Geneva budgeting less for downtown parking, maintenance

Geneva may rely more on volunteers to keep the downtown looking spiffy in the next fiscal year as it budgets less for the area.

The proposed 2016-17 budget calls for spending almost $90,000 less for Special Service Area 1, a taxing district that encompasses much of the downtown, than it will in the current fiscal year, which ends April 30.

And it is $128,000 less than was budgeted for the current year.

Money in the SSA1 fund pays for buying land for public parking lots; building and maintaining parking lots; and clearing snow on in those lots and on sidewalks. It also pays for refurbishment of and maintenance of trash cans and benches. A special property tax levied on downtown properties accounts for about $208,000 of the money, and typically the city kicks in about $90,000 out of the general fund. It won't do that in 2016-17.

Normally the city budgets for 4,160 man-hours of such work devoted to the district. In 2016-17, which begins May 1, it will budget only for 2,080 hours.

"We were going to be creative and judicious in how we allocate the staff," Public Works Director Rich Babica said, assuring the city council the department will "strive to maintain the appearance" of the downtown.

One task that will likely be affected is the repair and refinishing of the trash cans and benches, a task normally done in the wintertime, he said.

That is something the city will look for volunteers, such as Scouting groups, to do. "We'll take advantage of that free labor whenever we can," Babica said.

For 2015-16, the city budgeted $338,679 for SSA1; it expects to spend $298,525 by the end of April. The proposed budget calls for $210,935 in spending, including $31,000 to repay money borrowed to buy land for parking lots.

The committee of the whole this week recommended the proposed budget in a 6-2 vote.

There will be a public hearing Monday and the council could take a binding vote later that night.