Potholes!

Ah, the bane of winter and spring as temperatures vary between freezing and thawing.

Potholes form when moisture gets under the surface and turns the base to mud or washes out parts of the base. Water below the surface also freezes. As it expands, it pushes the road upward. Then as it thaws, base settles and the road surface has no support beneath it. A car or truck hits this spot and breaks the surface open into the hole. There's no avoiding them unfortunately, especially here where temperatures in the winter frequently alternate between freezing and thawing.

Lincolnway/IL Route 2 has been the worst offender. The roadway has needed reconstruction for several years. Since the roadway is a State highway, it is IDOT's responsibility to reconstruct it. Unfortunately, IDOT had to rebid the project and it got off to a late start this year. The work won't be done until spring, so in the meantime, we're at the mercy of IDOT and their contractor to get the holes filled. The road is in such bad shape, it's impossible for our City crews to maintain by ourselves. Since the reconstruction began last fall, it is IDOT's responsibility to hold the road together. We have volunteered City crews to assist the contractor and will continue to do so.

Unfortunately, this time of year, asphalt plants aren't open because of the cold temperatures. This means crews can only use "cold patch." As you've probably noticed, cold patch is temporary at best. However, it's the only solution we have at this time and the most commonly used method across the country. Lasting repairs require the warm temperatures and operating asphalt plants.

Analysis of our economy an what we need to do

I had the good fortune of hearing Diane Swonk at a recent conference. She's referenced in this article that I think is very telling of our economy. The article offers some suggestions on what we need to do. In short, we have to have a tough conversation with ourselves about how we're going to prepare our 21st century workforce so we can keep jobs in America since we're now competing in a global marketplace. We need to examine long-term change and not short-term platitudes. Middle class jobs for unskilled workers are going to continue to shrink. Not only are we losing unskilled and low-skill jobs to overseas, our education system is falling behind some of the same overseas economies too, putting us behind in new unskilled and skilled jobs. Schools, community leaders and most importantly, parents, have to re-prioritize education and how it is delivered. Please take a few minutes to read: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101216/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_special

Congratulations Sterling Newman

Four state championships in 20 years! Absolutely amazing. Congratulations to the team and a job well done representing the community.

Expanding our Web Presence

We're taking our second foray into the world of social media. If you missed our first social media entrance, you can find more here at Nixle. The Nixle service allows you to receive alerts, advisories or other information from the Sterling Police Department via text or email. The sign up link is at the top of the linked page.

This week, we've started our Facebook page. Facebook allows us an additional and very convenient way to get fresh, accurate information out quickly from all of our departments. Check it out today!

Where to start?

I've neglected this page again, a habit I have to break. It's just so easy to get caught up in everything either already on the desk or happening on job sites or out in other departments.

The summer of 2010 was really quite remarkable in retrospect. Hopefully most people will find the majority of the efforts to be quite positive.

-New Trash program
-NWSW Demolition
-$1,000,000 in forgivable loans from EPA
-Demo project in the 600 block of E. 3rd Street
-$2.7million in grants for abandoned and foreclosed home repair
-New Menard's under construction
-Buffalo Wild Wings Opening
-New Kohl's/PetSmart under construction and the old Wal*mart demolished
-The 14"Mill was sold while we continue cleanup work with EPA Grants behind it
-The most street work ever done with the exception of 1996-97 when the MFT bonds were issued thanks to the local option sales tax and stimulus funds
-VA Clinic announced in Sterling
-Continued sewer separation projects
-Created an Administrative Hearing process to speed up cases and ease the case load of an overwhelmed Whiteside County Circuit Court
-Started the planning process for the future of the riverfront

It's been incredible, but that's really just scratching the surface!

It has taken lot of work to get this much accomplished in a down economy without breaking the bank. There has been assistance from the feds, grant writing, cooperation from the county, help from Sterling Today, the Greater Sterling Development Corporation, U of I Extension, and Rock Island Renaissance. Most importantly, we've had a Council willing to look at new ideas and cooperating with others to bring good things here. I can't say enough about the people I get to work with and that help the City do this. I probably owe a whole post about the great people that work in the background and keep a positive attitude! It's not always sunshine and roses, but we have to keep ourselves pointed in that direction to overcome the negatives.

