Along with approving its new budget, the Village of Roslyn Harbor board of trustees is ready to inaugurate a major road improvement plan for local streets.

Last week, Roslyn Harbor Mayor Gerson Strassberg addressed the subject in a letter sent to village residents. He claimed that deteriorating roads are a nuisance that "decrease property values, [and] are aesthetically displeasing," while also "[undermining] our quality of life." And so, the mayor said that a road improvement plan would begin this year and take three to five years to complete.

The road plan, the mayor continued, is in response "to damage from a particularly bad winter." Nearly all village roads, he added, will be involved in the repaving and repairing process, with new curbs also being installed. "Beautiful roads in good repair add to the property values of all the residents in Roslyn Harbor," the mayor said.

The first project, the mayor noted, is the repaving of Motts Cove Road North, a road first built in 1927 and in dire need of repair.

"We have deliberated long and hard about how these projects should be funded," the mayor said. "Even under normal circumstances, road maintenance accounts form a major portion of the village budget. These projects that are now required cannot help but increase our budget. Funds to meet these additional needs can be received from three major sources: taxes, bonds or state aid--or some combination of the three."

The budget that was approved April 7 will result in an increase of the village's 2005-2006 tax rate to 15.56 percent. According to Mayor Strassberg, this translates to a median increase in cost to the average homeowner of approximately $297 per annum.

The village is also exploring the possibility of a municipal bond issue to finance road repair.

However, as the mayor points out, bonds come with several problems. "Bond issues are costly, take a long time to consummate and become village debt," the mayor observed. "The village has been debt-free for its entire 74-year history and we would prefer to keep it that way."

The mayor also announced that State Senator Michael Balboni has helped the village obtain a $100,000 state grant for road improvements.

The newly-approved budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year calls for $744,175 in spending.

Street maintenance, as Mayor Strassberg alluded to earlier, represents the major item in the budget, totaling $182,000 in expenditures. Other costs that run into six figures include the Fire Department budget ($115,000) and the Staff budget ($100,750). The Staff portion of the budget falls under the General Government fund, which also includes monies for Law ($62,000), Other General Government ($61,475) and Public Works ($20,000).

Other items of note in the budget include Employee Benefits ($61,800), Snow Removal ($35,000) and Code Enforcement ($22,000).

On the revenue side, State Aid accounts for $115,800, while $35,000 will be raised through the issuing of Licenses and Permits. Other means of revenue raising will come through a Utilities Gross Receipts Tax ($16,000), Parking Lot Fees ($15,000), and Fines and Forfeitures ($20,000).

The largest bulk of revenue will be generated by taxes, which the village hopes will bring in $522,505, which, as noted, sets the village's tax rate at 15.56 percent.