Village of
Westchester SEPTEMBER, 2021
From the Desk of President Frank Perry
PARK DISTRICT
2
POLICE DEPARTMENT
3
PUBLIC WORKS
4
fIRE DEPARTMENT
5
LIBRARY
7
SCHOOL DISTRICT
11
SPOTLIgHT ON SENIORS 16
It’s been a roller coaster of a month and I wanted to give an update as to what has transpired. We had horrible storms that took out roofs and left tree limbs all over town, and we’ve had a festival that brought the town together for 3 days of music and smiles and conversations. The Village of Westchester was impacted by two storms this month. The first occurring on Thursday July 29th and the other on August 10th. The storm on July 29th was isolated on the south end of town, however, did considerable damage to homes and trees. The day of the storm, our entire Public Works Department along with Sinnott Tree Service worked for 12 hours straight clearing roads and removing dangerous trees in order for residents to start their day without issue. The following week all trees that were determined to be safety hazards were removed by the contractor along with the help of our Public Works Department. In total, the Village lost 31 parkway trees (1 Sweet Gum, 1 Elm, 1 Sugar Maple, 1 Norway maple, 1 Silver Maple, 2 Lindens, 2 Red Maples, 3 Honey Locusts and 19 Sycamores) due to the storm with a cost of cleanup over $30,000.00. The second storm was more wide spread throughout the Village, but didn’t cause as much damage, thank goodness. Our Public Works Department was able to handle all storm damage without the help of Sinnott Tree Service. During this storm the Village lost an additional 7 trees (2 Lindens, 2 Silver Maples and 3 Norway Maples). Since the July 29th the Public Works Department has completed three passes throughout the Village, cleaning up all branches from
parkways with crews removing the final 2 damaged trees on Tuesday August 17th. Items to note: • Street program for 2021 is winding down. There have been additional streets added due to some streets coming in under bid. • Green Alley construction started on Tuesday August 17th with the contractor starting between Hull Ave and Westchester Blvd by Kitchener St. Work will continue over the next few months with a total of 4 alleys being complete on the north end of town this year. • Micro Surfacing has also begun on Tuesday August 17th with numerous streets throughout the Village being complete over the next two weeks. The complete list of streets is on the Village website along with the scheduled date for each street to be complete. • Year end projections for last year show an excess of revenue over expenditures for both the general fund and Water fund. • Overall, it appears to be a strong financial year for the Village considering the pandemic did stifle some of the revenues such as Utility taxes, Places for Eating taxes, Local Gas tax, and Gaming tax. These are all local tax revenues. • The intergovernmental revenues such as State Income tax, Sales tax, Local Use tax, and Federal grants are all exceeding the budgeted amounts for FY 2021. • The Cares act is getting set to disburse the first half of the money awarded to the Village in the amount of $1,100,000 with another $1,100,000 next year. This money will be used to finance the new water meter system over the course of the next several years.
CONTINUED ON PAgE 10