Town OKs village contracts for police and recreation

NORTH EAST — The Town Board took care of a number of issues at its meeting on Thursday, Aug. 11, including giving the town supervisor authority to sign a couple of contracts with the village of Millerton. Those two contracts — one for recreation and one for police — are annual agreements the two municipalities share with one another.

The total recreation contract, which provides for recreational activities such as summer camp at Rudd Pond, was for $35,000. The town of North East pays half of that to Millerton, which runs the Recreation Department.

Village Trustee Stephen Waite attended the meeting to let the town know he’s working on further enhancing the recreation program for both the town and the village. Waite is currently conducting an online survey to learn about the recreation needs of area residents. That survey can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/r/Revitalizationofeddiecollinspark.

The police contract, meanwhile, which pays the Millerton Police Department to patrol and respond to emergencies in the town as well as in the village, was for $22,500.

Unlike the 50/50 split the town and the village agreed to for recreation, the village of Millerton pays a larger share of the police costs. That’s because the village police only patrol certain roads in North East.

Nonetheless, town Supervisor George Kaye said that there are advantages to signing both contracts. As far as the recreation agreement goes, Kaye said the Town Board would like to be more involved with how that program is run.

“We’ve discussed it with the village, and we’d like to have a little more input on how that should proceed,” he said. “Not that we don’t agree, because we definitely need recreation for the younger people here. It’s just that sometimes the people in the town bring up other ways of maybe promoting recreation.”

As far as the police contract goes, Kaye said that, while the town is pleased with the arrangement, it does look forward to “negotiations coming up concerning future needs.” 

He lauded the department, though, for all it does in both the town and the village.

“We believe that the police here do an excellent job,” Kaye said. “We have no complaints about that at all. But we’re always looking to do things more efficiently. Therefore, every year we certainly like to get together with the village and discuss, not only what we’re getting for our money, but also if other ways might be possible.”

There were no objections from Town Board members to giving Kaye authority to sign the two contracts. Both contracts will allow for recreation and police services for another year.