BETHEL — Despite the pandemic which has impacted communities across the country, Bethel Supervisor Dan Sturm says there are some positive economic indicators for his town.

During his regular supervisor's report earlier this month, he said the Town has around $15,000 more in revenue in their general fund compared to this time last year.

Construction fees paid to the Building Department is up over 28 percent compared to this time last year.

“In the year of a pandemic that's almost phenomenal considering what's going on out there. Our Building Department is very busy,” said Sturm.

“Recreation income is down considerably because we cut our camp to less than half. We cut it expense wise, but we didn't get the revenue we normally get,” Sturm said.

Garbage collection at the transfer station is up 15 percent. Fines and bail in the court system is down, since courts have been suspended until the OCA gives approval for justices to return.

“At this point very rarely are there any court dates, if ever,” Sturm said. “We're a little backlogged in the court system and it's reflected in the bail.”

Overall expenses are down 11 percent compared to last year.

Records Retention

The Town Board in Bethel recently passed a Resolution to adopt the new Retention and Disposition Schedule for Local Government Records.

“Only those records will be disposed of that do not have sufficient administrative, fiscal, legal or historical value to merit retention beyond established legal minimum periods,” reads the resolution.

I think people get nervous when they hear about destruction of records and I think the two most keywords in here are ‘valueless records,'” said Town Clerk Rita Sheehan. “Nothing gets destroyed that the state says we can't.”