Municipal Band - A Real Sterling Asset

Tonight was Sterling Municipal Band's annual "Spring Concert." Another fine performance from Jon James and the crew. Hope you were able to get out and enjoy it!

The summer concert series at Grandon in downtown Sterling starts the 2nd Wednesday in June and runs through the summer each Wednesday evening. Concerts are free. Bring your blanket or lawn chair and join everyone at the band shell. Each week, service groups are there to provide drinks and food, so you can enjoy a light dinner or evening snack with the concert.

Come on down! http://www.sterlingmunicipalband.com/

Big Changes to Solid Waste!

The City of Sterling is making a big change to how your garbage and recycling are picked up and how the program is paid for.

Trash pickup: Currently, citizens must throw household waste into a special waste pickup bag that must be purchased at the current price of $1.60 each. Buying bags helps encourage people to cut down waste, but it also comes with the inconvenience of buying special bags, ripping and tearing of bags, animals, additional plastic in the landfill, etc.

In July, we will switch to 64+/- gallon garbage carts. No more need for late night trash bag runs on trash night! Simply place your kitchen trash bags in the cart and wheel it to the curb on trash night. The lid will help contain the garbage and keep litter from blowing and animals from getting too inquisitive. The carts are surprisingly easy to move, and unlike a bag, you don't have to drag it nor lift it! If it's still too cumbersome due to a bona fide medical condition or similar, the hauler will work to help you get it picked up.

We also hope that buy having a set fee and no bags to buy, we can help eliminate illegal dumping and trash accumulation in our neighborhoods!

Recycling pickup: Currently, residents have an 18 gallon recycle tub to place all recyclables in. Unfortunately, 18 gallons is hardly enough for most residents these days as we've gotten better about recycling. The open bins overflow and on windy days, we find a lot of plastics in the street. Residents will now receive a second cart for recyclables of either 42 or 64 gallons (to be determined). Everything you can currently recycle, you can continue to recycle, except now you have more room and there will be less litter blowing around your neighborhood!

Rewards $$$! We are very excited to introduce RecycleBank to you! Sterling will be just the 2nd city in Illinois to partner with RecycleBank to bring you rewards just for recycling! Check out their website for more details! In short, each cart is weighed and the more your area of town recycles, the greater the monthly rewards. These rewards include gift certificates and coupons to local and national businesses. If you take advantage of these rewards, you've just taken down your monthly cost of waste disposal while doing your part to help the environment. How neat is that?

Check out these YouTube videos about RecycleBank: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3

Costs: Currently, residents pay $7.50/mo on their water bill for Solid Waste, which includes recycling, yard waste and trash. Additionally, residents pay $1.60 for each "City bag" that has to be used. If you use one bag per week, you'll pay $13.90 to $15.50 per month depending on the number of pick up days that month. Now, you'll have a bill of approximately $13.85 +/- and you'll also get credits back for recycling, effectively reducing that amount even further!

FAQ
When will my trash recycling be picked up?
At this point, your current pick up dates will not change

How will my yard waste be disposed of?
Just as it is now, using either the Kraft paper bags or a container marked with a large "X." You will also have the option of buying a yard waste specific cart if you like.

Do I set my trash in the same place?
At this point, yes. The cart does require space on either side of the cart for the truck to pick up the cart. The Council is considering whether to move trash collection out of the alleys. Alleys require significant maintenance due to the weight of the trucks combined with the freezing and thawing of the alleys each year. Alleys are not built with the same strength as city streets which have much stronger bases beneath them. Trash trucks also run over curbs at alley entrances due to the tight turns required at many alleys. If the Council chooses to move to street collection only, you would be allowed to store your cart neatly against the side of your house.

Who else uses carts?
In Northern Illinois and the Quad Cities, Rock Island, Moline, Dixon, Naperville, Bettendorf, Macomb, Davenport, Sycamore, Mendota, Princeton use carts for trash collection.

Can they be used in the snow?
Toronto, Ontario; Minneapolis,MN; Fargo,ND; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Detroit,MI; Anchorage, AK; Milwaukee, WI; Toledo, OH; Bozeman, MT; Grand Rapids, MI; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Billings, MT; Casper, WY; Rapid City, SD; Bismarck,ND; and Madison, WI are all major northern cities that have successfully adopted various cart collection systems. Carts are easily pushed or pulled down driveways or yards by design. While larger than a bag, there's no lifting, dripping or balancing a heavy bag while walking down the drive. No need to push drag or carry a heavy recycling cart to the curb either.

