Prospect Heights cuts city hall hours, closes police station to public

Prospect Heights City Hall will be closed Fridays through April 2010, and the police department will be closed to the public at all times.

This is to accommodate unpaid furloughs of 24 hours per month for each city employee because of a drop in revenue and the need to trim expenses, City Administrator Pam Arrigoni announced Monday.

Citizens will still call 911 for emergencies. Calls for nonemergency service, routine police reports, payments of tickets and purchase of vehicle stickers will be taken at city hall.

"The response time for all such (nonemergency) services will be delayed and every effort will be made to accommodate all requests, but it may not always be possible," the statement said.

The city council and staff will review the budget each month and will make changes when revenues and expenditures allow, Arrigoni said.

In an earlier memo, she said there have been significant shortfalls in state income tax, utility and sales tax and red-light camera violation fines.

The city faces a $250,000 deficit with no anticipated change in the near future, she said.

"Because payroll is the bulk of our expenses, that is the only place we were able to make sufficient cuts to address the problem. Keep in mind that if we did not act now, the deficit would only grow and cause a greater hardship later," she wrote in the memo.

Other budget cuts had been made earlier.