Village cuts policy it wasn’t following

The Belgium Village Board on Sept. 9 unanimously voted to eliminate its capital improvement program policy after the treasurer said the municipality hadn’t been adhering to it.

The policy, put in place in 2013, calls for the board to hold a public hearing and adopt a five-year capital improvement program each year, treasurer Vickie Boehnlein said.

The hearing could be conducted at the same time as the annual budget public hearing, but if the board makes changes to the budget, another public hearing would be required.

“It’s a really complicated thing. There’s no legal requirement for us having it,” Boehnlein said.

The board followed the policy in 2014 but not since.

“It’s another one of the programs or policies that were put in place and never followed,” Boehnlein said.

The board voted, 6-0, to eliminate the policy. Dan Wolff was absent and excused.