UPDATE: Community comments on NewCastleNOW.org’s survey

November 30, 2009

Editor’s note: The first 148 comments were published in our Friday, November 27 issue. New comments submitted since that date start at number 149.

For your convenience, we have reprinted the preface and the survey questions below followed by a complete listing of all 221 comments received.

Preface: The town is proposing to mitigate 2010 tax increases by drawing down part of its general end-of-year reserve fund and reducing garbage and recycling collection to one time per week. We’d like your views on this. Please take 90 seconds to answer the following questions.  By way of background, for the last five years the town’s general end-of-year reserve fund has decreased from approximately $8.6 million in 2005 to approximately $5.8 million in 2009. As it stands now, the proposed 2010 budget calls for dipping into the fund for an additional $900,000, bringing the projected 2010 end-of-year reserve fund to approximately $4.9 million. 

The NewCastleNOW.org survey posed three substantive questions:

  1. If the town’s proposal to reduce garbage and recycling pick-up to one time per week is adopted, the average budget tax increase per household ($160,000 assessed value) would be $40. Otherwise, it would be $76. Which do you prefer?
  2. The town has $4.9 million in its general end-of-year reserve fund. It is proposing to draw down $900,000 of that in 2010 in order to keep the tax increase to an average of $40 per household, assuming the reduction in garbage collection is adopted. Should the town draw down an additional $100,000 to keep the tax increase at zero?
  3. Alternatively, should the town draw down even more of the reserve, approximately $200,000, in order to pay the cost of maintaining twice a week garbage collection?

Comments

:
[Last week we published numbers 1-148.  Numbers 149-221 are published for the first time today.]

1. Do this again on all issues!

2. It is appalling that we have a one-party system in New Castle and have NO CHOICE when we go to the polls. It is mind-boggling that allegedly intelligent people are so narrowly focused and thoughtless that we in effect have created a Communist regime right here in New Castle.

3. Efficiency and thought before doing things. I had to have the town pay to repave part of my driveway. When they were opening hydrants the water pressure was so great it destroyed the driveway. NO ONE there was watching as they performed the work. That is incompetence and I just wonder how many other times it happened. My taxes shouldn’t go for paying for that!!!

4. I have so much garbage that it would make it impossible to have a once a week pick up. Just like paying school taxes, in the years when your kids use the schools, you get the benefit of those who do not have kids in the school. When you have children, you do have a lot more garbage. Is it really worth $36 per household to get half the families with children upset when the seniors had the benefit of garbage pick up when their children lived at home? I think not.

5. Draw down the extra $100,000 and make the increase 0%.

6. Spend money on artificial turf fields.

7. Tell the town board and the supervisor to just take a look around town; it is messy and with little attention to detail, town as well as neighborhoods, roads as well in town. Then tell them to take a road trip to other towns with charming, inviting town centers and well-paved roads where the run off is managed with curbs and drains work. The aesthetics is just one indication of how well the town government is running and I can’t imagine financially, seems like rec sports are now “outsourced” and more frustrating then ever. They might want to compare how that aspect of town is run here vs. elsewhere and publicize what they find.

8. Laying off five town workers will also pay for the current garbage pick-up schedule. Let’s do that.

9. I’ve lived in a town that went from 2x/week garbage pickup to 1x/week and it was perfectly fine. More important to keep budget down at a time when many people are facing financial hardship.

10. The town needs to find more ways than simply reducing garbage pickup to reduce costs. How about staffing? Or the number of vehicles owned/operated by the town?

11. Keep up the good work, Town Board. You are really trying and I appreciate it.

12. Road quality is substandard in our community even compared to communities that have considerably less of a tax burden. Your job is not easy because of the vast amount going to the schools, but roads in town must get considerably better.  Hang in there! It’s a wonderful community, we are so lucky to have spent so many years here!

13. If you reduce the garbage collection to once a week, will Suburban Carting raise their fees in one or two years and then put us back at the old rates, BUT with only 1 collection?

14. If you don’t figure something out for Chappaqua Crossing, government will make it low income housing.

15. It is ridiculous to even consider once a week garbage pick up. The amount of money is negligible. Focus on the bigger issues.

16. We MUST stop the incredible cycle of automatic tax increases! Cut services if needed but STOP increasing taxes, please.

17. Could you follow up on the story you wrote last summer regarding tax re-assessment? My understanding is that very few applications were approved (for reduction in taxes) and no explanations were given to the ones rejected.

18. I understand that the town incurs a lot of overtime expenses. While they may be justified, I think the town manager needs to be instructed to look at those very closely and to take steps to avoid them when possible.

19. Our town desperately needs to be more fiscally responsible. Home values and the future sustainability of ever increasing household tax burdens are at risk. Union pensions and unnecessary overtime are straining the budget and there seems to be no sign of abatement. Saving 200k by reducing garbage collection, a real service, pales in comparison to what we’re shelling out for school budget and police. Let’s all think about this reasonably and get some answers before it’s too late. Also, given demographics, would it be so absurd to reduce the budget?

20. If we all recycle, it’s no problem to have garbage 1x a week. We have 5 big eaters and 2 dogs and we never put out the trash more than 1x/ week. THANKS.

21. Once a week garbage pick up, esp. in the summer, would smell, attract animals and be unhealthy. Perhaps the town should have negotiated a better cost contract in the first place—the new garbage contract raised our costs.

