Board Concludes First Phase of Village Budget Review

Garden City village trustees, along with members of the Citizens Budget Review and Advisory Committee (CBRAC) will hold one more work session before a scheduled public hearing at village hall on the proposed village budget is held.

The Feb. 17 work session concluded the "first phase" of the process, which finance chair and trustee Andrew Cavanaugh said is "moving on a more expedited basis than in prior years." The past five sessions took a close look at the village operating departments' proposals for the year.

The next and possibly final work session is sechuled for March 8 at 7 p.m. at village hall.

"Those who have attended budget meetings have seen this group, this board working to present a fiscal plan for the next year, which is quite mindful of the economic realities we are now encountering," Cavanaugh said.

The following Garden City residents serve on the CBRAC: Richard Bankosky, Kristina Russo, Courtney Rosenblatt, Tom McArdle, Joe Courtade, Bill Holub, Pete Meaney and Stephen Makrinos. (Meaney and Makrinos are the only new members this year.)

Mayor Robert Rothschild hopes to see more residents at meetings.

"I would hope that there would be more residents who take the opportunity to come out," he said. "We seem to have a lot of people who have a lot of suggestions on how terribly this village is run. I think if you come and see the conversation regarding many of the items, I think you'll see we're trying to do the best we can to get this budget done in the most beneficial way for the village as well as trying to keep the services at the level all the residents would like. So, hopefully we'll see more people out."