For a village of 6,500, Monticello has been generating a great quantity of unfortunate news lately. First, their mayor gets arrested on counterfeiting charges and hauled away in the back of a police cruiser. Then the village manager resigns, in the wake of a hotly contested (and racially charged) village trustee election. Then village police arrest a few alleged Bloods downtown.
Now they're closing an elementary school. The Times Herald-Record reports that a school board meeting on whether to close Duggan Elementary School attracted 300 people and ran for six hours last night:
Ultimately, five of nine board members said that they could not support a budget with an 8 percent tax increase that kept all four elementary schools open. The five members also preferred the option that cut fewer programs and extracurricular activities.
“I don't say it with joy,” said Board President Alyce Van Etten in voting in favor of the school closure.
Monticello also figured prominently in a recent report from the New York State Insurance Department. Fraud convictions are up 24% statewide, says the agency--a figure that includes the recent conviction of a Monticello underwriter for $22.5 million worth of insurance premium theft.
