Cleveland, OH
North Ridgeville
By Jon Wysochanski
It was quite bumpy, but according to Mayor David Gillock, North Ridgeville was able to pull through 2011, thanks to union concessions and keeping close tabs on finances after losses in state funding and other road blocks.
Gillock gave his ninth State of the City Address Jan. 19 at the North Ridgeville Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event. He said 2011 was tough, as it began with union contract negotiations and reductions in local government funding.
The state “theoretically” gave local governments the means to negotiate with unions and funding losses, Gillock said, but those mechanisms didn’t help all that much.
“Those tools, known as Senate Bill 5 and later as Issue 2 (which was defeated by Ohio voters in November), threw a wrench into negotiations and to our planning throughout the year,” he told an audience of more than 100 people, including City Council members, school officials and State Rep. Matt Lundy.
The city also began 2011 with less carryover money than ever before. The General Fund, streets, state highway, street levy, MVR and surface drainage accounts had decreased by about $800,000 going into 2011, Gillock said.
But the city’s three unions took wage concessions, he noted, and all city employees stepped up to make sacrifices to get North Ridgeville through a challenging year. The city settled with the AFSCME union first, with a three- year contract and an 11-percent concession by the union, through a combination of furlough days, insurance contributions and reduction in longevity. The fire union later reached agreement, with approximately 9- percent reductions in pay and benefits in its two-year contract. Police personnel were last to settle, agreeing to a 9-percent pay reduction in their one-year contract.
“Those same funds I mentioned earlier that showed an $800,000 reduction at the end of 2010 are showing an increase of approximately $762, 000,” Gillock said of how 2012 began.
The decline in property and municipal income taxes was an issue. Those taxes caused the city to experience four years of declining or flat revenues, while expenses continued to climb. The city has always been able to keep balances in the black, Gillock said, and last year city officials were more conservative than ever.
“We continued to slash spending, took concessions and delayed replacing employees,” he said, while also noting no city employees were laid off.
As a result, 2011 income tax revenues are up 9 percent, after being flat for the last two years. For the first time in several years, increases in revenues in those accounts actually exceed city expenditures by about $300,000. Although revenues may be up, Gillock said, the city will still need to continue cost-saving measures through 2012.
According to Gillock, Internet sweepstakes cafes helped with the bottom line. Through licensing fees at the eight locations now open, the city collected approximately $110,000.
But such revenues may be short-lived, Gillock said, because Attorney General Mike DeWine has indicated he intends to introduce legislation to regulate those businesses.
“I anticipate that this legislation will pass sometime this year, and by the end of 2013, Internet cafes will be gone,” he said.
The loss of those revenues, combined with elimination of the estate tax in 2013, will mean the city will have to fill a gap of approximately $250,000 in lost income.
2011 Highlights
In his address, the mayor mentioned several other 2011 projects that were successful, as well as projects anticipated for 2012. They included:
- The railroad quiet zone project, which will be done sometime in 2012.
- Culvert replacement on Chestnut Ridge Road, east of Lear Nagle Road; replacement of the northbound lane at the Lear Nagle and Chestnut Ridge Road intersection.
- Chestnut Ridge Road repaving, from Lear Nagle Road to Bainbridge Road. The project is estimated to cost $825,435. The city will use a $270,000 grant and an interest-free loan to pay $487,000 towards the project. An additional $338,428 from the Street Levy Fund completes the funding.
- Repaving Chestnut Ridge Road halfway to the county line using $34,000 from the street levy and $667,000 in interest-free loans from the Ohio Public Works Commission. The remainder of the road will be repaved in 2013.
- Continuation of storm water management studies, including addressing flooding in the Pitts Boulevard area. This requires more research and approximately $15,750, which requires City Council approval.
- Construction of the Lorain County Community College distance learning center and the grand opening of Panera Bread.
- JBC Technologies’ 40,000-square-foot facility addition.
- Rhenium Alloys’ renovation and its need to bring 75 jobs to North Ridgeville.
- DaVita Dialysis opened two locations in North Ridgeville; a large solar panel installation at Lake Ridge Academy.
- The Quasar Project broke ground at French Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant, which will ultimately generate power by capturing methane, and which may one day fuel city vehicles.
The city plans to begin widening Center Ridge Road by 2016. Lear Nagle Road is currently being designed for widening, with the city looking to widen it to three lanes, from Center Ridge to Chestnut Ridge, and potentially widening Lear Nagle to four lanes, from Chestnut Ridge to Lorain Road.
Tags: North Ridgeville
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