Roger Buchwalter, a former Wawarsing town councilmember, spoke up during the petitioners’ section of the July 25 Ellenville Village Board meeting to ask about the collection of tax arrears from tax delinquent property owners in the village. Buchwalter referred to the advertisements placed in the Shawangunk Journal a month ago that listed tax delinquent properties and their owners. Buchwalter said, “That there were local elected officials on that list was very disturbing. That there were some of our local business people, too, was also very disturbing.” Buchwalter wanted to know how many people were driven to pay up by being named in that way.

Village Manager Michael Warren took up that theme and said, “We have to give it to the Shawangunk Journal, those ads woke up a lot of people.” He went on to list the effects of the village actions on this score. “One, public embarrassment, it can be huge. Two, the forecast of tax sales of delinquent properties probably concentrated some minds.”

Some other considerations were brought up. Warren said that the effort to have Ulster County accept its three villages on the same basis, regarding tax delinquency, as its towns is on again.

John Gavaris, the county legislator that represents the village, is co-sponsor with Joe Maloney of Saugerties, on a motion at the county legislature to allow the villages to “opt in” to having their tax delinquents be taken on by the county. And, as County Comptroller March Gallagher found when she studied this issue, the county can make decent money selling off delinquent properties at tax auction sales.

Warren noted that having tax delinquencies reimbursed by the county would be a big boost for the village. It would also pretty much end the annual practice of the village having to fund a Tax Anticipation Note with a bank loan because of tax delinquents. “Be a big help,” Warren concluded.

Warren also mentioned that Auctions International, with whom the village already does business in reselling used equipment, is possibly going to open up an auction in the tax arrears area.

Either way, tax delinquents in Ellenville may soon find themselves caught between paying up or being pushed into an auction of their property.

The discussion of unpaid bills shifted to the Ellenville Water Department. Warren noted that $497,000 had been rolled over from water bills to tax bills. All current water bills are due by August 8; and as Tracy Jeter, village clerk, commented, after two weeks or so without payment, the village will be allowed to shut off water. A two-year period forbidding water shutoffs, because of the pandemic crisis, has now ended. Water bill delinquents will either pay up or will do without village water.

Deputy Mayor Ray Younger, chairing the meeting in the absence of Mayor Jeff Kaplan, said, “It’s good to see bills being paid, and now at last we can turn off the water for delinquents.”

While the discussion was still focused on this area, Victoria Messner, a representative for the community group COFFE, asked if it was possible to prevent property tax delinquents, hiding behind LLCs, from purchasing more property in the village. The answer was a firm negative, and thus that practice can continue.

Trustee T.J. Briggs, who served 10 years on the Ulster County Legislature, commented that he didn’t think the proposal to allow the villages to opt in for county protection would pass. He noted that nowadays, Ulster is one of only two counties in New York State that does not make villages whole in this way. Briggs referred to the oft-mentioned problem during his time at the legislature that Ellenville would arrive on the county’s books accompanied by a $900,000 debt owed by tax delinquent landlords and property owners. However, that debt load has shrunk enormously in recent years. Gavaris told the Shawangunk Journal that it may well be entirely gone by this fall.