KNOX — The town’s tentative budget for 2007 was approved last Tuesday and calls for a tax-rate increase of about three cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

The total $1.9 million budget is about $110,000 higher than last year, and $646,325 will be raised from taxes.
"We’re pleased we could hold the line," Supervisor Michael Hammond told The Enterprise this week.

The town will be spending more, approximately $4,300, to comply with the Help America Vote Act, which requires new voting machines, but, Hammond said, the numbers are still subject to change. Hammond believes Albany County will be responsible for buying the equipment and covering some of the salaries.

Knox, unlike the other Hilltowns, is not seeing a decrease in costs for Advanced Life Support services, he said, because Knox gets its ALS services from Guilderland. An estimated $1,870 increase in costs is expected.

The other three Hilltowns, New Scotland, and Coeymans, he said, receive their services from the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, which has a well-equipped fly car to respond to medical emergencies; the addition of Bethlehem to their program resulted in a decrease for costs to participating towns.
"Knox was not affected," he said.

Knox will see a decrease of about $8,282 for services from the Altamont Rescue Squad.

Playground and recreation costs for Knox will increase from $8,000 to $12,000 in 2007, he said, because the park superintendent, Louis Saddlemire, will be putting in more work.

Both the zoning and planning boards’ budgets were increased from $1,000 for contractual services to $5,000 in 2007.

The transfer station attendant will be making $6,000 more than last year, and, Hammond said, the contractual expenses for the transfer station went up $4,000 based on an educated guess of volume.

The local real-estate boom netted an increase of $25,000 in mortgage tax revenues for the town’s general fund.
"The county collects a percentage," Hammond explained, "and a percentage of that is returned to towns." Hammond added that he suspected the change was due to the amount of properties within the town that changed hands.

The highway department is projected to spend $472,000, an increase of $30,100 over this year. Hammond said the town had to accommodate rising fuel and material costs. The costs for medical and hospital insurance increased 9.9 percent, an increase of $4,800.
The Knox Fire District budget increased $37,510 from this year. Hammond said of the 19.5-percent increase, "We don’t set the tax rate for the fire district." He added that district’s fire commissioners set the rate.
"We’re only a collecting agent," he said.

A public hearing on the preliminary budget is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m., after which the board will vote on the spending plan.

Other business

In other business, at its October meeting, the town board:

— Read a letter regarding the improvements to the Berne-Altamont Road. The letter was in response to the letter Hammond wrote to resident engineer, Michael Johnson, in Voorheesville. Hammond told The Enterprise that he’s written letters asking for repairs to the road, and that Johnson has relayed the letters to the state’s Department of Transportation. The letter Hammond read last week, said the DOT has many other roads in need of repair, and that improvements to Route 156 between Altamont and Knox compete with others. The next improvements, the letter said, are scheduled for 2009.
"We agree the need exists," the letter said.
"That’s ridiculous," Councilman Nicholas Viscio said after Hammond read the letter. Viscio has expanded on the need to repair the road in past meetings.

Hammond said that he saw patching going on last week, and that the carriage way is gone.
"I believe it’s in the best interest of the board to exert pressure on the DOT," Hammond said. He also encouraged affected residents to contact them; and

— Heard from the planning board chairman, Robert Price, that the meteorological tower was completed last Tuesday. The tower, located on Middle Road, near the octagonal barn, he said, is the first in Albany County, and will collect data about wind speed and temperature for 18 months.