Fleischmanns to hold meeting  with Middletown on dissolution

The Village of Fleischmanns will host a combined meeting with the Town of Middletown at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9  to hear questions, comments and concerns regarding the proposed dissolution of the village.

A referendum on the matter will be held Friday, Dec. 20 from noon to 9 p.m. at the Skene Memorial Library.

If the referendum passes, the village will be disincorporated and become a hamlet of the town of Middletown, joining Arkville, Halcottsville and New Kingston. Should the referendum fail, the village will continue to operate as is.

The board scheduled the referendum after a petition with 28 valid signatures was submitted Sept. 7, according to Village Mayor Fred Woller.

Acknowledging that some village residents “have their gripes,” he noted that few to none have attended village board meetings to express their opinions.

Woller said he and other members of the village board are generally opposed to the proposition.

“I personally like having a voice,” Woller said. “When you become part of the big picture, you lose your identity — you lose your voice.”

Pat Davis, supervisor for the town of Middletown, echoed the sentiment.

“You always want more representation,” Davis said. “You always want more expression as a taxpayer.”

The village provides directly for street maintenance and lighting, fire protection, parks maintenance, municipal water and sewer services, as well as the village library, museum and other general services, Woller said. If the village is dissolved, the town would provide street maintenance services and will charge directly to village property owners via special districts.

The town is not required to maintain any existing agreements, nor maintain the same level of services currently provided by the village, according to Woller, but Davis said the town will make a good-faith effort to maintain the same level of services consistent with those it provides the three other hamlets.

“We’ve made it very clear that the town will work with the village either way they want to go,” Davis said.

With an area of less than one square mile, the village of Fleischmanns is home to fewer than 350 residents, according to Woller.

“It’s not a metropolis here,” he said. “I like the quietness — it’s my solace.”

If the referendum passes, Fleischmanns would be the fourth village in Delaware County history to disincorporate and form a hamlet, according to the New York State Department of State. The village of Andes dissolved in 2003 and became a hamlet, as did the village of Downsville in 1950. The village of Roxbury dissolved in April 1900, just weeks after the village of Prattsville became the first in New York state to disincorporate.

A study prepared by the Fleischmanns Village Board and presented Nov. 7 determined that the village has $679,000 in liquid net assets and owns $10.5 million in property, plants and equipment. The village owes $300,000 to the Catskill Watershed Corporation, which finances un-reimbursed Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief spending.

If the dissolution is approved, all assets would be transferred to the town of Middletown, while liabilities and debts remain with the village, according to the study. School taxes would remain the same and would not be subject to state incentives, and the fire department may become a fire district and would be required to restructure to address the additional administrative requirements.

The financial condition of the village has improved significantly since 2015, according to the study, which attributed the fiscal stability to cost savings and revenue enhancements and the collection of “long-outstanding taxes, water and sewer rents.” In-progress fundraising efforts are estimated to exceed $800,000, according to the report.

The Village of Fleischmanns scored a 15.8 out of 100 in a Feb. 28 snapshot of the Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System, indicating no designation of fiscal stress.

The village previously conducted a dissolution study in 2004, according to Woller.

“At the time, the economics were totally different,” he said. “If we dissolved then, there would have been a big savings, but not now.”

The short-term fiscal impact of dissolution is calculated based on elimination of expenses and the availability of financial incentives for dissolution offered by the state — primarily through Aid to Municipalities funding — and is estimated to provide a potential 11% reduction of combined county, town village taxes, according to the study.

The study estimated that a village property assessed at $100,000 would yield a monthly savings of $15.06 with the state incentives, or approximately $6.03 without the state incentives.

Eliminating village expenses for its current salary and contractual obligations, legal fees, elections and municipal dues would yield a total cost reduction of $21,181, or approximately 7% of the Fleischmanns tax levy, according to the study.

“For the size of the tax base we have, we’re doing very well,” Woller said. “In the long run, we’d be losing billions of dollars in infrastructure” if the village dissolved.

Certain properties owned by the village — parks, the pool, the theater — may revert to private ownership and potentially restricted to private usage if the village is dissolved.

Fleischmanns Park has a deed restriction that reverts park ownership back to heirs of the Fleischmanns family, the identification of whom is likely to be settled in surrogate court, according to Woller. During what the board determined would be a lengthy resolution process, the park grounds, including the tennis courts, playground and soccer field, would not be available for use.

The dissolution study is available at the Village Hall, the Skene Memorial Library and at fleischmannsny.com. For more information, call 845-254-5514.

Sarah Eames, staff writer, can be reached at seames@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7213. Follow her @DS_SarahE on Twitter.