Do I have to buy the carts?
You will receive a trash cart and a recycle cart as part of your regular bill at no additional charge. You may elect to choose a larger trash container for a monthly premium. Yard waste carts are available for separate purchase. The trash and recycle carts are property of the waste hauler. The yard waste cart would become yours and your responsibility.

All of my trash won't fit in the 64 gallon cart, what do I do?
If this is a rare occurrence, you will be able to purchase stickers to place on extra bags like today's bulk waste stickers. If this is a frequent occurrence, you may want to, or you may be asked to switch to a larger container. Most families won't have this issue with good recycling habits. The 64 gallon carts hold more than an equivalent sized bag since there are no wasted corners or lost space to tie up the bags.

In all, this should be a cost effective means to cleaner neighborhoods, added convenience and increased recycling!

Rural Fire Tax Referendum

As in the past, life gets in the way and this gets neglected unfortunately. However, there is a very important issue on Tuesday's ballot for residents in the Sterling Rural Fire District. On January 26th, there was an informational meeting held at the Coliseum. For anyone unable to attend, I have uploaded slide from the meeting here.

Much has been made that rural resident pay one-third the rate of City residents and since the rural area is no more than one-third the calls, that is appropriate. What the City is concerned with is that if the rural district is up to a third of the calls, the rural district should contribute up to a third the total cost.

If rural residents, as they are now, pay one-third the rate, a person with a rural home 1 foot outside city limits is paying one third the taxes of the person next door and inside the City. The City Council has been clear that it's not fair for the City to send the same number of firefighters and equipment to the rural district when those residents are paying a fraction of what City residents pay.

I have also been told that comments have been made that the substation or Station 1 is unnecessary. While we can operate without it, it will no doubt have a service impact in some instances. Unfortunately, whether we cut police, spending on infrastructure or economic development, there will be an impact. That's the unfortunate reality of where we are. The costs of general insurance, health insurance, pensions, road construction and specialty equipment have all risen much faster than normal inflation and revenues.

Lastly, I would ask everyone to review Page 15 of the presentation. Sterling Rural Fire District residents have the LOWEST rate in Whiteside's 12 rural fire districts yet are one of only two districts receiving fire services from full-time firefighters. 8 of 12 districts pay either double or triple the Sterling Rural rate for volunteer service. One cannot reasonably expect the City of Sterling to provide fulltime firefighters at a rate that's half of what other districts pay for volunteers.

Please examine all the facts carefully before voting.

Proposed Rental Inspection Ordinance

The City Council and staff continue to explore an ordinance that would call for regular inspections of rental properties in Sterling. There are some questions that continue to arise. There was a recent Council work session which overviewed the program. You can see the PowerPoint presentation in PDF format here.

One of the questions is the time frame and nature of inspections. First, these are not unannounced or unscheduled inspections. The goal is to make sure all properties are safe and up to building and maintenance codes. Ideally, owners and managers of rental property would have the homes up to code before we arrive, knowing when we would inspect. If the ordinance passes in July or August, we will begin the registration and scheduling process with inspections likely to begin late in the year or around January 1.

Secondly, there is an internal inspection component to the program, but it is not scheduled to begin for 3 years. Due to the limited manpower available and the number of properties in the City, we will focus on exteriors for the first 3 years unless there is a complaint about an issue.

Again, this proposal does not add more stringent codes/standards to what the City has already adopted in past years. This program is just another tool by which to enforce those building and maintenance codes. Those codes are important as they set minimums for safety and health standards for residents. Theoretically, all homes should already be up to code. We want to ensure that renters roofs aren't leaking, that smoke and CO detectors are installed per state law, that there is no exposed wiring, that windows and screens are in place, foundations are solid, etc.

Sterling would be the first in the Sauk Valley to adopt such an ordinance, but many other cities across the state, large and small; rural and urban; have adopted similar ordinances. The end goal being better neighborhoods and safe housing that meets a minimum standard of living.

