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Parkesburg Hopes To End Year With A $350,000 Surplus
By Karen Neuhauser Ruppert
Special to the Local News
PARKESBURG — The Borough will end 2007 with a surplus of about $356,000, according to Council Vice President David Jones, who also chairs the borough’s finance committee.
The surplus is a significant change from the beginning of the fiscal year, which the borough began with a $212,000 deficit. Jones shared the news with council recently at its regular monthly meeting.
Jones commended borough secretary Wendy Keegan and Borough Manager Jim Thomas for keeping spending 14 percent under budget. He also passed out copies of the first draft of the borough’s 2008 budget, which is about $2,000 from being balanced, if Phase II of the park revitalization is not included.
For residents, the news means there will be no tax increase projected for next year.
“We feel borough residents need a break from (tax increases) at least for a year,” Jones said. “They’ve been hit pretty hard for a number of years.”
Jones said council’s focus has been on trying make the borough become more fiscally responsible. He believes the borough should be able to offer more support to the library and fire department in the future, and that it might not be necessary to raise taxes to do so.
One item in the budget still in flux is the police budget. According to Jones, the borough is still negotiating with Honey Brook Township, and it is uncertain whether Honey Brook will renew its contract for police services. Also, the police contract is still being negotiated.
Included in the draft budget is a 4 percent salary increase for the police officers, as well as a 12 percent increase for benefits for the officers. The borough projects that the costs of benefits for its 17 borough employees, which includes administrators, police employees and streets department employees, will be about $521,000 next year.
Another budget item needing to be resolved is the park revitalization.
Phase II, which was to start this year, was postponed due to lack of funding. Although the majority of the $550,000 cost of that portion of the project was to be covered by county funds, there were two parts that could not be resolved in the 2007 budget.
First, the grant stipulated that the borough had to pay $50,000 toward the project. Second, the grants are reimbursements, so the borough would have had to pay the entire amount of the project then wait for reimbursement from the county.
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