Guardian
Dec 17, 2006, 3:41 PM
Brownsville, Pa, not too far from Pittsburgh, has gone even further downhill. As seen on this forum a number of times, part of it is a modern ghost town:
http://www.post-gazette.com//pg/06351/746528-85.stm
Brownsville lays off all but one employee
Sunday, December 17, 2006
By Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BROWNSVILLE, Pa. -- Business owners wonder whether a police officer will be around to keep an eye out when they're heading to the bank with deposits or locking up at night.
Tony Tye, Post-Gazette
Brownsville Borough's financial crisis reached such proportions that it recently had to lay off police and all but one borough employee. Many storefronts on Market Street are boarded up.
Homeowners wonder whether the narrow streets that wind through their hillside neighborhoods will be plowed when snow falls.
Council members wonder whether bitter constituents will eventually comprehend how a chronically bleak financial situation grew worse, forcing them to lay off all but one borough employee right before Christmas.
Everyone wonders how town fathers will find enough money to bring the workers back for good.
"This is something I never wanted to do," said first-year council member Tracy Sheehan Zivkovich of the decision Dec. 4 to furlough the entire police force and all but one municipal employee in this Fayette County town.
"But also, I can step back and see that maybe this is the wake-up call the community needed, to get together and see what needs to be done to thrive."
Faced with a shortfall of as much as $100,000, council laid off three full-time and three part-time police officers and turned over their duties to state police based in Belle Vernon. That move also affected residents of neighboring Brownsville Township, which contracted with borough police to respond to calls.
Council's cost-cutting vote also axed three street department workers and three other employees. The only worker to remain was part-time Manager Elizabeth Lawver, who, in addition to completing annual audits and mandatory reports, had to complete paperwork to ensure her former co-workers could draw unemployment.
The layoffs will save the borough about $20,000 each month in salaries. Council also has socked away about $5,500 in state funding for roads, to be used to call out street department workers to salt or plow after a storm.
But many of the borough's 2,700 residents remain angry, particularly about the loss of local police. Home- owners and parents said they worry about increased traffic at intersections already known for drug sales.
Tony Tye, Post-Gazette
Jack Lawver, president of Brownsville Council
Numerous business owners were reluctant to be quoted. But they said they fear state police already must cover too much territory to spend much time or respond quickly to calls in Brownsville.
"[Town officials] got themselves in a pickle. Everybody's mad," said Toni Simon, a cook at Fiddle's Restaurant, where the layoffs have been a frequent topic among residents who gather regularly for coffee and talk.
Loan payments due
Borough officials said they hope to be able to recall the workers as early as mid-January, depending on how much money they receive in end-of-the-year wage and real-estate tax collections.
But their first priority is to pay off $40,000 owed on a $75,000 tax-anticipation loan taken out earlier this year, said council President Jack Lawver, the borough manager's son. The borough can carry some debt into next year, but cannot borrow more money to tide it over until it pays off that note, he said.
Borough officials also are trying to scratch up an additional $51,000 to cover projected expenses for 2007. But they're determined they won't hike taxes to balance their $736,851 budget for 2007 or call back the laid-off workers, Mr. Lawver said.
"We have too many old people on fixed incomes, people who can't pay their taxes now,'' he said.
Once a bustling coal, rail and barge center on the Monongahela River, Brownsville for years has struggled with shrinking revenues due to dwindling job opportunities, population and tax base.
Efforts to boost economic development have been stymied, borough leaders said, during their ongoing battle with Ernest and Marilyn Liggett, a Churchill couple who failed to maintain or promptly pay taxes and fines on increasingly dilapidated properties they own in the downtown business strip.
Some resentful residents and business owners said they believe Brownsville's financial woes are linked to a decade of disputes with the Liggetts over thousands of dollars in delinquent taxes and fines for building-code violations.
"If you or I didn't pay our taxes, we'd be looking out through bars,'' said longtime resident Bob Shumar as he sat at the front counter in Fiddle's.
Mr. Shumar, who recently moved across the river to Washington County but still considers Brownsville to be home, views the layoffs as one more blow to the beleaguered town.
"Without [police] and the street department, you don't have anything,'' Mr. Shumar said.
Brownsville officials acknowledged that money owed by the Liggetts -- the violations and amounts are being disputed in court -- would have helped to offset borough expenses. But Mr. Lawver said the couple owes no more than 9 percent of the $40,000 owed to the borough in property taxes for 2006.
"The Liggetts are part of the problem but not all of it,'' he said. Increasing numbers of other property owners also have failed to pay taxes this year, he said, probably due to a tax increase two years ago.
For years, Brownsville has struggled with lean bank accounts, said Mr. Lawver, who has been a council member since 1993 and president since 1998. Until this year, the town has scraped up enough money to make payroll, cover most bills and pay back tax-anticipation loans.
Borough officials estimate their monthly and annual revenues and expenditures by studying spreadsheets they've compiled in previous years, he said. But this year's expenses were sharply higher than expected, partly due to rising costs of utilities and gasoline, said Mrs. Lawver.
