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DIXON TOPS MAPLE LEAFS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE ’04
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TELEGRAPH Tuesday, April 5, 2016
SERVING DIXON AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1851
DIXON | CITY COUNCIL
MORRISON
Raising questions, not salaries Council hesitant about adopting new pay policy BY RACHEL RODGERS rrodgers@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5529 @rj_rodgers
DIXON – Facing increased pension liabilities of about $285,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, City Council members were hesitant to adopt a new pay policy Monday. During an hour-long work study session, City Manager Cole O’Donnell proposed revising the city’s pay policy for nonunion employees that would establish salary ranges and guidelines for wage increases. Last year, the city partnered with Sterling to share the costs of an employee classification and compensation study from Northbrook-based GovHR, USA. The study involved examining all city government positions and comparing them to those in cities with similar populations, geography and economic condition. Dixon received findings from the study in November. Mayor Li Arellano Jr. said he would not be comfortable committing to a proposed policy based on practices from other local governments in the state. “Governments all across Illinois have run into this problem where they’ve been promising more than what they can afford to pay, and it’s tanking my generation’s and the next generation’s budgets,” Arellano said. “These ranges are based on other governments in Illinois, which are all doing very poorly.” O’Donnell said using similar governments helps them to measure how their wages compare as the private sector and public sector aren’t “apples-to-apples” comparisons. Arellano said they should have a better idea of how much of a fiscal burden the policy could cause, considering the city’s increased police and fire pension obligations, which reduced property tax revenue available in the general fund by about $285,000 for next year. To alleviate the pension cost, the city has reduced its funding for capital projects. “My question is what will it take to sustain these going forward?” Arellano said. “We’ve already pulled from our infrastructure projects to cover the bigger chunk of the pensions.”
Photos by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Mom and son Marilyn and Dan Scott are the owners of Treasures of the Blue Iris in downtown Morrison. The store specializes in hand-crafted items, many of them made by family members.
Treasures come from out of the Blue Family-run store has a lot to offer, be it hand-made gifts, lifelike dolls, live music, and much more Leslie Landheer, wife of owner Dan Scott, hand paints these life-like little ones. The highly detailed dolls are so realistic, they’re used in therapy for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.
BY LONNIE C. MILLER Special to Sauk Valley Media
MORRISON – Walk in, and you just might mistake Treasures of the Blue Iris for a thrift shop. Take a closer look, though, and you’ll realize the store is a repository of unique and beautiful hand-crafted items, all one-of-akind and exquisitely detailed. For instance, down the center aisle is a display of baby dolls in cradles that look and feel like real infants. They’re hand-colored, with individual lashes and tufts of baby-fine hair. They weigh about 5 pounds or so, and are so realistic they are also used with Alzheimer patients and dementia patients as therapy dolls, and in high school family-living classes. Similar dolls can sell for $1,500 to $12,000, if online prices are to be believed, but the Blue Iris’ “reborn dolls,” crafted by artist and owner Leslie Landheer, sell for $300, complete with a set of clothes.
COUNCIL CONTINUED ON A5
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Governments all across Illinois have run into this problem where they’ve been promising more than what they can afford to pay, and it’s tanking my generation’s and the next generation’s budgets.
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Dixon Mayor Li Arellano Jr.
STERLING
City takes its coffers black, thanks to taxes Revenue will help tilt budget in city’s favor, with $175,000 surplus BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
STERLING – After an uneventful public hearing Monday, the city moved a step
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closer to approving its 2016-2017 budget. A presentation on the nearly $32 million budget received no questions or comments from the audience during the hearing portion of the Sterling City Council meeting. Thanks in large part to an 18.76 percent tax levy increase, and an estimated $700,000 from the new utilities tax, the city is projecting a $175,526 surplus in the general fund. City Manager Scott Shumard said expenses are up about 11.6 percent, but
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Sterling utility customers will see their bills go up next month. Page A3 the new infusion of cash will boost revenues by about 16 percent. Shumard said pensions continue to be a drain on the city’s finances. “We’re reaching a point where almost half of our property taxes are going to police and fire pensions,” Shumard said. Last fiscal year, the city put about
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$1.4 million into the fire pension fund, and nearly $1.15 million into the police pension fund. The new budget includes $1.5 million for fire, and $1.25 million for police. On the expenses side of the ledger, the capital and sewer funds took hits. The city was forced to play catch-up with capital projects after estimating a deficit and dealing with uncertainties in state fund last fiscal year. STERLING CONTINUED ON A5
Today’s weather High 45. Low 42. More on A3.
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