Village Officials Mull Final Budget Items

After about a month of talks — and a week before it’s finalized — village officials last week took a final look at Shorewood's budget.

Officials centered their discussion on a few items they decided to mull over in past meetings, including new radios for Shorewood police, funding village crossing guards and increased security of private beaches adjacent to . The budget is slated for Village Board approval Nov. 7.

Shorewood Police Chief David Banaszynski, in a memo to officials, recommended a total department budget of about $65,000 by reducing the amount of days and hours crossing guards work during summer school months. Furthermore, with a shorter crosswalk trip and the addition of a traffic control signal at North Murray Avenue and East Capitol Drive, a crossing guard is no longer needed. These reductions would result in savings of around $14,000.

However, Banaszynski asked the $14,000 be used to increase security of privately-owned beaches near Atwater Beach. Lake Drive residents have said since fences were removed on the north and south sides of the beach, .

The police department head also asked new squad radios be included in the 2012 budget as a part of a countywide upgrade from analog to digital. The new radios would cost around $40,000. If Milwaukee County goes digital before the budget is approved, the radios will be included. If not, the board will save the radios for next year.

Officials plan on adding $10,000 to the village's street light budget. The initial amount was a little more than $64,000, but Shorewood Village Manager Chris Swartz says the addition was necessary.

“We re-evaluated the account and determined that we budgeted too little,” said Swartz.

Additionally, Village President Guy Johnson talked about funding for a village-wide survey on village services.

“Public surveys are a great way to get input from the public,” said Johnson.

The last survey was distributed to the public in 2008. The maximum budget for a survey is $14,000. After some discussion, the board decided to hold off on putting the public surveys in the budget.

Taking lifeguard services out of the proposed budget was also considered, but officials voted 6-1 in favor of keeping lifeguards on board. Lifeguards are needed starting early June through late August.

Shorewood anticipates an increase in the tax levy by $181,519, or 1.8 percent — . The increase would add about $37 to the tax bill of a home assessed at $300,000.