By Benjamin Joe
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
LOCKPORT, N.Y. — The 2024 Mayor’s Recommended Budget calls for the creation of five new positions — four firefighter posts and a modified youth and recreation leadership post — and elimination of a vacant post in the engineering department.
“It is a balanced budget,” finance director Tim Russo emphasized.
Total projected general fund spending in 2024 is $29.4 million and projected revenue is $28.7 million; fund balance will be tapped to make up the difference, Russo said.
The budget shows each newly hired firefighter would receive a salary of $45,000 and fringe benefits valued at $15,850, per the city’s contract with the firefighters’ union.
Roman said adding four firefighters would strengthen the city’s new ambulance service by reducing the fire department’s overtime spending. Year-to-date, LFD’s overtime total is $500,000, and Roman’s budget shows that same number for all of 2024.
Staffing LFD over and above minimum manning requirements “will help mitigate overtime and also relieve some of the firefighters from having to work so much,” Roman said. “It fits in with the budget and allows services to continue without impacting the tax rate, but allow for better, more efficient service.”
The other new position in Roman’s budget is a full-time, year-round director of youth and community relations, with a $54,000 salary and fringe benefits valued at $13,500. The director would be a member of the city department heads union.
“They had no youth and rec when I came on board. I donated my retirement and my medical to help pay for the youth and rec program,” Roman said, noting that the program was cut entirely in 2020, during the Covid pandemic, and reinstated in 2021 with no director.
The director of youth and community relations would oversee the youth and recreation program and also serve as a liaison to the community, to keep a pulse on what it wants and update it on what’s happening at city hall, according to Roman. Year-round supervision would make the youth and rec program more “consistent,” she added. Presently, the youth and recreation program oversees Community Pool and its lifeguards, and activities in three parks during the summer.
Funding for the firefighter and recreation director posts comes from two sources, according to Russo.
One is the tax levy, which is projected to increase by 1.5%, from $13.2 million in 2023 to $13.4 million in 2024 — while, due to rising total assessed value, the tax rate is falling. The projected 2024 city tax rate is $10.75 per $1,000 of assessed value, down 61 cents from the 2023 tax rate.
The other funding source is ambulance service revenue. Russo said the mayor is budgeting with an eye on ambulance service billings adding up to $1 million next year. The number comes from a third party that examined the city’s ambulance service and determined total revenue of $765,000 is a “conservative estimate” and $1.4 million is “expected” in 2024.
“We decided to take those two numbers and split them,” Russo said.
The budget also calls for elimination of the assistant director of engineering post, which currently is vacant. Russo said a decision was made to not budget for the post while city-wide GIS is being updated.
“It’s a good position to maintain GIS, but not necessarily to update it, for a new hire,” he said. “So we’re putting a hold on it until next year.”
(c)2023 the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.)
Visit the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.) at lockportjournal.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.