By Ashley McLeod, Staff writer
May 2, 2016, 12:48
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — City Council approved the city’s FY 2016-2017 budget on a first reading at a meeting on April 26, with all but one councilor voting for approval.
The budget, which comes to a total of $78,037,047, included an underlying theme of safety for the city. It includes a large sum of money, which will go into expanding and updating the emergency radio system used by fire, EMS and police, and will also send a large amount of funds to city schools, to pay for capital improvement projects needed for renovations.
Some of the funding for the budget will come from an increase in property taxes, an ordinance that councilors are having a hard time swallowing in order to pay for projects needing funds.
“I have struggled with increasing the real estate rate a lot. I don’t want to but I will, as long as the increase goes directly towards those projects,” said Mayor Greg Kochuba.
Additional money brought in from the tax increase will go directly towards funding projects in the school system and also improving and updating the emergency radio systems in the city.
The radio project includes updating the radio equipment used by the fire department, police department, and sheriff’s office. The updated equipment will also benefit the school system, giving schools and buses the ability to more easily connect with the police and fire departments.
The price tag for the radio project is approximately $6 million, but this price could change when final numbers are submitted.
The need for new radio systems for emergency services comes as technology advances, and new and better equipment is released.
“We are faced today with a situation where the communications system that we currently have is going to be obsolete very soon,” said Councilor John Wood. “Which means that our fire, police, and emergency personnel, are not going to be able to communicate outside of the city in order to coordinate their efforts in the event of an emergency, either inside the city or a regional emergency.”
“It is critical for our fire and police to be able to communicate not only internally but externally in order to coordinate resources,” said Wood.
The radio system will put Colonial Heights up to par with neighboring localities when it comes to technology in the emergency sector.
The budget will also allocate approximately $5 million dollars to the school system, which will help to fund several projects to improve the school system in the city.
These projects include renovations of the high school science labs, parking lot improvements at North Elementary, locker room renovations at the high school, roof replacements, and more.
The need for repairs and renovations to city schools stems from the importance of the safety of the students and anyone visiting the schools, as well as extending the usage of the current facilities. Building a new school is much more expensive for the city than repairing existing ones.
“If we do not repair, and upgrade, and maintain the school buildings, we’re going to be faced with a lot bigger cost for a new building,” said Wood.
When voting on the ordinance to raise the property tax, all but one councilor voted for the increase. Councilor Frenier voted against the tax increase, along with a vote against passing the budget as it is.
Frenier said he could not agree with the budget due to the failure to include a request from the Fire and EMS department for additional staffing of six positions. The personnel requested would allow for two on-duty firefighters at all times.
Frenier saw the request for additional staffing as an important addition to the city.
“By not having the additional fire personnel that were asked for, the city is not going to be able to adequately staff the amount of ambulances that we’re accustomed to having, and we’re going to have to rely on mutual aid to come in when multiple calls get racked up,” said Frenier.
Frenier put out the possibility of raising the property tax by 12 cents, which would have put the tax at one of the highest rates in the history of the city.
The 6-cent tax increase, if passed in the second reading, will go into effect in January of 2017. Once the final prices for the radio project are figured out, the tax may be lowered if there is room to do so.
Several council members stated their dislike of having to raise the property tax but agreed that the tax increase was the right thing to do in order to have the money to pay for the necessary projects, which are critical to the safety of the city – both citizens as well as students.
“A lot of our projects are tied to safety,” said Kochuba. “We’ve got to keep our students safe, and we’ve got to keep our citizens safe.”
