• February 25, 2009 In these tough economic times, the Piermont village board decided to implement fees for various services, from Department of Public
Works cleanups to boosted police protection. Villagers should use the occasion to make their feelings known. Police services in the small riverfront village are 30 percent of the budget. But what percent of the police budget goes to coverage for special gatherings What are other alternatives There are myriad options here, few of which seem to have been explored by the board. The idea of municipalities charging fees for services isn’t new: Orangetown police charge for extra police coverage during Nyack’s street fairs that are run by a nonprofit group. Suffern gets paid by the Rockland County sewer district for the cost of village police officers directing traffic during a major sewer project traversing the village. Wildwood, N.J., began charging drivers a car-crash fee in 2007 – putting a cost to everything from fluid cleanup to extrication. The Piermont fees, approved in December, took the Rockland County Police Emerald Society by surprise. The group had used Piermont as a backdrop for its 5Ks since 2000, when the run started as a get-fit pitch, but turned into a fund-raiser for the family of Orangetown Police Officer John Casey, who died of leukemia before the first run. Suffern, like Piermont, is a full-service village, with its own public works and police departments. Mayor John Keegan figures it’s not the venue, but rather the beneficiary that determines what, if any fees, a municipality should charge. If the historic Lafayette Theatre held a major premiere or other event that would attract a significant crowd, the village would charge for police coverage. But if a village-based nonprofit organization benefited, “we’d probably provide it,” Keegan told the Editorial Board. He agreed that major events like a fund-raising run or picnic in a local park boost the village. People come to a place like Piermont, which has a vibrant downtown that needs foot traffic to survive, see something they like, and then return to shop or eat. Is making the village attractive to outsiders important Ask the businesses that provide a significant portion of the tax base. Should Piermont taxpayers pick up the tab for its village being a picturesque place to hold a fund-raising run Should a charity be socked with heavy fees for attracting hundreds of potential tourists to the business district Those are questions for residents to discuss. Suffern’s Keegan said, “In this economy, they do have to look at all costs.”
He noted, however, that when a motion was made recently in his village board meeting to waive $3,000 worth of fees for upcoming street fairs hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, “it didn’t even get a second.”