Deer Park trustees debate how to spend money

Without additional funds from a sales tax increase voters rejected this year, Deer Park trustees Monday reviewed how they will spend the money they do have.

During a special board meeting, trustees gave their pitches for where each felt the village should spend its money next year.

One of the larger areas of disagreement among board members was how to pay for road and drainage repairs.

Trustee Bob Kellermann, proposed creating a five-year roads plan.

Kellermann said he thought the village should spend about $370,000 for the first year of the five-year program.

"If you don't put money into the roads, the maintenance costs are going to rise," Kellermann said.

Village President Scott Gifford suggested spending about $100,000 next year to fix cracks and potholes in the roads, rather than reconstruct them.

"There are a lot of roads in the village where patching can be done," Gifford said.

In the current economic climate, in which voters just rejected a sales tax in the village, Trustee David Kizior, said he thought that was too much to spend.

"I don't see how we fund $371,000 in this environment," Kizior said.

Village officials had hoped voters would have approved a proposed sales tax increase in February. If approved, the increase would have raised about $700,000 for roads and drainage improvements.

Since some of the road problems are tied into the drainage issues, Trustee Maureen Pratscher said she thought the drainage problems should be addressed first.

"Isn't it putting the cart before the horse if we fix the roads before the drainage," Pratscher said.

Another topic of discussion was how much money should be devoted to advertising the rental space in Vehe Barn.

The Vehe Barn has space available for meetings, weddings and other parties. The village is hoping to raise $24,000 next year in rental fees.

Resident Deborah Barry told trustees she thought that spending $25,000 would do a great job of promoting the space.

"Spent well, it could make a huge difference," Barry said.

Trustees, however, decided on spending an initial $6,000.

"Let's give them some seed money to see if it can be effective," said Trustee Joel Rotter.

The largest expenditure is $1.3 million for police services from the village of Kildeer.

A vote on the final budget is not expected until at least the board's regularly scheduled April meeting.