Council works on 2023 budget

Nov. 23—CONNEAUT — City Council met to discuss the city's capital budget on Monday night.

City Manager Jim Hockaday laid out the requests from various departments for the city's 2023 budget.

Replacing portions of the roof on City Hall was quoted at approximately $200,000, he said.

"I would recommend you add a minimum of 15 percent, for something like that," Hockaday said.

The project would have to be put out to bid, he said.

Council President Jon Arcaro asked how expensive it would be to put a sloped roof in the places on the building where there is a flat roof.

The proposed capital budget also includes $450,000 for designing a replacement for the Clark Street water tower.

"I think we need to start looking at that as our next biggest challenge in our system, is dealing with that tower," Hockaday said. "It's from the 1930s."

The list of requests from various departments had been trimmed significantly to stay within budget, Hockaday said.

Arcaro proposed adding $10,000 to the Parks and Recreation budget to install a nine-hole disk golf course at Lakeview Park. A parks and recreation committee meeting will take place to determine further details.

For the city's water distribution department, Hockaday suggested the utilities committee meet to discuss different water meters, due to issues with shortages of new meters available for purchase.

"We can't keep doing what we're doing for the long run because we have too many dead meters out there, that we just can't purchase enough new meters to replace," Hockaday said.

The water service box truck also needs replaced, he said.

"It is the workhorse of the water service department," Hockaday said. "So whenever we're on a break, you see the big white box truck out there. It carries all our tools and equipment to site."

The Public Works Department requested a number of new pieces of equipment, including a new street sweeper, a new tandem truck, a new grader and work on the roof of one of the buildings at the public works department. Council discussed various options for providing the department with as much equipment as they need, but no decision was made at the meeting.

The Conneaut Police Department requested an upgrade to MARCS radios, and the Fire Department requested a new ambulance chassis, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) bottles, and a utility-terrain vehicle (UTV).

Another meeting will take place in December, if necessary, to continue discussions on the budget.

In other business:

—Work to lay a new water main under Route 20 on the west side of town will continue when weather permits, Hockaday said.

Repairing a nearby culvert will be more challenging. It is currently difficult to get contractors to quote the project because many of them are working to finish projects elsewhere.

The city's engineering firm gave a very preliminary cost estimate of $400,000.

The work became necessary after a storm sewer line failed during a heavy rain earlier this year.

The failure caused erosion, which led to fears that a nearby waterline could be compromised.

—Council reviewed the vote totals from the recently rejected paving levy increase.

The levy, a two mill increase to 4.75 mills, was voted down by city residents, 1,678 votes to 1,491, according to unofficial election results from the Ashtabula County Board of Elections.

Councilman Terry Moisio, who chairs the city's public works committee, said he plans to call a committee meeting in January to try to get additional feedback from the community.