For more than a year, the Walden Village Board has been looking at an application for annexation of 47.63 acres off of Route 52.

A year later many residents’ questions regarding annexation of this property are still unanswered. They wonder what the increases would be to village taxpayers for services like added Department of Public Works and Police employees. The village has not announced how many homes would be annexed to the Village as well as what the advantage is to the village to annex the property.

Furthermore Becky Pearson, a Walden resident and Village Mayor from 2005-2009, has been stressing that the Village Board have discussions on their borders, as more annexations may apply. If properties come into the Village now they would come under the R3 12,000 square feet per lot zone as opposed to the town zone size of two acre lots. This creates more density and tax revenue for the village.

Thorough discussions on these matters have yet to take place at Village Board meetings. This is concerning, as per New York State Municipal Law, annexation takes place based on whether it is in the overall public interest.

A public hearing was set with the Town of Montgomery where all board members stated that they were in favor of annexation because the Village of Walden is built out.

The possibility of annexation has angered some Village of Walden residents.

“Where does the annexation stop? How big do you get,” Pearson said. “How many more acres? Maybe the village should consolidate with the town. That would most likely lower our taxes, splitting the pot over a larger pie.”

Three weeks ago the Village Board set the clock for 90 days before making a decision regarding the property.

At the village board meeting last Tuesday, Village Attorney Dave Donovan noted that he was looking into how new properties would pay for the water overflow runoff capacity.