Wayland holds the line on property taxation

By KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

WAYLAND ? The City of Wayland isn?t raising taxes for the upcoming fiscal year, but it will be a wait-and-see game for the future.

During the regularly scheduled meeting of the Wayland City Council on Wednesday night, the council talked money.

City Clerk Beverly Conrad presented two budget options to the council.

?In order to get the general fund to balance, we?ve moved all the road maintenance, storm drainage, street cleaning, stuff like that over to road use tax, which we can do. That was about $23,000 and helped to bring the difference between balancing the general fund and not balancing the general fund down a lot further,? said Conrad.

Conrad said the difference is about $12,000. Conrad added the city has some contingencies for emergencies in the budget. Conrad said that would drain the city?s reserves a little more or the city could increase taxes to alleviate some of that burden.

?All the residential properties have been re-evaluated and will show up on next years taxes so I?d rather hold off raising taxes this year to see what that does for us,? said Mayor Brad Roth.

Councilwoman Melinda Ullery concurred.

?The general fund is positive and $12,000 is not going to break it. Just in the future we want to make sure we?re not using all of our road use tax funds for general street maintenance,? said Conrad.

The council approved the FY 2015-16 budget for publication and set the public hearing for March 4, 2015.

The council also discussed removing some old trees and planting new ones.

The council approved a bid from CW Tree Trimming to cut down three trees in West Park. Barry Leichty, public works director said the trees were dead last year, but the city held off doing anything during the summer in hopes they could be rehabilitated.

?They didn?t come back out of it,? said Leichty. ?If we let it go, there will be limbs falling all year. It?s going to get worse.?

Leichty said since the trees are so big, the public works crew is unable to get the trees down, that?s where CW Tree Trimming comes in. The company will cut the trees down.

Leichty said as for the wood, there are a lot of people locally who will take the wood for burning. The city will have to take care of the stumps and any mulch.

?They?re nice trees; big, old oak trees and I hate to get rid of them, but that?s the way it goes,? Leichty added.

CW Tree Trimming?s quote for cutting the trees down was $856 and $1,250 for grinding the trees up.

The city won?t just be getting rid of trees, they will also be planting new ones. The city received the Alliant Energy Branching Out Grant Award for $900. Conrad, said this will allow the city to plant five new trees.

The council also approved the tree management plan that was presented in January by Lisa Louck with the DNR.

Conrad asked the council in addition to approving the tree management plan to also consider changing some city ordinances in regard to the type of trees that can be planted in the city right-of-way.

?That way we don?t have a lot of big trees in the right-of-way that we (the city) end up taking care of in the future if they die or get damaged,? said Conrad.

During her presentation last month, Louck suggested limiting the number of specific trees, such as maples, because having a lot of one species of tree could be dangerous if a debilitating bug or virus invaded them. Louck also volunteered to help the city alter their ordinances if they chose to do so.

At this point in time, cottonwood and Dutch elm trees are considered nuisances in Wayland.