Hilltown Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, February 17, 2011
Sales-tax revenues up
Knox buys truck, licenses dogs
By Zach Simeone
KNOX — The town has received its annual check from county sales tax distribution, which amounted to $203,491.26. This, and other revenues, balance out the different payments made at the board’s monthly meeting last week, during which the board voted to purchase a new $57,000 truck, made its final payments on the recently completed town hall re-construction, and adopted the now-required dog-licensing law.
“We’ve got an upward trend for the third time in a row here,” Supervisor Michael Hammond said this week of the increase in county sales tax revenue. These funds are distributed to municipalities based on population. Knox also received $29,226 from distribution of county mortgage tax.
Knox’s new dog-licensing law, which it was required to adopt after the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets abandoned its statewide licensing database, passed unanimously and established the following rates: It will now cost $5 to license a spayed or neutered dog, and $13 to license an unaltered dog. This is a $2.50 increase from the town’s previous dog-licensing fee, Hammond said.
“One thing we paid attention to was the fact that the model law sent out through the association of towns suggested that all licensing start on the first of year,” said Hammond. “In other words, if you were to get your license in November, it would have only been good for one month. Instead, licenses that were paid for in November are good till this November…Say you picked up a license in March; you’d be good till the end of February.”
Other business
In other business at its Feb. 8 meeting, the town board:
— Authorized a final payment to Sacco and McKinney Architects, the firm that oversaw the town hall re-construction, in the amount of $5,703;
— Authorized a final payment to Eckert Mechanical Services Corporation in the amount of $17,228. This was the last remaining payment to be made in the town hall re-construction, which is now complete;
— Approved a transfer of $50,000 from the town’s highway fund to the highway capital reserve fund;
— Drawing on the $50,000 transferred to the highway capital reserve fund, authorized the purchase of a new 2011 Chevrolet 3500 heavy-duty one-ton truck, with a stainless steel sander and stainless steel plow, for $57,000. The truck will be purchased on state contract, and will likely be delivered in close to four months, Hammond said;
— Authorized a payment of $24,192 to renew its contract with the Altamont Rescue Squad for 2011, and a payment of $25,500 to renew its contract with Helderberg Ambulance for 2011. Knox does not have a rescue squad of its own;
— Authorized a payment of $45,076 to renew its contract with the town of Guilderland for advanced life support (ALS) services;
— Authorized a payment of $6,000 to the Altamont Free Library, and a payment of $1,500 to the Berne library. Knox does not have its own library, and residents use both Berne and Altamont’s libraries;
— Authorized the renewal of the town’s contract with the city of Albany for use of its landfill, at a rate of $52 a ton;
— Received a payment of $16,638.83 from Time Warner Cable for its franchising fee;
— Received $13,543.62 in revenue from AT&T for use of the cell tower in town;
— Received $16,530 in revenue from Verizon for use of the cell tower in town;
— Received $2,695 through a New York State snowmobile grant;
— Received $697 through a New York State archives grant, which was paid to K Sickler Murphy for its assistance with records management at Town Hall. A total of $6,963 has been paid to K Sickler Murphy for its services, and this was the final payment; and
— Agreed to begin selling the town’s paper recyclables to Green Fiber, which reimburses municipalities for its materials at a given rate per ton.
But, according to Highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury, the company has not yet established a particular rate that the town will be paid for the recyclables.
“How I understand it is, it depends on how much tonnage you generate,” Salisbury said. “So we’re not going to have a real solid price from them till they start taking stuff from us.”