Getting Down to Business

Grin of the Week

An ad on http://www.howardhanna.com/ caught my eye this week.

Location: Highland Heights. Price: $ 5,000: “Over 1.2 acres wooded with ravine. Old service station on land….”

Wow!! What a bargain! Five grand for an acre+ wooded lot in Highland Heights?

The address was strange: 0 Highland Road.So what gives, you might ask?

Turns out the “wooded with ravine” property is the actually the dedicated water detention basin for the Charles Place neighborhood, and the “service station” is a (now-obsolete) water pumping station that sits at the front of the basin, along Highland Road.

The ad goes on to say, in part: “No disclosures regarding building potential. Seller will entertain all cash offers. Make any reasonable offer…. Just Drive By!”

P.T. Barnum would be so proud….


The Council Meeting

Unlike earlier in the month, there were no controversies or fireworks surrounding the Jan. 26th council meeting. Instead the focus was on several essentials: budgets, drainage, and personnel.

Several committees met prior to the council meeting.

• After listening to Service Director Thom Evans and a representative from the city engineer’s office, the Drainage Committee unanimously agreed to recommend hiring the engineer (at a lower cost of $ 13,000,) to investigate and report back on possible options for replacing the Highland Heights water main and possible sources to fund that project. The Committee also discussed contacting Richmond Heights and Mayfield Village to see if they would be interested in joining with the city in seeking funding to replace the water main in all three cities.
  
• The Legislative & Finance Committee had their first meeting with Finance Director Tony Ianiro to discuss Mayor Coleman’s preliminary 2010 budget. The topic was revenue.
  Ianiro reported that the city ended up the year in the black, with $ 334,000 in unspent general fund money. That’s not a huge sum, given the city’s budget, but every penny counts. On a less happy note, Ianiro projects a 7.6% decrease in city property tax revenue for 2010, due to the county auditor’s recent property reappraisals and an increase in tax delinquencies, and a 4 % decrease in the city’s i2010 ncome tax revenues.

Like I said, every penny counts.

The Main Event

Woof


A topic that provoked alot of interest was Councilman Bob Mastrangelo's report from the Planning & Zoning Commission, that  a “Camp Bow Wow,” franchise wants to move into space along Alpha Drive. Apparently (with straight faces) representatives from that business pitched to P&Z that "Camp Bow Wow" is just like the children's daycare business that has been located on Alpha Drive for many years.

While I swear my own dog acts like a two year old most of the time, I don’t think I’d confuse my dog with one of my kids….
The Building Department

Mayor Coleman reported that he had received quite a number of applications for the Building Commissioner position in response to the city's want ad and that he expected to interview at least 3 candidates this week.

Mayor Coleman also confirmed that he was continuing to employ a part-time inspector, who works fulltime during the day as an inspector for the City of Cleveland. That part-time inspector was hired because Jim Austin, whom the mayor appointed in 2008 to serve as the city's Acting Building Commissioner, apparently not only lacked Chief Building Official certification but also lacked the credentialling necessary to perform inspections for the city.
http://www.highlandhts.com/docs/city_council/minutes/2009/01-13-09_council_minutes.htm
2010 Recreation Fees

The one significant action that council took was to approve the recommendations made by the Park & Recreation Commiission with regard to fees for the 2010 city summer recreation programs (swimming, baseball, tennis and day camp).

Recreation Director Dave Ianiro attended the council meeting, ready to answer questions regarding P&R's fee recommendations. Attending council meetings is still a new experience for Dave Ianiro, and he was clearly flustered and unprepared when he was asked to report to council about the P&R meeting. Councilwoman Cathy Murphy (the council rep to P&R) came to his rescue and reported briefly on that meeting..
The fee increases.

For baseball, most of the fee increases are in the $5-$10 range. Full season family pool passes are going up $ 10. Swim lessons are going up $ 5. P&R's most significant recommendations pertained to the city’s perpetually money-losing 8 week day camp program.

Here are some of the facts about the day camp program:

• It runs for 8 weeks in the summer, from 9 am to 4 pm (35 hours a week)
• Last year, approximately 60 % of the families participating were residents. The rest were nonresidents.
• Families can sign up for any number of weeks of camp (from one to all eight), which makes planning difficult as the number of campers varies from week to week.
• The camp program includes weekly field trips, for which no additional fees are charged. Field trips usually involve bus transportation and admission fees.
• Last year, some teenage camp counselors were paid in excess of $ 11 per hour.
• Recreation Director David Ianiro reported to council earlier in the month that although most camp programs in the area charge between $ 4.50 to $ 5 an hour, the city has charged only $2.50 an hour for its camp program for the last six years.

So how have the fees changed?  Well to begin with, residents will experience the most significant camp fee increases this year.

Residents signing up for 8 weeks of camp will see their costs go up over 72.17 % (for early bird registration) or 71.19 % (for regular registration).

Early bird residents paid $ 575 for 8 weeks of camp last year  ($ 71.88 per week). This year they will pay $ 990 ( $ 123.75 per week). Regular registration residents who paid $ 590 for 8 weeks of camp last year ( $ 73.75 per week) will pay $ 1, 010 (or $ 126.25 per week) this year.

While initially this might seem like a huge increase for residents to bear, the fees for 8 weeks of camp actually average out to less than $ 3.65 per hour---still well below the hourly rates charged by other camps in the area according to Dave Ianiro.


For nonresidents, the fees for 8 weeks of camp have been increased by 54.17 % to $ 1,110 for early bird registration (which translates to $ 138.75 per week/$ 3.96 per hour). For regular registration the fees will go up by 53.33 % to $ 1,150 ( $143.75 per week/$ 4.11 per hour).

At the end of the day, nonresidents will pay $ 20 more than residents ($ 2.50/wk) for 8 weeks of camp if they register early. If they don’t, they will pay $ 40 more than residents ($ 5/wk) for 8 weeks of camp.
There was one camp fee that didn’t change. Residents who do not sign up early and sign up for only one week of camp will still pay $ 155, like they did last year.
Finance Director Tony Ianiro told the Legislative & Finance Committee that he had not projected how much additional income the new fees will generate for the city' recreation department and that he didn't think the income "would go up that much".

But like I said before, every penny counts---particularly for a department that engaged in significant deficit spending last year.
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