June 2, 2005

By Robert Mihalek

Village Manager Rob Hillard told Council last week that he will develop a plan to raise fees to pay for some expenses the Village incurs by running the Bryan Community Center.

Hillard said it was realistic, as well as ambitious, to find a way to generate $30,000 a year to pay for the employees who monitor and clean the Bryan Center. “I see that as a realistic goal,” he said.

If the $30,000 is reached, the Village would double its current income from Bryan Center fees.

Hillard made his comments during a special meeting of the Village Council on May 23. The meeting focused on a review of the results of two surveys — one mailed, the other taken by phone —- Council organized to gauge the community’s support for cutting services and raising taxes. The surveys were part of an effort by Council to create a five-year financial plan designed to lower costs, raise revenue and pay for capital improvement projects. Council members have said that the survey results would influence the financial plan.

This was the first time Council members had discussed the surveys since a community forum in March during which Council members released the results.

Council members spent the meeting discussing the seven services included in the surveys that could be reduced or eliminated: Gaunt Park Pool, Mayor’s Court, Animal Control, Village Mediation Program, channel 13 and the Bryan Youth services. Council also discussed raising Bryan Center fees.

No decisions were made during the meeting about cutting services. Instead, Council weighed the pros and cons about cutting services, in light of how survey participants responded. Council members’ supportive responses to many of the services indicate that it will be difficult for Council to cut most of the identified services.

Between 60 and 70 percent of survey respondents said they supported charging Yellow Springs residents at least what nonresidents now pay to use the Bryan Center meeting rooms.

Currently, local residents do not pay to use the Bryan Center’s meeting rooms and gym during regular business hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Nonresidents pay $30 an hour to use the facility. Yellow Springers charging for classes or using the center during odd hours, such as after 8 p.m. weekdays, pay $15 an hour. Hillard projected that the Village will receive $15,000 this year in Bryan Center fees.

During last week’s meeting, Hillard suggested that the Village start asking for deposits for people who use the Bryan Center’s meeting rooms and gym, which would be refunded to users who clean up when their activity is complete. The deposit would help pay for Village employees who have to clean the facility. Hillard also said that the Village could raise the fees it charges to use the Bryan Center and increase the promotion of the facility as a place to gather for activities.

Council member Mary J. Alexander asserted that free use of the Bryan Center is “one of the few perks” the Village offers Yellow Springers, so to charge local residents to use the facility “would take away that perk.”

“I’m not too sure I want to take away that perk,” she said.

Council president Tony Arnett disagreed, saying, “We offer quite a few services that other communities don’t offer.” He also pointed out that villagers do pay for the Bryan Center through income taxes.

Because local residents support the building with their taxes, Council member Bruce Rickenbach said he would be “disinclined to charge residents during open hours,” though he would support charging villagers to use the facility after hours.

Council member Denise Swinger suggested that the Village charge nonprofit organizations a yearly fee to use the Bryan Center. This would allow such groups to build the fee into their budgets, she said.

Council also spent time discussing the dispatching service in the Yellow Springs Police Department.

The survey results show that 65 percent of mail survey respondents and almost 68 percent of phone respondents supported eliminating local dispatching and contracting the service with another Greene County department. Eliminating local dispatch would save the Village $75,000 in personnel costs a year. Hillard said the Village spends a total of between $120,000 and $150,000 on dispatching.

If dispatching were contracted to another community, the Village would continue to maintain its police force and Yellow Springs officers would still respond to calls. The department would need administrative support staff, who would likely work in the Bryan Center during normal business hours, Hillard has said. The dispatchers fulfill such administrative duties now, he has said.

During the meeting, Hillard suggested that the Village utilities could help pay for local dispatching, since the dispatchers often take utility service calls, especially after the Village offices close and on weekends. There is a “direct link between the electric fund and dispatch,” he said.

Swinger, who represents Council on the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, said that MVRPC is encouraging its members to coordinate with other communities by sharing services. MVRPC is saying, “if you’re going to save yourselves you have to cooperate,” Swinger said.

Alexander said she was “having a problem” with cutting dispatching, since, she noted, Council would be cutting jobs. “And we’re trying to save jobs” in Yellow Springs, she said.

Council agreed that it needed to further discuss this option with Police Chief John Grote to understand his opinion about whether the Village should maintain dispatching.

Council members did not discuss in detail several of the services that were identified in the surveys, indicating that those services will not be cut. Among those services was the Gaunt Pool, which received overwhelming support from survey respondents. In 2005, the Village budgeted $70,384 in expenses for the pool, while it projected $24,000 in revenue from the facility.

In addition, Council members expressed support for maintaining channel 13, the local cable access channel, the Village Mediation Program, Mayor’s Court and the Bryan Youth program.

Since 2002, volunteers have run both channel 13 and VMP, dramatically reducing the costs for both services, Arnett noted.

This year, the Village budgeted $1,500 in operational expenses for channel 13. The channel’s operational costs for 2005 do not include an estimated $30,000 in upgrades of station equipment.

“It’s an invaluable expense that’s worth keeping,” Rickenbach said of channel 13.

The Village has budgeted $7,000 for VMP, $5,000 of which is for the coordinator, Tucker Malishenko.

Council members said that the Mayor’s Court is also a valuable service. Arnett said that the court should be considered part of the Village’s community policing efforts.

This year, the Village expects to receive $35,000 in fines from Mayor’s Court and another $2,000 from Xenia Municipal Court, which also hears cases from Yellow Springs and sends some fines back to the Village. The court’s budget for 2005 is slightly over $37,000, most of which provides the salary and benefits for the clerk, June Allison.

In 2005, the Village budgeted $3,000 for the Bryan Center Youth. The Village also incurs $30,000 for the Bryan Center building monitors, who play a role in the youth program, Hillard said.

Rickenbach said that the community needs to provide “safe spaces for youth.”

Council and Hillard also discussed whether to maintain the Village’s contract with Greene County Animal Control. The Village currently contracts with Animal Control for what Hillard has described as an extended package of services, which includes removing dead wildlife from roadways, providing traps and providing extended hours of enforcement of domestic animal calls. Hillard said that the Village pays about an extra $8,000 for these services. Hillard said the local residents regularly use Animal Control traps.

He said that the Village could start charging a fee to Yellow Springers who use Animal Control. He also said the Village could hire Animal Control for a basic package, at a reduced cost, for situations only involving dogs during a limited set of hours.

Council members said they needed more data about usage before making a decision about Animal Control.