22. The health hazard of having to store a full week of garbage in many houses is vastly more costly to all than the yearly cost. Not to mention the inconvenience. Assume you are away for a week, that will be two weeks of garbage. Surely avoiding those kinds of things are worth $76 to most New Castle households!

23. The town board needs to get with the 21st century. Improve downtown. Build a second soccer field at Amsterdam.

24. Love your magazine!

25. Need better sport’s fields for our school and town-based sports teams.

26. The town should have been more prudent in expenditures, contracts and wage increases in prior years. My real estate taxes are in excess of $25M per year. The savings are insignificant and less than the cost of the additional garbage cans and storage that I will need to purchase.

    Garbage pick up and snow removal are basic, core and transparent services. It’s hard to believe that there are not better places to cut. Reduce staff; go to 4 day work weeks, or limit hours for certain town services (e.g., permits, tax payments, etc).

    Hopefully, this crisis will provide a “teachable moment” to elected officials. The time to plan for events like this is in good economic times. Be vigilant about expenditures at all times. Why did we give our prior police chief such a hefty salary increase? Only to have him retire 1 year later. Clearly he had a strategy to increase his pension at our expense. The future cost to the town of such a generous act is significant and was not necessary.

    A Total Waste of our tax dollars!

27. DON’T RAISE TAXES! TAP THE RESERVES, REDUCE SPENDING, CUT SERVICES, CUT PAYROLL, WHATEVER. BUT DON’T RAISE TAXES.

28. We don’t have children living with us but we have frequent weekend guests. With all the animals we have around, once a week garbage pick up is a disaster, leave aside the smell.

29. While the amount saved may seem small, for some, especially our dwindling senior population, every penny counts.

30. Time for the town to start paying market wages, even if it forces a strike. Laborers earn about 20k in the free market (in other words, not dictated by union and the town administrator’s fear of them), not 45k.

31. Keep looking for ways to reduce the budget.

32. It would be ridiculous to cut the garbage collection in a town where we have no sewers and no alternative but to keep all our refuse indoors until garbage day due to the abundance of bold wildlife.

33. Reducing garbage collection to 1 day a week is a symbolic gesture, at best. I prefer maintaining 2 day a week pick-up, UNLESS a zero increase budget can be formulated that does not draw down the general fund at all. If meaningful cuts are made to avoid an increase to the budget we would not object at all, in fact we would fully support, sacrificing some measure of quality of life (such as garbage collection). 2011 is likely to be a further challenge. If the town and its residents can not step up now and do something of significance to address increasing budgets we are fearful for the rising consequences in coming years. It is far better to take some bitter medicine now than to be in cardiac arrest in two years.

34. For $36 it’s not worth it to eliminate one day per week. There are times during the year when our cans are full both days. Has anyone thought that maybe if people start putting out two cans instead of one, or three instead of two cans to compensate for losing a day that our sanitation company may want to raise the rates they now is charged?

35. The town needs to stop increasing taxes every year. We already pay too much. Government should be as small as possible and as economic as it can be. We need to start to live in a frugal way. Once a week garbage collection, it’s enough.

36. The extra $40 per year (less than $1 per week) is worth it for 2x/week garbage collection. Otherwise, we’ll have too much garbage collecting at home, and more likely rodent infestation as a result.

37. I strongly oppose the reduction in refuse collection. We already have a serious problem with wildlife including raccoons, deer, etc. It will be greatly exasperated.

38. I feel that garbage pick up should be done once per week as it helps the community in that the residents will become more mindful of recycling and their individual waste products. Before living in Chappaqua, I lived in a town that had a once per week garbage pick up and these effects were evident amongst the residents as it becomes a necessity. A once per week pick up will also help w/ emissions from the garbage trucks and the noise pollution that they cause on the days that will be forfeited.

39. My taxes are too high, especially compared to other houses in town.

40. Twice a week collection is great, but a luxury. Reserve funds are designed to even out good and bad times. Which one does the board think we are in now?

41. Keep up the good work.

42. Survey is an excellent idea.

43. There are also environmental and noise benefits to once a week collection.

44. Please keep taxes as low as possible in these very difficult economic times!

45. A major source of town revenue, real estate sales and property value, will recover eventually. However, for the time being we need an austerity budget until better times return. Also, the town would be wise to allow the Summit Greenfield proposal to go through and offer tax incentives to landlords to decrease rent levels and help revive the downtown!!!

46. We’re not in The Great Depression. Let’s not panic and cut to the bone and use reserves unnecessarily. Most residents are still making a good living.

47. During these economic times please keep tax increases at or as close as possible to zero.

48. Collecting refuse once per week is an awful idea with minimal savings and will result in an increase in pest infestation and disease.

49. How about reducing the budget where the LION SHARE of the budget really is? It is not in garbage pick-up, it is in Police and Education. Look no further!!!

50. There is not enough saving in going to a once a week garbage pickup.

51. The Town should cut back on the ridiculous number of police officers.

52. This survey is such a great way to get community involvement with these issues. Thank you for being so thoughtful.

53. I think it is imperative in these times when residents are losing jobs or earning less money than they did last year for the Town not to increase the tax burden.

