Welcome to the official website for the village of Oneida Castle, NY.
At our meeting last night I brought up two important things for everyone to know. The first this is that we can not do the snow blowing of the sidewalks again this year. In my previous email I explained why. What we can do is take our front loader and clear each intersection where the snowplows push the snow onto the sidewalks. We are sorry we can't do the plowing but we don't want to burden the village with a lot of costly repairs.
The second thing I brought up was the sewer project. The construction company asked us is to allow them to shut down for the winter again and forgive the daily $1,500. They will have all the village streets mains and laterals completed. In the spring they will complete the construction on State St. in the NYS DOT right of way. As soon as they can start digging in the spring they will complete that along with all the sidewalks, driveways, roads, lawns and any damages they have made. I thought about this a lot. If we keep charging him the $1,500 it's going to bankrupt the company and we will have to have the bonding company take over. How long will they take to get everything started and when would they complete. I contacted our engineer and asked him what his opinion was. He explained that in the end they are going to take longer that if our current contactor would take. They would push for water issues and would want that subtracted from the grant. In the end they have attorneys on their staff and would take us to court to get that cost lowered. That is not part of the contract so the village would have to pay for a trial attorney (over $400 an hour). It would also take time for them to find a contractor to do the job and in the end it would probably be around fall when the project was completed. Our engineer recommended that we give them the winter off and let them complete everything in the spring. I gave all this information to the board and we all agreed to give Jablonski Excavating Company the winter off without them having to pay the $1,500 daily fine. All equipment will be removed from the village and stored someplace else, a construction occurring in village streets, as long as the weather permits will be completed. I am sorry about the bad news. I know you, like myself just want to get this project done and over so we can move on and get back to our normal lifestyle. Please don't hesitate to call me if you develop a sinkhole in your road, sidewalk or driveway at anytime and that includes during shutdown.
Here are the minutes of the last nights meeting.
Jack
November 10, 2025 - PUBLIC HEARING ON SHORT TERM RENTALS
The November meeting of the Oneida Castle Village Board was called to order at 6:30pm for a public hearing on the Short Term Rental Law. Those present for this hearing and for the meeting that followed were Mayor Deschamps, Trustees Ackerman and Gwilt, Clerk Canada and Treasurer Meyers. The following village residents were also in attendance: David De Marco, Kathy Blanchard, Geoff Becker, Judy Mahoney, Scott Terrier, Thomas Cochran, Joseph Walpole , Cindy Whipple, Fred Whipple, Marty Mallery, Carolyn Deschamps and Kathy Wojciechowski. Also in attendance was Keith Scheible, Oneida County Legislator.
Mayor Deschamps stated that the Local Law #3 had been introduced by resolution by Trustee Gwilt and seconded by Trustee Ackerman. He then reviewed the definitions within the law and stated that the Village of Oneida Castle at this time has only one short term rental unit. This law will now require a valid operation permit issued by the Code Enforcement Officer. This permit will be issued upon verification by inspection to meet applicable requirements of the NY State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Codes.
There were no questions regarding the short term rental law. A roll call vote of the Village Board will be taken at the meeting to follow.
ONEIDA CASTLE VILLAGE BOARD MEETING - 7:00PM
A. MINUTES
A motion was made by Trustee Ackerman and seconded by Trustee Gwilt to accept the October minutes.
B. REPORTS
Mr. Scheible gave a report about what is happening in Oneida County. He spoke of the new expansion of Chobani Yogurt whose new development is expected to increase the workforce by over 1,000 people. Oneida County will transfer $559,961 from the general fund and will borrow $ 6,3 million to pay for improvements to the Triangle site. The State also awarded $32.3 million for this Chobani project.
In other news from the County, the new budget has been proposed. This comes with a raise of the tax levy of 2.99%. This is the first time in 12 years that their budget comes with such a raise. They have also appropriated $7 million in reserve from the general fund to close the budget gap.
C. BUSINESS
The first order of business was to take a roll call vote regarding the short term rental law. The vote was as follows: Trustee Ackerman- yes, Trustee Gwilt – yes and Mayor Deschamps – yes. This law was passed and will now go to the state for final approval.
Scott Terrier of E. Second St. stated that his street has been demolished. There is still a lot of traffic going back and forth on it even though it has turned into one passable lane. Mayor Deschamps stated that he understands this problem and it is going to be corrected with a type of blacktop called heat binder. This is a temporary fix and will have to be dug up in the spring and replaced with real blacktop.
Mayor Deschamps said he is grateful for our dry summer and can’t Imagine the dust and mud if our summer had been a rainy one. The Jablonski Company is fined $500 a day for not keeping the roadways, lawns and driveways clean and safe.
Mr. Cochran inquired about a pressure test on the laterals. He wonders if this has been done as the laterals seem very unstable. He also asked about the time limit to install your sewer hook up. Mr. Deschamps stated that the year time limit will begin when the entire system is finished.
In new business, the Mayor reported that the Village is working on a new law that states that all property owners and their contractors must carry $1 million in liability insurance. The homeowners need to make sure the people that they hire have this insurance so if the main system were destroyed they would be covered. People need to think of this when they have friends and family helping out.
Many questions arose regarding the home that burned on E. Second St. Mayor Deschamps responded by saying that everything is in place to demolish it this week. Burton Seymour has the job and feels it will go down very easily and will be removed from this lot quickly.
Discussion took place regarding the Halloween party in the park. It was unfortunate that the weather did not cooperate, but many did attend and had a great time. A thank you to the Trexler family for their donation of the monetary prizes .
In final business, Mr. De Marco inquired whether there will be bollards placed around the pumping stations. The Mayor thanked him for this question and said he will definitely bring that up at the next meeting.
Trustee Gwilt reported that the electrical work has been done in the park and that he will be putting up Christmas lights soon.
D. TREASURERS REPORT
Mrs. Meyers began her report with the inflows from October. Inflows were $1,349.87 while outflows were $18,536.79 making a general fund net monthly total of -$17,186.92. The Sewer – Capital Project had inflows of $476,590.30 (EFC and EPA) with outflows of $435,610.52 making a sewer project net monthly total of a positive $40,979.78 with an overall net total of $23,792.86.
There is currently $105,723.32 in savings and $140,220.75 in checking. The fund balance is $294,625.85.
The Capital Sewer Project total in revenues is $1,884,663.96 and expenditures were $1,944,275.42 making a Sewer Fund total of -$158,027.19. The combined revenue balance is $1,951,674.26 with the combined expenditures revenues at $2,000,891.70. The fund combined balance is $146,992.68.
Mrs. Meyers pointed out that the grant money is now closed out and that we are into the bond.
A motion was made by Trustee Ackerman and seconded by Trustee Gwilt to accept this financial report. It was so moved.
E. ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made to adjourn at 8:15. The next meeting of the Oneida Castle Village Board will take place on December 1, 2025.
Respectfully submitted,
Jean Canada, Clerk