The Empire Village Council adopted a proposed 2024-25 budget of nearly $1.3 million, $200,000 less than the previous year at its a budget hearing at the end of February.
“It’s not going to be as exciting as last year,” Village of Empire President Sue Palmer said.
Empire will be laying low after completing major park and street projects from last year including Shalda Park, improvements to local streets and multiple water studies.
Empire’s general fund sits at $636,000, more than $200,000 less than 2023-24, out of a total budget of $1,287,605.
The 2024-25 Major streets and local streets has a budget of almost $220,000, remaining steady with last years budget. Projects include an alley repaving of Lambkin Lane from Niagara to M-22. Florence Street will also be experiencing a full grind-and-replace this summer.
The water and equipment fund tally at $433,000. The village will finish an installation of a generator for a well that costs carried over from last year’s budget. The village will be implementing a Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), which is a control system architecture comprising computers, networked data communications and graphical user interfaces for high-level supervision of machines and processes of the water system.
The village will also be adding a new front loader to its DPW fleet. Empire will be repairing sidewalks in the village that have been raised 1.5 inches from its original placement with $20,000 allocated for this project.
“This is something we wanted to do for quite a while,” Palmer said.
Small renovations at Empire Beach include a changing station along with storage space to hold waste containers.
The property tax millage rate to be levied to support the 202324 budget will be set at the current rate of 6.3063 mills. The Empire branch of State Savings Bank is named the primary official depository for all funds with the option of investing in other financial institutions as determined economically prudent. Regular meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Empire Township Hall, 1088 Front Street. The next meeting is Tuesday, March 26.
