LAKEWOOD — The village of Lakewood is asking that the public submit questions on the proposed 2020-21 budget in advance of Monday’s Village Board meeting at 6:30 p.m.

This is the first meeting the village will hold entirely online, via Zoom with the identification number 359 600 1926.

“This is our first meeting really with the regulation that we cannot meet in person,” Mayor Randy Holcomb said. “At the last one some of us were at the village hall six feet apart, some were on Zoom, this one is going to be completely on Zoom.”

Budget questions can be submitted in writing to the dropbox at the village offices, or emailed to village clerk Mary Currie at currie@lakewoodny.com. Information on how to join the meeting can also be found on the village website.

“It is unfortunate it is a budget meeting, but we are adhering to all of the rules and regulations and our first meeting went fairly well with that,” Holcomb said. “Municipalities all around us are conducting their meetings the same way and we will do the same.” Lakewood officials are hopeful that they will be able to take questions during the online session as well, but would advise residents to submit them in advance.

The village of Bemus Point was able to hold its budget hearing this week, using a similar system.

“We had a Zoom meeting (Tuesday night) and we approved the budget. It was fine, we did our last month’s monthly meeting on Zoom,” Mayor Bryan Dahlberg said. “What we did was we had an open phone line, we put it on our webpage and asked if anyone had any questions please call us or contact us via our website.”

Dahlberg said that he had not had any residents attend budget hearings in the last 15 years, and did not have any questions submitted for Tuesday’s meeting.