The Highlands Town Board will hold a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 28 regarding adopting a local law to exceed the New York State tax cap, if necessary. That date was set at the board’s September 14 meeting.

“I have all the faith in the world that the Town Board will keep a budget that does not greatly increase taxes,” Supervisor Bob Livsey said, noting that if they cannot do that they need to have this law in place so that “New York State doesn’t play games with our money”. He added that this particular state rule “bothers me every time I talk about it”.

Deputy Supervisor Rich Sullivan said that having the cap on municipal budgets “does not make it easy” for boards to create budgets.

The board began its budget work this past Monday (September 21). That night they reviewed areas of the budget such as snow removal, Dial-A-Bus, water, sewer, insurance and the Highway Department, including sanitation. On September 28, they are expected to look at areas such as recreation, planning, veterans, seniors, beautification, the Building Department, and the supervisor and board expenses. Then, the third planned budget meeting is a special meeting on October 5, where they’ll review police, court and Town Hall budgets, as well as things like salaries and benefits. If needed, a fourth meeting will take place on October 19.

In other business from the meeting:

- The board conducted a ‘failure to remedy’ public hearing on 32 Mine Dock Rd. in Fort Montgomery. The owner of the property died, and there has been a fire at the location seriously damaging buildings located there. While there was a family representative on hand, that person has no ownership claim for the property and thereby is not able to make repairs to it. The town will make the repairs; it was decided and place a lien on the property for reimbursement. The repairs – including knocking down the damaged building – are needed for safety reasons.

- Livsey noted that he’d paid just over $200,000 worth of bills in recent weeks. Among the larges were $67,236 to Rockland County Solid Waste, $4264 to Beacon Recycling, $8401 to Rider, Weiner & Frankel for legal services, $3200 to West Point Tours for summer bus transportation for camp, and $9014 to Orange & Rockland for electricity service.

- Two EMTs were hired – Nick Rush and Esmelin Germosen. Town of Highlands Ambulance Corps paid EMTs can work up to 20 hours per week.

- An agenda item to appoint both a highway superintendent and deputy highway superintendent was tabled until the next meeting, while details with the apparent candidate are worked out, Sullivan said.

- A resolution allowing the town’s Court to apply for a state grant up to $30,000 – board approval was required before they could apply for it, Justice Barbara Mennite said – was adopted.

- Livsey said an updated recreation agreement for both the town and village to sign off on has been created by Attorney Justin Rider. Town Board members were asked to review it before it is sent on to the Village Board. If that board agrees to it, it will be signed by both Livsey and Mayor Jim DiSalvo. It had been years, the supervisor said recently, since the agreement was reviewed.