By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – The village will ask for help to improve its troubled finances.

“The Department of State offers a service with no obligation and no cost,” said Mayor Ron Tischler after Monday night’s board meeting.

The service, called the Financial Restructuring Board, will send people from the comptroller’s office and the DOS’s local government office to take a comprehensive look at village finances, similar to an audit, and make recommendations.

“We’ll submit an application ASAP, and they’ll come up and do something like an audit,” Tischler said.

“They’ll take a look at our records, and make recommendations, which we don’t have to accept. If we accept the whole package, we can get financial assistance. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain,” the mayor said.

Trustee Steve Warr explained that he, Trustee Eleanor Hopke and Village Administrator Everett Basford met with representatives from the Department of State recently and learned about the program from them.

“Fiscal stress is one of the criteria” for getting the help, Warr said, noting that in February, the state comptroller’s office issued a “fiscal stress” report, which placed Potsdam at the top of the list of villages under stress.

The proposed research and report from the FRS “could reap us some benefit. There a lot of quality people on that board, including (Comptroller Thomas) DiNapoli, some legislators. It will give us an opportunity, with the village 70 percent tax exempt, to find out what they think about where does the revenue come from? Where do you get it?”

Mayor Tischler says the first steps in applying for the program will be done this week or next.

“We don’t know how long it will take to hear back, but we’ll get the ball rolling,” he said.

It’s possible the team will recommend dissolution of village government.

“It’s an opportunity to possibly do some consolidation of services with the town. The specifics we won’t know until they come up and do the study.”

There has been no word yet on how much and what kind of financial assistance might be offered.