STONY POINT BUDGET PASSES 4-1

Stony Point’s budget passed on Monday, November 21 without much debate and only one dissenting vote; Councilman James White. The budget is the same that Supervisor William Sherwood had proposed.

The controversy over police staffing will have to be saved for another day, as Sherwood’s budget provides for a 24-man force, as had been the tentative plan since last year. The reduction in the force has been accomplished through non-replacement of retired officers, also known as attrition. Police Chief Brian Moore had asked at last week’s meeting for the town board to budget for more police by taking money out of reserves and by bonding retirement costs.

Sherwood said that $5 million should be plenty to police the town of 15,000 or so people.

Supervisor-elect Geoff Finn said he would like to hire additional police as requested by Moore, but faced with keeping this year’s budget tight, he did not present any resistance to the budget. The Stony Point budget is under the 2 percent tax cap set by Governor Cuomo and the New York Legislature.