JEFFERSONVILLE – The Town of Callicoon unanimously adopted its 2025 budget of $4,443,724.95 at its latest meeting on Monday, November 11 following a public hearing on the preliminary budget. The budget is under the two percent tax cap as it carries a 1.78 percent tax increase. The full budget is available for review from Town Clerk Kim Klein at the Town Hall at 19 Legion Street in Jeffersonville.

Aside from the budget, the board also discussed the unsafe property at 797 North Branch Callicoon Center Road, which tested positive for asbestos. The board ultimately opted to table for next month’s meeting. Town Supervisor Tom Bose reported that the only bid they received back was from Haven Property Solutions based in Slate Hill, which they opened last month. 

The bid came in at $87,450, but Bose noted that they were informed that they would be required to employ the services of a monitor while the demolition is taking place. While not requesting any bids for a monitor, Bose said that the gentleman from Haven Property Solutions estimated that it would be somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 for the entirety of the project. 

That, added with the original bid and the nearly $3,000 inspection, would put the total cost at upwards of $100,000 because of the asbestos in the home. 

“I think that is a ridiculous amount, but there were no other bids on time,” said Bose. “I question it because it is just an enormous amount of money and we only received one bid. I know that kind of limits the amount of bids you’ll get because it requires an asbestos license. 

“So when I talked to our Legislator Cat Scott, I said that this going to be a problem going forward, not just for our town, but for every municipality,” Bose continued. “There’s a lot of these buildings that are around our towns that were constructed about the same time and they probably contained some form of asbestos, one way or another.”

Bose stated that if the town were to move forward with the demolition of the building and the homeowner did not take it upon himself to pay for the cost, it would be on the town to do it. It would be submitted to the county by the town and get re-levied under taxes. 

“So if you have a re-levy on a tax bill of property of around $100,000, by the time the demolition, the monitor and inspection fees are ready, you have a property that’s not worth, in my opinion, that much money,” the Supervisor said. “So it’s going to be on the taxpayers of this county to do that one building, and yes we would be reimbursed for that money.”

Bose recommended to the board that because they only received one bid, the Land Bank would be an option to go to as they may have other licensed contractors interested in submitting bids. Legislator Scott said at the meeting that she had spoken to Sullivan County Commissioner of Planning Heather Brown, who sits on the Land Bank Board of Directors, regarding this situation. 

“So at least you have a little bit of competition,” Bose said. “It may backfire on us and it may end up being more. But I just don’t like the idea of accepting one bid for that kind of money to do this building.”

Bose also said he talked to another contractor outside of the Land Bank who may be interested in submitting a bid.

After some more discussion and being on the fence about what to do, the board decided to table awarding a bid. They will come back next month after having some more conversations with the Land Bank. Town Attorney Marvin Newberg also noted that they wouldn’t have been ready anyway since they had not hired a monitor to oversee the demolition.