The borough also was confronted with a $30,000 hike in police liability insurance resulting from an incident in which police shot and killed a motorist who, they said, rammed their cars and tried to run them down in 2004.
Mrs. Lawver said she'd warned council and residents about finances since July. As of early November, borough officials still believed they'd get through the year, based on years of experience with an influx of last-minute real-estate tax payments, Mr. Lawver said.
"People look at putting food on the table and heating the house or paying the taxes, and they wait until the end of the year,'' Mr. Lawver said. "That's a dilemma a lot of small communities face.''
Tax revenues fall
This year, however, was an exception.
As the year ran down, Brownsville had received only about $146,000 in real-estate taxes -- about $35,000 less that the $181,000 projected in its budget, Mrs. Lawver said. Hence the layoffs, a decision that Mr. Lawver said was the hardest he's ever made.
"I'll tell you what, some of our employees offered to work for free,'' he said. "When people care so much for a community, you have to think you can fix any problem. It just takes time."
Since then, residents have organized Block Watch groups, buttonholed council members on the streets and bombarded them with irate phone calls. Mr. Lawver said he's presented several residents with the borough's books to examine themselves.
"I had a lady come [to the municipal office] last week and if she could have gotten through the window, I think she would have choked me," Mrs. Lawver said. "They've screamed and yelled. But when I tell them back in July that we were having problems with money coming in, they should have listened.''
Many residents also have been asking what happened to $150,000 in state funds delivered in 2005 by Gov. Ed Rendell and a promised match from Fayette County Commissioner and 84 Lumber founder Joe Hardy.
Borough officials said the state funds were allocated for Bright Tomorrow, a downtown revitalization and code enforcement program. Mr. Hardy's money also was earmarked for specific projects, they said.
The local municipal authority, not the borough, also is paying for an ongoing sewer-repair project that had downtown streets shut down last week and residents grousing about the source of its funding.
Council members have asked the state Department of Community and Economic Development to review borough operations and expenses and assist in developing a stable and efficient financial strategy. Finance committee members also are meeting weekly to keep tabs on what goes in and out of borough accounts.
"In hindsight, I think the council could have been more active in monitoring [finances] and making small adjustments,'' said Ms. Zivkovich, a committee member who is Greene County's Human Resources Director. "But that approach has changed now. We're really digging into where our costs are.
"When you start messing with people's lives and livelihoods, there's the sense of uncertainty, of 'What goes next?' I never want to be in this position again.''
(Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1973. )
http://www.post-gazette.com//pg/06351/746528-85.stm
Brownsville lays off all but one employee
Sunday, December 17, 2006
By Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BROWNSVILLE, Pa. -- Business owners wonder whether a police officer will be around to keep an eye out when they're heading to the bank with deposits or locking up at night.
Tony Tye, Post-Gazette
Brownsville Borough's financial crisis reached such proportions that it recently had to lay off police and all but one borough employee. Many storefronts on Market Street are boarded up.
Homeowners wonder whether the narrow streets that wind through their hillside neighborhoods will be plowed when snow falls.
Council members wonder whether bitter constituents will eventually comprehend how a chronically bleak financial situation grew worse, forcing them to lay off all but one borough employee right before Christmas.
Everyone wonders how town fathers will find enough money to bring the workers back for good.
"This is something I never wanted to do," said first-year council member Tracy Sheehan Zivkovich of the decision Dec. 4 to furlough the entire police force and all but one municipal employee in this Fayette County town.
"But also, I can step back and see that maybe this is the wake-up call the community needed, to get together and see what needs to be done to thrive."
Faced with a shortfall of as much as $100,000, council laid off three full-time and three part-time police officers and turned over their duties to state police based in Belle Vernon. That move also affected residents of neighboring Brownsville Township, which contracted with borough police to respond to calls.
Council's cost-cutting vote also axed three street department workers and three other employees. The only worker to remain was part-time Manager Elizabeth Lawver, who, in addition to completing annual audits and mandatory reports, had to complete paperwork to ensure her former co-workers could draw unemployment.
The layoffs will save the borough about $20,000 each month in salaries. Council also has socked away about $5,500 in state funding for roads, to be used to call out street department workers to salt or plow after a storm.
But many of the borough's 2,700 residents remain angry, particularly about the loss of local police. Home- owners and parents said they worry about increased traffic at intersections already known for drug sales.
Tony Tye, Post-Gazette
Jack Lawver, president of Brownsville Council
Numerous business owners were reluctant to be quoted. But they said they fear state police already must cover too much territory to spend much time or respond quickly to calls in Brownsville.
"[Town officials] got themselves in a pickle. Everybody's mad," said Toni Simon, a cook at Fiddle's Restaurant, where the layoffs have been a frequent topic among residents who gather regularly for coffee and talk.
