York Mayor John Brenner’s weeklong series of budget hearings began today with the Public Works department.
(Note: I incorrectly posted earlier that all of the budget hearings are at 1 p.m. Friday’s public comment session is at 10 a.m. Sorry about that.)
The theme for today’s hearing appeared to be “holding the line.”
Several department officials emphasized that they’ve tried to keep
their 2010 budget requests about the same as 2009′s budget.
Here are some of the highlights; we’ll have a full story in the paper
Sunday. Also, if budget documents aren’t posted on the city Web site,
I’ll see if we can post them here.
None of the areas in public works – sewer maintenance, parks and
recreation, environmental services, etc. – requested new employees for
2010. Brenner emphasized several times that positions have been cut in
years past, leaving staff levels minimal.
Highway: Superintendent Al Hykes requested about $2,500 more than last
year for materials for directional symbols, arrows, etc. on city
streets. He also requested about $5,000 more than last year for the
replacement of manholes, because many will have to be replaced before
next year’s phase of Rebuild York (the paving project).
Jim Gross, public works director, told the mayor there had been much
progress on roadwork in 2009, with the first phase of Rebuild York,
plus paving of Roosevelt Avenue and 13 alleys. Hykes said he’s working
on the list of alleys to work on next year, so anyone with suggestions
should tell the city. (C.S. Davidson completes an analysis of roads
each year that guides work on the streets.)
Fleet: Hykes said he’s budgeting for about $23,000 less for fuel next
year _ $290,000 – predicting that fuel prices will continue to decline.
The city gas pumps go through about 10,000 gallons of gas and 2,000 to
3,000 gallons of diesel each month.
Last year’s approval of buying five new police cars paid off, Hykes
said, because his crew didn’t have to spend so much time working on
them. “We were able to work on highway equipment for a change,” he said.
Building Maintenance and Electrical: Superintendent Dave Rudolph said
he wanted to keep the paint budget – about $3,500 – as high as possible
to paint the bell tower on city hall and the gazebo at Farquhar Park
next year.
Brenner said it might be worth looking into the efficiency and cost of
the Gamewell system, fire call boxes placed around the city and in
about 350 businesses. Rudolph said they spend a lot of time maintaining
it.
Environmental Services: The city is expecting about $40,000 in a state
grant for recycling for 2010, Gross said – but the city just got its
2007 grant. He believes the grant program is being phased out.
Tom Landis, superintendent of parks, recreation and sanitation, said
one employee works each day cleaning up downtown. Brenner noted that
cleaning up the trash and litter are “real costs” to the city and
suggested that local organizations that spent “$75,000 to $100,000″ to
bring in a consultant could have paid to clean up downtown twice. He
said the local business improvement district – aka Downtown Inc. -
could help by giving an allocation toward cleanliness.
Rec and parks: Landis said he was able to raise $46,000 in 2009 for
city parks and recreation, largely because the hiring of parks
superintendent AJ Grim gave Landis more time to raise funds. He said he
requested about $2,500 more for the city’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament
because sponsorships haven’t been coming in like they used to.
