Low reserves may force town's hand

During last week’s review of the budget before its last reading, a concern over the $50 in the waste water reserve at this time was brought to the council’s attention by town treasurer Cheryl Schneider, who said, “$50 is not enough to do a reserve amount.”

She acknowledged the difficult conversation to which this situation returns the group, however, “That $50 is the lowest I’ve seen it since I’ve been here so that’s pretty low and scary.”

Schneider explained to recharge that account will necessitate action: “If we did a 45₵ increase on the current residents who are paying into that system, you would be at $2160 annually, which isn’t bad.”

The biggest factor, though, according to Schneider, “Is adding in those folks who are not contributing to the system...the mobile home parks – we currently don’t charge investment fees when they are empty. I calculated for 12 months and, if we did that, we’d be looking at $11,025, bringing our reserve amount to $13,185, which is probably a little safer in today’s world.”

Mayor Ben Glenn compared this conversation with those of the landfill, saying, “We’ve had this conversation for so long and sometimes we just need to make these decisions. Fair is fair.”

Schneider admitted, “We had said before those mobile home park owners do have the right to be here and to discuss this and understand.”

She added that those owners need to understand that the reserves are there to pay for care of future infrastructure that run to the mobile home parks, too, and those constituents who do pay into the system consistently “will make up for that”.

Councilman Dale Petersen admitted, “We don’t really have a lot of choice.”

The council is currently considering options.