54. I feel very strongly about maintaining the twice weekly garbage pickup. The cost savings of forgoing it is minimal and garbage should be picked up instead of rotting in the garage for a week. Aren’t there other places where we could save money? It’s hard to believe that the garbage pickup is the only area identified as a possible cost savings.

55. The real drain on the budget is the cost of police. Nobody ever gets to the real heart of the problem. We have over 40 cops who are making some of the highest salaries in the town. That plus overtime, pension, and health care costs are the real problem. Somebody needs to stand up and say this. Everyone is so scared to makes waves when it comes to the police.

On your own website police blotter they say they receive an average of 230 calls per week. However most of these calls are for burglar alarms, suspicious vehicles, etc. I am making less $ this year than last as many people are. Can we expect to raise taxes in this poor economic environment? It is a recipe for disaster. Make the cuts sooner than later.

56. Since Nov. 24 is a holiday week, it is a poor time for this particular meeting, many people will be away or busy with company.

57. We can all easily live with a 1x week garbage pickup and save some money. It’s the right thing to do.

58. Thank you for providing me the opportunity to complete this survey. It should prove to be beneficial tool to the Town Board

59. We appreciate an opportunity to express our opinions this way. GOOD WORK!!!

60. Great job!

61. I don’t feel strongly either way about the garbage collection. If someone would lose their job by the change, I would rather kick in the extra money and keep the 2x/week.

62. Thanks for the opportunity to participate.

63. We love our hometown. Thank you for all of your efforts and for including our input in your decisions. The economy will turn around. We just have to pull together as a community.

64. Yes, I think some of the people are being kind of silly or shall we say spoiled. Why not save some money on garbage collection? What is the big deal? The problem is that many of our residents do not know what belt tightening is. Come on people, let’s get with it!

Also I don’t even think the board should worry about this issue. They are elected to manage our town to the best of their abilities and to make decisions for the benefit and future of the town, and not just to make some residents happy. Make the hard decisions; after all, that is what they are elected for.

The town administrator is right, we do not know what 2011 will be financially, after all unemployment is at 10% and could go higher yet. According to the Chairman of the Fed the recovery will be weak at least into 2011. Is garbage pick up twice a week that important?

65. Although I am certainly interested in keeping my costs down, it would trouble me to see garbage collection reduced to once per week. Even if it means paying more money, twice/weekly collection is a cleaner and more sanitary means of living. Keeping our town free of debris and aesthetically clean is very important to me. I care about how our town looks (and smells!!)

66. I am STRONGLY in favor of twice a week collection!

67. Impose an extra charge to those residents who strongly want the 2 day garbage pick-up. Cut your costs before you draw from the reserve.

68. Can there be an explanation of how the town decides to make improvements (for example, the lighting at the train station) and how these are paid for. Why is money being spent on this when other things are then cut? Also, please do not bow to pressure from Chappaqua Crossing especially now that Reader’s Digest is moving.

69. Have the police write more tickets for cell phones and texting while driving.

70. 1) We need to reduce the benefits for future employees and current employees as contracts are renewed. 2) Is a town supervisor really necessary?

71. Keep taxes low. Don’t waste money. The less local government, the better.

72. There are a lot more savings that can be found using zero budgeting techniques. That is, pretend you are starting from scratch, how would you staff and run the town?

73. There must be other ways to keep costs down without something that so directly impacts quality of life like garbage collection. How about slightly increasing recreation fees? Start a town-wide raffle? I don’t know. I wish I could suggest something better. It just seems like the small savings on this doesn’t justify the quality of impact on the town.

74. If people recycle properly even with a big family, once a week garbage pick up makes sense economically and for the environment.

75. Keep garbage p/u at twice/week

76. Do we really need so many police cars? I’d like to see the police spend more time on foot patrol, forging a closer relationship between community members and police officers, and less time driving around (using gas, polluting, wear and tear on the vehicles).

77. The clean car spaces at the train station are fine, but they should be just that: CLEAN CAR SPACES. To advertise that you can park there after 9:30 AM is wrong! Why 9:30? Is that because the town board members that commute go in then?!!? The front lot is filled by 7:15. Either they’re clean car spots or they’re not. This is unconstitutional!

78. Why not consider a complete freeze on all town employees’ salaries, raises. etc. Why is there no discussion of reduction in work force?

79. Please cut school costs.

80. Explore ways to make residents recycle/separate items; return deposit bottles and cans; reduce use of plastic bags and containers, etc.

81. Thank you

82. If we are doomed to have a lock-step, one-party town board in which little substantive public policy is ever publicly debated, this kind of survey and resulting community conversation will be very valuable to educate and develop community sentiment on important issues. Please do this regularly.

83. Would it help to reduce by one the days that the recycling center is open?

84. Nice going.

85. Even in these difficult times, do not be short-sighted: say NO to Summit Greenfield.

86. You are doing a great job and my husband and I want to thank you.

87. I like the environmental benefits of a single garbage collection as Barbara Gerrard has explained them.

88. Thank you for all of your hard work!

89. We are concerned about an increase of rodents if garbage is collected only once a week. Another issue is foul odors of rotting garbage, especially during the summer. Thirty-six dollars is a small amount to pay for this collection.

