UPCOMING EVENTS:
The CTHC Executive Committee will be meeting Friday March 21st at the Harrisburg Town Hall (7886 Cobb Rd., Harrisburg) at 7 p.m. A portion of the meeting is expected to be closed to interview an individual for the Associate Circuit Rider vacancy, but the remainder of the meeting is open to the public to attend. A draft agenda is below and the draft of teh prior meeting minutes are available on the Documents tab. Contact Angie Kimball (information at right) with any questions.
CTHC meeting agenda March 21 ’25
NEW INFORMATION
**The information provided for our municipalities under the “Municipalities” page on this site is provided as a courtesy to the public to help with contacting our towns and villages. This website does not belong to any of the member municipalities and we do our best to keep things up to date, but sometimes contact information, meeting times and dates or court times may have been changed and not yet updated on this website. We encourage you to verify information provided here with the Clerk of each municipality, if you have any questions.**
**The state-wide Low Volume Roads legislation which the CTHC has been championing for many years has not yet been re-proposed for the 2025-2026 session. The 2023-2024 bill numbers are Senate bill #S1836 and Assembly bill #A2225 for anyone interested in reading the text of the proposed law. We continue to discuss this and other strategies for the upcoming sessions for this important legislation with our partners. The bill making an exception to NYS Highway Law and allowing the Town of Lorraine to designate minimum maintenance roads (2023-2024 bill number S6249/A6412) was approved and signed by Governor Hochul with a chapter amendment which is excellent news! The Town of Montague has a similar bill in the legislature to allow them to designate minimum maintenance roads (2025-2026 bill number S2018/A3740).
The Tug Hill Commission has a white paper on the subject for those with questions (found HERE).
Key Points Guide: Minimum Maintenance Roads -Facts **
50 YEARS OF HOME RULE
We are excited to announce that 2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the Cooperative Tug Hill Council. Check out Booklet for 50th Anniversary for some more fun facts about the CTHC.
The Cooperative Tug Hill Council (CTHC or Council) has worked on behalf of the towns in the center of the Tug Hill region for 50 years. CTHC continues to help the core municipalities of Tug Hill protect what they value through a local “home rule” approach. The Council exists to serve the towns and villages through shared services and information.
CTHC member towns and villages have strength in numbers when addressing critical issues important to small communities. Individually, CTHC towns and villages average less than 1,000 in population. Together they total about 18,200 — bigger than any other community in the Tug Hill region.
This council of governments is an independent unit of local government created under an Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA) signed by all member municipalities. A member town, currently the Town of Rodman, serves as fiscal agent.
CTHC Representatives. The Council is comprised of two representatives from each member municipality. The full Council meets two or more times each year to set work goals and a budget for the year, elect officers, and to hear about major issues and projects facing the region and is governed by a set of Bylaws . Between full Council meetings, an executive committee meets bi-monthly to direct CTHC programs, and provide communications back to member towns on CTHC activities.
CTHC’s CIRCUIT RIDERS — KEY TO SERVICES. CTHC uses part-time circuit riders as well as a full time coordinator, all of whom are local people skilled in resolving questions that face small towns.
CTHC’s circuit riders attend town board meetings and work with town and planning board members between meetings to help with projects important to the community. These may range from help with a new local law, amending land use controls, to finding money for a key project.
Through CTHC’s circuit riders, the towns and villages are tied to work in the region such as management of snowmobile trials, watershed protection, etc.