Frequently Asked Questions

Grass cutting is a top priority of our department. Our mowing crews circulate throughout the town constantly. Rainy weather often delays us from getting to every playground in a timely manner. We ask for patience during periods of rapid growth, as playing fields receive our attention first. However, if you feel your playground has been unfairly neglected, please contact our office.

If a traffic sign in your neighborhood is knocked down or damaged, and you live on a town road or are unsure, contact our office immediately. Damaged signs can pose a serious danger to public safety and our crews will be dispatched immediately to correct the situation.

There are many benefits of a Comprehensive Plan. A Comprehensive Plan:

• Helps establish a consensus on community's vision for the future, which helps guide decisions on how to regulate growth and development (Zoning must be in accordance with a Comprehensive Plan)
• Establishes goals and objectives that guide policies, projects and practices
• Communicates the Town's preferences and priorities about capital projects to County, State and Federal governmental agencies

The Town's last comprehensive planning effort was in 2005. A new Comprehensive Plan will allow us to look at the changes over the past 15 years and look ahead to the future.

Town staff, a professional consultant team, and a Comprehensive Plan Committee of Town residents are gathering and evaluating public input and other data to prepare the Plan. All residents of the Town are welcome and encouraged to be involved in the planning process.

During 2021 and 2022, the Town will offer a number of opportunities for residents to provide input, including public meetings. Leave a comment and sign up for email alerts to get notified of upcoming events.

An online survey is coming soon!

You can contact your neighbors and friends to let them know of this important project.

The Comprehensive Plan will present the community's collective vision for the next 15 years, as expressed through a Vision Statement and Goals and Objectives. The plan will gather information and evaluate conditions versus needs and also recommend specific actions and recommendations. The plan will also consider and be designed to be as consistent as possible with other regional planning documents including the Erie-Niagara Framework for Regional Growth (2006); the Regional Economic Development Council's (REDC) A Strategy for Prosperity in Western New York (2011, with annual Progress Report updates); the Western New York Regional Sustainability Plan (2012); and One Region Forward: A New Way to Plan for Buffalo-Niagara (2014).

Domestic abuse is a pattern of controlling and coercive behavior which can involve physical, sexual, economic, emotional, and/or psychological abuse. It affects people who are married, divorced, living together, dating, and/or have a familial relationship of some kind. They can be from any socio-economic, religious, or ethnic background. Anyone can be a victim of domestic violence but women are more likely to be victims of abuse.

The Town of Hamburg Domestic Violence Office offers services to the town's residents dealing with issues of abuse which can happen to anyone, at any time, regardless of one's age, gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

If you or someone you know is being abused, we can help. Open Monday through Friday, the office provides various types of advocacy, resource/referrals, safety planning, and crisis intervention.

Services are free and confidential: available to all within the Town of Hamburg.

Please call the office directly at 716-648-5111 ext. 2234 for more information or to set up an appointment to speak with Abby our Domestic Violence Advocate. (Accommodations can be made to suit clients' scheduling needs).

It is important to tell the police all you can about what happened and let them know if it has happened before. You should also let them know if you are afraid for your safety or have any injuries, even if they aren't readily visible.

The Police can also assist in transporting you to an emergency shelter.

The Police can file a DIR (domestic incident report) for incidents of abuse that have occurred. They can also potentially file charges if it has been deemed that a chargeable offense has occurred. A request for an order of protection can accompany charges that are filed in criminal court (or you can pursue an order of protection civilly through family court in some circumstances).

Town of Hamburg Police: 911 or 716-648-5111 (non emergency)

Sometimes, people are not sure if they are victims of domestic abuse. Maybe you aren't sure. Perhaps you haven't been seriously injured-maybe your partner hasn't hit you at all. Domestic abuse is about more than physical violence. If your partner does things that make you afraid and that isolate you from friends or family members, you may be a victim of abuse. The following checklist can help you determine if you or someone you know is abused.

