The Town of Crawford will hold a public hearing on Thursday, September 21, at 6 p.m. in the town hall regarding a petition for incorporating a coterminous town village, a proposal that the board has discussed since early 2020.

If approved, a village will be consolidated within the Town of Crawford, which would preserve the town’s boundaries but prevent any other villages from being built within said boundaries.

“The new name would be the consolidated Town of Crawford…otherwise known as a coterminous village town. We have no villages in the Town of Crawford, so everything would stay the same. The borders stay the same, the little local hamlets stay the same, everything stays the same,” said Town Supervisor Charles Carnes.

This change would also maintain costs for Crawford residents by restricting new villages from developing.
“Basically, this is to control costs. New York is one of the most expensive states in the country. The unfunded mandates, the cost structure in New York is making it unaffordable for people in New York…the more you build up government costs, the more it costs taxpayers,” Carnes explained.

“Our goal is to follow the master plan, which limits growth, taxes, keep the growth in Bullville and the Pine Bush area, and just try to keep it affordable so people can continue to stay here,” he continued.

The September 21 meeting will allow residents to ask questions exclusively pertaining to the petition and its incorporation. The town board will then schedule a public hearing in October in which residents can ask questions about anything related to the coterminous town village.

“This one they can just ask on the petition, and then obviously in October, when the bigger one is at the town board meeting, they can ask anything they want,” Carnes said.

The petition can be found posted in the town hall and on the town’s website at townofcrawford.org/ under “Important Announcements.”