The Town of Shawangunk’s preliminary 2022 budget will be unveiled at a Nov. 4 public hearing during the Town Board’s regularly scheduled 7 p.m. meeting at the Town Hall.

Supervisor John Valk said during the Oct. 21 board meeting that he expects the amount to be raised by taxes in 2022 to again remain under the state-mandated two percent tax cap. Valk said the Town of Shawangunk has never exceeded the two percent cap since New York State instituted the policy in 2012.

To get the preliminary budget under the tax cap, the Town Board slashed $737,000 from the Highway Department’s 2022 proposed spending plan that was requested by outgoing Highway Superintendent Joseph LoCicero, who recently launched a write-in campaign to challenge Valk for the Supervisor’s post.

LoCicero asked for $2,757,963 in the amount to be raised by taxpayers in 2022, an increase of $823,274 over the $1,934,689 adopted in 2021 by the Town Board. That amount would have been a 41 percent increase over this year in the Highway Department’s amount to be raised in taxes.

The increase included LoCicero’s request to purchase three new trucks. Valk estimated that at least $735,000 would have to be cut from the Highway Department’s budget for the town to remain under the tax cap and the board ended up reducing it by $737,000.

The revised amount to be raised in taxes is now $2,020,963 in the Highway Department’s 2022 preliminary budget. That would be an overall increase of 3.62 percent over 2021.
The Town Board did agree, however, to approve an emergency purchase for a new truck requested by LoCicero for $275,000. The vote was 4-0, with Councilman Brian Amthor abstaining.

Valk said the cost of the new truck would be spread out over five years.

During a break in the meeting, LoCicero said the new truck was essential because there weren’t enough trucks available to plow snow this winter.

“We have three trucks out of service right now,” LoCicero said. “We should have the new truck in about a month. I’m very happy with it (the decision).”

In other news, the board unanimously approved a resolution to oppose having a county-wide landfill in the Town of Shawangunk.

Although there is no reason to believe that the town would be the site of a landfill, Valk said other towns in Ulster County have adopted similar resolutions to let the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) know that they oppose having county-wide landfills in their towns.

The county currently ships the solid waste it accepts to a landfill west of Syracuse, about 250 miles away. But the site, called Seneca Meadows, is slated to close at the end of 2025.

The UCRRA hired a firm in August to develop a map of potential landfill sites as part of the agency’s long-term solid waste management plan.

The board also was urged to consider erecting charging stations for electric vehicles near the Town Hall by Julie Craner of the Town Environmental Management Committee.

In her power point presentation, Craner said the use of electric cars is on the rise. She projected that electric vehicles would account for 30 percent of all new car sales by 2030.

Craner said General Motors said it was building only electric vehicles by 2035 and Volkswagen estimated that 70 percent of all sales would be electric by 2030.

Councilman Robert Miller said that the town had considered installing charging stations for electric vehicles in recent years, but he said the board didn’t move ahead when it discovered the charging stations only worked for Tesla vehicles.