Head of the Harbor sets Wednesday hearing on tentative $2.2 million budget 

Head of the Harbor officials could vote as early as Wednesday on a $2.2 million tentative budget for 2022 that for the first time in decades will not include a service fee for the St. James Fire District, which provides fire and rescue services to the area.

That fee, $502,937 for 2021, will no longer appear on the budgets because the village joined the district last year, and overall village spending would drop from a projected $2.5 million for the village's fiscal year ending Feb. 28.

Instead of paying their share of the service fee, village residents will instead pay a separate line item for fire district tax on their town tax bills. The village tax rate will fall to $20.63 per $1,000 of assessed value from $28.53 per $1,000 for 2021.

The village spending plan would fund repaving of Saneck Road and its side roads. It would continue drainage work throughout the village begun several years ago "in response to severe thunderstorms we attribute to climate change," Mayor Douglas Dahlgard said in an interview.

It would fund a $1.50 per hour pay increase for the village’s roughly 24 police officers, bringing their pay to $38.50 per hour, Dahlgard said. The officers are part-time but work staggered shifts to provide 24-hour coverage. It also would fund purchase of new Tasers for the officers. Total spending on police, the village’s largest cost center, would rise to $719,351 from $664,826.

The proposed budget includes $149,538 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that Dahlgard said would go toward software to improve village administrative work.

Capital spending projects do not appear on the tentative budget, but Dahlgard said the village may go to the bond market in 2022 to fund roof repairs for Village Hall, access improvements to Avalon Park and Preserve and remediation of phragmites, an invasive reed found in village wetlands. The reed can overwhelm native species and may present a brushfire hazard, Dahlgard said.

The tentative budget appears on the village website, and hard copies are available at Village Hall.

A budget hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Village Hall; Dahlgard said trustees will likely vote after the hearing.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.