November 18, 2004

EDITORIAL

Chance to sway Village planning

Yellow Springers will have a chance to help shape Village policy and financial decisions in the next couple of months. Anyone who benefits from Village government services, programs and utilities — and that’s anyone who lives and works here — should take advantage of this opportunity by doing several things: read the eight-page educational brochure on the Village’s financial situation that Village Council is distributing through the mail, and then answer a survey from the Village on the government’s services.

Council has said it will use the results of the surveys to help create a five-year financial plan that includes strategies to increase the Village’s revenue, reduce expenses and address the Village’s many capital improvement needs. Council members want to learn what villagers think about generating revenue by raising taxes or utility fees, selling Village property or increasing fees at the Bryan Community Center. In addition, the survey attempts to gauge public support for bringing in more money for the Village by expanding the borders of Yellow Springs through business and residential growth, which is fast becoming an important, and controversial, topic of public discussion.

The survey also should help Council better understand the level of support community members have for scaling back or eliminating a select number of services to save money. These include police dispatching, Gaunt Park Pool, Village Mediation Program, Mayor’s Court and cable access channel 13. The survey also includes a few important questions about the future of the Village green space fund and whether Yellow Springers think Council should add tax dollars to the fund.

Faced with stagnant revenue and rising costs, as well as a mountain of capital improvement needs, Council made as a top goal for 2004 the creation of the five-year financial plan. That mountain of capital needs climbs to as high as almost $12 million, according to a 10-year capital project inventory, and includes vital projects like paving numerous streets, replacing water and sewer lines, repairing the Gaunt Park Pool and replacing the roof on the Bryan Center. Many of these projects are long overdue. The big question for the Village is how to find the money to fund these capital needs.

The distribution of the educational brochure and the implementation of the survey represent important steps in the completion of this goal. The brochure will give you a basic overview of the Village’s financial picture and imminent needs, providing information to help you answer the survey. Village Manager Rob Hillard said that the survey would likely be distributed next week. Council is distributing the survey in two forms: a random phone survey with 309 households, and a mailed paper survey that will be sent to all households. The phone survey is scheduled to start on Nov. 24, and the mailed survey will be distributed after the phone survey is complete, about three weeks later.

Ultimately, the decision to raise taxes, rates or fees, or to cut services, will fall on Council members. But through the surveys — and by proposing to hold forums on the financial plan in the future — Council members have said that they hope to make informed choices.

Participating in the surveys and providing Council with feedback gives each Yellow Springs resident a say in whether the Village retains services that are important to him, lets Council know how much support there is for growth and could sway public policy on taxes. It’s important that community members let their voices be heard.

—Robert Mihalek