MONTICELLO -— The Village Board of Monticello welcomed new hires at their regular Town Board meeting on February 21. Present at the meeting was Larrie Williams, who was welcomed by Mayor George Nikolados.

Nikolados announced that Williams would be hired as a new police officer. He stated that Williams was born and raised in the Village of Monticello and is a lateral transfer from Liberty, where he had worked four years.

“Village resident, born and raised...the type of police officers we need,” Nikolados said. “We’re all here for our community.” 

Williams started as a police officer yesterday, Monday, February 26.

Additionally, the Village Board announced that they would be hiring Jason Corley as Provisional Chief.

Nikolados stated that this would be a one-year contract to help get their police department “going in the right direction.” 

He also stated that Corley would have a salary of $100,000 for this contract. The Board passed the hiring with a 3 to 2 approval, with Trustees Rochelle Massey and Gordon Jenkins voting no.

Townhouse Proposal

Engineer for the Village of Monticello Glenn Smith  spoke on behalf of a client of his, who was also present.

He said his client owns the 29-acre property on Varnell Road behind Sullivan Regency.

He said he briefly discussed with the board several months prior. He also stated that, generally, there was a request to annexing the property with the Village and the Town of Thompson .

He also mentioned that the the town is reportedly redoing their comprehensive plan and any annexation proposals are currently on hold.

This plan would entail an agreement to be formed with the Village of Monticello to use their water and sewer.

“There’s really no room on this property [Varnell Road] to put a sewer plant in,” Smith stated. “If there was, we’d have to discard it into Varnell Pond, which has houses around it.”

Smith told the board that Thompson’s building permit may be 100 units and roughly in the range of thirty or thirty-five thousand gallons per day.

Smith suggested that the board continue conversations on the proposal.

Nikolados compared the proposal to Walmart, likening how the store has the Village’s fire protection system and they are also paying for its usage.

He also told Smith that he’ll see what he can do in terms of the assessed value given to the board on stapled pages they were given.

“We understand that we are taking something but hopefully we’re going to give back more than what we are taking,” Smith’s client said.