When towns and villages start talking about consolidation, they look to the Town of Ticonderoga, where in 1993, voters agreed the biggest consolidation step of all: Dissolving the village.
And though it worked for Ticonderoga, it’s not the answer for everyone, according to Michael Diskan, mayor of the Village of Ticonderoga at the time.
“It did what I expected it to do—it cut taxes,” Mr. Diskan said.
Mr. Diskan likes to point out that the Village of Ticonderoga was incorporated in 1889—and just 11 years later, in 1901, the first—unsuccessful--vote to dissolve it was held. Beginning in the 1960s, four or five other unsuccessful dissolution votes followed.
What ended up being the catalyst for 1993’s dissolution began in the late 1970s, Mr. Diskan said, when International Paper, Ticonderoga’s main employer, moved from the village to the town.
With it, went the property taxes International Paper had been paying to the village—it leveled its old buildings there—as well as the need for things like the village’s Streets or Police Departments.
And by the 1980s, Mr. Diskan said, village taxes had skyrocketed.
Mr. Diskan took office in April of 1991; a short time later a petition of taxpayers tried to force another vote on dissolution, but the rest of the village board successfully challenged that move in court, claiming not all of the signatures on the petition were valid.
Eventually, the debate made its way to the Supreme Court, where in a compromise, a vote was set for the following year.
“So that there was going to be a vote was already decided when I became mayor,” Mr. Diskan said.
Also setting the stage was the fact that a town-wide fire district created in 1990 was already filling that need, and the village had also already given its Police Department to the town.
“There really wasn’t a lot of the village left, even before the vote,” Mr. Diskan said.
As required under the compromise, the village hired an expert to study dissolution and come up with a plan for doing just that if voters approved.
The expert, Mr. Diskan said, believed shuttering the village wouldn’t save any money—but he disagreed.
“I ended up doing my own study,” he said, “and with just a town tax, I calculated taxpayers would be saving about $800 a year,” findings he—the only member of the village board in favor of dissolution—released in a press conference.
In the end, in March of 1992, voters approved dissolving the village by about 100 votes.
“It wasn’t overwhelming, but the die was cast,” Mr. Diskan said.
Over the next few months, the village sold some property, and turned its gravel pit and street trucks over to the town.
About the only things still operating were the village water and sewer plants, which like Cobleskill’s had their own debt.
Because that debt couldn’t just be passed onto the town, Mr. Diskan said a water and sewer district was created instead.
“The biggest concern was village employees: What would happen to them?” he said.
In the end, the town took all of the village’s employees; over time, the workforce was reduced through retirement and attrition.
“No one lost a job,” Mr. Diskan said.
Mr. Diskan said he believes the savings he predicted are still valid, almost 15 years later.
What’s more, he said, “Nothing has changed. The streets are still plowed—we still have all the services we did before. But you no longer need two clerks, two attorneys, two zoning boards…a lot of the savings comes in salaries,” like those for the mayor and trustees.
Like Cobleskill, Mr. Diskan said before the village was dissolved, all of the economic growth was taking placing outside the village in the town—and businesses there were seeking village water and sewer.
Once those services became available, he said, businesses—and people—started moving into the town.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth,” he said. “We have a Wal-Mart, a Super 8…International Paper is still here and is doing well. Dissolution was to some extent, responsible for that growth.
Though he still believes dissolving the village was the best step for Ticonderoga, Mr. Diskan cautioned it’s not for everyone—a point he makes when he’s asked to speak on it.
“There’s a lot you can do with consolidating services,” he said. “You don’t have to dissolve. In a lot of cases, that might not be the best thing to do. Is it worth looking at? Sure. It worked for Ticonderoga. But it’s not necessarily the only answer.”