The Clarkstown Town Board recognized and thanked Rockland County’s Veteran of the Year, Bill Mahan.  The Korean War Veteran is known in the community for advocating for veterans and arranging veterans’ ceremonies. The Veterans Coordinating Committee, which consists of the seven veterans groups in the county, named Mahan “The Veteran of the Year” in a service on Veterans Day.    

“There’s something special about being a veteran,” said Mahan. “It’s great. It’s overwhelming,” he said of the honor.

Town Supervisor Alex Gromack said, “We’re certainly proud that you’re in Clarkstown and you’re someone that we certainly admire.”

The board’s next agenda item on tuesday evening was a public hearing on amending the zoning for the hamlets’ commercial centers.  The proposed change would exempt sites with pre-existing apartments over retail or commercial space from having to obtain a site plan review. There was only one speaker who was in favor of the amendment. 

Gromack said the public hearing will be continued on Tuesday, Dec. 13 because of ongoing discussions with several town departments. On the 13^th, town officials will be asked to comment and the board will probably vote.

Clarkstown Taxpayers President Guy Gervasi criticized town officials for using money from the reserve fund to lower the 2012 tax rate.  He said it was irresponsible of them to say the budget increase was kept low at 0.4 percent because $1.2 million was taken from the fund.  He noted the budget does not include salary increases for Clarkstown employees for 2012, which is additional money that must come from the tax stabilization fund. 

“But it seems to me that it’s being given a misleading budget especially in the time of a two percent cap it’s artificially keeping the budget under a two percent increase so you don’t have to have a public hearing on the two percent cap,” he said.

Gromack said, “A reserve surplus is to be used to level, even out the budget. What we’ve done uses about a million two to being down the cost.”

The town’s budget for 2012 totals $130 million and was approved by the board earlier this month.