| |
Speedway Adopts Weekly Recycling Pickup
(posted Nov 17)
The Speedway Town Council approved of solid waste commission's recommendation
to award Republic Services a one year recycling contract. Residents will
have a weekly pickup starting in 2009, pending contract acceptance. Even
though the cost per household will increase by $2.82, Town Manager Barbara
Lawrence said there will be no increase in the fee currently collected
from residents.
Residents will receive a 18 gallon bin, and if needed, a second bin will be furnished at no additional cost.
Town Manager Barbara Lawrence said the solid waste commission did not think
it was economically feasible at this time to go with an automated system,
but would like to move toward that direction in the future.
The council also approved on first reading its 2009 budget of $12,104,208.
Crowe Horwath financial advisor Tom Guevara said the budget increased by
eight percent from last year. The property tax levy cannot increase more
than four percent by law. The town received $1.38 million in public safety
income tax revenue which helped fund the town's cash needs and fire and
police department budgets. That fund is expected to drop to about $1 million
for 2009.
Since the fund is based on income tax , Guevara said the fund needs to
be watched due to the economic conditions.
Jo Ellen Dotlich, associated with Speedway Industrial Park, discussed news
reports concerning economic conditions. She expressed concern about the
recession and wanted the council and the Speedway Redevelopment Commission
to re-evaluate the redevelopment project based on other multi-million dollar
projects being put on hold. She called the project "a gamble and a
land grab." She said the money will have to be paid back by taxpayers
no matter what the outcome is.
Council President Gary Raikes gave his own personal comment. He recognized the downtimes included decreasing revenues and rising costs, but he said the redevelopment is a conservative approach. "The whole purpose of the redevelopment is to better position to deal with these down times." He said the town has received a significant amount of review, oversight and input from its professional partners. "It has not been done loosely or carelessly."
Raikes said the time to take action in the real estate market is when the
economy is down. He said the town has positioned itself well with "partners
in and outside of the community to take action." He said there are
companies that want to be here.
"Not taking action for 30 or 35 or longer years has put us in a position
that we are in now. Where we are looking around our town, we are seeing
rust. We are seeing decay, and that's a problem."
|
|