Mayor floats tentative Island Park budget

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New equipment for the Department of Public Works, iPads for village building inspectors and LED lights around the village are among the items included in Island Park’s tentative budget for the coming fiscal year.

Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty presented the proposal to the village board at a special meeting at Village Hall on March 29. The nearly $4.8 million budget — for expenses from this June to May 2018 — is roughly $250,000 more than last year’s, but is not expected to raise property taxes for village residents.

About $94,000 will go toward new equipment for Island Park’s DPW — which had a lot of its equipment destroyed during Hurricane Sandy — including a vibratory compactor used for road repair, McGinty said.

In addition, McGinty said building inspectors and code officers will have iPads containing village records pertaining to building and zoning, which he added will help efficiency and effectiveness in the building department. “I want to make it more exciting for them quite frankly,” McGinty said. “I don’t want them to work in the dark ages.”

A total of $60,000 has been set aside in the budget for LED streetlights — $20,000 more than streetlight funding last year. The village has begun a pilot project to test these lights on Lexington Walk and Morrison Walk off of Deal Road, McGinty said. He added that he was planning on meeting with PSEG Long Island this week — who may offer assistance — and would update the board on the future of the potential project.

In addition, McGinty included $162,000 in the budget for payments to the U.S. government pursuant to the settlement of a 1990 lawsuit involving Island Park’s alleged misuse of housing program funds aimed at helping members of minorities obtain homes in the community.

In 2012, the village board voted to settle the suit under undisclosed terms. Two years later, in March 2014, a consent decree was filed in court, ordering Island Park to pay $1.96 million to the government.

The village has already put 900,000 in escrow accounts, and must begin paying the remaining $1.06 million this June in monthly $13,600 increments over 78 months.

Some of the increases in the budget were offset by the village’s decreased debt service — or money required to repay interest and principal on a debt — which stands at $387,000 for the coming fiscal year. Last year, the figure was 568,000, and McGinty said he and the board have worked to decrease it in “an aggressive manner.”

As a separate item during the meeting, the board voted to repurpose a $200,000 bond — originally meant for improvements on the second floor of Island Park’s firehouse — to create a “modest” training facility for firefighters at the north end of the village. With about 75 homes already raised in Island Park, McGinty explained, ensuring safety for those living in these higher homes is “a different animal,” for first responders.

“I want our men and women in that department protected,” McGinty said. “I want our residents protected.”

The budget is slated to be adopted on April 20, McGinty said, and a public workshop will take place before then.

“I want you to like it so much here that you end up saying, ‘Hey baby, let’s buy a house in Island Park,’” McGinty said after the meeting. “That’s the point: to get young people to buy homes and hang out here.”