CORRECTION - Due to inaccurate information provided to North Country This Week an earlier version of this story said funding for Remington had been completely, this is not the case. North Country This Week regrets this error.

BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG – In a 4-3 vote Ogdensburg City Council adopted a preliminary budget that will reduce the tax rate, cut 10 fire positions and trims the library budget.

Voting in favor of the proposal were Mayor Jeffrey Skelly, Deputy Mayor John Rishe and councilors Bill Dillabough and Steve Fisher.

Opposed were councilors Michael Powers, Nichole Kennedy and Dan Skamperle.

City Manager Stephen Jellie’s proposed budget would cut the tax rate by $1.24.

He said cuts to the fire department are not personal and that the decision is financial. He said the police and department of public works have already been right-sized through previous efforts. He said it’s unfortunate that the city has not trimmed the fire department workforce over the years.

Councilors Powers, Skamperle and Kennedy raised concerns about the cuts, but were unsuccessful in persuading their fellow councilors to amend the preliminary budget.

Jellie challenged councilors to present alternative ways to generate revenues or trim the budget but no suggestions were presented.

“If you have better solutions or better ideas, I don’t know what everyone is waiting for,” he said.

According to the city budget the Remington will receive $70,000 from the city, about $500 more than the previous year. The Library will receive $147,593 from the city. That's about  $117,000 less than the previous year.

The tax rate is expected to drop from $19.86 per $1,000 of assessed evaluation to $18.62.

Skelly said the city’s fire department’s minimum staffing clause will be eliminated.

“We’ll probably end up in court, but we’ll no longer be having minimum staffing. We can’t afford it, so what are we going to do? We only have two police on duty sometimes, but we have to have four firefighters? It makes no sense,” he said.

Skelly said the budget will provide more than $100,000 in funding for the Ogdensburg Volunteer Rescue Squad.

Skelly says the budget writes off bad debt associated with the cheese plant that had been kept in the budget, which he said grossly over estimated collectable water and sewer fees.

He said positions will be added to city hall, including one planning office worker and an officer worker for the codes department.

Another major cut in the budget is the recreation line. The city abolished the department last year and is proposing a 13 percent cut in recreation spending in the 2021 budget.