90. It is important to keep garbage collection 2 times per week. The $36 savings per household is de minimus. You are doing a good job but cutting this service is a huge mistake

91. In summer months, garbage must be picked up twice a week; the smell and the attraction to vermin is overwhelming. Perhaps you could get away with garbage pickup once a week, although we prefer twice.

92. 2 kids in college

93. Do not raise taxes any more!

94. I understand the small economic benefit as well as the environmental benefit of moving to just one pickup, but practicality has to matter as well, particularly in our town where nuisance activity by animals attracted by large garbage collections could be a problem.

95. Thanks for allowing for townspeople’s input!

96. Need traffic light or at least better signage in front of Starbucks as you come down the hill. It’s very confusing for people new to town .

97. SCHOOL TAX SHOULD BE WEIGHTED/INCREASED BASED ON THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN SCHOOL.

98. The town should maintain the roads rather than waste money on non-essential feel-good projects.

99. Town Board should be more aggressive about minimizing the tax burden on residential property owners while maximizing taxable, NON-residential property, including the active pursuit of commercial and light industrial occupants for available acreage. Determine what changes are required in town policy, union contracts, and/or state legislation/regulations to end the practice of town employees retiring early on town pensions so that they can obtain new jobs and have two significant sources of income, while some/many of the taxpayers subsidizing these pensions are unemployed or underemployed.

Make full disclosure of what taxpayers should know regarding recent trends (5 or 10 years) in both the residential/nonresidential property base and early retirement. BEAR IN MIND THAT, WHATEVER ACTIONS CAN BE TAKEN TO MAXIMIZE TAXES FROM NONRESIDENTIAL PROPERTY OWNERS WOULD BENEFIT US AS SCHOOL DISTRICT TAXPAYERS AS WELL!

100. Right now, we pay for drive down garbage service. However, they only pick up paper recycling on Tuesdays and plastic on Fridays. If we change to once a week, I am assuming that I will be able to put out all of my recycling at once?

101. Raising taxes again is ridiculous. The town must cut the budget.

102. It is all about taxes. The majority of people I know reduce their expenses in tough times. Gov’t shouldn’t be any different. Gov’t works for us.

103. I’d prefer to pay $100 extra per year and have my garbage picked up 2x week.

104. Recycling is once weekly and picking up just about anything else in our area of New Castle is once/week. Keep garbage pickup twice weekly!

105. Continue to engage the public in the budget process, we really appreciate the transparency. Ultimately, it will always be about trade-offs, but having a voice in the decision process will help.

106. I think the $76 is worth the 2 day pick up. I don’t always use both days but if I somehow skip a pick-up day, I don’t want garbage in my house for 2 weeks!

107. I only want the town to draw from the reserve if it can be done in a fiscally responsible fashion w/o decreasing the bond rating of the town.

108. We have to keep the taxman at bay, or all older people will move out and people with lots more kids will move in, leading to higher taxes!!!

109. Cut town expenses and ask Board of Education to review expenses with an eye to increased efficiency

110. Since Westchester County will be increasing our taxes, I think the board should look at more ways to save money and lower taxes. I am sure there is much waste in how the town services are managed.

111. I am sure there has to be other ways to keep this budget intact besides garbage pick up. It is time to tighten the reins in general.

112. Why don’t you survey on other cost elements? Should there be reductions in town pension, police, school expense, etc? Are taxes too high?

113. Cut pensions, benefits and head count like the rest of corporate America. Savings would be far greater without giving up services.

114. We are in the 21st century and, supposedly, a new “green” era. With composting, recycling, less use of overly packaged products, etc., there should be no need for two garbage pick ups per week.  Also, the objections I have heard regarding the dangers of attracting animals with more ripe garbage around are absurd. As it is, everyone has to keep their garbage in a secure place prior to pick up, so what difference does a couple more days make? If people have 4 garbage cans out twice a week (and I know some of these), they are doing something wrong. Should the rest of the responsible citizens of this town have to pay for them? No.

115. This was a good tool to use to capture citizen input.

116. Wish there was a way to stimulate new small business owners to come to Chappaqua and fill all the vacant retail spaces. I don’t understand why our town loses so many small businesses. Katonah has somehow retained its vibrant downtown area. Our town is beginning to look more and more like a retail ghost town. It is depressing.

117. The language in Question No. 1 is horribly misleading. It appears that the author wants one collection per week.

118. Twice weekly garbage collection is nice, but unnecessary. I have never heard of twice weekly garbage collection anywhere else but here. We’ll get used to it.  If we can handle once weekly recycling pickup, we can handle once weekly trash removal. Try recycling more. This is a silly issue.

119. #1 I am against drawing down reserves to pay for short term hiccups.

    #2 I too am disappointed that the savings is only $36 per household for 1x a week collection.

    #3 More people should use compost recycling units (available from Westchester County) which reduce organic waste (kitchen and yard).

      #4 More people should drop off their own recycling. Where does the savings per household come in if the recycling is not collected at the curb?

      #5 Charge for the mulch. Now it is a $35 delivery fee to the driver. Residents of other towns are envious of our “mulch mine” and the cheap pricing.

      #6 Sell off some of the fleet of trucks/equipment the Town owns. Our inventory looks more impressive than major cities. Quick snow removal is a luxury we can no longer afford, particularly when we have less and less snow each year. What would this save? Consider use of outsourced contractors for snow removal unless there is a greater liability issue. Has anyone considered this?

