State removes Girard from fiscal emergency

State removes Girard from fiscal emergency

Girard

The state auditor today approved the removal of the city from fiscal emergency, a move to be made official at the fiscal commission’s last meeting scheduled for the end of May, said fiscal commission Chairwoman Sharon Hanrahan.

Girard Mayor James Melfi called it a “very proud moment” and a “sentimental accomplishment” but acknowledged that nothing can change as far as overwatching the city’s spending.

“This particular part of our job is over,” he said of the monthly fiscal commission meetings. “But we still need to make sure to adjust our spending to the amount of revenue coming in.”

The city fell into fiscal emergency Aug. 8, 2001, the third longest tenure under the status in the state’s history, Hanrahan said.

Only East Cleveland, 17 years, and Manchester, 14 years, were under fiscal emergency for longer, Hanrahan said.

In 2001, the city had a deficit of $2.5 million. In 2011, it was $1.8 million in the black and expected to be so for the next five years, according to state auditors.