ONTARIO — As Ohio’s economy begins to reopen, city governments are grappling with projected revenue losses due to COVID-19.
“It’s probably too early to really tell,” Jim Hairston, Ontario’s treasurer, said during the city’s finance committee meeting. “I wish I had some answers. If we sit down a month from now it’s going to be different.”
Hairston’s estimate is Ontario will loose between $600,000 and $1 million in revenue this year. Nevertheless, Hairston noted he tends to be conservative in his estimates, so the final loss may be less drastic.
Hairston, Mayor Randy Hutchinson and at-large council member Dave Rehfeldt all agreed Ontario’s finances will require consistent monitoring in the coming weeks and months. Predicting the economic impact of such unprecedented circumstances will be difficult, and estimates will likely fluctuate.
In the meantime, the city has put a freeze on hiring and cancelled some projects that were set to occur later this year.
“There’s cash in the bank, we don’t have to worry about going negative in the next 10 minutes,” Rehfeldt said. “We don’t know how this is going to affect us, we just need to make sure we minimise the gap (between expenditures and revenues) as much as possible.”
Following a report from recreation director Heather Hendrix, city council president James Hellinger asked Hutchinson about the status of the summer concert series in the park.
Hutchinson said the concerts may still occur, depending on when restrictions are lifted on public gatherings.
“We hope to have them,” Hutchinson told Hellinger. “Let’s see what the restrictions are. We haven’t cancelled yet.”
Hutchinson added that if restrictions on large gatherings are loosened, people could attend the concerts while still practice social distancing.
“People just have to respect each other. We have plenty of room out there, don’t sit on top of each other and I think it’ll work out very well,” he said.
