Rents in Saugerties are high, and many elderly people are forced to leave the Village of Saugerties, where they grew up and raised their families, Kathleen Gray told the village board at its regular meeting on Monday, October 2. “Elderly people living in apartments, the rents being jacked up and they have to move elsewhere – out of town or even out of county,” Gray said she was told by a US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) official. She cited rent increases of more than $200 a month for one apartment building in Saugerties.
Subsidized rental housing is in short supply, Gray said, citing long waiting lists for public or subsidized housing. For instance, she said she was told by Deb Wells, the HUD administrator in Saugerties, that The Mill in Saugerties has a waiting list of more than 100 people. Wells also told her there are more than 400 Airbnbs in Saugerties, including the town and village.
Gray asked what could be done for middle-income tenants who could not afford the increased rents. She cited HUD officials who told her that the HUD rental allowance does not cover the rent increases, so it is difficult or nearly impossible to find housing within the guidelines.
Gray said that a development on North Street is proposing a rental of more than $2,000 a month. She asked whether the board can require the owner to offer some apartments at prices that would be affordable for middle- or low-income residents. “What is the board thinking about, and what is the board doing about this problem?” she asked.
“It’s not just a Saugerties problem; it’s a state problem,” mayor Bill Murphy responded. “As far as the development on North Street, that was approved by the planning board, not by this board. If they are not getting state funding, you can’t put requirements on them as to what they can or can’t charge.” Projects that receive state or federal funding can be required to provide a percentage of low or moderate rental units, but if they are not receiving funding, they cannot be required to do that, Murphy said. “This is a private person; he bought the property and he can do what he wants with it. I don’t agree with the charge, but I can’t charge a private citizen what they can charge for rent.”
As far as the North Street apartment development is concerned, Murphy said that he would check on it, but added that he does not have the authority to tell them what they can charge.
Trustees said that they understand the problem and thanked Gray for bringing it to their attention.
Saugerties sewer plant odors reduced
Odors from the Saugerties sewer plant are being better controlled than in the past, and the plant is running well, trustee Donald Hackett reported at the village board meeting on Monday, October 2. Trustee Vincent Buono said that, while he had spent much of the weekend at the Garlic Festival, there was not a noticeable odor problem while he was home.
Hackett said that he had visited the plant on the Thursday prior to the meeting, and “It was really nice. The driveway is all redone and the plant looked really nice.” Neither the acting supervisor, Mike Hopf, nor the part-time plant operator Joe Myers was there, “so the young guys took me around: Sarina [Augustine] and Jake. I quizzed them a little bit, and they really know their stuff. There is a future up there.”
New mini-park in Saugerties village proves popular
A mini-park on Partition and Montross streets in the Village of Saugerties will be closing down for the winter, as far as activities are concerned, trustee Don Hackett said at the village board meeting of Monday, October 2. Hackett delivered a report from tree commission chair Rosemarie Brackett. “They are closing up for the season, and they will be doing more planting in the spring, and then they will be pretty well complete. They have some art there.”
“Ten years ago, I came before this board and wanted to make it [the lot on Partition and Montross streets] a parking lot,” Hackett recalled. “You guys talked me out of it, knocked me down and look at what we’ve got. I think Rosemary did a beautiful job, an excellent job and the staff and the guys from the highway department and the DPW and the water department and the many volunteers.”
Saugerties village remedies filing delay on local laws
Two new laws had not been filed with the New York Secretary of State shortly after they were passed by the Saugerties Village Board on February 6. The board voted at its regular meeting on Monday, November 2 to file the laws.
Village clerk Peggy Melville said that, while the period between the passage of the laws and the final approval to forward them to NYS-DOS was longer than usual, the reason was the time it took for village attorneys to bring the laws into legal language.
One of the laws defined bed-and-breakfast rentals as those lasting less than 30 days, and incorporated short-term rentals, colloquially known as bed-and-breakfast rentals, into the Village rental law. The law makes it clear that B&Bs must meet the same standards as any other rentals and requires that B&Bs register with the Village and with Ulster County, which was already a requirement.
The second change was to the rental housing law. The number of parking spaces required for new development in the Central Business District was increased from one space for every two units to three spaces for every two units. The requirement would apply only to new construction, not to existing rental units.
County will provide judges for arraignments
Ulster County will ensure that judges are available when a suspect must be arraigned and the local judge is unavailable. “This is a shared service with the county,” mayor Bill Murphy said at the village board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, October 2. “Say there’s an arraignment on a Friday night and the police can’t get one of our local judges. So, basically, the county is going to back up all the municipalities in the county in case of an arraignment where a local judge is not available.”
The proposal was sent originally to the town, but village trustees said that it would make sense for them to endorse it. “If you’re arrested on Main Street, it’s the village, and they wouldn’t necessarily call the town,” said trustee Terry Parisian. Trustee Don Hackett said that he had heard that the county is arranging to make it possible to do arraignments online. The board voted to approve participation in the plan.
Saugerties imposes 8 p.m. Halloween curfew
Young trick-or-treaters in the Town of Saugerties will have to be home by 8 p.m. on October 31, the town board decided at its regular meeting on Wednesday, October 4. The curfew has been approved every year to control possible vandalism on Halloween and to assure that trick-or-treaters go home at a reasonable time.
Saugerties sets November public hearing on tax cap override
New York State law limits the annual increase in property taxes that municipalities may levy to two percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. The law also allows local governments to exceed the cap with a 60 percent majority vote. The Saugerties Town Board set a public hearing on November 1 at 6 p.m. on a possible override of the state two-percent tax cap at its regular meeting on October 3.
“This motion this evening is an effort to give people notice that this may happen, and to be transparent as well. The motivation of all of us has been to not exceed the cap. We have achieved that goal four out of five times over the last five years. We have also lowered the tax rate four out of five years,” said supervisor Fred Costello. While keeping tax increases below the 2 percent cap is the board’s goal, “I would rather give people early information, and hoping we don’t need that public hearing.”
Costello noted that increases in employee salaries, health insurance coverage and property and casualty insurance are all increasing in cost, which will make the task more difficult.
“We’ve worked pretty effectively to make this happen, and we will be able to remove this [tax cap increase] from the agenda,” said councilman Michael Ivino, noting that department heads are working to keep spending under control.
Public hearing on Saugerties town budget set for November
The Saugerties Town Board voted on Wednesday, October 4 to hold a public hearing on the proposed town budget for 2024 at 6:30 p.m. on November 1. “Part of the process is public input,” supervisor Fred Costello said. “We have benefited from that on occasion.”
The board will discuss the budget at a meeting at 5:30 p.m. on November 25 in the conference room in the town hall. While the room is small, interested members of the public are welcome, Costello said. Copies of the tentative budget should be available at the town hall soon.
Saugerties sign law set for public hearings in November, December
The Saugerties Town Board voted on Wednesday, October 4 to hold two public hearings on proposed amendments to the town’s sign law. The hearings would take place at 6 p.m. on November 15 and at 6:30 p.m. on December 5.
“This is a long project; we have been working at it for about two years,” said supervisor Fred Costello. But, he acknowledged, “We may hear from residents who have other ideas.”
Councilman Michael Ivino said that the current version is the result of two previous public hearings. “We put some of the verbiage in there, and then when it came down to the last meeting, our attorney came in with some verbiage that was in there relating to the changing message signs. I think we have a pretty well-groomed finished product.”
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