Published: November 08, 2007 02:14 am            

PENDLETON: Trash fee slashed, budget forged

Town tax rates will remain the same or decrease slightly with the town board’s Tuesday passage of a 2008 budget.

Most significantly, the board knocked back the per-unit refuse collection fee to $176 next year. It was $200 this year.

Ultimately, Supervisor James Riester said, the owner of an average-value home ($162,000) could see about a $30 savings on his or her 2008 tax bill.

Overall spending, $4.2 million, is projected to be the same next year as this year. Special district rate cuts are possible because construction

of 18 new homes, several business properties and additions means more tax base over which to spread costs, Tax Collector George Mislin said.

In 2008, most town employees will be granted either a raise of roughly $1,000 or an approximately 2.8 percent cost-of-living raise. However, no raises are granted to the supervisor, board members, town attorney, town historian, or members of the Board of Assessment Review and Conservation Board.

Worker compensation costs are expected to roughly quadruple next year. According to Riester, that’s because two town employees were injured, in separate instances, in 2006. The county self-insurance pool to which the town belongs rates members on three years of experience, so the town will have higher rates in most funds for that period. A $55,000 decrease in fire service worker compensation costs offsets the increase, Riester said.

Property owners’ savings on garbage disposal comes from a new three-year contract the town is striking with Modern Disposal. Pendleton is a member of a waste consortium whose 10-year deal with Waste Management New York/American Refuel is ending. Beginning Feb. 15, Modern will handle both trash collection and recycling pickup.

The budget references the town’s plan to replace the playground, pave a back parking lot and add some landscaping at the town park. The money is coming from capital savings, according to Riester.

The business development committee is receiving a $30,000 line item increase to commission a business development plan for the town.

The budget also sets aside a minimum $20,000 for a townwide sewer survey. According to board member Joe Frawley, the town desires a “sewer master plan” to plot the phase-out of 1970s-era grinder pumps and replace them with less troublesome gravity pumps. Areas of the town that don’t have sewer service should also be assessed to see what it would take to add service in the future, Frawley said.

The town does not calculate a combined tax rate — the total cost of general, highway, water, sewer, fire and trash pickup services per $1,000 of property value — because three separate sewer districts face differing costs.

In other business Tuesday, the board voted unanimously to grant a special use permit to Deb and Tex Ellis, 5176 Tonawanda Creek Road, authorizing their establishment of a bed-and-breakfast business. The permit was recommended previously by the town planning board.

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.

        

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