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Energy costs, health care key for Bradford budget
By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER
Era Reporter
marcie@bradfordera.com
Budget talks for next year are just beginning for the City of Bradford, and Mayor Tom Riel explained Friday that energy costs and health care are the primary areas of concern for the city.
Department heads have presented preliminary figures to city council for consideration, and the mayor said it’s too soon to tell if there will be a need to raise taxes.
“At this point, it hasn’t been discussed,” he said, explaining council has only had one preliminary budget hearing. “This is the first the department heads have laid anything on the table for council to consider.”
Referring to the proposals from department heads, Riel said, “There’s no real surprises.
“We expected oil and gas to come in over budget for obvious reasons,” he said, remarking on the ever-changing fuel prices that have skyrocketed in recent months.
“Health care costs continue to escalate,” Riel said. “They’ve doubled in the last five years.
“Health care costs made up approximately 12 percent of last year’s $7.3 million budget for the city,” he said. “That’s a huge amount.”
Riel said the city has more than 100 employees, and the costs for the insurance “have gotten out of control.”
The mayor described the submitted requests of each city department so far.
“There’s been a lot of significant changes in the police department this year,” Riel explained. Two new teams have been formed in the department — a Street Crimes Unit and Emergency Response Team. Riel said the equipment has been donated for those.
“The police are under budget on almost every item except oil and gas,” he explained.
Riel said the police department is considering leasing two new patrol vehicles next year “rather than continuing to dump money into the maintenance of the old ones. About half of their vehicle maintenance budget could be saved by leasing two new vehicles.”
In the parks department, next year will bring construction of the new splash park at Callahan Park. Funds from the Community Development Block Grant program and from a state grant are being used for that project.
“As with several departments, the fire department needs a lot of maintenance on their Chestnut Street building,” Riel said. “The external maintenance of the building has fallen behind for years ... the doors, the brickwork, it deteriorates very rapidly.”
In the streets and refuse division, Riel said the city has been experiencing some savings.
“We are saving some money by going to the Chautauqua County landfill,” he said. The tipping fees there are cheaper than at Rustick LLC in Hutchins.
The preliminary budget for 2009 will be unveiled at the city council meeting Nov. 25 and voted on for final passage on Dec. 23.
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