City Workers Suggest Ways to Help
Generate Revenue, Save Money
By ANNE HOLLIDAY
WESB/WBRR News Director
Bradford City Council asked city employees to come up with ways to find or save money to help the city get out of it's current financial situation, so that's what they did.
Prior to Tuesday's council meeting, union representatives presented some of the ideas. They range from discontinuing payments to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford for athletic field maintenance to cracking down on people who don't recycle to allowing wind turbines on water authority property.
During the work session, Department of Public Works employee Don Neis said he estimates that only 1 in 10 households in the city recycles.
Deputy City Clerk Teri Cannon noted that if people are putting recyclable items into the trash, those items are going to the landfill, and the city is paying that much more in tipping fees. She also said if there's less recycling, there's less grant money to help pay for the program.
Matt Rettger of the firefighters' union suggested making people more aware that if they can generate more revenue by recycling, they're also mitigating a tax increase.
City Clerk John Peterson said notices to that effect are sent out every year.
Neis said recycling has to be enforced.
"You don't have to dig in their bag to know they're not recycling," he said. "If we pick up a bag and it clanks, you know."
As for the garbage pickup itself, Neis said enforcing the four-bag limit would help bring in some money.
He said a survey from last Tuesday through Friday showed that 221 households were "significantly over" the limit. He also noted that on Monday alone they picked up 25 pieces of furniture.
"We think we could come with some kind of program" to have people pay something, Neis said. "We're not making anything on it, but we have to pay tipping costs."
Canon said city officials know how much citizens appreciate the fact that just about anything is picked up at no extra cost.
"But there's a lot of abuse," Cannon said. "It's crazy. We're losing money."
On another topic, Cannon mentioned that the city currently doesn't charge anything for special events permits.
Often, she said, these events require extra work from the city electrician and the police, parks and public works departments.
Also during the work session, Rettger suggested the city partner with the water authority to use the watershed to put up some wind turbines.
Rettger said he mentioned the idea to city controller Ron Orris and "he ran with it." He said, to his knowledge, Orris is looking into it.
Rettger also suggested having owners of tax exempt properties pay a service fee.
As for paying Pitt-Bradford maintenance fees for the athletic fields, Peterson explained that all the local municipalities and the county have an agreement with university to pay for part of the cost because so many people outside of the university itself use the facilty.
At the end of the work session Rettger said to Mayor Tom Riel and city council, "This just shows the efforts your employees and your labor organizations are willing to put forth to make this city survive -- not only survive, but let's look to the future. Maybe we can breathe some life back into this town."
WESB/WBRR News Director
Bradford City Council asked city employees to come up with ways to find or save money to help the city get out of it's current financial situation, so that's what they did.
Prior to Tuesday's council meeting, union representatives presented some of the ideas. They range from discontinuing payments to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford for athletic field maintenance to cracking down on people who don't recycle to allowing wind turbines on water authority property.
During the work session, Department of Public Works employee Don Neis said he estimates that only 1 in 10 households in the city recycles.
Deputy City Clerk Teri Cannon noted that if people are putting recyclable items into the trash, those items are going to the landfill, and the city is paying that much more in tipping fees. She also said if there's less recycling, there's less grant money to help pay for the program.
Matt Rettger of the firefighters' union suggested making people more aware that if they can generate more revenue by recycling, they're also mitigating a tax increase.
City Clerk John Peterson said notices to that effect are sent out every year.
Neis said recycling has to be enforced.
"You don't have to dig in their bag to know they're not recycling," he said. "If we pick up a bag and it clanks, you know."
As for the garbage pickup itself, Neis said enforcing the four-bag limit would help bring in some money.
He said a survey from last Tuesday through Friday showed that 221 households were "significantly over" the limit. He also noted that on Monday alone they picked up 25 pieces of furniture.
"We think we could come with some kind of program" to have people pay something, Neis said. "We're not making anything on it, but we have to pay tipping costs."
Canon said city officials know how much citizens appreciate the fact that just about anything is picked up at no extra cost.
"But there's a lot of abuse," Cannon said. "It's crazy. We're losing money."
On another topic, Cannon mentioned that the city currently doesn't charge anything for special events permits.
Often, she said, these events require extra work from the city electrician and the police, parks and public works departments.
Also during the work session, Rettger suggested the city partner with the water authority to use the watershed to put up some wind turbines.
Rettger said he mentioned the idea to city controller Ron Orris and "he ran with it." He said, to his knowledge, Orris is looking into it.
Rettger also suggested having owners of tax exempt properties pay a service fee.
As for paying Pitt-Bradford maintenance fees for the athletic fields, Peterson explained that all the local municipalities and the county have an agreement with university to pay for part of the cost because so many people outside of the university itself use the facilty.
At the end of the work session Rettger said to Mayor Tom Riel and city council, "This just shows the efforts your employees and your labor organizations are willing to put forth to make this city survive -- not only survive, but let's look to the future. Maybe we can breathe some life back into this town."
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