Residents of Tannersville will decide in January whether to dissolve the Greene County village.
After a petition, a study and a public hearing, the people of Tannersville will decide whether it will remain intact or dissolve with services and government coming under the town of Hunter.
Village officials have worked with consultants at the Laberge Group to develop a plan and have held public meetings and hearings regarding dissolution. Laberge did not respond immediately to a request for comment Monday.
Republican Mayor David Schneider says the idea of shutting down the village has been raised many times, coming to a head early this year after a group of citizens demanded action, producing a petition that garnered enough signatures to force a referendum.
“As a board, we decided it made more sense for us to take it up, and then we could, you know, get a study done, and get and have time to really look at this. So we did that," said Schneider. "The study came back from the group. We've been using a consultant, Laberge, and you know, they do this a lot for a lot of the villages. We looked at the study. We had our final public hearing. The study does show some savings and redundancies in the village, in the town, but we all work together anyway. So that really wasn't the biggest issue. It showed some savings..."
In 2021 Tannersville was awarded $10 million through the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative. At the time village officials announced a long-term goal of making the village affordable to existing residents while supporting a four-season tourism economy.
Schneider says the vote was 3 to 2 to move dissolution forward to a referendum, to let the electorate decide.
"There's people that voted, you know, to not move it to a referendum. I get it. I understand everybody has their opinion. But again, this is a democracy, and I think that people should get the vote. Again, this is too big of a thing to not put to a vote," Schneider said.
Schneider notes if the approximately 570 village residents vote against dissolving, it'll be four years before the matter can be revisited.
In September 2022, voters in Lake George overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to dissolve the village. Eight years earlier, village of Salem residents went the other way.
Tannersville, known as "the painted village in the sky," was incorporated as a village in 1895, founded around lumber mills and tanneries. There was a large turnout at a November 4 village meeting discussing the referendum, where many attendees, like Alex Cohen, said they embraced Tannersville's history, tradition and community.
"I love walking the path, seeing people there, and I feel that Tannersville has a very, very unique identity that I personally would like to keep this is my home, and this identity I'm to my neighbors, I ask for you, please, let's keep Tannersville special. Let's keep Tannersville unique," said Cohen.
Others said they worried about a loss of "homeowner rights" along with "a sense of community." Residents of Hunter cannot vote in the referendum, but at least one showed up in solidarity with those who want to keep the village designation intact.
Schneider, a newcomer who moved from Brooklyn to Tannersville during the pandemic, says he and his wife have opened businesses in the village. Whatever the people decide, he says Tannersville won't disappear.
"Tannersville just becomes a hamlet, as opposed to an incorporated village. So the existence of Tannersville doesn't go away. It's not like Tannersville is wiped off the map. If the vote goes to dissolve the village. There's a lot of good things that, you know, we revive the Chamber of Commerce, for businesses, for main street, there's, you know, there's a bright future, regardless of which way this goes," Schneider said.
The referendum is January 14th with the dissolution taking effect at the end of 2025 if approved.
