Bellport keeps funding to operate ferry, beaches
The Bellport village board on Monday voted 5-0 to approve the $4.79 million budget, which provides more money for repaving roads and employee pay and benefits. Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
Bellport will raise taxes 2.7% after the village board passed a budget that maintains current services in spite of financial uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The board on Monday voted 5-0 to approve the $4.79 million budget, which provides more money for repaving roads and employee pay and benefits. The budget goes into effect on June 1.
The new budget raises spending by about 6.1% over the current $4,517,218 spending plan, Mayor Ray Fell said in an interview.
The 2.7% tax hike exceeds the 1.9% increase currently allowed under the state property tax cap. The village board had previously voted to exceed the cap, Fell said.
The owner of an average home assessed at $46,725 will pay about $60 more in taxes, Fell said. That means that a homeowner who currently pays $2,252 in village taxes would pay $2,312. Village taxes are due July 1.
The budget includes a 50% increase for repaving roads, from $100,000 to $150,000. Fell said the village is halfway through a five-year plan to resurface roads throughout Bellport, adding that the repaving project had been long overdue.
“They haven’t been done in 30 years,” he said.
Other increases include 3% raises for highway department employees that had been negotiated several years ago, and a 5.5% increase in contributions to the employee health insurance plan, Fell said.
Bellport officials made few changes to the budget related to COVID-19, Fell said, though some money was added for stepped-up code enforcement, “in case, as we get into the summer, we have to continue to do this social distancing."
The budget includes funds to operate village beaches and a ferry to carry residents across the bay to Ho-Hum Beach, a village-owned beach on Fire Island open only to Bellport residents. Village officials have made no decisions about whether to close the beaches, Fell said.
Officials are considering limiting passengers on the ferry, which seats up to 40 people. But Fell said the ferry might have to run more often, which would increase costs.
“The ferry would have to run every half-hour taking 15 people. I don’t know how you’d do it," Fell said. "It would have to be very restricted.”
The village is delaying taking applications for paid reservations for summer camp programs, though no final decisions have been made about whether the camps will open.
“All those things are up in the air,” Fell said.
Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.
