The Bristol village and town boards both tabled the consideration of an intergovernmental agreement that will govern how the municipalities will share services as if they were one entity.
Village Trustee Carolyn Owens made the original motion to table the agreement saying she wanted to read it, but had not had a chance since it had been delivered to officials just minutes before the meeting.
“I guess I have a problem with getting this at the last minute,” Owens said. “We’ve all seen these numbers, but I’d like to go over them again.”
The agreement, which sets out how the village and town will share services and administration and the resulting costs, has been in development for a couple of months. Officials have been deferring taking action on the document for the last two meetings because it was not ready.
The vote to table passed the Village Board by a unanimous vote.
The agreement was made necessary when the northwest portion of the town was incorporated as a village on Dec. 1 last year.
“This is intergovernmental cooperation at it’s finest …,” said town attorney Susan Sager, whose firm helped draft the agreement.
During the Town Board meeting, that board also tabled the agreement so new supervisors could get a chance to review it. Supervisor John McCabe also asked several questions about the agreement.
The vote to table the agreement until the next meeting was also approved unanimously by the Town Board.
“Please bear with the village and the town as we work through the minutiae,” said town Chairman Colleen Fisch.
A copy of the proposed agreement can be viewed here.
The village has petitioned the court for a vote of town residents to see if they want to annex en masse into the village. A date for the vote has not been set.
