I would have guessed Herrings would go first in the dissolution effort since the tiny village has trouble filling its board positions....but it's Chaumont that is considering oblivion under a recently passed state law making getting rid of villages easier. The historic Village of Seneca Falls voted itself out of business this past year.
The biggest loss in these actions is identity and the notion that folks living near each other can achieve the economies of scale needed to provide services at a reasonable cost.
Town governments would become the delivery agent for local services....In this case the Town of Lyme.
This is the first case of a local village choosing this path. How this plays out will be a template for other local communities.
How about the Lyme School District ? Oh, not those kind of consolidations.
Watertown Daily Times Chaumont considering dissolution
8 comments:
Preservation of identity can lead to unintended polarization. The school district? A preservation of an archaic status quo.
This must be a joke. A $40k grant to do a study? All the armchair quarterbacks have already decreed that consolidation will save money. Only a few prolific rainmakers see the error in the thinking.
But in this case the error is glaring. The town supervisor readily admits they will absorb all the employees and they already share services and a barn. Where is the freaking savings???
The savings will be in eliminating trash service and shifting water and sewer costs. Wait until re village residents shop the cost of trash pickup and factor in that it is with after tax dollars.
Or else they will come up with stupid proprietary trash stickers and spend 70k a year in administering them and printing them and mailing them and on and on.
The town is the one that has a $50k plus supervisor with Cadillac health plan and a Lamborghini pension plan. In fact the biggest savings could be had with one fell swoop of pension reform. Not to mention that there are always a number of qualified candidates seeking to be elected into the gravy train job...which is an indication that the pay might be a tad generous...just like Trooper pay.
But make no mistake, if a town gets 800 new residence to take care of, they will start shopping for new equipment and new employees and make an excuse why they need a better version of the old equipment.
How 'bout merging the two fire departments instead?
Maybe if the town of Watertown and City of Watertown merged we would have a better tax rate. Do you think?
The Lean Theory of Constraints and Six sigma theory would both lead to reservations about this consolidation nonsense.
As the WDT's article states, they are already essentially consolidated where prudent.
Look at the Watertown school district. By consolidating into a giant campus, they save on a few janitors and a nurse but spend ten times more on AstroTurf, swimming pools, auditorium and a monument to he that brought work to the local engineering cartel.
Do you even know where Chaumont is?
If the town of Henderson desolved, and let someone do the road work, what a lot of money would be saved. Not many services there anyway, just saleries and benefits. Anyone want to merge with the town of Henderson, which some have called, Spenderson? Can't do a dog law, can't do a zoning officer. But they sure can spend....
No it would double.
not a perfect solution, but a positive step..........
Hey, you've got to start somewhere.....
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