KINDERHOOK – The Village Board has approved hiring a firm called Fiscal Advisors & Marketing, Inc. to help with the effort to secure funding for many projects in the village, including adding sewer lines, upgrades to streets and the repairs to the village hall roof.
At the regular meeting on Wednesday, May 14 Mayor Carol Weaver said that the board was advised by the village bond council and the village attorney to hire the company, which has an office in the Albany suburb of Clifton Park. “I think it will be a couple of thousand,” she said of the cost of using the service, based on the expectation that all of the village borrowing through bonds will most likely be below $1 million. The cost for the services of Fiscal Advisors goes up at the debt gets higher, but the mayor said at the meeting, “I don’t anticipate at this point going over $1 million.”
The firm’s website, www.fiscaladvisors.com, describes the company as “registered independent municipal advisory firm with fifteen professional consultants.” It says it has “assisted over one thousand municipalities, school districts and public authorities through various financial services.”
The sewer line project is underway in the village. They board scheduled a special meeting May 21 to discuss the amending the village code to add sewer laws. After that meeting, the board anticipates it will hold a public hearing and then call for a vote on whether to adopt the new code.
The other big project the board discussed involves repairs to the village hall roof. A request for proposals on the repairs is being held up due to an issue with power lines near the roof that need to be moved before work can begin.
Board Member Bob Puckett, who has been working the project, said that National Grid told him and other board members at a meeting that the power company would pay to move the lines. But Mr. Puckett said that in a later phone conversation with the company, the issue seemed less clear and he worried that the village would be charged for moving the lines. He said he was not comfortable asking for bids on the construction until the board had a firm answer to the question of who will pay.
But postponing the work on the village hall roof would mean not including that project it in the bond for the sewer work, said Mayor Weaver. She said the village needs to move forward with funding on the sewer construction project to pay for upfront costs.
“I need that sewer bond moving,” said Mayor Weaver.
The next regular meeting will be Wednesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the village hall.
To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com.
