LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX [LOST III] COMMISSION: The joint commission authorized by Aiken County Council held its organizational meeting on Monday, May 10, 2010, and began their review of projects submitted by the City of Aiken, Aiken County, City of North Augusta, and the smaller communities in Aiken County on Monday, May 17, 2010. The City of North Augusta representative is Eddie Butler, who was elected the Commission’s Chair. Aiken County representatives are Mark Gibson, who was elected Vice Chair, Jimmy Winkler, and Randy Morgan. Nora Sanders of the Lower Savannah Council of Governments [LSCOG] represents Aiken County’s smaller communities, and Wade Brodie is the City of Aiken Commissioner. We will continue to monitor the process of developing the LOST III capital project list for the November ballot. Aiken County Council should conduct a final vote on the ballot list this summer.
WORK SESSION – PRESENTATION BY COUNCIL ON AGING – 6:30 P.M. – Scott Murphy, Director of the Council on Aging, would like to discuss with City Council several financial concerns that they are facing with cut backs from the federal, state and local entities. They are concerned about several programs that they currently operate and would like to share these concerns with Council. They understand that City Council has not directly funded nonprofits in the past. However, they would like Council to understand their concerns and to see what, if anything, can be done to help the seniors in our community, both now and in the future. According to Mr. Murphy’s letter, demand for services, which include meals served and meals delivered, is increasing while funding from the United Way Agency has decreased by 58% ($72,900). Funding has also decreased from the State of South Carolina and from the Lower Savannah Council of Governments. Last year the Council of Aging provided transportation of 9,759 seniors for 63,052 trips totaling 451,101 miles for nutritional assistance, medical, shopping, employment, and social activities. Without additional funding they face the terrible task of reducing services to some of the most needy in our community. Please consider a private donation to the Council on Aging of Aiken, 159 Morgan Street NW, Aiken, SC 29801.
APPROVAL OF STORMWATER WORK AT WHITNEY POLO FIELD: At our last Council meeting we discussed the stormwater maintenance that is required at the Whitney Polo fields. The homes along Knox Avenue and the area surrounding the polo field flood during heavy rain events. The stormwater is flowing from the polo fields and other areas into the back of the lots as well as from the Knox Avenue area. We recently received drawings from the Whitney Trust showing the original design of the drainage system for the track and the field. The design utilized two ditches, one on the inside of the track which was a few feet deep, and then a much larger ditch outside the track which was over six feet in depth in many areas. These ditches have silted in with sediment over the last several decades. Trees and shrubs have also grown up in these areas. To restore them to their original design will require heavy clearing and cleaning.
The City of Aiken intends to use individuals from our Stormwater Division for the majority of this work. They will clear the vegetation in these areas, and then clean out both of these ditches. By deepening these ditches they will then act as mini-detention areas and allow the water to percolate into the existing soil. If we cannot find the original piping we will install new pipes to allow access to the field in several areas. We estimate the work to take approximately five weeks utilizing a four man crew. The cost of our labor and equipment is estimated to be approximately $76,500. Except for the stormwater pipe and hiring someone to remove large trees, the funds are already in our Stormwater Division. The only additional cost is for the pipe and tree removal which would be no more than $5,000.
Prior to starting this work, Ben Moore will execute an agreement with the Whitney Trustees, which will allow us to work on this property and restore any railing which may be damaged while performing this maintenance.
A meeting with the Whitney Trustees has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at 7 P.M. in the Council Chambers to discuss possible ways to preserve this property.
APPROVAL OF BUS SHELTERS: At the April 26, 2010 meeting City Council approved a grant to obtain two bus shelters, one for Aiken Regional Hospital and the other on South Carolina 19 near Hahn Village. The Lower Savannah Council of Governments will receive a grant from the Federal Transit Authority to purchase these shelters.
We have looked at the various bus shelters available, and we have selected two examples for Council's consideration. We would prefer the peaked roof design over the barrel. The Lower Savannah Council of Governments states the attached designs are examples only since the bids will be placed with companies to secure the exact product. Once the bids have been received the shelters will be delivered to the actual site at which point our Public Works crews will install the shelters on a concrete slab.
For City Council's consideration, this is approval of either the peaked roof design or barrel roof for bus shelters at Hahn Village and the hospital.
