Published: September 03, 2008 01:52 am            

NORTH TONAWANDA: Council slashes bond requests in half

Following a public hearing Tuesday on North Tonawanda’s 2009 budget, Common Council members made two last minute changes worth about $770,000.

Two bond items, in which the city takes out a bond for project costs and typically begins paying for it the following year, were altered.

The largest single bond item on the budget — $1,500,000 toward Department of Public Works vehicles — was cut in half, and $22,000 to purchase a new vehicle to replace the fire chief’s six-year-old Crown Victoria was removed.

“I will definitely veto that if I think I can get enough votes to override it. They have to have equipment to operate,” Mayor Larry Soos said. “If they want to shave something off, don’t take it out of capital budgets.”

During the hearing, in which about 15 residents — out of which only four are not department heads — attended, City Accountant David Jakubaszek explained one of the biggest factors behind proposed hikes in water and wastewater fees.

The Payne Avenue water main replacement project, which today saw the first work on its last phase of milling and repaving, was paid with a previous bond that is now creating bills for the city. A 15-year bond carrying interest of 2.4 percent was authorized as part of the last budget to cover $700,000 of the roughly $1 million project, which City Engineer Dale Marshall said is expected to be finished by month’s end. The rest was taken from the city’s general fund at the time, but the bond item is only now beginning to generate bills.

“One of the big increases in the water fund was the Payne Avenue project,” he said. “It’s an expensive endeavor.”

He estimated about 7 cents of the proposed 40-cent increase on the water bill will be to offset that money. The wastewater rate is expected to go up by 50 cents per 1,000 gallons used.

Water/Wastewater Superintendent Paul Drof last week explained the other major factor driving the hikes is water usage, in the wake of mass exodus by industry and population in the area. Simply put: The city isn’t selling enough of it.

“They used to tell us ‘conserve on water,’ and now people are saving money, (but) our rates go up,” Fred Wisniewski, a resident on a fixed income, said. “Your budget is going up, what do you think is happening to (residents’) budgets?”

One relatively undisputed capital amendment was the removal of an item for repairs to City Hall originally totaling $500,000. Soos expressed concern about the state of the building, despite cutting the request to $350,000 prior to the council’s recent decision to eliminate it all together.

The budget process began with the total requests submitted by the city’s department heads in July, on through amendments by Mayor Larry Soos last month and changes by the Council culminating at Tuesday’s meeting. What began as about $33.9 million in total spending and bond items has now been cut to roughly $31.9 million.

A vote to adopt the spending plan will be held at the next meeting of the Common Council on Tuesday. Then a period for line-item veto by Soos will culminate in a second vote by the council which could override vetoes with enough votes.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.