Vote Taken, South Nyack Dissolution Plan Proceeds

SOUTH NYACK, NY — South Nyack's trustees voted Friday to accept their consultant's amended plan to dissolve the village and merge into Orangetown.

The formal vote was just one step in what has already been a complicated process whose steps, spelled out by the state, have been followed since residents overwhelmingly voted for dissolution. SEE: South Nyack Votes To Dissolve Village

Now they're putting the approved plan in motion.

South Nyack is a village within the town of Orangetown. Three other incorporated villages in the town are Nyack, Grand View-on-Hudson and Piermont.

There are 10 unincorporated communities in Orangetown, including Blauvelt, Upper Grandview and Pearl River. Its total population of roughly 49,000 is served by a full list of departments including the Orangetown police, who already handle policing for the village of Nyack.

Living in an incorporated village, the 3,500 residents of South Nyack have had their own government, including building and public works departments, local court and police force (which they shared with Grand View). They have use of some town services, including parks and recreation. In another layer of government, there are also two school districts serving the area, with their own structure and property taxes: Nyack and South Orangetown.

Residents who wanted to end the village-level layer of local government, leaving just the town of Orangetown, filed a petition with enough signatures to force a referendum. In December, the residents of South Nyack agreed by a vote of 508 to 292.

Since then, government officials have been following the process mandated by the state.

That actually includes giving residents a chance to change their minds: Opponents could submit a petition within 45 days of last Friday, signed by 25 percent of South Nyack's eligible voters, to force another referendum to overrule the dissolution.

Meanwhile there are a lot of things left to do, including small things like finalizing a list of streetlights owned by the Village as part of the purchase and conversion project; and larger things, like deciding whether certain Village-owned properties should be transferred for the purpose of parks/open space or sold and used to offset Village liabilities.

The recommended date of dissolution is March 31.

According to the plan, "Key to this date was the decision by the Village of Grand View-on-Hudson to terminate the South Nyack-Grand View Joint Police Department effective May 31, 2021. This decision required swift action on the part of the South Nyack Village Board of Trustees and the Steering Committee to provide for continued police coverage within the Village that would not be cost-prohibitive to residents. This resulted in a recommendation to set a dissolution date as soon as practical."

The Orangetown Police Department will begin covering South Nyack in January.

Read the plan here.