The Williamsville Citizens Study Group will hold a public meeting from 3 to 4 p.m Sunday, May 2, at the Village Meeting House, 5658 Main St. near Mill Street.

Click here for the latest press release with more information regarding Sunday's meeting.

The Study Group is a grass-roots organization devoted to studying the effects of the potential dissolution of the village.

Sunday’s meeting will focus on the results of a series of interviews that the group’s members have conducted with elected officials in both the Village of Williamsville and the Town of Amherst.

The group spent approximately three weeks interviewing the officials. Each official was asked the same set of structured questions regarding what they thought would happen should the village dissolve.

The presentation will also examine the differences in services between the town and the village. It will look at potential tax savings and which services would most likely be eliminated.

For example, Study Group organizer Christopher Duquin said town and village officials were nearly unanimous in stating that plowing of sidewalks would not continue should the village be dissolved.

This is the third public meeting members of the Study Group have held. At the first meeting, they presented information about the law that makes it easier for citizens to begin the process of dissolving a village.

At the second meeting, they presented the results of an in-depth analysis of the village budget and a tax burden comparison between similarly assessed properties in the town and village. The tax burden study showed that the average village resident pays $170 more in property taxes than the average town resident. The analyses were carried out by two UB graduate students.

Summaries of both presentations are available at the group’s Web site, www.willvillstudy.com. A question box will again be available at the meeting. Duquin emphasizes that all are welcome to attend, regardless of their position on dissolution.

“There’s been a lot of hoopla on both sides of this issue,” he said. “What we want is for people to make an informed decision. We want to cut through the hoopla and the madness and get through to the average village resident who is going to have to vote on this issue.

“When they vote, we want them to do it based on good, solid information.”

For more information, e-mail info@willvillstudy.com. or visit www.willvillstudy.com