The Mamakating town board met on March 4, and, along with a few budget modifications and reappointing the sole assessor Michele Lagomarsino, revealed they are raising the senior citizen tax exempt annual income, meaning that more seniors will qualify for an exemption.

To qualify, seniors must be 65 years of age or older and meet certain income limitations and other requirements. The state allows each municipality to set the maximum income limit. Mamakating’s is currently at $32,000, and the state says they are allowed to bump it up to at least $50,000. The board opted to increase it to $40,000. This will hopefully be more reflective of the inflationary times. There will be a public hearing regarding this March 18, 2025 at 6 p.m.

The town supervisor Michael Robbins also explained the town’s frustration with the phone company handling the government buildings. He said that when there is bad or inclement weather, it’s been a nightmare these past few months to communicate with the highway department. The company handling the contract, Frontier Phone Solutions, has promised to convert the cabling from copper to fiber-optic, which should also save approximately $700 a month to boot.

Thomas Morrow of the highway department gave a positive report of all the work they have done to keep up with vehicle and road repair. He said that there is a petition to have the state allocate more CHIPS funds to the budget for local roads. “The tentative budget,” he said, “has us at the same amount of money that we received last year, but the prices on materials and equipment continue to rise.”

Robbins warned the town that brush fire season is underway. There was a pretty bad brush fire in Bloomingburg earlier this week. It is now under control, but a burn ban will be in effect March 16-May 6.

The building department has had an increase in numbers of people contacting them about work needed. That’s typical for this time of year. Almost 700 emails have been sent. Total phone calls, 350.

Councilman James Post reported that the state police are reporting that scams, especially targeting elderly, are through the roof. He said, “We had somebody send $21,000 in cash and a safe out to California by getting scammed… EZ-pass scams are on the rise. FTC scams are on the rise. Scams in general are on the rise. I want to tell you if you think they're a scam, call the state police. “

Councilman Matthew Mordas said that Congressman Josh Riley stopped in the village of Wurtsboro on Saturday.

“This is all part of our effort to save Exit 114. He stopped by some of the shops – Canal Town, O’Toole’s, Basha Kill Bazaar, the library,” Mordas said. “And I'll tell you, I get the impression that he likes to work for us, and he seems to be very supportive of our efforts. And he issued a very strong letter of support to both the Federal Highway Administration and the NISOT that were received by both agencies.”

Mordas thanked the merchants, the Wurtsboro Board of Trade, and Mayor Sisco for providing village hall as a press conference venue.

The election for the village of Wurtsboro mayor is March 18th. Get out the vote!