We had some spirited discussion last night. I promised to explain every vote, especially the tough ones, and last night we had one of those related to Crawford Park.
Diving into the recap…
Board Meeting #
Establish mixed-use zoning district #
We approved this, but not before some discussion. The issue is hard to explain without a mini-novel, but over-simplifying, we say in the Comprehensive Plan that you can do X in certain areas and then we never define X in our zoning. We’re trying to close that gap, but then we get concerned about unintended consequences. Are we sure that the definition of X (mixed use zoning) works in every place we say X is allowed in the current Comp Plan? Should we wait until the Comp Plan is updated? Etc, etc.
Fire Station 11 (Nicholson & 6 Mile) #
We agreed to fix the busted septic system, and agreed to pay an architect to produce a plan for a new fire station. The thing was built in the 1960s. It needs replacing and won’t be a small expense. Time to get serious about doing it.
Open spots on the Plan Commission and the Parks Committee #
The best part about this was the quality of people who are stepping up to fill these slots. Chris Tyrell for Parks. Ron Bocciardi and Jon Frederickson for Plan Commission.
Budget update #
Two meaty topics here. First, the board discussed and then voted to defund Flock cameras. This has been quite the controversial topic across the state and even the country, and many municipalities have been pulling the plug. The effectiveness of those cameras is the “network effect.” Would you use Facebook if no one used Facebook? No. Facebook can be a terrible product but if that’s where all the people are, you use it. There’s a similar analogy with Flock, so as more and more communities, especially neighboring ones, ditched the product, it became less valuable to us.
Yes, there are government surveillance and privacy aspects to the debate, and I’m sure that debate will come soon to a board meeting, but for now, we made a practical decision about simple cost vs benefit.
I’m happy with the way we attended to the issue. As always, some wanted us to move faster, others to not move at all, but we stayed objective and practical, and made the right decision for the village.
Next up was a recommendation by the Finance Committee to remove a Crawford Park $500K splash pad expense from the 2027 capital plan. We approved its removal on a 5-2 vote, but the discusson wasn’t without some emotion. You can listen to it on the Village’s YouTube channel when it gets published. Let me explain my own vote. This is not a board opinion, it’s Prescott’s opinion.
- We remain very supportive of Crawford Park as a premier, high quality park in the village. We’ve spent roughly $4M to date on it, and in this year’s capital plan, even after removing the splash pad, we are spending another $700K. Money talks, and labeling the board anti-park, anti-family, anti-kid, anti-whatever just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
- The broader local area has multiple splash pads and water parks, all within a short drive.
- The cost is $500K, operating expense is at least $10K per year, large maintenance costs can happen unexpectedly, and they have a lifespan of 15-20 years. At the end of that life, we likely face a large replacement expense.
- We cannot recover any of the expense through user fees, as we do with pickleball courts.
- Usage is late May to early September, minus cool and rainy days. Is that really the best use of $500K of taxpayer money?
- We are likely under-investing in other parks in the village.
My #1 reason, though, is purely financial. There is nothing more important right now than getting this village on rock solid financial footing. We have some large historical mistakes still to clean up: Waters Edge, TID 4’s $1M levy support, TID 4’s annual deficit despite the $1M levy support, a growing debt burden, just to name a few. Is spending another $500K the right thing to do now? Or should we slow down the large expenses while we fix those big problems? I voted to remove this expense from this year’s budget because I think it’s financially irresponsible to spend a half a million dollars now. Not never. Now.
A village that constantly says yes to that new big expense, whimsically adding more debt, ends up like the family that does the same, in financial trouble. And when a village gets in financial trouble, we have to take it out on taxpayers. With this year’s budget, we have made important changes to set us on a proper path. We are holding expense growth equal to or less than revenue growth. We are not increasing our total debt. We are holding our total tax levy flat while also having increased our tax base.
I dislike having to say No to people, especially kids, but it was the right thing to do on this issue. I appreciated all the opinions and passion about the topic last night. It was a good discussion. I also think we came to the right decision.
Waters Edge Ad Hoc Committee #
We formed it. Nancy Pierce is running it. We have room for 4 residents, 1 of whom will be from outside the immediate neighborhood around Waters Edge. If you are interested, you have until next Thursday, Oct 19th, to apply for a spot on the committee. The application will be on the village website shortly. Meetings will be open to the public. They will also be formal, like our board meetings but in a smaller room. Deliverable is a document with a recommended vision for the 3 parcels we own. One option, two, three, whatever.
Committee of the Whole #
We discussed the use of Village Hall for community functions, giving feedback on a draft document from the staff. I think we’ll give this a shot. Nothing’s easy so it might be a few iterations until there’s something ready to approve.