Planned Richmondville Power Outage In The Works

RICHMONDVILLE - The Village of Richmondville board will hold a budget workshop meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 20 at the municipal building, 295 Main Street.

RICHMONDVILLE — It will be lights out for Richmondville Power & Light customers on some day in the not-too-distant future, but it won't be due to any act of nature.

At the Monday, March 17 village board meeting, Mayor Carl Warner Jr., RPL Director Tim Smith and the Trustees discussed a planned power outage to occur for several hours on some day either this spring or fall. No further details are known yet, but when they are, customers will be notified so they can prepare, village officials said.

Power needs to be taken down so that some needed work can be done at a substation in the village. Warner said the possibility of providing substitute power while the work is being done was explored, but it turns out that would be prohibitively expensive.

In other actions at the meeting, Warner introduced Jen Golden as the new Trustee replacing Cindy Miller, who recently resigned. The mayor appointed Golden to fill out Miller's unexpired term until Dec. 1. Golden was sworn in before the meeting, Warner added. During a break in the meeting before the board went into executive session, he declined to elaborate on the reasons for Miller's resignation.

Golden said she grew up in the Cortland area but has lived in Richmondville the last 12 years. She has been active in various village groups, including one that helps out with operation of the village swimming pool and other recreational activities.

A budget workshop meeting was scheduled for Thursday, March 20 at 5 p.m. at the village municipal building, 295 Main Street. Richmondville, like all villages in the state, is working to adopt its 2025-26 budget by the May 1 deadline.

"We're in budget time," Warner said. "The health insurance end of it has been a bear, it's been a struggle."

Department of Public Works Director Eric Jones reported that the new sign for River Street was recently put up after there had been no sign for quite awhile. Jones added that his crew has replaced 29 water meters so far in the ongoing effort to replace or repair water meters so all usage is being measured accurately and all customers are being billed fairly.

Plans for the annual Richmondville Days celebration Friday, Saturday and Sunday May 30-June 1 are rapidly taking shape, Trustee Lisabeth Kabel reported. Vendor, patron and sponsor forms are available at the municipal building.

Among the many events will be line dancing, a bounce house for kids and a pancake breakfast at the Richmondville Volunteer Fire Department on Sunday morning, Kabel noted. There will also be many other highlights.

She and Warner said the Hometown Heroes veterans banners should be up along Main Street again before Memorial Day (May 26) after being stored away for the winter. Kabel added that additional banners are always being added and that soon Main Street will be full and banners will start being hung on Holmes, Summit and other streets.

Fire Chief Floyd Seales reported that the annual bus trip to the 9/11 Monument in New York City will be Nov. 1 and will include himself and several other firefighters or first responders, village officials and anyone else who wants to go as space allows. Warner and Trustee Robert Hyatt often make the trip, Seales noted.

He said the Yankee Trails bus line has traditionally been the one used for the trip and discounts the per-person price from $130 down to $50 since the trip is geared to first responders.