Oil City
Council members on Monday parted with a small bit of the city's $12.4
million 2007 budget to help the Oil City Arts Council's downtown arts
revitalization project.
Their
largesse, though, didn't extend to a second local organization that has
also put out a call for financial aid.
A request for
funding laid out two months ago by the Oil Region Alliance of Business,
Industry and Tourism remains on hold.
City council
unanimously gave its final approval to the 2007 budget and the tax
structure (real estate tax, Act 511, earned income tax) that will pay for
next year's spending at a brief meeting Monday. Real estate taxes will
remain at 9.6 mills, same rate as levied for the past five years.
The go-ahead
also was given to a new and slightly higher schedule of fees for city
sewage and water service customers.
But it is a
narrow wedge of money - $30,500 - in the multi-million-dollar budget that
has generated considerable discussion among council members over the past
several weeks. It is the amount inserted in the 2007 budget that is
earmarked for commercial and industrial projects.
Two groups -
the Arts Council and the Oil Region Alliance - have formally asked council
for money from that category to help them fund their activities in 2007.
The Arts Council requested $20,500 while the Oil Region Alliance asked for
$20,000.
Sandy
Montgomery, council member, unexpectedly brought up the Arts Council
request at Monday's meeting. The decision on what it will receive, she
said, should be made soon because of that organization's 2007 budget
concerns.
Montgomery
suggested the Arts Council be allocated $10,000 to help with operational
expenses in 2007. The organization's arts revitalization project, led by
coordinator Joann Wheeler, has funding through July. The additional
$10,000, said Montgomery, will put it on the same fiscal calendar -
January through December - as the city.
After city
council unanimously voted to earmark the $10,000 for the Arts Council,
funding for the Oil Region Alliance, the county's lead economic
development agency, was briefly discussed.
"We're still
waiting for information (from the Oil Region Alliance)," said Mayor Ed
Sharp. "We still haven't made that decision...(We) need a little more on
their plan of work."
That prompted
Neil McElwee, city council member, to express his support for the agency.
"(The
Alliance) won't be left out in the cold," McElwee said.
Council
member Merrill Whitling, too, said he favors providing some financial
help.
"I'm for it,
too. We'll do something," he said.
Another
meeting is scheduled with Randy Seitz, president of the Oil Region
Alliance, said Sharp, to outline what his organization has planned for
2007.
"They've done
a good job getting employment into the city, I mean getting it into the
area," Sharp said.
The Derrick, December 19, 2006