    Thanks!!!

120. Saving $36 per year is not substantial enough, would rather have the garbage picked up.

121. We are willing to pay a LITTLE more in taxes for garbage collection. Not a lot more, but $76 seems worth it to us.

122. There are many ways to cut costs and unnecessary programs to save the budget. To collect garbage once a week, which will affect each household, just doesn’t make sense.

123. Why are town athletic fields in such horrible shape? Why do we have to travel to other towns to host home games? I think this is ridiculous given the level of taxes in our community. The town and the school district must address this issue. We need more fields, we need to better maintain the fields we have, we need turf fields like every other town, and we need lights.

124. Many street lights are dark and need to be replaced. Many trees should be trimmed or removed before winter snows and storms come. Police should be more vigilant and fine drivers who do not use hand-free use cell phones.

125. The reserve is there for times like these. We should make cuts and draw on the reserves so that taxes are not increased.

126. Very useful.

127. Reducing garbage pick-up to one day a week is ridiculous and a potential health hazard. I’d like to know whose idea this was!!

128. I think that garbage pick up once a week is insufficient and unsanitary.

    Thank you.

129. It would be intolerable to have once a week collection. It is OK to draw from the reserve during bad economic times.

130. Keep garbage TWICE a week!!!!!!! I doubt people will have a problem w/ the $76!!!!!

131. Too big a government for a small town.

132. I’d also like to see street leaf pickup in the heavy traffic areas.

133. Since I have had to call recycling 12 times in 2009 to come for missed pick-ups.

134. I think that the police department should play a better role in directing traffic coming over the bridge in the morning and moving traffic along at the Douglas Road intersection. People leave their house in the morning and don’t know how long it will take them to navigate on 120. Thank you.

135. Make clear that once a week pick-up will now include regular trash, all recycling, and large bulk items.

136. We should all do our part to keep the taxes at a zero increase during these trying times. Our taxes are too high already.

137. Further cuts in service instead of taking from the reserve

138. I respectfully suggest that the town save money by putting an end to the seemingly endless beautification of Gedney Park. Every time I turn around there is more elaborate and expensive landscaping. The park was a lovely asset to the town 20 years ago and it does not need more fancy trees, fancy shelters and fancy bathrooms. I would rather have my garbage collected twice a week than plant another umpteen trees at Gedney!

137. Time for everyone to cut back.

138. All bureaucracies are known for spending their entire budget each year for fear of getting less next year. How about forcing savings/cost cutting by reducing budgets and forcing difficult cuts?

139. If at all possible keep 2 weekly garbage pick-ups. The household savings if we decrease to once a week is almost nothing. A more pertinent aspect of the budget would be school salaries and benefits. Budget cost savings need to be assessed across all town services and personnel. Cut back on over-time; hiring freeze; early retirement, etc, etc. Communities across the nation are facing the same issues.

Why not civilian volunteer police auxiliary like they have in some counties in California? They give out traffic tickets, direct traffic, and do paper work for the “real” police among other “light” duties. We really need to get more CREATIVE here. In our ten years here, our taxes have increased 100%!! Unfortunately, our salaries haven’t!! Much as we love this community, I doubt we will be able to afford to live here unless substantial reductions in taxes become a reality! Thank you all for your hard work on this issue!

140. I am afraid if we decrease the garbage pickup, we are going to have a huge rodent and animal problem. Also that our town would start to have litter everywhere.

141. We have 6 people living in our house, 2 adults and 4 children. We have a lot of garbage. It is unsanitary to only collect garbage once a week. The smell in our garage will be intolerable. We cannot leave the garbage outside because animals will get into it. The money saved by decreasing garbage pick up is too insignificant and will create many environmental problems.

142. It would be hard on us, senior citizens, to have to carry all the garbage out once a week. The cost of two times a week is about two tanks of gas! That kind of savings is penny-wise and pound foolish.

143. Twice a week avoids vermin. Please don’t cut back to once a week. The cost to the average person is minimal.

144. We produce way more garbage than we can keep in our limited bin storage each week. We would have to spend a lot more than $76 to build a new bin or else we would have animals. Not a good way to save money.

145. Once a week would be a disaster in terms of animals. There must be better ways to save money than to create a health problem.

146. We need to cut additional overhead (jobs).

147. We could live with 1/wk garbage pick up if it meant preserving other more vital services, but would prefer 2/wk.

148.  Spending needs to be reduced drastically. How many services are already   provided by Westchester County or are duplicated? How many employees does the town have? Are they guaranteed raises? What is their pension? Can we do without their services? Even if you don’t raise taxes, will you raise the train parking, library fees, etc? CUT SPENDING NOW. Spano got the message a little too late.

Editor’s note: Comment #148 was the last comment published in the Friday, November 27 edition of NewCastleNOW.org. Here are the remaining 72 comments.

149. Garbage pickup once a week is not enough. I believe you will have people dumping their garbage in town pails and on roadways to alleviate the smell as well as the animals who will be attracted to the pails.

150. The Town should spend down the fund balance to the extent it is actual cash and not phantom receivables. Taxing people today to pay tomorrow’s expenses is not equitable and makes no sense. People should be taxed for the current cost of government. The Town should not be accumulating cash in excess of a thoughtful contingency reserve from year to year.

