Wayne puts off Army Trail Road project to save money

Faced with a $350,000 budget shortfall, the village of Wayne is canceling a major resurfacing project on Army Trail Road this summer, officials said Friday.

Village President Eileen Phipps said the move should save the community about $125,000, or about 35 percent of what needs to be cut from its upcoming budget.

The rest, she said, will be subject to ongoing discussions centering on police and municipal services.

"Everybody is sharpening their pencils," Phipps said. "It's desperate times."

Village officials had hoped to avoid cuts with a 17-cent tax hike proposed in the February primary, but voters shot it down by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

Phipps said the work to Army Trail Road was supposed to be part of an ongoing effort to keep the thoroughfare in good condition. But crews now will concentrate on general maintenance alone, using about $60,000 in motor fuel tax funds.

"Down the line, it's going to cost us more," she said.

The village also is looking into closing village hall on Fridays, or closing the office an hour earlier, at 11 a.m., every weekday.

The goal is to bypass any need to scale back personnel on the village's already modest police force, which has five full-time employees, Phipps said.

"I don't think there's anybody out there who wants to cut a police officer or reduce hours," she said.

The village, which has an annual budget of less than $2 million, has been struggling financially for the first time in nearly 30 years. Officials say it's the result of state funding cutbacks and dwindling development revenues.

Phipps said the board may revisit the idea of a tax referendum on the November ballot, or possibly next spring. In the meantime, she said, the village is looking to schedule town hall meetings to get citizen input.

"It's going to be very, very hard," she said. "The village has really operated on a shoestring budget forever. There is literally no fat in our budget."