By EMILIA TEASDALE
VALATIE—The Kinderhook Town Board adopted the preliminary 2025 budget at their regular meeting on October 1. As posted on the town’s website (www.kinderhook-ny.gov) the budget is about $3 million for the general funds and the highway. The 2024 budget was about $2.9 million so this proposed budget is a slight increase.
The board reviewed the numbers at a budget workshop on October 7. According to the minutes from that meeting, slight changes were made in some budget lines. The board increased the amount from $500 to $1,000 in the Climate Smart Committee line. Supervisor Tim Ooms announced that there will be a 5% increase in funding for the Fire and Ambulance special districts. The board also plans to increase the Youth budget line to fund hiring a counselor and assistant director for next summer. The amount proposed in the Recreation Fees revenue line was increased from $20,000 to $37,500 and $2,500 stipend was created for Event Coordinator Steve D’Ambrozio.
There will be a public hearing on the proposed budget November 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Martin H. Glynn Municipal Building. The plan is to adopt the final budget November 12 at a special meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
At their regular board meeting on October 1, the board heard from representatives of the Tri-Village Seniors, who meet in the town, about increasing their budget for events, and from a volunteer about charging for use of the town park.
First Regina Rose spoke about the trips and events the senior group hosts. She pointed out that the board had negotiated a $5,100 budget for bus trips for the group in 2008 and it has not been increased since then. She said that there were more members now and costs have gone up in 16 years. The group now has 139 members and the average cost for trips had gone up.
She also reached out to other towns and told the Kinderhook Board that the town of New Lebanon currently supports their senior group with $10,000 a year and the Ghent/Chatham senior group gets $2,500 from each town for a total of $5,000. She said the combined Ghent/Chatham Seniors has 70 members, which is half of Kinderhook’s group. Ms. Rose stressed that there is no residency requirement to be in the town’s senior group so people attend different groups in the county.
When asked how much they wanted, Mr. Rose said, “Seems like we need double.”
“You do a lot for the town,” said Board member Debbie Devine.
At the budget meeting on October 7 the board increased the Tri-Village Seniors budget line to $8,000.
The other issue brought up at the October 1 meeting was the plan to charge for use of the pavilion and baseball fields at Volunteer Park. Lee Norton, a volunteer who manages the park, talked about the history of the large town park which hosts town recreation programs as well as local Little League teams, as well as travel baseball and softball teams.
Mr. Norton said to the board at the meeting that if teams “are going to use the fields, they need to bring their stuff out.”
He said there is upkeep of the dugouts, the fields and the bathrooms. “We went through 15 rolls of toilet paper this weekend,” he said of expenses.
The board talked about having an agreement with outside groups using the fields concerning maintenance and garbage removal as well as charging a nominal fee.
“Fixing it after they leave it, that would be great,” said Mr. Norton of the maintenance.
Mr. Norton and Town Clerk April Pinkowski will work on the wording of the agreement and do some research on fees other towns are charging for using their parks. The board also wants to look into charging for events at the pavilion at the park – with a fee for town residents and non-residents. That was tabled to discuss in November when the board has more information.
The board is also planning to update the town’s Comprehensive Plan. The last update is over a decade old. The board created a committee earlier this year and now the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee is moving into Phase 1 of the project, which involves getting input from the community with a survey and public meetings.
Board and committee member Sally Naramore announced that the town had received a $10,000 Hudson Valley Greenway grant to start that phase and the board approved hiring Michael Allen of Regrowth Planning as a consultant for this phase. Mr. Allen recently worked with the Town of Chatham on their Comprehensive Plan update.
The next Town Board meeting will be November 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Martin H. Glynn Municipal Building.
To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com
