The Village Green
Newsletter of the Village of Pomona
Message from Mayor Nick Sanderson
February 2010
I sincerely hope that you all had an enjoyable holiday season, and I want to wish you a very healthy safe and bountiful new year. We live in challenging times, but I can inform you that our lovely little village is holding its own. In spite of losses in projected revenue from various sources due to reductions in our share of taxes and state funds together with the general state of the economy, we are managing to tighten our belts so that we can reduce spending, ensuring that our budgets are not compromised, but at the same time making sure that the services that you have been promised by the village are not curtailed.
One of the changes that we have made to reduce costs, which you may notice when you receive your next village tax bill, is that we have abolished the village as a separate assessment unit. We will now use each town's assessments, instead of having our own village tax assessor, thus substantially reducing our tax assessment costs. There should be no noticeable change in your actual village tax, which will continue to be billed from the village, however, if you have questions, concerns or wish to participate in the formal grievance process, you will now be directed to the Ramapo or Haverstraw town's tax assessor, depending in which town your home is in. This new procedure saves the village the unnecessary expense of having our own separate tax assessor, but at the same time not reducing services to our residents. Please review the article in this newsletter which contains further information. As always, please feel free to contact the staff at Village Hall if you have any questions, or come to Coffee with the Mayor for an informal discussion of any issues. Coffee with the Mayor is usually held on the second weekend of the month, alternating Saturdays and Sundays. Check the website for the specific date each month.
Winter is with us, and as usual presents us with the additional challenges of snow removal, ice prevention on the roads, garbage removal and other services that are made more difficult with the inclement weather. Hopefully the rest of the winter will be mild, but please, in the event of snow or ice events, allow our highway and garbage personnel to do their jobs by not parking on the streets. Please monitor our website for any changes to the garbage pick-up schedule. Our website is updated as soon as any changes to any of the village schedules are made. Also, please sign up for email notifications if you wish. You can go to pomonavillage.com and on the opening page you can click on "feedback" or "general info" to leave your email address. You will then be added to our email notifications for events and other important information. And if you are even more computer savvy, you can use our RSS feed - instructions are posted on the opening page, top right corner.
While writing, I would like to thank all of you who donated gently used winter coats, used cell phones and printer cartridges and books. All of these items are benefiting the clients of the People to People organization and others right here in Rockland, and I can assure you that in this economic climate, the winter coats are all being used by people who truly need them. This is an on-going drive, so if you still have items you wish to donate, please bring them into village hall.
Our new drive comes from the tragedy that occurred in Haiti. We are collecting canes, crutches and walkers to donate to the Haitian people. These are items that people might have in their basement or garage that can be put to very good use in Haiti. Our friend and neighbor, who is a doctor here in America but is originally from Haiti, just got back from helping over there and will be going back in March. Because of all the amputations due to crushed limbs during the earthquake, she feels that these items are a dire necessity.
If you have questions on any of the above collection drives, please email Lesliesan@yahoo.com or call village hall at 354-0545 and leave a message for Leslie.
As usual, I want you to know that your feedback to us is very important. Please don't hesitate to contact us at Village Hall if you have any questions or comments.