KNOX — Knox Supervisor Russell Pokorny’s first town budget makes no great departures from last year’s budget — at least as far as the headline numbers are concerned. 

Taxes, likely the most crucial component for residents, stay largely the same, except in the town’s two fire districts. The Berne Fire District will receive a 10.4-percent tax increase, going from a $25,734 levy to a $28,414.77 levy, while the Knox Fire District levy will increase by just under 2 percent. 

Fire company operations are getting more expensive under New York State mandates, Rensselaerville Fire Chief Robert Tanner told The Enterprise last week. And the Berne Fire District is in the process of constructing a new $3 million firehouse, as approved by voters over the summer. The vote was specifically to approve a $2.7 million bond, with the rest of the cost to be covered by capital reserve. 

The overall tentative 2023 budget is set at $3,077,502.08, which is up almost $54,000 from last year. The increases include raises for employees and officials, along with increased employee benefit costs. 

The cost for Helderberg Ambulance is also increasing, by about $14,000, to cover training costs as the volunteer squad recruits new members. 

Pokorny said that several “important people” had retired from the ambulance service recently and needed to be replaced. 

Helderberg Ambulance now has a program with the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill "where they’re taking EMT students and basically lodging them … overnight at the Helderberg Ambulance facility, and in return paying some room and board for them,” he said.

Although it’s a steep increase, Pokorny said, “These are really good people doing a job we need and we’re just going to have to pay it.”

Knox’s unappropriated fund balance is up from $758,110.16 to $939,382.04. Pokorny said that he feels the fund balance should be sizable so that the town can weather any crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, since it’s so reliant on Albany County sales tax distributions.

This year, the town is expecting to receive around $930,000 in sales tax from the county. 

“It’s kind of a big variable, so that’s one reason you need to have a pretty decent fund balance,” said Pokorny, who was formerly the town’s assessor. 

Going forward, Pokorny said that thought needs to be given to various projects the town is looking at: fixing up its transfer station, which has fallen into disrepair; improving its wetland boardwalk; creating a farmers’ workshop through the town’s agricultural committee; and fixing up the exterior of the town museum, housed in the historic Saddlemire Homestead. 

As The Enterprise reported last month, the town board is considering installing a job trailer and two self-compacting garbage boxes that will allow operations to continue while the board mulls over a long-term solution. 

“It might cost around $100,000” after accounting for wiring and bulldozing and other related expenses, Pokorny said, and the town hopes to pay for it with federal pandemic funds it received. He said he had reached out to the state comptroller’s office for guidance on whether it was acceptable under the current guidelines but, receiving no specific answer, he punted to the town’s attorney who is currently reviewing it. 

That short-term setup has the potential of being incorporated into a long-term solution, since the town could later purchase a pavilion to house the different modules, Pokorny said. 

He said everyone is “on board with not spending any more money than they have to.” 

One idea that was popular at the first meeting held to discuss the transfer station was turning the current highway garage into the transfer station and building a new garage for the highway department. “I’m not really leaning that way myself,” Pokorny said.

For two decades, various town boards in Knox have discussed whether to upgrade the highway garage, replace it, or partner with the county in building a shared facility.

Pokorny said that, regardless of the outcome for the transfer station, the town will likely embark on some project related to the garage but not until the town hall project is paid off. He said there’s one more $80,000 payment to make.

An improvement plan for the dilapidated wetland boardwalk behind the town hall has yet to be finalized, but Pokorny said he likes the idea of “extending it through an area that has become kind of difficult to traverse,” which he estimates would cost no more than $7,000. The town would pay only for materials and rely on volunteer labor. 

 As for the museum, it requires either new paint or vinyl siding, with Pokorny preferring paint, since it’s “more authentic.” He said that the cost would be around $12,000. 

The program floated by the agricultural committee, on the other hand, would be far less expensive than the previously described projects at just $600, Pokorny said. It’s “basically educating farmers and farmers-to-be about opportunities to stay in business.”