Officers will issue warnings for first offenses
The Cold Spring Village Board’s meeting on April 10 included a lengthy discussion about the first weekend of the paid parking program that began five days earlier on Main Street.
The year-round meter system, along with the residential parking program being enforced on side streets, began April 5 and requires visitors to pay to park on Main Street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. At its Wednesday (April 17) meeting, the board said it would likely drop enforcement on Monday holidays because it requires reprogramming the payment kiosks each time.
Trustee Eliza Starbuck, who has shepherded both programs, said on April 10 that metered parking’s first weekend produced “some rough areas” and “wasn’t perfect,” partly because the three parking enforcement staff are being trained. (The Village Board on March 27 approved hiring two part-time enforcement agents for $20 per hour.) In addition, some merchants feel “threatened,” she said.
“They’re getting very sharp complaints from customers, people saying they’ll never come back” after receiving a $75 parking ticket, said Starbuck.
But the program produced revenue — $7,700 in its first six days — traffic was calmer and she received “a lot of really great feedback,” Starbuck said. She said the first weekend showed that signage needs to be improved to better inform drivers of the metered parking rules.
“That’s $7,700 that we don’t have to raise by taxes,” Foley remarked.
The board said that, through April 28, one warning will be issued per license plate number for Main Street violations. Starbuck suggested that shop owners be asked to display posters that explain the parking rules.
Foley said that “change is always controversial” and “there is always a period where there is outrage, shock, then it becomes part of our regular routine.” The cost of tourism, she said, has to be shifted to visitors. “We have to have more revenue,” she said.
Village budget
A public hearing on the 2024-25 village budget opened and closed Wednesday with minimal comment from residents.
The $3 million budget, which will cover the fiscal year from June 1 to May 31, 2025, includes a 3.93 percent increase in the property tax levy, the maximum allowed under a tax cap calculated by New York State. The default 2 percent cap can be exceeded based on growth factors determined by the state.
Property taxes will fund 52 percent of general-fund spending, which covers the cost of most services, including the police and highway departments, trash and recycling pickup and employee wages and benefits.
The water and sewer systems are funded through fees that will increase by 10 cents per 1,000 gallons used. Spending for the two systems will total $1.5 million.
Foley said one of the goals for the next fiscal year will be to “prioritize critical infrastructure repairs that we need to address right away,” particularly the Fair Street culverts damaged by storms in July 2023. The village has stabilized other damaged sites, and engineering for those repairs will continue after the Fair Street project, she said.
Fran Murphy, a former village trustee, asked during public comment for clarification regarding $31,000 in projected revenue from the hotel occupancy tax. Cold Spring received state approval in 2022 to collect up to 5 percent on room stays.
Foley said the board had hoped to pass legislation to enact the tax last year but other needs took priority. The mayor said the tax is the first legislative priority and will be on the agenda this summer, with implementation in the fall.
Village resident Walter Ulmer questioned whether the $35,000 in docking fees collected from the Seastreak cruise line is worth the cost of the environmental damage caused by its carbon emissions. He said many residents feel the cruises “add to weekend mayhem” and negatively impact quality of life.
Ulmer also asked how the board calculated that the village will collect $291,000 from parking fees.
Village accountant Michelle Ascolillo said the amount is based on 70 percent occupancy of the 80 paid parking spaces on Main Street during the eight-month busy season, and a 35 percent occupancy rate for the other four months. The revenue estimate includes fees from the municipal lot on Fair Street, she said.
The board will likely adopt the budget during its April 24 meeting. It must submit the plan to the state by the end of this month.
In other business …
■ Foley announced that Larry Burke, who joined the Cold Spring Police Department in 2013, will step down as officer-in-charge on May 1. Burke will continue to work part-time shifts; a new officer-in-charge will be named soon. “Larry has served the village beyond all expectations,” said Foley. The board also accepted the resignation of police officers James Hipple and George Kane. A former officer-in-charge, Kane had been on disability leave.
■ Cold Spring officers answered 119 calls in March and issued 63 parking and 26 traffic tickets, including 12 for speeding. There was one arrest for driving with a suspended license.
■ Burke reported that officers participated in a lockdown drill at Haldane on April 9 conducted by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department. As many as 30 officers from several forces took part, along with firefighters and medical personnel. The drills are held to teach students how to respond in emergencies, he said.
■ The board denied a request from John Scherer to host a Hops on the Hudson event at Dockside Park in August. Past events were held at Mayor’s Park. Foley said managing such events “has been a challenge” and residents have complained about drunk attendees on Main Street. Burke noted that with only one road in and out of Dockside, large events can pose logistical problems for emergency vehicles.
■ The Cold Spring Fire Co. answered 15 calls in March: six activated fire alarms, five requests from other fire companies for mutual aid (including one mountain rescue) and responses to a reported structure fire, carbon monoxide alarm, paramedic assist and a good-intent call.
■ The public restrooms at the Visitor Center reopened on April 13. They will be available Thursday to Sunday through May, and then daily for the summer.
■ On March 27, the board agreed to sell a 312-square-foot piece of village-owned property at 133-135 Main St. to Chervoan LLC, for $1,450.80, subject to review by the village attorney.
Larry Burke is on to something when he says that “with only one road in and out of Dockside, large events can pose logistical problems for emergency vehicles.” If that understatement is so, then how would a mob of HHFT trailhead tourists be any less catastrophic?
