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130th Year No. 11 Wednesday, March 13, 1985 Slim trimSs: Few areas to reduce tax hike | * Melodee Martinuk Chronicle Staff Waterloo ratepayers shouldn‘t be looking for any breaks in the city share of their 1985 property tax bill. The city‘s preliminary ‘85 budget, released Friday, calls for expenditures of $17,261,101, 9.9 per cent over last year. If approved as is, this will mean the average Waterloo homeowner, with a property valued at $60,000, will be paying 9.32 per cent, or $23.84, more for city services this year. â€" Waterloo‘s finance committee will meet next Tuesday, in a marathon session to try to trim spending, but says Mayor Marjorie Carroll, they‘l} be hardâ€"pressed to bring the increase down to eight per cent. "The committee will be doing well if they make 7.5 per cent or eight per cent. We‘re probably looking at making small cuts here and there, wherever we can find it," said the mayor. ‘"‘When you look at what we‘ve got in, Melodee Martinuk Chronicle Staff Waterloo staff and politicians have their fingers crossed in hopes they‘ve found the solution to their problems providing adult crossing guard services. Last week, council awarded the service contract to Burns Internaâ€" tional Security Services Ltd. beâ€" cause Control Building Services, the company currently running the program, was unable to keep the positions filled. _ _ While Burns will not be taking over supervision of all school crossings in the city until April 1, since last Tuesday, the company has had its guards at the four crossings where the greatest probâ€" lems had occurred: Albert Street and Hickory St.; University Aveâ€" nue and Keats Way; Keats Way in front of Keatsway public school; Amos Avenue and Keats Way. Waterloo traffic technician Debâ€" bie Trim reported there have been no complaints about the service at these crossings last week, alâ€" though the "real test" for Burns won‘t come until April 1. "I haven‘t heard a peep from those areas and I would have heard if there had been any problems," said Trim, who had been swamped by complaints from parents concerning the level of service the previous contractor had been providing. Until this school year, the city hired its own adult crossing guards, on a partâ€"time basis, to supervise the 10 school crossings in Waterloo. The guards were on duty two hours each school day and paid $81.11 a week. In a move to save money and take the administrative problem from staff‘s hands, last August council tendered the service to an independent firm, Control Building Service of Waterloo. The threeâ€" Burns take over crossing guard service contract year, $69,759 contract awarded Control was a 42 per cent reduction in what the city would have paid to administer the crossing guard proâ€" gram. Trim said that she had received ‘"numerous‘‘ complaints about the service Control was providing, involving lateness or absences. ‘Some of the crossings were being left uprotected," said Trim. "I checked up on them periodicâ€" ally, and found them unacceptâ€" able. You can‘t leave these kids to cross on their own on some of these busy arterial roadways. Cancellation of Control‘s conâ€" tract, Trim said, was done at the "mutual agreement" of both the city and the company. Company officials were not available for comment at press time. "I‘m just thankful no one was hurt." In an interview, Mayor Marjorie Carroll said city council decided to give the contract to Burns rather than have staff resume adminisâ€" tration of the service, in order to provide the best protection for the children. *‘"We had great difficulty operatâ€" ing the program, keeping suffiâ€" cient people to adequately cover the crossings ... It wasn‘t a matter of money, the savings involved are peanuts. The program had just become too difficult to adminâ€" ister," Carroll said. Carroll said Burns was hired for the job because of its previous "track record" in security. She noted that the company has been hired by the city of London to administer its crossing guard proâ€" gram and reports from that muâ€" nicipality have been "very good." ‘"Burns International is large enough; they are experienced in security. They have enough of a back up that crossings in the city will not go uncovered," the mayor remarked. J "~ council‘s going to have a tough time." Carroll said the city‘s recent growth, plus plans for several major capital projects, such as a new arena, library addition and a parking garage, are major factors leading to the hike. Included in the estimates are 13 new staff positions, including the new chief administrator and his secreâ€" :"Xll of this reflects the need to respond to a growing city," she said. ‘"Over the past five years the city has kept growing, but we‘ve held our staff compleme:nt a‘tmu:e N wC C _ mavae 22 _ m L. same level Last year council approved a tax increase of just under seven per cent, which raised the city share of a $1,062.45 tax bill to $255.80. 8 D O '-figa;)a;f-é&ficil approved last week a 2.8 per cent increase in its levy, which will result in a $5 to $7 increase Waterioo, Ontario 25 cents at the Newstand for three years. Staff has really been City hall hopes a change in contractors will bring an end to complaints about adult crossing guard services in the city. Melodee Martinuk photo e in regional taxes. Waterloo County school board levies will not be finalized until early April. |____________ Waterloo‘s preliminary budget also contains $68,000 for the Fire Expansion Reserve Fund, set up to finance construction and staffing of a new fire substation, as well as a $318,000 contribution to the Municipal Building and Facilities Reserve Fund. "We really believe that putting the money into reserve funds is good financial planning in the long term," said Carroll. ‘"With all the capital projects coming on stream, we‘d rather put money in reserves now than impact on the city later with a large debenture debt." Poor winter weather has not only made life miserable, but it has also led to a 37.6 per cent increase in the ‘85 winter road maintenance budget, from $276,664 to eoOFETC. Fortunately for Waterloo ratepayers though, the tax hike will be softened by a surplus of $1,050,000 carried over from 1984. | 3