The borough assembly voted 5-0 Tuesday to pass both the property tax rate and the municipal budget for the fiscal year 2015.
At a May 13 budget workshop, officials pledged the mill rate of 12.75 mills will remain unchanged this year. That means that a house assessed at $200,000 would pay a property tax bill of $2,550.
Since presenting the budget at a public workshop May 24, officials have received news of $37,219 in additional revenue, composed of a $23,821 shot in the arm from increased revenue sharing and a $13,398 increase from the state for renting the Wrangell jail to house state convicts who would otherwise go to state correction facilities.
They've also had a $23,661 increase in expenditures, the largest of which is due to a $60,000 calculation error in Department of Public Works expenditures. The city has also increased the Museum operations transfer by $55,000, which was designed to offset a decline in the amount provided by the Nolan Trust. The board of directors for the trust told city officials contributions would need to decline in order to keep the trust endowed at a sustainable level. A third increase in expenditures of $12,661 is needed to offset chemical cost increases at the pool due to decreasing volumes of water from an as-of-yet undiscovered leak.
To fund these expenditure increases, city officials removed $104,000 from the capital budget items. The largest such item removed was $35,000 which had been set aside for a police vehicle purchase. A $15,000 cut to proposed improvements to the senior ball field drew comment from Brennon Eagle who is heavily involved with the city little league program.
“That field was built about 20 years ago, and when it was built, it was never the equal of the smaller field that was up there and it's really starting to show now,” he said. “It doesn't drain like the smaller field.”
The little league organization has dozens of dedicated volunteers who prepare the diamonds each spring, though the current state of disrepair is too severe, Eagle said.
“It's beyond what little league can do with it right now,” he said. “We've had a couple injuries up there because of slick conditions and balls hopping on the surface of the field.”
The borough couldn't spare the overall expense for a field that has seen little use, said Pam McCloskey.
“I have to say that I don't agree (with Eagle),” she said. “I agree with the fact that we do need to put money into it, but the utilization of that senior field isn't as strong as it used to be. The minor-league/major-league field and the tee ball league field, they all get enough utilization.”
Repairing the field with the $10,000 remaining for repairs will be difficult but not impossible, according to Parks and Recreation Director Amber Al-Haddad.
“I agree with (McCloskey),” she said. “That field has not seen a lot of use in the last couple years, and last year, aside from not having a high school team, it was hard to get our co-ed adult softball league up and running”
Officials were planning a big push for participation in adult co-ed softball this year to reinvigorate field use, Al-Haddad said. Officials could use active participation from the little league organization to make the case to a charitable group for additional funds and were currently tracking volunteer hours for that purpose, Al-Haddad said.
“I think it does pose some hazards right now,” she said.
Officials also cut $30,000 set aside to remove a building at The Marine Service Center currently owned by the city, and $24,000 previously set aside for a new public works director vehicle was also removed.
Overall, remaining capital expenditures will likely eat into the borough's more-than $5-million reserves by $210,000, mainly on the back of a $325,000 purchase of a new street grader, budget figures show. Borough officials were comfortable dipping into the reserves to this extent because the expenditures were one-time capital requests and not recurring expenses, Jabusch wrote in memorandum explaining the budget.
In other business, the borough assembly voted 5-0 to appoint Mark Mitchell to the assembly seat vacated by Wilma Stokes who resigned May 13, citing medical issues. Mitchell will serve the remainder of Stokes's term, basically from the date of his swearing in until the fall elections.
The borough assembly voted 5-0 to approve, on first reading, an ordinance aimed at preventing logging in municipal parks. That measure will now head to a second reading at the June 24 meeting.
The assembly also unanimously approved the first reading of two ordinances revising sections 3.04 and 3.05 of Title 3 of the borough code relating to Assembly procedures.
The assembly also voted 5-0 to approve an agreement with the Department of Transportation to take over management of the Meyers Chuck float.
Finally, the borough also voted 5-0 to approve an ordinance increasing electric rates for all borough electric customers, though it is unlikely to come to a second reading without changes. Discussion Tuesday primarily focused around increasing electric usage rates by 7 percent immediately, without an overall 10 percent net increase originally planned. Borough officials said that increase would allow them to reduce losses in the electrical fund and begin to rebuild reserves for that fund, currently millions of dollars below expected levels.
That ordinance will head to a second reading June 24.
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