Harvey

NEWBERRY — Newberry City Council approved first reading this week of the 2015-2016 budget with no need for an increase in taxes or fees.

City Manager Al Harvey said they had already been notified that the Piedmont Municipal Power Association (PMPA) was passing along a 4.8 percent wholesale rate adjustment. The 4.8 percent is based off the kilowatts, with the average city customer seeing an increase depending on their consumption rather than an overall increase.

Water minimum charges will increase nine percent and sewer minimum charges are to increase by six percent. Harvey said revenue from the increases were to go toward capital improvement projects.

In new business, council discussed renovations at Gallman Park. City staff held a bid opening Tuesday for the Gallman Park rehabilitation project, with six firms submitting bids for one or more parts of the project. The original budget for the project approved by council was $225,000.

“We then held a meeting with people from the neighborhood to present the city’s plan and to receive comments from those in attendance,” said Mayor Foster Senn. “Following that meeting, the staff assessed the facility improvements suggested at the meeting. All of the improvements suggested at the meeting totaled over $900,000.”

City staff then narrowed down that list of items to what they feel is reasonable and affordable, Senn said. During the budget planning, council agreed to use $150,000 of economic development funds to supplement the amount of $225,000 already on hand, giving them a total of $375,000 for the project.

After the bids were opened, the lowest bid came in at $419,403.16. The bid was for site preparation and included the walking track, two parking lots, access roads and a new shelter/rest room area. This also included fencing around the resurfaced basketball court and court resurfacing.

A grant gave the city $100,000 of the original $225,000 budget, but Harvey said staff had been working to stay within the budget.

“We’d like authorization from council to negotiate with the lowest bidder to see where can trim this project down and still have a reasonable project and go through with bids,” Harvey said.

Scott Sawyer, director of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department for the city, said the neighborhood was interested in fitness equipment incorporated into the park, but that bid had not be put out yet.

“We want to negotiate primarily site work and shelter to see if we can figure out if there’s some way that we can get this down to $375,000,” Sawyer said.

Although Sawyer said he believed they could trim things to get it within budget, they had not yet to meet yet to see what could be trimmed and negotiated.

At the suggestion of councilman LeMont Glasgow, Sawyer said they may also look at the city doing parts of the renovation in-house to cut back on contracting costs.

City Council also passed first reading of an ordinance Tuesday removing the debt service reserve fund and approving all required documentation association with making that change.

Currently the city has an outstanding $19,002,796 combined public utility system revenue bond, series 2009 SRF bond that was issued to the state revolving fund (SRF). The original loan documents required the funding of a debt service reserve fund as additional security for the loan, totaling approximately $1.182 million. Money in the account can only be used to pay principal or interest on the SRF bond.

To keep up with changing market conditions, the SRF has amended its borrowing requirements and provided that issuers, like the city of Newberry with an A or better rating are no longer required to maintain their debt service reserve fund. Upon the sale of the city’s recent 2015 bonds for the utility projects, they received ratings of A- and A3 and as a result the reserve fund is no longer required.

Other updates:

• Harvey said the city was pretty much on target as far as their financials and were at the 92 percent level in revenue and expenditures.

• Senn said there was a vacancy on the city’s Architectural Review Board caused by the resignation of Tony Chapman. Michael Gustafson was recommended for appointment for the unexpired term which ends on Jan. 1, 2017. Gustafson was the City Manager of Pinellas Park Florida 12 years, building official for seven years and community development director for five years. Council approved his appointment.

• After returning from executive session, council approved a mutual aid agreement for the Newberry Police Department with the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office, Prosperity Police Department and Whitmire Police Department. Harvey said state law requires and provides for intergovernmental cooperative agreements between cities and counties in order for them to send him into other areas or help to be sent to other areas.

“Sheriff’s departments have jurisdictions county wide, but if we go out into the county, we have to have a mutual aid agreement in place for our enforcement officers to be legally empowered to perform their duties out there,” Harvey said.

Harvey said council agreed on the terms and conditions in the document for the agreement.