Two Mineral Springs residents continue to question how the Town of Cobleskill’s takeover of the village’s Highway Department is impacting their taxes.
Joe Kerr maintains he’s paying for services—like plowing parking lots—that he doesn’t benefit from.
Art Rumpf charged using oversized trucks to plow village streets is a waste of resources.
Both men took their concerns to Monday’s town meeting for the third month running.
Mr. Kerr asked how much it costs to remove snow from the village in the middle of the night and when he got no response, asked how the town could calculate the new tax rates without those figures.
His concern is that, as a town resident, he is paying for village “extras.”
Councilman Sherwood Veith, who with fellow Councilman Ken Hotopp helped negotiate the move to one Highway Department, said they simply moved the village costs to the town.
Mr. Veith said they didn’t budget for any additional costs because they assumed they would remain the same.
“That’s not fair to the town,” Mr. Kerr said. “Somehow it was to be calculated…If it snows more [than projected], the people getting snow removal have to pay for it.”
Mr. Kerr said he plowed parking lots for General Electric for 30 years and it’s a more difficult and time-consuming job than straight runs on town roads.
Mr. Veith, however, pointed out that when it snows in the village it snows in the town; trucks working on village streets are also plowing on Myers Road.
When Mr. Kerr asked how long it takes to remove snow from the village after a typical storm, Deputy Highway Superintendent Jeff Eckler estimated about two hours with one or two men working overnight and one or two again in the morning.
When that answer didn’t satisfy Mr. Kerr, Mr. Veith asked Mr. Eckler to crunch some numbers for him on the average number of snows and the costs involved.
“I’m just trying to get some numbers so I can see how you calculated taxes,” Mr. Kerr said. “If you’re going to up my taxes and lower theirs’ [village residents], it’s not fair.”
The switch from two Highway Departments to one was made in part to answer longtime charges that village residents were being charged for many of the same services twice—once as residents of the village in their village taxes and again in their town.
Mr. Rumph asked about the size of the trucks used on village streets and how many men the Highway Department employs.
He also questioned the use of overtime, pointing out he tends to see more trucks going by his house on weekends than during the week.