• Has your partner ever pushed, hit, kick, bite or thrown things at you, or threatened to hurt you?
• Does your partner constantly question you, your decisions, or put you down?
• Has your partner ever gotten drunk/high and used it as an excuse for unwanted sex, to hurt you or humiliate you?
• Do you feel like it's easier to just go along with what your partner wants rather than make your own choices for fear of the consequences?
• Have you stopped seeing your friends or family to avoid your partner's jealousy?
• Do you watch what you say to avoid possible confrontation and/or your partner's disapproval?
• Constantly criticize you and your abilities as a wife, partner, mother or employee?
• Behave in an overprotective way and become extremely jealous?
• Threaten to hurt you, your children, pets, family members, friends or his/herself?
• Get suddenly angry or lose his/her temper?
• Destroy personal property?
• Deny access to family resources like the car, bank accounts, credit cards or control finances and force you to account for what is spent?
• Intimidate or manipulated you or your children?
• Prevent you from going where you want to, when you want to?
• Make you have sex that makes you uncomfortable?
• Humiliate, put you down or embarrass you in front of others?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you may be in an abusive relationship. You're not alone and there is help available. Contact the Town of Hamburg Domestic Violence Office at 716-648-5111 ext. 2234.

If any of your utilities are out, please do not call 911, or the non-emergency number. Please call your responsible utility. We do not have the reason the utility is down or out and will not know when it will be restored. Below are the Emergency Contact numbers for the area utilities;

Utility Phone Numbers

• National Grid: 800-892-2345
• New York State Electric and Gas: 800-572-1131
• National Fuel Gas: 800-444-3130
• Time Warner Cable: 866-668-6044

In the event of an Emergency, always use 911. For non emergencies, use 716-648-5111, ext. "0".

When life or property is in imminent danger. If you have vandalism, loud music complaint, keys locked in a vehicle without a child locked inside also, this is a non emergency and the 716-648-5111 number should be used. If a crime is in progress, such as a larceny, domestic incident, assault, this is considered an emergency and 911 should be used.

If a citizen needs assistance from a Town department other than Police, Fire or EMS, they should contact 649-6111 and follow the menu.

When you call the Town of Hamburg Public Safety Dispatch for assistance, a Dispatcher will be asking you pertinent questions regarding your problem. In an effort to dispatch the right type of assistance to you, please listen to the questions the Dispatcher is asking.

1. Where is the problem occurring?
2. What is the problem?
3. When did the problem occur or is it in progress?
4. You may be asked if there are any life hazards or hazards such as weapons involved or physical descriptions of subjects involved.
5. Please cooperate with the Dispatcher, this will ensure the quickest dispatch of help to your location.
6. The Dispatcher will also ask for your name, address and phone number in case the responding help has questions and we need to get back in contact with you.
7. If you are calling for an Ambulance, we provide Emergency Medical Dispatch.
8. This program has the Dispatcher asking scripted questions that are pertinent to your complaint, from the answers, this allows us to dispatch the correct equipment to your emergency
9. Please understand that while one Dispatcher is asking you these questions, the Ambulance is being dispatched.

If you use your cellular phone to dial 911, you will be connected with Buffalo 911. You will be asked where the emergency is, you will then be transferred to the Hamburg Public Safety Dispatch Office. Please understand that due to call volume, you may be put on hold.

Each full week of the month our crew collects brush in a different zone of the town. To find out which week of the month we collect, contact our offices.

The county has hazardous waste drop off several times a year. Check their hotline at 716-858-6800 for further information and dates.

We do not collect grass clippings. We encourage you to mulch your cuttings or compost.

Partnerships, corporations and proprietorships are eligible for financial assistance from the Hamburg Business Development Fund (HBDF). Priority is given to manufacturing, transportation, service industries and wholesale trade. Financial assistance must result in the creation of new jobs.

The development fund can be used for any of the following:

• Acquisition or development of land, buildings and/or facilities-Permanent working capital
• Pollution control. and related compliance improvements.
• Company buyouts where the employment base is in jeopardy.

The Planning Board is responsible for decisions on land use planning in Hamburg and specifically subdivision and site plan review and approval, advice toward revisions of the Comprehensive Plan and the review and granting of special use permits. Approvals of the Planning Board are independent of those of the Town Board. The Planning Board meets for a Work Session at 6:30 PM., followed by a Regular Meeting at 7:00 PM on the first and third Wednesdays of each month in Room 7B of Hamburg Town Hall.

The Planning Board consists of seven (7) members, each a resident of the Town of Hamburg and appointed by the Town Board. At meetings, the Board is supported by two (2) planning consultants, an attorney and the Town Assistant Municipal Engineer