BY ARIADNE WILL
The Pittsford Selectboard passed a motion to provide a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for the graffiti on Pittsford’s covered bridge at their meeting last week.
Town Manager John Haverstock said in an email that the Selectboard decided on a $500 reward during the meeting’s executive session.
The motion was one of two presented at the meeting. The other was the passage of tax rates for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Both motions passed unanimously.
Residential tax payers in Pittsford are seeing their overall tax rates rise by less than 1 cent.
Increases translate to roughly $8 or $9 per $100,000 of assessed value for homeowners inside or outside Pittsford village, assuming they are not eligible for prebates.
For Pittsford residents who do not live in the village, the overall tax rate, including both town and school taxes, rose by 0.87 cents to 2.0766.
The portion of the residential tax rate for Pittsford to support Otter Valley Union School District spending went up 1.15 cents to $1.4428.
The town portion of the tax rate for Pittsford village residents dropped slightly to 66.88 cents. For non-village residents, the town tax rate dropped slightly to 63.38 cents.
Village commercial property owners are seeing a 2.49-cent increase to $2.3713. That change will translate to roughly $25 for every $100,000 of assessed value on business and rental property and second homes.
Non-village commercial property owners are seeing a 2.57-cent increase to $2.3362. That change will translate to roughly $26 for every $100,000 of assessed value.
The Selectboard has identified West Creek Road as in need of maintenance.
Where the money for the road repair will come from is yet to be decided. Options include a direction of funds from the General Fund by the Selectboard and grants from the Department of Transportation.
Selectmen also brought up the possibility of using a culvert previously purchased for installation on Fire Hill Road as a cheaper option for use at the West Creek Road location.
Aside from the culvert’s installation, the Selectboard agreed that the road would benefit from being ground down and raised.
“In any event, the plan is to grind the asphalt on the southern end of West Creek Road and to add some stone to raise the road’s elevation and make for a smoother travel surface,” Haverstock told the Reporter.
In other business, the Selectboard discussed the replacement of a Ford 350 vehicle for the Highway Department.
Highway Foreman Chad Eugair said at the meeting that the town’s current fleet could withstand more time without replacing the current Ford 350, but that replacing the ten-year-old vehicle now is the difference between being able to sell the current vehicle and scrapping it.
Eugair also asked the Selectboard for a new tandem dump truck, so that the fleet will have a spare in the instance that one of the other two is not working.
The dump trucks are used to haul stone for road projects, for snowplowing and for dropping salt and sand on the roads in wintertime.
Eugair said that both trucks are used daily. Though the Highway Department can operate with only one truck, it becomes more difficult for deliveries to be performed.
