By Chris Rossi, Hamilton Town Council
(Hamilton, NY – Dec. 2014) Hamilton’s December Town Council meeting was opened with good news from Mayor [Margaret] Miller. Good Nature Brewing and Colgate’s proposed Cultural Art’s Center have been awarded substantial grant money to support their local projects.
Town Clerk Sue Reymers is getting ready to send out January property tax bills. The Town of Hamilton will once again work with Madison County to collect taxes. Look for a notice with your tax bill explaining how to pay your town taxes directly to the County. It is easy, and sharing services between the Town and the County eliminates extra work, which results in a cost savings for our community.
The Town approved the local road use law. Delta Engineering will meet with representatives from Hamilton, as well as from the participating towns of Lebanon and Brookfield, to provide training on implementing the law.
The needs of our Town Office have outgrown our home on Broad Street. The current space lacks sufficient office, public meeting and storage space. The Town Council has been looking for a new home that would provide much needed room to conduct business in a community friendly and efficient way.
To that end, the Town is purchasing the yellow railroad building on Milford Street at a cost of $125,000. The building will need extensive work before we can occupy it, so the actual move will not take place for close to a year, most likely sometime during the fall or winter of 2015. The Town considers this purchase of a local historic building a good investment that will fulfill our needs while freeing our current office as a prime downtown retail space.
Supervisor [Eve Ann] Shwartz reported on news from Madison County, which passed its budget with a 8.38 percent tax increase. The increase in County taxes will be used to pay for a variety of needed projects including: upgraded highway equipment, bridge and road improvements, and financial software and technology investments.
In addition, the County will hire a manager for emergency services to help the county, and its towns and villages, better prepare for situations like the violent storms and power outages experienced this summer.
The Hamilton Town Council meets on the second Thursday of the month at the Town of Hamilton office at 16 Broad Street in the Village of Hamilton at 7 pm. Our next regular meeting is Thursday, Jan. 8 at 7 pm. We invite and encourage you to join us. For more info visit http://www.townofhamiltonny.org/