Quakertown property owners will not face any borough tax increases in 2015.
In fact, they will see small decreases in their water and sewer bills.
“There are no planned increases in our utility rates or taxes,” said borough council vice president Donald Rosenberger at a council workshop session Monday night.
“There is no increase in our levies at all.”
Borough council expects to adopt the 2015 budget at its next meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3.
Also during that Dec. 3 meeting, council may vote against plans by St. Luke’s Hospital to install a digital sign outside the hospital in the 1000 block of Park Avenue.
And council will learn more about plans to remove as many as 30 trees along Broad Street in the center of town. The roots of some of those trees are damaging sidewalks, which would be repaired after the trees are removed.
Trees cut down would be replaced by much smaller trees grown in planters.
Rosenberger, who chairs council’s revenue and finance committee, offered a presentation highlighting key components of the 2015 budget during council’s work session.
He said the average household in Quakertown pays $40 or less in borough real estate taxes, which will not increase.
All residents and businesses will see reductions in a debt service fee on their water and sewer bills if the budget passes.
In January, explained Rosenberger, those monthly fees will drop from $14 to $9 for residential customers who use no more than 72,000 gallons of water.
He noted that $5-a-month savings translates into $60 a year.
Customers who use more water also will see reductions in that fee. He said large businesses that use over one million gallons a month will see their rate drop from $175 to $112.53.
Rosenberger did not do a line item-by-line item review of the $27.5 million budget, noting that was done when council went over the budget in great detail earlier in November.
He said changes still could be made to the budget on Monday night, but none were suggested by his colleagues on council or anyone in the audience.
He named many major community improvements in the 2015 budget, including:
*All electric meters in the borough will be replaced next year with new meters that allow remote readings. That $830,000 project will begin in spring and should be completed by the autumn of 2015.
*The process to replace all water and sewer meters also will begin next year, but will take four years to complete. The borough has budgeted $212,000 to replace one quarter of the meters in Quakertown next year.
Rosenberger said the new meters also will allow the borough to do remote reading and even remote shut-offs for those who don’t pay their bills.
*The police department will get two new patrol cars, at a total estimated cost of $79,000.
*Surveillance equipment is planned in borough parks, at a cost of $50,000.
*A total of $37,000 is budgeted to install an inflatable water slide at the borough pool and to improve concession stand equipment.
*The stadium roof at the ball field in Memorial Park will be replaced, also at a cost of $37,000.
*The borough plans to spend $9,000 on maintenance at Panther Playground in Memorial Park and $8,000 at the skate park in Main Street Park. It will add new swings in Memorial Park, which will cost $4,000, and spend $12,000 to improve the floor of the ice skating shelter on Fourth Street.
Rosenberger said medical and dental insurance for borough employees will increase by almost 10 percent next year and the borough’s pension contributions will increase from $745,000 to $992,000.
Despite those rising costs, he said 2014 will end with a $740,000 budget surplus. He explained a big reason for that is a number of items budgeted to be done this year were delayed for various reasons.
The largest delayed project involves spending $550,000 to add a sally port to the borough municipal building.
A sally port is a secure garage police can drive into when arriving with crime suspects for processing. It would be constructed at the south end of the building, next to the borough’s cell block.
Rosenberger said another $200,000 was earmarked to update the heating and air conditioning system in Borough Hall, “but since it continued to work as inadequately as it has for years we decided to defer that for another year.”
At the end of this year, Quakertown’s operating fund balances will total about $11 million. He said that includes the general fund for borough operations and the electric, water and sewer funds.
He said Quakertown is very fortunate to have those “significant” reserves to carry into the new year, noting some other area municipalities have surpluses of less than $1 million, if they have any surplus at all.
The borough plans to use just over $2 million of that $11 million to close a projected deficit in next year’s budget.
Rosenberger said increasing medical and pension costs, as well those delayed projects, are part of the reason for a $4 million increase in the 2015 budget, adding the $27,518,287 budget is 17 percent more than 2014’s budget.
