The Hillsdale City Council unanimously agreed on five goals for the 2021 calendar year at Monday’s meeting.
Focusing primarily on public services, the council first and foremost aims to repair Hillsdale’s roads.
Mayor Adam Stockford addressed the constant need for road maintenance.
“It’s long been a mandate of the city government to work on the streets,” Stockford said. “People are going to demand it whether or not there’s a pandemic or whether we’re in the middle of World War Three. We need to stay on top of the streets.”
The city council also hopes to bring back leaf curbside pickup.
Currently, residents must bag leaves instead of simply raking them to the curb.
Stockford explained that this can be impossible for elderly or injured members of the community who are unable to purchase bags or complete the labor-intensive process of bagging leaves.
The Public Services Committee proposed increasing the current budget for road repair and leaf pickup from $3 million to $4.5 million in order for the city to purchase new equipment that would ease this burden. The committee said it would like to put this increase in taxes to a public vote.
Councilman and Public Services Committee member Bill Zeiser explained that leaving the vote to the people gives the community the best chance for a solution that benefits everyone.
“I think the people might go for this because these are two things … that touch everyone. They might not come to a meeting or they might not make use of the various aid services but everybody wants their leaves collected and the roads not to ruin their cars,” Zeiser said.
Hillsdale resident Penny Swan says she is not so sure that an increase in taxes will solve the issue.
“I think adding tax for more leaf collection is just adding more burden,” Swan said. “Instead of people having to buy the bags, they are going to have to pay more taxes. So it is not correcting the situation, it’s just keeping the burden on the citizens.”
The council next agreed to return police staffing back to eight patrol officers as well as to re-establish the recreation department and its youth programs.
Finally, the council aims to develop a long-term plan for the Mitchell Building.
Stockford expressed his confidence in the council’s ability to achieve these objectives.
“If I know anything about this council, about the city administration, it’s that we achieve our goals, that we have every year so far, and we’re going to keep doing that,” he said.
