Marbletown residents may see a 10 percent increase in the overall budget next year, according to the town board’s preliminary budget presentation on Tuesday.

Supervisor Rich Parete explained that the drastic spike was caused by the recently established Ambulance Improvement District, which is a new tax line that will fund a dedicated ambulance service for the town. If it wasn’t for the district, which was strongly supported by community members, resident taxes wouldn’t have budged, Parete said. However, these numbers are not set in stone, and may be adjusted after the board reviews the numbers and the community makes its comments.

“We’re adding a 24/7 ambulance service and there is a cost to it,” Parete explained. “We can discuss it more moving forward but there’s really nothing we can do [now.]”

The ambulance district came with a $315,000 price tag, with $100,000 coming from the town’s reserve funds and $215,000 funded through taxes, Parete said. To reduce the cost of the district, the board talked about partnering with rescue squads from neighboring towns to iron out a shared service agreement, providing extra support during emergencies when needed. The board added that it would talk with Ulster County leaders about setting up a county-wide ambulance district, which would allow the town to place extra ambulances within its borders.

Some of the seven fire departments in Marbletown also saw significant increases in their budgets. The Kripplebush Fire Company requested a roughly $130,000 boost in their budget to hire paid staffers as they struggle to find volunteers, Parete explained. The High Falls and Lamontville fire companies also requested $9,000 and $10,000, respectively, for reasons that were unexplained. Conversely, the Cottekill Fire Department reduced their budget by $50,000, which Parete said must have come from sold equipment.

At the next meeting, the town will share its Emergency Service Study, which the town participated in to see if any cost-saving measures could be implemented and if any departments could be consolidated. Each department except Kripplebush participated, and Parete said the town could save over $100,000 in emergency service expenses by having two fire trucks instead of the seven or eight in all of the town’s departments.

Other steep increases came from changes in the town’s insurance bill, which jumped to $110,000 from $85,000 two years ago, Parete said. After someone slipped and fell at Marbletown Park and a motorcycle crashed on Woodland Road, the town was sued twice, which led to the spike. Similarly, the town’s disability payment expenses rose from between $20,000 and $30,000 to $110,000 after an employee was hurt on the job, but that payment is starting to recede as well.

Other causes for the rise were attributed to payroll costs in multiple departments. Town Clerk Heather Moody saw an almost $2,000 boost in her salary and the other clerk’s office employees saw nominal bumps as well. The 1.89 percent rise in the Highway Department budget was also connected to payroll increases for employees. Each town board member received a $500 salary boost, after no elected officials were given raises last year, but Parete’s salary remained the same.

Despite the complications, the general budget actually decreased by almost two percent and the High Falls Water District budget did not change at all. The town is currently on track to have an overall increased revenue in the ballpark of $200,000 more than last year. Marbletown Environmental Conservation Commission Chair Tom Konrad also saved around $9,000 in the town’s lighting district expenses by installing LED lights and turning off unwanted street lights a while back.

Since the town’s proposed hike steps far beyond the state-mandated two percent cap, a local law must be passed to approve it. A public hearing will be held on October 19, at 6 p.m., in the Rondout Municipal Center for folks to give their input. Also, the tentative budget will go to the board for review before another public hearing is held and the final board vote on the budget will be November 4.

Other Business

The town board is looking to reduce the speed limit on the Marbletown end of Hurley Mountain Road from 55 miles per hour (mph) to 45. The decision was prompted by a complaint from a resident on the road and board members noted the road’s steep decline and lack of pull-off areas. When Parete reached out to the Ulster County Department of Public Works, he found that the Marbletown stretch of the road was never reduced after the other stretch was. The process should take between three and four months, he continued.

Approximately 8.6 acres of vacant land, located off Barberry Road, was donated to the town by the Jack Golden Trust. The trust acquired the land after a former Marbletown resident passed away in 2015 and relinquished his land to it. However, the trust’s bylaws do not allow it to own land, Parete explained, and they could not close his estate for five years. The trust attempted to sell the land and came close, before the pandemic hit, but eventually decided to sell it to the town. Parete said that it’s a buildable lot and that the town may look to use it as a site to create affordable housing.

The next Marbletown Town Board meeting will take place on October 19 at 6 p.m. For more information on how to access the meeting, check the Marbletown Facebook page as the date approaches.