Portage mayor recalls challenges of ’20
Lynch eyes more work in year ahead
The first year for the city of Portage’s mostly new administration was not an easy one, Mayor Sue Lynch said Thursday, rattling off a list of challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic and financial woes from the previous top elected officials.
“Thankfully as a city, overcoming the multitude of obstacles in 2020 was not done by one person. We came together. We worked as a team,” she said during her State of the City address, held before a limited crowd at Woodland Park and livestreamed on Facebook.
After thanking her staff, department heads, Clerk-Treasurer Nina Rivas, City Attorney Dan Whitten and the City Council, as well as partners in the community, Lynch talked about all that they accomplished and what they hope to do going forward.
When Lynch, Rivas and some of the City Council members took office in January 2020, they discovered there was $11,000 in the city’s general fund and started getting thousands of dollars in bills past due from previous years.
The State Board of Accounts said Portage was steps away from being a distressed city because of its financial situation and its bond rating with Standard and Poor dropped from A+ to A. The city also faced $195,000 in fines from the IRS because of paperwork not filed by former Clerk-Treasurer Christopher Stidham.
Computer and phone systems were woefully outdated, she said, and City Hall needed some upgrades as well.
Since then, Lynch said she has cut the staff in the mayor’s office; limited use of the car that comes with her office and made it available for all employees; and moved to less costly and more efficient technology for the city, among other steps to reign in the city’s finances.
While she faced criticism for not tearing down the old Garyton School on the city’s west side, that cost would have been $480,000.
“We didn’t have that money,” she said, adding volunteers cleaned up the building and replaced lights to discourage vandals and she’s working on public/private partnerships “to turn a historic building into an asset in our community.”
Additionally, $1.2 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds received last year went for payment kiosks for utility bills, sanitizing equipment, personal protective equipment and other needs.
The city will receive more money this year through the American Rescue Plan Act, but Lynch said she hasn’t received final word on how the city will be able to spend it. She hopes the city will have more time to use the funds than those received last year.
The city has tackled a wide array of road projects with Community Crossroads
Matching Grant funds and has plans for more. The city also received $2.5 million in Next Level grant money for trails.
Additionally, the grass plaza between the police and fire stations will be turned into a city plaza in a cash project through the city’s Redevelopment Commission.
The RDC also is providing cash for additional work at City Hall, restoring a meeting space for the City Council, Lynch said, adding that plan generated criticism as well.
“The previous administration removed the City Council Chambers so we’ve literally had no home,” nor did other boards for the city, she said, adding the council and boards moved their meetings around.
By January 2022, she hopes the council and other boards can meet in new chambers at City Hall. The building’s elevator also will be upgraded to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, paid for by part of a general obligation bond.
“It was definitely a rocky year for our new administration,” Lynch said, adding she was happy with what the city accomplished.
Lynch said she didn’t know when she gave her last State of the City address “that we were about to encounter something unimaginable,” a pandemic that’s taken 538,000 American lives.
“Many of us, myself included, knew someone who is no longer with us because of COVID-19,” she said.
The community came together to get through the challenges of the pandemic.
The Portage Township Trustee’s Office’s food pantry stepped up its service through the pandemic with the help of community donations, Lynch said, and the Portage Township Schools continued to provide meals to students when schools shut down and for those students who continue to stay at home. The Bonner Senior Center, also under the trustee’s office, continued to provide meals for seniors after it shut down.
“We are at last slowly turning the corner,” she said, noting the rollout of vaccines and students returning to school. “Our businesses are opening their doors and our residents will hopefully get back to their jobs.”