Warsaw Council Reviews Budget Ordinances, Trash Route Changes
September 21, 2021 at 2:18 a.m.
By David [email protected]
The Council held a public hearing and the first reading on the ordinance for the 2022 appropriations and tax rates.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “We talked a bit about this last week. We talked about how the rate is built in on this $1.47 (per $100 of assessed valuation) based on a 90% of assessed value. Taking the liberty of putting it at 100% puts you down to about $1.32.”
He said the city had a “pretty decent” increase in its AV this year that will reduce each taxpayers’ rate by 3.5 cents.
“I also mentioned the big change we had, the big decrease in our health insurance renewal – minus 6.2%, a decrease if you will, in our rates, which we had budgeted for a 12% increase, so there’s a pretty significant amount of over-budgeting there as we move through the process. We’ll certainly be able to make some line 1 cuts,” Thallemer said.
He also previously mentioned that the city’s “circuit breakers do continue to rise to the city’s detriment, if you will.” At the Sept. 7 Common Council meeting, Thallemer said the city would be shorted $845,570 because of the property tax caps. In 2020, that figure was $684,290; and in 2021 it was $788,611.
“We do have some work to do,” Thallemer said. “We’ve got just a little under $700,000 over the levy, but as I’ve mentioned, a pretty significant amount of that can be taken care of with that overbudgeting on health care. We did build in a 4.3% levy growth.” Depending on how the budget cuts go, Thallemer estimated the tax rate could end in the low $1.20s.
The second and final reading on the 2022 appropriations and tax rates ordinance is Oct. 18. No one from the public commented on it at Monday night’s meeting, and the Common Council approved it on first reading by a vote of 6-0.
The 2022 general salary, police salary, fire salary and elected official salary ordinances were then introduced. The general, police and fire ordinances must be approved by Nov. 1. The elected official salaries must be approved by Dec. 31. No action were taken on them by the Council Monday night.
The general salary ordinance includes the maximum compensation levels for 2022 for department heads, appointed positions and certain salaried and non-salaried positions for the city. Human Resource Director Jennifer Whitaker pointed out that every position was increased by 3.5%.
The police department salary ordinance establishes maximum compensation levels for 2022 for department heads, appointed positions and certain salaried and non-salaried positions for the city; while the fire department salary ordinance does the same thing for the fire department. The maximum biweekly wage for the police chief for 2022 is $2,981.66; the maximum biweekly wage for the fire chief is $2,774.60.
The elected officials salary ordinance established the maximum compensation levels for 2022 for elected officials and appointed positions for the city. It lists the mayor’s salary as $3,024.82 biweekly; clerk-treasurer, $2,753.28 biweekly; and Common Council as $6,946 annum. It also provides for take-home vehicles, cell phone allowances, insurance and other benefits. Salaries for the elected officials includes the 3.5% increase given to the city employees.
Earlier in the meeting, Dillon’s presentation on the trash route changes was similar to the one he gave to the Board of Public Works and Safety Friday morning, which appeared in Saturday’s Times-Union. Thallemer said the changes will make the trash routes more efficient and free up 15-20 man hours a week. The mayor said the routes got scattered around over the years because of annexations and new developments.
Dillon said under the old the trash routes, there was a lot of “deadhead” driving back and forth. “This was something that needed to happen. It’s a great move for Warsaw,” he said.
One of the other major problems with the old routes was the “multi-day streets” where one side of the road had its trash picked up one day and the other side another day. “Residents don’t want to look at trash cans multi days during the week, so we were able to also streamline and take care of that,” Dillon said.
The process in creating the new routes began eight months ago. Changes will begin Oct. 4. Residents will receive a packet of information on their trash can the week of Sept. 27, but there’s also information on the city’s website and an interactive map at https://www.warsaw.in.gov/294/Trash-Service.
Dillon said he was sure they’d have some kinks to work out, but within 30 days, the trash routes should be completed every day by noon. Some residents won’t have their trash days change, but they’ll get the packet of information, too. Roughly 40% of the routes will change. Under the new routes, there will be a little over 1,000 stops on Mondays; around 800 Tuesdays; around 1,000 on Wednesdays and Thursdays; and 1,100 on Fridays, he said.
“This should last us for quite some time,” Dillon said, because in planning the routes he met with the city planner and the community economic and development director on potential future housing developments and annexations. He estimated it could last the city 10 years or better.
The city plans to issue a number of press releases over the next two weeks to remind residents of the changes.
As for recycling, Dillon said there will be no change to it. He said he got with the recycling company and they were happy with the new routes. Recycling will remain as it is now, he said.
