To the Editor:

Now that the people of the Village of Potsdam have elected not to shift their expenses to town-outside residents, I am writing to formally request that the Town of Potsdam do the same and not force Village residents (in both Potsdam and Norwood) to subsidize the cost of services provided to those individuals who choose not to live in either village, but on remote and sparsely populated town roads such as Regan Road, May Rd, and Pleasant Valley, to name a few.

I am referring to what is known as Parts III and IV of the Town Highway Budget. Part III refers to expenses necessary for the purchase and repair of various pieces of equipment such as stone crushers, power rollers, and road machines for grading and scraping used to maintain the town roads. Part IV includes expenses for snow removal.

To be clear, these expenses are primarily related to the maintenance of residential town roads, and “residential” is a key word here, since we’re not talking about the county roads and state highways that most village residents use. These are the residential back roads of the township that don’t get a lot of use by anyone but the folks that live there.

River Road, Sissonville Road, Perrin Road, the Daily & Austin Ridge Roads, Ames Road, Hatch Road, Bagdad Road— to name a few more. Miles and miles of Roads I rarely use; some of which I’ve never even been on.

The Town Board has the ability to exempt village residents from these expenses, which amount to around $400,000 per year of which village residents pay about half.

In the same way that town-outside residents did not want to bear the burden of maintaining village streets and sidewalks (which many claim they never use), why should village residents bear the costs of maintaining town roads little used except by the residents of those roads?

As a resident of the village, I made a choice to live here and bear the costs of that decision. Those who choose to live outside of the villages should also bear the costs of their decision without expecting a $200,000 subsidy from Potsdam & Norwood village residents.

Village residents already finance many services used for free by town-outside residents, college students, and the economic engines of the town (Clarkson University, Potsdam College, and the Hospital are tax-exempt).

I encourage you to contact your elected representatives on the town board in regards to this issue.

They are: Marie Regan (Town Supervisor), Rollin Beattie (Deputy Supervisor), Judith Rich, Mike Zagrobelny, and Rosemaria Rivezzi (Councilwoman Elect).

Tom French

Potsdam