Connellsville holds line on taxes
Members of Connellsville City Council held the line on taxes when they approved a final budget with revenues and expenditures of approximately $3,054,000 and kept the tax rate at 8.5 mills.
Controller Blaine Brooks said the city should finish up with a carryover between $300,000 and $350,000, but even at that, members of council decided to go with a Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) loan in the amount of $200,000.
“We’re sitting around $300,000 to $350,000 by the end of the year and with this, we’ll have between $500,000 and $600,000 in revenue to start the new year off,” said Councilman Ethan Keedy, chairman of the finance committee.
City officials debated whether to get a TAN loan for the beginning of 2018, but Keedy said they decided to get it just to be safe.
“With no revenues coming in the first couple months of the year, we figured it’s better to do it just in case we have a bad winter storm or some other big unexpected expense,” he said.
Unlike their TAN loan for 2017 that couldn’t be paid off until the end of the year, this loan through Scottdale Bank and Trust can be paid off by March should city officials choose to do so.
“We won’t have too much interest on this loan, if any at all,” Keedy said. “This isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a way to stay safe (budget-wise) in case of an emergency.”
He commended all of the department heads for the “amazing” jobs they’ve done this past year with sticking to their budgets.
In other borough business, a resolution passed to accept the 2016 audit prepared by McClure and Wolf.
Mayor Greg Lincoln said the city has already corrected or addressed most of the recommendations that were in the audit.
“He (Clayton E. Gregg IV, partner with McClure and Wolf) is beyond ecstatic at the shape we are in right now and we’re ready to go into 2018,” Keedy said.
In other business, two city police officers, Patrick Ruff and Brian Connors, were promoted to the rank of corporal at this week’s council meeting.
Chief Bill Hammerle said one corporal position was opened up after Tom Patton was promoted to detective/lieutenant.
“After all of the civil service testing, Patrick Ruff and Brian Connors were the top two scorers,” Hammerle said.
Connors will serve within the department as a corporal but Ruff will remain with the auto theft task force with the state police. The state police will pay any salary increase for Ruff that comes with the promotion.
Members of council also agreed to approve a two-year contract between the city and Thomas Currey, the city’s health/code officer. Part of the salary will come from the city’s budget and $20,000 will be reimbursed to the city through the Community Development Block Grant share.
A resolution was also passed to enter into a cooperation agreement with Highlands Hospital Women’s Health Center project so the city can make application to the state for a grant in the amount of $1 million under the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program for the benefit of Highlands Hospital.
Lincoln said this is a wonderful opportunity and not the first time they’ve applied for such a grant on behalf of the hospital.
“They are going through some really great changes and I’m excited to see what will happen with the (former) Zachariah Connell (elementary school) complex in the next year or two,” he said.
Other resolutions included:
n Entering into a contract with Unifirst for one year at a monthly rate of $60 at a savings of nearly $1,500 a year to provide clean rugs in the municipal building.
n Contracting the city’s payroll to Scarry and Associates at a cost of $235 per month for 12 months.
n Entering into an agreement with Superior Custom Design, APC Tech of Connellsville, to install and upgrade the surveillance camera system at Yough Park in the amount of $8,575.60.