BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — A slight windfall in the amount of expected sales tax reimbursement to the town from the county will help with the cost of road repairs from the Aug. 6 storm, as well as support a recreation project.

The town has received $282,347.44 in sales tax over the amount the town budgeted for in 2024. The adopted 2024 budget numbers listed in the recently approved 2025 preliminary budget show a total sales tax revenue amount received by the town at $1,334,934.34.

At the Nov. 11 board meeting, the town council members and supervisor agreed to add $165,000 of the sales tax overage to its 2024 Highway DB budget on the Sales Tax line to offset the cost of the storm damage.

The board also approved adding $117,347.44 to the budget to offset the cost of the construction of the new Postwood Park bathhouse.

“So what we decided to do with it was, because we had the unexpected storm in 2024, and we are still waiting on the bathhouse money, we felt it was important to take that money and and to clean up some of our debt in 2024, and to get us closer to where what we budgeted for in 2024,” Town Supervisor Marty Miller said.

“I think it’s a good decision,” the supervisor said. “I think it’s smart business.”

Miller said the town did not expect to receive any disaster aid for storm damage for some time so using the windfall to balance those books for the road repair work incurred after the storm would help the town’s bottomline in the long run.

“You know, I would have loved taking that money and yeah, and bought some other things, but we got some debt and it's helped clean it up and because we know that we're not going to get probably the storm damage money for years so this kind of alleviates that, gets it off our back, which is a good thing,” Miller said.