There are some residents who have been pushing to dissolve the Village of Corfu for a decade, said Trustee Ken Lauer.
Depending on the outcome of a meeting early next month, they may get their chance to take a serious look of what the future would look like without a Corfu municipal government.
At its first meeting in December, the village trustees will hear from a grant writer who will explain what it takes to study whether to dissolve the village.
The cost of the study can be from $40,000 to $50,000, according to Deputy Mayor David Bielec.
While there's grant money available from the state, if the village accepts the grant and then doesn't complete dissolution, the local government will be on the hook for half the cost of the study.
"There's a very good possibility the village won't want to take that kind of chance," Blelec said.
The study will answer, or try to answer, all of the unknown questions of dissolution -- will elimination of the court and police department save money; who will plow sidewalks and pick up yard waste; what other services will be lost; how will it effect sewer payments; what happens to the current village department; and most importantly, can village residents realistically expect lower taxes?
"I think it's a good idea, but until you do the financials, you really don't know," Blelec said.
Lauer is also on the fence.
"Am I for it or against it? I want to see the study," Lauer said. "There's good points and there's bad points as far as I can see. As a citizen I've often said what am I paying for? If I'm paying $300, $500 a year in taxes to the village, what do I get? The sidewalks plowed. Brush pick-up. That's really about it."
Both Lauer and Blelec said they don't believe the turmoil of the past two years -- from the theft of court funds to the behavior of Mayor Ralph Peterson -- are what's driving talk of dissolution. The idea was already in the air before those issues came up.
"It helped bring it to a fruition, but I don't think it was a cause, a direct cause," Lauer said.
Thinking about this a little
Thinking about this a little bit today. That's a rather biased approach from the state regarding the grant to pay for the study. How can the residents of Corfu make a decision about dissolution or not without the facts? If the state has grant money available for a study, then it should be a true unbiased study. This one is weighted towards forcing dissolution. Typical authoritarian NYS attitude.
Speaking from experience of
Speaking from experience of living in a village that dissolved years ago, the services once performed by the village were picked up by the town, water & sewer, sidewalk and village street maintenance and repair, lighting, trash pick up, ect.
Did it save residents money? Some think it did, others think not.
Is it a good idea for a village to dissolve? Depends on the village. I can't compare the village I lived in with Corfu because where I lived did not have their own village police force or court, as the local JOP was a town position. Village employees of the public works department were put on the town's payroll.