Clean and Green

I hope most were able to take advantage of "Clean and Green" in Sterling. This was our second year and a lot of stuff got dumped, so hopefully it's keeping the yards nicer and your basement and attic a little more clutter free! I'll try to get totals posted at some point.

But the other part of this is the volunteer effort we're trying to build. To make a community work and grow better, it takes people stepping up and volunteering for various causes. For Clean And Green, we're trying to spruce up the City using volunteer efforts to take on projects that might not otherwise get done. Last year we did some plantings around the entry signs into the community at N. Locust and on Freeport Road in addition to a litter pickup in the downtown, some storm cleanup and graffiti coverup. This year, we planted in the neighborhood of a few hundred flowers in the downtown, at Grandon, and at the Farmer's Market. We also cleaned one case of graffiti and watered all of the new plantings. Another crew donated some hours at the Manahan home. The third crew worked on a home that's needed painting and cleanup for some time. They blasted the paint off, scraped and got nearly all of it primed over the course of 3 days. Amazing!

So to the Wal*Mart Distribution Center who stepped up with probably 40 volunteers last year and this year, I say thanks to all of you for helping us all out. The Distribution Center has come forward both times and brought volunteers who are happy to be helping and work hard on the task at hand. Much appreciated. We were also joined by Bob and Judy Fox who regularly help the Park District through a volunteer program they coordinate. Great of you two to come down and help. And while I'm at it, thanks to the Public Works guys who took on some overtime hours on a long weekend to help Sterling residents out. I stopped by both sites and I know those guys were happy to help and wearing smiles.

I hope people and other businesses can join us next year, whether it's a project we can decide on, or one you can pick. We're just hoping to get more people into spring cleaning and making our area an even better place to live!!!

Some of the scrap we'll attempt to salvage:


Several of these were filled and taken away!


Tires continued to be a popular drop off item:

It's Bike to Work Day!

A helpful guide on how to bike to work from the Chicago Bicycle Federation: http://www.biketraffic.org/btwg/

It's probably easier than you think! What might take you 10 minutes to drive might only take 15-20 to ride, plus you get your exercise in for the day! Of course it also cuts down on your car and gas costs.

There's also a new group of recreational cyclists in town that are riding together on Mondays and Wednesday and all levels are welcome. Dixon also has an all are welcome ride on Thursdays. On Wednesdays, riders meet at Ridge Road just south of the I-88 over pass south of Rock Falls at 6pm for individual 10 mile rides. On Mondays, riders meet for a group ride (a short and long option is available) at Arthur's in Sterling at 5:30. Show up, ride with the group and end up back at Arthur's for a bite or dessert!

Sterling is pretty easy to ride through. Please remember to follow the rules of the road, which includes riding to the right with traffic. Never ride against traffic. Motorists are required to give at least 3 feet of space to cyclists by state law.

Get moving!

More on Budgeting

I could assume most are probably done hearing about the budget, but in an effort to keep getting information out there, I'll keep adding to it. First, it has been said some employees were unaware of the situation or had to do their own homework. I invited all employees to a meeting on January 27th. I made 2 additional presentations to the fire department to cover all the shifts. I've uploaded the exact presentation (so some numbers are now dated).

One of the other factors in budgeting is of course a long-term outlook. While the budget only cover 12 months of spending, I have to make recommendations and the Council has to make tough decisions based on creating a budget that is sustainable beyond those 12 months. Are sales tax revenues going to bounce back in 12 months? 18 months? longer? Is unemployment going to reverse its trend in 6 months? 12 months? longer? Will income taxes from the State turn positive this year? next? Will the State withhold tax transfers to cities to make their Budget balance? Is their any end to health insurance increases? Will pension costs ever level off or will they continue to rise faster than revenues?

There are so many questions, but there are also plenty of known pressures. We know the trend for health insurance costs is about 8% a year. We know the police pension cost has doubled in 10 years. We know the fire pension has nearly quadrupled in 10 years. Construction costs have risen faster than inflation and our revenues. Electric has gone up. The cost of meeting EPA regulations for wastewater have gone up. None of this is sustainable over time without a change in the way we operate. When the entire global economy crashes as it has, it expedites the need to implement change. And when in a massive economic downturn, the choices can only be difficult. Difficult, but necessary.

