ONTARIO — Ontario City Council passed a $15.2 million budget Wednesday night, which includes funding for cleanup of the former General Motors property, repaving Lexington-Springmill Road and $30,000 for the Ontario Local School Distict’s substance abuse program.
Council passed the legislation 6-0 after a brief discussion about the amount designated for the school’s program.
“I’m not anti the program, I’m not anti the schools, but what I’m saying is we have a lot of other money we’re going to be spending on things that benefit the city, 100 percent,” said at-large councilman Larry Arnold.
He explained that a portion of Ontario students do not reside in city limits. Some live in the district, but outside of the city, and others attend Ontario Local Schools via an open enrollment program.
“It’d be inappropriate to last minute (take it away) … but what I’m saying is, I would like to challenge this next year, to potentially have some preliminary discussions, to say we would like an exit strategy or at least more of a proportional responsibility,” Arnold said.
Fourth ward councilman Dan Zeiter first made this point at the March 6 city council meeting.
“That’s nothing more than a 30,000 donation, so I have a little heartburn about it,” he said.
At that time he said he supports the program’s mission, but his concern is that Ontario residents are the “only ones” paying for it.
The $30,000 supplements the program’s coordinator, allowing her to work full-time.
The budget also includes approximately $1.6 million to repave Lexington-Springmill Road and more than $100,000 to begin cleanup of the former General Motors property.
Ontario tripled its streets budget this year for the Lexington-Springmill project with the intention to save money in the long term. In February service safety director Jeff Wilson announced the successful bidder was Kokosing Construction Company with a bid of $1.569 million.
“This year, we’ll maybe have to take a little from reserves, but income shows as of now we’ll be fine,” Zeiter said.
If the city pulls from its reserves, he explained, the money will be paid back from the street and road construction and maintenance budget in the next two years. If the city doesn’t need to go to that extreme, Zeiter anticipates council will contribute some money, but less than usual towards street and road repairs in its 2020 and 2021 budget.
“We’ll cut back over next years to make up for it,” he said.
