Town set to pay off Town Hall loan

A handful of Town of Belgium residents unanimously approved the 2018 annual report at the annual meeting Tuesday night.

Expenditures came in $33,000 higher than revenues — $646,778 to $613,317, due to higher-than-anticipated road expenses and the purchase of a compactor the town had been renting.

Road expenses came in at more than $357,000, nearly $40,000 more than the $318,000 budgeted.

The town bought a compactor from Advanced Disposal for $7,000 last summer.

It had entered a five-year rent-to-own agreement in 2014 when it didn’t have the money to buy it.

The town had been paying $250 per month for the compactor and receiver box. The agreement was slated to go through September, which would have cost the town $9,600.

Among the planned expenditures was a nearly $24,000 payment on the Town Hall loan. The village has a four-year, $110,000 loan for the hall at 171 Main St.

That line item will drop off the annual report next year. This year, the town will make its final payment of $5,500 for the hall. It already made a payment of $11,951 this year.

Town Chairman Tom Winker joked about having a mortgage-burning party.

“Other townships don’t enjoy what we enjoy. We’re virtually debt free. We have nice roads, a nice town hall. We support the fire department, have a nice recycling center,” he said.

The vote to approve the annual report was 11-0.