VALATIE– As of Tuesday night, if you park in a no-parking zone in the village you risk receiving a ticket.
The Village Board adopted the ticket law Tuesday, February 7, at its regular monthly meeting, setting the cost of the tickets at $10 for parking offences, with a $30 fee for every month the payment is late.
Tickets may be paid for at the Village Hall or online at www.valatievillage.com.
Mayor Gary Strevell said at the meeting that tickets will be issues by county sheriff’s deputies and state troopers. The village will be in charge of the record keeping. Anyone wishing to contest a ticket must do so in the Town of Kinderhook court.
This week the Village Board also agreed to help close the gap left by delayed state funding for the sidewalk link project between Valatie and the Village of Kinderhook. The board plans to adopt a bond resolution allowing Valatie to borrow a little over $50,000 to cover funds from the state that will not be approved until after the state budget passes this spring.
The sidewalk project, which is mostly being paid for by a federal grant, has been in the works since 2006, when the grant was approved. The two villages were supposed to cover $36,000 of the $1 million project. Split between them, Valatie would pay about $18,000.
But now $108,000 of state money is being held up, and work is supposed to start on the sidewalk along Route 9 this July. “Worst case scenario the state says we are not getting the funding this year,” said the mayor.
Village Attorney William Better said that paying the extra $50,000 with a bond over 20 years is not a lot of money, and he will draft a bond resolution for the board to approve. Members of the Kinderhook Village Board will have to pass their own bond resolution.
The Valatie board is searching for a new clerk. Jason Nastke, a former mayor of the village and current Republican Commissioner of the County Board of Elections, has been serving temporarily as clerk following the resignation of Donna Schneider in December.
Mayor Strevell said the board had received 23 applications and has narrowed the number of applicants to 17. There is a residency requirement for the position, though Mr. Nastke said that the vast majority of the applicants do not live in the village.
Mr. Strevell said the village may hire an applicant on a temporary basis before appointing that person clerk. That time before the official designation would serve as a probationary period. Should the board choose to appoint a non-village resident to the part-time position of clerk/treasurer, board members could change the residency requirement for the job.
Village Board member Amy Freinberg-Trufas said that while Mr. Nastke has served as clerk he is “streamlining what we can streamline.” Mr. Nastke has changed the hours so that the office is open when he and the duty clerk are there. He has put applications for certain village services online at the village website.
He also suggested to the board at the meeting that the village employ an answering service program that would have calls to the village office answered 24/7 by an operator who would transfer the calls to the correct village official or office. The service would cost $30 a month. The board did not commit to the plan, but did agree to accept an offer for a free trial.
Mr. Nastke said that while he does the clerk’s job he has been looking into “how do we improve services at the same cost or at less cost, and get the work done?”
The board has no time line for hiring a new clerk. Mr. Nastke, Ms. Freinberg-Trufas and the mayor are the hiring committee.
The next regular meeting will be Tuesday March 13 at 7:30p.m. at the village hall.
To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com.