151. The Town Board is doing a terrific job and deserves a lot of credit for the quality of management it provides. Also, it is distressing to read the attacks on the salaries and benefits we pay to our police and other Town employees. We get extraordinary services in the town from people who work very hard and treat all residents with respect.

The same cannot be said about our school system, with a tenure system that saddles us with teachers and administrators whose value is way out of proportion to the compensation we pay them. The lion’s share of our annual taxes go to the school system that serves us far less well for each dollar spent than our Town Government.

152. This is a perfect opportunity to educate residents on recycling and reusing so we all produce less garbage. Could be a win-win.

153. NewCastleNOW.org is one of the best undertakings that has come to our town.

154. Correct the inequality for assessments in the West End.

155. We think that it would create unsanitary conditions to bring garbage collection down to one time per week!!!

156. Town needs to do something to attract and retain businesses in the Downtown. Need to teach community to compost. Need to adopt deer maintenance program.

157. Cut elsewhere. Unfortunately, union contracts dictate a lot of our increases, but there are areas to reduce costs: Overtime - has anyone analyzed where we spend overtime and where it can be reduced?; Staff size - eliminate unnecessary positions; Police force - do we really need 40 police officers? I like the idea of forcing more foot/bike patrols in town, instead of just having them sit in the car at the corner by Starbucks (probably with the motor running).

While schools are a large part of the budget, I am not in favor of program reductions there, as that is one of the primary reasons people move here and cuts could affect that popularity. Better use of reserve fund would be to provide incentives for businesses in downtown to generate tax revenues. Resolve Chappaqua Crossing before we end up with open housing there and a hundred more kids in the schools. Allowing a slight increase in the number of commercial tenants (especially with RD moving out) is not a bad thing if the number is still limited.

158.  We need to figure out how to keep small retail in town

159. We also vehemently oppose any town funds being used for reassessment. We encourage the town board to take a cue from the November election results that residents, regardless of party affiliation, have had enough and demand fiscal discipline.

160. We believe that reducing garbage collection to one time per week could actually make the town people more environmentally conscious and may result in their being more efficient with how they manage what they dispose of and how they dispose of things. All in all this could reduce garbage for the town which we think would be great.

161. Sports fields are deficient and dangerous; more focus ?????? as horrible compared to neighboring towns; someone will get hurt and our fault.

162. We are seniors with disabilities and the increased weight of the garbage cans might prove to be a problem. However, anything that can be done to decrease the taxes would be very helpful.

163.  GARBAGE PICK UP?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? THIS ISSUE IS A JOKE. THE TOWN NEEDS TO FOCUS ON THE MASSIVE FIXED COST BASE, INCLUDING TOWN EMPLOYEES. Cost management initiatives should focus on the real dollars. 51% of our town budget is for personnel and benefits. This is where the real dollars and savings are. Every town employee seems to drive around in a town truck that is newer than my car!! We should invest in a professional cost-management / reduction study and implement the recommendations.

For years, the Town has spent the taxpayer’s money like water. As a result, one would think we live in the showcase community of Westchester, with a vibrant & beautiful downtown, and exceptional recreational services. Unfortunately, the reality is we have spent millions and that none of us are really satisfied with the result. The benefits of the spending are disproportionate to the costs.

I would imagine that most residents in town are making less money than prior years. So, in the face of declining personal revenue, we need to SPEND LESS as a town and tighten our proverbial belts. Most companies are taking advantage of the downturn to cut their fixed cost base and re-position the organization for a near-term future of lower revenue. Town government needs to take a page from business play book: top-line revenue down; cut costs. If we can’t do this as a small town, God help us as a nation.

I hope the individuals running this town read this and other comments so that the frustration and sense of urgency sinks in with them. These are NOT normal times. We can and must cut spending.

164. Keep taxes down - cut services. You need to cut so everyone feels it!

165. Get rid of the free summer concerts to save money; keep garbage collection!

166. Cut Highway, Recreation, and Police Dept. staff by 20%.

167. The town should be CUTTING taxes, NOT raising taxes in this difficult environment. We as taxpayers are cutting back our budgets as government is raising taxes (Federal, State and Local). The town should look at what happened in Westchester County in November where a Republican won by 15% in a democratic-dominated county (2-1). Why? Because he proposed CUTTING spending and taxes, NOT RAISING them. This same theme played out in the two governor races, once again one of them in a heavily democratic state. 

So my recommendation is to cut back the 45-member police force by 5 – 8 personnel. This size force is not needed in a town with its limited crime issues. Thus spending would be taken back to where it was 5-7 years ago, more in line with future revenue projections.

168. Incredible that in a period when municipalities nationwide are looking to drastically reduce budgets we are discussing a 4% or a 1.5% tax increase. Pretty laughable. How about trying to cut the budget 20%? We need a hatchet not a scalpel. Taking $ from a reserve fund to reduce expenses is “budgeting for dummies.”

169. There are many people that talk about when they lived in other towns. I wonder if some of them had garbage disposals, which, with septic systems, most of us don’t have. If you are cooking, the smell of chicken bones and fish in your garbage sitting in your garage for a week during the summer will be untenable. Maybe many of these advocating for once a week pick-up eat our two or three times a week and don’t have that much garbage.

