Town Manager’s Report to Mayor and Town Council

May 16, 2011

Resignation of Director of Finance / Clerk Ms. Susan Clark

I was distressed to learn of Sue Clark’s resignation on Monday morning, May 9. She indicated to me and in her letter she is taking another position in Northern Virginia. Sue has done an excellent job in her tenure as Director of Finance and Clerk and I am especially sorry she

is leaving.

We need to move as quickly as possible to begin the process of filling her position for a variety of key reasons. First and foremost is for the needed training in the office for the Clerk and / or Deputy Clerk. There are a myriad of accounts to address and balance in that office,in addition to dealing with an $8,000,000 budget and retained earnings (savings),meeting minute taking responsibilities, payroll, sick leave and vacation calculations, accounts payable, accounts receivable , etc, etc.

In addition there are at least eight current grant / loan accounts that are open now or will be in the near future. These include the Pearl Avenue / Buchanan Street Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Project, the East Chilhowie Street / Gilman Avenue CDBG Project, the Old School CDBG Project, the Health Department Water Tank Project, the Rural Development Phase 1 Sewer Treatment Plant Project, the Department of Environmental Quality Sewer Treatment Plant Digester Project, the Rural Development Farmer’s Market Project and the Virginia Department of Transportation Streetscape II Project. In addition we have pending the Spruce Street CDBG Project and should hear if we receive funding next month.

We have advertized internally for the position and the deadline is 4:00, Monday May 16^th. If Council accepts an internal candidate as before when Sue assumed the job, then that appointment can be made by Council on May 16^th. After that an internal advertisement can be done for the position and we could have someone on board by the end of the month. That would allow both persons to be trained by Sue Clark before she leaves. Sue has also offered to come back one Saturday a month and help with the needed training.

If Council does not accept an internal candidate then an external advertisement will have to be placed for the Clerk / Director of Finance Position. That process would take at least six weeks before someone could be on board to take the position.

Formulation of 2011-12 Budget Proposal

The Finance Committee had its last meeting on the 2011-12 Budget Proposal on April 29. The committee and staff met formally on at least six occasions and had several staff members and community groups appear before them. The meetings began in mid March.

The budget notebook is being prepared for all Council members and this 100 plus page document will be ready to be given to Council members at the Council meeting on May 16. The budget that will be sent to will show a deficit of $162,799 with revenues of $8,024,045 and expenditures of $8,186,844. As you will see when you receive the proposal from the Finance Committee, they recommend that we bridge the deficit by raising water and sewer fees by a margin of 6.54% to 15%. 6.54% will balance the budget but give no surplus. At the high end a 15% increase will not only balance the budget but give approximately a $210,776 surplus that will go into a “rainy day” fund.

Without going into much detail in this report, also attached you will see a water sewer rate comparison of all localities in the Mt. Rogers Planning District Commission (MRPDC) listed in the Draper Aden Report. Draper Aden is an engineering firm based in Blacksburg and Richmond that has been commissioned by the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties to do the rate study. That report shows the Town of Marion having the lowest water rates and next to lowest sewer rates in the five county and two city MRPDC Region.

Again, you will be receiving the budget proposal on May 16 in plenty of time to review it before the May 20 Special Meeting of Council to review the Budget. Anyone having questions on the document may contact me at their convenience.

Water Meter Replacements

We began the water meter replacement project the week of May 9. As you recall Council approve our request to transfer $20,000 from the Marion Water Tank Project (which we got a Health Department Grant for) and move that money to buy meters this fiscal year. We feel that inaccurately reading meters are a main cause of our accountability not being higher than the 55% to 60% range.

We are using a part time employee at the senior citizens center to help us in this endeavor. We are giving her some extra time in which to entry all meters at addressed locations onto a spread sheet. This will entail over 3,000 entries for every meter on the system. After this data sheet is created we will record every meter changed and the date thereof and put it on our Geographic Information System in the engineering department.

At this writing we have changed at 63 meter sets out of 65 sites in Book 1 visited in two days. We have nine meter books. The other two will have to be changed with the use of a backhoe because the old meters could not just simply be changed out in the existing boxes. These too will be addressed in the future. But the very fact that 96.7% of the meters could be easily and quickly changed out (63 of 65) is very encouraging for the future.

(More good news – I just found out on May 13 that in fact we have already changed out 88 meters as of 10:00 A.M. that day. The above paragraph was written based on information received to date of May 11).

Mt. Rogers Planning District Commission (PDC) $100,000 Grant Award

As I stated at the last meeting, Mt. Rogers PDC Executive Director Dave Barrett had us slated to receive a $100,000 grant from their water and wastewater fund. The General Assembly gave approximately $500,000 to the PDC for water and sewer projects lastyear. As I further stated after applying for the money we were ranked one project below the funding cutoff when I submitted the grant late last year. I had submitted the grant for help on the ultra violet system at the sewer treatment plant

Dave confirmed to me that the Executive Committee of the PDC approved giving us the $100,000 at their meeting on May 5^th. An application ranked just above ours had not been able to come together allowing the money to be transferred to us. Since our two sewer projects will total approximately $1,515,000, of which only $250,000 is presently grant, and the balance of approximately $1,265,000 is loan ($606,000 on the Phase 1 Project for 40 years at 2.375%; and $659,000 on the Digester Project for 20 years at 0%) the extra $100,000 will be a very

welcome addition.

This extra money can be unitized in a variety of ways including adding on a new work task in the projects, replacing loan money, putting into the sewer fund, etc., etc. Special thanks are extended to Dave Barrett and the PDC Board for their continued help and confidence in the Town of Marion.

Respectfully Submitted,

John E. B. Clark, Jr.

Town Manager