A Word on Fund Balances

Now here's a topic that's sure to captivate! Well, probably not, but since it's become a topic of conversation, I thought I'd attempt to address it.

First, a fund balance is most simply the difference between assets and liabilities in a governmental fund. The fund balance is not cash sitting in a checking account waiting to be drawn down. While cash is a small component, investments, accounts receivable and inventories are also added into the total assets calculation.

Why maintain a healthy fund balance? The fund balance has multiple purposes. First, not every revenue comes in at a steady rate and not every expense is divided equally over the year. For instance, the second property tax payment for the budget year doesn't come to the City until September, but the majority of the road work and summer maintenance is complete. So while we are waiting for the second property tax payment and awaiting the sales tax for the rest of the year, we need cash and investments on hand to pay suppliers and contractors. Without a fund balance, we wouldn't always have the cash on hand. So we need funds there.

Another reason for the fund balance is to be prepared for a disaster. It's prudent to have funds set aside in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. If a tornado were to hit Sterling and tear up infrastructure, how would we pay the bill for repairs and cleanup? How do we pay overtime to keep employees working through rescue and the cleanup? In two years we find out that a material used to construct the firehouse or the Coliseum is a known carcinogen and the building needs to be razed and rebuilt and revenues aren't significant enough to issue a bond. We would need the reserves to do the work.

Even if we were able to bond, bonding costs are in part determined by the bond rating of the City. Without adequate reserves, the bond rating suffers. A lower bond rating means higher costs which can cost the City tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest payment costs.

We also have to be prepared for economic catastrophe. There is no doubt these are bad times. While we're at 9.8% unemployment locally, in 1933, unemployment spiked nationwide at 24.9%. Even as recent as the early 1980's, much of the Midwest was in the mid to high teens for unemployment. If we reach those levels again, then we will likely be compelled to make use of our fund balances.

To make the most of the reserve funds, the vast majority of it is not in cash. In fact, the majority is held in long-term investments to maximize returns. Those returns are then used as revenues in our budget. That said, not all the investments are readily available. Some investments have maturity dates that extend out 10 or even 20 years. A sound fiscal policy involves investments coming due at staggered intervals so that some monies are constantly available while others are earning the most interest possible in safe investments.

Using fund balances to pay ongoing operational costs is generally not advisable, particularly when the budget deficit is not foreseen as a one-time problem. We do not see the City's budget issue as a one-time or short-term issue. While prior to this year, revenues continued to rise, so did personnel expenses. The problem is the rise in personnel expenses is outpacing the rise in revenues. While revenues may rise 3%-5% in past years, expenses for health insurance and pensions have far exceeded that pace, to the point that pension and health increases are rising at more than twice the rate of revenues. That trend cannot be sustained, which is why the City has to act early and prudently. If we merely use fund balances to solve our budgeting woes, our deficit will only accelerate over time as the cost of employees increase and fund balances disappear, taking with them interest earnings that were previously used to help pay for those very employee costs. Investment and interest income from the General Fund fund balance was worth over $250,000 in revenues. That's not a revenue stream we want to see sacrificed to so we can put off today's hard decision for what becomes tomorrow's even harder decision.

How's that for boring your socks off? If you stuck with that and read it through, congratulations! I hope you were able to gain some valuable insight.

Sterling Main Street's Official Designation

What a great day for Sterling!

On Main Street Day at the Capitol, Sterling and Sterling Main Street were officially elevated to the status of "Designated Main Street Community." That's result of a lot of effort from a group of dedicated individuals.



(L-R: Representative Jerry Mitchell; Myself; Sterling Main Street President, Ed Cox; Sterling Main Street Director, Shelley Hoffman; Sterling Main Street Board Member Phil Mattox; Governor Pat Quinn)

Normally the Lieutenant Governor comes to your City for the ceremonies, but of course we no longer have a Lt. Governor courtesy of the last Governor. That takes away a lot of the local spotlight from these tireless volunteers and director. They're adding a great asset to our City. The facade grant program and the low interest loan program are two opportunities to help downtown business and building owners that wouldn't exist without Main Street. Congratulations Main Street volunteers! http://www.sterlingmainstreet.org/

City Budgeting

There's an unfortunate disinformation campaign being waged by individuals that consists of outright false information and misrepresents the ongoing issues with the City budget.

