GI Town Board OKs 2005 budget

Board tables community center proposal

by Larry Austin
Grand Island Dispatch, November 5, 2004

The Grand Island Town Board passed a 2005 budget of $5,381,287 at its Nov. 1 regular meeting, but Erie County’s budget problems are causing the supervisor to seek Divine help.

Town of Grand Island Supervisor Peter McMahon joked during a work session Monday that, as a good Catholic, he’s saying novenas and praying that Erie County government will not follow through with threats to cut discretionary funding from the county budget. The county budget is due Dec. 7, a day that could live in town budget infamy.

The county executive has threatened to produce a budget that has zero discretionary spending, which means no sheriffs’ road patrols. It means no library funding, McMahon said Monday. If such a budget is adopted, the town would be without some vital services, he added.

“They may not be mandated in (County Executive Joel Giambra’s) budget, but police protection isn’t discretionary. It’s just not, no matter what he calls it,” McMahon said. The Town Board has spent hours working on ways to fund those vital services, McMahon said, just in case the county adopted what he called a “Draconian” budget. A contingency plan would eliminate some discretionary funding, put a freeze on major purchases, and preclude endorsement of capital improvements. The town can get through 2005, McMahon said, hopeful that by 2006 the county executive’s office “will have come to their senses.”

Wait and See

“The only thing we can do is wait and see what the county does, and the state, should they decide to bail out the county,” McMahon said. The matter came up during a work session prior to the regular meeting on Monday, when members of the Grand Island Parks and Recreation Advisory Board asked the board for a commitment in the form of a motion supporting the construction of a community center at Veterans Park.

Paul Belter, chairman of the Grand Island Parks and Recreation Advisory Board asked in a letter to the town board to “immediately show its enthusiastic support and firm commitment for this long-studied and proposed community project by passing a formal motion to commence design and construction of this town community center.”

Belter told the board that the proposed Parks and Recreation Community Center would cost an estimated $6 million. Grand Island taxpayers with property assessed at $100,000 would pay approximately $100 a year on a 20-year bond to fund the project. Belter also estimated the operation and maintenance of the facility would cost $270,000, offset by rental fee income approaching $300,000 a year.

The town at one time funded a $12,000 feasibility study for the community center proposal with Cannon Design, Belter said, “But we were asking tonight for a commitment so we could move ahead in working with the business and private sector of the community to put together additional funding, donations, and so on, to help alleviate the cost of the project.”

Proposal Tabled

McMahon told Belter that had the Town Board budgeted for police service this year, the cost to the general fund would have gone up $1.56 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Add another 50 cents for library funding. “And we only have a $2.56 tax now,” McMahon said. “We can survive 2005, but we can’t spend $15,000 or $20,000 to update a study if we can’t fund vital public services,” McMahon said.

Though members of the board expressed support for the community center concept, after much discussion, the board tabled the matter until its Dec. 20 meeting, at which time McMahon said he would be happy to consider the proposal, providing the town did not get “bombed” by the county. “Any other year, the request might not be so tenuous,” McMahon said.

Belter said a proposed $14 million community center lost in a referendum in 1997. The project is part of the Veterans Park Master Plan, which was passed in 1992 and updated in 2003 with the input of the advisory committee, Belter added.

Asked if he was satisfied with the board tabling the matter until later, Belter responded, “No. None of us are because we’ve worked so hard on this, and It’s been very difficult over a period of years since the defeat of the referendum to get a commitment.”

No residents spoke in favor or against the 2005 preliminary budget at a public hearing preceding the regular meeting. The board amended the preliminary budget to eliminate 3 percent raises for themselves. Town employees will still receive their 3 percent raise, however. The amendment passed by a 5-0 vote.

Also at the meeting, no residents spoke in the public hearing regarding the proposed town contract with the Grand Island Fire Company. The board later authorized the supervisor to sign the contract, which totals $749,724 for fire protection in 2005.

Grand Island Proposed Budget Summary