City Council Approves $412K Transfer For Street Dept.
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A resolution to transfer $412,700 for the Warsaw Street Department was unanimously approved by the Common Council Monday night.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said the transfer was “essentially from personal services over into operating supplies and repairs and maintenance, supplies and services.”
Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon said, “What we kind of gotten into this year, with being mostly five or six employees down” and COVID-19 keeping overtime down from originally planned, there was an excess in the department’s salaries, insurance, FICA and PERF.
Information provided to the council states that the 2020 budget included 35 full-time employees and eight part-time/summer employees, but the street department has not had full staff all year. Only two part-time/summer openings were filled this summer.
Of the $412,700, an amount of $200,000 comes from street salaries; $175,000 from health insurance; $15,300 from FICA/Medicare; and $22,400 from PERF.
The money being transferred will be divided with $31,700 going into operating supplies for tires, fuel, hoses and salt; $25,000 into repairs and maintenance (supplies) for asphalt and patch; $341,000 into repairs and maintenance (services) for equipment repairs ($55,000), micro surfacing ($175,000), Park Avenue ADA crossings ($50,000), Perry Street curb and gutter from Union to West streets ($15,000), asphalt rejuvenator ($20,000), milling ($12,000); and traffic signal pole and light pole repairs ($14,000) due to accidents (traffic signal pole damaged at Bronson Street and Winona Avenue and decorative light at Silveus Crossing and Polk Drive) and street department is waiting on insurance; and $15,000 going to other services and charges for trash and recycle fees.
“Trash fees have been running just a tick heavy, and I’m assuming with COVID a lot more people have been home and trash has been heavier,” Dillon said.
Councilwoman Diane Quance told him she really appreciated all the detail he presented to the council on the transfer. Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins also said she was elated with the detail and the made the motion to approve the transfer, which was unanimously approved.
Thallemer said the transfer was a good move because the Motor Vehicle Highway fund and the Local Roads and Streets fund will “be subject to the swings of the gas tax utilization, and the swings that we have taken, down and out, with the uncertainty there, I just think this is a good move to try and keep our street maintenance as best as we can.”
He said the state did suspend the Community Crossings grant program for roads and streets for at least the second round this year.
“They’re just taking a pause in Community Crossings. I don’t know that it’s going to be done away with, I don’t know that they’re going to repurpose the money,” Thallemer said. “If you remember right, that money came from gas tax revenues that our legislators fought for and they want those improvements in the roads, so I know they’re not going to do something to take that away, but I do feel like with the large decrease in revenue the state is projecting, they’re putting a pause on it.”
He said with all that uncertainty, the transfer is a “very good move.”
“The next couple of years, we could be very short, so while we have this opportunity – taking that time and taking that chance to go ahead and spend that money and get a little ahead of the game,” Dillon said. “... This is something that will get us back in the game and ahead of the game for the next couple of years, I think.”
The council also approved the renewal of a tax abatement for Lake City Heat Treating Corp., 2427 N. Boeing Drive, Warsaw. This is the second year of their abatement, according to Thallemer.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner told the council that Lake City Heat Treating purchased $4.5 million in new equipment, hired nine new employees and the 10-year personal property tax abatement is based on “over a million dollars in investment.” Skinner recommended the abatement be renewed.
“It looks like they exceeded all of those. That’s good,” Council President Jack Wilhite said before making the motion to approve the abatement renewal. The council unanimously approved the motion.
