Politics & Government

Playground, Youth Assistance Programs Reinstated

Wyandotte City Council members reversed several proposed cuts to balance the 2011-12 budget.

Donations from the general public and from a city department head helped save two city employees from being laid off for budgetary reasons.

Private donations, along with grant dollars, are being used to nearly offset the entire cost of the city’s , which

The program typically costs the city about $45,000 a year to run, but is now only going to cost about $2,500 because of the donations and grants.

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The due to budget constraints, but Fred Pischke, , voluntarily agreed to cut his $73,000 annual salary by $10,000 in order to partially fund the position, which costs about $36,000 a year.

The rest of the money to fund the position will come from , including reductions in concession, maintenance and contractual services costs.

Find out what's happening in Wyandottewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The City Council voted 5-1 Monday to accept several budget cutting recommendations in light of an estimated $1.4 million shortfall in the 2011-12 budget, which takes effect Oct. 1.

Councilman Leonard Sabuda was the sole dissenting vote. While Councilman James DeSana voted for the overall budget, he took strong exception to reinstating the program coordinator position.

DeSana said a core role of the position will be to bring revenue into Arena. In fact, he said, revenue  has been decreasing as fewer and fewer people are enrolling in recreational programs.

DeSana said the city has cut other things “more valuable than this position” and he would rather see money be spent to save those items over this one position.

On July 22, he planned to make to balance the budget. Since that time, several of his suggestions have come under fire and were altered at Monday’s budget session.

Besides the two employees he had suggested laying off, city leaders also reversed his suggestion that the be eliminated.

The $10,000 to fund the program was added back into the budget Monday, much to the delight of to council members asking that the program not be cut.

who supervise children for a free, six-week summer event series that features The groups also take a number of field trips each summer.

The council on Monday also . Instead, the council agreed to up annual animal licensing fees from $5 to $10 to help fund the $11,000 part-time position.

While the mayor recommended that all seasonal employees be laid off to save $100,000, the amount of layoffs is now down to seven due to the retirement of a longtime DPS employee. The retirement is estimated to save the city about $83,000, which will be used to fund the seasonal employees.

and also are set to be laid off come November if voters reject .

Two firefighters originally were set to be laid off, but that has been reduced to one in light of a longtime fire captain announcing his retirement. His retirement is set to save the city about $115,000, which will be used to fund the department.

While the council agreed to budget reductions on Monday, they’ll vote next month on the overall 2011-12 budget document.


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