170. The garbage issue is smoke and mirrors. There are real issues in our town that need to be addressed, like empty store fronts downtown and better requirements for store owners to keep their stores looking “shopper friendly.” I love Chappaqua, and would love to see it thrive forever

171. For us, a family of five with a large dog and two cats, pick-up once per week is sufficient. We rarely put garbage out for the second pick-up. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

172. I love our police force but we have lived here 14 years and it seems we just keep adding cars and officers. I believe some savings here are essential.

173. The operating budget should be reduced by at least 10% and they should start with the police department. The disappearance of Reader’s Digest tax revenues through Summit Greenfield (they’ll call pauper and call for a reduction) will put further pressure on future budgets. It is essential that the leaders in this town start cutting back operation expenses in every way possible. No excuses!

174. The garbage collection item really bothers me. I only put my garbage out once a week. We recycle almost everything by making a trip to the recycling center and the kids are gone. But it seems a really bad value proposition to reduce my pickup by half and decrease my cost by much less. It seems that someone is gaining on this one, but it sure isn’t the taxpayer.

175.  Both kids in college; do not live home full time. This is a great tool; the town should use it too

176.  The goal should be to reduce spending whenever and wherever we can. There are over 425 taxing authorities in Westchester County. How many police officers do we have in New Castle? Each one costs at least $100,000 per year with salary and benefits. How many of them can we cut out of the budget and save some real money?

177. We have only been putting out our garbage once a week for the past two years. We bought a large recycling bin from Home Depot and manage to fill the recycling bins weekly and never fill our garbage bin, even once a week. I think that we should all do once a week garbage collection and concentrate on recycling so we can care for our environment.

178. There are those of us who choose to stay here because we have raised our families here and consider it our home. Please allow us to stay by keeping taxes manageable.  Thank you for all your efforts.

179. The Board is doing an excellent job!

180.  Local municipalities across the state should see where they can cut costs with employees, services, etc. Unfortunately, although we pay terribly high taxes we still don’t have sewers, leaf pick up, etc. Don’t look for the short term and agree to Chappaqua Crossing. That will destroy this community. The same goes for the mandate forced on us that we have to put in low and middle income house. Certainly, people should have a place to live, but what will the tax ramifications be and what additional services will we be required to foot. Start being more fiscally conservative.

181. Reduce more.

182. I went to the meeting in town sponsored by the League of Women voters and I learned a very interested fact. Most of our town money is used for the police force. I would like you to explore and have an explanation for the monies used for the police force. How much overtime? Salaries? Benefits? How many detectives? Can we join forces with another town? How many detectives do other town have? 

The garbage change is a small amount relative to the overall budget. Helpful, Yes!

183.  Thanks for asking.

184.  Town government seems overstaffed given poor quality of roads and 40 cops! Some days I skip the Friday pickup because I recycle 3/4 of the trash. My neighbor recycles little and puts out tons of trash. He should pay for the extra pick up himself.

185.  Encourage retail expansion downtown to be more like Katonah.

186. I think the council should simply adopt a once a week garbage collection as is the case in many countries. Consideration should also be given to the implementation of a service based upon the amount of waste that is put out for garbage collection to incentivize people to recycle and compost. The community is too used to the easy way out in terms of garbage and simply throw everything out into the garbage as it is picked up twice a week and there is no limit/cap in the amount disposed of, therefore no incentive for people to attempt to recycle.

In my home country of Australia all councils across the country issue standard garbage bins for general trash and also for two types of recycling, which limits the amount of trash that can be put out for collection to the size of the garbage bin. People soon learn or pay additional for the privilege of polluting and being lazy and not attempting to recycle.

187.  Why do we need 40 police officers? This would be a better area to cut.

188.  This town is truly falling apart. The roads are filthy and covered in litter. The pavement on many streets is literally crumbling. Route 120 through town and up King Street is an absolute disgrace (not to mention completely unsafe). The number of empty storefronts in town is a tragedy and cannot be blamed on the national economy (just take a look at Armonk and Katonah). Bottom line, this town is completely mismanaged and our “elected” officials are either incompetent or completely negligent in their duties to keep our town clean and safe. After 10 years, I have decided to move my family to Armonk or Connecticut. I am sorry but this is not the town I move to in 1998.

189.  The Town should start reducing staff to offset bloated benefits structure, in addition to requiring employees to contribute significantly more to cover their healthcare expenses.

190.  I THINK YOUR PAPER IS 1 OF THE BEST THINGS TO HAPPEN TO CHAPPAQUA IN A LONG TIME. KUDOS.

191.  Consume less = create less garbage. One pick up every two weeks? Why not?

192.  Eliminating one garbage pick up per week is ridiculous. It will create more problems than it will solve. I think it shouldn’t be too hard to find the money from some other non-emergency service. Less than twice weekly would be a health hazard. Living in the woods as we do is enough of a problem with animals, we don’t need to encourage more. If I were moving here and found out that garbage pick up was only once per week, I would consider another town that also has great school systems and other assets. This is very important to quality of life.

193.  For the small tax savings, it is not worth cutting back garbage collection to once a week. Garbage begins to smell and after large gatherings (parties, holidays), it would seem a large inconvenience to have to hold onto the waste for up to seven days. If the savings were more significant, it would be worth exploring. Thanks for your time

194. $36 savings is not substantial enough to risk attracting rodents and the resultant smell in the garage would be awful. Keep garbage pick-up at twice weekly!