APPROVAL OF PUBLIC SAFETY GRANT: The Public Safety Department has been notified by the United States Department of Justice that we are eligible for a $16,185 grant from the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program. This is a 100% grant and no matching funds are required. The Department would use these funds to replace four obsolete VHS in-car video cameras with new DVD camera systems. With these four additional units and what is currently in the budget, we believe all the Public Safety vehicles would then be equipped with DVD cameras.
SECOND READING OF AN ORDINANCE TO SET THE MILLAGE RATE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010-2011: Every year City Council adopts a budget for the following year and also a separate ordinance that establishes the millage rate to meet the budget needs. Two years ago the millage rate changed from 71 mills to 66 mills. This year by maintaining the millage rate at 66 mills you will have experienced 22 consecutive fiscal years without a millage rate increase. Over that period of time we have actually reduced the millage rate on 5 separate occasions from 120 mills to the current 66 mills or a 45% decrease. This is in spite of recent revenue losses during tough economic times and the loss of revenue from reduced telecommunications and vehicle taxes amounting to well over $1 million every year. We are happy to have been able to control raising taxes, and we contribute the success to the careful stewardship of these funds by Council and staff alike.
SECOND READING OF AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010-2011: For the past couple of years we have been facing difficult economic times within our community, state and nation. Although the City of Aiken has weathered most of the problems, we still find that our building permits, state funding, vehicle taxes and interest will be well short of our peak in 2007. Next fiscal year we project that we will continue to fall short of the revenues that we received two years ago by 55% for building permits, 35% for state revenue, 85% for interest earned on investments, and 15% on vehicle taxes. This amounts to a $150,000 loss for building permits, $240,000 reduction from the State, and a $380,000 loss in interest earned on investments. Altogether our revenues and expenditures will shrink by 1% from the budget two years ago.
Last year we cut or suspended several items that we would normally purchase and many of these are in this year's budget. We have increased our capital purchases by $500,000 in comparison to last year, primarily consisting of 13 new police vehicles, 25 new self-contained breathing apparatus for our Fire Department, new solid waste equipment, an aerial truck, and security cameras and equipment at our recreational sites. This year we have fully funded the vast majority of our Depreciation Accounts, except for Building Depreciation which amounts to approximately $150,000 per year.
The budget reflects a new Community Policing Grant for four positions, three of which were frozen last year. We still have 5 other positions in other departments that are frozen this year which will not be filled until the economy dramatically improves.
Even with the difficult economy we are seeing increases in our personal property tax from new homes and business, and we anticipate an increase of over $300,000 from what we received two years ago. Although building permits have been down the last two years, we are starting to see a rebound and expect a slight growth in new housing next year.
The budget includes a small payroll increase of 1% for all full and part-time employees. The increase would be provided only if we have a sufficient surplus from this year's budget. This past February we enacted a 5% increase for our employees to pay for health insurance, and we will continue to monitor this during the next fiscal year to determine if any additional increases are necessary to maintain our health costs.
Last year City Council asked us to add major security at our H. O. Weeks and Smith-Hazel recreational centers. We are finalizing the plans for the security equipment and have funded the equipment and two part-time employees for security at these locations during evenings and weekends.
We have not removed funding within the budget for any of the agencies that we have supported in the past. This includes the Library for $12,000, ADDA $60,000, Lower Savannah Council of Governments (Best Friend Express) $15,000, Economic Development Partnership $10,000, and from the Victims Services budget $9,000 for the Child Advocacy Center and $9,000 for the Cumbee Center.
We are also providing $6,000 from our Accommodations taxes for the Center for the Arts to help provide assistance for public restrooms at their facilities. The budget also includes funding to continue the facade grant program, road network studies for the Northside, Dougherty Road, and SC 19; and post retirement health benefits of $225,000.
From the Local Option Sales Tax we have included funding for several water and sewer rehabilitation projects, mobile bleachers, capping of the former landfill, reducing stormwater in Hitchcock Woods, Northside road studies, Citizens Park walking trail, and restrooms, street resurfacing, and Whiskey Road sidewalks.
We prepared the budget to try to meet the short term and long term goals that Council approved from our Horizons Retreat. Within the General Fund there are no tax increases for the 22nd year and no other increased fees are proposed.
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