The village of Bloomingburg is trying to get a stretch of heavily traveled Winterton Road resurfaced this month, paying for it with state and federal COVID-19 relief money.

“I’m tired of patching,” Mayor Russell Wood Jr. said Monday night after introducing the plan to the trustees. He said it makes no sense to spend thousands of dollars on repairs that must be done over and over.

Wood said he spoke to contractors who said they could get the work done before shutting down for the winter. The section of road, 525 feet — less than two football fields long — runs from the southernmost of the two U.S. post office driveways south to the Bloomingburg-Mamakating line.

Wood said the least expensive quotes came from Peckham Road Corp. of Queensbury and Sullivan County Paving & Construction of White Lake.

Peckham would grind up the roadbed, mix it with concrete and lay down the new base course, or foundation. Sullivan County Paving would then pave it with asphalt. Peckham’s work will cost $29,630, and the paving company's $46,240.

Wood proposed using $37,402 the village has from the American Rescue Plan Act, one of the federal COVID-19 relief packages. The ARPA rules permit municipalities to spend grant money on long-lived assets such as infrastructure. Another $30,000 or so would come from CHIPS, New York State’ Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program, Wood said. The village also has money set aside by a developer to pay for road work related to the construction of condos on Winterton. Wood said the village would release the developer from doing the work and do it itself, putting the developer’s money toward the repaving project.

Wood said the work would be done one lane at a time to permit traffic to pass for the duration of the job, which is expected to take less than two weeks.

A Vote on the Vote

The board of trustees has scheduled a permissive referendum for January 10, 2023, asking voters if they want to shift village elections, now held in March, to the date of general elections held in November.

Bloomingburg, like many other villages, holds municipal elections in March. But Sullivan County stopped administering those local elections, shifting the job and associated expenses onto the villages.

The county said it would administer the village elections if they switched them to November. The board resolved to make the shift, pending voter approval. With the voters’ say so, the next municipal elections would be held in November 2023. The terms of elected officials now in office who would be up for election in March would be extended to accommodate the new dates.

New Attorney’s Fee Approved

The board approved a resolution granting village attorney Alex Smith’s request to raise his hourly fee to $200 from $150 beginning in January 2023. Smith, the village’s attorney since 2017, said the new fee was in line with increases for work he performs for another municipality and municipal insurance carrier.

The 2022-23 municipal budget listed attorney’s fees at $12,000, down from $17,000 in 2021-22. Wood said the line item was reduced to reflect the actual expenditures, and he thinks the allocation will be sufficient to cover the new rate.

Clerk to Get Some Help

Village clerk Joel Jungreis is about to get some help. The board voted to create the position of deputy clerk and then appointed Moshe Braun to the job. Jungreis also clerks for the Zoning Board of Appeals, building department and sewer department. He’s also the tax collector. The jobs are all part time, and the budget for all the jobs combined is $38,500. The deputy clerk will be paid $19 an hour for up to seven hours a week. The board will reduce the clerk’s pay by the amount paid to the new deputy clerk so the budget appropriation stays at $38,500, Wood said.