Pages

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Angelica hearing - Novel solution for novel virus


ANGELICA – It was relief for blue skies and sunny temperatures when the Angelica Village Board held a novel outdoor meeting in Park Circle Monday evening to deal with the mandates of the Novel Coronavirus shut down.
Last month when the social distancing mandate came down from the governor’s office Angelica Mayor Michael Trivisondoli put on his thinking cap.
Knowing that a public hearing for the passage of village budgets is required by law he pondered how to follow that law in the confined quarters of the regular boardroom.
“I gave it a lot of thought.,” he said, “We have a lot of people here in Angelica who may not have the Internet or if they do, they may not have ever gone online for a meeting or know how to use Zoom or anything like that. I am a firm believer in that everybody should have the opportunity to say what they want to say, so I decided to hold the meeting in the park. We have a great venue, so we might as well use it.”
However, with only three people in addition to the board and clerk showing up the Mayor said, “Most times we don’t get anyone showing up for these meetings. This (the park) is big enough that we could have had 50 people here and still have maintained social distancing. I guess it shows that people agree with what we’re doing.”
Before passing the budget, Trivisondoli highlighted the differences between the 2019-2020 budget and the 2020-2021 budget, reporting that there is a little more than a two percent increase over last year. The village will raise $319,071.00 in taxes, up from $312,807.00 levied in 2019-2020. The new property tax will be $13.57 per each $1,000 of assessed property value.
The budget includes $12,000 for Medical Transport Services for advanced life support due to the retirement of members within the village ambulance corps who could handle advanced life support.
There is also money in the budget for the village’s new planning board and the proposal of creating a joint fund with the fire department for the purchase of equipment.
“The budget remains pretty much the same as in previous years,” Trivisondoli said.