Here & There Column 1-6-09

We Don't See Village of Liberty Dissolving

Residents of the Village of Liberty have had their say on a proposal to dissolve the village and at this time it doesn't appear that a majority of the village board will go forward with this plan.
We have been told that there are several village residents that are or will be circulating a petition to force a vote to dissolve the village government but that the petition needs some 700 plus signatures.
Following the hearing on the proposal to dissolve or merge, control of the matter was entirely up to the village board to put the proposal to a village vote in the March village elections.
It appears the village board doesn't support this issue and the matter will not be on the March village ballet unless a petition containing over 700 plus village residents is successful.
The Town and Village several years ago jointly obtained a state grant that would study both dissolving the Village or the merger of services where possible.
The study said it would pay Liberty village residents to dissolve their government. The consultants from the Hudson Group concluded that dissolving the village would bring the greatest savings if the town qualifies for $1 million in incentives from the state for assuming services.
The other option is to merge or consolidate duplicated entities such as the justice court, department of public works and various others departments.
So for the time being unless a petition forces a vote in March the Village of Liberty does not look like it will dissolve .....but this should not stop merging of services where possible.