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Costs for water main and city hall repairs concern Niles fiscal commission
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
The commission that oversees the city’s efforts to get out from under fiscal emergency got a double dose of bad news Wednesday: questions about whether city hall is worth repairing, and the escalating number of water main breaks that may require massive infrastructure spending.
“The situation arose from past maintenance negligence,” said Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia, a fiscal commission member, referring to replacement of the roof and eradication of mold that sickened the mayor and two other city employees.
In 2011, a construction firm called in a report to the city for replacement of the entire roof. Instead, the administration of then-Mayor Ralph Infante opted for patches. A repair estimate is expected by early next month.
“I will not venture a guess whether the building is salvageable or not,” said council President Robert Marino, who also sits on the commission. Marino said he did not know what the city should do if the 89-year-old building cannot be fixed, and called for developing a comprehensive plan.
“I hate to see us manage by emergency,” Marino said.
“Its market value is zero, and infrastructure in that building is highly questionable,” responded John Davis, a commission member. “I’d be very careful with that building.”
Fiscal Supervisor Tim Lintner said if city hall is repaired, the general fund would have to cover most of the costs. Other city offices with their own funding would pay the rest.
An even bigger issue for the city and commission is the 67 water main breaks this year, well above the 30 in 2015 according to Safety Service Director James DePasquale.
“At this pace, we’re going to be over 100 breaks this year,” DePasquale told the commission. “We have an infrastructure problem, and it’s very expensive.”
Lintner said that although the water department is eliminating its deficit, a massive infrastructure spending project would be “incredibly detrimental” to the financial state of the city.
State law requires cities in fiscal emergency to produce a five-year recovery plan with positive balances in the general fund.
“This is a major curve ball that could put us under water again,” Davis warned, while Quentin Potter, commission chairman, said the panel “may need more ideas in the financial plan to deal with this issue.”
In a somewhat positive note, city Auditor Giovanne Merlo told the commission that three of the city’s five unions have tentatively agreed to pay 2.5 percent of their health care premiums in 2017 and 5 percent in 2018. Merlo said the employees may get the option of a city-paid plan but with much higher deductibles.
The city had been paying 100 percent of the premiums. Negotiations with two police unions are ongoing.
“We won’t be able to determine the savings until the employees make their health care selections in January,” Merlo said.
A sore spot for the city and commission is the huge increase in bank service charges impacting city finances. Figures submitted by Lintner show that the city is on pace to pay more than $140,000, compared with $73,000 in all of 2015.
Treasurer Janet Rizer-Jones has called the fees “exorbitant,” and Lintner last month attributed the bulk of the increases to Huntington Bank.
The city has asked area banks including Huntington to submit proposals that it expects to be significantly lower.