Chuck Hope
Editor’s note: The following proposals by Oak Ridge City Council member Chuck Hope were first considered at the Monday, May 13, City Council meeting but postponed to a special meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 16, in the Municipal Building Courtroom.
I would like to make a motion for an amendment to the ordinance to provide revenue for municipal purposes for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2013, to increase the funding in the general fund in three critical areas.
The first area is in economic development. I would like to increase funding by $200,000 to strengthen our economic strategies that the city manager has proposed for the upcoming year. I would like to see an additional $75,000 be added to the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce contract to fully fund the three-part approach the city manager has developed, with the remaining $125,000 set aside to be used if any additional projects come forward this next calendar year.
The second part of this amendment would be to add $250,000 to the capital maintenance portion of our maintenance and operations (M&O) budget. We have several projects that will need to be updated and repaired this next year. If put off until further in the future, we will be doing these projects under a emergency situation, which always cost us more in repairs. It is essential that we maintain a proper M&O budget so we can get the most out of all of our city assets.
The third part of this amendment would be to add $50,000 to start the process of pre-engineering drawing and studies for the relocation of Fire Station No. 2 to Melton Lake Drive. This needs to happen because we have residents in the far southeast quadrant of the city that don’t get our city-wide reduced fire rate on their home owners’ insurance, and they fall outside the five-mile radius to achieve the discount rate. We need to start this process and come up with near-term solutions while we come up with the proper long-term solution to better protect all of our residents of the city. By moving Fire Station No. 2, we can achieve this realignment at the lowest possible cost to the city.
So in closing, I would like to see the city manager add this $500,000 to the city budget to fund these three key areas of our upcoming budget through system-wide budget reductions and/or a reduction in the total fund balance.
Chuck Hope is an Oak Ridge City Council member.
BSShipley says
Keep up the good work. Your helpng our city move in the right direction. Economic growth right now is the most important factor. Business and citizens have to see you are working for them. Also the more positve positions you take the better off we will be. Enough with the negativity that councel-wormen Baughn seems to thrive on.
TJ Garland says
Great Chuck, but can you tell me if the city is actually “making money”–IOW are we paying down our debt while doing these capital improvements?
We seem to have lots of money for parks and recreation.
Is it time and do we have the money for all the potholes and street paving that is needed?
Angi Agle says
Thanks for your effort, Chuck. It was not lost on me that yours was the only proposal that would have done anything at all for the schools, in the worst fiscal climate we’ve ever faced.
Sam Hopwood says
But isn’t this the same school system that just hired a new Super at an annual salary of $178K, $43K more than the previous Super? The BOE did not bat an eye at that. And isn’t this the same BOE that is proposing to give the top paid teachers a $500 bonus while laying off a number of employees? Worst fiscal climate indeed! Come on Angie, you can spin it better than that.
Sidebar to John…. Sorry if I wandered off topic a bit. I’ll try to do better.