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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2016)
APRIL 29, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11 BUDGET, KPAC: ‘We have sold 10 photos so far for $200...’ continued from Page A1 (Continued from pg. A1) At last month’s KPAC meeting, it was decided 10 spaces would be sold at that price. “We have sold 10 photos so far for $200 each,” Hagen said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Plus we have three people on the wait- ing list. Everyone has gotten receipts for the 10.” As for the three people on the waiting list, Hagen sug- gested offering the faces being put in the crowd of spectators – which would be smaller – for $100 each. “It would be just three to take care of the waiting list, then we’d keep the raffl e the way it is,” Hagen said. Christopher and Rick Day didn’t like that idea. “They had their spot in line at that price ($200),” Day said. As previously discussed, four face portraits are being raffl ed off in drawings. In ad- dition, there will be portraits of Keizer’s six mayors to date and one of longtime Town & Country owner Don Lebold. Hagen liked the idea of keeping the four raffl e win- ners and agreed with keeping the $200 price for the three still on the waiting list. It was decided the three on the waiting list will be in with the spectators, while the six mayors will have the choice of either being mixed in with the spectators or as separate portraits. KPAC chair Beth Melendy said people can enter the raffl e drawings until May 31. The KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy A look at the one-fourth scale paper replica of the public mural that will be going up this summer along the north wall at Town & Country Lanes in Keizer. drawing will take place on Thursday, June 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the Keizertimes offi ce at 142 Chemawa Road NE. The next issue for Hagen is fi nding artists to do the actual painting of the portraits. A call to artists was sent out but the response proved the opposite of the portrait sales. “No one entered a portfo- lio,” she said. “We need to ex- pand our search.” Hagen said she’ll reach out to artists in other communi- ties as well as colleges in the area. Jessi Long suggested so- liciting interested high school students through Salem-Keiz- er Education Foundation ex- ecutive director Krina Lee, as SKEF organized the successful student art show on display through the end of May at Keizer Civic Center. Christopher said artists will be paid $40 per face painted and can do up to fi ve faces. Hagen would like to start painting the street and sky background for the mural on the week of May 23 to 27, us- ing grey for the street and blue for the sky. “I’m looking at two to three days to do this,” she said. After the background is done, Hagen said gridding will be done for the rest of the mural in the fi rst week of June, with the main part of the mural being done after that. 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Once we get to January, we start looking at the numbers and where we’re going to go. The truth is, we’re doing this year-round. It’s just a confi rmation of things we know and getting thoughts to paper in January.” Department heads are given the initial budget and come back with any changes by mid-February. Between then and the long-range planning meeting in early April, Wood and his staff go through budget requests and match them up with revenue. “We look at all of the variables and what we think will happen with revenues,” Wood said. The Keizer Budget Committee holds its fi rst meeting of the year on Tuesday, May 3 at 6 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center. The committee also meets at the same time on Thursday, May 5 with optional meetings on May 10 and 17. “There can be big changes between the meetings,” Wood said. “It can be frantic getting everything together. Historically, we haven’t had too many requests for changes. The challenge is that changing one budget has the possibility to impact other budgets.” Wood said the 2016-17 budget is $38 million total, a little more than the $37 million from last year. “The increase comes from a little bit of everything,” Wood said. “For example, there is an increase in utilities. Water is up 4 percent, sewer is up 3 percent and stormwater is up 9.1 percent, or about $.50 per ESU (Equivalent Service Unit). Those will support our capital improvement plans.” One key recommendation in the budget is making Kristian Bouvier’s Event Center Coordinator position a permanent position, after being a limited-duration job in the past. “I asked it to be funded as a regular position,” city manager Chris Eppley said at the long- range planning meeting. “It has been limited duration longer than a limited duration position should be limited duration.” Wood said the increase in revenue compared to a year ago justifi es the change. “ We’ve seen the venue do well. We are looking at above $135,000 being brought in for that. We’re trying to get the weekday slots fi lled. Weekend slots are fi lled through September. That’s a good problem to have.” — Tim Wood, on revenues of the Keizer Civic Center “We’ve seen the venue do well,” he said. “We are looking at above $135,000 being brought in for that. We’re trying to get the weekday slots fi lled. Weekend slots are fi lled through September. That’s a good problem to have.” Another hot topic at the long-range planning meeting was adding back another police offi cer. “We have a vacant police offi cer position we are going to sit on for a while,” Wood crossword said. “We will look at revenues in the middle of the year. If it’s sustainable, we will add the offi cer back in. In January, it could be a supplemental budget increase.” If that indeed happens, it wouldn’t be the fi rst time recently for the Keizer Police Department. Cara Steele, the KPD’s crime analyst, started part-time but is now full-time. “We have a history in doing that,” Wood said. “It gives the city the benefi t of seeing where the revenue will come in at. It lets us know if we have any wiggle room to add back services.” In theory, the new housing seen in the last year in Keizer will help with revenue. Several senior center living facilities have either opened or are being built, not to mention a large apartment project at Keizer Station and several new housing developments. But new housing doesn’t lead to immediate new taxes for cities. “We are looking at about a year-and-a-half out with new housing revenue,” Wood said. “The county assessor does an assessment as of June 1. Anything fi nished then will be on the tax rolls Oct. 1. Anything else will be Oct. 1 the next year.” The hotel Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) was initially budgeted at $60,000 but Wood said it will likely be closer to $80,000 thanks to an uptick in business at the Keizer Quality Suites. “They have done really well,” Wood said. “Being able to access online booking systems has helped them. I think that will be the new norm as we go forward.” The TOT revenue formerly going into general fund to help pay for Bouvier’s position is now being put directly into her position. “That means the community center is no longer being funded by the general fund,” Wood said. “It is self-sustaining.” Ben Crosby’s Code Enforcement offi cer position was added back a couple of years ago since it was deemed to be “really a needed service” even though it hasn’t added revenue.
