×

Rogers City funds face deficits for ’17-18

ROGERS CITY — The Rogers City marina fund and local street funds both will have deficits for the 2017-18 budget.

These details were discussed at the first City of Rogers City Council budget workshop meeting Tuesday.

“The garbage fund has $7,000 surplus, the equipment fund has almost $4,000,” City Manager Joe Hefele said. “The marina fund is in the hole over $34,000 and that’s bare bones. We’re probably low on that. I think if we staff like we did last year there’s an additional four to five grand in wages that I’m not showing in there.”

Hefele said he worked on the budget to combine line items and categories to reduce the size by 40 percent. An auditor oversaw this work, he said.

Hefele said the budget doesn’t include major projects or purchases.

“In the first draft the general fund has a surplus of $110,000,” he said. “The major street fund is $180,790. The local street fund has a deficit of $31,340. The van fund has a surplus of $850. The (community development authority) has a surplus of $1,990.”

He said the treatment plant after its contributions to the RI, bond reserve and the $23,000 for future capital improvements, still has an additional $31,000. The water fund after its contributions to RI, bond reserve and $23,000 for capital improvements still has almost $67,000 in it.

Hefele said there are three street areas the council can look into fixing.

“Some of them are shot,” he said. “We’ve tried to stay geographically close and we avoided areas with shot water pipe before we can address the street. For this year the three areas we were looking at which is all of Linden from Spruce all the way to Third street. All of Pine to Third Street where it ends at Burch. The hill on Lark street from Bradley to Linden. That’s one option.”

Another option, he said, continues to be Doris, which needs curb work.

“We’ve got some sinkholes and stuff we need to dig some holes to figure out what’s going on there,” he said. “All of Doris, Sixth Street from Erie to Woodward. Ontario from Fifth up to Seventh. Then that rotten stretch of Sixth Street that goes from Orchard to Industrial Park Drive.”

The third option is looking at the area near the Little League field and parks.

“(It) would be basically all of Ontario from Fourth Street across Third and all the way until it ends at Lake Street,” he said. “The patches that haven’t been done on Orchard, which is from Third to Second, then First to Calcite then that stretch of Lake Street that’s shot down there.”

Hefele said the costs for the projects range between $166,000 to $200,000.

Mayor Pro Tem Gary Nowak suggested the city do the cheapest project and save money this year and put it into First Street next year.

“You’ve got plenty of street money to do First Street. You’re going to be limited in how much you can invest in water money next year,” Hefele said.

Council member Scott McLennan asked Hefele what his recommendation was.

“I know Toby likes the idea of starting near the park because of the amount of traffic it gets,” he said.

He said the one other thing he wanted to discuss was the marina fund because it will run a deficit.

“If we want to take this out of the black we need to begin promoting it,” Hefele said.

He said the city plans to update the marina website and officials would like to put $5,000 away to use for promotions.

“If you keep doing nothing it’s going to continue to fail,” Hefele said.

In order to apply for grants for the marina, Hefele said, the city needs to have the preliminary architecture work done.

“What I’m looking to put away is $10,000 to get these architectural things done so we can apply for grant money,” he said.

The council liked the idea.

There are more budget workshops scheduled and Hefele said the department heads will attend the next one to discuss their needs.

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today