Loan payments due
Borough officials said they hope to be able to recall the workers as early as mid-January, depending on how much money they receive in end-of-the-year wage and real-estate tax collections.
But their first priority is to pay off $40,000 owed on a $75,000 tax-anticipation loan taken out earlier this year, said council President Jack Lawver, the borough manager's son. The borough can carry some debt into next year, but cannot borrow more money to tide it over until it pays off that note, he said.
Borough officials also are trying to scratch up an additional $51,000 to cover projected expenses for 2007. But they're determined they won't hike taxes to balance their $736,851 budget for 2007 or call back the laid-off workers, Mr. Lawver said.
"We have too many old people on fixed incomes, people who can't pay their taxes now,'' he said.
Once a bustling coal, rail and barge center on the Monongahela River, Brownsville for years has struggled with shrinking revenues due to dwindling job opportunities, population and tax base.
Efforts to boost economic development have been stymied, borough leaders said, during their ongoing battle with Ernest and Marilyn Liggett, a Churchill couple who failed to maintain or promptly pay taxes and fines on increasingly dilapidated properties they own in the downtown business strip.
Some resentful residents and business owners said they believe Brownsville's financial woes are linked to a decade of disputes with the Liggetts over thousands of dollars in delinquent taxes and fines for building-code violations.
"If you or I didn't pay our taxes, we'd be looking out through bars,'' said longtime resident Bob Shumar as he sat at the front counter in Fiddle's.
Mr. Shumar, who recently moved across the river to Washington County but still considers Brownsville to be home, views the layoffs as one more blow to the beleaguered town.
"Without [police] and the street department, you don't have anything,'' Mr. Shumar said.
Brownsville officials acknowledged that money owed by the Liggetts -- the violations and amounts are being disputed in court -- would have helped to offset borough expenses. But Mr. Lawver said the couple owes no more than 9 percent of the $40,000 owed to the borough in property taxes for 2006.
"The Liggetts are part of the problem but not all of it,'' he said. Increasing numbers of other property owners also have failed to pay taxes this year, he said, probably due to a tax increase two years ago.
For years, Brownsville has struggled with lean bank accounts, said Mr. Lawver, who has been a council member since 1993 and president since 1998. Until this year, the town has scraped up enough money to make payroll, cover most bills and pay back tax-anticipation loans.
Borough officials estimate their monthly and annual revenues and expenditures by studying spreadsheets they've compiled in previous years, he said. But this year's expenses were sharply higher than expected, partly due to rising costs of utilities and gasoline, said Mrs. Lawver.
The borough also was confronted with a $30,000 hike in police liability insurance resulting from an incident in which police shot and killed a motorist who, they said, rammed their cars and tried to run them down in 2004.
Mrs. Lawver said she'd warned council and residents about finances since July. As of early November, borough officials still believed they'd get through the year, based on years of experience with an influx of last-minute real-estate tax payments, Mr. Lawver said.
"People look at putting food on the table and heating the house or paying the taxes, and they wait until the end of the year,'' Mr. Lawver said. "That's a dilemma a lot of small communities face.''
Tax revenues fall
This year, however, was an exception.
As the year ran down, Brownsville had received only about $146,000 in real-estate taxes -- about $35,000 less that the $181,000 projected in its budget, Mrs. Lawver said. Hence the layoffs, a decision that Mr. Lawver said was the hardest he's ever made.
"I'll tell you what, some of our employees offered to work for free,'' he said. "When people care so much for a community, you have to think you can fix any problem. It just takes time."
Since then, residents have organized Block Watch groups, buttonholed council members on the streets and bombarded them with irate phone calls. Mr. Lawver said he's presented several residents with the borough's books to examine themselves.
"I had a lady come [to the municipal office] last week and if she could have gotten through the window, I think she would have choked me," Mrs. Lawver said. "They've screamed and yelled. But when I tell them back in July that we were having problems with money coming in, they should have listened.''
Many residents also have been asking what happened to $150,000 in state funds delivered in 2005 by Gov. Ed Rendell and a promised match from Fayette County Commissioner and 84 Lumber founder Joe Hardy.
Borough officials said the state funds were allocated for Bright Tomorrow, a downtown revitalization and code enforcement program. Mr. Hardy's money also was earmarked for specific projects, they said.
The local municipal authority, not the borough, also is paying for an ongoing sewer-repair project that had downtown streets shut down last week and residents grousing about the source of its funding.
Council members have asked the state Department of Community and Economic Development to review borough operations and expenses and assist in developing a stable and efficient financial strategy. Finance committee members also are meeting weekly to keep tabs on what goes in and out of borough accounts.
"In hindsight, I think the council could have been more active in monitoring [finances] and making small adjustments,'' said Ms. Zivkovich, a committee member who is Greene County's Human Resources Director. "But that approach has changed now. We're really digging into where our costs are.
"When you start messing with people's lives and livelihoods, there's the sense of uncertainty, of 'What goes next?' I never want to be in this position again.''
(Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1973. )