Williston Park village officials discussed a pair of budgets for 2018-19 at a work session on Monday night, with costs expected to rise for salaries and car insurance but decrease in other areas.
Williston Park Village Justice Kevin Kiley proposed a $53,445 budget for the Justice Court, which features an increase in salary for the court clerk but the elimination of an expense for software.
Overall the budget proposal, which would go from June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2019, if implemented, calls for a decrease by $155 from $53,550 to $53,445. It calls for a three percent increase to the court clerk’s salary but none for the village justice or acting justice, which translates to an increase of $1,030.80.
New York State has also purchased SEI Computer software and provided it free to the village courts, according to footnotes on the proposal, eliminating the $1,615 annual fee for the village.
Every other item on the proposed budget remained the same, with $2,600 budgeted for printing and supplies, $1,500 for telephone related costs, $2,500 for conferences and dues, $500 for the court stenographer, $250 for the interpreter and $150 for DMV-related costs.
Kiley said $160,000 in revenue is projected in the 2018-19 budget, compared with $172,000 in the 2017-18 budget, according to the proposal.
In other budget business, the Williston Park auxiliary police discussed their proposed 2018-19 budget, which would go up by $552.50 from the current $12,325 budget.
While equipment, gas, car and other miscellaneous expenses would remain the same in the $12,877.50 proposal, Commanding Officer Frank P. Valente said they expect a roughly 10 percent increase in insurance costs for vehicles.
Special insurance costs would go up from $550 to $605, while vehicular insurance would go up by $497.50.
Valente said he is also currently looking into a partnership with East Williston’s auxiliary police to boost recruitment. They currently have six officers.
“My biggest thing now is to get new recruits in,” Valente said.
In unrelated village business, Mayor Paul Ehrbar said not many residents removed their cars from the road during one of the last storms. If there had turned out to be “heavy snow,” it “would have been havoc” for the cleanup, he said.
