Farnham’s future

FARNHAM — With what seems to be happening at a greater frequency, villages and towns are getting the chance to vote to dissolve their villages into towns or not. The latest vote will be held this Tuesday in the village of Farnham inside the town of Brant. The village of Farnham, with 311 residents in total, will be voting on Tuesday, Sept. 29 from noon to 9 p.m. in the Farnham Village Hall. Farnham is the smallest village in Erie County and is located past the Seneca Nation Indian Reservation, if traveling from Dunkirk. The referendum comes as a result of the leg work by government efficiency advocate Kevin Gaughan, who helped petition the village with some local support. According to Farnham Mayor Terry Caber, more than 10 percent of the village residents in support of a vote were required to bring about the referendum. Caber explained, the new Citizen Empowerment Act which was adopted by the New York state Legislature last year and took affect in March of 2010 allows for 10 percent of the citizens to petition the village in order to put the issue on the ballot asking – should the village government be terminated. “If that referendum passes then the village government has 180 days to develop a dissolution plan, which is pretty much just an outline of how the village government would dissolve and how all the services, debts, liabilities and obligations and so forth would be transferred over to the town government,” Caber said. “It doesn’t really make the distinction between a study and a plan. There have been various communities throughout Western New York, by board initiation or initiative, have gone through and applied for local government efficiency grants and have done this study on their own in order to determine what the potential outcome could be for dissolving the village government.” The fact the study has not been performed prior to asking residents whether they want to dissolve the village or not may be the sticking point, as it seems to have been for many other dissolution votes in recent memory – including the villages of Williamsville, Sloan, and Lakewood. “That lack of information was really the crux of the argument,” Caber said, referring to the Aug. 17 rejection of dissolution votes in the villages of Williamsville and Sloan. “There was a lot of speculation and people were not voting for something that they didn’t really know what the end result was going to be. Even if you would do a study there are still no guarantees that the town government has to honor any, quote - dissolution plan - that would be determined between the town and village government.” Like Farnham’s upcoming vote, both Williamsville and Sloan were prepared by advocate Kevin Gaughan. In Williamsville, residents voted 1,546 to 309 against dissolution, with 83 percent of voters saying no. In Sloan, the dissolution proposal was also crushed, with 1,031 or 81 percent voting against dissolution and 236 in favor. “Every situation is unique,” Caber said. “Farnham is not Randolph (successful dissolution), is not Williamsville, is not Sloan. You have to look at each situation on an individual basis. The village of Farnham has many more services than what the low-service town of Brant really provides to the community.” In the event that the village would be dissolved in Farnham, then whatever services that the town decided that they would continue to provide would be in the form of a special district tax, according to Caber. “You might have street lighting special district tax and sidewalk maintenance, recreation or park. The village actually operates and maintains three water districts so the town would have to take over those services.” The current tax rate in the village of Farnham is $10.01 per thousand dollars of assessed value, and according to Caber, the village has not seen a significant tax increase in over 15 years. “In the last 15 years we’ve received over $2 million in grant money to upgrade our water system and water lines and water tower, sidewalks and recreation parks, and so forth. The village government has worked hard in order to provide quality of life services to the residents,” he said. “I think the general consensus has been that people are in favor of keeping village government for a number of reasons. I think they’re satisfied with the services that the village provides, and the village has not really had in essence any tax increase in the last 15 years. We’re fiscally responsible and conservative in that regard, and we continue to do as much as we can for the residents with the same amount of money.” In the two public meetings held prior to the vote, one drew in 16 residents, and the other, 13. Farnham is Erie County’s smallest village. The vote will be taking place at the Farnham Village Hall, 526 Commercial St. from noon until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28. Comments on this article may be sent to mrukavina@observertoday.com