Politics & Government
City Council Reviews Tax Levy
The four tax levies will be voted upon at the Dec. 20 meeting.
The city council read the property tax levy and three special district levies—which will be voted on Monday, Dec. 20—in the city council meeting yesterday, Monday, Dec. 6 at City Hall.
The property tax levy will be $21,303,887—$18,527,633 after abatements on the debt service levy. He said $14,988,095 will go to general services and the remaining $3,539,538 will go to debt.
Rose also read six ordinances for the levying and appropriation of taxes in three special service areas.
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Special Service Area Number Two is for downtown parking in the central business district and will be $43,500.
"This levy was created years ago to raise revenue lost from removing the parking meters downtown," Rose said.
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Special Service Area Number Three levy will raise $18,000 for maintenance in the Streams Subdivision, Rose said.
The tax levy in Special Service Area Number Six will raise $230,000. The Downtown Wheaton Association would use the money for various maintenance, management and promotional activities and expenses.
The council also passed a bid waiver for purchasing a new asphalt maintenance distributor. The current distributor is from 1983 and has logged 28,245 miles and 819 hours of use.
The bid, from vendor E.D. Etnyre & Co., was $48,072, but $692 over budget. Rose said purchasing officer Joan Schouten looked at other options to reduce the bid before she came forward with a bid waiver.
The council also authorized a $3,000 monthly lease for the Manchester Road Water Tower and authorized the expenditure of $27,670.50 for the Wesley Street garage lighting replacement, with the money coming from the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant.
"The (water tower) lease is at a more competitive rate than some of the older lease rates we've gotten in the past," Rose said.
Councilman Todd Scalzo said, "I wanted to commend staff for the water tower lease and the Wesley Street lighting," Scalzo said. "It looks like the revenue and cost savings would be about $50,000 a year to the city and it's kind of beneath the radar things go on that our staff is doing and I didn't want it to go unnoticed."
In other news, a city warrant of $467,913.15 was passed while Steph McGrath, Patricia Schwarze and Tracy were all reappointed to their respective commissions.