The City of Sterling, as most municipalities in Illinois and across the nation, is facing a sharp downturn in revenues as a result of the decline in the economy since last fall. The Sterling City Council directed staff to prepare a balanced budget that avoided tax increases while focusing on the Council goals of combating gangs and crime; addressing code enforcement and neighborhood issues including housing; maintaining and improving infrastructure, particularly streets; and addressing the condition of the riverfront to encourage future development in the area.

Given the state of the economy, with the exception of the increase to the property tax levy to help offset increases to the police and fire pensions, nearly every other major revenue source to the General Fund is expected to decrease more than $230,000 for Fiscal Year 2010. Further exacerbating the problem are costs for employee health insurance that are rising at 10% (an increase of $78,750), firefighter pension costs that are rising 17% (an increase of $37,328) and police pension costs that are rising 34% (an increase of $81,328). In short, after paying for the increased pension and health insurance costs, and paying a 3% increase to employee salaries due to already negotiated and impending contracts, the City needed to tighten its belt and cut more than half a million dollars from the General Fund budget or increase taxes. The consensus was this was not a good time to consider a tax hike on Sterling residents.

Over 70% of the General Fund’s operating revenues are personnel costs, making it extremely difficult to make significant cuts without cutting personnel costs. In light of the situation, employee meetings were conducted to inform them of the budgetary issues and were solicited for ideas. Staff made cuts to line items throughout the budget, including over $600,000 in departments outside the fire department. However, the budget was still not balanced.

It was determined that the easiest, fairest and most efficient way to balance the budget after all other cuts was to freeze the annual increase to salaries, while still honoring step and merit increases to employees. In an effort to avoid layoffs, the City approached the fire union and asked them for their help in closing the budget gap by reconsidering the contractual across the board increase in pay, and taking merit increases and specialty pay increases only. Even with a 0% change to across the board pay, specialty pay and step increases would increase most firefighter pay by an average of $500, with some as high as $1,080 and one by $4,074.

The City also made the suggestion that it would welcome the idea of furloughs where all employees in the City would keep the 3% increase, but take a few shifts off over the course of the year if the fire union would consider amending the contract to make that allowable. The City expressed a willingness to listen.


If contract employees had agreed to a 0% across the board increase while the City still honored the step and specialty pay increases, we would have avoided layoffs of full time firefighters and the substation would remain open.


If contract employees had agreed to a 3% across the board increase but with some unpaid furlough days, we would have avoided layoffs of full time firefighters and the substation would remain open.

After presenting the City’s difficult financial outlook, and asking for the fire union to help us given these unusual times and bad economy, the City was told that the union would get back to them. The City has not heard a response back from the union and thus, the City has to honor the contract and provide a 3% increase in addition to the step and specialty increases to the firefighters. The City was then left with the option to raise taxes or eliminate positions in the City. The City felt this was an extremely bad time to raise Sterling resident’s taxes, and had no alternative but to eliminate positions. The City cannot continue to sustain it's current spending levels in a down economic environment and since the general fund budget sis 70% personnel, there is little choice to do anything other than adjust the number of personnel in public works, code enforcement, police or fire.

Any cut in employees leads to a cut in services, the question is which cut minimizes the effect on citizens day-to0day services and prepares us for long view.

Redevelopment Agreements/Sales Tax Rebates

Cities have just a few tools in their toolboxes to help stimulate economic development. One such tool is Sales Tax Rebates. State Statute 65 ILCS 5/8‑11‑20 makes this possible. A recent article in regards to just such an agreement brought this to the forefront.

But why would you give sales tax back to a retailer? There are a few reasons, most of those laid out within that very State Statute. And because the State Statute exists, the problem becomes, if we don't do it, odds are another city will. One might say fine, then let them go to the next city that offers a break. Unfortunately, if we did that with every project, there would be a lot fewer projects in town and the retail sector here would be in much worse shape. Retail sales make up our largest revenue source for policing, firefighting, public works and road projects, so it's very important that we strengthen our retail sector and work to expand it. Sometimes that means utilizing a sales tax rebate agreement.

What we don't do. We don't rebate so much as to take a net loss to the City. The goal is to share the new or increased sales tax brought to the community; sales tax that presumably would not otherwise be in our City, but for the agreement that made building or expanding financially feasible.

