2011 budget to spend less revenue

The village of Amelia public works department head Rick Rowland received a raise for the second time in 2010 at the final village council meeting of the year. Council approved the raise to thank Rowland for his cost cutting efforts.

Rowland announced at the Dec. 20 meeting that the village saved about $475 in leaf collection this year by delivering the leaves to Sue Pope instead of paying Rumkpe to haul them away. Pope uses the leaves for compost at her farm. Rowland also saved Amelia an estimated $2,310 on labor and electricity by not placing the old Christmas lights around the village and placing banners instead. He has also made in-house repairs to village vehicles and became certified in playground equipment inspection to ensure the village playground equipment meets safety and insurance requirements.

At least one council member was reluctant to approve the raise. Councilman Chuck Thacker voted against the measure.

“Mr. Rowland does a great job, that’s why we gave him a raise earlier this year, but I don’t feel comfortable giving an employee a raise twice in one year,” Thacker said. “Especially since our police officers haven’t had a raise in a number of years.”

Councilman Bob Pollitt said the financial committee continues to finalize the 2011 temporary appropriations. The committee is trying to ensure that each fund is only appropriating 85 percent of its revenue in an effort to reach more stable financial ground. Rowland’s raise remains within those parameters.

“All the significant funds are at 85 percent,” Fiscal officer Bill Gilpin said. “The, what I would call, insignificant funds would be the ones that get a donation or something like that that are in a separate fund. The general fund, the three street related funds, and the police levy fund are all at 85 percent.”

Gilpin said previous appropriations were much higher in the past six years. He said both 2008 and 2009 had appropriations higher than 100 percent of village revenue. The 2010 appropriations were the lowest in recent years.

Chief Jeff Sucher said his department is working hard to stay within their levy-funded budget. He thanked council for their support.

“As this is my last report of the year I would like to take the time to thank our mayor and council members for their hard work in support of the police levies,” Sucher said. “We certainly have some financial obstacles ahead, however, Amelia Police Department is committed to continuing to provide the best service we can despite tough economic times.”

Council approved the purchase of a new Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser to replace a cruiser that broke down earlier this year. Sucher said he wanted to move forward with the purchase soon because a completely redesigned Crown Victoria is expected to be released late next year. The new car would require new mounting hardware for all of the police equipment and some equipment may not fit at all. Sucher said purchasing a new cruiser now would save the village from purchasing all new hardware for the time being.