Town Funding Approaching Critical Levels


(posted Feb 11)

The Speedway Town Council does not have much time to develop a cash flow plan before April. The projection given at their February 11 meeting was that if nothing is done the general fund will run into a negative balance by April.

Clerk-Treasurer Sharon Zishka painted a dire need for the council to act quickly. She presented two options to the council. The first option is to continue to borrow from water and sewer depreciation funds. The second route is to borrow on the open market which means paying interest on a loan.

Although borrowing $1.5 million internally gives the town a cash flow without interest, it is not without its negative consequences to the town. It can prevent the water and waste water departments from using these funds to make equipment and plant improvements. The town would borrow $500,000 from water and $1 million from waste water.

Zishka explained the option to borrow internally would not completely empty the depreciation fund. It would leave Superintendent Norm Berry with $150,000 to make purchases with a remaining balance of $250,000. She said the depreciation funds build back up because they are a revenue generating account.

The town, like other communities, is not receiving its tax distributions because the property reassessment is not complete. The town is about $350,000 short because of the reassessment that gave local taxing units 2006 tax distributions to operate a 2007 budget. The final 2007 tax distributions are not expected to come until June and the 2008 payments will be completed in the first quarter of 2009.

Councilor Bill Suffel preferred to borrow internally to avoid interest payments that would further strain the town financially.

Councilor Lu Hillmer recommended a special meeting to discuss a plan with the town's financial advisor, Crowe Chizek.

The council has struggled since day one of 2008 to operate the town with the lack of tax distributions. On January 1, the council passed five resolutions borrowing $400,000 from the sewage improvement plan to fund the debt service reserve fund for the $600,000 general obligation principal payment. The council approved to borrow $225,000 from the sewage improvement plan to fund the fire pension, and $100,000 to fund the police pension.

The council borrowed $500,000 from the sewage depreciation fund and $500,000 from the sewage operation fund to cover the town's general fund.

The council nominated Tony Zishka and Steve Arisman to continue to serve on the cable advisory commission. President Gary Raikes encouraged other residents interested in serving on commissions to contact the council before its February 25 meeting. The council is also seeking to fill the vacancy on the Speedway Redevelopment Commission. Scott Harris resigned to accept the position as a paid executive director to the commission.

Police Chief Jeff Dine said the police department's dispatch room will be under construction starting Feb 18 to implement MECA's upgrade to digital equipment. The dispatchers will operate from Perry Township for the week. He said non-emergency calls will be taken locally by the clerical staff during business hours.

Dine also announced the department received a $20,000 grant for the street crime unit because of its proactive nature. He said the unit serves as a model for the other law enforcements to copy. He said the street unit is a covert operation that has generated its own leads to making arrests.

The retired K-9's vacancy has not been filled because a new dog was priced at $10,000. Dine thought the dog's cost was overpriced. He told the council the department will continue to rely on IMPD until he can find a dog at a lower cost.

Fire Chief Curtis Dean said the logistics for the temporary dispatch position are not adequate for fire service. Perry Township's dispatch center cannot implement the alert tones that are used in dispatching fire runs. He said he was turned down by IFD for dispatching service so the tones could be continued.

He said he will further investigate the issue.