BRADNER – The village is facing another vacancy, this time on council.
During the Oct. 15 council meeting, Mayor Virgil Shull Jr. read Councilman Marvin Smith’s resignation
because he is moving from town. Members accepted it with Smith abstaining from the vote.
The village is currently dealing with a shortage of candidates next week for both council and the Board
of Public Affairs. Only two candidates are running for four open council seats, and no one filed to run
for the official single vacancy on the public affairs board. Former member John Piper resigned from it
at the Aug. 20 council meeting, and has not been replaced, and Jason Sisco is not running for
re-election.
Shull mentioned only one resident, Jane Trumbull, has stepped forward to fill Piper’s vacancy on the
board.
"We should think about bringing in an administrator," stated Councilwoman Linda Wildman.
"Here we are again. We aren’t going to have a full board."
"I’m not opposed to that," responded Councilman Terry James.
"No offense to Jim," Wildman clarified, addressing her comment to fire chief/board member Jim
Smith who was present. "It’s something we really ought to think about."
"I brought it up years ago, and it was shot down," said James. No council members expressed
their thoughts on the issue.
Fiscal Officer Jan Stump announced RCAP, a governmental agency which can fund loans, has finances for a
loan with 4 percent interest for the village to fix five lift stations. She said the estimated cost is
around $300,000 which would be funded 75 percent by grant and 25 percent loan as the village’s share.
Government money cannot go toward engineering costs, however, which are not included in the estimate.
"RCAP will run a separate analysis to tell you what the rate increases should be," said Smith.
James said he didn’t know why the Board of Public Affairs hadn’t done it.
"We have gone to RCAP, and you have seen the numbers: $325,000 initially and $348,000 now,"
said Smith. "The lift stations are 21 years old. That’s what we’ve been trying to do the last
couple years, but you folks. …"
He said funds which were to be used for the lift stations went into repairing the fence at the lagoon and
other repair projects. "We asked for a $1 increase, and you folks didn’t want to do it. If you want
to do it, you’ll have to have someone run an analysis."
Stump said if the village got a $150,000 20-year loan at 4-percent interest, residents could be charged a
$2 flat increase for 20 years to cover the additional debt.
"This money has come up quickly and is supposed to end quickly," she said. "To have us do
this, have it engineered, go for bid by the end of December, will be a really tough thing to do."
"State law says you guys are in charge of funding, and we’re in charge of maintenance. That’s not
our deal," Smith stated.
Stump said she will await new information. "This whole program is hard because no one seems to know
what’s going on."
"You know you’re going to have to raise it more than $2," said Wildman. "It scares me
because I don’t know how these people can pay for it."
Stump reported the village’s general fund is expected to be reduced by 20 percent in 2010 because of a
reduction in its funding by the Local Government Fund. Interest earned on the town’s certificates of
deposit is also down, and less income tax is being collected.
"For a year you’ll see revenue for the general fund not as high as it was," she said.
Members approved paying $2,800 to move most of the newly-planted trees in the park. Voting "no"
were James and Cody Roth.
They also agreed to pave Edmonds Street, since there is funding in the street fund for it.
