County may move display on Fourth
By Brandy Nance
Originally published 01:54 p.m., July 18, 2008
Updated 01:54 p.m., July 18, 2008
The Independence Day fireworks display could move to another location in 2009. The display has been at the Lyon County Fairgrounds in past years.
Lyon County commissioners discussed the 2009 Independence Day fireworks display with Bernie Toso of the Optimist Club during Thursday’s Lyon County Commission action session. The Optimist Club has agreed to step up and take leadership to coordinate and shoot off the fireworks display. Last week, the Lyon County Commission passed a motion to support the display with $10,000 in funds. This decision came after the city of Emporia’s decision not to budget for the display this year.
“I couldn’t believe the notes, comments and thank yous I’ve received after the commission did what they did last week,” Commissioner Bob Davis said.
Davis made a recommendation to move the fireworks display from the Lyon County Fairgrounds to a location near the Emporia Aquatic Center. Davis said the display has outgrown the fairgrounds and there’s a large liability shooting fireworks in that area.
“That’s certainty no reason do discontinue the celebration,” Davis said.
Toso agreed there is a lot of parking in the area of the Aquatic Center.
“The exposure is tremendous,” Davis said.
Toso said there would be a lot more exposure at that site and people could get closer and would be able to see the lower fireworks. Other locations discussed included the ball fields near Emporia State University.
The possibility of having a Fourth of July festival also came up during discussion Thursday.
“I certainty agree with a Fourth of July festival,” County Counselor Marc Goodman said. “We have to start somewhere to show the outside world that we’re not in disarray here.”
No formal decisions were made during Thursday’s meeting regarding a location and a festival. Next year’s display is in the planning stages.
In other items, commissioners continued discussion of the 2009 budget. Wednesday’s pass of the budget numbers raised the mill levy 5.019 mills. A mill raises just over $239,000.
“There’s going to be a mill increase,” Dan Slater, Lyon County controller said. “The question is how low can we keep it.”
Commissioners spent the last half of their meeting Thursday discussing individual allocations. Commissioners spent more than two hours discussing the 2009 budget, working well into the noon hour, and managed to ready a second draft of the budget pass.
Commissioners are proposing shaving a mill out of the road and bridge department’s budget. Lyon County Engineer Chip Woods said the department would make it work but that some things wouldn’t get done. He didn’t give specifics as to what services might get cut.
Davis cautioned about making too many cuts to that department’s budget.
“You can not neglect (road) maintenance like we have,” Davis said.
After the discussion, the second pass at the budget was reduced to a 53.772 mill levy, which brings the increase down to 2.133 mills. However, that amount still doesn’t fully fund the ambulance request of $270,000. The full amount would add a third of a mill back into that total.
“You’ve got a real good possibility of a two-mill increase,” Bob Agler, of A&M Consultants, said.
The question of what to do with the county’s service organizations arose during Thursday’s meeting.
“That’s probably another thing you could do but it’s going to be sticky,” Agler said. “You will need to sit down and prioritize services.”
In Wednesday’s meeting, Goodman didn’t advocate for cuts to service agencies, saying cuts would be harmful to the community as a whole and costs would come back at the county in other ways.
County Commissioner Marshall Miller expressed concern about raising the mill levy.
“You can raise taxes all you want and see how long they stay in town,” Miller said.
“You can cut all the services and see how long they stay in town,” Goodman replied.
Agler responded a bit later by saying that the county is going to have to look at what belongs as government services and what doesn’t.
Summer_Breeze (anonymous) says...
Mr. Agler should be commended for his common sense approach. If a cut in services, or in funding to social service organizations, is necessary, it is the tough but required job of the commissioners to prioritize. The pie is only so big, and no matter how many slices you cut, the whole won't get bigger without an increase in taxes. So, the commissioners must decide which services and programs are important enough to warrant a tax increase. Their job is to find the appropriate balance for the budget. Good luck!
July 18, 2008 at 3:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )