By Eileen Buckley
Amherst, NY – Amherst Town Supervisor Susan Grelick delivered her "State of the Town" address Friday.
Grelick says, like other municipalities in the state, 2001 did create some very serious budget challenges, but the town managed to hold the line on taxes without cutting services.
"We already had a very lean budget," she said. "Our salaries increased $900,000, our heath insurance increased 20 percent and our fund balance has been decreasing. Our investment rates went down. But we were able to, even with all those decreases, hold the line basically on taxes, and Town of Amherst residents only saw a modest increase."
But Republican Town Council Member Bill Kindel is critical of town management. Kindel says he disagrees that Amherst has been holding the line on taxes. Kindel says the general town tax, which accounts for half of the Amherst's tax revenues, will increase this year.
"The general town tax for this year is going up 6.2 percent. It went up about 6.2 percent last year. So my way of looking at it, that's double inflation rate," Kindel said. "That's not satisfactory."
Still Grelick remains positive. She touting that the town experienced a population growth. However, 2000 Census numbers show it was slight, just 6,400 moved to town between 1999 and 2000. But Grelick says that has created increases in sales tax revenues, new home construction and housing building permits.
"We had more single family housing building permits issued this past year then in any other year since 1993," she said.
Grelick says the town yielded $2.2 million in energy savings. She also notes that Amherst has the highest bond rating in Erie County. Grelick says they have been praised by Moody's Investors Services for the town's sound financial operations and prudent fiscal management. But at the same time, Grelick says she continues auditing programs to try and tighten town finances.
"We were able to uncover a problem with our disaster insurance fund last year, which we were able to remedy," she explained. "Our internal auditing also brought to light some problems over at the golf course, and now our golf course is showing a profit for the first time in years."
But Council member Kindel gives a different perspective. He even compares Amherst to Buffalo. Kindel says the town is poorly managed.
"We've made no substantial major changes in how we do business. In a way we are like the City of Buffalo, although we are much more fortunate that we have more resources," he said. "But until you make structural changes, nothing of a permanent change for the better is going to take place."
Kindel says Grelick is able to report that the town is in good shape because it has a number of residents who have high incomes that support the tax base.
"That doesn't mean that we are running our town efficiently, there are two different issues here. So yes, we are in good shape because of the hard work of individual private taxpayers. But no we are not in good shape because of, in my consideration, the poor management of our town," he said.
But Grelick says Amherst offers two major "quality of life" issues that attract businesses and people -- solid schools and public safety.
"Four out of the last five years we have been name safest town in the country," she continued. "We are on the cutting edge of technology with our police department."
Grelick says her state of the town address will also discuss the town's relationship with the University at Buffalo, specifically developing housing not far from the South Campus.
"Joint efforts with the University as far as revitalization and housing initiatives in the Eggerstville area. We're working currently with the University at Buffalo and the Boys and Girls Club on a feasibility study to develop a community center near the South Campus," she said.
Grelick says she believes the biggest issue for the town this year will be creating a comprehensive plan for future and use planning and redevelopment.
But Council Member Bill Kindel says they've been talking about redevelopment of areas such as Eggerstville and Snyder for two to three years. Now he wants to move forward on implementing those plans. Kindel says he's also ready to see Amherst work toward regionalism.
"A regional garbage collection, regional tax collection, regional vital statistics. There are at least four or five areas that we could have already, and should have incorporatedm working with Buffalo, Cheektowaga, Tonawanda," he said.
Grelick says basically she will work to ensure that Amherst remains a "beautiful place to live."
"And that's going to be my job. And I think that's the job of all of us is to ensure that Amherst remains beautiful and we have many challenges ahead," she concluded.
Grelick delivered her speech at the annual Amherst Chamber of Commerce luncheon.