By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
In a budget workshop session following the Nov. 7 City of Elkhorn Common Council meeting, discussion surrounding fire and EMS staffing again found its way to the table.
The city’s public budget hearing is set for 6 p.m. tonight in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 9 S. Broad St.
During the session, Alderman Scott McClory asked City Administrator Sam Tapson about his level of confidence the city could support implementation of phase one of a fire and EMS staffing program beyond 2017.
“One thing we’ve talked about in this room is we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure, we don’t want to get to a point and then not be able to sustain that level of service,” McClory said. “I’m a little shaky about ‘let’s go option one, we’ve found the money, and then we’ll worry about it next year.’
“We’ve done that kick the can thing and it doesn’t work.”
Tapson said with phase one implementation, he feels confident the city could sustain that level of service.
However, he said, as the city upgrades to the other phases of staffing, those costs grow exponentially and that is where the city is most likely to run into a problem.
At this time, with the closing of tax incremental district 3, Tapson said it’s an opportunity to have the dollars to sustain the operation.
Mayor Howie Reynolds again noted that with the closing of that district, the city is looking at about an extra $130,000 each year that could be put toward the city’s portion of the staffing program.
“I don’t know about the next steps, but this one we can sustain,” he said.
Alderman Hoss Rehberg said while concerns about sustaining a fire and EMS program are understandable, before moving along to other phases of the program he would need to see “a lot more documentation” from Fire Chief Rod Smith showing the department’s need for that level of staffing.
“To spend those extra dollars and to make it hit the tax roll, I need to see some information so that I can show my constituents that this is an urgent need and this is why we need it for public safety,” Rehberg said. “Step one is a level that I would hope that we can sustain and yet fulfills the need the chief has so that it fills that void that is there right now.
“I’m not looking to steps two, three, four. I think step one can sustain itself for quite awhile here.”
In other business
In a rare meeting of the City of Elkhorn Public Safety Committee Nov. 7, committee members voted in favor of disallowing parking along Sunset Drive near West Side Elementary School.
A motion to recommend prohibiting parking along 170 feet of Sunset Drive north of West Jefferson Street and adjacent to West Side Elementary School was approved unanimously by the committee and garnered the support of the full council later Monday evening.
With the intersection of Sunset Drive, Hazel Ridge Road and West Jefferson Street being redesigned last year and now featuring a cement “island,” City of Elkhorn Police Chief Joel Christensen said it narrows the road to such a point that it no longer provides for an adequate parking lane.
Christensen said the problem was first recognized when school started this year after a truck parked along that stretch of road.
“It created a hazard where you actually have to cross substantially over into that other lane and there’s just not enough width there,” he said.
Christensen said that with approval, it would not require anything more formal than a voice vote and to be included in the city’s minutes.
A motion to prohibit parking was approved 6-0.
