Municipal budget proposed to increase 2.3 percent
The Garden City Board of Trustees held its fifth budget session last week where Village Administrator Ralph Suozzi presented projections on capital projects for the year ending May 31, 2016.
According to Suozzi, the village has a five-year capital plan which totals to $26 million and is an ongoing progress that began prior to the initial budget presentation. He presented the village’s municipal budget of $57.09 million last month, which represents a 2.34 percent increase over the current $55.8 million budget.
Suozzi said that additional rigor has been added to the process, which include projects evaluated for priorities, vetted project requests with village department heads and supervisors, refined numbers through February and March presentations, assembled backup support documents for contemplated decisions, and adjusted/shifted funding requests based on new/lack of information.
The total capital projects cost stands at $5.1 million for 2015-16, and future projections are $5.4 million in 2016-17, $5.5 million in 2017-18, $4.8 million in 2018-19 and $4.7 million in 2019-20.
Suozzi announced changes made to projects, including a $17,000 increase with recreation parks and equipment (now $194,000), $150,000 for a full refurbishment of the existing 40-year-old elevator at the Garden City Public Library, a $75,000 decrease for police vehicles (now $143,000), $70,000 for a street and park tree management plan, a $10,000 decrease in fire apparatus replacement schedule (now $65,000), a $5,000 increase to athletic field rehabilitation for the village’s recreation facilities (now $40,000), $30,000 for DPW technology and $25,000 for finance technology.
The library elevator refurbishment was explained by Suozzi to be divided into two parts —the first to replace all moving parts, costing between $55,000 and $60,000 —and the second to replacement equipment beneath the elevator.
On police vehicles, Suozzi said the village is still on schedule to get five new police cars, however there were purchases made this year and current outstanding state contracting issues, which are in the process of being settled. Suozzi also said the recommended replacement of police vehicles is 50,000 miles—the top ten vehicles in the fleet average 72,000 miles, and the top five average 83,000 miles.
For the athletic field rehabilitations, Suozzi said the village had a placeholder of $35,000 for a study regarding the geo-technical specifications under the field at the community park, which is a natural field. Suozzi also said that equipment replacement for recreation and parks is necessary due to a harsh winter season.
In 2016-17, the village anticipates to spend $650,000 on the athletic field rehabilitation, which Suozzi explained that is a placeholder as well, and the actual amount is to be determined based on results from the study and option chosen.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Recreation and Parks Kevin Ocker added that the study will examine the area for synthetic turf or natural, and that the $650,000 figure is, “a low end estimate for the construction of natural turn on only 191,000 sq. ft.”
According to Ocker, the village has a separate project listed for the installation of lighting, should they decide on synthetic turf for the soccer field as well as fields three and four that already have lighting.
“This would maximize our use of a field that is currently not lighted and increase our revenue potential considerably,” Ocker said. “The most important issue is that we must correct the existing degraded conditions on fields three and four, and the baseball fields at minimum—if the project were to be all synthetic including the soccer filed we create the potential for $100,000 in new revenues and at least $20,000 net savings in annual maintenance costs.”
The village also has a $400,000 streetscape rehabilitation project planned for 2015-16, which Suozzi said the scope of the project is to be determined by a study.
For 2015-16, the proposed budget for roads and curbs is $2.5 million, which represents 48 percent of the total capital projects budget. According to Suozzi, the minimum annual recommended maintenance of roads is 3.7 miles—74 miles at a 20-year cycle.
“This maintenance cycle has not been consistently applied over the last 10 years, which was resulted in an increased need for investment in the future years,” Suozzi said. “The proposed road repairs budget allows for paving of approximately 5.4 miles of road.”
For equipment, the budget is proposed at $1.2 million, representing 23 percent of the capital projects, and Suozzi pointed out that the village’s DPW equipment is “beyond the average useful life, and is no longer cost effective to continue to maintain.”
The DPW equipment cost is at $798,000, and is expected to increase to $1 million in 2016-17.
The proposed technology budget is $105,000, comprising of two percent of capital projects, and these costs include hardware replacements and iPad purchases. For police, these are costs of dashcam/body camera tests as well as computerizing vehicles such as fingerprint systems, which Suozzi said the village is currently looking into possible grants.
With the DPW, technology includes GPS tracking of vehicles, and for finance, security for the Garden City Village Hall building and telephone system upgrade.
Funding sources for the capital projects are $2.6 million in bonds, $1.9 million in property taxes, and $645,000 in other, which includes NYS Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program, resident sidewalk reimbursements and trade-ins.
The village’s water enterprise fund has projects that total at $5.2 million for 2015-16, which include water main improvements, water meter replacement program and electrical controls at the village’s country club site. In 2016-17, Suozzi said the village plans to rehabilitate an existing water tank for $3.4 million, or construct a new tank at its existing location for $7.5 million.
The tennis enterprise fund has a $150,000 project for a high efficiency AllCourt LED lighting system in 2015-16, and the village estimates 40 percent efficiency savings in electric usage.
“Our current electric budget of $45,000 equals $18,000 in savings,” Suozzi said. “The energy savings are expected to cover an increase in depreciation expense, and the installation time is one week.”
The pool enterprise fund has a $35,000 project for 2015-16 that is funding to retain professional engineering services to provide preliminary cost estimates, floor plans and concept design for the total rehabilitation of the pool’s men and women shower/restroom, changing areas, office and reception areas.
Suozzi also discussed estimated tax cap restrictions on growth, explaining that if the tax cap is set at one percent growth in 2016-17, $234,000 (48 percent) of the growth is needed to fund the increase in the debt service cost.
“The actual tax cap may be considerably less,” Suozzi said. In 2015-16, the village’s total debt service cost is $1.9 million.
The village currently has outstanding debt service of $10 million, and estimates $5.6 million in bonding for 2015, proposes $2.6 million in financing in 2015-16, and estimates that the village will assume $2.2 million per year from 2016-17 through 2024-25.
