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As budget season continues for the city, departments are continuing to present their budgets to city council. Recently, Director of Public Works Mark Roetzer presented both the Department of Public Works' and Parks Department's budgets to city council.
Beginning with the engineering section of the DPW, Roetzer noted higher salaries as the department had two new engineers start over the summer. Roetzer also noted that utilities in the engineering section connect to all of the DPW's Steele Street properties, so that while that number may seem high it connects to three or four buildings.
Looking at the city hall account, Roetzer noted another higher salary section, and as for the equipment repairs and services accounts, he said a lot of costs in those sections are increasing due to the cost of things in the world increasing. Other items Roetzer outlined for city council including building maintenance -- which includes city hall maintenance and cleaning services, along with maintenance for the city parking ramps --, and the Central Garage facility on Washington Street which is home to mechanics that service DPW, Parks, Police, Fire and the BPU vehicles.
"The major thing I want to call out in this budget is the fuel, diesel and gasoline," Roetzer said. "It's an increase of about $100,000, a little more than $100,000 from last year. Obviously, the price has gone up and we don't know if it's going to stay up or go down. We're projecting if it stays -- and Erika (Thomas, comptroller) put together a projection for where those prices are, keeping our usage the same, which is probably safe to assume -- that's the increase we think we will see in that line item."
Thomas noted that she received a range from Kevin Karr at the BPU when it came to this amount, and this number reflects the low range of that increased amount.
Roetzer noted some other increases in this specific section, making note of allocations to different departments from the salary line that helps the DPW keep track of how much of something is used such as for snow and ice. In the traffic division, Roetzer outlined salary changes and the purchase of a new paint striping machine. Roetzer also discussed budget sections such as maintenance of streets and snow and ice. The city has an agreement with Jamestown Public Schools for sidewalk plowing this year, with them looking to hire two workers to help with that. Roetzer also noted the significant increase in the price of salt.
"From last year to this year the price of salt has increased 40%," Roetzer said. "Last year it was $69 a ton and in the 26-27 season it is $97 a ton. And that is seen all throughout the state, everyone has higher rates. Over the course of two years, the price has gone up 98%."
In the winter of 2024 to 2025, the city was paying $49 a ton for salt. The city began using brine more last year as the winter went on, but Roetzer noted some hiccups in the system. Last year they did not have full winter implementation, but Roetzer said the intent is to have that this year, allowing the city to save around 10% on salt. Everything depends on the type of weather and snow the area gets, he added, with brine being used if there is more ice compared to salt for heavy snow.
Other budget sections Roetzer highlighted for city council included leaf collection and street lights before going into the Parks Department budget. In the Parks Department, salaries were noted again, along with the fuel cost as the department has their own fuel costs, which are also projected to see a large jump. Equipment repair services and parts are seeing an increase because of an increase in overall costs. Roetzer also took note of surface materials for city playgrounds, tree maintenance, the summer youth employment program, city rec baseball, stadiums, Allen Park skating rink, band concerts, historic markers, storm sewers, and street cleaning. Roetzer briefly discussed capital projects that DPW and Parks would like to do that have been on their list for a few years, including the HVAC system in city hall that was chosen as one of the only capital projects in the projected executive budget besides those funded through CHIPS.