Elgin residents give ideas for 2015 budget
From creating quiet zones at railroad crossings to investing in energy conservation, residents gave a range of ideas at Elgin's first community budget input meeting Thursday.
About 25 people attended the meeting, whose goal was to find out what residents want to “start, stop or continue doing” in Elgin as the city begins its 2015 budget process, Elgin management analyst Laura Valdez-Wilson said. The city's fiscal year starts Jan. 1.
Quiet zones would cost $750,000 to $1 million in mandated safety improvements at each crossing, city officials said.
“This is one of the telling examples (of decisions) that the city council will be faced with, and it's going to be depending on the outpouring of support, or fervor against that,” Assistant City Manager Rick Kozal said.
Darlene Hulin, a member of the city's cultural arts commission, said Elgin needs a communication director, a position budgeted for 2014 and for whom candidates are being interviewed. Another resident, however, thought that would be a waste of money.
A couple of people suggested increasing job shadowing and internship opportunities within the city, which currently has low levels of municipal debt.
Resident Henoch Fuentes asked for soccer fields to be built at Lords Park, Wing Park and other parks in town. Any new fields should be lighted, an expense unnecessarily allocated to poorly frequented tennis courts, he added.
Fuentes also said the city needs to provide literacy programs for Spanish-speakers with low levels of education. “We need to teach Spanish to the Spanish-speakers in order for them to learn English,” he said.
Resident Darin Anderson said residents should have more of a voice if they want traffic calming devices such as speed bumps.
The city should provide co-working spaces for startup companies, resident Francisco Martinez said.
“There is nothing other than the Elgin Technology Center. The city should spend money on that,” he said.
Other suggestions included requiring city staff members to have postsecondary degrees if they deal directly with the public, improving the gateways into the city, having better marketing for the Hemmens Cultural Center, investing in energy conservation measures for public buildings and developing a winter festival at Festival Park.
The city will host another community budget input meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria of Prairie Knolls Middle School, 225 Nesler Road, Elgin.
Residents can also give their input on the upcoming 2015 budget process online at cityofelgin.org/strategicplan.
That feature will be operational in about a week, city officials said.