The Town of Montgomery’s October 24 meeting featured the latest citizen of the month, a discussion on future sewer plans, a motion for a battery storage moratorium hearing, and an announcement for the town’s Veterans Day celebration.
The board opened the meeting by honoring Jose Hernandez, local resident and veteran, with the October Citizen of the Month award. Hernandez is a member of the town’s ethics board who worked with the Holy Name of Mary Church and Catholic Youth Organization, participated in blood drives, co-founded the Little Big Vikings, a youth basketball group, and poured countless hours into volunteer work. He moved to Montgomery after serving 20 years in the United States Army.
“He’s also an avid runner and can be seen running around the Village of Montgomery a couple of times a week…we do appreciate and thank you for your outstanding service and commitment to the Town of Montgomery,” said Town Supervisor Ronald Feller, who gave Hernandez a plaque and certificate commending his work.
“Mr. Feller, it was truly an amazing honor to serve our nation, and I did that with a lot of pride. And now it’s time to serve our community. I appreciate your heartfelt words,” Hernandez responded.
A little while after, Feller touched on Montgomery and Maybrook’s inter-municipal sewer agreement, in which Maybrook will share its sewer resources and treatment plant with the town. He warned residents that the town will spend a lot on sewer and water in the coming future as the board devises a plan for updating its sewer system.
“For the future, we are going to be spending a lot of money, coming down the road, on sewer and water…we are not going to be increasing tax rates, but we are working on some projects, and it’s going to cost a lot of money for water and sewer. We hope to offset that with PILOT programs and people coming into the district,” Feller explained.
“Our sewer capacity is right around 94, 95%. We want to prepare for the future. We have an agreement with the Village of Maybrook that we are going to be tying into the Village of Maybrook sometime down the road, pick up 80,000 thousand gallons of capacity, which will be really good for us…that’ll buy us probably five years of time to get our whole sewer district updated to the point where it should be,” he continued.
Feller also mentioned that the board is currently looking into bonds for a new police station, which is estimated to be around $8 million.
“After much work, we are taking baby steps towards getting money to get our police station. We discussed bonds; bonds are 20-year, 30-year. A lot of money, a lot of interest, and you can’t do anything for the first 8 years,” Feller said.
“We do have an estimate for a police station, it’s in the neighborhood of almost $8 million. If we bonded it, we would bond $8 million and it would be in the neighborhood of $500,000 a year for an expense,” he continued.