A Different View of Rt. 279

This photo shows a view of Rt. 279 as seen from Ridge Road looking south. Judging from the leaves on the ground, it seems to have been taken about this time of year. The main road intersected the Ridge as it does now, but the photo shows a lesser-worn path leading east to the Ridge. The flowerbed in the resulting triangle looks as though it had experienced some colder temperatures.

The image reveals a period of transition; Gaines was not yet completely “modernized.” In order to travel directly from the hamlet of Gaines to Albion, one would have driven down a dirt road, with transmission lines from the hydroelectric plant in Waterport on the left and telephone lines on the right. Homes on this road had access to electricity in the 1890’s, long before the rest of Gaines. Ridge Road was paved with cement in the mid-1920’s, and the curb at the base of the flower bed suggests the snapshot was taken after that development.

Dean Sprague, longtime Town Clerk for Gaines, and his wife Ethel, who lived in the house on the southeast corner of the intersection, maintained the flowerbed before the State eliminated the lesser used turn-off.

Adrienne Kirby,

Town Historian
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Town of Gaines Budget for 2019

On October 30, 2018, the Gaines Town Board held a budget workshop session to review the preliminary budget prepared by the Supervisor and move it forward in the budget process. (Approve it as the tentative budget).

A lot of work was put into the budget to keep taxes flat. The tentative budget is a very conservative one, both in expenditures and in estimates of revenue. One item of note for the 2019 Budget cycle is the reduction in the Assessment Equalization Rate by the State of New York from 100% to 98%. This has a net effect of lowering the assessed values in the town by about 0.64%. That equates to an instant tax increase without efforts to reduce the tax levy. We were able to prepare a budget that accounts for this and keeps taxes flat this year, even in the face of rising costs for salaries, fuel, salt, etc. If this budget is approved as it stands today, taxpayers in Gaines who reside within the Village of Albion will see a very slight reduction in the Town portion of their property taxes. Those outside the village will see the Town portion of their taxes stay flat – within pennies in fact – of last year’s values.

The Town of Gaines will go through an assessment revaluation in 2019, which will have the effect of raising our equalization rate back to 100%.

Attached to this post are the documents reviewed at the Budget Workshop Meeting, which includes the entire Tentative Budget for 2019.

The annual public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Thursday, November 8th, 2018 at 7:00 PM. At the conclusion of the public hearing, the Board will move directly into the regular November meeting.

Town of Gaines 2019 Tentative Budget

2019 Preliminary Budget Presentation