Incentives may seem like a dirty word, particularly now, but they are something of a necessary evil. Without them, there are a lot of jobs in this community that wouldn't exist, both retail and business/warehouse/industry. Not providing any incentives to businesses and industry only assures us that our City will be the last on nearly so of everyone's choices when it comes to relocating a business or retail opportunity. Yes, the developer gets something back, but what the City and community get back in jobs and taxes far outweighs what is shared in return.

Stimulus Funds

The City of Sterling should be eligible for approximately $475,000 in road funds. However, there are a number of restrictions on those funds, and believe it or not, we may not receive them in time to use this summer. As with most things government related, strings are attached. We've had conflicting information about what roads are eligible, but we do know that not all roads will be eligible for the funds.

But road projects are just one piece of the pie. We're still hoping for other projects to be funded.

Certainly the stimulus funds weren't supported by everyone, but now that they're out there, we're working to get what we can for Sterling.

My New Year's Resolution Got Away From Me....

This is a bad time of year to add something to the "to do" list. A lot of time is spent preparing the next fiscal budget (which begins May 1), and I neglected keeping up on this. Since it is budget making time, I thought it might be good to use this spot to talk a little bit about the budget for next year.

The local economy has remained steady judging by sales tax receipts coming into the City. That's not to say a few of our friends and neighbors haven't fallen victim to the nation's downturn, but we're certainly not in the situation many parts of the country are in. The City's largest problem is the revenues the State shares with us are down significantly and cities in Illinois are highly dependent on those revenues based on the way the State works. Combine that with required increases to the pension funds due to the losses on the investments and it's a serious 1-2 punch.

We're working hard to determine what to cut and how deep to make those cuts. Local government does so many things that are a part of your everyday life, that making cuts is difficult. Our budgets are also very labor heavy. Most of the expenses in the the police and fire departments are to pay for the police officers, firefighters and dispatchers that we count on. The majority of the funding in public works goes to the crews patching roads, plowing snow, cleaning up debris or to the lowest bidding contractors to repave roads. That's the VAST majority of the expenses paid for in taxes.

That gets back to why we always encourage people to shop locally. Sales tax makes up one of the largest revenues to the City, and it funds the General Fund, which funds things like the police department, fire department, public works, and road projects. If you buy the same item in Rockford or Moline, none of that sales tax makes it back to your own home community!

The other reason we encourage buying locally is it helps your friends and neighbors. The more we help each other out and the more we keep money flowing locally, the better off we can make our local community.

The inauguration

This week's big news was obviously the inauguration of the President. I thought this was a rather neat view of the event: http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

The new President has spent a fair amount of time talking about a new stimulus package with lots of infrastructure project funding. While the bill hasn't been passed, the City and the Greater Sterling Development Corporation have turned in our share of requests. We've also called Representative Phil Hare's office and Senator Durbin's office to ask that any infrastructure projects granted be granted directly to cities and counties rather than adding a layer of government in between. We've expressed our viewpoint that we know what is most needed for our own community. However, we'll of course take whatever we can get. We submitted a list that included street reconstruction, business/industrial park development, brownfield redevelopment, sewer extensions, broadband expansion and stormwater management improvements. Heaven knows there's always plenty of work to be done, it's just a matter of finding the means to pay for it.

Tahiti sounds nice....

Good grief is it cold out there! Add a little snow and it's not the best time to be a public works employee trying to clean up the City, or a police officer responding to a call or a firefighter responding to an accident.

Last winter was thought to be a fluke, but this winter is starting to rival last winter. We've had to spend more time on the roads this year than last year doing snow and ice control. It's definitely starting to make budgeting a challenge!

Joseph Bustos had a great article about our plow drivers in Wednesday's Gazette if you get a chance to read it.

Last, and most importantly, I need to remind people of the importance of odd/even parking. It's important for getting the streets clean and helping to avoid having your car plowed in (and to avoid getting a ticket on those snow routes!!!). The more cooperation from drivers, the faster all the roads get cleaned and the better they are cleared as well. Thanks for your cooperation, and please remember to help neighbors out by getting the sidewalks shoveled and the hydrants dug out. Stay warm out there!