Village resident asks officials to consider dissolving Earlville

EARLVILLE – Since former Governor Eliot Spitzer had the Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness created a list of cities, towns and villages that should consider merging or pooling resources, consolidation has been on the minds of many local political leaders, and now one local man wants to see his village address the same issue.

Robert Stevens admits that he may not have all the answers, but he hopes he is able to convince officials in the Village of Earlville to investigate their options for shared services and possibly the dissolution of the village.

At the end of January, Stevens started an Internet forum on the topic of dissolving the Village of Earlville, at dissolveearlville.forumco.com. The web site contains information compiled by Stevens that he sees as reasons the village should consider dissolving for the good of its residents.

“I see a lot of things that we pay for as village residents that we also pay for as town residents,” Stevens said. “We’re paying for redundancy.” Stevens explained village residents pay both town and village taxes which cover similar services, such as department of public works employees, village and town justices, clerks and other employees.

Mayor Toni Campbell was out of the office, but after speaking with her, Trustee Mark Doeberl explained the village’s position. “We as a board, have no reaction because we have not been approached about this subject,” Doeberl said, explaining that Stevens had never presented his ideas to the village board. When asked how the village felt about consolidation, Doeberl said the village had never looked into it.

“We are always looking for beneficial cost-saving measures for our village, and shared services may be in our future. At this time we have not investigated consolidation,” Doeberl said.