PWFD study, controversial sidewalks in budget plan

City of Port Washington next year contains few surprises, with a flat tax levy and a slight decrease in the expected tax rate, City Administrator Tony Brown said.

But, Brown said, the proposed $5.3 million capital budget contains a number of initiatives, including the installation of sidewalks along Hales Trail leading to Upper Lake Park, funds for a fire station design, a fire department staffing study and the conversion of the city’s street lights to LED lights.

There’s also money in the capital budget for a survey of residents intended to help guide city spending and planning, street improvements, a new roof on the library and a redesigned city website.

The proposed 2021 budget will be presented to the Common Council when it meets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10. 

A public hearing on the budget will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, with aldermen expected to vote on the spending plan that night.

The proposed 2021 plan calls for a $9,969,340 operating budget that would be supported by a tax levy of $3.5 million.

But since the city’s debt service levy is decreasing by about $38,000 and the city’s assessed value has increased about $20 million due to new construction, the tax rate will actually decrease 11 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, Brown said.

The proposed tax rate would be $6.60 per $1,000 compared to $6.71 last year, he said.

Funds for the new fire station design have long been sought by the city’s Police and Fire Commission, and Mayor Marty Becker has said approval of the new $5 million station is one of his goals.

But Brown said the $325,000 for the design was placed in the capital budget with the understanding that the city will wait to move ahead on the project until after an ongoing shared services study is completed.

The fire department staffing study was prompted by the fact that Fire Chief Mark Mitchell is having difficulty finding adequate staffing, especially for the ambulance service, Brown said.

“It’s only been exacerbated by the pandemic,” Brown said. A number of the paramedics and emergency medical technicians in the fire department have full-time jobs in the health care field, and their employers no longer will allow them to work part time.

The department has also had difficulty filling a full-time paramedic position.

The proposed budget also includes funds to buy 10 new body cameras for the police department. That’s fewer than the 20 sought by the Police and Fire Commission, which wanted to have one per police officer, but the same number the department currently has, Brown said.

Police Chief Kevin Hingiss originally sought to purchase only 10 new cameras, noting that there are few times when all the officers are on duty.

In addition, the proposed budget includes $1.1 million for street reconstruction, $500,000 for street maintenance and $520,000 for sidewalks and alley improvements.

The installation of sidewalks along Hales Trail from Kaiser Drive to Upper Lake Park and along Crestview and Sunrise drives is included in the sidewalk plan, Brown said.

The Hales Trail sidewalk plan has proven controversial, with residents in the area arguing that they are not needed and would not fit in a neighborhood that wasn’t designed for them.

The Common Council initially approved their installation two years ago, a decision that was reaffirmed this spring by aldermen, despite Becker’s assertion he would veto any move to place the walkways there.

Other initiatives in the proposed budget include $125,000 to rewrite the city’s zoning code over the next two years and $50,000 to begin the process of creating a strategic downtown plan.

Funds for a citizen survey that will be used in creating a vision plan for the city and prioritizing projects are included in the budget, as well as $35,000 to help create a strategic plan that will help guide the city in its planning, policy and staffing decisions for the next three to five years.

That strategic plan would be created using the citizen survey feedback and the city’s existing plans, Brown said.

The city’s recycling fee, a separate charge on property tax bills, will also be increasing by $2.23, to $38.23.