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Mayor's letter to the Public |
Dear Town and Village of Mount Morris residents and taxpayers:
On Monday, I will be recommending to our Village Board that we reject recent bids for our fire hall project. Bids for the project have routinely come in too high and threaten the village’s ability to confidently pay the bill without raising taxes or taking funding from other vital services. I also hope to present a plan that will see this project eventually built
Recently, the Village of Mount Morris had bid openings for a second design (redesign) of the anticipated Fire Hall. The first design was $600,000 over the 2010 referendum approved $3 million maximum. Subsequently, I instructed our engineering and design team to design a facility that would cost between $1.5 and $1.7 million. Even though we were approved for a $3 million USDA loan, we would not be able to make the payments on more than $1.7 million without major cuts in expenses and a tax increase. The first year payment allocation in the 2014/2015 budget on the project would need to be about $190,000. Making that payment would require a roughly $2.23 increase to our village tax rate. On a $100,000 home, that would be an extra $223 every year just to support the fire hall.
That brings us to Thursday, March 6th, when we opened yet another set of redesign bids. There are four phases of design and construction: General structure, plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical. The low bid totaled about $2.5 million dollars. So far, we have spent more than $200,000 in loan proceeds that we have to pay back on design and engineering costs alone (approximately $160,000 on the first design project and $45,000 on the redesign of the scaled down version). At this point, there is just over $2.7 million dollars of the loan available. In projects of this magnitude, there are often contingencies, cost overruns, and unanticipated situations that can and do arise. So, I asked our design and engineering firm for and did not receive any assurances that the project would not exceed our approved maximum spending limit.
Any cost overruns for this project exceeding $3 million dollars will come directly out of our annual operating budget. That isn’t money we can borrow or repay with money from this loan. It would be a direct charge against our general “A” budget on top of our payments. What do we cut from the budget to afford the unforeseen? We simply cannot allow this to happen. It would devastate our already shoe-string budget, and will hamstring the ability of future mayors and village board members to balance their budget when that budget is stressed by a major item over whose creation they had no control. To proceed forward with this current redesign, knowing how dangerously close we are to maxing out our available funding would be fiscally irresponsible. It could, in the long term hurt our ability to operate our Village in a fiscally prudent and responsible manner. Additionally, the Town of Mount Morris, our ONLY customer, will reimbursing us 48% in helping us pay for what we ultimately decide to do. Even though our Village operates and owns the Fire department, and our Town contracts with us for fire protection, we cannot exclude the Town taxpayers from having a direct say in what we as a Village do. We will not proceed forward with any fire hall project without the Town Supervisor and Town Board giving their stamp of approval of what it is we will do.
Therefore, at the Village Board meeting on Monday, March 17th, I will recommend to the Village Board that we reject all bids received. I recommend we head in a new direction in the construction of our Fire hall. I would like to see a functional building in the $1.5 million range, a building that we realistically can afford to make the payments on. And that fiscally prudent approach must be our prime concern. It may need yet another redesign. I would like a specific time frame for its completion and think we need to take another look at obtaining additional funding. Some will say it can’t be done. I say we can do it. And we will. It may not be what we all want, but it will be functional, cost effective, and serve our needs. Let’s forget the past, focus on our future and get this done.
Mayor Joel W. Mike
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