BEMUS POINT – The Ellery Town Board recently adopted its 2026 budget with a slight increase in tax rates for town residents.

The rate increase is slightly less for town residents who live in Bemus Point. Within this budget are the 2026 budgets for the three fire departments in the town, two of which recently requested an increase to the department budget at a meeting on Oct. 14.

The town’s total fund of appropriations and provisions for other uses is $4,912,802, with $1,332,162 of that to be raised through taxes, including special districts such as fire and lighting districts. For the town’s general and highway funds $1,134,162 are to be collected by taxes. The town will raise $903,825 of this amount with the village of Bemus Point expected to raise $230,337. This brings the town rate up from $1.8051 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for 2025 to $1.8744 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2026, representing about a 3.84% increase. This also brings the village rate up from $3.1821 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2025 to $3.2398 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2026, which is an increase of 1.81%.

The town board members seem to have also more than fulfilled the wishes of the fire departments that addressed the board back in October. At the October board meeting, a public hearing was opened that saw Burl Swanson, of the Dewittville Fire Protection District, and Randy Apperson, of the Bemus Point Fire Protection District, address the board. At the meeting, Swanson noted the greater efficiency of the Dewittville district’s performance and the number of members moving up through the ranks. Swanson also mentioned the need for a new fire truck that the district would have to purchase. Swanson requested a 2% increase to the district budget, which would raise the total to $10,200 for 2026. The town ended up doubling this requested increase, granting a 4% increase and bringing the district’s total budget to $10,400.

Apperson noted that the Bemus Point district has not only seen an increase in call volume during the year, but also saw the purchase of a new boat to perform water rescue on the lake.

Apperson requested a budget increase of about 3.5% for the district due to the previously mentioned factors. The town raised the Bemus Point district’s budget from $132,000 for 2025 to $136,600 for 2026. This represents about a 3.48% increase to the total budget. Since the Dewittville district’s increase was a very low dollar amount, the actual rate change was 0.00%, while the rate change for the Bemus Point district came to about 2.33%.

The budget is not as positive for the remaining Sinclairville Fire Protection District though. The Sinclairville district saw a budget decrease for the district. The district’s budget total for 2025 was $15,000, and was dropped to $10,000 for 2026. This is about a 33.33% decrease to the budget for the district. This means that the rate for the district dropped from $1.6975 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2025 to $1.0765 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for 2026. This represents a rate decrease of about 36.52%. The district didn’t submit any requests for additional funding to the board prior to the budget being approved.

There are also slight budget reductions for the three special light districts, which resulted in some rate decreases for those respective districts. In 2025 the town appropriated $5,772 to the Greenhurst district, $7,200 to the Oriental Park district, and $5,813 to the Maple Spring district. For 2026, these appropriations have all been lowered to $5,000 for Greenhurst, $7,000 for Oriental Park, and $5,000 for Maple Springs.