LAKE GEORGE — Residents of the village of Lake George on Tuesday rejected a proposition to dissolve the 212-year-old village into the town.

Of the over 600 people eligible to vote in the election, 269 voted against dissolution and 59 in favor.

The decision comes after an interim dissolution study conducted by the Laberge group predicted the possible outcomes if the village dissolved.

Village Mayor Robert Blais and town Supervisor Dennis Dickinson have both spoken out in favor of a consolidation of the two entities rather than dissolution. The governments will now immediately file a petition for consolidation.

By 7:30 p.m., almost half of the eligible voting population had already come to cast their ballot.

Resident Jason Becker came in his UPS uniform after work to vote at the town office building.

“I love the village. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said.

Becker said he worked for Mayor Blais for years and would hate to see the village dissolved.

The women staffing the polls chatted about their families and gripes with the late-night spots in the village or the car show that recently came and left the lakeside village littered with trash and burnt rubber.

They said voters came “in groups” it seemed, leaving the building very quiet at times.

The three were then tasked, along with several town and village officials, with hand-counting the 328 paper ballots.

On Tuesday morning, the Lake George Steamboat Company released a statement on Facebook mourning the loss of owner Bill Dow and reminded residents of his love for Lake George.

Dow recently fell ill, but Blais said before his condition became critical he penned a statement read at the second of the public hearings on the dissolution that was held on Sept. 7.

“He had sent out a letter from the Steamboat Company, to every registered voter in the village a week before he was stricken and Mrs. (Marisa) Muratori from the Town Board gave the speech and then announced she was voting no,” the mayor said on Friday.

Dow died the day of the village vote.