On New Year’s Day, the Lloyd Town Board will go through the age-old tradition of swearing in its newest members during a special ceremony at the firehouse. In this case, election winners Paul Hansut, Herb Litts III and Mike Guerriero will take their seats next to Jeff Paladino and Kevin Brennie.
Already the new supervisor has had one thing in mind — what every other town supervisor does. “We’re all talking about the same thing with shared services,” Hansut explained.
The supervisor-elect said he’d been on the phone with Susan Zimet in New Paltz and town officials in Marlborough to find out exactly how the municipalities might be able to help each other.
Lloyd’s new supervisor also plans to sit down with town department heads to find different ways that they might prioritize and save money.
“The finances are a big thing,” he said.
Hansut — like some on the existing Town Board — wasn’t pleased that Lloyd wound up with the 2012 budget it did. “You know, they did get a little over the 2 percent this year. We don’t want a repeat of that this year.”
Hansut said he’d push the Town Board to keep spending at or below Gov. Andrew Cuomo tax levy limitations.
By bringing in the town’s bookkeeper to the monthly workshop meeting — right now she only goes to meetings when asked — the supervisor-elect hopes to get a better working image of how financing is playing out in Highland as the year progresses.
“We’re going to watch our spending and try to bring that down,” he said. “We’re going to take a comprehensive look at spending month to month to month.”
Presently, the Town of Lloyd has two meetings every month — a workshop meeting and then a regular Town Board business meeting. Hansut wants to reverse that so the workshop meeting happens second, change the format of the meetings somewhat and possibly switch the dates of meetings around.
Some of the changes to the meetings, along with the way that the public interacts with the board, Hansut admitted came straight from Kingston.
“I’m going to try to bring some of my experience from the county and try to bring that to the town,” he said.
Hansut said that town event planners have done a good job in Lloyd, but that he’d push the Events Committee to think about holidays, festivals and activities differently — targeting activities specifically at children or seniors to cater to their interests.
The newly reconstituted Town Board is scheduled to meet for the first time on Jan. 4. Outside of the typical re-organizational items, it sounds like a discussion of changing the format of Town Board meetings will take place then.
Keep reading the New Paltz Times for more news from Highland. ++
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