The Highlands Town Board passed a resolution to transfer $250,000 from its General Reserve Fund to its Contingency and Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund at its September 30 meeting and budget work session. Those funds can now be used to help lower the tax increase to residents for the 2025 budget.

After adopting that resolution, the board moved into ‘work session mode’ to find further ways to reduce next year’s spending plan.

The board members first met with Historian Ronnie Coffey, who presented them with a budget that was unchanged from 2024. Her time with the board was about five minutes – and when she left the room, they had increased her budget by $100. That was due to discussion – and significant praise -- regarding the recent presentation the Historical Society had at the Highland Falls Library on the return of the Iranian hostages through Highland Falls – “special events like that do cost me extra in printing, for instance,” she said. “If I were to plan to do something like this again next year, an extra $100 would help.”

Coffey told the board she’d love to be able to expand the offerings of her office, and noted that a help with that would be community members joining the Historical Society. Membership is $12 a year, an amount which has not changed in 40 years, she noted. (To join, contact Coffey at 845-446-0400.)

Planning Board Chairman Erik Smith also sat before the board for a very short time – he also did not ask for any additional monies over his 2024 budget. Smith noted his board members are not asking for increases in their stipends, and they keep the cost of their consultants down by not having them at all board meetings.

Sitting with the board for a significantly longer period were Highway Superintendent Greg Maher and his deputy, Tiffany Montellese. They handle several different departments – the Dial-A-Bus, sanitation, water and sewer and the Highway Department among them.
From those discussions:

• They reported needing no increase in funds for snow removal – they budget $45,000 for salt (the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District pays for some of that) and at this point in the year have only spent $30,000 from last year’s budget.
•  The Dial-A-Bus budget remains the same, however, the federal reimbursements the town will get for bus operations will decrease due to the end of the CARES funding. But, there will be no changes to the rates of those riding the bus – that is $1 for typical passengers, and 50 cents for seniors and those who have Medicaid. Montellese did add that the town was due to receive its new Dial-A-Bus this month. It will be a little while before it is on the road due to registering it, etc. Once it is, the town will auction off the current bus.
•  Maher said he did not have any plan to purchase any significant machinery in the year ahead. The town currently has $117,000 in reserve for the Highway Department, and $30,000 is expected to go into that fund in the 2025 budget.
• When it came to sanitation expenses, the board was informed that the town has spent upwards of $270,000 in salaries in that department because of the use of higher paid Highway Department workers to fill in when Sanitation workers are not there. The four full-time sanitation workers total $165,000 in salaries each year. Regarding a reserve fund for a new sanitation truck, $20,000 is expected to be put into that fund in 2025; it currently has $129,000 in it. The town currently has one truck that is “very beat up,” Maher said. It is 10 years old.
• Montellese and Maher brought up a salary increase they’d like to see. For her role as deputy superintendent, Montellese receives a $750 annual stipend – “that works out to like ten cents a day,” she said. Supervisor Bob Livsey said town-wide salaries would be discussed during a later discussion. (Montellese does receive a more typical salary for her role as the confidential secretary to the superintendent.)
• Cemeteries are also part of the Highway Department’s budget. They noted that the largest expense there is the cutting of the grass, and asked for an additional $10,000 there, from $40,000 to $50,000. This year the town spent just under $35,000 on that work; it was contracted out.
• It was noted that the treatment of Garrison Pond for weeds will increase from $8500 to $9000 in 2025. Electricity costs for the Patriot Garden (beside Garrison Pond) are not expected to rise.

On Monday of this week the board was set to talk about the following budget areas: Town of Highlands Police Department, dog control, emergency management, the registrar, the Town Clerk, records management, Town Hall, codification, revenue, legal expenses and the Town of Highlands Ambulance Corps.

They’ll then meet for another budget session on Columbus Day (even though Town Hall is closed that day), to talk about budget requests of the receiver of taxes, zoning, comptroller, audit, information technology, budget officer and Building Department.