of New Yorkers said they are looking to get an electric car in the next few years.

Board members agreed with Straut when he said it would be good for Voorheesville to get a grant for an EV station.

“I say we set up a meeting and get this rolling,” said Straut.

The town of Knox in February had completed three out of its four action items when Councilman Amy Pokorny had followed through on the town board’s earlier directive to apply for a DEC grant for an EV-charging station in Knox. She had received an $11,835 DEC grant to pay for a station that would charge two cars. The town had to come up with a 20-percent match, which could have been the in-kind labor to install the station. As many in the town-hall crowd objected to the project, Pokorny couldn’t get a second on her motion to accept the grant. Two months later, Knox has not yet been able to complete a fourth action item.

Other business

In other business, the village board:

— Heard from Trustee Florence Reddy that an April 11 hearing on a special-use permit application from Stewart’s Shops was well attended and that the planning commission will post a response to questions and concerns on the village website;

— Heard from Trustee Stevens that the merger of members from the disbanded Voorheesville Area Ambulance Service with the Delmar Rescue Squad is “moving ahead,” just waiting for payment from the town of New Scotland;

— Heart from Trustee Straut that progress continues on Voorheesville’s comprehensive plan and that residents should expect to be surveyed this month.

Straut also said he has attended shared-services meetings with the county executive as the state budget this year requires countywide plans on shared services;

— Heard from Richard Reilly, the village’s attorney, that he would send a letter to the town, stating the village will provide 40 water taps for Youmans Road. These were requested by David Moreau;

— Heard from Building Inspector Glenn Hebert that the house at 3 Nancy Lane, which had caught fire, has been declared unsafe and needs to be taken down. The board voted unanimously that notice be served to the owner. “We think the homeowner does intend to move forward,” said Reilly;

— Heard from Mayor Conway that the Quiet Zone, which would reduce the whistle-blowing by trains passing through the village, was “waiting for final word on grant money promised to us”;

— Heard from Finnessey that she and Clerk Treasurer Linda Pasquali had looked at three companies for updated financial software and prefer Logics, a company based in North Carolina. “We know their staff and they know us,” said Finnessey. The cost, which includes $6,100 for the first year of maintenance, would be $41,230.

The quotes from the other two companies were $27,140 from BAS and $38,170 from Edmunds & Associates.

Finnessey said training sessions with Logics may be shared with other local municipalities, like Menands and Scotia, using the same system, and that Logics provided five years of history while Edmunds provided three years and “BAS did no history; they started clean,” said Finnessey.

“We could end up saving money by spending a little,” said Straut.

The board members will look at an analysis by Pasquali, who was out of town, and plan to decide at their next meeting. “You know Linda,” said Finnessey. “No stone unturned”;

— Heard from Finnessey about a report from Civic Plus on the village’s year-old website. There were 15,170 total visits to the site, with an average length of 2 minutes, 33 seconds. The most visited page was on Memorial Day celebrations, and the most searched-for term was “parade” followed by “minutes.”