195.  Is that the best the Town can do?! A $36 dollar savings! Why waste time discussing it! We need real cost cutting.

196.  I can’t believe you put questions two and three in the survey. No one understands the limitations on the reserve, and how we’re going to be meet pension demands in 2011 and 2012. Highly inappropriate!

197.  I am not so concerned about tax reduction. But I only put out my garbage once a week anyway, so I do not care about twice weekly garbage pick up.

198.  1. Garbage collection should remain at 2x/week. 2. Have street leaf pickup. 3. Turn off the lights in the schools at night. The middle schools are awash with lighting, even on holiday weekends. 4. Clean-up the center of town, too many vacant signs. Who wants to shop in an area that is losing business and parking is hard to find? 5. The police should ticket cars where children don’t wear seatbelts, and children under 12 are in the front seat.

199.  Reducing the garbage pickup is ridiculous! We need the twice a week pickup, once a week pickup means I am lugging twice as much garbage down the driveway, way too heavy and inconvenient. I have baby twins with diapers; it is disgusting having diapers in the garbage in the garage.

200.  Can we keep garbage and recycling on the same day even if there is only one pickup each?

201.  There are many ways the Town can cut wasteful spending in order to maintain services. It just takes a little looking.

202.  Keep up great job.

203.  The town share of our property taxes is relatively small. So is the county share. Most of our property taxes go to education. We have a very high-quality school system, which on the one hand attracts families to the community and supports the values of our properties, but on the other hand results in steadily rising taxes. We have relatively little support from taxes on non-residential property. There are no easy remedies for this basic situation. Cutting garbage pickups or invading our reserve funds will not result in material tax savings.

204. Do the projections noted above account for Reader’s Digest leaving? And, is there a plan to replace the tax base without over stressing the current town infrastructure? 

Have there been or are there plans for meetings with residents to brainstorm other ideas to reduce waste and other less necessary budget items?

205.  You are doing a good job, trying your best in a difficult time

206.  There is no reason for such a huge police force in New Castle! Less police, less overtime. It’s pretty simple.

207.  I like the pro-active approach we are taking to keeping budgets flat. We may also want to give thought to our demographic trends and anticipate increases/decreases to student population and impact on school budgets. If already done, then please share w/ the community. Kind regards.

208.  Some towns seem to have found a way to charge according to the amount of garbage needing to be collected from each home. Possible???  Collecting only once a week is much harder on families with young children.

210.  Let’s do something about all the empty store fronts in town. It’s a disgrace that so many business have gone under because the landlords are permitted to raise rents exponentially. Not only does it detract from the little bit of a “town” environment, but it makes it difficult for people who are selling or thinking of selling their homes. It is really disgraceful.

211. Why is their little word on the Town’s Tuesday vote to basically create another consultant position @50K/year to hear basically two or three police actions per year? If the Town Board was a Corporate entity in this business climate, they would be fired.

212. The garbage collection should stay at twice per week as the savings is trivial, but the aesthetic damage of overflowing garbage is more costly. The real problem is the police pensions, sick call abuse and overtime, and health care benefits of the New Castle police. No one wants to tackle that for fear of a backlash, but residents like me are requesting a close audit and policy revision for substantial cost savings.

213. How about running the town budget like residents do? We took a 10% pay cut and suggest all at town hall do the same. I’d also suggest that all overtime be approved in advance by either the town supervisor or town administrator. Has there ever been an independent review if all town expenditures are necessary? I note that some want more fields and sports for their children. Other towns require town passes to use the parks and that could also be considered.

214. Good first step would be to keep the increase to zero this year. Future years will be even harder. Dollars cut now will make them a bit easier. The school budget is the major tax burden in our town and hopefully everyone is as forthcoming with ideas to save during that budget process. 

215. Figure out how to reduce the budget without reducing universal fundamentals, such as garbage pick-up. As a publicity stunt, it is a great way to wake-up the community to the current financial crisis the town is in. But pulling back on garbage collection is not a solution, just a way to make the town stink.

216. Why is it that you are so unwilling to attack salaries, just like any business man would do? Salaries just keep going up and you find money to pay them? Cut staff, we are overloaded. 

217. If we had a sewer system, once a week pick up would be fine. However, since we are on a septic system, we put food waste in our garbage. We very much appreciate 2x week pickup and would prefer to continue to pay the higher fee.

218. Continue the sidewalk up Quaker Road heading towards Millwood. Make it a shared bike/walking path to Gedney Park and to the North County Trail system.

219. Starting now, reduce costs in line with revenues. Households need to reduce their purchases of packaged goods and consider composting and other environmentally friendly methods. I feel we are being over-run by officialdom and bureaucracy and in the process are losing our ability to behave respectfully and humanely towards one-another and the planet. Thank-you for the opportunity to participate in the survey.

220. Don’t raise taxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

221. Thanks for arranging this survey and sharing with the town. The town’s budget cuts are not nearly deep enough and should involve staffing. We had four people fixing a road situation in front of our house that one person could have handled. We want to stay in Chappaqua but taxes may force us to leave.

Editor’s note: We received 230 comments in the 10 days the survey was live. For purposes of reprinting them here, we left out nine comments that were incomplete, such as a simple “nope,” with no indication of what it referenced.