LOCK HAVEN — Lock Haven City Council is working on finalizing their 2025 budget, and recently held a hearing to allow the public to have a chance to comment on the recommended budget and to hear from some of the foremen on their accomplishments this year.

City Manager Gregory Wilson began the budget discussion by trying to clarify the budget a little and talking percentages.

“Obviously (this is) a lot to take in. The city-wide figures… 46 percent of all the funds the city spends are just for wages and benefits for the individuals who work for the city. Those are the people who physically plow the streets, fix the water leaks, treat the sewer, maintain the levee, the police who protect and investigate and the firefighters who rescue and run towards the emergencies,” said Wilson.

According to Wilson, less than 1/2 percent is spent on training for employees, continuing education and attending conferences.

“About 25 percent of the city’s expenses are for contractual obligations like utility bills, cyber security and insurance, so there isn’t a lot of wiggle room (there). 14 percent of the city’s total expenses are to pay for loans that it has. This is city wide and predominantly those loans are in water and sewer,” said Wilson.

Due to direction from council in 2023, Wilson said he’s working on developing a path towards one millage rate within the city.

“As the millage ordinance reflects… Council decided to take step-by-step to return to a single-rate millage. The millage has been adjusted (to) General Purpose (Land) to 20 mills and General Purpose (Building/Improvements) to 9.8 mills,” said Wilson.

Previously, the millage rates were 29 mills for General Purpose (Land) and 7.5 mills for General Purpose (Building/Improvements).

This change was done to keep the rates and tax collection the same while moving towards the single-rate millage model.

Referring directly to the Streets and Stormwater portion of the budget, Streets and Stormwater Foreman Kyle Dale gave an overview of some of the accomplishments of the staff this past year, a full list of which can be found on page 42 in the budget.

“We continued to identify and assess outdated storm sewer infrastructure and provide those updates to the GIS technician for implementation into the new mapping software as well as devising an updated list for future storm sewer replacements or upgrades,” said Dale.

There was also a continued city-wide maintenance of daily-used infrastructure such as roadways, storm sewers, street lights and more.

As for the goals and objectives for 2025, Dale spoke about the goal for implementation of stormwater features for GIS mapping purposes based off of drainage basins within the city.

“(We will) number everything so it will be easier for employees to find these things in the field,” said Dale.

According to Public Property Foreman Jared Gist, the levee’s inspection went well this year.

“This year we did the whole levee in 2.5 hours. That’s not just me, that’s people from the streets department helped, people who aren’t even employed here have helped, people from the water department have helped. It has been a public works unity group that has put the time in. Some of it was very hard work, dragging logs and trees up over the levee. It’s done, and now we have to maintain it,” said Gist.

When sharing accomplishments with council, Gist shared the following accomplishments:

— Relocating and replacing street signs to proper locations.

— Assisting with the rehab projects at both Hoberman and Taggart Park

— Installing new “walking signage” to promote services and areas throughout the city.

“I picked some of the bigger things we did,” said Gist, “We created — in 2019 — a six year plan to remove the vegetation off the levee, and we actually finished that this past year. So everything is compliant with the Army Corps of Engineers on the whole 6.5 miles of the levee,” said Gist.

Gist noted they also have a lot of objectives they’re planning to accomplish in 2025, including:

— Continued city-wide street tree trimming.

— Continued maintenance to sidewalks, crosswalks and other pedestrian infrastructure.

— Investing in beautification projects throughout the city.

— Continued pruning/removal of hazardous trees throughout city parks.

— Replant trees in the City’s parks after hazardous trees are removed.

— Test all Levee closures and train new employees.

— Ensure infrastructure is adequate for future development.

— Upgrade and maintain city parks and playgrounds to ensure safety and boost recreational activity in the community.

— Complete necessary improvements with the Hoberman Park project.

The city’s staff have been hard at work all year completing projects throughout the year, and have even bigger plans for next year.

There are more lists of 2024 accomplishments and objectives located within the budget for the public to read, on pages 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 44, 58 and 60.

The budget was made available for public view on the city’s website, www.lockhavenpa.gov. There you will find a detailed 71-page budget that breaks down line-by-line the city’s expenditures and total revenue.