POTSDAM – If voters decide to abolish the village on Nov. 8, should the town take over operation of Damon Field Airport?
Should the town hire a town administrator? Create a police force? Continue maintaining parks within what is now the village? Pay for Christmas lights downtown?
Those are just a few of the dozens of decisions the town board will have to make in 2012 if they are forced to take over operations now handled by the village.
Road maintenance, local courts, fire department coverage, building permits, building code enforcement and tax collection would continue because both the town and village currently provide those functions, and the town would be required to absorb the extra workload.
The town would almost certainly take on some optional village services including a police force in some form.
But the town board would have to make scores of decisions on which village services to continue, and at what funding level. And town residents might be surprised to learn they currently benefit from a number of village services.
Here’s a look at some of the services “at risk” if the village were dissolved, recommendations to the town from the village Dissolution Study Committee and issues town councilmen may wish to consider:
Airport
The Dissolution Study Committee recommends continuing to operate the airport in the same manner, but spreading costs town wide.
Currently, the village shoulders costs of snowplowing, maintenance, hangar rental and administration at the airport. It is unlikely the town would close the airport because of the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in it by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The airport allows for critically ill or injured patients to be airlifted to advanced-level hospitals in Burlington or Syracuse. If the airport were shut down, employers such as UPS, which require extensive use of the airport, might have to move from Potsdam to another community with an airport.
Read More: http://northcountrynow.com
No comments:
Post a Comment