The next Common Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 30.
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The Council held a public hearing and the first reading on the ordinance for the 2022 appropriations and tax rates.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “We talked a bit about this last week. We talked about how the rate is built in on this $1.47 (per $100 of assessed valuation) based on a 90% of assessed value. Taking the liberty of putting it at 100% puts you down to about $1.32.”
He said the city had a “pretty decent” increase in its AV this year that will reduce each taxpayers’ rate by 3.5 cents.
“I also mentioned the big change we had, the big decrease in our health insurance renewal – minus 6.2%, a decrease if you will, in our rates, which we had budgeted for a 12% increase, so there’s a pretty significant amount of over-budgeting there as we move through the process. We’ll certainly be able to make some line 1 cuts,” Thallemer said.
He also previously mentioned that the city’s “circuit breakers do continue to rise to the city’s detriment, if you will.” At the Sept. 7 Common Council meeting, Thallemer said the city would be shorted $845,570 because of the property tax caps. In 2020, that figure was $684,290; and in 2021 it was $788,611.
“We do have some work to do,” Thallemer said. “We’ve got just a little under $700,000 over the levy, but as I’ve mentioned, a pretty significant amount of that can be taken care of with that overbudgeting on health care. We did build in a 4.3% levy growth.” Depending on how the budget cuts go, Thallemer estimated the tax rate could end in the low $1.20s.
The second and final reading on the 2022 appropriations and tax rates ordinance is Oct. 18. No one from the public commented on it at Monday night’s meeting, and the Common Council approved it on first reading by a vote of 6-0.
The 2022 general salary, police salary, fire salary and elected official salary ordinances were then introduced. The general, police and fire ordinances must be approved by Nov. 1. The elected official salaries must be approved by Dec. 31. No action were taken on them by the Council Monday night.
The general salary ordinance includes the maximum compensation levels for 2022 for department heads, appointed positions and certain salaried and non-salaried positions for the city. Human Resource Director Jennifer Whitaker pointed out that every position was increased by 3.5%.
The police department salary ordinance establishes maximum compensation levels for 2022 for department heads, appointed positions and certain salaried and non-salaried positions for the city; while the fire department salary ordinance does the same thing for the fire department. The maximum biweekly wage for the police chief for 2022 is $2,981.66; the maximum biweekly wage for the fire chief is $2,774.60.
The elected officials salary ordinance established the maximum compensation levels for 2022 for elected officials and appointed positions for the city. It lists the mayor’s salary as $3,024.82 biweekly; clerk-treasurer, $2,753.28 biweekly; and Common Council as $6,946 annum. It also provides for take-home vehicles, cell phone allowances, insurance and other benefits. Salaries for the elected officials includes the 3.5% increase given to the city employees.
Earlier in the meeting, Dillon’s presentation on the trash route changes was similar to the one he gave to the Board of Public Works and Safety Friday morning, which appeared in Saturday’s Times-Union. Thallemer said the changes will make the trash routes more efficient and free up 15-20 man hours a week. The mayor said the routes got scattered around over the years because of annexations and new developments.
Dillon said under the old the trash routes, there was a lot of “deadhead” driving back and forth. “This was something that needed to happen. It’s a great move for Warsaw,” he said.
One of the other major problems with the old routes was the “multi-day streets” where one side of the road had its trash picked up one day and the other side another day. “Residents don’t want to look at trash cans multi days during the week, so we were able to also streamline and take care of that,” Dillon said.
The process in creating the new routes began eight months ago. Changes will begin Oct. 4. Residents will receive a packet of information on their trash can the week of Sept. 27, but there’s also information on the city’s website and an interactive map at https://www.warsaw.in.gov/294/Trash-Service.
Dillon said he was sure they’d have some kinks to work out, but within 30 days, the trash routes should be completed every day by noon. Some residents won’t have their trash days change, but they’ll get the packet of information, too. Roughly 40% of the routes will change. Under the new routes, there will be a little over 1,000 stops on Mondays; around 800 Tuesdays; around 1,000 on Wednesdays and Thursdays; and 1,100 on Fridays, he said.
“This should last us for quite some time,” Dillon said, because in planning the routes he met with the city planner and the community economic and development director on potential future housing developments and annexations. He estimated it could last the city 10 years or better.
The city plans to issue a number of press releases over the next two weeks to remind residents of the changes.
As for recycling, Dillon said there will be no change to it. He said he got with the recycling company and they were happy with the new routes. Recycling will remain as it is now, he said.
The next Common Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 30.
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