Please correct this article, per the public hearing and my response to The Current’s budget questions in last week’s edition. The 2024-25 budget goes not exceed the 2 percent property cap. It’s important to understand the difference between the tax levy and the tax cap.
The Village of Cold Spring must calculate the tax cap each year to determine the total tax levy of the village. For fiscal year ending May 31, 2024, the village’s tax levy was $1,859,180. This year the village’s total allowed tax levy is $1,931,668, which is an increase of 3.9 percent. The village is limited, by New York State law, to increase only up to 2 percent of that levy, or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, plus an allowable growth factor determined by the state, as well as any eligible amount that may not have been levied in the prior year. Together, these amounts actually set the 2024-25 tax cap at 3.9 percent.
Although we are levying the full 3.9 percent, the budget is still within the New York State tax cap of 2 percent. We are meeting our mandate to limit annual increases for local taxpayers. Why are we levying the whole amount? The realization of increased mortgage tax income, which saw a bump during Covid, has decreased back to pre-pandemic amounts. Also, the multi-year development of the Butterfield site added growth to the tax base for several budget cycles; that bump is tailing off. At the same time, we must meet burgeoning operating expenses for provision of services and increased urgency in infrastructure repairs. In short, the village needs to use the full levy to offset expenses and balance the budget while staying within the 2 percent tax cap.
Additionally, exceeding the tax cap would require a separate public hearing on that question alone, as well as a resolution and vote by the Village Board. Clearly, we are not doing any of that.
The statement to which I believe you refer — “The default 2 percent cap can be exceeded based on growth factors determined by the state” — is not incorrect. It’s just a general way of saying what you explained in greater detail in your comment and for the interview published in last week’s issue, and it explains the previous sentence, which notes that the proposed levy increase is the “maximum allowed under a tax cap calculated by New York State.” This week’s article is not focused on the budget, but is a roundup of multiple items from Wednesday’s board meeting.
Thank you for your clarification. However, I hope you will still consider modifying the paragraph I reference. Respectfully, the way you have written it does not help to clarity, and in fact, its vagueness leaves the impression that the Cold Spring Village Board has exceeded the tax cap. To ensure there be no confusion in the complex matter of levy versus cap, perhaps the current sentence “The default 2 percent cap can be exceeded based on growth factors determined by the state” could be modified with a semicolon and then “however, the Village of Cold Spring’s 2024-25 does not exceed that cap.”
Thank you both, Kathleen and Leonard, for these explanations. They’re very helpful.
So the Village Board is not open to a public hearing with residents to further and appropriately discuss a tax increase?
We’re not pursuing that process because we are not proposing to exceed the cap.
I can’t wait for Beacon to add meters to Main Street and arterial streets. The reason? It creates an opportunity to hire traffic enforcement officers. The plan I suggested to the City Council was to start with peak days and meter charge to park, free days and even a choice of a contribution to pay. All parking meter revenue goes to a community chest to pay for Main Street beautification, food banks, snow-shoveling sidewalks on Main and paying for enforcement officers.
When you have beat cops doing traffic, all sorts of tickets will be given out. Engine idling, double parking, inspection, registration, meter expiration, stop sign, speeding, pedestrian crosswalk, red light, etc. Ticket enforcement changes traffic behavior. No enforcement (what we have now) is a Wild West, dangerous vehicle rodeo.
If you want safe streets, and to pay for ancillary services, and taxes aren’t stressed, and traffic flow and driver behavior changed: Meters, enforcement and tickets.
The new meters in Cold Spring are ridiculous. We paid $14 to park to watch our children play baseball on Fair Street. [via Instagram]
I just listened to a podcast about parking. If you put paid parking in busy areas, the “all-day” people, such as shop workers, will park elsewhere nearby, leaving the paid parking for people who will be there an hour or two. That makes it more convenient for shoppers, who otherwise have to hunt for parking two to three blocks away when they only need one or two things. [via Facebook]
Seventy-five dollars is too high for a parking offense in a small town. I didn’t have my phone when I last visited Main Street and couldn’t get the machine to read my card, so I left and drove back to Beacon. I am in favor of metered parking, but maybe only on weekends? [via Instagram]
This has confused some people. The meters are only in effect on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Someone please explain the parking rules that cover handicap stickers. I was told that if you have a handicap sticker you could park anywhere as long as sticker was in the window. Now you give tickets to people with stickers if they don’t park in handicap zones. What’s the story?
Cars with handicap placards may park in any spot marked as “resident parking only.” You don’t need a resident parking permit. You may park for free.
There are spaces reserved for vehicles with handicap placards on Main Street. However these Main Street spaces follow the same rules as the rest of Main Street: you must feed the meter Friday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hope that helps.
Freimark is a Cold Spring trustee.
Growing up dirt poor, we sure as hell never paid for parking, but we knew how to hustle: Find free parking, entertainment and food. Nobody wants to pay for a ticket, but if you can’t afford it, make sure you never have to. Parking meters are for people who set convenience as a higher priority than their wallets. That’s not everyone, and the village is full of free parking, just not next to your favorite stores.
Parking tickets happen when you’re too distracted to notice the signs or you feel so secure that you don’t have to pay attention to your surroundings. But if none of that applies, the judge is reasonable and might let you off with a warning. [via Facebook]
Starbuck is a Cold Spring trustee.