By Erin James
The York Dispatch
YORK CITY, Pa. — Plans for a new city fire station are likely on hold for another year, York’s business administrator said Friday.
City officials proposed earlier this year to close York’s two oldest stations and build a new one on the site of Arles Park at East King and Pattison streets. The $3 million fire station had been included on a list of projects the city has considered refinancing or funding with a proposed 30-year bond issue.
At Mayor Kim Bracey’s direction, the fire station and $5.8 million for streetscape improvements have since been removed from the list, business administrator Michael O’Rourke said. At one point city officials were considering a bond issue as large as $39 million, but the proposal has since been scaled back to $27 million, O’Rourke said.
The bond issue will be one topic of discussion at meetings of the city’s Business Administration Committee at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7. The city council is tentatively planning to make a decision Nov. 22.
A decision must be made by the end of the year, when several projects’ short-term financing will expire, O’Rourke said. Including the fire station in the bond issue would have “required too much more conversation” to stay on schedule, he said.
Bracey has said she will present a 2012 budget proposal on Nov. 15, so time is quickly evaporating to settle on a financing plan. The council must approve a balanced budget by the end of the year.
“We have to have a roundabout estimate of what debt service we would have to pay in 2012,” O’Rourke said.
Theoretically, city officials could decide to fund the fire station in a different way. But O’Rourke said he thinks that’s unlikely to happen in next year’s budget.
If the $27 million bond issue is approved as it is currently proposed, York City would see its annual debt service payments shrink, but its overall debt increase. In the long run, O’Rourke said, refinancing several projects at a lower interest rate will save the cash-strapped city money.
Deficit report
In light of a recent report predicting York will accumulate a $50 million deficit by 2016, Bracey said she is even more wary of piling on debt. But, she added, the city stands to save money with a long-term bond on projects it cannot defer.
“We’re not just going out shopping on a whim,” she said.
Several of the projects are essentially non-negotiable, O’Rourke said.
“We’ve already paid money for them. They’re either done or in the process of being done,” O’Rourke said. “We don’t really have an option to not do those.”
Those projects include the new city hall at 101 S. George St., renovations at several community centers, final acquisition of the Northwest Triangle and two sewer projects.
The rest of the bond issue would refinance old debt, including for the city’s ice arena. O’Rourke said the city stands to reduce its annual debt service by $270,000 just by refinancing the ice arena debt.
All of the projects will be paid off within 30 years, though some debts will retire much sooner, O’Rourke said.
Recently added to the bond issue proposal is $750,000 to turn part of East Market Street into a two-way street.
City officials considered spending $5.8 million for new sidewalks, curb cuts, trees and street lighting. The city will probably make streetscape improvements next year but on a smaller scale and with a different funding source, O’Rourke said.
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