By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Newtonville could soon become part of the City of New York Mills.

During its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday night, the NY Mills City Council approved moving forward with a hearing concerning potential annexation for up to 36 properties that are currently adjacent to the city limits. The council has discussed the potential annexation in recent months. 

City clerk Julie Roberts said a number of the residents and the township board are wondering about the city’s intent of potentially moving forward with annexing the properties. The council once again pointed to the fact that there would not be a large increase in taxes for properties that would be annexed when considering the premium price they are paying for utilities. The properties would also provide additional revenue for the city, as well as more residents in the city limits. 

“There is no question the increased head count will impact the city down the road. As Ehlers pointed out it is pretty much neutral winners and losers in terms of tax adjustments,” said councilman Jerry Nesland.

Roberts said the initial idea was to take on the entire 36 parcels of what is termed Newtonville, which includes many of the parcels on South Walker. By moving forward with this option, the city street department would need to maintain South Walker Ave. and any future repairs. 

  “Within that we are assuming South Walker and the fact that road may need to be redone someday, when that someday is we don’t know,” said Roberts.

The residents who are being annexed would also need to comply with zoning regulations for future development and the city would gain the headcount of these households for the census and future per capita allocations. By annexing all 36 properties in Newtonville, the city’s net impact on city revenue would be a positive $5,827. That would include an increase in the city’s tax base, while also decreasing in the premium price residents in that area pay for city utilities. 

The city council also looked at whether they would add just South Main Avenue, which would be just 15 parcels. When factoring in the loss of a premium price charged for utilities, with the increase in overall revenue, the city would increase its revenue by just $835. 

“That really doesn’t add anything to us liability wise for repairing a road and whatnot, but we would get that headcount of people for the city,” said Roberts. “So that would be kind of a wash.”

The council approved moving forward with a public hearing concerning potential annexation of Newtonville properties. The council also said potential expansion could be changed after receiving feedback from the affected property owners. 

In other news

• Heard the liquor store report which stated the year to date net revenues were up 44.34 percent from the prior year and the change over year as a percent of sale was 2.02 percent. 

• Heard the NY Mills Fire Department went on 23 calls for the month of December and the department responded to 254 calls for the year. That is a record amount of calls as the department responded to 239 calls in 2017. 

• Approved the hiring of Gabe Geiser as a new member of the fire department, provided he passes all of his new hire requirements. 

• Heard that the NY Mills Police Department responded to 86 calls for service during the month of December with two citations written. 

• Heard an update on the North Boardman road construction project that is scheduled for the summer of 2022. 

• Approved a low bid from Hammers Construction of just over $1.3 million for a public utility shop addition. The project includes a new 8,000 square foot public utility shop addition to the existing city shop.