MAYOR’S UPDATE
March 11, 2019
Donna D. Holaday, Mayor
Garage Fees: It may be premature to reduce monthly employee fees to $60/month before we have begun securing monthly passes and the facility is not yet open. We have a bond payment to make with these fees and we should see new financial projections based on these reduced amounts before any final decision is made by the full City Council.
41C1/2 Senior Property Tax Exemption: Ethan Manning, Finance Director and Jill Brennan, Assessor, compiled the information in your packet tonight regarding this important legislation to assist our seniors. As you recall, we filed a Home Rule Petition with the State to allow the city to place this measure on a municipal election. The information includes our current senior tax programs. If we make adjustments to the existing 41C program, we still will only be helping a very small number of senior property owners- 49. With the passage of 41C 1/2, we have the potential to assist more senior property owners depending on the age of eligibility selected- 188 if age 70 and 194 if age 65 selected. Please recall that this program also provides State reimbursement which limits the impact between $88,000 and $131,000 based on parameters selected. Following your review and anticipated vote on parameters, we plan to mobilize a community team with the Council on Aging to begin educating the community on this important program for our seniors.
Fire-Based EMS: Budget & Finance is holding a meeting Thursday night, 3/14 at 5:30 pm in the City Councilor Chambers to review the consultant report on the feasibility of the city running an ambulance service through the Fire Department.
Also on March 14th the proposals for the feasibility study on the West End fire station will be reviewed.
Transfer: The routine replacement of each firefighter’s protective gear is critical for their work and safety. The $28,000 transfer provides for the replacement of 8 sets and supplements the $17,500 spent to date. Please refer to Chief LeClaire’s memo for additional details.
Dewberry Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Contract: We will be meeting with our engineering consultant Dewberry this week to review their recommendations for increasing the protection of the Wastewater Treatment Facility from storm surge and sea level rise.
Fiscal Year 20 Budget Update: We have met with over half of the city departments in preparing the next fiscal year budget and hope to finish meetings by the end of next week. We are also working on the updates to the 5-year Capital Improvement Plan with an anticipated Order in your next City Council packet with the full plan on your desks for the April 8th meeting.