JOHNSONBURG — Johnsonburg Borough Council tentatively approved a 2017 budget on Monday that does not include any type of tax increase for the year.
In total, the budget was approved at $1,805,897.
Johnsonburg Borough Manager Mary Polaski said the budget includes funds for a new police car and potentially for the paving of Water and Market streets.
To balance the budget, no new taxes were needed.
As of now, the borough’s millage rate for real estate taxes is 27.36 mills.
Additionally, the borough relies upon a .5 percent tax on earned income, a $47 local services tax, a $5 per capita tax and a .5 percent realty transfer tax.
All of these rates will continue into 2017 if the borough officially adopts its tentative budget.
The budget is currently available for public comment, and council will vote upon the final adoption of a budget during its December meeting.
While council looks towards the future with the proposed budget, it also discussed several ongoing projects.
A project to repair a collapsed retaining wall along Blaine Avenue has been completed, and the roadway has been cleared to allow residents to park along the road’s curbing, which was unsafe after the collapse of the wall.
Work to realign Harrison Avenue continues.
M&M Contractors are expected to bring stone to Harrison Avenue within the next week.
The stone will be used to outline a future roadway.
During the May 2014 flooding, Harrison Avenue slipped out of position and began to fall off of the adjacent cliff.
Borough officials have been working to realign the roadway to bring it farther away from the cliff.
As part of the process, the borough purchased and demolished three homes to make room for the new roadway.
While the stone is on the way, the borough is looking to have the area surveyed again due to the heavy construction work that has been ongoing on the site in the past few months.
Council is also looking into surveying a lot on Clarion Road and the location of the former St. Joe’s building.
Both of these lots had residences that were demolished by the borough, and now the borough wants to determine what is their property and what is not.
After the Clarion Road site has been surveyed, the borough may consider placing fencing around their property to ensure that no one uses the lot.
With county funds, the property on the Clarion Road site was recently demolished along with a property on Second Avenue. Council decided to have the lots seeded in the spring to increase the chances that the process will be successful. The lots can be seeded now, but there is a good chance that it wouldn’t be successful and the borough would have to pay to have the lots reseeded in the spring anyway.
