The Ellenville Village Budget will get its final vote at the May 23 meeting. Village Manager Michael Warren offered up some interesting numbers and concepts. First, the budget as presented and reported on previously has not changed. Second, the village and the NY State Comptroller’s Office are going back and forth a lot, making sure there are no bad surprises like there have been in the past.

Warren noted that best estimate, with numbers from the tax collector, is that the village pays $300,000 in taxes to the town’s budget. That number illuminates the question regarding what the village gets for its money from the town and vice versa.

Tax Delinquents Take Notice

In an aside, Village Trustee T.J. Briggs, who has been on town board, and had 10 years as an Ulster County Legislator, said, “The county is never going to make you whole,” referring to the oft raised question of why Ulster County’s towns are “made whole” by the county over tax delinquents. What happens then is those delinquents face the county, with its resources and lawyers, and usually they pay up quickly, or lose their property in a tax auction. The county — one of a handful in New York State to do so —does not do this for its villages. The other villages, New Paltz and Saugerties, are not bothered by this because they have budget surpluses and have not endured the depressed decades that Ellenville has.

Warren has noted that as Ellenville comes back to economic health with such ventures as Cresco Labs and Somerset Partners’ revitalization of the old Nevele property, this situation will change.

Immediately, however, tax delinquent properties are being lined up by the village itself for a tax sale come this fall. Owners with delinquent tax bills who wish to retain their properties should seek to pay up as soon as possible.

And while talking about money owed to the village, Warren added that the village will be allowed to cut off properties with unpaid water bills. “Come September, bills that aren’t paid will result in water being shut off.”

Warren also noted that the old Nevele, from 2009 and before, went out of business owing the Village $511,000 for water, a bill that will need to be negotiated or paid by Somerset as they develop the property in line with their new plan.

COFFE News

Poppy Cannon appeared on behalf of Citizens Of Forward Facing Ellenville (COFFE) to promote the current “Arts Initiative,” the most immediate aspect being the Artist in Residence program at 6 Market Street where portraits are being taken. “You can bring your pets,” said Cannon. The program has been popular, with 36 people showing up last Sunday. The portraiture program runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.