“It is a fairly significant increase over last year but it’s one we feel pretty comfortable that we can handle,” said the council vice president.
Council president Jim Roberts noted that $27.5 million budget includes the purchase and sale of electricity by the borough, which owns and operates its own electric system. He estimated that adds several million dollars in both revenue and expenses to the overall budget.
Trees being removed
Council member Lisa Gaier, who chairs its public works committee, said downtown trees are buckling sidewalks with their roots, which creates a safety hazard for residents.
She proposed removing the trees, repairing the sidewalks and then looking into the possibility of getting large planters to replace the trees, “because we’re not anti-green.”
Gaier asked that the proposal be put on the Dec. 3 meeting agenda.
Roberts suggested a removal and replacement plan be developed before any decision is made by council to cut down trees.
“I don’t think it would be very wise to take the trees down without a plan in place to replace them,” agreed borough manager Scott McElree.
McElree said a total of 30 trees may be removed along Broad Street, although initially only 17 would be cut down. He said some of the trees could be taken down before the end of this year.
“There are a lot of factors I want to look at and come to council with,” said the manager. “But before we put a lot of time and effort into it, conceptually I want to get direction from council.”
McElree already got an estimate from Asplundh Tree Expert Co. that removing 30 trees would cost about $10,000.
He also wants to get an estimate on the cost of replacing cut trees with “appropriate” trees put into planters.
After the meeting, McElree said hybrid trees can be grown in planters with roots that are not killed by freezing temperatures. He said such trees are about eight or nine feet high and have small canopies.
“There are a couple of locations that the sidewalks have been a problem because of the roots pushing them up,” McElree told council.
He said the borough will look at whether those sidewalks can be repaired rather than replaced.
Ironically, at the same workshop meeting where removing trees was discussed, Roberts announced that the borough has received a community greening award from Properties of Merit, for planting trees and flowers.
“Well, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, because we’re going to cut them down,” quipped Roberts.
Sign at S. Luke’s
St. Luke’s wants to install the 4-by-6-foot digital sign in the middle of the block along Park Avenue to promote special community programs and increase public health awareness.
“It’s going to change the atmosphere of that part of town,” predicted council member Douglas Propst, who added such signs are required to be at least 100 feet away from homes.
Council took no formal action on the sign request at its work session, but no one spoke in support of the sign.
“Park Avenue is not an appropriate for a sign,” said council member David Erwin. “I’m not in favor of it, period.
“If we allow this one, guaranteed the high school is next. Then, from the high school, it’s going to be the UCC church. It’s just going to work right on down Park Avenue and soon it’s going to be one big billboard.”
Jann Paulovitz, who lives across from the hospital, opposed the sign, saying it “is not appropriate for this residential area” and respectfully requested that council deny approval of the sign.
No representatives from the hospital attended council’s workshop meeting.
But council learned Lehigh County-based St. Luke’s has such signs at all its other hospital campuses.
Council also was told borough planning commission initially voted against the sign, because of issues such as brightness, but reversed that position after St. Luke’s offered to dim the sign at night and only show one static message between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The hospital also agreed to put the sign perpendicular to Park Avenue rather than facing out onto the street.
Roberts said council could vote against the sign at its Dec. 3 meeting, and the hospital could face “the bad publicity of having it voted down.”
Rosenberger said the sign already is on the agenda for the Dec, 3 meeting and suggested: “We should just vote on it and let it fail or not.”
Roberts suggested another option would be for McElree, who serves on the Quakertown hospital’s board of trustees, to ask the hospital administration to withdraw the sign request from council’s Dec. 3 meeting agenda.
Roberts also suggested the hospital could request a variance from the borough’s zoning hearing board to install the sign on a corner of its property, rather than in the middle of the block.
A request by Cleveland Steel Container Corporation for a zoning district change on an adjoining property also will be on council’s Dec. 3 agenda.
Council did not discuss that zoning change, which recently was the subject of a public hearing, during its workshop Monday.