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Highland board reviews highway financing, grants and approves engineer designation
Summary
Board received a highway operations update, heard a recommendation against using $330,000 of town cash to buy a truck outright (favoring CHIPS reimbursements), learned of investments earning ~5% in New York Class accounts, approved Keystone Associates as town engineer and carried motions on budget transfers and cancellation of an unnecessary workers’ comp policy.
Town officials told the Highland Town Board on June 11 that the highway department is preparing for spring paving work, managing aging equipment and evaluating financing for a potential $330,000 truck purchase while the town holds state CHIPS funds earmarked for road repairs.
A correspondence received by the board argued it would be unwise to drain town bank accounts to pay for a large truck and urged the town to use CHIPS reimbursement money for roadwork and to finance vehicle purchases in a multi‑year bond program. The correspondent wrote that the town currently has CHIPS/state deposit balances available for road repairs and that the state reimburses after the town submits canceled checks for completed work.
A finance update reported the town is on track with the budget and has municipal accounts in a New York Class pooled investment that earned about 5% interest; the finance remarks named approximate balances for the general fund, highway fund and capital reserves and said interest earnings are helping cover monthly bond payments for the highway department.
The board voted to name Keystone Associates as the town engineer (to provide on-call engineering services); the motion passed by roll call and board members discussed hourly rates (the highest rate mentioned was $190). The board also approved motions to cancel an unneeded workers' compensation policy that had been kept open for an ambulance service no longer operating (the policy costs about $5,000 per year) and approved several budget transfers and abstract payments.
Why it matters: decisions about how to finance capital purchases, use CHIPS funds and manage reserve investments affect short-term budgets and long-term service capacity for roads and emergency response.
What comes next: the highway department will continue preparing roads for paving, staff will follow up on any bond or purchase decisions, and the town will implement the engineering support arrangement with Keystone Associates.
