Carr votes no on Lumberland budget

By DAVID HULSE

GLEN SPEY — It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was the principle of the thing, Councilman Joe Carr said November 14, as he voted no on the town’s $1.47 million budget for 2002.

Carr listed what he felt were seven over-budgeted lines in the plan, including the town’s cultural series, safety inspection, and salaries for the  historian, town clerk, deputy tax collector, code enforcement officer and deputy code enforcement officer. “I felt I was elected to try and keep these costs down and [these positions] have gotten more than they should have,” Carr said.

The budget passed 4-1, despite Carr’s vote.

Supervisor John LiGreci said the deputy CEO got a six-percent salary increase because “we looked at other towns and found he was badly underpaid.”

The CEO and town clerk got three percent each and the other lines two and a half percent, LiGreci said.

Not paying money that’s deserved doesn’t necessary make someone a better legislator, he said in response to Carr’s remarks.

In other business, the town board approved a local law amending its definitions of exemptions in NYS Real Property Law 420-b. The move is preparatory to LiGreci’s plan to removing exemptions from some not-for-profit-owned properties.

The board also: heard LiGreci report that he hoped construction on a new Mohaph Road salt shed would begin in the spring; scheduled a December 12 public hearing on an extension of a six-month moratorium on campground construction; noted the appointment of Dorothy Amey and Janet Andrews to replace Helga Rupnick as chair of the town’s Sullivan First Committee; and appointed Deanna Rajsz to a long vacant $7 per hour position as deputy records management clerk.