Village of Greene Mayor Phillip Brown and Village of Bainbridge Mayor Philip Wade at the second Meet the Mayors civic forum on Monday.
NORWICH – Village of Greene Mayor Phillip Brown and Village of Bainbridge Mayor Philip Wade participated in the second Meet the Mayors civic forum on Monday night to take questions from the public and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing their villages.
The forum, organized by Chenango Links, serves as a way to better connect residents of Chenango County with their elected officials.
Brown, a lifelong resident of Greene and mayor of six years, spoke first at the forum, discussing some of the perks in the village including being home to Raymond Corporation and having its own municipal electric department.
Brown said the village is currently in the process of changing all its street lights to LED. Because it has its own municipal electric department, Brown said the Village of Greene spends just $.09 per kilowatt hour of electricity, which is one benefit that keeps Raymond Corporation in the village.
"The addition of Raymond Corporation is a great asset to our community, as well as to this county," said Brown. "We currently employee approximately 1,600 employees on a daily basis and they come as far as Syracuse, Ithaca, and Binghamton."
Another project being undertaken in the Village of Greene, Brown said, is they are currently in the process of finishing up a three-year, $7 million sewage treatment project in order to reduce phosphate levels and comply with state requirements. He said part of Raymond Corporation's processes actually increase the phosphate level that comes into the village plant but together they are working on a solution.
"The biggest challenge we have today is our infrastructure," said Brown.
Wade, a three year mayor of Bainbridge, said while the village has some issues it is working on, including aging infrastructure, declining population, and economic development, it also has a lot of possibilities and his focus is to consider all ideas to find the right solution.
