The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
CITY BUDGET DISCUSSES NEW COPS, FLOORS
“There’swants, there’s need and there’s wishes. Every department has tobe able tooperate at the same ability as they are this year. And it’s going to cost more to do that next year.”
— Ward 2 Councilor Michael Bowe
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> Oneida city councilors met with the Oneida Police Department and the Parks and Recreation Department Tuesday to discuss the 2019 budget.
The mayor’s proposed $18.8 million budget for 2019 includes a tax levy increase of around $120,000 fromlast year, resulting in a 2.5 percent tax increase for taxpayers should it pass.
Ward 2 Councilor Michael Bowe said while the mayor’s budget calls for a 2.5 percent tax increase, there’s no way of knowing what the tax levy will be until discussions are finished.
“The budget was proposed with around a two percent increase,” Bowe said. “So far, we’ve added 2.23, so now we’re at a 4.23 percent tax levy. $40,000 in the budget is approx- imately one percent increase in taxes. We’d love to have a zero increase. If we have more businesses and houses, taxes go down. We’re trying to keep everything down, but just as my house is your house, it costs more to do everything every year.”
Bowe said everyone is affected by rising costs for gas and oil. With New York state minimum wage increasing, the salary for employees in the city will increase as well, also affecting the budget.
“We try to do a fair increase so we can keep or increase the services that we had last year,” Bowe said. “There’s wants, there’s need and there’s wishes. Every department has to be able to operate at the same ability as they are this year. And it’s going to cost more to do that next year.”
“A plow truck costs $200,000. The street sweeper was $195,000,”
Bowe said. “We’ve looked at leasing, we’ve looked at buyback. We know it costs money, but we’re trying to do the budget the best way to keep it down. Nothing in this budget will be because it looks nice, it’s something we decide as a council that is necessary to maintain.”
At the budget hearing, Police Chief Paul Thompson said the police department has dealt with a number of issues over the last two and a half years, from the meth lab busts and drug arrests to Oneida’s first homicide in years.
“I feel our officers have provided a great service to this city doing the work they do every day,” Thompson said.
But the workload over the last 15 years has increased dramatically, Thompson said, from paperwork required to boots on the ground needed. Proceedings for off-hour arraignments has changed and must be conducted with a defense attorney and judge present. The process has more steps and more time, taking an officer out of service until its complete. For the domestic incident police report required by the state, it has increased from a one page report to two. And the Oneida Police Department is working with a number of organizations in the area to help those with mental health challenges, helping transport them for mental health examinations.
“I think we have really stretched our resources to themax,” Thompson said. “I feel we spend the taxpayer’s money judiciously. We have always run a bare-bones budget. Spending outside of payroll is very minimal. In years past, Chief David Meeker zero’d out his chief expense line, we have cut the training budget and all other non-payroll lines have been reduced or held stagnant for years.”
In Thompson’s budget, the Oneida Police Department is requesting the city to hire on two new police officers.
“If approved, this would get us back to the manpower our department had in the 1980s and 1990s,” Thompson said. “It is a critical component to keep up with ever increasing workloads our officers face.”
Other budget items include a $6,000 request for specialized traffic signs capable of helping the Oneida Police Department understand where to look for speeders and help enforcement efforts. These hi-tech signs are capable of recording how fast someone is going, at what time of the day and other data useful to the department.
A sign of the same kind was borrowed from the city of Sherrill, Thompson said, and used to gather data.
“The signs, first and foremost, are meant to provide an increased warning to motorists in high concern areas,” Thompson said. “Such as school zones, rural areas with lower speed limits and city parks. We get dozens of calls about speeding vehicles in certain areas. With the signs, if we have areas of concerns, we can put them up and be more efficient in responding.”
“Traffic is definitely a concern, 24/7,” Ward 1 Al Cohen said. “During the times the busses are running, without the data and locations, it would be difficult to target areas to make it safer for our kids.”
Finally, Thompson said the chief’s expense line was restored, totaling $2,500 to help fund the police department’s activities in the community.
“This areawas cut several years ago, but has impacted our ability to conduct events and provide department events,” Thompson said. “This spring, we are planning a public safety day with OC3, the fire department and the rec department. It’s nice to have a pen or water bottle to hand out to attendees and that’s the vision for that line item.”
The mayor’s budget originally cut the line item requesting new traffic signs from $6,000 to $3,000 and the city council agreed to raise it back to the requested amount. Ward 4 Councilor Helen Acker said she didn’t think the Oneida Police Department was asking for anything outrageous and suggested the possibility of pursuing grants to aid the purchase.
In Parks and Recreations Department Director Luke Griff’s budget, a number of capital projects are slated including resurfacing tennis and basketball courts in Allen Park, new set of bleachers for Vet’s Field, repairs to Chapman Pool and a new roof and floor for the gym Rec Center.
“There have been major problems with the pool, hasn’t there?” Acker said.
“There are repairs definitely needed,” Griff said. “The reason we had to close the pool early was a transformer in the pool blew. We were told it was old andwas there since they opened the pool. We were given a repair estimate of around $20,000 to $25,000. Then the pool itself, the liner, needs a lot of work. I had two local companies come in and look at it.”
Griff said one company gave an estimate on the low end of $108,000 to fix the pool line, while another clocked the repair as much as $200,000.
“It needs complete reconstruction, basically,” Ward 6 Councilor Tom Simchik said.
“As far everything else? The system, the pipes, the filtration, that’s all good,” Griff said. “It’s the liner. I looked back through some files and couldn’t find the last time it had a major repair. We’ve been doing bandaids the last few years. The outside layers are falling off and crumbling. It’s dangerous when it happens to the floor and that’s what happened in the middle of the season. We had a big bubble come up and the bubble broke, so you have this hole a foot could get stuck in. We had to close the pool, drain it, break it off, re-plaster it and fill it back up.”
Even after the repairs, Griff said the Health and Safety Department gave him hard time about the condition of the pool walls.
“I could only do so much this year,” Griff said.
For the bleachers at Vet’s Field, the old steel framed bleachers has a gap that newer bleachers don’t and would ensure no one would accidentally fall through. On top of that, the newaluminum bleachers would be able to be transported and moved as necessary.
“We’d be downsizing the number of bleachers, but the number of seats would be the same,” Griff said.
But out of all the capital projects for the Parks and Recreation Department, Griff said the gym floor is the biggest one.
Due to leaking andwater damage, the floor needs a total overhaul. Bowe said he couldn’t remember the last time the floor was worked on and he could have very well played basketball on the same floor when he was a child. The capital project currently asks for $100,000 in a serial bond to replace the gym floor with a brand new vinyl flooring option Griff has been looking at as an alternative to wood.
Over wood, Griff said the new floor wouldn’t need a finish, would cost $100,000 less and is waterproof.
“I think we need to go with the vinyl,” Griff said. “It will go right on top of our current gymfloor. They have to make sure it’s level and there will need to be somework around the edges due to water damage, but a lot of places are going to this because it’s cheaper and better than wood.”
Griff said out of everything, he’d take the gym floor above other projects due to the amount of use it sees.
City council will bemeeting next with City Engineer Eric Schuler to discuss the Department of PublicWorks and the Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Bowe said while current tax levy project by the city council is at four percent, the council is not even three quarters of the way done yet with discussion and the council will work to present a fair budget.
Residents are encouraged to give their feedback on the tentative budget. The next meeting for budget discussions will take place on Nov. 15 at 6 p.m.