Controlling budget costs and boosting revenue through economic development will remain the top priorities for Glenville officials this year.
Glenville Supervisor Christopher Koetzle on Wednesday, Feb. 15, unveiled the town’s 2012 Strategic Plan, which outlines goals and initiatives for the town throughout the year. Increasing revenues and presenting a budget below the state 2 percent tax levy cap are the main aspects of the plan, but exploring savings through increased shared services with the village or county also remains a priority.
Koetzle also wants to continue to decrease fund balance usage, this year by 15 percent. He wants to have no dependency on reserve funds by 2016.
“This town got way over dependent on fund balance,” he said. “In this environment, with revenues either stagnating or declining and costs going up, this was ripe to just run out on us.”
The Stra-tegic Plan includes restructuring the town’s receiver of taxes position through outsourcing collections to a bank and merging the town clerk’s office with the receiver’s department through a part-time appointed receiver.
Talks with the First National Bank of Scotia for contracting tax collection services are progressing and the bank is planned handle the June water collections and fall school collections. The contract isn’t signed yet, but the pricing for this year is pegged at $7,000 for the two collections, said Koetzle.
“We will evaluate the program at the end of this year and make determinations on 2013,” Koetzle said, “but we are achieving a lot of savings already and are looking forward to achieving even more in coming years.”
This year’s estimated expense for the receiver’s department is $46,000, Koetzle said, which would be a 15 percent savings after contracting out collections. He added there would be around $86,000 in savings in the clerk’s department, too.
In 2011, the town spent around a $232,000 between the two departments, but this year the cost will be around $100,000, he said.
“This is what we’ve been talking about for two years in our town departments,” Koetzle said. “We are trying to reallocate staff so that we become more efficient and we are able to meet the demand of each individual department utilizing resources from other departments.”
To spur economic development, the town is looking to develop a marketing plan and form a Local Development Corporation using $580,000 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds from the Community Development Block Grant.
“We are competing against other towns for business and if we don’t have marketing plan then we are not going opt be able to go out there and position ourselves correctly,” Koetzle said.
Town officials are also focusing on the recently closed Friendly’s restaurant, which Koetzle anticipated would have a new tenant “quite quickly.”
“It is a valuable corner across the street from a new Target and I think it is going to be very attractive to somebody,” he said. “Target will springboard new development.”
Target is still planning to meet its planned October opening later this year, according to town officials.
Deputy Supervisor Alan Boulant said the only concern he has about the former Friendly’s property is the leasing price, which he said is “a little on the high side.”
“Hopefully it will not be another Kmart that lasts a while before it gets taken care of,” Boulant said. “I understand there is some national chains that are interested and also though there is half a dozen business owners in the food service business that have called me regularly.”
