The Tioga City Council plans to retain the same tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year of $0.493155 per $100 valuation.
Likewise, the council plans to keep the budget close to the current budget, with the main difference being a 4% raise for city employees across the board.
“We don’t want to increase [the tax rate]; don’t know that we need to decrease it, but just leave it the same,” Mayor Craig Jezek said.
The budget also includes radios and computers for the Tioga Police Department, with Chief Curtis Macomb saying the current devices will likely be sold to one of the departments in Oklahoma that have expressed interest in them to help offset the cost.
The Tioga Volunteer Fire Department will be able to keep using its radios, about which Mayor Pro Tem Kurt Hall asked.
He described the city as basically being in a holding pattern on any increases until development kicks off more in Tioga.
“We cut this budget down pretty tight,” Jezek said. “We’re a little less than we were last year starting out, and we feel like that’s the best thing for us to do as a city until we start seeing rooftops.”
Each of the council members agreed to start publishing the bud- get proposal for public engagement and review.
One such proposed development, Saddleridge Estates, was met with cautious enthusiasm by the council when Dennis Johnson of RE/MAX gave an overview of what the development will entail, as he did in February.
“This 40-acre parcel is something we’ve been working on for a while,” Johnson said.
He added that the development team is interested in voluntarily annexing into the city.
“The development agreement would bring all this into the city and simultaneously it would zone it,” Johnson said. “The commercial, if you notice, up on 377, on Donation. You’ve got the commercial there—two acres and two acres. This is something that we had talked about early on.”
He referred to that as “a really good way to buffer the residential part,” which would include 90 lots that meet the Residential-1 zoning.
“We’re adding a two-acre park for the community, and in addition, the developer, the owner, is also contributing gifting at least five acres … to the city,” Johnson said.
That land use would be up to the city.
The owner is also agreeing to improve Florence Street.
“They’re also wanting to issue a [Public Improvement District] on this property, so therefore, this will go off to our financial people, along with our bond attorney and our city attorney, to review all this to make sure that everything fits within PID guidelines,” Jezek said. “But I think it’s a nice addition to Tioga.”
He said the acreage being donated could be a sports field complex for youth sports teams.
“That property is in the flood plain,” Jezek said. “Most soccer fields are built in the flood plain anyways.”
No action was taken on the item.
Also at the meeting, the council approved setting the signatories for the 16 accounts at PointBank to be Jezek and Town Secretary Donna Carney.
Council member Heather Nesmith, who was not present for the meeting in which PointBank was selected as the city’s bank, asked about the change.
“Before we set up all the accounts, we just need authorization to move forward for the signatories,” Jezek said.
Council member Jim Coffey, left, and community member Dena Howard look as RE/MAX representative Dennis Johnson explains the plans for the proposed Saddleridge Estates development after the Tioga City Council meeting Monday. Abigail Allen/The Post-Signal
