Council OKs its 2020 budget

Portland’s 2021 budget is set.

Portland City Council signed off on the budget proposal, virtually unchanged from when it was approved on first reading, at its meeting Monday.

Council also passed a couple of traffic and golf cart-related ordinances on first reading. Those ordinances will be up for a vote on adoption at a future council meeting.

The budget includes a nearly $300,000 increase in the general fund, a less than 1% raise in the park and recreation fund and a nearly 2% increase in the aviation/airport fund. The rest of the budget remains virtually unchanged from the current year’s budget outside of a 1.5% raise for almost all city officials and a $2 raise for part-time firefighters and dispatchers.

That payroll ordinance had to be amended and passed again on first reading Monday after there was a discrepancy in council’s Oct. 6 meeting minutes about the amount of the raise.

A majority of council members said they believed they voted to raise the hourly rate for part-time firefighters from $12.44 to $14.44, but the official minutes of the meeting listed the ordinance as just a $1.56 raise.

To correct the apparent error, council voted to pass the ordinance again Monday on first reading with a $2 raise. Council member Matt Goldsworthy voted against it on that vote but voted in favor of the ordinance on the second reading along with the rest of the council.

On why he voted against the ordinance on the first vote, Goldsworthy said he wanted to review what council voted on last time, but after seeing the rest of council voted in favor of the $2 raise, he followed in line.

The payroll ordinance and the budget were the first and second of four ordinances passed by council Monday.

The other two ordinances, if passed on second reading at a future meeting, would amend the city’s traffic code to require annual registration of golf carts, among other changes.

The ordinance, at the recommendation of Portland Mayor John Boggs, would require any golf cart driven on city streets to first be registered with Portland Police Department at an annual fee of $35.

After registration, a bumper sticker would be provided as proof of registration. The ordinance would also require rental or out-of-town golf carts to be registered to the city for $35 during events such as the annual Tri-State Antique Engine and Tractor Show.

“It’d be good for us to have a database should somebody steal a golf cart,” Boggs said. “And we’ll have a database on what our golf cart population is.”

Nearby municipalities such as Albany and Fort Recovery have similar ordinances requiring the registration and inspection of golf carts driven on city and village streets.

Council members Don Gillespie, Kent McClung, Michele Brewster, Janet Powers, Mike Aker and Goldsworthy, absent Dave Golden, passed an ordinance that if enacted would, among other things:

•Increase the base fine of a parking violation from $2 to $25

•Make it a violation to disobey existing reverse-angle parking spots along Main Street

•Add signs detailing the prohibition of engine compression brakes (the signs would allow enforcement of an existing statute)

•Change the intersection of Main and Ship streets to a two-way stop, with right-of-way given to east and westbound traffic.

•Change the intersection of Main and Pleasant streets to a four-way stop

•Add a school speed zone on Water Street from Meridian Street (U.S. 27) to the east city limits and Meridian Street from Main Street to Second Street

•Make the west side of Court Street between Main and Walnut streets for official parking only while the east side is a 15-minute loading zone

•Update code to abide by state statutes on funeral processions and snowmobile use on city streets

Council opted to table a vote on the ordinances for a second reading so the public would have time to review and give feedback on the proposals.

“We have some other ordinances we’re going to look at, too,” Boggs said.

Near the end of the meeting, Boggs told council that he and members of the local housing task force met with a housing developer Monday who is looking to build new single family homes in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range near the northwest part of the city.

He also confirmed that a Dollar Tree would be opening soon in the shopping center at the intersection of Votaw Street and Industrial Park Drive but said that the business has not informed his office or Jay County Chamber of Commerce on when it would begin operations.

In addition, Boggs debunked a rumor he said was circulating on Facebook that the local Pizza Hut is closing.

“Pizza Hut is not closing in Portland,” the mayor said, “so if you heard that, it’s not true.”

Council also passed a resolution transferring $2,000 from the city’s motor vehicle highway repair and maintenance fund to its equipment fund and $1,500 from the mayor and council’s communication and transportation budget to their office supply funds.