With two more meetings left for 2023, the Croswell City Council met on Monday, November 20, addressing several concerns from their previous meeting.
The council initially discussed plans for hiring a new Utilities Director at their November 16 meeting. That position, which was held by Greg Alexander prior to his employment as a state representative, has remained open for the past two years. As of Monday’s meeting, however, the job description is still a work in progress. Council members also attempted to address Croswell’s ambulance fund deficit. An audit given by Ken Berthiaume reported that several of the city’s funds are in a deficit, with the ambulance fund included in that report. It currently stands at a deficit of over 1 million dollars. In order to address this problem, the council will be submitting a deficit elimination plan to the state for approval.
While this plan is subject to change, Croswell may begin increasing the ambulance fund’s budget by a minimum of 5% each year to prevent another deficit from forming.
“So with this. . . if we increase [the] minimum five percent, is it foreseeable we will not have a deficit in the ambulance further. Or, is this just a–no pun intended–bandaid on the problem?” Council member Donald Maury asked.
“We expect the major increase that’s coming next year to eliminate the deficit. We want to maintain that deficit and eliminate it by planning [for] minimum increases over the next two years,” Tait replied. “Again, this is our plan to the state. . . we’re not set in stone to do these things, but we have to have that plan. We have to have forecasted what we’re going to do.”
The next city council meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 4, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.
