‘‘The sooner, the better. We’ve been dragging it out. It’s up to the people now. Let’s let them decide.’’ — Sloan Village Mayor Leonard Szymanski The elected officials in the Village of Sloan anxiously await the day that residents will cast their ballots in the much-anticipated dissolution vote.

In an effort to, as Mayor Leonard Szymanski put it, “get it over with,” the village set the earliest possible date last week — Aug. 17.

“The sooner, the better,” Szymanski said after a special meeting on June 16. “We ’ve been dragging it out. It’s up to the people now. Let’s let them decide.”

By state law, once activist Kevin Gaughan filed his petition to force a referendum to dissolve the village government, which he did on June 2, a very specific schedule took shape. Village Clerk Debra Smith had 10 days to verify the 440 names on the petition — only 220 were needed to force the vote. Once that happened, the village had 30 days to set a referendum date, which had to have been between 60 and 90 days of the decision.

Gaughan had stated to The Bee that he hoped the village would set Sept. 14 as the voting day, since that is also primary day.

“I respectfully urge the Sloan Village Board to choose that date so that the election does not cost the taxpayers extra money,” he said.

The village officials didn’t agree and, instead, chose Aug. 17, which is the first Tuesday after the 60-day period.

“If we had put it on Election Day, it could get confusing,” Szymanski said. “This way, we have one thing to vote on. We have a lot of older citizens. They might get confused if we have more than one thing going on.”

Although Sloan officials chose the same date for the vote as the one being held in the Village of Williamsville, Szymanski claims it had nothing to do with the decision. He did, however, say that Williamsville Mayor Mary Lowther called him and urged Sloan to set the same date.

“We ’re not following Williamsville,” Szymanski said. “The mayor did call me and say we should try to stick together.”

Sloan, Williamsville and Farnham were the first three villages targeted in Gaughan’s mission to dissolve all of the village governments in Western New York.

The vote will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at the Sloan Fire Hall, 55 Gates St.

Both sides expect the residents to vote their way.

“I’m very confident the vote is going to go in our favor,” Szymanski said.

“I haven’t lost yet,” Gaughan said, “and frankly, I don’t expect to.”

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com