Mt. Gilead Village Council plans for budget cuts

By Tay­lor Kaser -

Coun­cil mem­ber Steve Hart stated that coun­cil will have to con­sider ways to trim the vil­lages bud­get while still main­tain­ing ser­vices. Hart stated they must start con­sid­er­ing cut backs for 2013 at the coun­cils Decem­ber 3 meet­ing. Cuts will be dis­cussed in fur­ther detail at council’s next meet­ing. Hart noted that there is a depar­ture from what was bud­geted for, and what rev­enue is com­ing in.

A pro­posed ser­vice area agree­ment between the vil­lage and Del-Co water sparked dis­cus­sion about vil­lage plan­ning for the future. Fore­cast­ing pos­si­ble devel­op­ment areas will play into water and elec­tric lines.

Coun­cil mem­ber Ed Kline said that coun­cil is con­sid­er­ing putting another fire levy on the spring bal­lot. Kline noted that the cur­rent levy for the fire depart­ment runs out at the end of this year.

Kline also said that the vil­lage is work­ing with County Devel­op­ment Direc­tor Pat Davies to estab­lish a Com­mu­nity Rein­vest­ment Area, an are that would encour­age devel­op­ment in the vil­lage. For pro­posed busi­nesses in this area, the vil­lage would offer tax abate­ments and other incen­tives to devel­op­ers. To set up an area, coop­er­a­tion is needed from the school and the county.

Fur­ther devel­op­ment area is avail­able in almost every direc­tion of the vil­lage, espe­cially to the east, said Coun­cil mem­ber Tim Clap­per, with options to expand sewer and elec­tric service.

Police Chief Brian Zer­man reported that his depart­ment has han­dled over 200 calls for the month of Novem­ber and issued 95 charges.

About 330 total calls were han­dled by the fire depart­ment, said Chief Don Staiger, with 12 responses for November.

Most of the water­line replace­ment project on W. Mar­ion Rd. is com­plete, said Vil­lage Admin­is­tra­tor Dan Rogers, about 80% of the line is con­nected. In about two weeks, said Rogers, the new line should be fully oper­a­tional. He also noted that win­ter­iz­ing of lines at the sewer facil­i­ties are under­way. Oth­er­wise he reported that things are run­ning “smooth.”

All bills were approved for pay­ment. Coun­cil also approved the adop­tion of the Whet­stone Water­shed Devel­op­ment plan.

Coun­cil will next meet Dec. 17, 7 p.m in the Munic­pal building.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Dec 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.