Petition circulated to dissolve Village of Spring Valley

Several dozen citizens gathered Wednesday evening in front of Spring Valley Village Hall to rally against a proposal to dissolve the village. A petition has been circulating seeking the dissolution of Spring Valley village government. It is unknown who has spear- headed the effort and why they are doing so, but copies of the petition have come to light.
“Who initiated this? And why? I don’t know and I don’t think anybody here knows,” founder of Citizens United to Protect
Our Neighborhood [CUPON] Michael Miller told the Rockland County Times.
Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski addressed the gathering and confrmed the following: it takes 10 percent of registered voters or 5,000 signatures – whichever is less – to commence a referendum on the dissolution of the village. If the requisite number of signatures is reached then the Board of Trustees is required to enact a referendum question on the ballot of the next election.If that passes then a restructuring process is initiated with public input and a final vote required from the public to pass whatever plan is devised. If the village were dissolved the Town of Ramapo would absorb most of its functions. Zebrowski said he stood with the crowd. “Any threat to the influence of the people of Spring Valley is unacceptable.”
Pastor Teresa Darden said, “We need our Village of Spring Valley. Spring Valley is alive. Spring Valley is well. Spring Val- ley is here to stay. We don’t want to abort Spring Valley. There is a lot of history in Spring Valley.”
The history of Spring Valley government dates back to 1902 when a village was first incorporated and Peter Van Orden was elected the first village president. The crowd at village hall on Wednesday was unified in their opposition to the petition that would spell the end of 120 years of history. Activist and Spring Valley CUPON member Steve White warned that previous efforts to absorb village functions into the Town of Ramapo were problematic.  “When they dissolved the village assessor’s office taxes went up for single family homes and tax breaks were given to big developers,” he said, noting the
village took back control of the assessor’s office Miller described the efforts to dissolve the village as “clandestine.” During the gathering one person from local media took the stage and claimed to know who was behind the petition, citing an ethnic group.